“A little bit ago. It’s better than staying here. Harlow will bring back food and hopefully some reinforcements. She told me she has access to other secret passageways. She hopes one of her sons will be there.”
“Like they’ll help me,” she snorts, “They’re all just as greedy for the throne.”
“We’ll need all the help you can get, Roe. I’m sure your remaining brothers will choose you over The Overseer.”
“We’ll see,” she says, not believing it.
The sound of the portrait door opening in the main room startles both of them. They creep into the room hoping that Harlow is back with food. Instead of Harlow’s slim body exiting the crawl space, it’s Lola. Rowan runs to her friend holding her tight.
“I thought I lost you forever,” she cries.
“Me, too,” Lola rocks them back and forth.
They stay like this until Knot clears his throat. “This reunion is great and all, but now we have seven of us and no food.”
Rowan notices her twin brothers are standing in the room sizing up Knot like he is a threat to them. If anything, they are the threat. If there’s one thing she has learned from her childhood—it’s that her brothers are not to be trusted.
“I’ll go back and search for food,” Harlow offers standing on the table and exiting through the portrait once more.
“I’ll go with you. It’s too dangerous,” Morris offers.
“No, you stay here,” she quickly says as she shuts the portrait door not allowing Morris to argue back.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” she grabs her friend’s hands. “I have someone I’d like you to meet.”
She shows Lola her sleeping father. Lola is just as baffled as she was and asks the same questions she did. She doesn’t want to disturb her father from his much needed rest so they sit and talk in a private room. The two of them are happy to be in each other’s company once again.
“Are there any spells you know that can get us out of here?”
“I’m afraid not. If I did, I wouldn’t have enough energy to perform them. It’s been a full day since I’ve had something to eat and I’ve had very little sleep. I’m too weak to perform any spells. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she squeezes her hand. “We will figure out another way.”
“Shadow said something to me down in the dungeon. He told me my mate and my baby are still alive,” she squirms nervously.
Rowan’s mouth hangs open. “The Overseer had lied, he manipulated everyone who came to Cirvka to believe it was their last resort. He manipulated everyone’s memories so they no longer had a home or family. It is how everyone is staying in their manipulation. They think they have no one to fight for. They can only think of revenge.”
“So they’re out there?” She stands, tears brimming in her eyes.
“So is Pepper’s mate.”
“But...how do I find them? How do we find them?”
“He altered your memories so they look differently than you remember. If we could find Melani, I bet she could alter the memories back.”
“It is worth a try but, I don’t know where Melani is. I haven’t seen her since I was down in the dungeon.”
“Even if we do find her, she is most likely under the manipulation.” Lola has a stoic look on her face, her eyes glossed over. “Are you okay?”
Lola slams her into the wall. She cries out as her head thuds against the solid concrete wall. She looks over her shoulder to see Lola’s eyes completely black. She feared this would happen.
“Lola, fight it!” She pleads.
Lola wraps her arm around her throat from behind, choking her. Rowan claws at her friend’s skin and elbows her in her gut. She doesn’t bust, it is almost like she doesn’t register pain. Morris, Zakariah, and Knot enter the room after hearing her scream. They try to pry Lola off of her as she begins to fight the twin princes.
Knot is the one to detain her holding her in a headlock that restricts her arms. He curses. “What do we do?”
Behind Knot is her father holding a wooden club, he bashes it over Knot’s head. He falls to the floor and Lola is free. She attacks Rowan again detaining her. She tries to fight back but she is too strong, Lola forces her down on her knees while holding her arms behind her back. Rowan looks up at her brothers who are frozen in place.
Her father’s hand is pointed at them. “What are you doing?”
Right before her eyes, her father morphs into Madame Tallulah. “Now we wait.”
“What have you done with my father?” She cries out, struggling even harder in Lola’s grip.
“Silly girl, your father was never alive. It’s all the power of glamour. We knew that if your father was here you would stay.”
“We?”
Harlow enters the room and standing beside her is The Overseer and a black-eyed Shadow.
Traitors.
“What about everything you said? What about his power and Syro sparing him? I don’t understand,” she wants to cry out. She refuses to cry out in front of them. But her father, she thought...he was just there talking to her and telling her he loves her.
“My husband was not a weak male,” Harlow spits. “He drained every ounce of Bren’s power and then slit his throat. The only truth to what we told you, was he did give you the power to you.”
“Why me?” She cries out in confusion.
“Because of the prophecy.”
“But why not take it for himself?”
“Dakra magic mixing with Shevka magic is dangerous. I gave it to you when Madame Tallulah came to my doorstep to inform me of your powers. I always knew you were Dakra, my husband did not. I had no idea you were the rumored Lost Heir. I always knew you were going to be powerful from the prophecy, so I gave you the vial of Bren’s powers to make you even stronger. You were going to be our secret weapon,” her eyes roam down to the collar around her neck.
Rowan shakes her head trying to detangle the truth from the lies. She’s addled and broken. At this moment she is vulnerable, unable to comprehend how she was deceived again.
How could she be so stupid? So naive?
She vowed to never let another deceive her and here she is—played. The moment she saw her father, handsome and with open arms ready to love her, she wanted to believe that it was real. Needed to believe there was still a piece of her family left in this world that was ready to love her, unlike the family who took her in and raised her.
Despite all the signs and the red flags of trusting Harlow, the sight of her father made her knees buckle with joy. Joy, a rare emotion after the past few days have been nothing but misery. She wanted to hold onto the joy because that joy gave her a new hope to move on and fight this battle. Burying logic reasoning and trusting an illusion, she instead chose to believe in the lie.
Shadow grabs her wrist hoisting her off the ground. She crashes into his chest and it’s hard not to plant her nose into his clean smelling shirt or to kiss his soft lips. She wants to be close to him, but not like this. Not with his mind blank and his soul cold.
“Throw her in the dungeon,” The Overseer orders. “Harlow, I think you know what to do with your sons.”
Harlow’s beautiful face twists into a vile smirk. “I’ll take care of them.”
* * *
Shadow is trapped inside his own body. A prisoner in his own skin. He can hear her voice whisper his name over and over again in his head.
Shadow.
Shadow.
Shadow.
He wishes she would call him by his true name; Mikah. Her voice is the sweetest sound he has ever heard. It could lull anyone to sleep and drop males to their feet. She sounds like seduction and desire and he longs to touch her. Fate keeps pulling them apart, he never had the chance to tell her he loves her. He loves her more than he ever thought possible. She is the first flower to bloom in summer, she is the fire on a cold day, she is the breath inside his lungs, and the reason his heart is still beating.
Shadow.
> Shadow.
Shadow.
She flashes like a vision in his mind.
Shadow.
Shadow.
Shadow. Come back to me.
He reaches out for her. He is urging her to grab him and pull him out of his darkness. The power invading his mind is telling him to focus until his mission is done. His mission; lock her in the dungeon and leave.
Memories of the dungeon pass through his mind, the feeling of hopelessness and loneliness.
Shadow.
Shadow.
Shadow.
The voice is getting farther away.
No, go towards it.
Go towards that sweet voice.
She is your salvation, the voice inside his head commands.
She is the bright light that will guide him out of this black existence. He can feel his shadows move off of him swirling towards her, wanting to be with her. They curl around her like a hug. She calls his name again until she is no longer a flashing vision.
Her eyes widen, she looks at him as though everything is okay. She is on the other side of the bars. He quickly opens the dungeon doors and holds her in his arms. She smells like home and her hugs are enough to consciously keep him with her. He doesn’t have much time until the manipulation takes him over, but he kisses her with such a fierce need that if they ever stop it will feel like withdrawal. Her lips are an addiction. She tastes like the sweetest dessert.
“I heard you,” he says in disbelief when they pull back for air. “I could hear you calling for me. I don’t know how, but I know it was your voice. It was...everything.”
“I was calling for you,” he reads her lips.
It is a cruel fate to be deaf when her voice is a beautiful instrument. It was a miracle to hear her, the entire world was silent like always, but it was her voice that got through to him, pulling him back to consciousness. “I want to hear you say my name again. You bring me back.”
“I will always call for you,” she touches his face and kisses him gently. “I will never stop bringing you back to me.”
“Call me Mikah,” he breathes out.
She nods whispering his name. He reads it on her lips. Her beautiful full pink lips. “Don’t leave me,” she pleads. Her eyes are glossy with tears. She is overwhelmed and he doesn’t blame her.
He wishes she doesn’t have to be alone. He feels guilty because he knew this would happen. He knew his father’s plans and he should have tried to stop it sooner. He should have warned her.
Shadow puts his entire faith in her, if anyone can save the kingdom and the low bloods bearing his father’s collar—it’s her.
“I won’t,” he kisses her palm and places it over her heart. He vows to be with her, if not physically, then spiritually, always.
“Tell me what to do,” she says. “Tell me how to stop him.”
“If I knew, I would stop him myself,” he frowns tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “The answer has always been you. You will figure it out. Listen, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say—”
Shadow’s entire body spasms as a current so strong enters into his body circulating into every body part causing extreme pain. He is jolting from the voltage of the collar that is constricting his breathing and functionality. His body collapses next to her as he screams in agony until it stops and he gasps for air. He twitches still feeling some of it in his system.
He looks up to see his father standing in the threshold of the cell. “I see I can no longer trust you two together. How’d you do it?” He asks her.
“How’d I do what?”
“Don’t play stupid,” he rolls his eyes. “How’d you get him out of his manipulation.”
“Even if I did know, I’d never tell you.”
With the press of the button in his father’s hand, Shadow experiences an electric shock from his collar with the same high intensity as before. His muscles feel weak and his skin feels as if he ran through a pit of fire.
“Everytime you misbehave or disobey me, I will hurt your friends.”
It occurs to Shadow why he’s keeping her down here and not using her for his own personal use. He’s waiting for the right time to unleash her onto the world. “Tonight,” he says to her before being dragged away from guards. She pushes her eyebrows together not understanding. He doesn’t have time to explain. “It will happen tonight! Midnight!”
* * *
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The dungeon is cold and Rowan is shivering and alone. She doesn’t know how long she has been down there, she can’t tell whether the sun has set or the sun was rising for a new day.
Today is Rowan’s eighteenth birthday.
It must be midnight because her veins glow creating a light in the dark dungeon. She looks down in wonder, until indescribable pain fills her body. A transformation is occurring, it is just as Shadow said. It feels as though she is melting from the inside out. She is panting, moaning on her hands and knees as she heaves smoke from her lungs. She screams in unexplainable agony. The cell is bright, but she can hardly see through the thick smoke. She feels liquid sliding down her hands. She brings her wrists closer to her face to see the cuffs melting. As soon as the last drop of melted metal hits the cell floor she combusts in a flame so hot the color is not orange, but blue. Her flame is back, but instead of it being a friend, it feels like her enemy. The fire is burning her skin and cinching her hair.
Her collar starts to burn next, her throat constricts as the metal burns down her chest leaving behind red blisters. It takes a long time to melt, the magic infused not budging easily. She rolls on the floor wishing for death instead of this torture. The flame gets hotter, it is a bright white color that makes her close eyes tightly. She realizes her flame is working with her, not against her, it is trying to disintegrate the collar around her throat, gradually getting hotter until her throat is free. The last of the collar falls off. A ping sounding noise hits the floor. With shaking and still burning hands, she looks down to see an obsidian stone shaped like a diamond. It must have been the magic source in the collar. There is no doubt in her mind that is the stone linked with The Overseer’s power. She reaches to pick it up, she screams as the stone infuses into her skin. Her hand bursts into flames, the flame blazing on her hand is so hot that it makes her skin seemingly liquid. The stone permeates with the melting skin of her right palm taking its place in the center and linking to her veins. Her veins slowly turn black creeping up from her wrists, to her forearm, bicep, and all the way up the right side of her neck until—
Her mind goes blank.
Is she dead?
She is standing in a room, empty, black, and never ending.
The Overseer is standing in the room, at first she thinks it’s a dream until he looks just as confused as she does.
“How?” his whisper echo’s over to her.
She looks down at the stone glowing in her palm. She holds it up to look at it. She points it toward The Overseer and their surroundings change. They are in the castle in one of the many bed chambers. There is a female sitting on the bed. She looks like an older version of Melani, but has Shadow’s eyes. The female has a round stomach protruding in front of her. She is rubbing it in circles.
“Robin, sit down,” she calls to The Overseer.
He walks by her side without question. The Overseer himself looks different, younger and happier. “How are you feeling? Any day now.”
“He is kicking, feel,” she grabs his hand and puts it on top of her stomach.
“I love you,” he breathes out kissing his wife before kissing the baby growing in her womb. “I love you, too, Mikah. I will protect you and teach you. One day you’ll be just like me, a brave commander.”
“What if he doesn’t want to be a soldier?” She gives him a pointed look.
“Doesn’t matter,” he smiles largely, “I’ll be proud of him either way.”
Their surroundings go blank again. The Overseer looks older again, a sparse gathering of gray
hairs and wrinkles near his eyes and on his forehead.
He scowls at Rowan, “How did you do that? Stop it—”
Suddenly they are at Cirvka. The Overseer still looks young, but less happy. His wife is still pregnant but ill-looking. Their son is standing by her side pressing his ear to her large stomach. The Overseer is pacing. She recognizes the building as the main headquarters. The room is the room Knoton stayed in. The room has more of a home-like feel, with personalized colorful drawings on the walls, and crayons and toys are scattered everywhere.
“You’re not fine!” He says outraged. “No doctor will see you. The Shevka are punishing us for no reason. You are sick, and they won’t help you. I can’t find a low blood doctor, they were all forced out of business.”
“Robin, you worry too much,” she frowns. “I’m fine. Just a little tired.”
“This is more than just being tired, Saiya.”
Their surroundings go black.
“What was that?” She asks.
“How did you do that?” The Overseer comes closer to her. His fists clenched and his lips peeled back growling at her.
She holds her palm out and wills him to stop. The stone glows and he freezes in place. Did she do that? “Kneel,” she commands and he does so. “The stone, tell me about it.”
He fights with himself before saying, “That stone is linked with my magic, seeing as it has now linked with yours, too, we are now connected.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does that mean?” She asks again shouting while commanding with her palm facing him.
“I told you, I don’t know,” he says through gritted teeth. She runs her hands through her hair. “Careful,” he advises, “Wouldn’t want all that power to go to your head.”
Her eyes open. She is back in her cell staring up at the ceiling.
In the midst of her inferno, the metal bars of the cell have melted. This is her chance to escape, but she can’t. Her muscles feel weak and her body aching. Her skin is red and peeling at her wrists and throat. It all hurts so bad. She tries to move her legs but the skin scraps against the dirt ground causing her to bellow out from the affliction. Her entire body is throbbing in beat to her heart rate. It is slow and steady. She twitches her fingers attempting to move but all she feels is the stinging of a thousand needles.
Fight for the Crown Page 27