Chapter 24 Thayla #3
My body locks up, and the chains bite into my wrists as I sag forward.
Crack.
My vision bursts into black stars.
Crack.
Screaming tears open my throat again. Raw and shredded.
Crack.
I don’t know if I’m even upright anymore. I can’t keep up my count any longer. The post is the only thing that holds me up.
The post and the chains.
The pain drowns my thoughts. One whipping bleeds into the next and the next until they’re indistinguishable.
Gods, the pain.
The air shifts. He’s behind me. Beside me. In front of me. Everywhere. His voice pours in from every direction, dripping into my ear like sweet venom.
“You see how quickly things spiral when you ignore me? You did this to yourself. I warned you. I always warn you. I’ve always protected you. Why won’t you let me protect you anymore?”
“Please…stop.”
I weep.
The sound is broken and small, yet it tears my chest wide open.
It feels like the realm itself is ripping open. The ground shifts beneath me. The arena bleeds into shadows.
The moon only illuminates Mellcom kneeling inches away from me.
“You took everything from me, Thayla. You know that, right? Twenty years ago, you stood in the doorway of my house and ripped my life apart. You stole my dad, my freedom, my independence, my best friend, my food, for fuck’s sake. Admit it. You know it’s the truth. You know you deserved everything.”
“I know!”
My tender, unrestrained sob shakes the very existence around me.
“I know, Mellcom. I know.”
My head slumps against the post and my omission continues to pour through my lips. His gentle strokes keep the tears from slipping off my chin. His soft shushes wrap my heart in a loving, hate-filled hold.
“You tolerated everything. I think even sometimes you loved it. Didn’t you?”
“No.” My cry is weak and the shake of my head is a mere flinch.
“You couldn’t have hated it, or you wouldn’t have stayed. Why did you stay by my side, Thayla?”
I want to pull from the way he cups my cheek, but I can’t. My head lulls into his warm palm.
“Your dad welcomed me in like the daughter he never had. He cared for me, held me while I cried, taught me, clothed me, then he left us to help my parents. He placed me on your shoulders. You gave me a home, clothes, food, friends, everything. You provided everything for me. I had nowhere to go. I had no one and nothing but you.”
His face flickers and his green eyes glow for a breath.
Then he smiles.
“You see now. I gave and you took.”
“Yes.”
His hand cups the back of my head with a tormenting laugh.
It’s too tender, too familiar.
Fingers trail down the wounds decorating my back, and pain spears through my spine.
“Oh, sweet T. This pain of yours is too much to bear on your own. Tell me you’re mine and mine alone, and I’ll take it all away for you.”
My body thrashes back and forth, causing the clank of the chains to echo through the darkness. His arms and my restraints tighten around me in a constricting vice that makes it impossible to move my limbs.
Everything closes in around me, thrusting me right into a panic I can’t subdue.
Heat blooms beneath my skin, spreading fast as vibrations wreak havoc through my body. There’s nowhere for it to go.
A pulse in my chest causes the pressure building inside of me to rise. I clench my teeth, enduring the unbearable sensation until I can’t any longer.
“Jeremiah…No!”
A sharp crack like a limb snapping splits the air.
Everything drops out from under me.
The heat vanishes.
The vibration dies.
I collapse on my side, curling in on myself as I sob and gasp for air against the cold stone as the realm goes silent.
“I’ve got you, my shooting star.”
That voice sounds the same as it did a long, long time ago. His whisper has my lids fluttering.
“No, Dad. No, you don’t.”
“Thayla girl.”
“Mom…you both abandoned a girl twenty years ago. You left her to serve the very creators who turned their back on their people. All that’s left now is pieces of a broken goddess who never should’ve been.”
A giggle pierces my ears, and I force myself to pick my head up.
That sound…
I cover my eyes, blinking until they adjust to the small stream of light pouring through an open door. Once I can see, I come face-to-face with a stunning set of mismatched irises.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes. Your wings sure bleed a beautiful shade of red.”
He boops me on the nose and I wince as three other bodies step into focus.
Their disapproving scowls have an unidentifiable sensation jolting in my chest. I lay my palm to my heart to slow the erratic beat while my eyes trace the black beneath their veins and the power sitting on their skin.
“Well, this is quite disappointing.”
Wait…I know them…
Candyman.
Don’t say that. Please be sweet.
“This isn’t worth it.”
My head snaps to the side and I sway forward, gripping Kyzen’s hand before he can turn from me. The voided, distant glare he gives me has a shuddering gasp falling from my lips.
“Kyzen. Don’t leave me here. Don’t abandon me.”
His eyes give me nothing as he snatches his hand away with a sneer.
“You’re the one who abandoned me when you decided you needed more than just me. How can I abandon someone who wasn’t really mine?”
“No, Kyzen, please.”
I tumble forward to all fours. It takes multiple attempts to get to my feet. Pain pulses through me with every move I make, and their laughter has more beating in my chest.
“Sorry, little burden. We’re going to need our souls back now. Do what you do, dear Death.”
My gaze snaps to Creed’s grunt. My wobbly legs and numb feet stumble countlessly as I try my hardest to race for them and the light slipping through the door.
“Creed…wait—”
He waves his hand through the air and my agonized inhale echoes around the room. Everything within me shivers. My literal being feels like it’s snapping back inside of me from four different directions.
Nothing about the slivers is the same.
They’re fractured. Torn. Wrong.
Like they don’t belong to me anymore.
I fall statue still as they nod to one another and walk out the door. Desperation shoves me forward and I trip over myself as I rush toward the fading light.
Get out of here.
Reach that light.
I can make it.
I can reach it.
I need to get out.
I’ll run. Far, far away.
My palm slams against a smooth, solid surface.
“No.”
I step back, and my shoulders shake with every clipped and frantic breath. The darkness descends around me once again and my eyes slam shut as a hum engulfs my thoughts.
No, no, no, no.
My hands snatch my roots as I bellow into the black abyss until I feel faint.
True, punishing, unfightable fear takes hold. It swallows me whole.
I allow it. I have no other choice but to give in.
You’re better off alone.
Just give up.
No. Fight until the death.
That’s how you were always going to go out anyway.
Light flashes so bright, it blinds me. My body heats as muscle memory takes hold the second a pair of hands grabs me. I summon the darkness within me and command it to break free.
The first grunt my fist drags out fuels the inferno, encouraging it to burn hotter.
Burn it all to the fucking ground.
Kill them all.
Fuck all of them. Whoever they are.
They all abandoned you.
I move faster than I ever have before. Everywhere my limbs shoot out, a noise of pain pierces my ears.
Yes. Feel what the hell I feel.
“Okay, angel,” a voice groans from behind me when my elbow jabs into them.
They expertly dodge my head as I throw it backward. I’m not fast enough to knock their hand away from my neck and my body falls still.
“Now that you’ve beat the shit out of your boyfriends, we need to get the fuck out of here.”
Warmth soaks through my skin, my blood, my body, and the tension holding me hostage melts away.
My thoughts slowly unjumble, but my breathing is loud, uncontrollable. The red haze slips from my gaze as the light continues to burn it away.
My wide, wild eyes bounce from the cut on Creed’s cheek to the way Kyzen’s rolling his shoulder. Numbness seeps through every crevice of my soul as I track the blood dripping from Amick’s lip.
“Little goddess.”
My attention flicks to Kyzen and the hand he’s stretching toward me. There’s color in his eyes and worry on his face that wasn’t there a moment ago.
“Let’s get you home.”
My throat clogs and I choke down the salty saliva. It burns.
“I don’t have a home.”
His face fractures in a way I don’t understand for a fleeting second before he smooths it back out.
“Then we’ll build you one.”
That’s too much work.
I shouldn’t tell them what they can and can’t do, though.
Fight or flight, Thayla.
Pick your battle wisely.
What do you have left in you?
Nothing.
“Okay.”
He steps forward. I step back, but Riven’s body stops my retreat and my muscles coil.
Be nice. Watch your tone.
“Please let me go.”
All eyes whip over my head.
Reluctantly, his hand slips away from the pulse going crazy in my neck.
A caress against my heart has me gulping down too much air.
“Don’t.”
Creed’s fingers flex at his side, and I track every twitch. He takes a step in my direction, but Kyzen halts him.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.
“No one is going to touch you.”
So he says…
Everyone who came to visit me touched me…then left me.
My first step toward his calm, convincing tone has his shoulders dropping a fraction.
It’s a trap.
I freeze.
“Where did you guys go?” I ask quietly.
A line forms between Kyzen’s brow and Amick tilts his head. I jump to the side as Riven steps around me and my chest heaves.
I ball my fists when Creed crosses his arms.
“You all step out,” Kyzen commands.
“No.” The thundering echo has me taking a step back.
“Guys, please go. Let me talk to her.”
They all spin toward Kyzen, but he doesn’t release me from the hold his eyes have me in.
One by one, they file out and I breathe slowly.
“Everything’s going to be okay, gorgeous.”
I shake my head. “Nothing is okay.”
“It doesn’t feel that way right now, but it will be.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
I don’t know how long I stare at the ring around his pupils, but he never steps closer or farther. He stands there, unwavering and certain.
Calm.
For now.
Don’t say anything that brings that look back into his eye.
Get out of here safe and sound.
“May I speak to Creed?”
His nod is small, and he calls out for his brother. My eyes follow every step he takes into the room.
“What’s wrong?”
“That lesson you taught me. Is…was that real? A knot?”
His lips pinch together and he charges forward. My eyes flare and Kyzen jumps between us. They whisper amongst themselves and everything in me grows sour.
They’re planning something.
You plan faster.
“Please don’t do that.”
“I was telling him to give you space and answer your question.”
My gaze bounces between the two of them.
I don’t know if I can believe whatever he says now, though.
“Yes, my endling. It was real.”
Endling…is this the end?
A long, slow breath leaves my lips, and I search inside of myself to see if my soul actually stretches toward them still. All of them. Just because he stroked it doesn’t mean anything.
He can touch everyone’s soul.
As soon as I count the four ropes, I tie the realm’s tightest knot in the tethers. I never take my eyes off them.
Their gazes never shift.
Okay, they can’t feel you now.
Slow, steady, and safe, Thayla.
Get yourself somewhere safe.
“I…I’m ready to go now.”
“Okay,” Kyzen whispers.
They split apart and allow me to walk between them. The second my foot crosses the threshold, the low hum that’d been hissing in my mind disappears. A new, familiar kind of buzz sings across my skin.
Fast. Don’t hesitate.
The room I’ve grown to love—or so I thought—greets me as my power releases me.
It’s real.
I slide down the door until my butt hits the ground and I flatten my palm against the wood at my back.
No one is allowed in.
My nails drag across the floorboard as I try to catch my breath, but I can’t. My shrill escapes me.
I shatter.
Alone.