A LAND OF FIRE AND DARKNESS

Chapter 10

My eyes fluttered open to the view of damp cave walls covered in symbols. The smell of blood and earth mixed as it danced over my nose.

My back pressed against the cold stone slab with my arms restrained at my sides.

My heart began to pound in my chest as I recognized the area that plagued the back of my mind. I pulled on the straps that wrapped around my wrists, but I could not move. I was stuck.

"Hello, Princess." His voice alone was enough to make me shiver.

I looked over the room unable to find him though, unable to see the creature that had misled me, lied to me, used me, then tried to kill me. I could not find him.

A sharp pain shot up my arm causing me to snap my eyes towards my wrists. A long cut was being slit up to my arms by an invisible force. The warm sensation of my blood immediately began to trickle down the side of my arms towards the spiral that was carved into the floor beneath me.

"Such beautiful eyes." His voice taunted again. It appeared to echo out all around me, but I could still not see his face.

I tried to scream, but nothing came out. I was frozen to the slab as my body slowly drained of blood.

Everything inside of me boiled and heated as I struggled against the restraints. My heart continued to pound through my chest and my head tingled with extreme heat.

I shot up from the bed battling to get in any breath of air. Sweat dripped down from my forehead and trickled down towards my chin.

I took in three breaths as I tried to assess my surroundings. I was in Delcallon's palace, in the bed chambers that were set up for me. The night sky beamed through the doors that led to the balcony. I was safe...

I released a heavy breath of relief as I stared into the purple flames that flickered in the fireplace. I did not think I would ever feel relieved to know I was in the King of Petronas's castle, but I suppose compared to that cave, anything felt safer.

I swung my legs over the bed stepped towards the purple flames in the fire. They called for me, offering me a gentle hug that I knew I needed.

I accepted their offer with grateful arms and crawled into that fireplace. The flames burnt my clothes to a crisp, but as before, I remained unharmed. The purple blaze engulfed me in a tender embrace that allowed my body to calm down, and eventually drift back off to sleep.

This was the third day of training as I stood in the ring with Laveen opposite me. Our training session had been eerily quiet, but mainly on my part more than his.

We had run through the maneuvers of how to use the dagger correctly, and now he helped me through the cool-down exercises.

"Are we going to talk about why you were in the fireplace this morning?" He asked breaking the silence that had been lingering between us for more than an hour.

When he came to fetch me, like he did every morning, he had found me in the firepit. I had stayed there since my nightmare of the cave and Eskar.

Laveen had been smart enough not to make any comments, or ask any questions, up until now that is.

"No," I stated sternly as I stood up from the ground.

He looked up at me, "Oh okay." He said bobbing his throat and standing up slowly, "Good, I hate intimate conversations about feelings." He smirked, "No, wait that is you." He looked down at me as I dabbed my neck with the towel.

I shot him a warning glare to stop poking at me. I was not in the mood. It only resulted in him chuckling further.

Delcallon came and fetched me like he did every morning after training. He had made his jabs like he usually did, but I was not in the mood to talk to him either, so I did what I usually did, I completely ignored him.