Page 37 of The Light Falls
By the time I finish shaking my head, she’s gone. Cormal. Great. He always knows. Did he save me from embarrassment? Abso-fucking-lutely, and I might be the teensiest, tiniest bit grateful. Not that I’ll tell him. One of us would have to be dying for me to admit it.
My phone chimes, and at the same time, there’s a knock on my door. Five minutes until we leave. Scrambling around, I find a workout outfit in the closet and dress with a wave of my hand. After tossing my hair into a ponytail, I brush my teeth. The old-fashioned way. I can’t help it. I’ve been trying to use magic more and more, but not for this. For some reason, if I don’t see it happening, my teeth don’t feel clean.
When I open the door five minutes later, Ansel is standing guard. “Ready?”
Instead of the training room, he drops me off in the dungeon. Pitch black. Dripping water and a dank, musty smell. Sounds of animals scurrying nearby. The stench of death.
“Hell no,” I mutter, throwing a ball of light into the air. It immediately gets extinguished, but not before I spot a torch on the wall. Pissed off, I throw a fireball at it. It lights.
A dark giant detaches itself from the wall, and a deluge of water immediately puts out the burning torch.
Angry, I fist my hands, then raise them sky high. Fire roars from the floor to the ceiling, exposing every inch of this place. Along with Madoc.
“What in the hell is wrong with you? Training doesn’t give you the right to carry out whatever sadistic fantasies are rolling around in that brain of yours. I’m leaving.”
He snorts. “You think your enemies are going to attack you in the training room with soft mats to cushion your fall?” His big body brushes up against mine and he yanks my hands down. The fire dies, leaving us alone in the dark. “The best-case scenario is they kill you. Immediately. But there are worse things than dying. Trust me, I know. What happens if they kidnap and dump you in a dungeon like this one or some other equally hideous place? A queen has powerful enemies. You need to be able to think on your feet and conquer anything they throw at you.”
My clammy skin reminds me of what happens when you piss off the enemy. “Been there, done that. Barely survived The Pit, and I damn sure didn’t get a t-shirt out of the deal.”
“How did you get out?” he whispers in my ear.
Thump, thump, thump. My heart starts racing. Whispers in the dark mean they’re close. Different time. Different place. Focus. Breathing shallowly, I tell him what he wants to hear. “Someone saved me.” Two, actually, but who’s counting?
“Why didn’t you save yourself?” The rough timbre of his voice scrapes along my nerves.
“Like an idiot, I fought. Over and over,” I spit out, angry with his arrogant questions. “With no magic to call on, it was useless. Do you know what it’s like to be at the mercy of monsters? Fighting off my flimsy attempts amused them. I was nothing but a toy for them to play with or break as they pleased.”
A derisive chuckle comes from the left. “Monsters? What is The Pit?”
Voice raw with memories, I answer. “It’s a literal hole in the ground filled with the soulless. Once, they were something—human, demon, Fae, whatever—but because of their depravity, they lost their soul. When they died, they couldn’t move on, not even to Tartarus. Nameless. Faceless. They exist in The Pit. Monsters who drink from the well of evil and feed off their victims’ terror.”
Fear coats my skin. Panicking, I double over and place my hands on my knees. My chest is tight, and I can’t breathe.
Fuck. You’re a queen, dammit. With power. Do something.
Shoving the hopeless emotions down deep, I suck in a deep breath and listen for his location. The only sounds I hear are those of the dungeon. Where did he go? A minute ago, he was to my left. I do a half-turn and fire to the right. I see him for the briefest second, but that’s all I need. I fire over and over in that direction. Left, middle, right.
Air moves behind me, and I pivot to fire in that direction. He’s gone in a blink. I throw ice on the floor, hoping to slow him down, but he turns it to water instantly. Pulling stones from the walls, I toss them in groups across the room, hoping one will hit its target.
A foot whips out and sweeps me off my feet.
Pain radiates up my side, but it’s minor. Cold concrete against my cheek brings the memories roaring back. Trying to stand, I put my hand down and encounter a slimy texture, similar to the monsters in The Pit, and a switch flips. I immediately cower with my hands over my head.
Harsh sounds fill the air. Distant words I can’t understand. Arms band around me, and I flinch.
We cross from the darkness into the sun-drenched garden. He sits in the grass with me in his arms. Grabbing a handful of dirt, he rubs it on my arm and shoulder. Over and over, he smears it on me until I’m completely covered. Barely cognizant, I don’t have the strength to protest.
The land seeps into my skin, then slides deeper. It wakes the strands inside me, and they begin to pulse with the magic of the kingdom. A babbling brook blocks past memories of my screams. Bright sun eclipses the darkness that traps me. Sweet honey coats my tongue, erasing the taste of blood.
The past recedes, and I come back to the present.
I glare into his steel-grey eyes, expecting to see remorse, but there is nothing but blankness.
“I hate you.”
He gives me an approving nod. “Good. It’s a start. Hate gives you strength. Enemies give zero fucks and no mercy. You can expect the same from me.” Without stumbling, he rises from sitting to standing with me in his arms, then puts me down. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Barely able to hold myself upright, I watch him disappear from sight.
