Tales & Darkness

by G. Bailey

  “You’d lose, but that’s okay,” he warns me.

  “Neither of us would lose,” I whisper as I drift off to sleep, hoping for no more dreams.

  Chapter 12

  “So no dreams at all?” Sin asks me as we walk through the silent corridors of the council building, noticing how much work everyone has done with moving people into rooms that are heated. We have also locked those doors with magical keys, which means no one can escape the room unless we let them out. Better safe than sorry. I don’t want everyone waking up and going mad at us before we have saved the world. The Masters, we have moved them to the main room and tied their hands with rope that is cursed to never break. The only way to break the rope is for the person who put it on them to take it off. As we will all be fighting soon, mum and dad were the ones to tie the rope.

  “Not even one single image. I just blanked out completely and woke up all happy,” I say, squeezing Sin’s hand. “Isn’t that great?”

  “Yes, it is. I’m pleased you are happy,” he tells me.

  “But?” I ask, seeing the but in his eyes though he doesn’t say it.

  “We have spent three days cleaning up this place, and the goddess is out there, doing god knows what,” he says.

  “We should find a tablet or computer. The Masters have to have one around,” I say.

  “I know where they might keep one,” Sin says, turning us around and towards the elevator. I wave at Warren as he uses his power to move five more people in the air, and Tobias runs ahead to open the door for him. They make a good team, and I love seeing Warren fit so easily into our family. Sin wraps his arm around my waist as we wait for the elevator to take us to level four. We get out, and Sin walks us down the empty corridor to a big room with a glass wall showing inside it. There are dozens of computers, tablets, TVs and everything else in between it. It’s a weird mix of old TVs and new flat screens on the wall at the back. Sin opens the glass door and lets us in, and I follow him over to a sofa that is in front of the wall of TVs. I sit down as Sin goes and messes with the TV until it flickers on, and he comes back to sit by me as he changes the channel until he finds a news feed. I lean forward in my seat as a young guy brushes hair out of his puffy eyes and starts explaining the image behind him.

  “Several hours ago, New York was hit by what the government is saying is a freak natural disaster. This comes just days after the destruction of London and not a week from Greece’s decimation. The world is praying and hoping to god that nothing else will happen.” Sin changes the channel, but it’s pretty much the same, so he clicks it off, and we sit in silence as both of us think about the poor people that must have died.

  It’s horrible, and I can’t even imagine the pain the people of New York and London and Greece must be feeling.

  “We have to stop her,” I say, looking to Sin, seeing the tears falling down his cheeks. They match my own, they match my pain.

  We couldn’t have saved them, and we both know saying that to each other isn’t going to change anything. I lean forward and kiss Sin, knowing I need him close right now. All this death just reminds me of when I nearly lost him and the pain that caused.

  “All this death reminds me of how I lost you once,” I whisper.

  “I can’t imagine the pain…I couldn’t and can’t lose you,” he replies to me.

  “We won’t lose each other again. I won’t let the world take you from me,” I say. “And I don’t want to waste anymore of our time together.” I rip his shirt off, and he pulls my top over my head. Then we both spend our time gently pulling all of our clothes off before Sin lays me down on the sofa and covers my body with his. I wrap my legs around him as he kisses down my body, and his fingers explore my core. I lift his head with my hands, wanting him inside me and needing to have him close. He seems to understand without me saying anything. Sin gets out protection from his jeans pocket, and I love that he is prepared. I take the condom from him and slowly slide it on, watching Sin’s eyes burn with desire as we lie down once again.

  Sin grabs my ass, lifting it a little as he slides inside me, and my eyes roll back from the utter pleasure. My back arches as Sin thrusts in and out me, and it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to send me spiralling into my orgasm. Sin swallows my moans as he takes my lips and two thrusts later, he finishes with a gasp. I think I will always love the way Sin looks so much in pleasure as he finishes.

  “If we lock the door, we can do that all over again in a few minutes,” Sin suggests, and I laugh, resting my head on his chest as I breathe in deeply. “Was that a yes?”

  “I love you,” I chuckle, and he grins at me before kissing me once more. It was definitely a yes.

  Chapter 13

  “Can we talk? Or can I talk and you all listen?” I ask after shutting the door to the cabin we have all walked into to go to sleep. Knox looks back at me first, then Sin, Noah, Tobias and Warren with clear questions in their eyes.

  “Sure,” Sin says with a shrug of his shoulders and goes to sit down, the rest of them following with some yawns here and there. It’s been a crazy long day, and we all know that tomorrow is going to be just as long. We are going to Greece tomorrow to fight a goddess, if she is even still there. It doesn’t matter if she isn’t; it shouldn’t be hard to find her with the trail of destruction she is leaving behind.

  I know I have to speak what’s on my mind now, because there might not be another chance. I walk over and stand by the wall, in the middle of the three sofas, trying to be brave and say what I know I need to say now.

  “I love all of you. Sin, Knox, Tobias, Noah and Warren,” I say, and there is silence which only makes me more nervous, so I look at the floor as I speak, knowing I’m not brave enough for eye contact during this. “All I’ve ever known is how to love you Tale brothers and how much you loved me. It stayed with me through every difficult part of my life and more so when I saw you were at Lost Time Academy. Warren...I fell for you the second we met, but it was something I pushed to the back of my mind because everything was so difficult and dangerous. I don’t want to hide how I’m feeling any longer; I don’t want to pretend like I’m not in love with every man in this room. I want us to discuss this like adults and find the answer.”

  “Can we talk now?” Noah gently asks, and I look up to see them all smiling at me.

  “Should I tell her?” Sin asks.

  “Nah, I think the new guy should,” Knox says, nodding his head at Warren, who smiles at me as he stands up and walks over. Warren kisses me before I can make heads or tails of anything. The kiss is soft, and he is pulling away before I can really enjoy it.

  “We had a talk this week and decided we want a future with you. Madi, I know you want us all happy, but you have to see that being with you does that for us,” Warren explains to me. I suck in a deep breath, never knowing how much I needed to hear those words until now.

  “You are the rock of this family, Sleepy,” Tobias tells me, and my cheeks burn red. I really didn’t expect them all to have this sorted and planned out like they do. Warren takes my hand and leads me over to the sofa where I sit between him and Sin, like we all do this regularly. I rest my head on Sin’s shoulder, and he kisses my forehead as Knox smiles at me. A real smile.

  “I’ve never understood the Sleepy nickname, where did it start?” Warren asks, and I groan as they all laugh.

  “Madi had a lot of trouble staying awake in class, so the nickname logically came around,” they say.

  “Was class really that boring?” Warren asks.

  “Staying awake was really that boring. I like to think it was all my powers coming out over the years,” I explain, loving how casually we can all stay here and talk.

  “Remember that one time she nearly fell off the desk in science?” Noah asks, and they all laugh as I hide in Sin’s shoulder, and Warren squeezes my hand. The guys continue talking about the past with Warren, telling him dozens of stories and making it feel like they have always been close friends. Like Warren is the br
other they never had. My eyes drift shut as they laugh, and I feel more at home than I have in a long time.

  “Did you believe you could escape me with only a cloak?” the words are whispered into my ear as I shiver, wrapping my arms around my chest as I open my eyes. Dark clouds swirl around, a mixture of grey, black and even silver peeking out in parts. The dark has never scared me until right now, until there is nothing but it.

  It feels dark.

  It sounds empty.

  It feels cold.

  “Did you?” the voice asks once again, and I turn my head to see the swirling shadows surrounding the shape of a woman. I crawl to my knees as an actual woman walks out of the shadows, slowly coming into focus. Dark tanned skin, black eyes, greasy long black hair that touches the sand near her feet. It used to be blonde like her sisters, but I suspect all the darkness she has taken in has changed some things. She wears nothing but black leather strips of material over her body and silver chains wrapped around her arms.

  “What is your name?”

  “Ailis,” she almost hisses at me, her head cocking to the side in a swift motion that would hurt a human to do. “Madilynn Dormiens.”

  “How do you know my name?” I ask.

  “Because I am in front of you,” she says, and in the blink of eye, she really is right in front of me, and I scream as she slams a hand into my forehead, sending me falling into darkness, pounding fear ruling my mind and heart.

  I blink my eyes open, my whole body shaking as I suck in some deep breaths, focusing on the living room and my men in it as I feel nothing but fear. A blinding fear that makes me feel like I can’t breathe. I don’t remember ever being this scared.

  The cloak doesn’t protect me, and Ailis has just been busy doing something terrible everywhere she has gone. She has destroyed New York, London and Greece. Now we think she is sitting in Greece, playing with my dreams again, but to what end?

  She is destroying the world.

  I focus on my men, who are all sleeping on the sofas, and I was lying on Sin’s chest, my feet resting on Warren’s lap as he sleeps. I carefully get up, pausing every few seconds to make sure I don’t wake them. I walk to the door, slowly opening it and stepping outside. Usually, the fresh, warm air would make me feel better, but not right at this moment. I just feel cold and scared. I wrap my arms around my shoulders, clutching the cloak tightly even though it didn’t work and it didn’t keep Ailis out of my dreams at all. I see the fire from last night is still lit, and as I get closer, I see someone sitting on the logs around it with their cloak up.

  “Hey,” I say, and mum turns around, lowering her cloak as I come and sit next to her. I wordlessly sit at her side and rest my head on her shoulder, watching the crackling fire. “I had another bad dream. She can find me; the cloak doesn’t work.”

  “I thought it might not,” she says, but she sounds odd. Her voice is almost cracked like she has been screaming for a long time. I lift my head and frown at her as she smiles widely at me before she starts to laugh.

  “Mum, what’s so funny?” I ask, never hearing her laugh like this before.

  “That you fell for the trick, little Dormiens,” mum says as someone else shouts my name. I turn to see my mum running around the fire, stopping in her tracks as she looks between me and...well, mum. I look back at my mum sitting on the log, and I know it’s not really her, because she would never call me little Dormiens for starters. I grab her hand on my wrist and try to pull it off as she grins.

  “Who the hell are you?” I ask. In the blink of an eye, my “mum” turns into nothing but shadows, disappearing from next to me, and I stand up, whirling around just in time to see Ailis appear behind my mum. “MUM, RUN!” I scream, but it’s too late as Ailis grabs her by her cloak and throws my mum straight into the cabin, crashing through the wall. I scream in a panic, hoping someone will hear as I feel like I can’t breathe while I turn and run to the cabin, only to stumble to a stop when Ailis appears right in front of me. I call my power and lift my fist to punch her with a hand full of dust, but she grabs my hand, squeezing tight enough to make me cry out with pain.

  “Let’s go somewhere quieter.” I don’t get to scream, I don’t get to disagree, as shadows snake up my arm, and we disappear.

  Chapter 14

  Knox

  I shiver as I blink my eyes open in the room, my lips cracking as I realise I’m frozen to the seat I was sleeping in. I run my eyes over the room as I struggle to move, to break the ice around me. Rueben Frostan stands still in the middle of the room, all my brothers and Warren frozen solid where they went to sleep. I don’t think they are dead, but I know they won’t be lasting much longer in this ice, let alone wake up. It takes me all of two seconds to realise Madi isn’t here and to wonder how the hell Rueben got in here in the first place. I hear Madi scream and what I think is Madi’s mum scream as something crashes into the other side of the building.

  Fuck.

  “Knox Tale, it is fitting you woke up to see me kill your family. Freezing to death is not a nice way to die, so I’ve heard,” Rueben says, sounding like his usual cocky self. With a head as big as his, it’s a wonder he fits in any world.

  I will give him one thing, he surprised me and my family, which is hard to do.

  “Where is Madi?” I carefully ask, using my powers to burn through the ice around my hand, but the ice replaces itself every time I get anywhere. Rueben laughs at my pathetic attempt to escape.

  He will see.

  I’m just getting started.

  “The goddess found me and woke me up. She wished to know the capitals of the world and where the leaders are. I told her, of course, and then she asked me to stay here to deal with you all. I’m going to turn this world you’ve made to ice—”

  “As much as I want to hear about your plans, you have forgotten something important,” I say, interrupting him. He raises an eyebrow before he laughs, a real crazy laugh as well.

  “I doubt it.”

  “This is my world. My creation. No one rules it but me,” I say with a smirk, and the floor collapses under us. We all fall into the hole I just made under the house, and I close my eyes, making the vines catch me and my brothers. I search for Madi’s parents, finding her mum injured and her dad and grandmother knocked out in their cabin. I use vines to pick them all up and send them high into the sky. I hover in the air as Rueben crashes onto the rocky ground below, and there is a crack which sounds like something broke as Rueben screams.

  It’s a good sound. I roar as I set my whole body on fire, burning the ice away and releasing myself. I make a portal above the ground, and use the vines to throw everyone through it as I float in the air above Rueben. I make the ground move around him, locking him underground with only a small gap so he can watch as I leave. He uses his powers to try and blast his way out, but I quickly find out that won’t work either.

  “Welcome to the Tales prison. You are the first inmate. We will return for your sentencing…eventually,” I say, speaking loud enough that I know he can hear me. I float up to the entrance of the portal, seeing my family all on the other side in front of the academy.

  “You can’t leave me!” he screams, sounding pretty pissed off. I would be too if I were him.

  “But I am,” I say. “Don’t worry, I will chuck food and water to you once a day. Can’t promise it will be nice food.”

  “My goddess will save me,” he replies.

  “Then where is she?” I ask, looking around to prove a point.

  “My family will save me,” he retorts instead, this time slamming his body into the side of the dirt around him several times to see if he can escape.

  “Quin is your only family left, and he hates you. Have fun down there, Mr. Frostan,” I say before jumping through the portal and closing it up. Madi’s dad and Warren are carrying her mum up the steps of the academy, with her grandmother close behind. I wave to Quin who opens the front door for them, and he waves back. I might not know how exactly to forgive Quin
for everything, but I want to try.

  For Madi’s sake.

  “Where is Madi?” Sin asks, stepping right in front of me.

  “She wasn’t in there. I would have sensed her,” I explain to them, though they know that.

  “Her mum talked about the dark goddess,” Noah tells me. “She must have got our girl somehow.”

  “The dreams, the cloak must not have been enough to stop them,” Sin replies, and we all feel the same thing. This isn’t good.

  “Are you ready to go? We have to go and look for her,” I say.

  “Where?” Tobias asks.

  “Greece is a good start,” I say, opening a portal directly to where the goddess last was according to the news reports we have been watching. It seems she destroys a city every other day and goes back to Greece for some odd reason. Maybe she can draw power from there or something. We just hope we aren’t too late to stop her destroying anything or anyone else.

  Chapter 15

  I scream as we appear in another place, this time in the clouds above a city I don’t recognise. She has taken me to three different places, always hovering me above them like I’m some kind of doll. The height is enough to freak me out, but it’s so much worse now, and I can’t think straight. Everything is messed up.

  “Do you like to fly, Dormiens?” she asks, her voice sounding like nails grating on a chalkboard.

  “Why are you doing this?” I scream back at her.

  “My sisters are gone, one because of you,” she tells me, almost calmly. I sense the difference in her voice though. She is angry. I gasp as she picks me further up into the air, and her hand latches onto my throat, her long nails digging into my soft flesh.

  “She died because you stabbed her, you crazy bitch!” I scream at her as her hand tightens on my throat, causing me to struggle as I claw at her hands.