Page 75 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
Cold emotion pierced my chest at the mention of Emrys. The secrets he kept, the duality of his character, and why he would allow Montagor inside his house. The iron burns on my wrist stung in agreement with my annoyance.
It didn’t matter. Emrys’s secrets weren’t important now and I wasn’t foolish enough not to accept I was out my depth.
‘I’ll get him.’ William rushed off into the dark night.
No. He shouldn’t be on his own. Not here.
I opened my mouth, stepping forward to follow, but before I could utter a word the damp earth of the embankment gave way beneath William. His cry of alarm pierced the night as he twisted and tumbled over himself.
‘William !’ Alma shrieked, the pair of us throwing ourselves over the edge too, stumbling and skidding after him. Rocks tumbled free and bushes cracked as the loose earth gave way.
William lay in a heap at the bottom of the steep drop. Filthy, with brambles tangled in his curls and his horns. He held onto his arm as he laid awkwardly on the wet earth.
‘Stay still !’ I commanded, using the roots protruding from the dry, dead earth to lower myself down to him, landing in a heap of now-ruined skirts.
‘Show me where it hurts.’ I knelt at his side. Horrid guilt clawing at my insides as I waited for him to gather his breath, finding little relief as Alma landed soundlessly next to me.
‘Let me check your head.’ Her hand pressed against the boy’s forehead, rubbing the dirt from his skin as her other hand went gently to the side of his neck. Fingers already turning into claws with her worry.
‘William? Where does it hurt?’ I asked, starting my examination with the arm he clutched to his chest, but his lip trembled slightly in response, eyes still straight ahead and his complexion deathly pale.
‘K-Kat,’ he stuttered.
‘I’m sorry. It isn’t your—’ I shook my head in annoyance.
‘Is that a body?’ Alma’s words were higher in pitch than normal. William nodded his head incessantly, forcing me to follow his gaze, and there, right at his feet, was a body. Milky dead eyes staring right at us, its soil-filled mouth hanging open in an eternal scream.
I recoiled from it, landing next to William, hands buried in the wet earth either side of me.
Here, a voice called in the back of my mind. Ice filled my veins as I felt the strange thickness of the air, the bitterness of the cold, but still my breath didn’t mist.
Unnatural. I took hold of William’s good hand, feeling it shake, grip brutally tight with fear.
Only it wasn’t fear that seared through me, that twisted like molten liquid in my gut. No, it was rage as I took in another deep breath. Tasting the death and desperation on the damp air. What I’d missed in my panic. The sourness of it coating my lips as the veins in my hands began to glow lilac. The pain of those burns on my wrists not enough to temper it as I finally saw what lay before us.
Dark stone covered in strange grey moss, as if all colour had been drained from it. An arched opening that led to nothing but darkness. Ominous ancient ruins that even the wind didn’t dare howl through. Just a deadly silence, that darkness staring back in challenge, watching us. The clouds shifted above, drenching the cursed place in a pale column of moonlight, turning the Verr stone silver.
Beware of the Old Gods who wield silver, demon fire, as bright and endless as moonlight above.
Verr stone was used to contain fey, to limit their power so they could be killed easily. Sacrificed for bad bargains.
A foul place like this was what they saw in their last moments on earth, nothing but darkness and hate. It lingered here still, pressed into the wet mud, leaving a biting cold sensation against my skin.
I felt a single tear roll down my cheek, overwhelmed by the cruelty of this place.
‘Kat?’ William whispered as he tried to scramble back from the body, only to wince in pain again.
I didn’t bother with a summoning charm, knowing the Verr stone would weaken anything I conjured. So, I let my Kysillian flames free, licking across my palm and twining between my fingers. Magic no stone or darkness could snuff out. Something it would remember. I let it twist into a sphere of fiery light, as I released it into the darkness.
Alma called my name in caution, but I was done with warnings as I watched those purple and blue flames illuminate the entrance to that foul place. Looming before us like a giant beast. We stood in its jagged maw made of nothing but cursed stone.
A screeching flurry pierced the night as a swarm of bats fled from that cave and shot into the sky.
Please, seemed to echo in the back of my mind, distant cries lost in time, beings still trapped and wandering the dark in spirit form. Fey.
The fear in that ghost’s face moulded my anger into something lethal. The magic in my veins almost humming in satisfaction at the freedom. My hurt at Emrys, anger at Master Hale’s lies and the disgusting cruelty of Montagor. My fire glowed brighter with the wildness of my emotions. Flames leapt from the sphere and began to devour the dead leaves around it.
Come and see, the darkness before me seemed to mock.
