FOR THE UNKNOWN KINGDOM | BOOK 1

CHAPTER 23

So being here, holding Denfer's hand felt right. I could offer them my help. And I would do whatever I had to do for that flickering spark to return to their now darkened eyes. I would do it, whatever it was that I had to do, because it might be the only good thing I could do in my lifetime.

A faint grin formed on Denfer's mouth and with the remnants of his strength, he squeezed my hand a little tighter. I squeezed it back, like that night in the infirmary, only the other way around.

Our secret code. Our greatest weapon against the everlasting darkness.

"Let the games commence then," he murmured more to himself and Jersen than to me. A shadow of a grin darted across the healer's face at the sound of his words, at the sound of my offer. A victory for them, the beginning of a war for me. A war I was terrified to even think about, but willing to throw myself into. Maybe I was that reckless, that mad.

Brushing some strands of Denfer's hair away from his forehead, I kept him close. He'd done enough for me, enough for his kingdom, enough for everyone.

And when Jersen put the injection in a vein of his right wrist, not a sound escaped Denfer's mouth, not a crippling scream left his lips. He just closed his eyes, letting his head fall to the side. Like he knew that I couldn't bare another painful roar. If only he'd understood too that I wouldn't mind hearing it over and over again if he was going to be better the following morning.

🔱

I didn't go away from his room that night. Not even when Jersen decided that he needed some time to rest, a break from his work to take a bath and sleep. I didn't leave.

By his bed I stood, knowing that he wouldn't wake until tomorrow noon. I thought about everything that had happened from the moment I'd first walked across these mystical corridors of the castle until now. The memory of my parents would never disappear from the back of my mind, but now I would have to stay here for a little longer.

Maybe there was power in the unknown and life in the lands of the dead. Maybe I was meant to end up in the Gap World and its people and maybe . . . it wasn't too early to jump to this kind of conclusions.

🔱

Hectic days of running around the capital, the castle and Jersen's room was all that followed the building's eruption. Trying to fix everything, shape things again into place, from broken hearts and shattered families to injured people who had survived. It wasn't easier. I could easily admit that the worst part wasn't witnessing the eruption but getting to look into the eyes of the people it'd left devastated afterwards. As for Denfer, he had disappeared. At least, I hadn't seen him around in a few days.

The castle was now empty of patients but was still getting sporadically visits from citizens who were in need of help. Whether it would be for pain relief, financial support or needing information about the future of the Gap World, we welcomed them all. And I had gotten to know so many people with scars and smiles, tears and laughter, jokes and daydreams. I'd talked to plenty of them as well, learning their experiences, why they had ended up here, how much they hated this place with everything they had but how fiercely they hoped for a change to come.

We had not let ourselves pause for a minute in fear of if we did, the rain would grow heavier, carrying away the rays of hope that dared to shine through the cloud-filled sky.

Jersen was always restless at breakfast, eating in silence large amounts of warm bread, cheese and fruits. His lips were always pursed into a thin line, and I could feel him dwindling, his strength fading away. But still, he never gave up.

Every evening, when darkness threw its blanket over the Gap World and the clouds forged raged kingdoms of pouring rain in the starless sky, Jersen and I would walk all the way to a remote prairie miles away from the capital to train. Right after I'd announced that I was about to go to Hell, Denfer had decided that it was urgent and vital to strengthen both my body and my magic. I hadn't dared ask him what I would face there that demanded me to have full control over my body and my magic. I didn't want to know. I would find out soon. Until then, all I could do was train and learn and distract myself from all the wild thoughts about that place of spitefulness.