Asylum

by Kit Bladegrave

  “And I’m a pissed off witch. Get him in here now, or I’ll do it myself. Do you think I’m joking? Try me.”

  My hair rose on my arms as the tension between these two women grew until finally there was a furious growl and retreating steps.

  Hands picked me up and lay me on what remained of the cot I’d managed to throw into the door with my injured hand. Injured from punching Tristan. Tristan who was a wolf.

  A wolf about to be eaten by the darkness.

  “He’s coming,” I whispered again, flailing wildly around to find the woman, needing her to understand. “We can’t… we can’t stop him.”

  “Calm down, Sabella, you need to focus on my voice,” she said sternly, but I couldn’t see her, and the voices rose, trying to tune her out.

  Her words faded into the background and I cursed, wading my way through the madness, but I couldn’t get back. I wanted out. I wanted to be free of this, but I was sinking back into the crazy.

  Back to the days where reality wasn’t reality.

  I laughed sadly. This was my life. Forever. I would never be free, never, never, never—

  “What are you doing?”

  Tristan. His growl pierced through the din of voices as easily as if he’d used a sword. “Tristan.”

  The woman was talking again, but I couldn’t hear her. Tristan’s growl, though, that pulled me from the shadowy world I’d fallen into, and slowly, ever so slowly, the room came back to me. The second his hand closed around mine, my world fell into sharp focus, and I gasped, sitting up and clutching my throbbing head. Tristan never released my hand.

  “What happened, Lucy?” he growled, but he wasn’t speaking to me.

  The woman, Lucy was her name, was beautiful and powerful, her black hair braided back and her face set in a stern, yet kind look as she glanced from me then back to Tristan. Her eyes glowed with a violet hue as she moved closer to Tristan and whispered something I couldn’t hear.

  His growl grew dangerous, but she held her ground, staring him down.

  “Uh, hi?” I said, trying to find an easy way to stop them from killing each other, which they suddenly looked like they wanted to do.

  The woman’s eyes shifted back to me, and she smiled, holding my cheek softly in her hand. “Hello, Sabella. I’m Lucy, and I’m here to help you understand what’s happening to you… and to stop stubborn headed wolves from making decisions they’re going to regret.”

  Tristan’s grip increased on mine until I winced, and he finally looked at me. I couldn’t read him, but I did catch a hint of guilt before he blinked and tried to pull his hand free.

  “Wait,” I said, “please. You… there’s something about you, you make them go away.”

  “Them? You’ve said that before,” he told me. “What are you talking about?”

  “The voices.” I took his other hand in mine, and the amount of clarity that exploded in my mind was insane, more so than I was. “And the images. They just…” I blinked hard. “They leave me alone when you’re here.”

  His face went completely blank this time, but his thumbs rubbed over my knuckles. “Interesting.”

  “That’s all you have to say, interesting?” Lucy dug around in the bag I hadn’t noticed before that was slung across her body. “You wanted me here for a reason. Do you still wish me to continue, or would you like to merely trust what’s happening right now?”

  I had no idea what she was talking about.

  Tristan hesitated, his brow wrinkling, but he nodded. “Do it. I’m sorry, Sabella, but I have to be certain.”

  “Sorry for what?”

  Lucy said my name and I turned to her just as she blew a dark, blue powder in my face.

  I sneezed and coughed, but it sank into my eyes, my nose, my mouth. I shook, electricity shot through my limbs. I wanted it to stop, but it only grew worse, rooting me to the spot. My tongue twisted in my mouth.

  “Who are you?” Lucy asked.

  “Sabella Doe,” I answered without even thinking. “What… what did you do to me?” I choked.

  But she didn’t answer me, just kept asking. “Where are you from?”

  “Maine,” I bit out. “An asylum in Maine.”

  “Where are you from originally?”

  “I… I don’t know,” I mumbled.

  “Who are your parents?”

  I didn’t want to do this anymore, but when I tried not to answer, the electric feeling turned painful, and I winced.

  “Answer, Sabella, or it will get worse,” Lucy warned.

  “I don’t know,” I uttered.

  “And your family? Who are they?”

  “I don’t know them either. I have no family.” I dug my nails into Tristan’s hands, not meaning to, but I had to hold onto something.

  Besides, this pain was all his fault. He could share some of it with me until it was over, the distrusting, damned furball.

  “Why did you come here?”

  How did I answer a question I didn’t know the answer too? But then words poured out of my mouth before I even knew what I was saying. “I have come to warn the wolf of the wave of darkness ready to wash over this land. I have come to seek the warriors three. I have come to end the war and find the ones who have been lost.”

  “The ones?” Tristan whispered. “Kate and Craig, are you talking about them?”

  “No,” I said, still not sure who was actually answering. I would have sworn it wasn’t me. “The ones who have been forgotten, the ones who will either save us or kill us all.”

  “Is that enough for you?” Lucy demanded, and Tristan nodded. She reached into her pack and pulled out a handful of white powder, blowing that in my face next.

  I choked again, but this powder chased away the electricity, and after one final shudder, I felt back to normal, well mostly.

  “What did I just say?” I asked, confused. “What did you do to me?”

  “Truth spell, at the request of King Tristan.”

  She crossed her arms, still looking ready to drag him around by his ear for doing what he just did.

  I was angry, but at the same time, if everything he told me was true about there being enemies and a war… and my being a seer, I couldn’t hate him too much. Maybe. I wanted to be pissed at him, but at the moment, he was the only reason I wasn’t lost in some crazy vision and hearing a swarm of voices I couldn’t control. I wanted to be mad and run off, but the second I let go of his hands, I feared what would happen.

  “Happy?” I asked, hoping I sounded more furious than I actually felt.

  His lips thinned, but he nodded. “I’m sorry, but I had to be sure. As I have said, we’re missing two of our friends, and when a seer comes into my midst rambling about them and some tidal wave of death, I have to make sure you’re not here to threaten my kin. I have to be certain you are not like the others we’ve dealt with of your kind.”

  Right, because a seer had cursed his kind, forever. How could I forget?

  “Tidal wave of death? Is that really what I said?” I asked, straining to remember what had been going on inside my head before Lucy and Tristan pulled me out of it.

  They bobbed their heads, and some of the tension disappeared from between them at least, but I sensed their worry.

  “Well, that’s awesome. So, I really am a seer, huh?”

  “Yes, you are, and I must say I’m surprised.” Lucy dragged over a chair I hadn’t destroyed to sit on. “I haven’t seen a seer in decades. They’ve all gone into hiding or been killed.”

  She shot Tristan another look, and he shrugged.

  “Wait, you’ve been killing seers?” I asked alarmed, ready to pull back, but he held on harder, so I couldn’t.

  “No, but we may have chased them out of Torolf. I have told you my reason why. We have not had cause to trust them since.” He watched me curiously as if even after hearing me spill the truth, he wasn’t able to believe me. “All this time, you just thought you were crazy?”

  I hated talking about myself. Someth
ing Dr. Tim made me do once a week. Talk about myself, my thoughts. What I wanted. Where I wanted to go if I ever got better. Not that I ever thought I’d get better, or be able to think straight for more than a few minutes at a time. He always asked me the strangest questions, too. Trying to get me to dig into my past and remember something, anything about a family. A parent. A happy memory.

  I resituated myself on the bed, wanting to hide away from their prying questions. “I—uh, I was dropped off at the asylum when I was one, maybe two?”

  “You were seeing things that young?” Lucy asked alarmed.

  “No, no they told me someone just left me with a note, asking to keep me safe,” I explained. “Dr. Tim, he runs the place, he took me in, worried about who my parents might’ve been. Good thing he kept me, too since the crazy came on when I was six or so. Or maybe it was visions, I guess.”

  Her brow rose even as patted my army in sympathy. “You poor child. No wonder they thought you were insane. And you can’t remember your family?”

  “Nope, never have. The only thing I remember was a man in a cloak. He was crying,” I whispered, that single fuzzy memory always trying to slip from my grasp. “He said my name, Sabella, and that was the only thing I remembered hearing. Then he was gone, and I was in the asylum. They considered at one point trying to have a family adopt me, but I was too much trouble. They were worried I’d hurt myself, or someone else. So, Dr. Tim, he just took me in and raised me there.”

  “That’s terrible,” Tristan snapped.

  “More terrible than if I’d wound up with a family that didn’t know how to handle me?” I remembered some of the fits I had in the early days. “A normal family would’ve locked me in a room or tossed me out. No, growing up where I did was the best thing for me.”

  Tristan looked far from convinced, but at least he no longer looked angry at me. “How did you get here?”

  “As I told you, I was seeing a wolf, you, and I just had to get to you somehow.” I nervously glanced around, thinking orderlies were going to burst into the room and drag me back, but clearly that wasn’t the case. “I just walked out of the asylum that night and into the woods. Almost like it was meant to be, like magic.” I smiled at the last part, remembering how those doors had just opened and then I was in the woods.

  Tristan opened his mouth, but Lucy beat him to it. “Mind if I talk with her for a while, alone?”

  That deep grumbling started in his chest, but he bowed his head as he seemed to reluctantly let go of my hands. “Of course. I’ll be just down the corridor if you need me.”

  The second the door closed behind him, I expected the voices to come rushing back. But they didn’t. I huffed in surprise then grinned, happy to still have a clear head.

  “When Tristan is around, you seem better,” Lucy noted.

  “Because I am. I don’t know what he does, but he makes me feel sane.”

  “That is very interesting indeed,” Lucy mused as she stood and paced around the room.

  I felt comfortable with her, like my favorite aunt was visiting. Not that I knew what having any family around felt like, real family at least, but I decided she’d be that perfect aunt who spoiled all her nieces and nephews. Took care of them.

  As we sat in silence, a thought came over me that had my gut twisting, and I suddenly felt sick. “If I’m a seer, that means what I’ve been seeing are all what, visions of the future?”

  She tilted her head back and forth. “Yes and no. It sounds as if you’ve been seeing what is happening and what will happen mixed together somehow. With Tristan, it appears you’re able to focus your ability better. See clearer.”

  I nodded. “It’s weird,” I admitted. “I’ve never really had a chance to meet myself without the voices. And that just makes me sound more like a crazy person.” I laughed quietly, wishing I could stay like this forever.

  Free. That’s what I felt like. I felt free of the burden of what went on inside my head constantly, making me feel trapped in a world I didn’t belong. Or I did belong since I was a seer. Everything I’d imagined inside my head all those years, it was all true. All of it. The dragons, the fighting, the weird half-dead people walking around.

  Even the man trapped in the cage and the woman screaming in pain. I gulped and wasn’t so sure free was the word I should use.

  Now that I knew it was real, I could barely comprehend the amount of death I’d seen. Death and destruction, thinking all the while it was merely made up fantasy.

  Tears dripped down my cheeks, and I wiped them away, but more kept coming, and then Lucy wrapped me in her arms, holding me in a motherly hug I’d never had the chance to experience in my life.

  “Hush now, child, it’ll be alright,” she promised quietly. “We’re going to figure out who you are. Don’t you worry about that. You’re safe here with us.”

  “And what I saw?” I sputtered through my tears. “That darkness, it swallows everyone. How are we going to stop it?”

  “Right now, all you need to worry about is yourself. We’ll figure the rest out soon enough.”

  I let her hold me as she asked me more questions about myself. Simple things, my favorite flower, if I liked the rain or not.

  I told her about my time growing up, shared with her some good memories I had. I could tell she held back and wanted to ask about the man I remembered seeing, or about what I told her and Tristan.

  After a while, I leaned back and let it all spill out, like a dam finally bursting, unable to hold back the weight any longer. The words tumbled out one after the other, and with each one, I felt myself grow more grounded in this world and in reality.

  I felt like I was becoming the seer I’d been born to be and never even knew.

  9

  Tristan

  I stayed outside the door, listening intently until Sabella broke down and sobbed.

  Every instinct screamed at me to go in there and hold her close, but though she said she wasn’t mad at me, I sensed her anger. And she had every right to be upset. She’d come here, alone and scared, wanting to warn me, and all I did was distrust her and chain her to a wall.

  Hank called out to me, and I hurried away from the door before I made a fool of myself.

  “What is it?” I grunted, forcing him to pick up the pace as I stormed downstairs to the main hall.

  “We have heard back from several scouts,” he explained. “They found nothing where Sabella was found. Not even a trace of magic. Whatever brought her here, we’re not sure what it was from.”

  “Great. More unanswered questions.” I entered the hall and leaned on the table before giving in and pouring myself a large mug of ale. “Where is Forrest? I have some more news to share with him.”

  “About Sabella? Is she working for the enemy?”

  “No, no. I think she’s here to save us believe it or not,” I confessed, chugging more of the ale and setting the mug down hard.

  A damned seer, after all these years. Why did it have to be a seer who would come to warn me and save our people? Who would make me feel more confused than I ever had before in my life?

  “That’s good news at least,” Hank said as he bowed his head and added he would go find King Forrest and bring him to the hall.

  I had more information and even more questions about what we faced. Sabella was here to find the warriors who would what, stop the tidal wave she kept mentioning? Or find the ones who would stop it? Forrest and Craig had told me about their time with Kate, figuring out she was the Vindicar, and what to do to stop the enemy we thought was the only enemy. I hadn’t envied them their adventures, and I still didn’t. Riddles and visions. All of it was nonsense, but it was the only lead we had right now. The only way to find Craig and Kate and figure out what we were up against. The darkness. That damned shadow. How was I supposed to save my people against a shadow?

  “What did you find out?” Forrest asked as he entered the hall. “Well?”

  “She is a seer who was raised in the human realm,” I to
ld him. “Her visions drove her here to find me, to warn me that he was coming, and we would not be able to stop him. Whoever this he is.”

  Forrest hung his head as he leaned on the table. I felt his frustration tenfold. We were no closer to finding Craig and Kate than when he came to me for help. We had no new answers about the darkness hiding in the seams between realms. We had nothing except a seer who was only now realizing who she really was.

  I was about to suggest to Forrest we continue the search in the morning, start somewhere new and see what we would dig up when Boris bellowed for me.

  With Forrest right behind me, we sprinted from the all to find Boris holding up a bloody and beaten scout, barely able to stay on his feet. His eyes fluttered, and then he collapsed completely, taking Boris down with him.

  “What happened? Where was he?” I demanded, tapping his cheeks to try and get him to wake up.

  He was drenched in blood, and the wounds were strange. I’d never seen them before. They were slashes, but not from a blade I’d ever seen before.

  I glanced at Boris. “I thought Hank said they found nothing at the sight Sabella came through?”

  “He wasn’t there,” Boris explained. “I’d sent him further south to explore the rest of the forest to the edge of our territory.”

  “Alone?” I demanded.

  Boris paled. “No, I sent four of them. He’s the only one who returned.”

  Three scouts gone. They had to be dead. If this one was beaten this badly, I doubted the others had been taken prisoner. “Get him up to the infirmary,” I ordered. “The second he wakes, I want to know.”

  “You are not going out there,” Boris whispered urgently to me as the scout was carried off.

  “Three of my own are dead, Boris, I’m not going to sit here and do nothing,” I growled back fiercely, standing to my full height. “Unless you are challenging your alpha, you will not try to issue an order to me again. You will gather a small contingent of warriors and make them ready to depart as soon as I gather more information. Is that understood?”

  Boris bowed his head in submission. “Yes, sire, understood.” He backed away, head still lowered, and didn’t turn around until he’d reached the steps.