Page 20 of Moon Raven Rising
“Are you going to stay like that?” I can’t help but ask him. “It’s actually kind of fucking creepy,” I add, quirking a brow and looking him up and down.
“I suppose now that I know that,” he points low to a small break in the rocks, “leads us back into the tunnels in the cliffside. I can return to my body.” His eyes flick over to where his body lies, and I notice his hand tremble before he curls it into a ball.
“You don’t know if you can return to it?” I ask, fearing I know the answer.
“I’ve not tried, but this was a risk.” He steps in close to his body, and that’s when I notice that he is barefoot. His feet are caked with dirt and blood. When I look back at his body, a sort of electric feeling starts in my chest at my bond mark, then travels down the length of my arms.
“Wait, I have a feeling that I… Just trust me.” He eyes me cautiously but nods once before letting me kneel at his body’s side. I place my hand over his heart, look up at him, and say, “When I say, go back.” He nods again, then I close my eyes. I push all the magic like when I passed through the dark magic wall… I force the magic into my bond with Raelle. The shield. I hear a noise almost like a waterfall, a swarming warm caress against my soul, and then only a moment later, Dax is wrenching upright from under my palm. He gasps loudly, and I fall back on my ass with a wide smile on my face. It fucking worked!
No longer a shadow at my back, the man who laid before me slowly stumbles to his feet, breathing heavily. He grips my shoulder.
“I felt you,” he pants, “shielding me from letting my soul stray. You kept me grounded.” I clap my hand over his where it rests on my shoulder, my smile a little softer.
“It’s what needed to be done. No need rescuing a queen if she just turns around and kills me because I let her mate’s soul be lost forever,” I laugh, and he shakes his head, releasing me.
I have to duck low and tuck myself under the small passage, but once I’m through, the small space opens up almost like a corridor. Puddles line the walkway, and with each step, muddywater splashes, soaking my boots. Regardless, I keep trekking forward, knowing that we must find what Dax came here for.
Just as I did before, at the mouth of the cave, I call on the magic in my blood. I call on the magic in my bond with Raelle. I grind my teeth as the bond mark burns again, but it’s not as intense this time. More of a lingering pain like a headache versus the searing pain of being branded or stabbed earlier. Distracted by my own thoughts, I look up just as Dax throws an arm out and barring across my chest to stop my advance.
“Wait,” he says, stepping in front of me. Closer to what appears to be the edge of a crater in the earth. My mouth falls open in awe as I take in the sight of the hole, and the opening just as large, above that, seems to reach all the way to the sky. The walls shine with a blue-white glow. As I approach the edge on light feet, careful not to displace any of the rocks around the ledge, fearful it may crumble at my weight. I stop next to Dax. The toes of our boots edge the opening as we look out into the cavernous space. Then slowly my eyes track up. A pinhole of light at the very top shines down, casting the center of the circle in light like the moon peeking in. This is it. I don’t know how, but I know this is where we find what we are looking for.
“We need to go down.” I say confidently.
“I’ve been here before,” Dax says with a look of confusion. “I think she guided me out.”
“Who?” I ask, now confused myself.
“Raelle. I didn’t see her, but I swear that I felt her presence. I know it was her who led me back to the cave. However long I have been here, I have not once found my way back to my body. But the moment I felt her with me, she guided me directly to it.” He turns his head to look at me. “Do you think she guided me there… so I would be there when you all arrived?” He asks me genuinely.
“There is no way to know, Dax, but one thing is for certain. I feel magic here.” I jut my chin toward the bottom of the pit. “I feel it—like it’s calling to me. Pulling me in. Whether it be pulling me to damnation or triumph, I need to know what it is I’m being pulled to, cousin.” I lift my chin as I call him family for the first time. Something akin to resignation washes over his features as his shoulders slump.
“I’ve run from magic for so long I hadn’t even noticed.” He says with a sigh before rolling his shoulders back and standing a little taller. “You’re right, and if we are going to find this, I feel that we need to work together to do it.” He turns to me, placing his hand out in front of him. An offering that cannot be easy for him to give. I take his arm in mine; the clap of our handshake bounces off the stone walls in a resounding echo. We both nod, squeezing each other tight for a moment longer, then we drop our arms, turning to face what hopefully is the answer to all of our problems.
Chapter eighteen
Rolling to my side,I pull the blanket up over my head and let out an exasperated groan. Even through the blanket, the room gets brighter as I hear the curtains being ripped back and sunlight shines freely into my prison. The sun that shines down immediately overheats me. After being forced into dark shadow magic by Soren and Thames, I was thrust into a fitful sleep.
My magic demands that I rest and heal. Treating the putrid magic as a sickness, it leaked all of my energy, and I have a hard time staying in the present. I don’t know how many times I have opened my eyes since, but this time the rude awakening has me praying to the gods to take me back into sleep's embrace, wishing for anything else when I open my eyes again.
“It’s time for you to get out of bed. It smells like you are starting to rot, my dear. Respectfully.” A woman comes into view through my bleary eyes; the last part of her sentence is just awhisper. I silently mock her under the blanket with a sneer on my face. No one in this castle shows merespect. I am a prisoner. A caged bird. Nothing more.
“The onlyrotis the man you serve,” I say under my breath as I pull the blanket down with a huff and scoot up to sit.
My sleep was restless, and the pounding in my head is worse with the sun beating down on me. The darkness poured into my soul, causing a deep-rooted storm inside of me that I couldn’t escape. Even now, I feel my magic and the putrid darkness at war with each other, but when my dreams, or the magic took me to Dax—it all calmed. Believing that he could be on the edge of getting what is in the cave. Of finding whatever my family died for. What my biological parents left for me…
The door to my room slams against the wall as it’s pushed open forcefully, and I narrow my eyes on the men who rush into the room, but more so on the man at their center. Soren Croix steps through the massive guards bracketing the door. His dark aura causing even the sun to shy away. I give him no emotion. It would only serve to anger him, and if I am going to get answers about anything, I need to play into his game.
“I’m glad to see that you are awake. How are you feeling, little bird?” The nickname on his tongue instantly makes bile rise in my throat. I can’t seem to get over this bullshit pet name he is adamant on calling me. When I say nothing, he continues into the room, all eyes training on the man that demands attention.
“She is only just waking up, my lord.” The woman who seems to be a healer says as she pours water into a glass and offers it to me. I take the liquid and sip on it slowly. Remembering how the last time I woke parched like this, I choked on every drink with how fast I drank it.
I hold onto the glass like it is my lifeline to the real world. Both hands cupping around it when I note a glint at the center of Soren’s deep brown leather armor. Without realizing how tightlyI’m squeezing, the glass cracks. Soren has my blade,Merkai, strapped to his chest, right over his heart. The display clearly aimed to toy with me. It’s at that moment that I make a promise to myself—a silent promise to the gods too.
I will kill Soren Croix, and I will use Meraki to do it.
“I want you dressed and ready to train within the next hour.” He steps closer to my bedside, and my eyes drop to see water beginning to leak from the cracked glass still in my grip. The pounding in my ears drowns him out as my blood continues to boil watching the trickle run down my fingers. “You have had three days of rest, and I am growing impatient. If you are not as strong as I believe you to be, then you will be of no use to me.” He folds his hands behind his back as he looks down his nose at me. “What a shame that would be.”
My blank face of indifference cracks as his words bring my resolve to crumble. My glare is so sharp it could be considered lethal. His eyes drop to my lap where the water has begun to drip and the corner of his lips twitch up. “Chop chop, little bird.” He says with two claps of his hands, then he strides from the room. I watch him with uninhibited disdain as he goes.
