Chapter 20 #2
“What the fuck are you doing to me?” the Commander growled. He tried to step back, but I refused to let him, pulling him closer instead. If I kissed him, could I control him? Would his eyes have that iridescent sheen that waited for my command?
“I thought you wanted to play monster?” I asked innocently, my voice a melody of layered tones. His jaw flexed, his neck muscles straining against the pain I was causing, and he dropped my broken arm, falling useless at my side.
I tilted my head at him, drinking in his muscular form. I grinned. “I thought I’d show you mine.”
I should’ve feared this power. It was a pull that threatened to drown me and kill anyone in my way.
But I needed it. I lifted my good hand, skimming it over the tattoo on his chest. Gooseflesh broke out across his skin under my almost touch.
He felt different to the others I had drowned, more powerful. Older.
“This will hurt, Commander. But I want you to watch me break you.” I reached for the water in his cells, drawing on an instinct I didn’t understand, forcing the molecules to vibrate—fast, faster—until heat built beneath his skin.
His knees crashed into the forest floor.
His head was just shorter than my standing height.
My fingertips buried in his dark hair. His anger felt as lethal as his shadows burrowed into my skin.
I hovered mere inches from his sweat-covered face.
My lips tingled as they brushed his, a whisper of contact that sent a violent shudder through his body. My lips moved, slow and intentional, sliding against his with reckless precision. The space between us disappeared, and the air became thick with something sharp and volatile.
He went utterly still beneath me, and I felt the way his control strained, as if he were one moment away from exploding. Steam curled from his skin, mixing with his seething shadows as they clawed across my skin with searing pain.
The growl that rumbled through his chest would make anyone cower as he pulled against my hold, not to escape, but to test.
The moment stretched until he broke free with unsettling ease, my spell unravelling as if it had never truly taken root.
His power rolled over me, and my body betrayed me as my magic bled away, each molecule slipping from my command like water released by an opened hand.
“No!” I shouted as my power collapsed in on itself.
“Lyra!” Cerilla yelled, suddenly beside me. I whipped my head towards her fear-filled eyes, my heart constricting with each beat under the weight of her stare. She was scared for her brother’s life. Scared of the monster I had let surface. Scared of me.
His boot slammed against my shin and the world tilted in a sudden blur.
I thrashed, trying to find balance, but it was too late.
Air whooshed from my lungs, jarring reality back into place as my back slammed into the ground.
Darkness swallowed me. Shadows coiled and crashed, devouring everything.
Every nerve ending screamed, like I had been plunged into acid so cold I feared I would turn into ice itself.
I thought I had known pain. I was wrong.
Screams lodged in my throat, unable to break free as the shadows relentlessly pressed down on me.
Into me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t scream.
I was dissolving, undone by the very darkness I had tried to control.
A sudden warmth spread over me like honey.
Thick and slow, oozing over the coiling shadows that wreaked havoc on my body.
It was his warmth. The Commander’s face was inches away from mine, twisted in a snarl that would frighten the bravest Iron Guard.
His massive form pressed down on me, anchoring me to the world.
My fingers gripped his skin, desperate to pull him closer, to steal whatever heat I could to survive his volatile shadows.
A whimper escaped my lips, my back arching against his chest. I was going to shatter.
He convulsed above me, his form writhing, contorting.
Flesh and shadow warped in a struggle I didn’t understand.
He was darkness itself. And yet, I clung to him as though he were the only light I could find.
He roared so loud my ears throbbed, his hot breath washing over my face.
“I cannot,” he ground out breathlessly, “kill you, yet.”
The shadows reluctantly began to crawl back into his body as he fought its control. He was the pure definition of volatile. How could all that power reside in one male without tearing him apart?
The glow of the campfire broke through the shadows as they receded, the light dancing against the sharpness of his face.
The Commander hovered above me for a heartbeat longer, the stars reappearing behind him as my eyes struggled to focus.
His jaw tensed before he finally pushed off me, and a strange coolness swept over my skin, not from the night air, but from the loss of contact of his body.
That or, I was freezing from his shadows.
He shot me a final, unreadable look over his shoulder before turning and vanishing into the night.
Cerilla appeared at my side in an instant, her hand wrapping gently around mine as she pulled me to my feet. I gritted my teeth against the pain and my legs trembled beneath me.
“Oh, darling, you are freezing.” She gestured to Solas to grab a blanket from one of the tents.
I could only focus on my breath misting in front of my face like it did in the depths of winter at Stonebriar.
My muscles were rigid as I tried to take a step.
A light-headedness swept over my body, threatening to pull me back to the ground.
“I think…” I stopped and cleared my tender throat that felt like I had been screaming for hours. “I need to lay down,” I finished weakly.
“Of course. I will make you some tea for the pain before I heal your arm,” Cerilla said.
Solas wrapped a warm blanket around my shivering form. I took a step and faltered, my legs quivering relentlessly. Solas caught me before I could fall and I glared at his hand steading my arm.
“Easy now,” he said with a weary smile.
It must have been the near-death exhaustion, but I decided to lean on his arm. Trusting him, just this once, to help me. He took my shift in weight as permission and gently swooped one arm under my knees and gathered me against his chest. “Breathe,” he said soothingly as he carried me to my tent.
Cerilla paced behind him, eyeing me as if I were going to disappear. I groaned as Solas laid me down on the bedroll.
“You are strong, Lyra. No one survives the Commander’s shadows and lives.”
I couldn’t answer, too busy dragging air in and out of my frigid lungs through clenched teeth. Cerilla knelt beside me, pressing a small steaming cup into my uninjured hand.
“Drink,” she instructed gently. “Slowly.”
Solas helped me sit up, and I brought the cup to my mouth. The herbal liquid burned going down, not unpleasantly, but with purpose. Heat bloomed through my chest, dulling the jagged edge of the pain. My shaking eased by degrees, breath coming a little steadier.
“Good,” Cerilla murmured. “Now, this will hurt.”
She settled beside me, her hands hovering just above the bone protruding through my forearm. Small wisps of darkness slithered from her fingers, humming softly as it spread through my arm.
Pain flared, sharp and blinding. I cried out, fingers curling uselessly as white-hot agony lanced through me.
Solas held my other hand, squeezing reassuringly.
“Almost,” Cerilla soothed, voice firm but kind. “Stay with me.”
Her magic pressed deeper, deliberate and precise. I sobbed, gripping onto Solas’s hand as if he could pull me away from the pain. My bones cracked, sliding back into place with a sickening sensation that made my stomach churn. The pain ebbed slowly, replaced by a deep, aching throb.
Cerilla exhaled and leaned back, the glow fading from her hands.
“There,” she said softly. “It will be tender for a few days, but it is set.”
She wrapped my arm carefully, movements practiced and reverent, before brushing damp hair from my face.
“You should rest,” she added, eyes searching mine. “You’ve been through more than most survive.”
But I was drifting. The tea weighed warm and heavy in my stomach, warping my sense of reality as they both left.
The silence was so thick I could almost hear the soft crackle of the fire.
I had nearly died. But, for a moment I had controlled the Commander of Death. Pride filled my chest like a brief flicker of a candle before being snuffed out by pure exhaustion.
I drifted off, falling into the depths of sleep.