by Emma Hamm
“Mistreatment?” Wren looked around the stone cell. “This is fine. Leave me here alone, I’m sure you’re a busy man.”
The long tail of his braid swished as he walked towards her. In any other circumstance, she would have admitted that the man was attractive. He wasn’t overly shaped as many intimidating men could be. Malachi was more the man one would expect to be intelligent as well as deadly.
Dark straight hair was held back from his face in an intricate braid. His high cheekbones and full lips were almost feminine in their qualities. His skin was delicately pale and every feature perfectly in place. Long, dusky eyelashes swept down to kiss his cheeks every time he blinked.
She blew out a breath but refused to back away from him. She wasn’t certain if the chains around her wrists would even let her. They had enough movement that she had a feeling they could prevent her from creating any slack in their length.
“I do appreciate a witty woman,” Malachi murmured as he reached out to finger a length of her hair. “Black does not suit you.”
It took her a few moments to realize what he was talking about. “Are you commenting on the color of my hair?”
“I do believe that you would look fantastic with a lovely shade of green.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I would have assumed you were a natural color kind of man.”
“Odd choice.” He backed away from her to look towards the woman. “It is done?”
She nodded in response.
“Very good, Alda.”
“What did she do to me?” Wren asked. “What are you talking about?”
He crowded her backwards as the chains jangled against the floor. Her feet scraped as she tried to slow the inevitable. He was going to do whatever he wanted with her.
“I need to speak with the creature inside of you, Wren.”
“I don’t think E wants to talk to you.”
“E?” he asked as his finger pushed hard against her shoulder. “What a quaint little name for such a powerful creature.”
“E doesn’t have any power.” She swallowed hard.
“Are you certain of that?”
“That’s what it told me, and I trust E.”
“You see.” Her back hit the wall as he leaned forward to breathe deeply. “Legion lies.”
“Not to me.”
She hoped at least. This situation was yet another that was entirely out of her control. Likely, this was all E’s fault. If the creature hadn’t chosen her body as a child, then none of this would have happened.
But she couldn’t blame the person who had always been her best friend. Not in this moment when she needed to pay attention to the dangerous man in front of her.
She had to protect E at all costs.
Malachi was watching her carefully. His unnatural eyes danced between hers as he cocked his head to the side. “You weren’t talking to it there. I can feel it when it rises up.”
“Excuse me?”
“I had the pleasure of meeting your ‘E’ once before. Not in you of course but another. So much knowledge in a body as small as yours. How did you remain sane?”
“Couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to.”
He held her jaw in his hand and turned her face towards one of the glowing orbs. “Strange. Your mind is not one I would have expected to withstand it.”
“I’m stronger than you’d think.” Her words were muffled as his fingers tightened and dug into her cheeks.
“You are not going to like what I’m going to do next.”
“Try me.”
Her words were much more brave than she felt. Wren’s knees shook, and her mouth went dry. There were too many bad things this man could do to her, too many possibilities that danced in her head.
Through everything, E remained silent. This was what scared her most of all. E had always been brave, had always gotten her out of situations that it thought were dangerous. Why was it staying so quiet now of all times?
Malachi rose a hand to place it against her forehead. She was held immobile by the other hand forcing her head to remain where he wanted it. She watched his nostrils flared as he took another deep breath.
At first, nothing happened. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she stared at the long lashes that rested upon his cheeks. Wren didn’t think this was a joke. He wouldn’t be concentrating so hard if it was a joke.
She barely had time to finish the thought before she felt the burst of dark billows that was E slamming against her skull. The creature within her was brought to the threshold of her mind so quickly that she was shoved aside.
An ache unlike any other she had experienced burst inside of her head. Wren had always been separate from E, which had prevented her from feeling everything that the creature housed inside of it.
Malachi’s hand pressed harder against her forehead, and Wren felt the odd sensation of being sucked into the dark cloud that was the consciousness of E. All at once, she felt emotions she had never felt before. Memories flooded her mind that were not hers.
She gasped as voices screamed inside of her head. Her eyes squeezed shut. There were too many thoughts for her mind to handle, too many memories that weren’t hers. She understood now why E had always kept this from her.
Drowning was an accurate description. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t hear anything but the voices that called out to her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as she lost all sense of self. There was no beginning or end to what she knew or what she had experienced.
She was woman. She was man. She was child. She was warrior. She was every life that had lived and more.
Wren was gone. There was no young woman who had been left by her parents, only a small spark of that girl who was swallowed by thousands of years experienced by countless souls. Every voice was hers and not. Every thought was experienced a hundred times over. Love. Death. Sorrow. Pain. Every emotion was there and minimized, because she had seen it over and over again.
Her eyes slowly blinked open. The white that had always been a clear sign of E controlling her body was there, but faintly the outline of storm grey eyes could be seen inside of it.
Malachi let out a quiet huff of breath. “Perhaps I underestimated you, human.” His fingers flexed against her skin. “Now let’s see what else you can take.”
Wren’s entire body swayed forward as though a string was tied around her navel. Her arms dropped to her sides, and he pushed her head backwards. Unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling as she felt the smoke that was her consciousness swirl inside of her again.
Jumbled thoughts swelled, and she was once again adrift in a storm.
And then, all at once, something clicked inside of her. Wren was not controlling her body. In fact, she was doing very little. She was forced to remain silent as one of the many inside E was brought to the surface by Malachi.
Her eyes blinked open, but now they were brown.
“Ah.” His eyes met her confused gaze. “There you are.”
Again, she was sidelined in her own body. Wren could feel the warmth of his hand disappear, but she couldn’t stop her body from slumping backwards. It was someone else that pressed her palms against the stone walls.
“What?” She heard herself whisper.
“Yes, I suspect you haven’t been let out in a long time,” Malachi murmured.
“What is happening?”
“You don’t know where you are? I thought you were all aware at the same time.”
Wren was quickly realizing that this voice she was hearing wasn’t her own. Though female, it was much higher than her own. Lilting and sweet, it was the voice of an innocent.
“We are all aware.” Her eyes tilted to stare down at her wide spread fingers. “I have not felt a body in many years.”
“Really?” Malachi appeared to be intrigued by that. “How long?”
“Since Legion first absorbed me.”
“And how long would that be?”
“A thousand years?” The question lay h
eavy in the air, as though she wasn’t quite certain when it had happened.
Malachi took a step backwards but stooped to stare into the very different eyes that were blinking back at him. “You don’t know exactly?”
“It is many years to keep track of.”
“Of course,” he murmured. “Of course, that is far too many for you.”
The long black braid slid off of his shoulder as he ran his hand down her arm. “You are what I think you are, correct?”
“What?” She flinched backwards into the wall. Wren could feel the other woman’s fear at the words.
“Easy there,” Malachi chuckled. “I was not among those who condemned your people. An Illusionist, unless I am mistaken?”
Voices clamored around her. There were too many voices for her to keep track of, and Wren realized that she was standing within a crowd. In the vast expanse of her mind, it felt as though there were hundreds… thousands of other creatures clustered around her.
Rather than feeling crowded, she felt safe. Safer than she had ever felt in her life, in fact. The warmth and strength of E was amplified by her position inside of the creature. She had always been separate from it. Now she was one of the many that made up E.
She worried what kind of ramifications this would bring with it.
“Illusionist, yes,” the creature that was currently directing her body murmured in response.
“Your kind was greatly feared in the old days.”
“Before the End. Yes.”
“My kind was never afraid of yours.” His hand trailed across her cheek.
The others that were part of E did not like where this conversation was going. They shouted to run. They screamed to hurt Malachi. But in the end, curiosity won.
“Why?” she murmured.
His eyes softened, and Wren could hear the other woman’s thoughts as though they were her own. Perhaps they had been wrong about this powerful creature that had given her another life. That had offered her control over a body that had never been hers.
This was an opportunity for her that had never been presented before. She was not a very strong soul inside the vast expanse of E. In fact, she was rather weak. Never had she been considered strong physically or mentally. Now he was offering her a second chance to be just that.
She weaved a little before leaning into the palm that was soon cupping her cheek. Her eyes drifted closed to savor the feeling of touch, something she had not experienced on her own in such a long time.
She sighed.
But he had not yet answered her question. The old days had been difficult for her kind, which had been feared because of their powers. She found it hard to believe that his kind had not been afraid of hers. She didn’t even know what his kind was.
Her eyes blinked opened to find him leaning closer to her.
“Why wasn’t your kind afraid of mine?”
He paused then, and she desperately hoped that he would say that he knew that they were good. He could see inside of her soul and see that she was a kind creature who wanted nothing more than to create illusions of happiness and hope.
For a moment, she thought she saw those emotions in his eyes. This man, this creature, this Malachi whom so many were afraid of, he would see that she was not evil. He would see how delicate and lovely she really was.
Again, she leaned into the hand that held onto her cheek.
He sighed, and she felt his breath flutter against her skin. “Dearest.”
She knew he was good. She knew he would understand, that he saw what she was underneath this borrowed body. Of course he was good.
His thumb stroked the arch of her cheekbone. “Because we are so much more powerful than you.”
In a snake like strike, his palm slammed against her sternum. She gasped as the bones in her body seemed to shake. Wren, along with all the others beside her, groaned as the pain was shared among all of them.
She could see them standing next to her. They were inside her head and yet not. So many shadowed figures standing beside her, and all of them started to quake as his hand pulled against something. She ached, and they knew something she didn’t.
Her eyes tilted down to see his hand slowly disappearing into the cavity of her chest. No blood could be seen, and with sudden clarity, a word was screamed inside her head. She knew then what this creature before her was.
Looking up at him, she managed one last word. “Void.”
A feral grin split his face. “Oh yes.”
Magic aided his hand to sink not only into her flesh but straight through to the soul that currently held control over her physical form. Deeper and deeper it sank. His hand attached to the dark shadow that filled the cavities of her body.
She let out a low moan. Her head shook back and forth as his hand curled around the soul inside her. He squeezed long and slow. Forcefully, he drew the pain out as long as he could before he twisted his hand hard and crushed the fragile soul in his palm.
The shadow that had been part of E shattered. Wren could hear the sound as though someone had dropped a wineglass. But the worst part was that the voice of the woman screamed loud before being cut off.
There was nothing left of her. Nothing but a wisp of black smoke that curled out of Wren’s now gaping mouth.
Malachi leaned forward to inhale that bit of smoke. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he let out a long groan of pleasure.
“Yes. That’s more like it.”
Wren tried to surge forward. She wanted control over her body. She wanted to smack the smug expression of his face so hard that her hand would permanently mar that pretty face. She wanted to show him what happened when people murdered an innocent creature.
But every time she threw herself forward, she struck a barrier that prevented her from gaining control. The wall appeared to be not something of her own construct. Or perhaps it was.
The shadows that stood beside her remained where they were standing. They watched her throw herself against his imaginary wall over and over again until she turned towards them. Her entire soul shuddered with rage.
“What are you waiting for?” she screamed at them. “Help me!”
But they stayed where they were. She didn’t know if E was passively letting her remain locked in her own body or if it did not know how to help her.
Malachi looked at her slack jawed expression, and a light sparked in his eyes. “Oh, of course, how thoughtless of me.”
His hand pressed against her forehead, and Wren felt herself yanked forward at his bidding. She passed through the wall, which shattered behind her. Along with her came a surging of all the other creatures. Each seem to clamor for attention in her head before they slowly died down.
She could move her own body then. She could feel her fingers move when she bid them to do so. With that, came the anger and pain that this man had given her.
“How dare you!” Wren raised her hand to strike him.
He stepped out of her way with a laugh. “What an interesting development I didn’t expect!”
She growled in response.
“The creature you house inside of you is so very intelligent. A wall inside of her own mind. Very clever, Legion.”
“I don’t need your approval.” Her voice echoed with thousands of others that vibrated within her throat.
Wren could hear the confusion. They had thought the wall had been broken by Gaia. They had been concerned that it would not be fixable. But the wall had been intact. Now, it was well and truly broken.
He frowned at her. “I didn’t expect you to survive joining with Legion. But still, a surprise is welcome at a time like this. Soon, you’ll be lost just like all the others.”
“I won’t let that happen,” E said from within her.
“You don’t have a choice, Legion. You’re powerless to control what you are.” He clapped his hands. “Now, let’s make this place a little more comfortable shall we?”
He spread his arms wide and colors streamed from the tips of his f
ingers. Wren pressed herself flush against the wall in fear. The colors began to take form. They snaked along the stone floor which turned to hardwood in their path. The walls were painted a warm red, plush furniture formed, and a fireplace crackled in the corner.
All of this happened in mere moments, a few blinks before they were no longer in a cave at all. Malachi staggered as the spell completed. He quickly righted himself much to Wren’s unhappiness. She hoped that the weakness was only the beginning.
Anger made her face flush. “You stole her magic.”
“Very astute, Wren.”
Her attention kept wavering. In one moment, she would be focusing on the man in front of her, and in the next, she was startled that she could feel the skin of her arm so clearly. Each blink felt as though she was fighting to remain in control over her own body.
She shook her head to focus. “You stole her magic just because you wanted to make this place not look like a cave?”
“Right again.” He seated himself onto one of the chairs and sighed. He relaxed deep into the cushions and propped a foot upon his knee.
“You truly are evil.”
“No, my dear. I’m not evil.” He waved his hand and a glass of blood red wine appeared on the table beside him. “I am a creature that only does what I was created to do.”
“Stealing other people’s magic to make your own life more comfortable. That’s a fantastic way to live.”
“Oh you know so very little about our world,” he murmured into the glass. “I was created to give meaning to the light side. You presented an opportunity. I took the opportunity. It’s all give and take, love.”
“So you live in a world with no rules, where no decision of yours affects anyone but yourself.”
“Correct again. Please take a seat.”
“Absolutely not.” She turned to start looking for a way to escape. “I’m not staying in here with a monster.”
“Monster?”
The word vibrated with so much anger that a shiver went down Wren’s spine. Rightly so, because in the next moment he was pressed against the back she had turned to him. She could feel the heat of his breath against her neck as he crowded her against the wall.
“You don’t really believe that. There’s a part of you that’s just like me.”