Belladonna sprung awake, sweat running down her forehead, an unpleasant feeling spreading through her veins, tightening her stomach.
Eli.
Something bad had happened to him.
It wasn't something she had seen or something she had heard, it was something she could just feel in the depths of her stomach.
It was a knot that twisted unpleasantly there and made her hands tremble as she flung her quilt aside and pulled her robe around her. She quickly headed out of the room, forgetting to bring the gem with her.
Panic coursed through her veins and she jumped in her skin when she came across a man in the darkness of the hallway. Raindrops hung to the strands of his silver, his black leather glistering with it.
The storm outside raged on. Thunder clapped and lightning flashed, then she saw his face, dripping with raindrops, his wet hair tucked behind his ears, a few strands falling over his forehead.
Relief eased the stiffness in her shoulders.
"Alaris, I think something---" she started to say until she saw he held in one hand.
A bloody organ amid his claws.
Was that...no.
"Where were you?"
"Out. Hunting." He smiled. "You should get some sleep."
No, she didn't want that. Possibilities were flashing in her mind and she was trying her best to stop them, each more gruesome than the last.
No, no, no. By Ignas, no!
"Did Eli go with you?"
Darkness shadowed his face.
"Yes."
Sweat pooled at her back, along with the ice that prickled her spine, she could feel a dull ache in her head and the whispering voices becoming louder by the second.
"Did you---" her voice broke, the air in her lungs suddenly not feeling enough. "Did you return alone?"
"Yes."
She saw red.
"Go and bring him back." She moved closer, right in his space, so he could see just how much she meant her request.
"Why? You said you no longer love him."
"I don't want him dead either." Alaris' black stare remained and she asked, "Is he dead?"
Rage was starting to cloud his mind like before, as his dragon whispered words into his ears, with a complying power he had learnt to struggle with ever since his beast had been awoken before he could even control it.
*"Claim her."* It was a harsh command.
*"Silence."* He said back.
*"Take her to Vestros.*"
*"We have no portal.*"
*"Force her!*"
*"Be Quiet.*"
*"Kill them all. Take the throne! Doom them all because they doomed us first--*"
"Is he dead?" Belladonna asked again, slicing through the commotion in his head.
"He is my prisoner, I will do to him whatever I want."
"Is he dead?"
"Why do you care? You hate him."
"Alaris, is Eli dead?!" She snapped.
His grip around the limp heart tightened only slightly.
"I did not check."
What?! By Ignas, what had he done to him?
Every hope she had crashed. It was time to hang on to desperation, madness, and delusion.
"Go and bring him back to me, Alaris." A red glow flashed in her eyes, and she could feel power buzzing between her fingertips. "And bring him back alive."
His reptilian eyes shone and he jacked away from her, taking note of her change in countenance and the red glow that emitted from her, the desperation in her eyes, and the slow descent of her mind into madness.
"Who are you to tell me what to do?"
He disappeared into the shadows, leaving her a shaky mess. She couldn't wrap her head around Eli being dead.
It was something she couldn't bring herself to think of. Her heart cleaved to pieces right there on the hallway floor, her eyes welled up with tears as the noises in her head returned. Soon enough, along with the noise of the rain, she could hear the sound of massive leathery wings flapping into the night.
___
___
Alaris did not return until daybreak.
The relief Belladonna felt to know that Eli was still alive was boundless, although he wasn't in any assuring state either.
He was unconscious and had suffered some severe burns, that if he had been human, he wouldn't have survived.
Belladonna took it upon herself to take care of him. Alaris had stormed out of the room in rage and slammed the door, leaving them alone.
She did not leave, until his breathing was steady again. Until his eyes fluttered open, and his hand had reached up to her face.
Her breathing halted and she froze, just as his hand stilled in midair, and his smile dissolved away into sadness.
"This is not real." It was a whisper she wished she hadn't heard.
His hand dropped to his side and he slipped back into the sleep that readily claimed him.
She wiped the tears that ran down her cheek angrily.
She was angry that she still had feelings for a man who had planned to use her from the very beginning, a man who didn't even mean it the first time he had told her he loved her, despite knowing about what she had suffered back then. She was confused that despite how angry she was, she couldn't just stay back and watch him suffer, that she couldn't bear to think of any harm befalling him.
She was frustrated because she knew she wouldn't be able to leave his side until she was certain the danger had passed.
Her feelings were conflicting.
They overwhelmed her.
It didn't help that she was back in this room that had been hers before she had moved into Eli's chambers.
With a sigh, she stood up from the edge of the bed and stepped out.
She needed to leave the castle as soon as possible to sort out her feelings. For now, everything felt so overwhelming. If only there was a way for her to get rid of these powers so she could finally be free and figure out what she wanted.
Oh, Ignas.
What she would give to have a normal and peaceful life.
___
___
Granny received another unexpected visitor that evening.
Kenji and a lady with multicolored hair were at her door, also the warrior that her Nadia liked.
Only that he didn't seem quite himself. He was bonded with ropes, his breathing loud like he was an enraged animal ready to pounce on anyone at any given time.
His eyes were as black as the night, and his image was haunting.
He was possessed.
"Granny!" Kenji said hastily, looking back like they were being chased. "We need your help."
He didn't have to ask twice, she moved away from the door, welcoming a possessed presence into her home.