AnguiSH

by Lila Felix

I nodded, not knowing how to respond. It was a great plan, but it also re-affirmed that someone was inside of our perfectly protected shelter, that someone had gotten past Ilyan’s protective shield.

  All it would take was one.

  Get one of Edmund’s men inside and then, like ants, the rest will follow. They would place themselves in dark corners and hide where no one else would go, waiting until the time was right. Then they would jump out and attack, and in only a moment the last of the Skȓíteks would be gone. I had seen it happen before, there was a reason there were so few of the Skȓíteks left. It was probably the sole reason I wasn’t fully accepted. I had marched against them once upon a time.

  I jumped at the thought, for once actually wishing I wasn’t so morbid.

  “Are you okay?” Talon asked, his voice worried.

  I ripped my eyes away from the blob of mud on the cobblestone path that I had been unwillingly staring at to smile at him, my smile more like a grimace, but it seemed kind of fitting so I didn’t try to fix it.

  “Who do you think it is?” I asked, avoiding his question and moving to snuggle into him. He welcomed me in, his arms wrapping around me as he held me tightly to him.

  “I don’t know Wynny.”

  I didn’t know what else to say, I didn’t know how to phrase it. I wish we could find them, and fast. I wished I could rip their arms from their sockets and torture whoever of my kind they had let into the halls of Prague. It was my sanctuary now too, my home after my father had exiled me, after my brother had tried to kill me. I felt my magic surge in eagerness beneath my skin, my heart thump erratically in either excitement or fear, I wasn’t quite sure which.

  “I will keep you safe, Wynifred.”

  I froze, my breathing caught in my chest, my heart lost between beats. I would have screamed at him, yelled a bit and clocked him upside the face, I didn’t need him to protect me. But I heard what he said between the lines and so my frantic heart beat continued. I listened to the sound of my full name on his tongue, the promise of my safety heavy on the air.

  “You promise?” I asked, not needing to hear the answer, not caring if he said no, but asking because I knew that he needed to know that I heard him, that I cared what the answer was.

  “I will protect you above all else.”

  “Even Ilyan?” I asked, unable to help the question, and the accompanying laugh, from seeping out of my lips.

  “Even Ilyan. I took a vow to protect him the day he was born, but that vow was broken the day I sealed myself to you. It is the vow I made with you that is the most important bond to me. I will honor and protect that before all else.” His voice was serious, his tone so true and honest. I felt it melt into me, breathe a new love through me and our magic surged side by side.

  Our magic seeped into our souls, and everything inside of me caught fire. I felt a dulled version of this connection in our reality outside the Tȍuha. But here, inside of it, everything was heightened, I was needy for it. It was a feeling we could only get here.

  I was not sure how long we spent in our garden, but before either of us was ready we left only to find ourselves in each other’s arms in the flesh, the door already being banged off of its hinges. I sighed as Talon left me, his další v příkazu charges already in full force, just as I assumed they would be.

  He was gone most of the day, leaving me alone to attempt to clean the huge mess I had made when I had attempted to make Talon dinner, something I never do.

  Talk about a nightmare. I had cut my finger off when trying to chop carrots. Yes, off. Luckily I was magical or I would be walking around reverse flipping people off. As it was, I just reattached it. But, after the soup became inedible, and I had burned the Galder – I was promptly reminded why I never heated food. It was better cold anyway.

  The whole experience was a great reminder as to why I hated human food. It’s gross and the texture is off. I don’t know how, but any human can take a simple tomato and turn it into a slime covered bit of goo. I mean, just leave it alone. Don’t touch it. Just put it in your mouth and eat it.

  Humans eat weird food.

  After I had cleaned the house it became quickly evident that I needed to wash the lace table cloth. After the finger loss induced blood letting, it was required.

  Unfortunately the dratted thing was made with something bearing the label of ‘hand wash only’.

  Hand wash only!

  Whoever had created such stupid fabric needed to be shown a washing machine. There was a reason that washing machines were created, and that was so hand wash only items need no longer exist. But some fool decided to make an un-natural fabric that needed to be hand washed only. And another silly fool (ah-hem, Talon) decided to buy a bright white tablecloth for his lovely wife (that would be me) made out of said abhorrence of natural fabric.

  I had taken the table cloth down to the old guard’s chamber where the freezing cold water of the underground spring ran. The dark grey stone of the cavern was jagged, unlike the rest of the tunnels we called home. The roughly hewn walls arched high above my head, the only light source a small collection of magical orbs that floated and bobbed amongst the shallow cavities of the stone ceiling. The green light that blossomed from above gave the room a dark glow that cast hundreds of eerie shadows around me.

  This large chamber was only used as a water source now. The underground spring ran through the lowest level of the tunnels below Prague, well the lowest level that anyone dared to go to anyway.

  This room, and the ancient dungeon below, were old relics of when Edmund had first declared war on all magic. In the beginning, the dungeons were used to house traitors and Edmund’s men that Ilyan had captured but refused to kill. There had been at least ten of the Skȓítek army in here at any time, guarding the prisoners in the rooms below and keeping their mates safe from them.

  That’s what the Skȓíteks were after all, an army. An army with the sole purpose of guarding the wells that sat in the lowest point of this cave.

  The wells of Imdalind, the center of magic.

  Ilyan and Edmund were the last ones alive who knew the way through the labyrinth of tunnels that led down to the mud, which is why it was so scary that someone could be in here. If Edmund got in, he could stroll right down to the wells like he was walking to a Denny’s.

  Now, the dungeons were bare, the room below and the guard chamber I now stood in only a reminder of how the war had started and how many magical beings there had once been.

  I scrubbed the fabric before letting the majority of it trail away with the flow of the water. My hands were a nice red color, although I couldn’t feel the burning tingle of the cold. If my skin was threatening hypothermia, I had no idea.

  My hands heated against the stone of the floor I kneeled on, my magic surging. Even through the cold of my skin the stone awakened my magic. I had always reacted to the stone of this cave this way. It was like my magic sensed the deep magic of the world that was hidden somewhere far below me. As far as I knew I was the only one who did that, but there weren’t many Trpaslíks around to ask. It could be perfectly normal, and I would never know. Besides, it definitely had its benefits. My personal explosion factor increased by ten. Not like there were many things to explode around here, but it was still cool.

  “NO!”

  I jumped, like full on jumped, at the disembodied voice that leaped into the air around me. The high pitched scream shot through my body with electricity that peaked every hair on my arms to full attention, my heart rate accelerating with the speed of a twenty thousand volt reaction.

  “P-please, n...no,”

  The woman was back, which meant that whoever was torturing her was back too. And they were close. Close enough to find me. Close enough for me to find them. I didn’t know why my heart was thumping so wildly. It was either fear of being found or excitement for the battle. I narrowed my eyes in expectation, definitely excitement. I dropped the wet wad of lace down to the stone floor and peaked my ears toward where I could on
ly assume the voice was coming from.

  I took a step forward without thinking, my nerves on high alert, eager to attack. I needed to find her and end this.

  “I...I...w-won’t t-tell you!”

  My head spun, the voice seeming to have moved from one area of the cave to another, this time the voice echoed down a darkened hallway that led toward the dungeon. I looked at the dark cavern, my nerves mingling into fear. No way was I going down there alone. No way. For all I knew, that was exactly what they wanted. Last thing I needed was to run into someone in the dark and then accidentally collapse the cave. Yep, that would be just my luck.

  Why did this voice, this woman, only seem to appear when everyone else was busy? It didn’t make sense. I needed to get Talon, we needed to find her.

  “L-leave me a..alone,” her voice broke and stuttered as she once again begged for her life.

  The timber of her voice was so close to the little girl that haunted my dreams that my heart tensed in a reflex reaction, the contents in my stomach spinning uncomfortably.

  I left the table cloth on the ground and took off toward the sparing hall where the pull of Talon’s magic told me he would be. My wet Chuck Taylors squeaked on the stone a little loudly on the first step and I froze waiting to see if the noise would alert whoever was down there to my presence, but the crying remained. Last thing I needed was to scare her off again before I could get Talon and we could investigate.

  I began walking again, moving slowly until the volume of the crying had lessened enough that I was out of earshot, allowing me to take off in a dead run toward the training hall. The sounds of battle hit my ears before anything else, the grunt and explosions mixed with laughter as everyone enjoyed the spectacles of combat.

  I entered the large hall at a dead run, weaving my way through the small groups of sparring Skȓíteks, each group covered by the shimmering orb of a shield. I bobbed and weaved through them, looking like a fool when I jumped at an explosion that rocked against a barrier near my head.

  I smiled at the two Skȓíteks enclosed in the fighting space and made my way toward Talon.

  “Hi, baby,” Talon said softly when I came up beside him. His face dropping at the look in my eyes, the panic I am sure he felt infiltrating him through our bond.

  “I heard her again. I think she is in the old dungeons.”

  Talon said nothing more before dragging me behind him, right out of the training hall and towards the underground spring.

  His feet moved quickly, his gait and cumbersome shape loud as we bounded through one dark tunnel and then another before arriving in the same large cavern I had just left, the dark entryway to the dungeon staring at us hauntingly.

  “Are you sure you heard the voice from down there?” Talon asked, his voice shaking as he looked wide eyed into the abyss in front of us.

  I could only nod. Talon was scared, that alone was enough to freak me out. I had never been down there, but Talon had, hundreds of times I was sure. The place was probably full of more haunted memories than crazy flesh stripped skeletons. Although, I was sure there was a few of those too, there always were in dungeons after all.

  “You’re sure?” he asked again, and I felt my confidence waiver.

  “Of course, I’m not sure Talon. Her voice echoes around like an Olympic game of ping-pong. She could have been a mermaid in the water for all I know.”

  “Don’t be silly,” Talon said his voice still shaking, although less than before. “Mermaids don’t exist.”

  Talon took a step away from me, toward the cavern and I could feel his magic surge as he put on a small shield. Dude, he wasn’t thinking about going in there was he?

  “Talon?” I asked from behind him, my own voice catching at the petrified anger on his face. “Baby, let’s go.”

  I pulled on him, but he didn’t move. I waited but he didn’t respond; his eyes stayed glued to the dark opening as if they had been sewn there. It was creepy watching him stare at something so intently. My heart rate began to accelerate to match Talon’s, the quick pick up triggering a warning inside of me. I didn’t know how much I could take. My heart was beating too fast and even I was starting to feel some creepy vibe from whatever was down there.

  “Talon?” My voice was weak with the heavy vein of fear that Talon’s stare had given me.

  I couldn’t do it. I shook off the anxiety that was trying to take hold of me like a wet dog and grabbed the sopping tablecloth from where it still lay on the ground and threw it over Talon’s head, the wet fabric covering him with a loud smack.

  It did the trick. He howled out and pulled the cold thing off of him.

  “Let’s go Talon,” I said before he could rebut my actions.

  His jaw hung heavily for only a moment before his brain clicked back into place, reminding him of what had just happened. That was the problem with being married to such a big guy, sometimes their brains moved a bit too slowly.

  Talon nodded and put the tablecloth over his arm, only to freeze at the angry sour face that had appeared over my shoulder.

  “What are you two doing here?” Ovailia spat with as much icy venom as she possibly could. She stood before us with her feet moving back and forth as if she was walking in place, her long arms folded over her slender torso. I instantly moved back into Talon, content to let him take the lead and thankful when Talon squared his shoulders defiantly against her.

  I guess that was the one good thing about growing up with Ovailia, he was used to her. When you can think of someone as a tantrum throwing toddler with a stinky diaper their fits as an adult don’t really bother you.

  “That is no longer your concern, Ovailia.” Talon said simply, his voice making it clear he didn’t feel the need to elaborate.

  “What?” Ovailia said, her voice airy with surprise. Why she was surprised I had no idea. I had always assumed it would take pigs standing and walking to surprise her.

  “I do not need to remind you of Ilyan’s proclamation regarding who is acting in his stead do I?” Talon wrapped his arm around me, pressing my shoulder into him.

  “No, I quite remember,” she said snottily, the airy confusion in her voice gone now.

  I stared at Ovailia intently, the nerves in my spine jumping sporadically. Something about the way Ovailia shifted her feet was freaking me out. Her whole body was screaming liar! Run! But I couldn’t tear my eyes from the icy blue of her eyes, and the way her lips curled in warning.

  “Speaking of Ilyan,” Ovailia asked, her voice hesitant, “How is my dear brother?”

  “Wonderful,” Talon said his voice pinched.

  Ovailia smiled, but said nothing. She ended the conversation with one scowl and Talon began to lead me out of the large room, the basket perched on his hip.

  “Oh and Wynifred,” Ovailia sneered the moment we had passed her, “I wouldn’t go poking around corners if I were you.”

  “Is that a threat?” I hissed, my body pulling away from Talon as my magic surged angrily.

  “Of course.”

  I wanted to lunge at her, but instead I let Talon’s strong arm around my waist serve as a warning as I let him drag me out of the roughly carved chamber and into the smooth stone halls that would take us to our room. I didn’t feel comfortable just leaving her there, but something in Talon’s body language begged me to.

  So I complied, choosing instead to stick my tongue out at the stone wall that stood between us.

  Yes, sometimes I was just that childish.

  Chapter 1 - Sara

  "No!" I said yet again.

  "Please?"

  "No!" I pushed my hand through my natural curly, brown hair in frustration.

  "When was the last time you were out?"

  I stared at my best friend right in the eyes and stated firmly, "I went to the grocery store last night.”

  My petite friend put her hand on her hips and hissed, “That is not what I meant."

  I slapped my hand to my forehead, “Rachel, I do not like hockey. Why woul
d you want to go with me?”

  Rachel looked at me once more and pointed her manicured finger at me. “Look, I got a great deal on these tickets and you are going. I will pick you up at six pm. No excuses.” She turned and walked out of my office. I really don’t know why I even try to argue with her.

  Rachel had been my best friend for as long as I can remember. Every good and bad memory I have, she is right there with me. I know that she is just doing this because I have not been out in almost a year.

  Wow, has it been that long! It seemed like yesterday that I remember waking up, only seeing the ceiling above me in the hospital. I could still feel every pin, needle, and stitch that was in my body. I could still hear Rachel crying in the corner waiting for me to wake up. The smell of disinfectant and sadness still haunted me.

  I closed my eyes so the tears wouldn’t show themselves. I knew that I could not cry about it, anymore. Push it out of your mind. Don’t think about it.

  However, with everything that happened, I did care for him. He was in my life every single day for two years and even though a long time had passed, my thoughts still wandered back to him, despite knowing that they shouldn’t. No! Let's focus on work.

  Being an attorney is what I am good at and being here is where I felt more complete. I turned my attention back to the brief that I was drafting when my legal assistant, Charity, came in.

  "Do you need anything before I leave?” Charity was the kindest person that I knew and the greatest assistant anyone could ask for.

  "No, thank you. I am going to try to finish this up before I am forced to be with Rachel tonight.” Though, I really didn’t want to go.

  "I heard Rachel talked you into going to the game."

  "Like I had a choice with her," I scoffed. Charity laughed.

  "I think it’s great. See you tomorrow." Charity always had a positive attitude. I smiled at her as she walked out the door.

  Looking at the clock, I realized it was five pm. Ugh! If I was going to make it home to change and go with Rachel, I had to leave now. Good thing this brief was not due tomorrow. I shut down the computer, grabbed my jacket and purse, and shut my office door. I turned and headed toward the stairs. I was still scared of small spaces so I never took an elevator. It’s a fear that I have not overcome since the accident.