Asylum (Dragon Reign Book 6)

by Kit Bladegrave

  “He’s right,” Forrest sighed in aggravation. “I’ve heard of their visions before, and they’re always relayed in pieces, riddles. They’re helpful if you can figure out what they’re trying to say… although, she seems to respond to you well enough.”

  I crossed my arms, refusing to look at him or Boris. “So?”

  “So maybe there’s a reason why,” he continued. “You should talk to her more.”

  “Oh, I’ll be talking to her more, to figure out what she’s doing here. Boris, once the scouts report back, we’re packing up and heading to the castle with our new… guest. If she knows more about Craig and Kate, she’s going to tell me, one way or another.”

  I marched off, leaving them to most likely talk about me behind my back, but I didn’t care. I was not going to entertain the notion that I had a connection to a seer.

  Seers were tricksters, all of them. Leading foolish men to horrible ends and cursing those they felt scorned them. My entire race was touched by that dark magic for all eternity because of her kind.

  How could I show her any form of kindness when her type seemed content to torture innocents? I rolled my shoulders, wishing at that moment I wasn’t the king or the alpha, so that I could take off into those trees. Hunt, let off some of the pent-up energy buzzing in my muscles.

  But I was trapped here in this camp, unable to do anything, but wait. Wait for Sabella to wake up again and wait to see if the scouts came back with any new information. Anything at all. The longer I stayed alone, the more the urge grew to go check on her in the tent. I was anxious, and I hated the feeling. I told myself I was simply worried about what harm she was about to bring to my people now, but another voice told me that was far from the reason.

  I would never say it aloud, but Forrest had hit on something when he said we had a connection. I was drawn to Sabella. I’d seen her in my dreams, heard her cry for help from impossibly far away.

  “Tricks,” I growled to the wind. “Nothing, but tricks.”

  She was using me, just as other seers had in the past with shifters. We’d get back to the castle, she’d tell me everything she knew about Craig and Kate, who held them and where, then I’d lock her in a cell and maybe decide to return her to the human realm.

  Unless she worked for the enemy and in that case… in that case, I’d have no choice, but to do what must be done to all foes of my kin.

  My gut clenched at the idea of killing her, but I would do what had to be done. I was the alpha, and I protected my own, no matter what the cost. No matter whose blood would stain my hands. This was a time of war until the darkness was vanquished for good. Sabella would be just another casualty.

  Sabella still wasn’t awake. I paced the corridor outside her room, for now, waiting, but nothing. We’d been back for a solid day, and she was still in and out. Muttering incoherently under her breath. She cried out a few times, clutching her hands to her ears, whispering something about the voices, but then she’d stop the second I went in there to try and calm her. I’d barely rest my hand on her shoulder, and she’d relax, falling back into whatever sleep she was in.

  Boris had suggested I get some sleep, but Forrest’s endless pacing around the castle made me reluctant to do anything that might slow down getting answers. We were running out of time. I didn’t know how I knew that, but we were.

  And Sabella was the damned key.

  Danielle was in there with her now, and when the door opened, she stepped out with a bow of her head. “She’s awake. Not sure how long it’ll last, but she said she’s hungry.”

  “Bring her some food and water,” I ordered. “And a change of fresh clothes and some damned boots, so her feet don’t freeze off,” I added, annoyed. How anyone walked around in that cold without boots was beyond me.

  I took a deep breath to try and control my temper, then stepped into the room.

  She sat on the windowsill, staring out toward the river. “Sabella.”

  In answer, she picked up the chain leading to the manacle around her ankle and shook it. It rattled loudly in the room, and she dropped it with a clang, back to the floor.

  I nearly laughed, but stopped myself. What the hell was wrong with me? “I’m afraid until we know exactly who you are, you are to be kept here as a guest.”

  “You always chain your guests?” she snapped, laughing sharply. “Some hospitality. And from a king no less? I’m impressed, really. This is a great first impression. I wonder why I’d never come here before. Oh wait, that’s right. I have no idea what this place is.”

  Remaining by the door, I leaned against the wall, not about to feel guilty for my actions. “You’re a seer, what else do you expect me to do?”

  That made her turn my way. “I’m sorry, I’m a what?”

  “A seer,” I repeated, frowning at the genuine look of confusion on her face. “You see things.”

  “Really? Wow, that’s a great explanation.” She hopped off the ledge, the chain dragging across the stones as she approached, but it was too short to reach me, and she grunted in annoyance. “I’m not a seer. I’m a crazy person. I hear voices and see things, but they’re not real.”

  “I’m afraid that is not true.”

  “Oh, no? And how would you know, huh? How would you know anything about me?”

  I ground my teeth, standing toe to toe with her, and growled.

  Usually, people knew when to back down, but she merely squared her shoulders and glared right back.

  “Seers have been a plague on my kind since the beginning.”

  “Since the beginning,” she repeated in a mocking tone. “What does that even mean?”

  “Since one of your kind cursed mine.” I waited for some sort of recognition, a dark smile to appear on her face, but there was still nothing. She was good, very good indeed. “One of yours ensured that should any shifter fall victim to their rage, they will forever be trapped in wolf form and fully become a beast, never able to be what they were again. That is what your kind is.”

  A flicker of sadness I didn’t expect flashed in her eyes before she shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but it sucks, it really does and has nothing to do with me.”

  “It has everything to do with you,” I challenged. “I know all about them, about you.”

  “You do, do you? You know everything there is to know about me?” She shook her head and raised her hands to mimic throttling me. “You’re an asshole, you know that? I have no idea why you think I’m a seer, but I’m not. I’m just… just me.”

  “Well, just you has delivered two messages since you’ve appeared in my presence,” I muttered. “And you seem to know a great deal about two of my friends who have gone missing. Care to explain?”

  I waited for her to deny it, but fear filled her eyes, and she backed away. “No, no. None of that was real,” she murmured. “It can’t be.”

  “Whatever you saw is real, and you’re going to tell me, right now.”

  “No,” she whispered, mumbling it over and over as she backed toward the other side of the room. “I don’t want to… it was too painful, too much screaming and the yelling. And pain… I can’t… I can’t see that again.”

  “You can, and you will,” I ordered, moving toward her.

  She threw her arms out to stop me, but I ignored them. “You don’t understand. I can’t just make myself see things. That’s not how this crazy head works. Things just happen when they happen. It’s how I saw you and the wave.” She ran her hands through her hair, closing her eyes and scrunching her face so much it looked painful. “They just appear, the visions and the voices. And they never leave me alone, but here, for some reason, they’re not as bad.”

  “I need you to tell me what you saw,” I repeated, more firmly.

  “I can’t. Do you understand what it’s like inside here?” she asked, pointing to her forehead. “For the first time in years, I can actually hear myself think. Me! Not the voices, not the screaming. And you want me to jump back into
that nightmare?” She shoved me, or tried to, but I didn’t budge. “Get out! Just leave me alone.”

  Before, when I’d shifted to try and scare her from leaving, she’d seemed anything but afraid, so that usual route of intimidation was not going to work. She shoved me again, but all I did was growl.

  “They are important people, and if you know where they are, you will tell me.”

  “Or what?” she shot back. “You going to crawl into my head and drag the images out for yourself? Good luck with that.”

  I couldn’t do that, but there was one thing I could do. I backed out of the room and shut the door, hurrying through the castle to find Forrest. He’d made her fall into a vision before, and he was going to do it again if she wasn’t going to cooperate.

  “Forrest,” I yelled as I reached the main staircase.

  Footsteps pounded toward me, and he appeared from the great hall. “What is it?”

  “Come on, we’re getting answers, but I need your help.”

  He hurried up the stairs and without a word, I led him back to the room with Sabella.

  The second I opened the door, and she spotted Forrest, she pressed her back into the farthest wall, eyes wide.

  “No. Are you insane?” she yelled panicking.

  “This is King Forrest, leader of the dragons. He is here to find our companions. Tell us what you know,” I demanded.

  “I don’t remember, alright? It’s all fuzzy,” she rambled. “I’m not a seer, I’m just crazy. I swear that’s the truth.”

  “Forrest, take her hand,” I said.

  He hesitated, but only for a second. Finding Craig and Kate alive was our main priority. He reached out for her hand and grabbed it before she could pull away. I waited for something to happen, anything, but Sabella’s wild eyes just darted from him to me then back again. Her fear slipped away, and a smug smile lifted her lips, clearly happy it wasn’t working.

  “Told you I can’t just—”

  She gasped sharply, and her body went rigid against the wall. Her eyes took on that foggy appearance again, but the words were jumbled, and nothing made sense. On impulse, I took her other hand, and the words stopped immediately.

  “What do you see?” I asked. “Sabella, tell me what you see. Where are they?”

  “A cage,” she answered. “The man with the shifting face of rage is trapped. He can’t get to her.”

  “And, where is she?”

  Her head tilted as if listening and then she flinched. “Away from him, but I hear her. Screaming, but I can’t see past the door.”

  “Look harder,” Forrest urged sharply. “Who has her?”

  Sabella’s hand trembled in mine, and I squeezed it tighter, steadying her somehow.

  “It’s here,” she whispered, then sucked in a pained breath. “The wave, it’s coming across the lands, rising up to blot out the sky. It will kill us all… kill us…”

  She was whispering again, but I couldn’t understand the rambling and then she blinked and sank against my chest.

  When her eyes opened, the fog had cleared, and she stared at me with pure hatred. “Happy now, you d-bag?”

  Her lower lip trembled, and tears shimmered in her eyes as she shoved off me and paced to the window. Her back remained toward us, shoulders hunched, and from the way Forrest followed her with a confused look, he picked up on several strong emotions.

  “Sabella,” I said, reaching for her.

  Forrest started to stay something, but then she whirled around, fist flying, and hit me right in the nose.

  I blinked in surprise, and she cursed in pain, holding her hand, which was possibly broken.

  “God, I hate you,” she ranted. “Just go away!”

  I tried to reach for her hand, but she pulled back, and I let her.

  “I’ll send someone to see to your injury,” I informed her, a lump in my throat that wouldn’t go away.

  My face barely throbbed from the hit, and I exited the room quickly, Forrest right behind me. The second the door closed, something hit it hard, and then something else. Guessed the small table, and the chair, anything else she could get her hands on.

  “We need to bring Lucy here,” Forrest told me, cringing each time something else crashed into the door.

  “You think she knows about this mysterious castle in the seams between worlds?”

  Another crash and shattered glass. The pitcher of water maybe? No matter.

  “Possibly, but she can help us decide if Sabella is a threat or not. If she can help us, she’d be more apt to do so if she’s not chained like a prisoner.”

  “She’s still a seer,” I reminded him.

  “A young one. My God, Tristan, she’s eighteen, and it’s clear from her jumbled emotions whatever goes on inside her head, she’s spent her entire life being told it’s not real.” He grabbed my arm hard as he added, “She’s confused, hurt, and in pain. Not just physical. If you push her much harder, she’ll break, and we’ll lose whatever chance we have at finding Craig and Kate.”

  “I don’t trust her.”

  “You don’t have to, but we need her.” He released my arm and said he was going to send a message to Lucy. “And I suggest you find a way to put aside your prejudice for now.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because whether you like it or not, you and she have a reason for meeting,” he yelled from the end of the hall. “And you’d be an idiot not to figure out what that is.”

  Something else smashed into the door, and I leaned in close, pressing my ear to the wood trying to hear.

  At first, there was just silence, and my hand was on the door handle, ready to check on her.

  Until I heard the crying.

  Immediately, I backed away. No sympathy, no weakness.

  Lucy could come and do what she liked to prove who Sabella was, but it wouldn’t change my view of what she was.

  And I certainly didn’t care about our reason for meeting.

  At least, that’s what I told myself the rest of the day and into the evening, avoiding that entire corridor to stop myself from checking on her.

  8

  Sabella

  I spent the next I didn’t know how long picking at the lock with some pieces of splintered wood, like they’d do me any good.

  At the sound of a key jangling, I jumped back and returned to my perch at the window.

  A woman came in and dropped off a tray of food, bread, and cheeses, as well as a jug of water. She gave me a sharp look that I returned in kind before she disappeared again.

  Every few hours, though, she came to collect me to use the bathroom. At least I didn't have to pee in a bucket. Each time, I plotted my chances of getting out of this place, but there were people everywhere. Were they all like Tristan? Wolves? And what about the guy who breathed fire. He said he was a dragon. I could sneak past orderlies and nurses, but wolves and dragons? I pictured myself being torn to pieces by them and giggled at the maddening notion.

  No matter, there were still too many eyes looking out for me. I’d get two feet before I was snatched back up and thrown back in my room.

  Cell. That’s what it was. Just a nicer cell.

  I threw the chain down, frustrated, and pulled my knees to my chest, sitting on the cold stone floor. Tucking my head, I prayed for the clarity to come back, but it slipped away, slowly leaving me to the insanity that consumed my life.

  Each whisper made me twitch, as if that would get me away. They built and built until they were all I heard again. I tucked my head lower against my chest, rocking back and forth. I never should’ve left the asylum. Warning him or not, I shouldn’t have left. Nothing good had come from it, at all. I should’ve just let the darkness eat them all, and maybe then the visions would’ve left me alone.

  Seers, people who breathed fire, who changed into wolves. None of that existed. Magic wasn’t real.

  You’re confused, one of the voices said sharply, a new one I hadn’t heard before. A woman.

  “I�
��m always confused,” I retorted with a giggle I couldn’t control. “I’m crazy, remember? Crazy, crazy, crazy.”

  What if you’re not?

  “Don’t tease. Teasing isn’t fun.”

  The clamor of other voices rose suddenly and swallowed her voice. I nodded along with them, shaking my head, giggling and crying as they turned worse than it’d been in years in my mind. Meds. No meds. No way to dull the voices.

  Eyes shut, I hummed loudly, my fingers in my ears, and ignored their rants. They argued with each other, yelling and screaming. I shut my eyes harder and then suddenly there was an eerie silence.

  Slowly, I opened one eye and then the other, shocked to discover I was no longer in the castle.

  My hands dug into grass and dirt as I stared around the beautiful clearing, sunlight dotting my face, warming me. And it was quiet, peacefully, perfectly quiet. If only I could stay here forever.

  A high-pitched scream of terror shattered the setting, and I whipped around. “No.”

  There it was, the tidal wave of darkness. It crashed through the trees, rising high above them until it blotted out the sun. I tried to run, but the ground swallowed my feet. A horrible cackling that rumbled like thunder nearly knocked me to the ground. So much screaming, shrieking. They were coming. They were all coming for us, and there would be no stopping him, not this time. I twisted my body furiously, jerked myself up to my feet, but there was no escaping.

  I sank back down to the ground and curled myself up as tight as I could as the tidal wave destroyed all in its path…

  A door slammed open somewhere, and I flinched but didn’t look up. “The wave… it’s coming,” I whispered frantically. “It’s coming… he’s not going to be stopped…”

  “What did you do to her?” a furious woman snapped as two gentle hands grabbed my shoulders.

  I wanted to see her, but the darkness filled my vision, and all I could do was wait for it to leave me.

  “Get that damned chain off her leg right now and get your king in here before I go and drag him in here by his ear.”