Page 29 of A World of Ruins

‘Our world is slowly dying, Hira,’ I say. ‘Soon, the real threat won’t be Aurum; it will be that our crops are dying, the animals struggling, and we are fending for what is left of it all. So, yes, maybe it was selfish of me to go after Darius when he doesn’t even remember who I am, but I do not regret it. Sometimes, a sacrifice must be made, and I chose what I felt was right. We were only delaying what would come sooner or later.’

The following silence feels heavy against my chest as the three leaders ponder my words. I’m unsure what to do with my hands or legs as I stand there waiting for them to berate me for talking this way to such Aerian warriors. Warriors who can tear me apart in their Phoenix form just as quickly.

‘You should never have brought them here, Hira.’ Col is the first to speak as she chews on her tongue with a furious gleam in her eyes. ‘You and your soft spot for humankind—’

‘Enough.’ Hira snaps her head towards Col and effectively shuts her up with just one glance. ‘Remember your place.’ As Hira looks at me, a gentle smile peels her lips back, though it is barely noticed by her sisters. ‘She is Solaris’s reincarnation, after all.’

A few quiet beats pass as relief sweeps over me. Hira has a softer soul than her siblings. I have noticed it ever since I first met her on Noctura night.

‘Well, if—’ Ara starts to say, when the double doors are pushed open and Link and Rydan burst through with Tibith.

From their dishevelled appearances and wide eyes, I instantly know what this is about.

Darius.

I’m charging down the brick stairs to where the dungeons are situated within the palace. Link, Rydan and Tibith are hot on my trail, telling me to calm down, but it’s futile to even suggest that.

‘Now, who might you be?’

I shake my head and the bright light from the sconces stings my eyes. After our attack on Aurum, my brothers took an unconscious Darius to the infirmary to rest. According to Link and Rydan, when he awoke, he began to attack Aerians despite his inability to use his powers. It took over five warriors to subdue him and throw him in a cell for their own safety.

‘Now, who might you be?’

I grab hold of the coin around my neck and clutch it tight as I stop beneath an archway where Gus stands with a torn expression on his face. Water drips from the brick ceiling, and flashbacks to the time Darius was inside Emberwell’s dungeons make my throat thicken.

‘Miss Nara, why am I not allowed to see him?’

Glancing down at my feet, I see Tibith’s big round eyes looking up at me, and my heart might as well just shatter to pieces. ‘It is safer if you stay up there with the rest,’ I say quietly, knowing that Tibith won’t understand why. He thinks Darius remembers him; hethinksit is all just a matter of Darius needing rest, and he will be better again.

I so wish it could be.

‘Ambrose,’ Rydan says. ‘Do you really think—’

‘Take him to your room and do not let him out until I am back,’ I order, and I can see it in his eyes that he wants to reason otherwise. I pin him with a stare that says I am not up to negotiating. He and Link start to turn away from me, but their gazes remain on me as they look over their shoulders. Tibith soon follows them, his head hung low and ears flopping downwards with disappointment.

I heave back a breath, squaring my shoulders before I whirl around to face Gus. ‘Please?’ My voice cracks with desperation. ‘Let me speak to him.’

‘Nara, he doesn’t—’ He’s lost for words, anger swirling in his eyes like the ones Darius beheld me with back at Aurum’s palace. ‘Whatever Aurum has done, Darius only seems to believe in another reality. One whereyoudo not exist.’

His answer feels like I’ve been struck with a whip one too many times.

‘Now, who might you be?’

‘His life revolves around the idea that he grew up with Lorcan and Rayth, that Aurum never died, and that Tibith, you, Terranos, none of it crossed his path.’

I feel Gus’s hand touch my arm in a comforting way, and looking up at him, I make the conscious decision that whether or not he knows me, it will not stay this way for long. I promise that. ‘Then I will make him remember,’ I say and barge past Gus as I hear him sigh before calling out my name. But it is too late to start listening because, as I round the hallways of the dungeon, I pause by one of the cells where Darius sits against the wall with one knee raised to his chest and the other straight out in front of him as his head lolls back.

The small, barred window above him doesn’t let in much light, but I can still make out his face in the dimness as the flames from the sconces behind me flicker. A few skeletal bones scatter the ground, and I shake my head, despising the thought that he was brought here because he wanted to defend himself.

His eyes are closed, but he smiles as if he knows I am here. ‘I’m receiving so many visitors today,’ he drawls, deep and teasingly. He tips his head forward and gestures to the tiny space around him. ‘Welcome to my humble abode; please, come sit.’

My lungs feel as if something is compressing them, two walls closing in on me and crushing my organs. I can’t find the words I want to say, so I stare silently.

‘No?’ he says. I don’t answer. ‘Fine. Suit yourself.’ He drops his head back against the wall, quickly dismissing me.

Devastation slams across my face like a crushing blow. ‘Do you truly not know who I am?’

He pops one eye open to look at me. ‘Should I?’

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