Chapter 36
Alora
The one thing I’ve learned walking all these damned steps in this nightgown from Lis, is that I severely underestimated how tall the tower is.
My feet slip on another stone and I almost topple down the remaining stairs. The Devourer’s free arm catches mine as my body slides down the steps. I nearly fall again as I recoil away from his touch. The torch in his hand wavers with the movement.
“I don’t need your help.” The words are spat out, left to linger in the closeness of us.
He quickly pulls his hand back and moves past me, continuing down the steps. He makes no conversation as we continue down the winding staircase, our pace slowing slightly.
I clear my throat. “Who am I to meet with?”
The steps continue downwards and I focus on the changing color of the stones. They were a light gray, smooth rock when we first started our descent, but now they’re a coarse, charcoal grey with grit that sticks out enough to snag hair and clothing.
He doesn’t reply, instead he keeps his eyes trained forward.
The walls begin to dampen and white mildew clings to the stony surface. I shiver slightly and pull the sheet closer to me.
It feels like we should have met the main castle by now, especially as the heaviness in the air thickens.
“Who am I to meet?” Urgency fills my voice, the tone making the dull ache return to my throat. “Answer me damnit.”
He slows his pace before facing me, our heads nearly level as he stops on a lower step than me.
His eyes dance over me. I’m caught in his orbs before I notice his other features—the tightness of his lips and the dark shading that shadows under his eyes, even the stubble that’s more than a day long.
He looks similar to how he had in The Siltar Woods—haunted.
I curl my lip in disgust. I hope he remains plagued by what he’s done to me for the rest of his damned life.
My eyes harden as he continues to rake over my expression. Venomously, I ask, “Is this what your vow means then? Damnation?”
The green of his eyes flashes with an unnamed emotion. Good.
I bet he didn’t know I could strike with such hurt when cornered.
His smokey voice doesn’t skip a beat before replying, “Just follow me Alora. For once, gods, just listen to me.”
I lean back from him, not wanting to feel anything for the fiend that yet again, leads me to sure death.
He doesn’t give me time to reply, instead he turns his back and begins to quicken his stride, taking the torchlight with him as he takes the steps two at a time.
The fucker. He knows I hate the dark.
I trot after him, not wanting to be consumed in the tight space alone. I quickly catch up to him as we finally end our descent and walk along a straight corridor. The patter of our footsteps is the only thing that echoes in the eerie space.
My thoughts float back to what King Euron had threatened me with, the horror of it all, and worse, realizing he was speaking the truth.
I shiver with the thought of laying flayed open. What unspeakable horrors he would force me to do instead are equally disturbing.
Emotion begins to clench in my chest. What would King Euron demand me to do with my magic? What ghastly chores would one day make me do to turn my back on others, just as the man I follow now has?
The next words blurt out with a shaky breath, as I’m unable to contain them any longer.
“Kassiel, I beg you—” a soft sob cuts my sentence off before I can swallow it down. “Kill me rather than let him claim me. I’d sooner die than have him rip away my gentleness for others.”
He turns his head slightly, his free hand steadfast on a large door. His chin drops and all I can see is his profile in the torchlight.
“Alora,” he lets the space after my name draw out, “there is much you will never understand, and I am glad for it.”
My eyes burn with unshed tears mixed with anger.
He brings his hand to the latch of the door, nearly rusted closed, and begins to work the metal device free.
My thoughts silence as I reconsider the latch. Why in the gods would this door be rusted closed? Unless it wasn’t used frequently?
Which could only mean one thing. Whoever sent me down this path didn’t want anyone seeing me.
Icy dread almost has me crashing to the floor.
Conversations I’d overheard from the dinner echo in my memories. Talks of trading people with rarities to other regions and kingdoms to gain favor with the distant rulers.
My heart slams against my ribcage and a shiver trickles down my spine.
The people of Noxia are mere pawns in King Euron’s game—I’m merely a pawn.
I’m about to be sacrificed in order for the king to find a better vantage point.
Blinding light beams in with the scrape of the latch finally pulling open.
This is it.
This is the moment my freedom is snuffed out.
The Devourer’s dark form is quickly encased in the light of the day as he steps through the door before beckoning me forward with his vibrant green eyes.
“I will not go,” I squeak out sharply, “you cannot make me.”
He outstretches his hand, a peace offering.
“Alora,” his voice hushed, “there is no other way.”
My brows bunch together not understanding his meaning.
“Please,” he croaks. It’s enough to shatter my walls, a simple pickaxe against the fragile stained glass.
I step towards the doorframe and am met with dense forest that backs up to a courtyard with ruined walls and forgotten statues. An old wing of the castle that’s not been used in lifetimes according to our sources.
It’s where the unwanted rubbish lands and where loose ends are tied up.
“What is this Kassiel?” I look around the empty courtyard.
He pulls me out the rest of the way and closes the door behind us.
His words are solemn and his face sober as he looks to me briefly before turning away as he speaks, “I have lived with my life, my body, my magic all stripped of consent.”
A distant bird cry has my skin pebbling with awareness. Oak.
He continues his confession, “I have been stripped of the very reasons to breathe., violated in far worse ways.”
His chest expands with a great inhale before the long sigh escapes.
“I will not have you endure what I’ve been forced to. This is the only way, and I know you’ll never forgive me for it. For that, I am sorry, little warrior.”
My mind reels to catch up with what he’s saying.
“What do you mean, Kassiel?” My voice wavers with the sudden shift in his demeanor.
He squeezes my hand, a sad smile forming on his perfect lips.
I try to rationalize what’s happening with the reality that I’ve misunderstood nearly the whole situation.
Slimy regret washes over me.
His voice tickles my ear as he whispers, “This will be your freedom.”
I snap my head to his and notice a lone tear trailing down his face and my eyes widen with realization.
He slowly unfurls my hand with his fingers, “Without being bound to your damnation.”
His chin jerks towards the closed door. A torrid of shouts and clamour form behind the barrier, urgency lacing their cries.
“What’s happening?” I yell as Kassiel spins, grabbing hold of me, and rushes towards the treeline.
He continues to pull on my arm, dragging me farther from the castle. We stop just outside the broken gate as horns bellow throughout the cleared space of fallen stone and damaged statues. Kassiel hides me behind a rubble pile, urging me to be quiet by holding his pointer finger to his lips.
He whispers, “Whatever happens, you promise me that you’ll make it to that treeline, promise me.”
A maelstrom of thoughts hammer my mind. This is all happening too fast, too quickly without explanation.
I need more time.
We need more time.
He shouts over the blaring that continues, “Promise me, Alora!”
I nod my head, speechless by the chaos as Helianate soldiers spill into the courtyard with their swords drawn.
My eyes widen at the sheer force by which they come. We’re almost completely surrounded.
Oak’s white wings flutter near me and I watch her attempt to land on a statue of a horse that’s layered in lichen.
An arrow zings past her, the whistle of the feathered fletching slicing the air.
“By the goddess...” Kassiel mutters while rolling his sleeves before grabbing a dagger from his boot.
He hands me the sleek hilt and the familiar weight of it only breaks me a little more. He’s giving me back the only thing I truly own. My dagger that glints like the beaches of Zuria.
He rips the leather strap from his hair and loops it around an object hidden within his hand. I can’t see it clearly as he forces it in my hand and closes his fist around my own.
His black wavy hair sways with the breeze.
“This feels an awful lot like goodbye.” I whisper as the clamor grows closer.
Another arrow zooms past us, striking a tree trunk near our faces.
He ignores my statement, refusing to say any words that might seem too final.
I shift uncomfortably knowing that we don’t stand a chance here with the Helianate closing in.
He must feel it too because he pivots on his heels, scanning the treeline for gods knows what.
Something shifts in the shadows and he straights his neck. I snap my head in the same direction, eager to see what’s caught his attention.
A blonde bobs in the distance. The same color I’d know anywhere, Leeson.
Other familiar faces move towards us. Members of The Hidden and one that shocks me, Rune.
He’s standing next to Caym, both of them drawing their swords and ready to charge into the worsening tension.
They’re a good length between Kassiel and me. Arrows continue to rain down and I’m beginning to question the excessiveness of it all.
“Why does the king send so many after us?”
He looks down at me, a feral look gleaming in his eyes before pulling another dagger from his boot.
“He’s afraid of what we might become and what ending that might cause for him.” He lifts his lip in a half smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Euron can not bear to see us together. He would chase us in any lifetime.”
A frustrated growl tears from his throat as an arrow grazes his arm, ripping right through his sleeve.
He sinks into a crouch in an attempt to make himself a smaller target. “Damnit we need to move or else we’re going to die here.” He shifts closer to me, the warmth of his body beckoning me closer as my body chills with the breeze picking up into strong gales of wind.
“Kass,” I stutter, emotion threatening to surge, “I need to know that this is the real you. Not some trick from Orlin. I’m … I’m just so tired.” A sob breaks through my resolve, “I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
He looks like a divine entity the way he looks beautiful in the midst of all the mayhem. It’s devastating in the best way.
Time seems to pause as his hands wrap around my cheeks, so tenderly I barely feel his grasp. He holds me, reverence in his gaze turning his green orbs even brighter.
“Alora,” he whispers against my lips as he brings his face closer to mine, allowing me to forget about the likelihood of us dying here, “I would breathe you in as my last breath if I could.
With my dying moments, I would kiss death's feet if it would grant me the image of you, right now, suspended in time for eternity. I would accept a wretched ending if in the end I could close my eyes and see your image as I crossed the veil.”
My body threatens to give out as he wraps his arms around me and brings my head to his chest. He threads his fingers through my hair and murmurs into my ear, “You’ll never believe there was a time where we just were.
If these are my final moments, I wouldn’t even miss the time I could have had elsewhere. ”
He does something then, his hand warming unnaturally against my skull.
A tickling inside my brain happens, like he was pulling on a thread and tugging it towards the surface.
Scenes unfold in flashes within my mind, images of him and me in various stages of activities.
Running naked through forests while he prowled after me, dark desire that was met with soft bites and carnal kisses, a necklace he places around my neck with a gem moon and stars with an opal faceted in the middle.
Suddenly, I know these memories even though I haven’t lived them in this lifetime.
I remember the little token that’s still enclosed in my fist and bring it before my eyes all the while still laying with my head brought to Kassiel’s strong form.
The same silver pendant with the moon and stars, down to the dark fire opal, resides within my grasp.
“Impossible…” I whisper against his chest. His magic continues to heat my body as more memories break through the waves that I’ve been treading through.
“No one knows of this magic Alora, not even Euron.” His voice sounds strained, as if it’s a challenge to concentrate while doing this.
“Kassiel!” A shout from behind our backs has us both turning to face them.
My mind still floats between what’s happening in the present and long forgotten moments from another lifetime with Kassiel so I don’t recognize right away the man who forces his way towards us.
Caym has made his way through the maze of stone and arrows. His face is contorted with worry that flattens his lips. He’s maybe ten paces from us as he hides among stone.
He’s a welcome sight as he outstretches his hand for us. Kassiel urges me forward and I begin to crouch and crawl forward.
I’m still reliving memories from a far away place, too distracted by the revelations to notice Caym yelling at me to get down.
A piercing, hot agony jams into my back, making my arm immediately go numb. The pain is blinding, enough to make my vision swim with darkness.
A feral scream tears from my throat.
“NO!”
Kassiel’s voice booms from behind me and I feel his warm hands begin to lift me under my armpits as he drags me to Caym.
It’s debilitating, each pulsing moment that passes.
Caym and him hover over me as I begin to lose my vision.
“It hurts” as I croak out focusing on his predatory eyes.
The green irises begin to shatter, leaving black shadow that fills the crevices.
“I know it does, little warrior.” He seems to have barely whispered it as it sounds too far away.
His hands come to my chin then, tracing my jaw down to where my throat and ear meets.
A black curl sticks to his sweaty forehead and I want nothing more than to wrap it between my fingers, but I can’t. My body is too heavy.
“Alora,” he rasps, “believe me when I say, I will not let you leave me.”
His arms move to pick me up, sliding skillfully, cautiously under my prone figure.
He drags me to his chest once more. I see his jaw flex with tension as he swiftly stands.
Gods, this is it. I feel my head swim with dizziness.
Darkness marries itself with my vision while my limbs are weighted against my chest. I don’t want to leave this realm. Him.
My numb lips tremble out a broken sob, “Kassiel.”