Chapter 28: "A Glimmer of Hope in Darkness"
Chapter 28: "A Glimmer of Hope in Darkness"
Chapter twenty-eight
Ronan POV
I miss her
I miss her so much. I wish to go back to that tiny room in the academy, where I would kiss her, cuddle her. And just get lost in staring at her beautiful eyes.
But it’s all gone, and what is left is painful wishes.
The cold went right through my body, and my throat was getting drier by the second.
The darkness around me made it difficult to keep track of time,
The chains to my hands were laced with wolfsbane, and I felt weaker and weaker.
Almost like my body was giving out to give into death.
I could barely stand up even if I wanted to. Hell, I could barely make out my memory.
Everything was blurry.
But the one thing that stood out was this rage. A rage to destroy Ciaran and Kyros.
To destroy anyone who stood in the way of my happiness with her.
Except I could hardly even feel my legs. How pathetic.
The door to the dungeon shifted, and I could hear footsteps approaching me.
Someone was here.
“I see you’re still holding up.”
Ciaran, and like a boost. I did find my strength, and lurched right at him, but the chains and wolfsbane on my skin pulled me right back.
I groaned as the pain shot right through me.
“Save your strength, you can have at my head later.”
“Where is she! Where is she!”
“As a matter of fact on her way back to the academy with Kyros.”
Dread couldn’t grasp the emotion I felt at that moment.
“What?”
“Yeah. She’s pretty persistent.”
“How did that happen! How did you let her get into Kyros' grasp? Weren’t you supposed to be protecting her?”
“I was. But she decided you need protecting.”
I felt even more confused.
“The plan was going well, have you locked up, then claim her, make her my bride, and birth new babies that would bring an end to all other species that aren’t vampires. But she kept ruining it. Asking for you, I even took her to a greglock and pretended it was you, and yet she made it her mission to meet Kyros and save you, still I locked her up to stop her, now imagine my shock when I got to the room and she was gone. Poof.”
“You pathetic loser.” I lurched again, but got dragged down even harder than before. I gritted my teeth hard. I was sure blood would come out of my mouth at his rate.
“Yeah yeah. Well, now I need you to find my lobizona bride.”
“She trusted you! She was always defending you! And this is how you’ll repay her?”
“Yeah yeah. She gave me the golden best friend ticket. But that wasn’t enough. If you’d just stayed in the shadows, she would have been mine. And I wouldn’t have had to go through the stress of waking Kyros up, or sacrificing so many people to die.”
I froze up instantly.
“What?”
“It’s pretty simple, the blood of a vampire, blood of the lobizona. And with a few chants. And a few blood sacrifices. Boom evil is reawakened.”
I wanted to hurt him, badly. For all the times Sera blamed herself for the deaths, for the poor souls who had their lives stolen from them. And most importantly for thinking I would let him have her as his bride
“Oh please. Don’t go all raggedy on me, I’m not so evil, not as evil as you and Kyros anyway. If only the academy had been powerful enough. Many students wouldn’t be dead today.”
”Enough of the sub story, tell me how to defeat Kyros. And rescue my poor bride.”
I fist my hands tight. Imagining it was driving up his head.
“Tell me something. Do you imagine yourself a hero to your people?”
He scoffed. “I am their hero. It’s not an imagination.”
“Ahhhh. So this is not about proving to them that you’re more than the maid’s son?”
At that he lunged at me, his claws sinking deep into my stomach.
I growled, as the pain incapacitated me, I tried breathing through my nose.
Too painful.
At least I had hurt a nerve,
“You will do well to shut it, especially if you want to see another day. So tell me. How can I defeat Kyros?”
“You think if I knew that. I wouldn’t have put an end to the bastard since?”
“Who tied him up, damn it give me something!” He kicked at the injury.
I think I almost went mad from the pain. If only.
Still, I let out a pained laugh. Cause I knew it would irritate him, and honestly it was the only thing that I could do.
“You had the best mages, witches, and werewolves killed in your plot of releasing Kyros. There’s nothing and no one that can stop him. Have fun trying to do that.”
He kicked me again. Before finally walking off.
At least I got to piss him off good, even if it cost me my life.
My hands were sticky. The smell of my blood felt like death to me.
I wanted to fight. To hold on to something. But I could feel myself slipping away.
And with it the hopes of saving her.
Soon my eyes gave out, and true darkness engulfed me.
The soft feel of hands on my skin was enough to awaken my senses.
The smell was different, even the gnashing pain was gone.
Was I in heaven?
No way. Not with all my sins. I opened my eyes and was met with the wide open sky, my body was resting up a tree.
My bruises were covered in green leaves. But that wasn’t what had my attention.
It was the person kneeling in front of me.
Janet.
“Oh thank heavens. You’re awake. I thought I had lost you there for a second.”
She held my neck and hugged me tightly. Irritating my wounds.
I winced, and she pulled back immediately.
“Sorry. Too much.”
“How? Why?”
“Don’t talk much. Just rest, I’ll do the talking.”
“I brought you out of the dungeons. Cause I hate my brother. And how he has brainwashed everyone into this idea of a new world. Most importantly I couldn’t stand them hurting you.”
I wasn’t sure if to feel flattered by it, but I was grateful. Given the way I had treated her in the past.
“Thank you.”
“It’s okay. But you’ll have to leave here. Once my brother discovers you’re missing, he’ll be on your neck, and mine.”
I tried to stand up, the pain rode through my body.
“Easy. Let me help you instead. There’s a river at the end of these woods, and a boat to take you to a nearby wolf village. You can gather more help and strength from there.”
She helped me get up and walk towards the said boat.
I tried focusing on putting one foot after the other,
We got to the river bank, the boat was by it, she pushed it out, and helped me get on it.
Handing me the paddle.
“I’ll have to leave you from here on, please don’t die.”
I nodded, biting my tongue as I moved my arms upwards and downwards.
“It’s not a long paddle, so you should be fine. As long as you don’t collapse or stop paddling.”
“I won’t.”
I paddled it again, pushing myself closer into the river, and soon her form became smaller and smaller. Till it wasn’t there.
The universe had given me a second chance. To save her.
And this time I wouldn’t fail her.
The water wave moved the boat, and one of the paddles slipped out of my hands.
So much for not failing her.
I held on to the second one, and paddled it, it became harder for the boat to move faster.
But it did arrive at the riverbank.
Except by the time I got there, I could barely take two steps cause my body fell hard to the floor.
The last thing I heard was the scream of someone.
Everything went blank.
Yet again. I was woken up to the smell of burning incense. The type that calms your body.
The room I was in was quite small. But the young lady by the fire, was even smaller.
Once she noticed I was awake. She rushed to me.
“How are you feeling?”
I nodded. Not exactly able to respond to her.
“You should just focus on resting. The medicine is still taking its effect.”
I nodded. Wondering if it was right to trust her.
But Janet mentioned that this was a wolf village. And she did have the scent of one.
“Here, I’m making soup, let me dish up some for you.”
The soup was warm to the mouth, but tasteless to the tongue, yet I made no complaints.
After a while. I drifted off to sleep. And it became a bank sequence of sleep.
My body could rarely stay awake for long. And at some point, I wonder if I was being drugged, or if this was a cruel sense of hell, and the punishment was yet to happen.
Still, only one person was on my mind all through this.
Seraphina.