Asylum

by Kit Bladegrave

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back staring up at the trees as they moved overhead. Huh, I’d never thought the trees near us moved.

  “Tristan? He’s awake.”

  Sabella. She was close, and I knew that was her holding my hand.

  “Where… where are we going?” I felt so weak, and a numb smile spread across my face. I shouldn’t be laughing, should I? “Sabella?”

  “You’re going to be fine,” she said, but her smile seemed off. “Lucy gave you something for the pain. We’re almost back to the castle, just hold on, alright? You have to hold on. Tristan? Look at me, keep your eyes open, you damned furball.”

  I chuckled, wondering why she was so worried. I was fine, perfectly fine.

  “Kate,” I whispered, “where is she? And Craig?” That’s what we’d been doing, right? We’d gone to save them.

  Sabella’s eyes darkened, and she squeezed my hand so tight, my fingers started to go numb.

  “Sabella?”

  “They’re both fine,” she told me, but she was lying.

  I wanted to order her to tell me the truth, but then all I wanted to do was sleep. Sleep was good.

  “Tristan? Come on.” She shook my shoulder, but I had no strength left to do anything except let myself float away.

  Something was wrong, terribly wrong. Where was I? I tried to move, but my side was on fire, and I gasped from the pain. My eyes opened, but the room was fuzzy. I was covered in furs, lying in my bed. A fire crackled nearby.

  And there was a redhead asleep next to me, seated in a chair, her head resting on the edge of the bed. Her hand was clasped in mine as if she’d been there all night.

  I lifted the fur, leaving my right hand in hers, so I didn’t wake her, and stared at the bandages wrapped around my entire torso. They were stained, but the blood wasn’t wet when I reached down to touch it.

  I dropped the furs and attempted to recall those few moments before I passed out from blood loss. We’d run out of the maze back into Torolf, and that infernal thing followed us. It attacked and… and Lucy trapped it. Everything after that was lost to me. I hated to wake Sabella, but I needed answers.

  I gently shook her hand, and she lifted her head with a jerk, looking around as if worried we were about to be attacked. Then her gaze landed on me, and she leaned closer.

  “Tristan. You’re wake.”

  She hugged me close, something I was not expecting, then she let me go far too quickly for my liking. She shoved messy hair out of her face and said she would go get Lucy to come check on my wound.

  “Wait, just slow down for a second.” I caught her hand. “Tell me what happened.”

  “Which part?” she asked roughly.

  I tilted my head, failing at reading the array of emotions appearing on her face.

  “Just tell me.”

  She tugged her hand free and took a huge step toward the door. “You’ve been out for three days, that’s what happened. I’m going to get Lucy,” she announced again then was gone before I’d gotten over the shock of her words.

  Three days? How was that possible? No wound ever knocked me on my ass for that long. It would explain why Sabella had acted so oddly, but I sensed there was much more going on beneath my roof than she wanted to tell me.

  A few minutes later, the door opened, interrupting my quickly worsening thoughts, and Lucy rushed in, a basket bearing glass jars of salves and fresh bandaging in her hands.

  “King Tristan,” she said with a thankful smile. “You sure know how to give everyone a right scare. Just so you know, your people rejoice you're alive, and I believe half your guard are ready to kill you for putting them through this.”

  “Can’t say I blame them.”

  She unloaded her basket and pulled the furs back to my waist. “Can you sit up?”

  I expected it to be easy, but my back was stiff from lying down for so long, and the wound screamed in pain as I shifted, and it pulled. “Bloody hell, those damned whips make one hell of a weapon.”

  I was breathing hard by the time I got myself situated, Lucy keeping the furs with me to keep me warm since the air had grown even colder outside.

  Lucy clicked her tongue as she looked at the wound that stretched from my upper chest down to almost my hip.

  “Yes well, we took the whips away. Now he’s just a statue trapped in a cage,” she muttered, unwrapping the dirty bandages.

  “What do you mean?” I asked sharply, and another stark image popped into my head. “You have him? Here?” She shook her head, and I relaxed, slightly. “Where is it?”

  She didn’t answer at first, and I was about to repeat my question when she said, “The dungeon.”

  “Oh, that’s great, that’s just fantastic,” I growled, and she yanked off the remaining bandage with a glare. “Ow.”

  “Don’t take that tone with me, Tristan,” she snapped. “You’re damned lucky to be alive.”

  I growled again, but she merely quirked a brow.

  I rolled my eyes. “Please tell me it can’t get out of the dungeon and terrorize my people, at least.”

  “No, the sorcerers came to help me secure a prison for it. That monster isn’t going anywhere. Now stop squirming so I can take care of this,” she was saying when a knock sounded at the door, and Sabella walked in with two other physicians. “What is it now?” Lucy asked over her shoulder.

  “We need you in the infirmary,” one of the physicians said urgently. “She’s acting out again, and we can’t calm her down.”

  “Right, Sabella? Remember what I showed you?”

  “I can take care of him. Go,” Sabella said, and Lucy followed the physicians out of my chambers, closing the door tightly behind them. “So, I guess I’ll finish, uh, patching you up.”

  Her cheeks reddened when she glanced at my chest, but then she seemed to steel herself when her gaze shifted to my wound. Without a word, she took up the seat vacated by Lucy and opened one of the jars with a dark, green salve in it, smelling strongly of lilies. She scooped it out with her bare hands and hovered over the wound.

  “Ready? This is going to hurt,” she warned.

  “I’ll be fine—gah.” I snarled the second that salve touched my open wound.

  Sabella smirked, not pausing at all as she applied more until the entire wound was covered again.

  I breathed deeply in and out of my nose, mentally flinging every curse I could at her until she wiped her hands off with a towel and sat back in the chair.

  “Aren’t you going to cover it?” I asked, my voice coming out more like a growl.

  “It needs a moment to dry. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this to you. Just the first time you’ve been awake for it.” Her cheeks reddened more and seemed to be trying to look anywhere than at my bare skin, covered in years of scars and muscle from training, from fighting. “I’m glad you’re finally awake, though. It seemed touch and go there for a while.”

  I glanced at her forehead, but her hair covered it. “How’s your head?” I reached out to move her hair aside, needing to see for myself, wincing at the pain it caused my side, and she scowled at me, but I finished tucking her hair behind her ear. The wound was scabbed over, but she would probably have a scar.

  “Forrest said the darkness was there in the castle,” I whispered.

  “It was.”

  “He said you told them to leave, that you were trapped, but when I went in to get you, there was an explosion.”

  I waited for her to agree, or at least explain it all to me, but she sat there in silence, her face growing paler by the second. I tried to take hold of her hand, but she pulled back, shaking her hair out again, so it covered her face.

  “I need to finish covering your wound.” She reached for the bandaging.

  I lifted my arm as she pressed fresh gauze to the tender area gingerly before she picked up the bandaging and stood to wrap it around my torso.

  I breathed her in, a scent I was not going to be able to forget anytime soon. Lilac. Just like I smel
led the first night I found her. It soothed me until she finished and taped the end of the bandage at my side.

  “You’ll have to take it easy for a few more days. Your wound was pretty deep.” She kept her gaze down as she packed up the basket.

  I spied the bandages still on her arms from being attacked herself.

  “I’ll let you get some rest.”

  “Not until you talk to me,” I insisted.

  But she was moving away and toward the door.

  I climbed out of bed, each step jarring my wound.

  She looked ready to scold me, but then her gaze flickered down, her cheeks burned bright red, and she spun around, slamming a hand over her face.

  “Uh, Tristan? Look down.”

  I frowned, then noticed a chilly draft. “Shit.” I snatched the closest thing I could find, a blanket draped over another chair, and wrapped it around myself. “Sorry, I didn’t realize.” Why was I so embarrassed? I was a shifter. I ran around as a wolf, naked all the time, but right now, I felt a flush rising over my body. Had to be because of her. “I’m so sorry.”

  “No, I am, I—uh… it’s fine. I’m going to go before this gets any more awkward.”

  “Just wait one damned minute,” I growled in warning as she reached the door. “What happened between you and the darkness?”

  Her hands fiddled with the basket as she glanced back just enough so I could glimpse her eyes and the confusion in them. Was she slipping back into a vision? Or were the voices plaguing her again? I wanted to take her hand, knowing it would stop them, but I held back as she hung her head.

  “I don’t remember, that bash on the head rattled my memories, but it’s not me you should be worried about.”

  “Then who?”

  “Craig and Kate, your friends. They need you right now more than I do.”

  I wanted to smack myself. I’d been so focused on Sabella and knowing that statue was trapped in my dungeon, I hadn’t even asked how they were. “Where are they?”

  “Craig is in a room, he only had a few minor injuries, but… Tristan, I’m so sorry.” She wiped at her face quickly and faced me completely. “Kate, she’s not exactly herself. Whatever happened while she was there, she’s… she’s gone a bit insane. That’s who Lucy had to go check on. They’ve been trying to get her stable since they returned. She won’t even let Craig or Forrest near her.”

  Kate was the Vindicar and one of the strongest people I knew. She was a Darrah for god's sake. What had the darkness done to break her? “Have you been to see her?”

  “Why would I be? She doesn’t know me,” Sabella replied quickly. “I might make it worse.”

  “But the scout, you helped him, saw what he did. You could do the same for her—”

  “No,” she cut me off. “No, I’m sorry, I just, I can’t. Get some rest, and then I suggest you go and see them.” She yanked open the door, then she gasped and sank to her knees.

  I caught her before she slumped completely to the floor, her eyes foggy.

  “Sabella?” I gave her a little shake, but whatever she saw held her fast.

  “He has seen another piece,” she said in that deep voice I’d come to dread. “The wave builds in strength, and soon, all will be under his domain. The darkness is rising, and a swirling storm of death prepares to wipe this land clean…” She choked and sputtered, then blinked furiously. “Tristan?”

  I held her firmer, not wanting to let her go after what she just said. “I’m right here.”

  “What… damn, it was another vision, wasn’t it? What did I say?”

  “Nothing important,” I lied, and helped her to her feet. “I’ll let you go. I need to dress and find the others, discuss our next move.”

  “Right, sure.” She seemed as reluctant to leave as I was to let her, but then she bobbed her head and left me alone to ponder her words.

  Storm of death. This was getting better and better.

  And she knew what occurred at the castle, I saw it in her eyes, the guilt as she lied to me.

  One way or another, she would tell me, but right now there was another who needed me.

  As soon as I was dressed in my leather breeches and the loosest top I owned, so as to not irritate my healing wound, I walked slowly through the castle in search of Craig and Forrest.

  They were in my private study, drinking ale and arguing loud enough for me to hear them at the other end of the corridor. Kate’s name was thrown around several times, and when I heard furniture crashing to the floor, I stepped inside to break them apart.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” I snarled, and they froze, Craig with Forrest in a chokehold. “Let him go. You are kings, remember? Kings do not try to strangle one another, at least not without good reason.”

  Craig shoved Forrest away from him and picked up his mug of ale, holding it up to toast me. “Thank you, for saving us from that hell.” The words rang hollow, and I saw his fury seething just below the surface. “For all the good it did.”

  “We found you as fast as we could,” Forrest snapped, smoke trailing from his nose.

  “Not fast enough. My wife is insane. She doesn’t recognize me, or you. Not since she woke up. She’s lost to me.”

  “We searched from one end of the realms to the other,” Forrest shot back. “I have not slept since we got word you two vanished.”

  I sidled around to the table and poured myself some ale before taking up my high-backed chair behind the desk.

  “You were still too late,” Craig seethed.

  Forrest and he stood toe to toe again, but I wasn’t going to interfere unless it became physical again. I was healing and ripping open that wound did not sound like a pleasant way to spend the rest of the evening.

  “You wanted to wait to find us, didn’t you?” Craig asked suddenly, and Forrest looked like he’d been slapped across the face. “You were so jealous of Kate choosing me, you decided to let us both suffer at the hands of our enemy, is that it?”

  I sat up at the harshness of that remark.

  Forrest whispered, “How dare you? After all the shit the three of us went through, you’re going to sink that low? Seriously?”

  Craig shrugged, not saying a word.

  “You rotten bastard. I would give my life for either of you, and you know it.” He shoved Craig, and I got to my feet as Craig shoved him back. “I lost men getting you two out of there. As did Tristan, so don’t you dare stand there and say we have not suffered losses. Don’t you dare.”

  They were wrestling again, and I grunted, the wound at my side making it difficult to get up again, but then Craig stopped and sank to the floor, holding his face in his hands. His shoulders shook as he gasped for air, muttering apologies under his breath.

  Forrest knelt before him and said nothing as his friend, more than his friend, fell apart.

  I sank back into my chair, torn at the sight of seeing someone as strong as Craig come undone.

  “I’m sorry,” Craig mumbled again to me as Forrest helped him to a chair. “I just… I don’t know what to do. I failed to protect her.”

  “No, you didn’t,” I said, remembering what Sabella told me of her visions. “We know how hard you fought to get to her, but we don’t even know what we’re up against. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You two are safe here, that’s what matters.”

  He rubbed his hands down his face, scratching at the beard coming in from his days of imprisonment. It aged him, just as it aged Forrest. Neither seemed so young now.

  “That girl with you, who is she?” he asked.

  I took another long gulp of my ale before I answered. “Her name is Sabella, and she’s a seer.”

  Craig’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, she’s a what? And she’s here, with you?”

  “She’s not with me,” I corrected hotly. “We found her. She somehow crossed from the human realm into ours and, it’s a very long story. But she’s the one who saw you and Kate while you were trapped… amongst other things she’s seen.”

&n
bsp; “But she’s here, in this castle,” Craig said confused. “You trust her?”

  “He used a truth spell on her,” Forrest said. “He has no choice.”

  If he’d been one of my shifters I would’ve chucked my mug at him, but since he was another king, I merely glowered at him.

  “She keeps having a vision of a wave of darkness washing over the land,” I told them both. “I think she’s referring to this darkness. Whatever’s happening, it’s coming soon.”

  The three of us drank in silence until Forrest cringed, rubbing at his temple.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Kate, she’s awake, but she’s confused, and there’s so much turmoil happening inside her head. It’s like he tried to strip something away from her, but we interrupted him, and now she’s lost.”

  A crack echoed in the room and ale spilled over Craig’s hand from the mug he broke in his grip.

  “We’ll find a way to get to her,” Forrest assured him.

  “How? How is any of this going to be right again?” Craig whispered hopelessly.

  I glanced toward the ceiling and the direction of Sabella’s room. “We’ll think of something.”

  14

  Sabella

  I finally managed to stop picturing Tristan in nothing, but bandages and the guilt of lying right to his face came back to swallow me whole.

  I remembered every single moment of what happened in that castle, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. He only trusted me because of a truth spell, but part of him held back because I was a seer.

  What would he do if he found out the truth of whose blood really ran through my veins?

  He’d throw me out, or worse, throw me in a dungeon. I’d never see the sun again. I’d never have clarity from the visions and the voices that hounded me again. I’d be lost in my own mind. Nothing but the crazy redhead in a cell.

  But not telling him was eating a hole right through me. He’d come back for me at the castle, could’ve easily gotten himself killed, and how did I repay him? By lying to him.

  I paced endlessly around my room for two days, not bothering to leave it unless I had to pee or snag a tiny bite to eat from the hall.