Northern Lands: Bound by fate

Chapter 20

CALANDRA

My eyelids were heavy, and fluttered open and closed, like waking up from a deep slumber. A magically induced one that had its tendrils still wrapped around my every fiber. I fought against it and finally opened my eyes.

I was met with pure darkness.

A dripping sound echoed through the pitch dark space I found myself in. The floor was cold and scratchy to my bare legs; the walls seeped humidity into my ripped nightgown. And a chill I couldn't shake, gripped itself around my throat, still unable to do so much as move my lips.

I wanted to hug my knees to my chest, seek the comfort I could provide on my own, but I felt the threads of the Penumbra critters. When those foul creatures had woven the spell around my limbs, I had felt their influence fade slightly when they erupted into pools of conjured blood in the forest. I hadn't been able to erase the pungent scent from my mind since.

Zohra had probably summoned new ones while I was unconscious to keep me ensnared; a rag doll she could manipulate to her will. Their stench permeated the surrounding air. She went through a lot of effort to orchestrate the chaos.

I didn't feel any injuries on my body. The only senses I had been allowed to keep were my sense of smell, my hearing and eyesight. With my movement, touch and speech restricted, the others were heightened. The dripping pipes that let a drop of water fall into a puddle of liquid on the floor sounded sharp and clear in the darkness; feeding my angst and awakening goosebumps on my skin.

There was a heaviness surrounding me that kept me unable to move. While my mind was free, my thoughts my own, my body was entrapped in the spell that Zohra had me under. A spelled, woven blanket that had been draped over me. Concealing me.

No matter how much I fought against the restraints, there was no way to break free from this prison that was my body.

I breathed harshly, trying to get myself to focus. I let all the occurrences from the last few days flow into my mind. Attempting to find the clue that could give me an idea of who was behind my kidnapping.

It could have been someone on the council, as they showed their reluctance to abetting a runaway heiress of Asterion. On the other hand, Nereida came to warn me. Or was there a more elaborate plot to my need to vanish in the night from Northern Lands?

I had no clue where I could've been taken.

A witch by the name of Zohra had teleported me through a magical portal and the sickening images still flashed around me, like the macabre horror movies they played at The Dungeon on movie nights on repeat.

Even the vampires that inhabited Northern Lands had more tasteful choices in movies than the nightmare that had happened to that male werewolf. Zohra had cut him apart like nothing more but cattle brought to a human slaughterhouse.

I had read about dark magic and what corrupted witches were capable of, but never had I been a witness to the wickedness they wielded. Living a sheltered life in between the castle walls and the beauty of the Asterion realm had not prepared me for the things that roamed in the darkness in the confines of existence.

The worst part was the guilt that consumed me.

I was the one that ran away, leaving my cousin Priamos to deal with the aftermath of my decisions. Running towards Northern Lands, taking my best friend with me, ripping her away from her duties as mage of the court. She had never blamed me, still traveling between realms when needed. I thought these last two years that I had taken the right path for my subjects and left the throne in capable hands. Trapped in here and in my own mind, I was now spiraling with doubt.