Page 175 of Rising Out of the Darkness
The scar behind my neck burned against my flesh, as if responding to my father’s words.
“Every Ascension, he places another curse upon this land. Each new Elysian who goes through the ceremony leaves with substantially less dynamis as the kingdom darkens and decays.”
“Darkens and decays?”
“Have you not noticed that everything in this lair is dead, foul-smelling, and rotted to the core?”
I took a moment to look again at my surroundings. He was right, this place smelled like the breath of ten thousand of those dark beasts. Darkness shrouded every corner. Everywhere I looked screamed death.
“These roots are burrowing their way through the kingdom, killing the land. Poisoning the water in the aqueducts.”
My breath caught in my chest, his words striking a chord within me. Could this be why my father had been shutting off the water in different areas of the city?
“Those beasts…those humans and Elysians who have gone missing …” His voice faded off, allowing me to puzzle together what he hadn’t voiced.
“He didn’t—” My teeth gnawed against my cheek. “Father, please tell me those beasts are not subjects of our kingdom?” I tried to fight off the wave of nausea.
An audible swallow came from my father. “I could tell you that they aren’t, but I’m tired of lying to you, Declan.”
The blood beneath my skin boiled. When I finally got my hands on Alastor, I was going to destroy him. Slowly. Painfully. Until he begged for mercy that I would happily deny him.
“I fear, if we do not stop Alastor, our entire kingdom will be consumed entirely by this darkness and the evil that lives inside of it. He’s destroying the Kingdom inside and out. You and Elena are the only ones capable of stopping him.” A gurgled cough rattled from my father’s chest. “Son, I don’t think I have much longer.”
Every selfish act that he had committed over the years had led this kingdom to where we were now. For a long time, I’d assumed that something was going on with my father, but anger and rage had blinded me, stopping me from confronting him about it. The main reason I’d stayed for so long was to see if he would have a change of heart.
Remorse welled inside my stomach. Perhaps, if I had intervened sooner, we wouldn’t have been in this predicament. As I was about to respond to my father for possibly the last time, the sound of a slow clap floated down to us.
“Well done, Alaric. You always did have quite the flair for dramatics,” Alastor scoffed. “Now that you’re both done with your happy little family reunion, I’d like you both to join me.”
With a snap of his fingers, two hooded creatures descended upon us. Black claws extended out of the sleeve of the being that was closest to me. It waved its repulsive hand, and the vines ripped free of my flesh at an excruciatingly painful rate. Both creatures’ faces were shielded inside the dark void of their deep hoods, but I could feel their gazes burning my skin.
My father yelled beside me as the creature pulled him out of the ground and wrapped its clawed hands around his arms to hold him upright. It was pressing straight into the broken bone protruding from my father’s arm.
“Get your claws away from me!” His words thundered as the creature next to me pulled me to my feet as well. The dark being next to my father growled, digging its claws deeper into his arm, silencing him with pain. The color left in his face dimmed as he tried to endure it silently.
“We don’t have all day. Get them up here!” Alastor roared from above.
Claws wrapped tighter around me, and my feet lifted off the ground. The hooded creatures floated us out of the sunken tomb we’d been in.
As soon as my feet touched the ground, my breath hitched at the sight that lay all around me. Thousands of these sunken holes spread throughout the cavern as dark beasts and more of the creatures behind me roved around.
How many others did Alastor have down here?
Alastor stepped directly into my eyeline. A malicious smirk spread across his face. “Welcome to Hells, Declan.”
Before I could snap back a response, the creature kicked my legs out from under me, sending me crashing to the rock.Gravel embedded itself into my ripped flesh. I winced as the creature pulled my arms above my head and began to drag me away. A dark rumble of laughter bellowed from Alastor as he stalked ahead of us.
The smell of sea salt and the crash of waves brushed against my senses as the creature continued to drag me. Icy water flooded my back and continued to coat the rest of my body as it was drug through it. A hiss slipped from my father behind me as they wrapped chains around my father’s wrist and connected them to the black rock behind him.
Whimpers assaulted my ears, and my gaze landed onto the mangled body chained against the rock in front of me. Only a few specks of her auburn hair showed through the blood that stained it. Pieces of my heart shattered as my eyes rolled over every cut, bruise and burn to her beautiful body. The radiant glow of her freckles had dimmed, and my Wildfire’s eyes were swollen shut. The rise and fall of her chest was barely noticeable.
Footsteps splashed behind the rock. The chains behind her sagged and pulled backwards. My eyes followed the chain, which ended in the hands of a familiar Elysian.Will.
Rage bubbled and boiled beneath my skin. Though I still couldn’t feel my dynamis, the overwhelming need to avenge Lena gave me strength.
The hooded creature was still standing directly behind me. A sadistic grin grew upon my face. I kicked my feet around the creature’s, pinned it with my thighs, and bit down hard on its leg. An otherworldly shriek fled from the creature as its thick, foul-smelling blood coated my mouth. While it was distracted, I threw it over my shoulder into the water, holding its head underneath with the weight of my body.
Alastor hissed a command in another dialect at the creature near my father, and in seconds it was on top of me. Its claws dug deep into my shoulders as searing pain peeled at my flesh.The other creature flailed beneath me as I repeatedly jabbed my elbow into the chest of the one latched onto my back. Underneath me, the movements slowed until there was nothing. Twisting my body on top of my other assailant, I slammed its head into the same position beneath the water.
