Home > From Shadow and Silence (Elements of Five #4)(5)

From Shadow and Silence (Elements of Five #4)(5)
Author: Carrie Ann Ryan

“I can do that. I’ll find her,” Rhodes vowed.

“Keep her safe. And bring her back. We will prepare for battle.” I was dying inside, and the other man knew it. There wasn’t anything I could do about it, though. Not when the weight of our world rested on my shoulders. However, if Rhodes didn’t find Lyric soon, I’d throw it all away for her.

And everyone in this circle knew it.

“W—” Rhodes’ words were cut off as a growl sounded from behind us. My Fire stretched out.

Negs.

They were the absence of light, made of darkness and cruelty. Negs were dark monsters with sharp fangs and even sharper claws. They worked for The Gray, had once worked for the knight of the Obscurité, Lore. The man who had tortured me and killed my mother.

And, as it turned out, my father.

Lore had wanted more power, and he had helped to create the Negs along with The Gray.

But Lore was gone. The Gray, unfortunately, was still here. And he was the one who controlled the Negs now.

“Protect the wounded,” I shouted and let out my Fire, singeing one of the Negs as it jumped at us.

Rhodes pushed at the ground. He used his Air Wielding to fly up, a trick I hadn’t seen him do in person before. He slammed back to the ground, his Air pushing at the Neg as he did. It crushed the beast, burying it beneath the Earth that Wyn Wielded.

I hadn’t seen them work together like this before, but it was interesting.

I counted seven Negs, and knew I needed to fight, had to burn off some anger. This was just the beginning. War was here. It was no longer on the horizon.

We were in the trenches, and without a Priestess. Without a land to call our own, in a realm that shuddered along the crack in its power.

As a Neg bared down on me, I let my Fire out, burning it to ash. I was suddenly afraid we weren’t going to win. Not without help.

Not without Lyric.

 

 

Chapter Three

 

 

Lyric

 

 

I let out a deep breath and tugged at my bonds again. It was no use. They weren’t going to budge, but my Wielding was growing. I could feel it deep inside of me, stretching, wanting to come back.

I knew as long as I waited for the right moment, as long as I did my best to keep alive and stay sane, I would get my Wielding back. And I would break free.

I would set us both free.

I looked up at Braelynn, who now lay curled in a ball inside the smoky cage. I wished she could get out.

But no, she couldn’t. Instead, she remained the size of a small house cat and looked as if she were conserving her strength.

I didn’t know how long we had been here, but it had to be at least a couple of days. The Gray and his men had been in and out of the room and the cave multiple times, each time leaving me exhausted, bloody, but with my soul intact. The Gray hadn’t used his Spirit Wielding on me yet. I was grateful for that.

Because I didn’t know what he was going to do. Wasn’t sure if he could do anything. After all, he had been locked in this pocket realm for how long now? Maybe he didn’t have access to his Spirit Wielding anymore.

Or perhaps I was only fooling myself. I didn’t know. What I did know was that I was exhausted, and I knew that Braelynn had to be, too. Neither of us had truly slept. We were both too afraid. I could feel her anxiety like my own. The emotions wrapped around each other, but at least we were together.

My best friend was here, the girl I had watched die. And I wasn’t about to do it again. Least of all not at the hands of The Gray and his people.

In a perfect world, my Wielding would come back, and I would rip these shadows from my body. I would burn my way through this realm. I’d end the world right here, and then I’d walk through whatever portal I could find and make my way back to the Maison realm and to Easton. In these wonderful fantasies, Braelynn would be by my side, unhurt, and even in her human form.

But she would never have that again. And this wasn’t a perfect world. This was the end.

Not my ending, though. I refused to allow that to happen.

I was tired, beaten. I had cuts on my arms and my belly, but they were shallow. “Just a taste,” Durlan had said.

But I was relatively unscathed. I was still whole.

I wouldn’t let them beat me.

“You’re truly not very good at keeping your thoughts to yourself, are you?” Garrik asked as he prowled into the room, his chin high, a smirk on his face.

Easton smirked often, and I loved it when it came from him. Even though the King of Obscurité annoyed me, the first time I saw him, he had smirked over his shoulder while playing with the Fire dancing across his fingertips. But then we had used the fire flower together to take out some Negs as if we had done it all our lives. It hadn’t felt as if we were meeting for the first time in that moment.

And, over time, the smirk had grown on me. When I learned more about him and became part of him, I realized that expression was his defense. Something so others would see that he was whole and happy and confident. An indication that he knew he could protect his people and keep everyone alive and safe.

They didn’t need to know that he was breaking down and worried inside.

Garrik did not have that smirk.

The fact that Garrik’s expression had even reminded me of Easton at all was almost another nail in the coffin.

The Whisperer in front of me looked nothing like he had when I first saw him. He had been weak, cowering, almost afraid of the world.

But…it had all been an act. We had all known that something was likely up, so we watched, and we listened.

But he had spied more. He could listen in on the whispers of those around him and gain their secrets. He could also get into people’s heads, something I hadn’t known was possible.

“Are you that bored that you have to listen to my thoughts while I’m chained up in a cave?” I asked, sending out curse words and other horrible images to him in case he was actually listening. I imagined everything that I could do to him, everything I wanted to level upon him for what he had done to my parents. I was pleased to see that he blanched ever so slightly under his already putrid pallor.

Good.

Because I’d do it all.

The girl I’d been before this might not have even had those thoughts. Now, however, I’d do all of it and more, without regret.

Especially after what he’d done.

What he still might do.

“My my. Don’t you have an imagination? I thought you were supposed to be the beloved and pure Spirit Priestess. But there’s nothing pure about you, is there?”

“You’re a murderer. And I’m going to enjoy it when you finally get what you deserve.”

Garrik spat in my face, but I kept my chin held high. Braelynn hissed, and I just grinned, despite having no humor in my body. He would get what was coming to him.

Because I refused to believe anything else.

“I always wondered what would happen to your sad little realm once you realized the truth. That you don’t deserve to be there. That you were wrong. But now, I don’t care. How am I supposed to care when you are nothing? Just a figment for those who thought they had hope. Those in power have taken far too much. They are the ones who stole the magic that broke down their societies. Now, they’re crying out for help, when they were the ones that did it. Why should we feel sorry for them when they did it to themselves? They do not have the strength nor the power to survive. Why should we allow them to think they deserve anything better?”

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