Delta [Epsilon #2]

Chapter One

Kyra

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I'd been locked behind iron bars and gilded walls for so long, I'd almost forgotten the touch of nature. 

I shuddered as the sun's light bore down on my translucent skin, warming what had long gone cold. Trembled as the flitting chirps of songbirds and warbled laps of water met my tired ears, their tones too high-pitched and real. Shivered as the balmy wind forced its way up my nostrils, carrying the scent of oakwood and summer. 

I gripped the coarse fur that tickled my cheek. I'd also forgotten what it felt like to be free, to have a mind that was finally my own. In a way, I didn't know what to do with myself. After what felt like eons of being controlled right down to my very words, I found it hard to believe I was allowed to so much as breathe on my own. 

The absence of the bond left a strange cavity in my mind, one which bought about a silence I didn't want to acknowledge. I hadn't heard that raging voice for ages now, and I didn't want to ponder what that could mean. 

But the feelings of freedom that felt so novity not just hours ago now felt dull and grey. With the euphoria gone, in its place was regret. Worry. Fear. Familiar emotions that had come back to haunt me, to remind me that happiness was only so limited. 

Zion. Alia. I could see their faces everywhere. In the hollows of trees, in the maelstroms of streams, in-between the dapples of the sunlight. They were a taunt of what I'd left behind, a reminder of who I'd failed. For all I knew, they were dead, and that thought alone was a torture like no other, inflicting a pain worse than any other I'd endured these past few weeks. 

Part of me wanted to turn back. Part of me wished for the strength to get back on my feet, to sprint through the woods magic-charged and determined, ready to take back what was mine. I needed to know if they were alive, because I couldn't even bring myself to consider the other option. I needed that peace of mind, more than I needed anything right now. 

But, like many things, it would be impossible in my state. Impossible given how weak I was. 

"I'm sure they're fine, Kyra," came a voice to the right. It took me a moment too long to put a name to it. Raina. "Zion's tough, and I don't think it would be wise of Azriel to lay a finger on your friend."

I swallowed, though the action did nothing against my parchment-dry throat. Raina's words were nice, but they were wishful. Zion may be strong, sure, but I'd never seen that man look so terribly weak. I'd never seen such fear and resolve in his eyes, at the knowing of his impending doom. And Alia? Well... Raina doesn't know how Azriel thinks. He would do anything to hurt me, and if it took killing my friend, then so be it. 

I wanted to turn my head and look at Raina, but I didn't even have the energy for that. Not that I had to, I could hear it in her voice -- fear. The fear of moving away from a life well known, the fear of moving towards a new place filled with strangers, people unlike us. It was a fear I knew too well, and to know she felt it pained me in a way I couldn't quite describe. But hadn't I been dragged through hell and back these recent weeks, I may have shared in her fear, too.

"Don't be afraid, Youngling," a voice rumbled from below me. The vibrations of his words ran up through my arms and knees, rattling my body with a strange warmth, the kind that accompanied warm summer lakes and balmy winds. "Our court may be tough, but many of us are empathetic towards others' struggles. And if people give you crap, then you have me -- the Northern Beta -- on your side. I'll ensure your safety."

I stared at the red-grey fur next to my cheek. So I was riding on the back of the Northern Beta towards the Northern Court itself. But more than that, I noticed how his words sounded so... genuine. Compassionate, even. But how much of that was real, really? In a world where people grew old enough to master emotions, could I really trust what anyone said? What expression lay across their faces?