Run. Run. Run.
For a heartbeat, I stood outside the door, my now reddened dagger, clutched in my grip. Nostalgia hit me as I recalled it was the same dim-lit passage where Doran had dropped me during the night of the royal ball and where I had heard his father, King Orlon, conspiring against Prince Nova. Simpler days!
Even before I had climbed the steps down, a dozen guards flanked around me, their swords raised and flutes held near their faces. They were in all black.
My heart thundered as I knew I had to stay still - one poisonous dart, and I'd be dead. Without speaking a word, two guards grabbed me by the arms on either side, and dragged me inside again.
"I will walk myself," I said stiffly, not letting my fear show.
"You are not to be trusted," one of the guards spoke firmly, through his black mask.
I glared at him and he squeezed my arms harder, pulling me with renewed force. The high-booted footsteps of all the guards echoed in the shining hallways as they led me to the underground dungeon.
The same smell of the mysterious drug hit me once again, and I wanted to run faraway from there. To Una, to Doran, to my Corresponders team, to anyone who'd help me.
I had a sense of déjà vu as I was dumped roughly into the same room once again, where Prince Nova had first showed me his true colors.
He was sitting on the high-chair, nursing his wound. His doublet was heavily tainted with blood but the wound seemed to be healed.
How had he healed himself so quickly?
"That was quite a show you put on there," the roughness of Prince Nova's voice screeched in my ears.
"Let me go," I hissed, tears of dread making themselves show, as one guard secured my arm still.
"So that you can play with your dagger again?" he smirked.
Daggers.
"I know your plan," I said almost in a whisper.
"Aah, yes, right. You were there in the Winter Palace."
I stared down at him, "I heard your plans for the Eclipses."
"For the Lueshas," he spat. He had managed to make an already foul word even more derogatory.
"I am the bait, aren't I?"
He laughed. Heartily.
"So, you heard everything. I must admit I am impressed. Well, you could be the bait if you want to. I am sure whoever the leader of the Eclipses is, will come running for you with all his army."
"I am not here to impress you," I seethed.
"You are here just because you did impress me," he said after a pause, "by being what you are," his lips twitched in a smug smile and I wanted to burn him alive. I doubted whether he knew that I had fire. It would be better if he didn't.
"What do you want from me?" I asked as I swatted the guard's firm clasp from over my right arm, and stood up.
"It would have been much easier if you weren't this feisty," he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Can't always get what we want, right?" I glared at him.
I regretted my words as I saw him rising up from his seat, with a face drenched with cold fury. Prince Nova came closer to me and this time I did not move back. He waved a hand at the guards, and I heard them leaving the room. He always seemed to make people leave the room before showing his true colors.
"Why do you need a Luesha?" I asked when he was just a foot away from me.
"To make something," he answered, staring dead at me.
"How is that..."
He cut me off and drawled, "I need unnatural blood."
My body stiffened. But I asked, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice, "Why?"
"So many questions, dear Eleni. I thought it was obvious." He paused to tilt his head sideways, "What's the greatest power in our world?"
My eyes flew open wider than ever, gaze not wavering from his hazel one - I let my mind register the implication of his words.
He was after the Throne, after all the four elemental powers.
I gulped audibly, as the reality hit me. He was a cruel, cruel man, and the greatest power of the world, would be a weapon of destruction in his hands.
"The Throne will never choose you," I spat.
He laughed again, his voice piercing through my soul and the silence of the room. I loathed it.
"You think I don't know that?" He continued laughing, and wiped a tear off his eye theatrically, "Of course, it won't. That's why I need you - your filthy blood, precisely."
My face quivered with anger, but there was nothing I could do.
"What if I say no, Your Highness?" I raised my chin up.
"My dear Eleni, I thought we talked about this, didn't we? You don't have a choice," he smiled in his evil way.
I clenched my fists. If I drive a dagger through his heart now, would I be preventing the doom of the world?
"And I don't really have all day to deal with you," Prince Nova said in a tad gentler voice. But I knew his gentleness disguised his maniac side.
"How is my blood useful?" I asked.
He came closer, "Curiosity killed the Pegasus, dear Eleni," and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. I stood my ground even when his touch felt like a spider crawling on my skin.
"If you weren't so popular with your royal friends, I would have never let you go. As you can see, I have many rooms down here." He blinked slow. "But you know what happens when we tell-tale, right?"
Message received. I had to keep my mouth shut. The dead guards' faces flashed in my mind making me shiver.
But I had learnt something invaluable - He was cheating in the duels.
***
I was in danger. My life was in danger.
He needed my blood, what did that mean exactly? Was he really going to kill me? How would that help him in getting the Throne?
And just like countless other times, I found myself, buried deep in questions the answers to which were nowhere near my sight. Deeply perturbed, I walked on the silent evening street that was blemished with my long shadow, wiping my face with the sleeves of my tunic. I was freezing cold and my woolen scarf had fallen off somewhere.
I'd need a Mind Healer after this ordeal. My sanity was slipping away day by day.
"Eleni!"
I turned at the voice and found myself staring into the darkness of Doran's worried face. He was panting, indicating that he had been running too.
"Where were you? I have been sensing your fear for a long time, and it seemed like you..." he stopped, looking down my body and his eyes flew open, "Why is there blood on your trousers? Are you hurt somewhere?"
I quickly looked down and indeed there were drops of blood tinted over my clothes. Dead people's blood; I shuddered inwardly.
"Speak up, Eleni," he said, coming closer. Doran lifted my hand up, scrutinizing the blood, that had been rubbed off from the dagger, the dagger that lay low in my satchel, marred with a devil's blood.
"I was in a fight," I said, averting my eyes and pulled my hand out from his.
It would be so easy to tell him. He owed me the debt anyways. I could just ask him to take care of Prince Nova and save me.
But as I raised my head to peer into his dangerous yet beautiful eyes, I knew I could never do that. I could never do that to anyone. And never in a million years to Doran. I had seen what Prince Nova was capable of.
"Doran, listen. I am fine."
"You are not, Eleni. You can lie to everyone but not me. I feel what you feel. Your fear guides me to you, and here you are, soaking in blood. Who did you fight? Tell me, is someone after you?" he spoke fast, urgency oozing out of his words.
"I..."
"I don't want you to feel all that you are feeling. You are killing me. Have mercy." Something like annoyance leaked from his words.
He was hurting because of me. No one should go through what I did. "Look," my tone turned defensive, "I am sorry about that. I will try to, um, keep things in check. Sorry that it troubles you so much."
Doran suddenly raised his voice, "Do you think I am asking you because it troubles me?"
I couldn't look at him as his anger seeped out.
"Eleni, look at me." he took a small step closer, "I am hurting because you are hurting. Seeing you like this, is what hurts me. When I go through your fear and sorrow, all that I can think of is you are going through it too. Why don't you just get it?"
My mind went numb. Why did he have to care?
"If you knew," I said with my eyes shut, "You'd be after me too. So just stay away from me." I heard myself saying as I recalled his words from the Winter palace. He had almost agreed with Prince Nova's plan of executing the Eclipses.
"Why would you even say that? I would never do such a thing. Never to you." he said, his fingers touching the bloodstains on my waist. His eyes dancing with annoyance and concern, simultaneously.
"I am not so sure about that, Doran." After all you are also one of them.
"Eleni, please," Doran said with a shuddering breath, "Let me in - whatever it is that makes you miserable. Just let me in." His large palm sprawled on my waist tingled me with a burning desire.
"Don't come looking for me, if all you're looking for is trouble." I said and turned around to go, but felt his other hand wrap around my wrist and he pulled me back abruptly, making me turn around. Face to face.
"I come looking for you, when I want peace," he hissed, suddenly very close. His hardened chest rising and falling with mine, and his breath hot on my neck, a hand on my waist, like a vise. It had been a long time, since I was this close to someone and not felt afraid.
A sob held in tight, I looked up at him. Unsure of how long I could keep it all in, of how long I could hide it from him - from Doran, who was already melting me with just his words. His comfortable smell - like a sunflower field - was fast kicking down my guards away.
"I cannot give you what I don't have myself," I said but couldn't help but lay my head on his chest.
I shouldn't be doing this. I should stay away from him. Not get attached. He deserved better than a broken girl with a mysterious past.
He had gone stiff under my sudden closeness but recovering quickly he wrapped a hand around my back and I felt the other stroking my hair.
"We could find it together. Peace." He whispered near my ear. A whispery touch of his lips landed below my ear, and I arched into him. In that moment I wanted to tell him. Everything.
What was this sorcery that made me come so undone?
But right then, a sound of flapping wings fell on my ears. I looked above to see a massive red bird, heading straight towards where I and Doran stood. Unwillingly, I turned around to look at the bird soaring down and felt Doran's reluctance too, as he groaned.
The old Eleni, might've ducked and screamed in fear, but this Eleni, looked dead into its eyes, as it made its way to her. The red eyes, were familiar - it was the same bird who had been staring at me months ago, in the Lair.
I heard Doran utter from behind me, "What's she doing out of her cage?"
Doran thrust his arm out and the bird slowed its speed down swiftly and landed on his arm, shaking its golden-red plumage and tilting its head to look at me.
"What's this bird?" I asked, as I took a few steps away from Doran and looked at him and the bird.
Doran narrowed his eyes at me, "You must be kidding, it's a Phoenix, of course."
"But they are so rare. I have never seen one."
"Yes, not for Summer Realm, though. Every House has one," he said and gently patted the bird's feathers with his other hand. The bird seemed to like his gentle touch but its eyes were still on me. But unlike the last time, I did not find them scary.
"Is it yours?" I asked staring into the sunshine-like glow of the bird.
"Naah, this beauty is all Ralph's, you know, the Arien Defensor. It couldn't have chosen a worse time though..."
I looked at Doran, his face red with a gorgeous blush as I caught the meaning of his words. And I agreed, the bird had indeed chosen a wrong time. Doran's embrace still vibrated through me.
I asked, "This bird is Lord Ralph's? You know him?"
He narrowed his eyes at me, "We were trained together, so, naturally. Good friends with my... older brother. Why?"
I remembered Doran had taken his brother's death hard so I did not push it further. "Nothing, just curious."
"Well, please don't tell me that you're scared of creatures," he gave me a smug smile, and I could sense his subtle attempt at trying to lighten the mood.
In response, I extended my own arm out in front of the bird and to my surprise, the bird quickly flew over to perch on it. It was heavy but comforting in an odd way.
"What a traitor, this one," Doran chuckled and I couldn't help but smile a little.
I looked at the bird - it seemed very young - its long red tail, adorned with small golden feathers at places, its body heavy with voluminous furry feathers, and blood red eyes looking at me sideways. I grazed my cheek over its feathers and watched Doran's eyes widening.
"It's beautiful," I heard myself say as I kept looking into those dark scarlet orbs.
'You are not alone.'
I suddenly came out of a brief weird trance. I had felt something, hadn't I? It had been a fleeting feeling of warmth, of comfort. The bird! Did it sense me because it knew where I belonged - to the House of Aries, to the House of my father, to the house of my - Ralph's face rushed in my head - my father's son.
"Are you okay?" Doran asked, coming closer to nuzzle the Phoenix.
I nodded, feeling lighter, suddenly.
Doran reached his hand to take mine in his again. He wiped the blood off my hands on his tunic.
I looked at our hands, at his gentleness and felt my throat choking up, "I am an Earth Elemental." Reminding him. Reminding me.
Without losing a heartbeat, he said, "I don't care."
I looked into his genuine eyes before replying, "But I do."
He squeezed my hand tighter and nodded, somewhat hurt, but did not respond and with that, he let go off me and whistled softly for the Phoenix to climb up his outstretched hand.
All the places where Doran had touched me tingled with an otherworldly energy and now as his body moved away, I found numbing cold piercing me.
The bird seemed hesitant, but flew over to him. And the moment when it left me, I felt a sudden loss. A vein in my body prickled, sending a surge of heat.
"Shall I walk you?" Doran asked not meeting my eyes. "At least let me do that."
In that moment, I wanted to shout at him to save me. To save my crumbling life. To never leave my side. To just runaway with me.
But that would be nothing but - history repeating itself.
My parents had done the same, and I was the one repenting for their crimes.
"Thank you, but no, it's my journey alone." With that I walked away from the man, who I realized, was my only chance at peace.
***
Author's Note: Yeah I know, it's getting sadder. Even I had not expected for it to come to this. But, I have a small change of scenery planned. I am going to add a teeny-tiny chapter with another character's pov. It's really optional to read. But I kinda need to do it.
Again, it is really OPTIONAL to read so Imma upload it tomorrow and then again stick to our Wed-Sat schedule. Thanks for being with me so far. ❤