Page 1 of Trial By Fire

PROLOGUE

After all this time here the thing that still affects me the most in this place is the smell. From the moment I wake up to the moment I pass out from exhaustion, the rancid smell of decay, mildew, and bodily waste is a repetitive shock to my olfactory senses. Eventually your nose is supposed to go blind, and the smell becomes a part of your everyday life. Yet my sense of smell is constantly assaulted. And this isn’t living. It isn’t death either. At this point I wish for death. Considering I’m immortal, living this half-life at the bottom of a dank, dark hole is as close as I’m going to get.

Shifting into a sitting position, the muscles in my legs contract from my lack of space and disuse. I grit my teeth against the pain, attempting to stretch, but there isn’t much room in my circular cell. I can either lay down in a ball on the mud-caked floor or stand hunched over. This place wasn’t built for comfort. A circular shaped hole the size of a large apple is the only light that comes through the floor, the same hole I use to piss and shit in. It’s the only way I can tell the passage of time in this literal shit hole. Thirty years I’ve been down here, which is like thirty minutes to a Fae, and yet it feels longer.

I’ve been forgotten. The only contact I have with the outside world is the meager scraps of food the guards throw down here to keep me alive, well, barely. I can hear their boots as they make their way down the stairs. That’s when the morning wails begin from the other prisoners. They beg and plead to be released, hoping their queen will show them mercy, but it will never come. “The Fae don’t kill their own,” I mutter to myself as the voices get louder as the boots come closer. That was one of our only laws. The Fae have found other ingenious means to bring pain and suffering, it’s delivered in such a way that death becomes a blessing. We are immortal, but it doesn’t mean we can’t die, just not at the hands of one another. It’s the one law that our queen follows without question.

“Dain.” I look up at the sound of my name. The screeching sound of hinges moving on the hatch door has me ducking my head and covering my ears from the pain it causes. I know it is the guards delivering my food, but they’ve never called me by my name. Hearing it after all this time sounds foreign to my ears—it’s as if I’ve been in some form of mental stasis. The light turns on in my brain and sadly I remember who I am and why I am here. I’m hit with a rush of grief and sadness as reality comes crashing down around me. Even after all this time my heart longs for the love I lost and the future I will never have.

Thana.

Her name echoes in the back of my mind until it manifests into her beautiful image. I can picture her eyes, luscious lips, and her hair spread out around the pillow as she writhes underneath me. My heart constricts, and I grab my chest from the pain the memory causes, therefore I’ve tried to forget who I am. I remind myself I am nobody. I try not to think of her, to shut her memory out. To remember she is dead only adds to my suffering in this fucked up place. So, I am not Dain, I’m a husk with an immortal heartbeat.

A metal tray descends from above. It bangs against the bricks as it hovers out of my reach, distracting me from my miserable thoughts. I turn my head away, refusing to eat. What’s the point?

“Oh, Dain, you look wretched. The smell in this place is revolting.” Her voice pierces the darkness threatening to take me under. My grief turns to red hot rage in an instant. I heard boots, not heels a few moments ago. Had I zoned out so quickly? Of all the Fae in the world, I should have felt her presence like a sharp slap in the face.

“Sister.” My voice cracks from disuse. My mouth is parched from a lack of water. My tongue feels thick and clumsy as I mumble the title she lost a long time ago. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” I clear my throat. Reaching up to the food tray, I grab the small cup of water we receive with every meal and gulp it down hungrily. Knowing her as I do I know for a fact that this is not a social visit. I guess after all this time she has finally decided what she wants to do with me.

“Cut the pleasantries, Dain. It’s Maurelle to you, or better yet, Queen Maurelle.” Her voice carries down, dangling in front of me as if she has transported herself right in front of me. She is such a showoff. She can’t help but show her dominance in this moment. She knows I am weak and feeble, unable to do any form of magic. I ache for the night and the moon to recharge me. When I was first thrown down here, it was the worst form of detox to be cut off from the one thing that made me, well, me. Now, my magic is a whisper of what it used to be. A snap of my fingers is just that, a snap. I’m no longer able to cast a spell with ease. My fires have died a long time ago, in this weakened state I can’t summon smoke. Depriving a Fae of solar or lunar energies is another way they torture you here. I haven’t felt my magic stir inside of me in years; I may as well be Human.

“Poor, Dain.” Her laugh is like nails on a chalkboard, her looming shadow dances in front of me. If only she was down here, I’d wrap my hands around her neck and use the last of my strength to drain the life from her veins. The laws be damned!

“Are you here to taunt me, Maurelle? You’re a bit late for that. Thirty years too late,” I grate out. I cough, my mouth has already gone dry again.

“You betrayed me, Dain. You were my emissary. My spy. My brother!” She yells, and the cell rocks, knocking a few loose bricks from the wall. I hold my hands up to stop them from hitting me. The shadow of Maurelle laughs, but there is no joy in it. “You knew my plans forIncantatia. You witnessed the vision of a world where the Fae is the only Realm beyond Earth. Dragons would become myth. Shifters wouldn’t be a threat living in hiding amongst humans. Druids and Mages to become Witches and Warlocks with next to no magic.” Her voice sounds far away, the moment she was shown this vision she had been determined to make it the Fae’s reality. She became a Fae obsessed.

“Parallel universes and interdimensional bubbles—they’re all pseudo-scientific theories. You know it! The world we saw does not exist!” I raise my voice, lifting my head so that I can be heard throughout the jail. I hear the moment she loses control, her shadow magic leaves the hole, and I can hear her heels click back and forth across the stone floor up above. She’s pacing. Good.

“It’s true. My advisors are not wrong!” she yells down at me. I don’t reply. By my so-called betrayal she knows how I feel about her eradication of entire Realms for the greater good of Incantatia. For a moment I count her steps as she paces. Prisoners continue to call out to her for their freedom, she yells out for them to be quiet, and the entire place falls silent.

I reach up to the tray of food and grab a stale bread roll and swallow it down, wishing I hadn’t scoffed down all my water. I reach for the piece of fruit on the tray, and I pause. We don’t usually receive things like this down here, so I’m a bit wary. I carefully remove my hand, deciding not to continue my breakfast, deciding the bread and water were enough. With my sister’s untimely visit, the rest of it could be poisoned.

“She’s dead, you know.” Maurelle finally says, breaking the silence. “Oh, that’s right, she was alive when I threw you down here. How did it feel when the news trickled down to you?” She claps in excitement, and although I can’t see her face, I know she’s enjoying this. “Thaddeus was your idea. Remember when we were on the same page? Well, I cultivated that relationship. I made promises that eventually I won’t keep. Your precious Thana, stabbed to death by her council.” The venom in her words reaches me, grabbing hold of my heart and squeezes it further. I clutch at my chest again, my dry throat makes it hard to breathe, the grief takes me under, and I slide to the floor.

“I’m done listening to you. Leave me here.” I barely get the words out as my face touches the moss covered stone below me. The familiar scent of mud and waste is almost a comfort, my mind latches on to it, helping me crawl back into the depths of my own mind. Reminding myself I am nobody. I am no one.

“Oh no! I came here for a reason, Dain. You see, I know what you’ve done. I know you chose your love for her over your duty to your people. I know you shared her bed and her mates welcomed you with open arms. I also know when she went into heat they invited you into their cave. Am I lying, brother?” Maurelle’s voice drips with malice as she speaks of things I thought I was able to keep from her. How wrong I was. I was thrown in here before I could even reason with her. So, why now?

“Answer me, Dain!” she screams, and the cell begins to crumble around me again. A huge brick strikes my leg, and I need to grit my teeth to stop myself from screaming.

“It’s true!” I yell. I didn’t intend to fall in love with Thana, but she was mine the minute I set eyes on her. I didn’t set out to go against my sister’s, my queen’s wishes. My heart and soul had other plans. The hole goes stops rocking yet debris and dust continues to fall like snow over me, making it harder to breathe.

“So, you see, I am here to see you because I have a problem. I need you to bring her to me. Redeem yourself, brother. Since we shared the same womb, I’ll give you another chance to prove your loyalty to the Fae,” she says calmly, like she hadn’t tried to bring the building down on top of me. I steel myself, ready to reject whatever bargain she wants to strike with me. I want nothing to do with her. I would rather continue to rot in this hole than do her bidding. I was preparing myself to say just that when she cuts me off before I can speak.

“Before you say no, you may want to sit down, brother. Oh yes, you already are.” She laughs again, and a chill of dread runs through me, seeping into my skin. I can almost taste the foreboding nature of her words.

“Are you with me, Dain?” she shouts down at me.

“Whether I’m with you or not, you are going to tell me regardless. Get it over with, Maurelle.” I sigh before I maneuver myself into a reclining position.

“It appears you left a lasting legacy without even realizing it. I wasn’t sure at first. I thought this problem could be handled by my little pet project I let loose on the world, yet he appears to have gone rogue.” She sighs. I roll my eyes. She is so mind-numbingly dramatic, and it seems she’s gotten worse over the years. I can almost see her clutching her jewels around her neck because something didn’t go her way. After a long moment of silence, she continues. “What better way to solve my problems than to have a little family reunion?” The longer she talks, the angrier I become, and I am done with this vague conversation.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. If you want me to help you, then tell me what you need from me,” I say, resigned to my fate. She won’t let me say no. It’s just another way to make me suffer.

“Who would have thought Thana’s daughter, who we thought was dead, would suddenly show up on our radar.” I don’t respond, but I sigh in relief knowing baby Cordelia managed to survive. I only saw her a month after her birth, the day I was ambushed by Thaddeus and his Barons when they caused the death of Thana’s mates. The day I was thrown down here. The day I might as well have died right along with them.

“Can you believe she’s been on Earth this entire time? If I’d known, I would have killed her myself. Then there would be no one left to save the Dragons, and Arcadia would shrivel up and die. Leaving me to deal with Celestia as I planned,” she continues to talk, but all I can think about is what Thana must have been thinking and feeling when she sent her child to Earth. She wanted to hide her, powerless and away from those who want to harm her. It should have worked.

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