by Alexia Black
I couldn’t respond. Didn’t know how to. Minutes passed with me just staring at him, slack jawed in shock. His powers had taken his father’s life.
I saw the veiled devastation in his eyes, the hatred towards himself. I hugged him tight, as much as I could with one hand tied to his, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry it happened.”
He didn’t respond to my hug but he didn’t reject it too.
“It’s not your fault,” I said, knowing those words would mean nothing to him. And it didn’t.
“It is my fault. My father….”
The door burst open before he completed his sentence. We jerked away from each other in shock.
Caroline glided in like a queen, Dave, the demon and the other guards one step behind her. Aiden got up, helping me up too, standing in front of me like a shield.
“Aww, look at you two being adorable,” Caroline said in that annoyingly beautiful voice of hers. “Is the bond complete, my darling?” she asked Aiden.
“No,” he replied gruffly.
“Let me check for myself,” she coolly ripped away Aiden’s t-shirt with her hands.
Aiden growled, but he couldn’t do anything. Dave played with his switchblade, flicking it open and close, taking a step towards me.
I gaped at the sight of his scarred body. What looked like whip marks and knife wounds littered every inch of his body. Old scars. Who had done this to him?
“Ooooh,” Caroline let out a delighted laugh. “My lord will be happy.”
I shook my head, taking my gaze off the scars and focusing where Caroline was looking. There, below Aiden’s pecs, at the center, stood a snowflake shaped mark, formed of iridescent vines and thorns entwined in a lover’s dance.
The soul bond was complete.
What the hell? Why was it so easy to complete the bond but so hard to break it, ugh?
“Such a pretty liar,” Caroline cooed. “Take them,” she commanded.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked. What ritual were they going to conduct?
“Why the hurry? You will see for yourself soon.” Caroline winked at me and strutted out.
Dave’s attention was completely on Aiden. Mouth twisted wide in a maniacal grin, yellow of the wolf inside overtaking his hazel eyes, he was more beast than human now. He gripped Aiden’s jaw and turned that defiant gaze towards him.
“I’m going enjoy watching you writhe in pain.”
* * *
The corridor was narrow. There were six rooms, including the one we were held in. Three, on either side, half the rooms still had dust settled on their handles. That meant, other than the room we were in, only two others were being used. Were they being used for lodging or something else? Caroline led us to the end of the corridor and turned the handle on a door.
Instantly voices filled the corridor, bits and pieces of conversation floating outside where there had been utter silence before. Were all the rooms soundproof?
“Here we are,” Caroline announced like a happy butcher. She led us into a room four times the size of the room we were imprisoned in. A creepy looking red magical circle greeted us. Three concentric circles took over almost the entire room, hundreds of runes drawn within it following the circular path with blood. It looked like it came out of those creepy horror movies humans made about the supernatural. The two druids I had seen earlier, stood in front of it with matching clipboards like some kind of wacko scientists in black.
“Bring the Aether child over here,” the older one said.
Dave threw Aiden forward. He landed on his knees with a painful thud. My right hand flew along with his, courtesy of the linked cuffs. I landed less gracefully. My chin thudded against the hardwood floor. Pain shot up like lightning.
I pressed my hand against Aiden’s thigh and righted myself to a crouch. Aiden held me with his free hand as I tried to balance myself. My jaw throbbed in pain, raw from the abrasion.
“Thanks Dave,” I said, and winced immediately. Okay, no more making sarcastic comments till my jaw healed.
Dave silently unlocked the cuffs. I touched my wrist gently where the metal had chaffed away my skin. Angry red marks had bloomed across my wrist. .
“Take him to the circle,” the Santa Claus looking one said. The younger one nodded and walked towards Aiden fully ready to haul him off.
Aiden looked ready to crush the druid’s hand if it touched him.
Dave quietly wrapped his hand around my neck, “You won’t cause trouble, will you?” Shivers went down my spine at the ice in his words.
Aiden gritted his teeth, eyes darkening like a thunderstorm, “I can walk.”
“Kneel in the exact middle,” the apprentice pointed to the center of the circle. “Two more inches to the left. Yep, there.”
“Remove that garb,” the older one nodded towards his ripped t-shirt, the tattered fabric barely hanging onto his frame. Aiden threw it away and continued kneeling like a slave. With his chest fully exposed, I couldn’t believe just how many scars he had. Didn’t he have advanced healing? How much was he whipped over and over again for these scars to remain?
Except me, no one looked even vaguely surprised by it. The apprentice took a jar from the table at the corner and walked towards Aiden. He dipped his fingers in the jar. His fingers came out coated dark red. Fresh blood. He began drawing runes across Aiden’s body.
I looked at the gigantic blood circle that took up the room, the near empty blood jars lining their worktable, the dripping runes drawn on Aiden’s body. Had they volunteered or had they been slaughtered by these madmen?
“It’s done,” the apprentice stepped out of the circle. Aiden’s body was covered in runes, every symbol made up of straight lines, the language of the druids. The runes were drawn on, five runes per line, as if he was a letter to the otherworld.
The druid master took out the medallion his long beard had covered till now. Sunburst pattern made up of gold, decorated in rubies. It looked like something that belonged to the kings of old.
“Dyaya nasha kee di shakt,” he kept chanting. The voice echoed and amplified in the closed room till it reached earsplitting levels. Everyone except the head druid covered their ears. Caroline was biting her lips so hard, blood was trickling down.
The druid master stopped chanting, the room fell to a deafening silence. He held the medallion above his head. The circles and runes on the floor glowed electric blue. The bloody runes on Aiden’s body glowed an eerie red. The blue magic shot towards Aiden like a lightning storm, boring into his body like a drill from every direction.
Aiden roared in pain once, and then slumped back unconscious, his body pale, head hitting the floor with a thud. The medallion pulsed red once and dimmed into nothing.
“Aiden, no,” I reached forward, every logic forgotten. Magic erupted at the first circle, blue lightning shooting up from the runes. I reared back in pain.
The apprentice shot me an unimpressed glare. I held my hand close to my chest, the tip of my fingers a blistering red. My fingers had barely gotten past a centimeter of the circle when the runes had attacked me like a vicious dragon hoarding his treasure.
Aiden wasn’t moving, stray strands stuck to his forehead, drenched in sweat. Veins stood out in his neck.
“He cannot escape it now. He is sealed inside,” the druid master said in the same tone people talked about weather, writing something in his clipboard, like Aiden was a fucking lab rat.
Caroline reverently touched the medallion, “When will we have all his power?”
“He can be completely drained in a few days. Once he wakes up, we will start again.”
“Sounds fun,” Caroline said. “He has good control over his power. You won’t be able to take him by surprise like this again. He has been trained to withstand pain. So, feel free to up the dosage,” she winked.
Aiden had been trained to withstand pain?
The druid master nodded, “You may all leave now.”
“That’s not a good idea. I will have some of
my people stationed here. What if the circle can’t stop his power?” Dave said.
“That won’t happen. The runes will drain him as long as he has power to give. Besides, the child is completely soul bonded, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“He won’t be a problem then. His power is being stabilized by the bond. It wouldn’t let his power go uncontrolled and destroy him because it will harm his soul mate. Like I had said, unbounded Aether dragons are useless for harvesting power. Their souls are too chaotic to not self-destruct.”
“I won’t be taking any risks with him. Kelly, Chen, stay guard.”
“Keep them outside. We may need to expand the circle depending on the child’s power.”
“What do you want me to do with her? Is it safe to dispose her now?”
“He will die, if she dies. Keep her here. The closer she is the more stable his soul will be. Once the process is complete, they both will be dead anyway.”
They shot one last look at me sitting on the floor, broken, and left. I looked at Aiden, my gaze unfocused, my mind blank. I didn’t know what to do, how to survive.
Everybody left, happy with the promise of power and death. I sat on the floor, bile rising up my throat. The druids had relocated themselves to their desk on the opposite side, pouring over ancient scrolls, taking notes, waiting for Aiden to wake up.
I was invisible to them. Useless, if not for the bond I shared with Aiden, the same bond that has imprisoned him here. Dave didn’t consider me a risk. Otherwise he would have cuffed me. Besides, that apprentice looked stronger than any of his team members. I wouldn’t be able to beat the druids in a fight head on.
I looked at Aiden, lying deathly still, as magic danced around him, eagerly waiting for him to wake up to start devouring his power. I was going to kill every single one that had done this to him. Treated us like we were objects to experiment on, tortured him, destroyed Cal’s mind. They were going to suffer.
Death was going to be mercy.
Chapter 23
Color was returning to Aiden’s skin, painstakingly slow. He was going to wake up soon and when that happened he would be tortured again, till nothing was left of him.
I had to find a way to break that rune circle first, otherwise even if I took down the rest, it would be useless. He would still be trapped.
I cautiously edged towards the bloody circle.
“No, that won’t work,” a booming voice said.
Shit.
I whipped around towards the druids. They were sitting on the corner table books and scrolls spread over every available surface, their sleeping bags rolled up and leaning against the leg of the table. There wasn’t much space left in the room so the table was set near the attached bathroom. They were talking amongst themselves, the head druid wasn’t cautioning me, he was replying to his apprentice.
I sighed in relief.
The apprentice threw the wrapper of the sandwich he had eaten on the floor, there was already a small mountain of food wrappers there, some fresh, some moldy. Boxes of water lined up the wall. My stomach growled, the adrenaline had burned off all the food I had consumed, but, I couldn’t afford to be distracted by that now.
I inched forward, agonizingly slow. They wouldn’t hear me over how loud the head mage was talking but better not take chances.
“It’s not precise. It may or may not point towards the portal. We need a more accurate spell,” the old druid violently tugged his beard, eyebrows furrowed as he kept on tweaking the writing on a scroll. “We will not be able to find it with luck like last time.”
“There is nothing else,” the apprentice replied.
So, they were the ones who had found the portal. Was the druid who was arrested their accomplice? How did they just chance upon a portal by luck? More importantly how in the hell had they found a spell to enslave a demon of all things?
I pushed those questions to the back of my mind. I had to disrupt the rune’s magic first. I extended my fingers towards the circle, centimeter by centimeter. I made sure my jaw was shut tight, so I wouldn’t accidentally bite my tongue off if the pain got unbearable.
As soon as my fingers came over the rune, power flashed like electricity over that one rune. Like a hissing cat, it attacked my hand but I kept inching forward. My skin blistered and bubbles formed over my index finger. Every inch of the circle was covered with interlocked runes and as my hand went over them, each got activated, the pain got unbearable on the first set of runes and only half my hand was in. I pulled my hand back, my vision teary, I blew on it frantically. My hand looked like I had put it in boiling water. I bit my lips and held in my whimper, I couldn’t alert them. The empty circle Aiden was in was beyond the seventh consecutive rune circle. There was no way I could reach it before I got fried to crisp.
I got up, cradling my hand and walked to the attached bathroom. The apprentice shot me a lazy glance, saw my burnt hand and went back to his work with a roll of his eyes muttering something about stupid teenagers. I placed my palm under the running water, the cold water took the sting of the burn but it still hurt like hell.
There was a beard trimmer, toothbrushes and shampoo spread all around the sink. White hair clogged the drain. I wrinkled my nose. How long had they been camping here for their experiments?
I looked around the bathroom, hoping to find at least a pair of scissors to use as weapons but to no avail. Spotting a small open window, I moved towards the wall. The window was above my head, I would have to jump to see. I kept jumping and landing softly to avoid making a noise. Trees filled my view. I kept on jumping, hoping to find something distinctive. Anything.
Wait. Was that a clearing beyond those trees? Even with my limited vision, it looked familiar. Very familiar. Was someone trying to purposely mess with me?
The clearing was the final checkpoint for the obstacle race, the one I took every year instead of Sam. I remember reaching this checkpoint every time, out of breath, muscles aching in places I didn’t know was possible, almost always placing in the top five. It would’ve been suspicious if ‘Sam’ hadn’t qualified after grandma hired that special trainer. I was going to fail the transforming test anyway so I couldn’t afford to fail the physical too.
I must be in the abandoned cabin near that spot then. The one the inspecting officers used to wait in for candidates to arrive. Is that why the security was low in this place? Because they didn’t want to alert the defense forces? Even though this forest was government owned, there was an understanding with the defense forces that they could conduct their tests here as well as do check-ins to make sure the cabin was in good condition before the next test.
If I could somehow get Aiden out of the circle, I knew all the shortcuts to get out of here before they could capture us again.
The druids were still hunched around the spell books when I left the bathroom after an hour. Complicated runes were drawn with blood on decaying yellow paper with blood and a paintbrush. Some fluttered in the air then fell back lifeless while some others set themselves on fire.
Did any of those have information about breaking the rune circle? Even if they did, I couldn’t read their language.
I swiped a bottle of water on the way to my spot on the floor. Maybe, I can erase the runes with water. It was drawn with blood so it should be erasable at least a tiny bit. Making sure they were still engrossed in their demon finding quest I poured some water onto the rune. Nothing happened. I cautiously extended my unburnt index finger towards the runes. Power rose up, singing the tip of my finger.
Great. So, pouring water wouldn’t work. I tried to rub the edge of the rune with water but it didn’t smear, my reddened skin could attest to that. Looks like, the runes only reacted to living beings. It didn’t discriminate. Even the druids had looked wary on standing too close to the circle. The rune must be keeping everyone out.
Was the magic within the circle sentient? Is that why they couldn’t torture him while sleeping? Did the magic require him to be awake to drai
n his magic?
I took off my t-shirt, leaving me in my sports bra and placed the fabric on the rune. No reaction, as expected. What if it acted as a barrier against the runes though? With the cloth covering the runes, maybe it wouldn’t be able to sense me and I could use it like an invisibility shield.
I cautiously leaned forward, extending my singed index finger again. Lightning shot up through fabric, angrily striking my skin. There was not even a burn mark on the t-shirt, like magic hadn’t just passed through it. I pulled my t-shirt back, struggling to put it back on with one hand.
“It’s pointless. The circle is impenetrable child. You can stop trying,” the head druid said with an amused look. As if I was a child figuring out how to play with toys. With a dismissive smile he turned his back towards me, completely sure of the rune’s spells and my lack of magic.
He should know, giving up wasn’t in my vocabulary, no matter how impossible the task was. But, it was to my advantage that they dismissed my efforts. No one was going to stop me from trying.
I focused back on my task. Disrupting the circle wouldn’t work. I had to think of something else. There was one more thing left to try, but the plan was stupidly crazy. Too crazy to even give it a second thought. But, I was running out of options.
Aiden’s hand twitched. He was awake. The lightning danced around him, not yet touching him, waiting like a sadistic beast for him to wake up.
Chapter 24
Aiden blearily blinked his eyes and sat up. He didn’t seem to register anyone around him; his eyes had a faraway gaze that chilled me to the core. Like he was stuck looping through his past memories unaware of where he was now. He fisted his hands and kneeled again, shoulders straight, bracing for pain. The movements felt too smooth, like a dance he had practiced a hundred times.
The mages hadn’t noticed that he was awake yet, caught up in their spell making, but the runes had.
Lighting arced inside the circle, not touching him but dancing around him. The brightness of it grew as it kept on passing from one rune to another like a skipping stone. It was toying with Aiden, inducing fear, making him lose control. But, Aiden was unaware, unaffected, lost.