The Chains You Defy (A Requiem for Fading Worlds #2)

Prologue

From the archives of the Mystic Library of Amalach

Recorded by Starai Ais Saineolai—received through a series of dreams between summer solstice and Samhain in the twentieth winter during the era of the blood rain

Author unknown

No interpretation available

Diary of a Downfall

Preface

I promised myself never to let anyone in, because doing so would be the beginning of the end. The warnings had been clear. Someone like me wasn’t meant for tenderness or any kind of connection. So, I did everything in my power not to mingle or, gods beware, to fall—and I didn’t.

Instead, I crashed.

Nine hundred days before the end

Spring had sprung when I’d met her for the first time.

She was sitting, head in her hands, on a rock next to a carriage with a broken wheel and no coachman or horse in sight. Her ruby locks cascaded around her heart-shaped face, and despite her obvious discomfort, she had an air surrounding her that instantly roused my interest.

Usually, I stayed far away from people. Ever since I’d left my childhood home, it had been like that.

On the eve of my departure, Auntie had warned me not to show my face to anyone.

Not to make contact with intelligent life roaming the worlds alongside me.

And since ignoring her advice was a bad idea, I hadn’t, for millennia.

Even if my obedience condemned me to a life of a loner, always hidden in the shadows.

But such was my burden and my duty, and also the reason for my survival when others had long perished.

Still, something tugged at my heartstrings, and I pondered if I should offer my help despite what I’d been told so many winters ago. Could approaching a desperate female really have negative consequences for me?

For now, I settled on watching over her from my hiding spot. If something threatened her, I’d intervene.

During the next hours, I observed her eating some bread with cheese, walking in circles close to her coach, and searching the horizon. Once, a Cracroi approached on its hunt for easy prey and found its end by my hand before she could notice the beast.

I took my self-imposed protector’s duty seriously.

My gaze swept back to the ruby-haired female. She was a fascinating creature.

How would befriending someone like her be? What would having a friend feel like?

I was curious.

Yet I remained hidden.

Whenever I was about to approach her, Auntie’s words rang in my head. Sighing, I felt the weight of the worlds on my shoulders like never before. Loneliness was my constant companion, but I’d never experienced my isolation as something so devastatingly agonizing.

After a few hours, the beating of hooves on packed earth alerted me, and I straightened.

The ruby female heard the noises only seconds later and jumped up, clutching a small knife in her shaking hand. That she wasn’t used to wielding a weapon was painfully obvious.

I’d teach her if she were my friend.

Friends—in my head, we were already close.

The hoofbeats came closer, and I made a decision.

If she were in danger, I’d show myself. Auntie wouldn’t want me to stand back if a defenseless female got hurt as a result.

Even though my friend might be scared of me at first.

Hmm, I wish I knew her name.

My eyes stilled on her hair once more, and out of impulse, I called her Tine—fire, because of her red locks blazing in the light of the early evening sun. And also—she reminded me of my younger sister.

She hadn’t heeded Auntie’s advice, and now she was gone. As were my other siblings—I was the last one left.

My sharp gaze zeroed in on the rider. A male. Aura of authority, air of danger.

I went on high alert.

Nothing would happen to me should I help the female, even if I’d expose myself.

At least, I hoped so.

Tine shrank, but once she spotted the newcomer, relief settled over her delicate features. Jumping up, she waved at the dangerous male—they had to be acquainted with each other.

Lovers? Family? Friends? They could have been any of those. My lack of experience when it came to other people complicated discerning such nuances for me.

Her voice sounded sweet like honey when she spoke the first words I’d ever heard her say—not that I’d add many more to that collection in the times to come.

“Father, you’re back.”

My shoulders sagged as I relaxed. He was her sire, and as the male dismounted, he prowled to her with resolute strides.

Her smile froze as she noticed the same as I had minutes ago—her father’s face was marred by deep lines, his brows were pulled together, and the fury surrounding him like a living creature was directed only at her.

How was I able to tell?

Even if I resided outside of society, I spent enough time with animals and monsters, and what were people if not an amalgamation of both?

His features contorted further, matching the energy he exuded, and when he ended his approach, he stood in front of his daughter and snarled in her face.

Tine recoiled, but the male didn’t allow her to withdraw.

“I hope you are satisfied, daughter. No one can come to help us today, and I’m missing my chance. That’s your fault.”

“The wheel broke. I didn’t do anything.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?”

And then he drew his hand back.

Enough.

I’d intervene.

Visible only for a short time. Surely, nothing bad would happen.

And even if, no one would hurt Tine.

From this moment to the next, I was between them. No thought, only action.

When I caught the hand of the male she’d called Father, the fury on his face morphed into confusion and then into something else, something I couldn’t completely grasp, but if I had to name it, I’d call the emotion—greed.

My instincts screamed at me that this angry male wouldn’t be good for me and that I’d made a tremendous mistake.

Oh Auntie, something like this was what you’d warned me about, wasn’t it?

I had to get away and run far and fast if I didn’t want to end up like my five siblings. We’d all been given one chance, and they’d gambled theirs away a long time ago. And since I had no desire to unravel and be stored in the orb alongside them, I had to hurry.

Silently, I apologized to Tine in my head, released the male, and backed off.

He grabbed my wrist, and a brief pain shot through my arm, followed by some sort of aftershock tasting like magic, but I was able to free myself before he could finish whatever he’d initiated.

And then I was gone.

But—

I should have killed him.

Eight hundred and ninety-five days before the end

I’d traveled to the other side of the world. So far, nothing bad had occurred as a result of my slip-up.

For the first time in my life, though, I was burdened with the need to rest.

Leaning against a fallen tree, I closed my eyes, managing the impossible—falling asleep.

Eight hundred and eighty-five days before the end

Today, I woke up uncomfortably hot.

Cleaned myself in a clear spring.

Felt watched.

Cut my bath short to resume traveling.

Eight hundred and seventy days before the end

It was as if something was draining me, and no matter how much I rested, the effect only worsened.

Not that I was able to catch many breaks anymore.

The sensation of being followed and monitored had become stronger with each passing day, and I didn’t dare sleep for more than an hour at a time.

Stringing all the evidence together, I faced reality, as painful as the insight was.

The male Tine had called Father must have done something to me. Or he’d simply triggered a curse implanted in me by Auntie. Both would explain the taste of magic I’d noticed but had forgotten until now.

Slipped today and cut open my skin. Lost precious minutes because I was staring at the blood that welled from my hand—nothing had ever penetrated my defenses before.

My body was weakening—on every level.

Would I be reunited with my siblings soon?

Eight hundred and sixty-two days before the end

My muscles twitched to the point of massive discomfort. Mouth dry, stomach cramping, but still I pushed on, never staying too long in one spot.

Sleep was a luxury I couldn’t afford anymore, because I was sure of one thing—I was being hunted.

From time to time, I’d spotted three figures in the distance, and as much as I tried, I couldn’t lose them. And they were coming closer.

Eight hundred and fifty days before the end

My heavy feet dragged across the uneven forest floor. Beads of sweat trickled off my forehead, and I couldn’t keep any food down.

Before I’d revealed myself to Tine and her father, I’d never been sick for a second of my existence. But after suffering for weeks and growing more uncomfortable each day, there was no denying that I’d caught a malady.

And I couldn’t get any rest, although my body, mind, and soul screamed for a break.

But whenever I’d found a hiding spot and had lain my head down, soon after, my persecutors had discovered me.

How and why was a mystery to me.

My knees buckled, and I almost crashed to the ground, not for the first time in the last few days or even today.

I couldn’t shake the assumption that my pursuers were herding me.

My theory was that they didn’t want to end me. After all, they would have had ample opportunity to achieve this if my undoing had been their goal.

Still, I was forcing myself to flee.

This area was familiar.

I’d spent winters around here eons ago.

Yet the world appeared contorted through my blurry vision, and finding the small hidden cave I’d been searching for took me a while.

Relief made me shudder as I hauled myself inside and collapsed on the dirty ground. A putrid smell in the air burned in my nostrils.

What tainted the atmosphere I couldn’t identify, but the odor was vile. Or maybe I was simply imagining its existence.

But I didn’t.

My brain realized too late that something—the stench?

—eroded my control over my muscles. Moving became impossible, and I slipped from my sitting position to lie crumpled on the ground.

The world spun around me, and every tormented breath was a challenge that, if I were honest, I was going to lose very soon.

Would I see Auntie before the orb claimed me?

But of course, I wasn’t granted any mercy, no matter how small.

When the three large figures appeared at the mouth of the cave—the ones that had persecuted and herded me—there was nothing I could do.

My hunters had found and incapacitated me.

“There you are. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance after all these days.”

The voice grated on my eardrums like rancid waste, and even if I had wanted to answer, my body wasn’t cooperating.

“Sleep. We will wake you up again soon enough.”

The last thing my decelerating brain comprehended was that one of my captors, the one who had spoken, was the one Tine had called Father. The second resembled him, apart from him being of older age, and the third was different, all light. Then they all blurred together.

Just one mistake—

And now it was too late.

I should have obeyed Auntie.

“A diary? I almost got killed for a fucking diary, Antas?”

“More like a recollection. One that is centuries old.”

“Have you read the whole godscursed thing?”

“Again, yes.”

“And?”

“No names, no places.”

“Let me guess. No context to our current conundrum.”

“Not that I have recognized one.”

“Then why, Uncle, did you demand I read this shit? I have so many more important things on my mind.”

“Because of a much-needed rest.”

“There’s no time for me to idle. You know exactly what I want, and it’s not a fucking break.”

“I was not talking about you. This entire damn world longs for one. From you.”

“Funny.”

“No, not at all. Fifty-two corpses were found last week alone, Dion.”

“That you’re aware of.”

“Lie down and read your book. After all, you paid dearly to possess these pages.”

“Fuck you.”

“Read.”

The tome connected with the door as I hurled the leather-clad volume at my retreating uncle. I’d been too slow. Again.

Swinging my legs off the bed, I glanced through the window and made up my mind. In the end, I’d always been atrocious at obeying when someone ordered me what to do and what to drop.

Number sixty-five was waiting. And if this was a dead end, as all the others before had been, at least I’d be making an example of my actions.

No, a diary by an unknown author wasn’t my concern.