Asylum

by Kit Bladegrave

  “No.”

  Sabella was inside it with the statue, on the ground and appeared to be unconscious. The statue stood over her, eyes glowing crimson, and made no move as I fell to my knees right outside the magical confinement. I pressed my hand against it, but couldn’t get through.

  “By the gods.” Lucy gasped from behind me. “What was she thinking?”

  I glared over my shoulder to see several guilty faces as I growled in fury at what they had all wanted her to do. And here she’d gone and done it herself.

  “We need to get her out of there, now,” I demanded.

  “We can’t move the crystals,” Lucy told me. “He’ll get out.”

  “I won’t leave her trapped in there with him.” I slammed my fists against the barrier again, desperate to reach her. “Sabella. Get up. Red, get up.”

  The others talked urgently behind me, but I heard nothing they said. Why hadn’t it killed her? That statue should’ve destroyed her by now, but it let her lie there. Either Baladon prevented it, or it couldn’t hurt her. She said it herself, we had no idea how powerful she was, or what her mortality was like, but before I could give myself another headache trying to figure it out, she sat up.

  “Quiet,” I yelled, and the dungeon fell silent, except for the hum of power coming from the cage.

  Sabella rose, but when she turned to face us, her eyes warred between red like the statue’s and foggy as if she were having a vision. Whatever she was seeing, Baladon was there with her, trying to get into her mind, to hurt her.

  “I need you to step out of the cage,” I told Sabella.

  “Tristan, she can’t,” Lucy argued.

  “If she got in, then she can get out. Sabella,” I said, turning back to her, her eyes still struggling to focus. “You have to fight him. Fight him and come back to me. I’m right here, just take my hand, Red. Please.” I pressed it as close to the cage as I could get it and held my breath, waiting.

  Her head tilted to the right and left as she cringed, shaking her head as if trying to dislodge something. She took a step closer to the edge of the cage and the statue’s lips parted with a grunt of anger. She took another, her hands lifting toward mine. The statue rumbled as if ready to make a move while Sabella took another step, then another, until she was right there.

  “That’s it, just one more step,” I urged, hearing swords being drawn behind me in case the statue broke free. “Take my hand.”

  Her fingertips were right there when the statue roared, and Sabella froze, her eyes flashing bright red before she went rigid.

  I was ready to throw curses at Baladon, but then the red faded and was replaced by a brilliant, white light that lit the entire dungeon.

  She turned back to face the statue and with her palms facing it, shot that white light out of her hands. It struck the demon, forcing him backward and bits of his body crumbled and collapsed.

  “You will not have my power,” Sabella snapped in a voice that was not her own. “Not now, not ever. You take your demon and rot in hell.”

  The light brightened until it was blinding, but I forced myself to watch as the statue was consumed by it.

  It roared and bellowed, struggling to fight back, its eyes flaring, but Sabella was too strong.

  The light condensed, turning itself into heavy chains, wrapping the statue from foot to neck. When it was fully trapped, Sabella closed her hands into fists, and the state let out one screech of rage before it exploded into nothing, but rubble.

  The chains vanished, leaving a pile of stones and Sabella’s body shuddered as the light vanished back into her palms. She turned back to me, blinked, then her eyes returned to normal. And then she collapsed.

  I turned to Lucy ready to yell at her to open the cage, but she was already in motion. She moved the crystal aside, breaking the cage. I rushed to Sabella, checking her pulse and breathing, but she still wasn’t back from whatever vision held her trapped.

  Her lips parted, and words poured out. I listened, but they made no sense.

  “What’s she saying?” Kate asked close by.

  “I don’t…” I leaned in closer, pressing my ear almost to her lips. “She’s saying the same thing over and over… someone write this down, hurry.” Whatever these words meant, she nearly died to get them, and I was not going to trust them to memory.

  Kate knelt on the other side and together we worked out what Sabella said. When she got the last word down, Sabella fell silent. “Is she… is she alive?”

  Her pulse was strong beneath my fingers at her neck. “She is. I need to get her upstairs.”

  “And this? What is it?”

  “I don’t know, and right now, I don’t give a damn.”

  Hoping she’d forgive me when she woke if her wounds opened again, I scooped her limp form into my arms and carried her through the castle. Until she opened her eyes, I was not leaving her side, not for anything.

  And when she did finally open those damned eyes, we were going to have a very, very long talk.

  After the incident in the dungeons, I tucked Sabella back in my bed, waiting for Lucy to come and check her previous injuries to make sure they hadn’t opened up again. But when I tugged up the sleeves of her shirt, I frowned.

  “What?”

  There were scars from the wounds inflicted by those damned bone whips, but the wounds appeared years old. Gently, I lifted her shirt enough at her back to see there, too and stepped back amazed. The burns that had been so horrible just hours before, also appeared to have healed years ago. By the time Lucy reached me, all I could do was point.

  “She does have the blood of a goddess in her,” Lucy reminded me, though she sounded as amazed and troubled as I felt.

  “That was the first time I’ve seen power like that come from her. You think it awoke the god part in her somehow?” She could heal quickly. It was a nice detail to know. However, I wasn’t sure how I happy I was about her knowing it. Especially if she wasn’t going to listen to me and be a bit more cautious.

  “Most likely. She is quite powerful, Tristan. That statue that nothing had been able to dent put in, she was able to destroy it, alone.” She retucked the furs around Sabella, looking as though she only slept, and glanced at me.

  “But at what price?” I asked quietly.

  She shrugged, not having an answer and finally said she was going to leave me to watch over her. Part sorcerer, part god. And here I was just a lowly shifter. What happened when the rest of her family learned about her? Wouldn’t they want her to join them? Demi-gods were rare, extremely rare, and most wound up disappearing to be with their own. I couldn’t fathom the idea of her leaving me, but what could I do to stop her?

  “Tristan?” Kate entered my room, carrying the paper from the dungeon. “For when she wakes up, I’m sure she’ll want to see this.”

  “Do you have any idea what it means?” I asked, taking the paper and skimming over the words again. “Just mad ramblings, that’s what it looks like to me.” I set it aside and squeezed Sabella’s hand again, willing her to open her eyes.

  “No, but I have a feeling whatever she saw down there was worth it.”

  I growled, not looking up at her, but sensed her smiling. “What’s so amusing?”

  “You and Craig and Forrest, you’re all the same. You worry too much about us.”

  “I think we’re allowed when the ones we love like to fling themselves headfirst into trouble without any consideration of what will happen to them, or us, if your crazy plans go wrong.”

  Kate said nothing for a moment, and I thought she left.

  I shifted my gaze to catch her grinning widely from ear to ear, her eyes glimmering. “Love, huh? Craig owes me a jug of demon grog,” she mused.

  “For what?” Love. Was that what I said?

  “Nothing, nothing at all. Let us know when she wakes, won’t you? We’re going to check the rubble in the dungeon and ensure there’s nothing left of that demon in it.”

  “I’ll come with you,” I s
aid, figuring I wasn’t doing any good just sitting here.

  “No, you’ll stay here and wait for her to wake up. I’ll let you know if we find anything.” She spun on her heel, humming happily under her breath, and stepped outside.

  “Women,” I muttered under my breath. “All you do is drive us crazy.”

  Sabella mumbled, and I sat forward, smoothing my fingers across her forehead.

  She shifted, and her eyes opened as she frowned. “Tristan?”

  I sighed in relief. “We really have to stop meeting like this,” I teased.

  “No shit,” she replied, and I laughed.

  She started to sit up, and I helped her, pressing a hand to her back. She flinched for a second, but there was no pain on her face. Confusion filled her eyes instead as she reached around, feeling every bit of her bac, that she could reach.

  “Wait, what happened? Where are my wounds?”

  “I think using your… your god powers in the dungeon somehow triggered that part of you,” I explained. “You healed yourself.”

  “Dungeon?”

  I crossed my arms, leaning back in my chair and scowling at her. “Yes, the dungeon. The one place I strictly forbid you to stay away from and what did you do? You went to the dungeon.”

  “Tristan, I can—”

  I held up my hand, cutting her off and she clamped her lips shut, though there was a hint of a smile. “Do you have any idea what that did to me? Seeing you unconscious and trapped in the cage with that demon? I thought I was going to lose you because you refused to listen to me.”

  “I got a vision,” she reminded me, but that only made me growl and push out of my chair. “Oh, come on, it could’ve been worse. I’m fine, see? Perfectly fine.”

  “That’s not the bloody point, and you know it, Red,” I snapped.

  “Look,” she said and climbed quickly out of bed to come to me. “I’m sorry I don’t exactly listen to you, but you’re not my king, Tristan. You’re… well, we’ll figure that out, but I was sent here for a reason, remember? And I can’t just sit on the sidelines all the time watching the rest of you risk your lives. If I can do something—anything—to help, I will.”

  “I will not have you running around without any form of protection. From now on, wherever you are, either I’m with you, or another guard is,” I stated.

  In her eyes, white power flashed her annoyance, but I wasn’t about to back down.

  “That’s not fair,” she argued hotly.

  “That’s the deal, take it or leave it.”

  “No. I won’t watch you fight and do nothing. You can’t ask me to do that,” she pleaded.

  I opened my mouth to keep arguing with her, but her face paled, and her eyes fluttered closed. I reached out to catch her, thinking she wasn’t as healed as I thought, but she shoved out of my arms and stalked away.

  “You don’t understand.”

  “Understand what?” I didn’t let her go too far from me, staying right behind her.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, and I fought the urge to wrap her up in mine and give her some form of comfort.

  “I saw what’s coming,” she whispered in a breath so quiet, if I hadn’t been a shifter, I wouldn’t have heard it. “I saw all of it.”

  “It can’t be worse than the army of undead we faced months ago,” I said lightly.

  She whipped around and shoved me in the chest, but I barely budged.

  “You don’t get it. This isn’t just some rabble of undead coming to attack. It’s Baladon, and he’s the god of all monsters. He’s not just going to unleash one army on you, Tristan. He’s going to unleash every monster that’s been trapped with him in his cage. Anything you ever had nightmares about, every legend you never thought could be true because the idea of a creature like that existing was too terrifying. That’s what’s coming. So no, you can’t ask me to sit by and do nothing.”

  I considered telling her she was overreacting, but the seriousness in her eyes, the fear I sensed pouring off her was so strong, I felt I could reach out and touch it.

  “You’re sure?” I asked, unable to think of anything else.

  “Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be telling you this.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck, wishing she hadn’t killed the demon, so I had something to take my anxiety out on. “Regardless of what’s coming,” I said slowly, “you are not a soldier, Sabella, and I can’t… I won’t watch you get yourself killed.”

  “You won’t have a choice.”

  “The hell I won’t,” I snarled, whirling back around to find her smiling at me. Smiling. As if we weren’t talking about the potential end of our world.

  “Damn it, will you just let me be mad at you?”

  “Only if you get over here and kiss me,” she said, breathless.

  My arms were around her a second later, showing her without words what she was to me and why I couldn’t lose her. Not after I just found her.

  She hugged me close, and I simply held her, running my hands through her wild, red hair and wishing we’d met at any other time.

  If that were the case, I might’ve had to wait another hundred years to find her.

  “You’re going to have to accept it at some point,” she told me, her words muffled against my shoulder.

  “Accept what exactly?”

  “That I’ll be in danger, we’re all going to be as soon as this wave hits.”

  I hugged her tighter, kissing the top of her head. “Well it’s not here yet so will you please do as I say? I promise as soon as all hell breaks loose, I will stop watching you like a hawk. Maybe.”

  “Doubt it.” She leaned back from me, glancing over my shoulder. “What’s that?”

  “What?” I turned with her and saw the paper lying on the nightstand. “It’s what you were saying when we got to you down in the dungeon, after you used your godly powers to destroy the statue.”

  Her eyes widened as she pulled away from me to look at her hands. “Yeah, almost forgot I did that. Pretty neat, I think.”

  “Pretty neat,” I repeated, shaking my head. “You’re going to drive me madder than you.”

  “I don’t feel mad,” she mused quietly as she went to grab the paper. “Not around you.”

  She picked it up, her lips moved over the words before she finally read it aloud. “’As shadows fall, and monsters roam the realms of men again, three must rise, three rings abound, a beast so fierce with eyes of the skies, a secret hidden away from time, a guiding light at her prime, the three must join and bring to an end, that which the darkness seeks to transcend.’ Well, if that isn’t utterly unhelpful.”

  I grunted in agreement. “You said it over and over again until we wrote it down. Any idea what it means?”

  “Yeah,” she said, and I got excited until she shrugged, “that I’m still crazy.”

  “Hopefully we have some time to figure it out.”

  She nodded slowly, but I saw the doubt on her face. I wanted to ask how much time she thought we had when a knock came at my door.

  I growled, willing whoever it was to go away, when Boris called out.

  “Sire, we have a bit of a situation.”

  “Come in,” I yelled. “What’s happened now?”

  His face was set in anger, and he stood as straight-backed as possible, his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Word has spread, and I’m afraid, and we have guests.”

  “Guests?”

  He bowed his head. “The pack leaders have arrived, King Tristan.” His eyes shot to Sabella then back to me, regret on his face. “They have come to challenge the alpha for his right to rule.”

  20

  Sabella

  Challenge? Why? How?” I asked, alarmed as Tristan stalked to his wardrobe and withdrew a sword and sheath he strapped around his waist. “Tristan, please tell me this isn’t what I think it is?”

  He sighed as he reached me, cupping my cheek in his hand. “I’m afraid that would be lying, and I never lie.”

  “But
why? We’re in the middle of a war. Baladon is coming. Why would they do this?”

  He didn’t answer, and Boris pointedly looked anywhere but at me. The damned curse, that’s what they were so upset about. They found out their alpha was going to be with a seer and they were willing to rise up against him all because of me. Would they even give me a chance to show I wasn’t like the one who cursed them? I’d come here to help the shifters, help everyone, and I wasn’t just a seer.

  “This is all my fault,” I whispered.

  “No, Red, it’s mine for not explaining to my people what was happening,” he said quickly. “Now, they’ve let their fears and imaginations take hold. With any luck, I’ll be able to sort this out, and there won’t be a fight.”

  “Fight, why would there be a fight?”

  His brow rose, and he waited for me to figure it out for myself.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “It’s a real fight, like a fight to the death?” When he didn’t answer again, I immediately put myself between him and the door. “No, no you can’t do this.”

  “I don’t have a choice. I’m the alpha, and I have to meet every challenge. Otherwise, I will be seen as weak. And how long until they raise an army and rebel against me and the others here? I won’t put their lives at risk. This is how the pack works, Sabella. You have to accept it.”

  “Let me talk to them,” I urged. “I can explain that I’m not a threat.”

  “They won’t listen, trust me.” He took my hand and kissed the back of it. “I would ask you to stay here and out of sight, but I know you won’t listen, so will you please at least remain with Boris? Just in case.”

  “In case of what?”

  Tristan walked around me and out the door, leaving me and Boris to catch up. I wanted to ask him how this was going to work, but the words were stuck in my throat. In case of what? I glanced at Boris, and the way he shifted protectively closer to me had me staring straight ahead in shock.

  In case Tristan lost, and the packs turned on me.

  I had to find a way to explain the situation and stop this before the fight even started, but we were walking too fast, and all I could picture was that scar on Tristan’s shoulder, and all the other scars I’d witnessed. All scars from previous challengers. How many had he killed to keep his throne? I’d seen him fight, but there was always a chance someone would get lucky. If he died… no, no he just wouldn’t die. He couldn’t, and that was final.