Page 4 of Tortured

I jolt to and prod my chest. My finger reaches through the hole in my garment and touches unmarred flesh. By the Creator!

Niawen’s light healed me again.

Niawen didn’t know the far-reaching effects her infusion of light would have on me. In her haste to heal my broken and battered body from Caedryn’s torture, she had shoved the entirety of her light into me. Caedryn had crushed my legs so horribly that I should have never walked again.

But here I am.

The influx of her light then gave me the strength of two dozen men to fight our way out of the citadel.

My body has changed because of it.

I am faster, my hearing sharper, my eyesight keen in the dark. Because of all the men coming after me, I became a killing machine.

What will become of me?

Especially now that I am linked to my nemesis.

“Niawen!” My heart scourged by torment, I shout to the skies and allow blackness to take me once more.

Chapter 4

Every fiber of my body aches the farther I run from Niawen. And as painful as letting her go is, each step away from her keeps her safe.

She is quite far away, somewhere northwest of here.

Somehow I sense her.

I don’t know how when I am bonded with Caedryn, but perhaps some bonds are stronger than those held in place by the light. Perhaps it is the sheer love I hold for her that lets me sense her whereabouts, that lets me glimpse her in my dreams occasionally.

And that is purgatory, seeing her and not being with her.

Someday. Someday I will find you again.

I am as far south as my father’s palace, well into my father’s realm. Caedryn’s men retreated for the time being. They don’t dare come near the city.

I stare at the palace on the hill. Cynwrig is a beautiful capital city, with the great Dillion Sea shimmering behind it. The gleam of light off it on this early spring day is blinding.

My family is in the city. Father, Mother, and my elder brother, Kelyn. I pray Tiwlip took my cousin Brenin back to Hyledd with the springtime snowmelt. I cannot bear to see her, not when I broke her heart by falling for Niawen. The fewer people I care about in Cynwrig, the fewer who’ll be in danger should the assassins become bold once more.

Ah, anxious to see Father and Mother again? Caedryn asks. He hasn’t left me alone during my weeks of travel.

Stay away from them. They have nothing to do with our quarrel.

We shall see about that. I can infiltrate the palace whenever I desire.

What’s stopping you? What do you want from me? I squeeze the branch I am gripping, and it crumbles in my hand. As badly as I want to see my family, I won’t go back to Cynwrig. With Caedryn still howling through my thoughts, threatening to murder those I love, I cannot draw his assassins into the city after me.

I have yet to call out to Seren, Niawen’s dragon sister. Though Niawen has given me her dragon stone, I have not used the telepathic connection the stone forged between Seren and me. Before we parted, Niawen told me Seren would gladly take me to Gorlassar, the dragon realm.

There, the High Emrys can tell me if I am doomed to remain a monster—this fused embodiment of emrys and human—and if I can get rid of Caedryn in my head.

Then I can return to Niawen, without endangering her.

For days now, I feel Seren at the edge of my mind. She must know something happened to Niawen with the transfer of the dragon stone, but she hasn’t spoken to me yet. And pride keeps me from calling out to her.

But I need help. It’s time I stop being stubborn.

It’s more than time, a smooth voice says in my mind.

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