Page 18 of Pain Run Rampant

After he killed my mom.

Invictis pulls away from me after that, giving his back to me as Frederick helps me fix my shirt and lets me lean on him as we get to our feet. I’m still a bit woozy; a glance at the ground where I was shows just how much blood I lost. That fucking beast got me good.

“You need to rest,” Frederick advises me, the only reason I’m staying upright and not wobbling back and forth. “You lost a lot of blood, Rey.”

“I can rest after we see what’s on the other side of this arena,” I tell him. My fingertips are still numb, but the feeling is coming back to my lips, so that’s a good sign. Once we’re out of this stupid labyrinth I’ll rest a bit, but for now, we push on ahead.

On the other side of the arena, another door sits. This door was closed before, but when the creature fell to Invictis, itopened on its own, magically, like the death of the creature was its key. I have to use Frederick for support as we walk, but he doesn’t seem to mind. I have the feeling my lack of magic use will be brought up again… and I’ll have to tell him the truth.

Past that door is another long hall, although it’s not as long as the entry hall. Invictis lights the way with his magic, and soon enough we enter the room the hall leads to. A smaller, circular room that, square-footage-wise, is probably as big as the apartment I had above Frank’s bar. Not large at all, but apparently big enough for a piece of Invictis.

In the center of the room is a box. That box rests comfortably on a stone altar, faded etchings on the stone around it. A gilded silver color, the box appears almost alien, like no metalworker could have created it, way too perfect of a square.

I lean on the altar instead of Frederick so he can study the room. As I study that box, I hear Frederick say, “Incredible. I’ve never seen anything like this. These etchings…” He touches the inscribed words on the altar. “They’re not old Laconian. It’s another language. I don’t know what it says. Do you?”

Whether he’s asking me or Invictis doesn’t matter. I can’t read it, and Invictis just shrugs.

“It almost looks like it’s incomplete.” He reaches into his bag and pulls out a blank journal and some charcoal. “I need to take an etching. Rey, you should sit down.”

I should. I can’t feel my feet. But I can’t pull away from the box. My mind can’t wrap around the fact that a part of Invictis was inside that box twenty years ago. I can’t grasp it. It seems insane to me to think about the first high empress facing him on her own and separating him into three pieces, creating these boxes and these labyrinths and locking him away—and not only that, but placing a spell on him that, if he’s ever awoken, he would have to bend to the will of those that brought him out of his slumber.

The first empress was the most powerful out of them all. Pit her against any of her successors, and it’d be no contest. I thought I was pretty badass with the magic, but after binding Invictis to me, it’s like all my magic is gone.

How am I supposed to live up to the first high empress? Laconia deserves better.

My fingertips brush against the closest edge of the box, and just like that, the lights go out. I pass out.

Chapter Nine

I stand in an empty city built before my arrival. Everything is foreign but familiar. Standing at the precipice of change, I know I will not back down. I cannot. This land is cursed, tainted by a force no one can understand. The aether is the lifeblood of Laconia… and all it would take for everything to change is a single drop of poison.

I did not know it then, but my arrival in the land that would become Laconia would be that poison. I was the first drop. Every empress after added to the poison, until that poison became strong enough.

Until you.

Me. Until me.

I wake with a start, my breathing unsteady as I slowly sit up and feel my head. It pounds a little, but I can ignore it—mostly because my mind is too busy remembering what that inner voice told me after I passed out.

It was the memory of the first high empress. The memory must’ve been stored inside that box with Invictis, and when he was unleashed, the memory remained, waiting for someone to activate it.

Waiting for me.

It takes me a moment to realize I’m outside. One of the guys must’ve carried me out of the labyrinth when I passed out. I’m by a fire, a sky of dusk above me, pretty colors dancing off the few clouds there are.

Frederick notices I’m awake, and he comes to sit near me, his brows drawn together like he’s studying a science experiment he can’t quite figure out. Behind him, I see Invictis on the other side of the fire, pretending not to watch us, but not being covert enough to get away with it.

“Are you all right?” Frederick asks me, his tone laced with concern. “When you passed out… I thought the worst.” He starts to reach for my face, but he stops short of touching me, settling for saying, “I told you you lost too much blood. Your body decided to rest for you.”

“Did you get everything you needed from the labyrinth?” I ask. My voice comes out dry, and Frederick hands me a flask of water, which I gratefully take and drink.

He nods. “Invictis held onto you while I… I said we could go back, but I didn’t want to risk having to fight that creature again. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m glad you got what you needed,” I say, slow to return the water.

Frederick frowns at me. “Rey, why didn’t you use your magic against that beast? Why did you let it attack you like that?” The way he keeps looking at me, I can tell he’s not going to let it go. He wants an answer and he won’t stop until he gets one.

“I…” My feeble response trails off. I practiced coming clean in my head so many times, and yet not once did I ever expect we’d be where we are, so far removed from civilization, just me, Frederick, and Invictis.

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