From Spirit and Binding

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Maybe I had given up far more than that. Maybe The Gray had been orchestrating things long before that just to curse my soul and my heart and my body.

  I didn’t know anything anymore.

  What did I know? That everything hurt. I didn’t want to feel the pain anymore. Didn’t want to acknowledge it. Because if I did, I would also feel something I hadn’t felt in longer than I could remember.

  Fear.

  A true terror that called to me like a siren’s song. I had to be stronger than that.

  I bet Rhodes was.

  Something lurched inside me, and I tried to suck in a breath.

  Because Rhodes was dead.

  That damned Lumière prince was dead. Thrown off a cliff and drowned, killed by his own father. He was gone, and I had been taken here, to the Shadow realm. One of smoke and mirrors and…nothingness. And that left Lyric all alone.

  I had to get out of here. I had to go back to the Obscurité Kingdom and protect my people against the King of Lumière. Because he would be coming. I knew it. He would want revenge for what had happened to his brother. He would want vengeance for so much. Because while I was still the king of the Obscurité Kingdom, I wasn’t sure I had the power to do what was needed. Not with The Gray hovering over me. I still had to protect my people, though. Somehow, I needed to find the power to do that.

  I had to protect Lyric.

  Because if I didn’t, then what was the point of anything?

  There were reasons for fate and destinies and prophecies. They held our kingdoms together in a way. Because without that hope, what was the point of putting one foot in front of the other? Without people having faith that there was a Spirit Priestess out there who would bring them all together, we would falter.

  Before we found Lyric, I had been the one to try and protect them.

  The Lumière disparaged us. They called us the ruination, the darkness. The Obscurité were evil because darkness had to be. Even my last name, Scuro, had later been adopted by the Italians as their word for dark. It wasn’t lost on me that Rhodes’ last name, Luce, was also Italian for light in the human realm.

  It seemed we would forever be put into our respective shiny boxes, unable to step out.

  It was wrong. Because Rhodes wasn’t good. He wasn’t bad.

  I sure as hell wasn’t good.

  But I wasn’t evil either.

  The curse that surrounded my heart like chains wrapped in amber as they tugged and squeezed? That was evil.

  I needed to find her. I needed to save Lyric.

  No, that wasn’t right. She could save herself. She had proven time and again that she didn’t need me. I needed to protect my people and somehow find a way to save her so she could figure out how to get all five elements and put them together.

  We were so close.

  In the end, we hadn’t been close at all.

  “Are you done thinking all those hard thoughts?” Durlan asked as he stalked around me.

  I looked up at the Dane, the former Earth Wielder, and spat blood at his feet.

  “I’m fine. Really just getting ready for whatever you think you can come at me with.” I winked and grinned at the asshole.

  “Oh? You think you’re such a bad boy. That you can handle it all? Your skin is flayed open by my whip. Your blood is on the ground, and you’re not even fighting back. What kind of king are you? You’re nothing. All you do is stand there while your people die, and everyone lays prostrate at your feet. Who’s in charge now? You’re in chains. And I’m at our liege’s side. The Gray believes in me. And you? You are nothing.”

  Durlan put his arm out to the side, the odd purplish light from the room glinting off the leather whip.

  “Are you ready for your next question?”

  “Not really teaching me anything, are you?” I needed to get out of here. I had to get out of my bonds and find a way back to the Maison realm. Once I got there, I could break the curse. I would find a way. Because all curses had to be broken. There were rules about that. Once I did, I would no longer be at the mercy of The Gray. And I wouldn’t be a liability for my kingdom.

  And maybe I could love. Perhaps that soulmate thing would actually work out.

  I pushed those latent thoughts from my mind. There was no need for them. I didn’t need Lyric. She sure as hell didn’t need me. Everything would be just fine. But, first, I needed to get out of these chains.

  Only, it was a little hard when Durlan kept looking at me like I was a big, juicy steak. I mean, he clearly had a nice appetite.

  Ugh, this is going to suck.

  The first flick of his wrist sent shocking pain down my back, and I instinctively tried to get away from it. I couldn’t. It hurt. Then again, I had to remember, I’d been through worse. Even in this room.

  He flicked again, and this time, I stayed still, a little more prepared for it. I hated showing weakness, and this man didn’t deserve my yield. The Gray had left us alone long before this, going off to work on whatever scheme or plan needed his attention. I tried to listen, attempted to figure out precisely what would happen next so I could warn the others. But they were all being careful around me, and I gleaned nothing.

  The Gray wanted something. He wanted everything to either shatter within the Maison realm so he could put it back together, or he wanted to bring us to the brink so we ran to him for protection, and he could rule us.

  I was the King of Obscurité, and if I were out of the picture completely, he could position himself right in. I had a feeling he wanted more than that. He wanted both kingdoms.

  And that meant the King of Lumière was either in danger or already working for him.

  I needed to figure it out, and I had to get out of here.

  Another crack, and I felt liquid trail down my back, warm blood pooling at the waistband of my pants.

  I was done with this, though I couldn’t get out.

  Garrik, The Gray’s fourth, walked into the room, a bowl of water in his hands.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Durlan asked.

  “The Gray asked me to wash his back and make sure he had some water.”

  “So now you’re going to baby him?” Durlan asked, a snap in his voice.

  “No. The more I help, the longer he’ll last for you. And that’s all that matters, right? That he’ll last longer?”

  “I can last all day, boys. I just didn’t realize you guys were so bored that you needed me for this.”

  “Bored now,” Durlan said, mimicking one of my favorite shows from the human realm, and then I sighed. Durlan snapped the whip at Garrik. The Dane, the former Air Wielder, took a step back, the bowl hitting the ground at his feet and splashing water on all of us.

  Well, I would have liked some of that. I was a tad parched.

  They had shackled me in ropes of smoke and chains, which drained my elements. I couldn’t even Wield a single little piece of dirt currently. Let alone a flicker of flame.

  I would find a way out.

  There was no way I would let The Gray take over my realm.

  I wouldn’t let Lyric walk alone.

  I might not love her—I might not be able to ever love her—nevertheless, she was mine.

  Chapter Seven

  Lyric

  * * *

  I was pretty sure I had begun to lose track of the days. While traveling through the Spirit territory, it was actually a little difficult to figure out what was day and what was night. There weren’t sunrises and sunsets. Just that sepia tone that seemed to drip down and saturate every ounce of the land, sinking into every pore of our skin.

  We were getting closer.

  Rhodes was now able to sit up in the cart, his brown skin pale, but he at least was whole.

  He hadn’t spoken to me, not in the days since we started our trek, and he fully woke up. I hadn’t really given him an option, though.

  I walked alongside Wyn and Teagan, just trying to make it through the territory. We weren’t moving at the fast speed we ha
d when we made our way in the opposite direction towards the Water territory. This time, we had carts and people who needed us to go slower.

  So, things took time.

  It made me sort of wish for the days of airplanes and cars and everything that I had taken for granted when I lived in the human realm. It wasn’t like I could ever go back, though. Because when this was all over? When the prophecy was fulfilled and if, somehow, I survived it all? There was no going back.

  There wasn’t anything for me there. And it always felt like I was out of sync with the rest of the world anyway, even though I hadn’t really realized what that anxiety and sense of loss meant at the time.

  I hadn’t been able to pick my major or do anything for myself in college. I’d just gone through the motions. I was average. Somehow sliding through life amongst the others and just going about my business without making any true choices.

  I now knew that was because I was supposed to be here.

  I was no longer running from that fact. It wasn’t the idea that I had to try and tell myself who I was now. Because I knew. I could feel the elements coursing through my veins, the power that called to me underneath the world’s dying breath.

  I was no longer the Lyric that had first walked through the mountains into that crevice that served as the portal between the human and Maison realms. I was no longer the girl who was afraid of what she didn’t know, scared of the divine.

  No. Now, I had to scrape for everything I could see, had to fight for even those I didn’t know.

  It was hard to contemplate what it all could mean.

  But I had to figure it out. I had to find the Spirit element. I needed to work with all five elements somehow and blend them together.

  It was my responsibility to unravel the prophecy and find the truth. Uncover more, if there was any more to it.

  I had to stop whoever was orchestrating this. I had to maintain peace within the realms. We needed to make sure that the King of Lumière and the Obscurité Kingdom were able to work together. Because if they didn’t, the Maison realm would fall.

  There was only so much power in the world, and with so much of it having been leached away, broken into fragments, there wouldn’t be a Maison realm left to fight for if we didn’t figure it out.

  “You’re growling under your breath again,” Wyn said, reaching out to squeeze my hand. I gave her hand a squeeze back and then sighed. “I’m just trying to go through the checklist of everything we need to do. And it’s not just, buy milk or feed the cat. No, it’s things like save the world. Find the lost king. And make sure the prince back there is okay. You know, the little things.”

  “Well, at least you still have your sense of humor.” Wyn just shook her head, using a leather tie to pull her hair back from her face. It kept coming undone, the waves spiraling out of control. I noticed some of the Lumière healers and soldiers looking at her, each of them unable to keep their gaze off her. I didn’t really blame them. She was beautiful. Strong, a warrior, and she had a commanding presence.

  I was grateful that she was my friend.

  “It’s hard to keep a sense of humor when I feel so lost. And I hate that I feel that way because it’s stupid. People are going through things so much worse.”

  “We’ll find Easton. After all, we found one of your men, we’ll find the other.”

  I gave her a sharp look. “Seriously, Wyn?”

  “What? It’s how I decided to label them. It’s easier than actually being serious about anything. Because if I am, I might start crying, or freak out and chop something into little bitty pieces. Anyway…we’re almost there. I noticed you haven’t talked to a certain Romeo prince. Other than looking over at him to make sure he’s okay, you haven’t really acknowledged his presence. Do you want to talk about it?”

  I cast her a look before letting my gaze roam around the group of others. We were indeed close to the Obscurité border wards. Though I didn’t really know how thick the wards would be, or how much magic might be running through them at the moment. Hopefully, Easton’s uncles were keeping them up. With Easton missing like he was? I had no idea how the magic truly worked.

  It was one more thing I needed to figure out. I would add it to my list.

  However, even as I let all of that run through my mind, I tried not to stand out, to act as if my problems were more important than the rest. While some of the others had looked at Wyn with hunger in their eyes, they were still paying attention to their duties. Luken and Teagan were talking to one another, pulling the cart with Rhodes inside it. And I knew Rhodes was probably chomping at the bit to get up soon. He hadn’t been allowed to walk yet, though I knew it was going to happen at any moment. And that meant I had to talk to him.

  “I don’t know what to say to him. I thought he was dead.”

  Wyn reached out, seeming to want to grip my hand, but she let it fall before she made contact. “I was there. I know what you saw.”

  I shook my head, looking down at my palms. Hands that held so much power, elements I wasn’t ready to control. Water slid out of my pores, dancing along my skin before seeping back in.

  Air flitted between the tips of my fingers, as if a little Air sprite—if that was even a thing—did a dance along my skin.

  “I thought he was mine. I thought he was my soulmate, but I was wrong. We weren’t meant to be together. He couldn’t heal me when the worst happened. And I wasn’t able to save him at all.”

  “We’re not always meant to save each other. We’re meant to try. And he tried for you. Much like you tried for him.”

  “What if trying isn’t enough?” I asked, the question lingering between us a far too heavy presence.

  “You can ask that all you want, but we may never have a real answer. Because all we can do is try. That’s our motivation, our goal. To try. And if we think that we’re not good enough…that’s fine. Because, in the end, someone has to believe we’re good enough. Enough to protect our people and the others.

  “It’s not easy. It’s never been easy. You’re strong, Lyric. You always have been, even if you didn’t think so. It’s okay if we fail, if we make mistakes. We just keep getting back up.”

  “And if we fail at the worst moment?”

  “I don’t want to think like that. Because if I do, then it’s harder to do what I was just telling you to do. Try.”

  I looked over at her then, my feet aching, my shoulders sore, the Wielding in me pressing against the inside of my skin as if it wanted to claw its way out. I was exhausted—mentally, physically, and emotionally.

  Even as I tried to think of what to say, there weren’t words. Because we had arrived.

  The wards between the territories might have been opaque at one time. Now, you could see right through them, even though you could still see the magic from the crystal that kept the entire realm whole and healthy. The fact that the crystals were dying scared us all. Because that meant the wards would fall, as well. With the territories and kingdoms at war for so long, the wards had been necessary.

  Now, I didn’t even want to go through them. I just wanted to sleep.

  Then I thought: What if Easton is here? What if whatever had taken him had brought him back to the court, and I’d be able to see him again?

  Somehow, that energy flowed through me, and I was able to take the necessary steps through the wards. Unlike before, I didn’t need to be invited in.

  This court knew me. I wasn’t only a guest, it was my new home. One that drew me in even when I hadn’t known I needed it.

  I turned, watching as Wyn and the others led the Lumière Wielders through the wards, as well as Rhodes on his cart.

  He looked ready to bolt as he met my gaze.

  I nodded, trying to give him a smile, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes.

  His returning grin was much the same.

  I didn’t know what would happen next.

  For everyone who wasn’t an Obscurité member, they had to be personally invited and helped through t
he wards.

  The first time I felt the wards of the Obscurité Kingdom, I had been walking through the southern Spirit territory into the Earth territory at the bottom edge of the kingdom. It had felt like gravity pushed down on me. As if I were walking through a thick and viscous material to get through. Pain had lashed at me, but we made it through. Mostly because we had made it through holes in the perimeter, rather than being invited in like we were before.

  The fact that I hadn’t needed an invite this time spoke to me.

  Was I Obscurité? No, not really. Because those didn’t actually exist anymore in my mind. Not when there were factions on both sides of the idea of change. Those who wanted change versus those who wanted to let those in power retain it—in both the Obscurité and Lumière.

  We weren’t fighting light and dark anymore. It wasn’t Obscurité versus Lumière.

  It was hope versus whatever the orchestrator of this mess wanted.

  “You’re back,” Justise said as he walked out onto the path in front of us.

  Justise was a large man, broad-shouldered, and looked like he worked with his hands. He came across as someone who could probably scare the crap out of you if you got on his bad side.

  He was the official weapons maker and bBlacksmith of the Obscurité Court. He was also Queen Cameo’s younger brother. I knew there was a story there, one that no one seemed to want to tell me. If it was important, and if I needed to know, they would tell me later.

  Justise was Easton’s uncle, and a good man, if a bit grumpy and standoffish. His husband Ridley stood beside him, a smile on his face.

  I saw relief in both of their eyes, and I couldn’t help but want to run towards them and just hug them, making sure that everyone was real and alive and okay.

  I didn’t see Easton beside them.