And What I Found There - Book Two

20. Your Silhouette Starts to Make Its Way to Me

I wake up some unknown amount of time later. I groggily sit up and look around with confusion. My head feels like an axe has been taken to it. I gasp at the radiating pain that throbs from my busted side. I struggle to swallow my bile as I fight off a wave of panic. Where am I? Where's Quill and Cornelius? Why am I up in a bell tower...?

Oh wait, everything is coming back to me now. The Myx, Adisonia and her strange behavior like saving my life... Weird. 

I crawl underneath the bell in front of the window closest to me and peer outside. Everything is overcast, dark and dreary but calm at least. Should I risk it and wander back out there...? I gotta get back to my team. I glance over my shoulder at my cross necklace laying on the floor beside the trapdoor. I should probably head back outside -

I suddenly jump out of my skin as I hear the savage screeches of the Myx from the forest below. I frantically backpedal until I'm sitting in the middle of the room. I keep looking around wildly as I hear the Myx fighting with something down below. A few moments later all is eerily silent.

I swallow hard. Okay, I guess there's no more Myx. That's a plus, right? Although whatever butchered them is obviously much worse and might still be down there. I guess I'll hold off on searching for my friends for the time being. I try to convince myself that I'm perfectly safe up here in the bell tower. Besides, I have magic to defend myself.

Right?

But I only feel a weak flicker of magic left in my veins. If I summon it, it could translate to a powerdrop and that's really the last thing I need. I just need to... give myself time, I remind myself of what Vyndren told me about our magic powers. We gain strength from the world around us; it just takes a while for it to process through our blood. And luckily, being an Alice, I gain strength and process the magic more quickly than any other magic-user, so this is a small comfort at least.

I'm fine, I keep telling myself. I'm fine. Nothing can possibly get to me all the way up -

Suddenly something jumps through the window in front of me and lands in a kneel only a few yards away.

I scream so loudly, my voice echoes off the bells, making my own ears ring. I frantically lift my fists for protection but briefly my fear wavers and turns slightly to disbelief.

A person is standing before me, with wild jet-black hair jaggedly hiding half his face. He's familiarly dressed in an all-black leather riding outfit with a billowing black cloak. Two swords are strapped to his back, two more are sheathed on his belt, and a baldrick studded with an array of daggers slants over his broad chest and gauntlets cover his muscular forearms. He has ghostly white, luminescent skin and his eyes are painfully bright, completely made of red-orange flickering flames that blaze in the darkness.

OMG, is this...real or am I officially insane? I can't trust myself anymore, can I?

"Vyndren?" I can't believe I am really saying his name aloud once again, as if he is really right here in front of me.

"Adara?" His voice is as deep and powerful as ever, although he sounds more shocked and confused than I can ever remember him being, as if he's just as suspended in disbelief at the sight of me as I am at the sight of him.

I wobblily climb to my feet but now slump over with a gasp of pain and clutch my broken side.

Vyndren is at my side in flash and steadies me. I shakily sit back down, hugging my side. He kneels in front of me. "You're hurt," he lightly brushes his icy cold fingertips against my cheek, the rest of his hands are covered in black leather gloves, his knuckles are studded with what looks like bands of black thorns. "Oh Adara," his brow is furrowed as he looks me over with equal amounts of alarm and shock.