//Song: Descent - Lawless feat. Dawn Golden-Love this song it reminded me much of them together. Don't know why. Melody maybe?
PLEASE READ: A far warning, and I don't normally do this, this chapter wasn't easy to write. It may be difficult to read. I don't shy away from descriptions in this one. I don't leave much to the imagination. If anything having to do with the violence of war isn't your thing, skip this chapter.
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I breathed in the forest as we continued up and down the winding roads. I let it fill my lungs completely, welcoming the frosty air around me. I felt the forest calling me. I felt it calling my power.
I wanted to touch everything. I wanted to feel the hum of life in the forest beneath my fingers.
Every time I did, the trees, the ground, the water responded enveloping me a comforting embrace.
Welcoming me home.
"It's incredible," Julian said at one point. "Everything was dead and now it won't stop calling me."
I turned to him with a smile.
"I can't believe you did this."
I shook my head reaching for his free hand. I held his hand with both of mine. It was soothing. He didn't realize he was giving off the same kind of energy. "We did this."
He laughed softly, shaking his head as he did. When he looked up again, his eyes raised he stopped.
I stopped with him, following his eyes.
Large marble arches towered in the horizon past the trees. Gates, I realized.
Julian pulled my hand back making me look at him. A moment before, he had been happy but when he looked at me again, his expression changed. He was solemn, struggling to find words again. "Emylin, I want you to prepare yourself."
I frowned.
I watched his Adam's Apple bob as he swallowed. "You might not like what you find. Remember, Robyn attacked Elysium. He killed Elysians. Warren did his best afterward to do right by them."
Slowly, I nodded.
He placed a comforting hand on my cheek. "I will be with you, every step."
I placed my hand on his, appreciating his sentiment. "Thank you."
I exhaled slowly when I faced the gates again, gathering my courage. I wanted to learn about Elysium. I wanted to know more about where I came from. I never actually considered what I would find when I finally made it there.
What would I find? What if it wasn't something I was ready to see?
With Julian's hand in mine, I spectered to the arches.
I had been right about the arches. They were a grand entrance with larger than life doors between the arches. The entrance was at the end of the trail which overlooked a large valley full of trees and rivers. The doors swung open, the strong wind made them move on their hinges, making a terrible creaking sound as they did.
I moved past the doors, pulling one of them open to let myself and Julian through. The doors opened to a large courtyard, the center of which held a very large, empty fountain. Statues and busts of women and men converged in the middle, reminding me of the fountains of older European cities. Large, marble buildings were on either side of it with a set of stairs that led away and up from the courtyard away from view.
I would have been in awe in the architecture of the city. I would have been in awe of the intricacies of the fountain, the doorway of the buildings I could see and the patterns sketched into the marble. I would have been in awe of the way the buildings seemed to blend into the mountain behind it as if it had come from the mountain itself or even the small waterfalls that cascaded nearby giving the city an otherworldly look.
But my eyes couldn't tear away from the floor. It couldn't tear away from the brown stained marble, or the scorched ash on the walls. Everywhere I looked there was the odious stain, over and over and over.
I swallowed when I realized what it was.
And the realization of it clenched my heart.
It was as if blood had been free-flowing through the streets. Scorched marks and soot tainted the window frames of the building as if there had been a fire on the inside and the flames licked the frames of the open window.
I felt a new pressure in my chest as I continued to walk through the empty streets. It grew as I went up the stairs that wound up around buildings then flattened to streets again.
But the scenes were all the same.
Brown-reddish stains were on the walls and ground on the otherwise impeccable white. The stains were concentrated, not very large or very far from what I imagined a person's dimensions would be. Doors were thrown open, market stands lay in shambles on the floor. Or at least, what I imagined were market stands that lined up against the walls in the street. The wood was destroyed and rotting, with gold and silver chains peeking below the heaps of them.
And the silence.
The silence was deafening. It assaulted all of my sense. The only sound I could hear echoing off the walls were of my and Julian's boots crunching the overgrown grass and fallen leaves from the trees overhead.
A large reddish stain in the middle of the street caught my attention. Streaks of the same color extended to doors nearby and I immediately knew what it was. People had been dragged from their homes and their bloodied bodies were piled together in the middle of the street.
I swallowed the bile that threatened to rise, raising a shaking hand to my lips.
I turned away, unable to bear the feeling of my heart breaking.
Meeting an open door, I went through it, making my way inside.
Everything had been destroyed. But I could tell it had been a home. There was a small kitchen, dining room, and living room. As I wandered up the stairs, my fingers met the soot that stained the walls. It wouldn't come off. The years and climate had fused it to the wall.
I made my way into a room and stopped.
A baby room.
A crib sat abandoned against a wall of the room. As soon as I saw the blood on the mattress and wall, I crumbled on the floor, my knees giving out.
I couldn't look away. I couldn't stop thinking about the child whose room it belonged to. I reached out to a charred stuffed animal on the floor and held it in my hands. My heart ached as I heard the familiar rattle of a baby's toy as I moved it in my hands.
I didn't even turn when I spoke to Julian.
"How did they get in?" I swallowed. "If Elysium is protected by Light magic, how did Robyn get in?"
"Robyn kidnapped a Light fae and used his blood to temporarily weaken the wards."
I swallowed. "Tell me everything," I whispered. "I want to know how it all happened."
After a moment, Julian spoke. His tone was neutral, unattached. Like he was reciting literature from memory. "Robyn wasn't always a bad guy. When he was King, we had peace. There were small disputes here and there and we did go to war but it was always in defense. The Underworld never moved against any other Queendom before. Tianna died in childbirth at the Keep. Robyn had asked a small group of Light Fae to help him save his wife and child but they refused. Tianna made a bargain with the Dark Ones, forbidden to all fae." He paused. "The small group of Light Fae, they couldn't do anything. They knew if the child came forth, it would be an abomination, only the first to break the seals but not the last. Robyn swore revenge on the group." He sighed. "He and a small group of men tortured and killed them."
I swallowed, remembering a conversation from that morning. "Including Asmo."
"Yes," Julian finally said, his tone still flat. "Including Asmodeus."
He continued. "Robyn wasn't satisfied apparently. It took him a matter of days to convince the army and powerful Lords and Ladies using his Silvertongue abilities. It was to make sure no one would stop him and come to his defense when he was questioned. One thing you should know about Silvertongues. If you are related by blood, the abilities won't work. It also doesn't work on the Light Fae." He sighed. "By the time I found out, I was powerless to stop the forces in Skryen. They rallied under my father and went to him. Asmodeus, knowing his plan, and powerless to stop him, went to Warren." He shook his head. "When they were young, Warren had been the favorite of Queen Mavka's children. Most wanted him to be king when she died but he conceded to Robyn who was much better with the army. Warren had a following, very devoted men and women who had not been convinced of Robyn's plan yet. That's how Warren was able to overcome him at last."
He paused for a moment. "Robyn worked fast once he knew Warren had been called. First, they kidnapped two men and one woman from Elysium. One man, they bled dry and used his blood to drop the wards long enough for a small army to get inside the cities. They came in at night, and first killed all the women who protected the city then their families. Fae women have always been more powerful than men, they knew once the women were killed, everything else would fall. And it did. This was all after they killed all of the half-breeds they knew about in the Underworld, then the Other Queendoms."
I had my head in my hands when he finished, fighting back the sobs that threatened to rip through me. I felt hollow. I was empty. I could feel the death around me, I felt it hanging over me, draped over my shoulders like a cloak. It weighed down on me heavily.
Breathing was difficult. Moving was out of the question. I couldn't move my limbs. I was afraid that if I did, the gaping hole in my soul would expand and swallow me whole.
Julian's arms were around me at once, pulling me into a strong embrace. He tucked my head into the crook of his neck and held me as I cried into his chest.