Page 4 of The Lands Defying
“Rhea?” I blink my eyes open, groaning at the ache in my limbs. Stretching out my back, I sit up from the cold floor.
“Yeah?” I say tiredly, rubbing my eyes.
“Come, eat.” I look toward Leo, his eyes tired as he holds out a plate of food. I shake my head, looking at the bucket next to me that he put there for me to wash my face.
“Not hungry.” He sighs, looking toward Darius.
“Are you really going to continue to do this? She’s not fucking eating!” I watch as he tilts his head, scowling in Darius’s direction. They must be speaking through the link. He shakes his head. “I’m not taking her out of here. You did this, now you can deal with it. I’ll be back later, Rhea.” He glares at Darius. “Hit him for me when you can.” Then he leaves again.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but we are here, Rhea,”Josh says down the link. He must have seen Leo leave the basement, waiting outside of it like he has since I came down here.
I know he’s worried.
“I know, I’m okay.”
“You are not eating again.”
“I vow it, I’m okay.”
Physically anyway. I’m not sure I can take any more emotional turmoil.
He sighs down the link and I shut it down.
I rest my head against the barrier separating me and Darius, looking through the light tinge of black to see that he still hasn’t moved. It’s been two days since I came down here and found him like this, two days since I saw my mother’s throat being slit with a dagger.
I press my forehead further in, feeling Darius’s magic greet me even though it’s keeping me away from him right now.
Its coolness soothes my headache.
“You know, when I was younger, I used to think the lands were never-ending,” I tell him, sighing as his magic seems to get colder. “I used to think it would go on forever, but it doesn’t, does it?” I’m not even sure what I’m saying, but I’m tired, hurt and confused so the words just flow out of my mouth. “Land eventually turns to sea. That opened my eyes to something new that is ongoing.” I bring a hand up, the tips of my fingers blue with my magic. “When I was in that basement,” I say, and that gets me movement from him, the harsh, tensing of his shoulders. “I thought that would also be never-ending until the day that I died. I begged for it, wished, pleaded… but it never came.”
I prayed for death, and when it didn’t come, I wondered what I had done wrong to the Gods. Why wouldn’t they bless me with death and end my suffering?
“I didn’t die, no matter how many times I wanted it. I wanted to end my never-ending pain. But then my escape came.”
I turn fully, crossing my legs in front of me and tracing the outline of Darius on his barrier, my magic leaving a shadowing mist behind. Runa sits up within me, her ears lowered as she waits patiently like I am.
“When I was roaming the lands, I thought that would also be my life, that it would also never end, and we would continue to move from place to place, never having a home or feeling safe,” I sigh. “Then Eridian happened.” I trace his back, swallowing over the lump in my throat as I look at his wounds. They have healed some, but they are still there, nonetheless. Dried blood cakes his skin, the floor, even splatters up the wall.
“What I’m trying to say is, that I thought all those types of things were forever, when they weren’t. But us, Darius, this connectionisnever-ending. Even when we take our last breaths, we are still connected. So regardless of how we got here, what we are now or will be, we are stuck with each other. So…” I place my palm flat, sending out tendrils of magic. “Answer me. Why was Leo whipping you?”
Silence.
“Do you like my suffering down here? Do you like me to remember when I was in a cell not so long ago?”
Darius stands suddenly, mist swirling from his feet as he moves to the table in front of him. He tries to quiet the grunt that comes from him, tries to quiet his pain, but I hear it all the same.
My heart beats roughly within.
Darius picks up a bucket with jerky movements, and I pick at my fingers as he lifts it and empties it over his head. The water washes away most of the blood, revealing more wounded and tattooed skin that once again turns my stomach.
I have to bite my tongue as I see old scars mixed into the new wounds.
He drops the bucket and it rolls towards me, hitting against the barrier. He then leans forward on the table at the back, his hands taking his weight as he hangs his head.
I wonder what’s going through his mind as more blood seeps from the wounds as they split with the movement, but he doesn’t make any move to help stop it.
“You don’t need to be here, Rhea.”
