Behind My Shadow - Book Three

65. All Those Shadows Almost Killed Your Light

Dying for someone I love is absolutely the most noble way I can imagine dying, but at the same time, fighting for them and protecting them is an even greater way to live. So, unwilling to die just yet, I use my last ounce of strength to use the dark side of my Alice powers and with this I summon Vyndren's Talent.

Red light glows between us as I struggle to Heal myself faster than he can kill me, but it is a struggle. 

Seemingly all of the life I pull from his spirit is sucked back into him from my blood he savagely drains, it's like a cycle, a circle. I'm pouring myself into him and he's pouring himself into me. Our white and red magic intertwines like a glowing braid of light between us and for the life of me I honestly can't remember if I'm me or if I'm him.

I've never felt a feeling such as this one before.

My blood is coursing through his veins and his magic is flowing through mine. We don't even feel like two separate people anyone, I feel like I am a part of him now, and he is truly a part of me now.

I suddenly gasp as pain brings me out of my trance, his dagger-like fangs are suddenly withdrawn from my neck and I collapse to the ground at the Vampire's feet. He throws back his head with another roar of deafening agony before his body begins to change.

I groggily sit up with disbelief, staring with wide eyes of shock as the Blood Prince begins glowing bright white. The chains around his limbs and throat suddenly explode with white sparks, the body of the enormous Vampire crumples to the ground before me. My heart lurches as I watch him begin to shapeshift.

What is happening...?

I've never seen him transform like this before.

His wings glow bright white before they break apart like pieces of ice and disappear into bursts of sizzling white flares. His claws and talons disappear the same way. The body of the beast quickly reconstructs itself so now the body of the Dark Rider I know and love so well lays before me, but he isn't done transforming.

My heart skips a beat as I watch his glowing white flesh darken to a comely, bronze tan and his wild black emo hair changes shades until now it's a rich, vibrant hue of brunette and tumbles over his face in cascading, bohemian waves.

"Vyndren?" I breathe with disbelief as I crawl closer. I shakily brush his velvety hair out of his face. Same beautiful face, same intense eyebrows and same dimples, but now he doesn't have the Gothic warpaint around his eyes and now I can't see any fiery light glowing beneath his thick eyelashes. "Vyndren?" I caress his face with my trembling hands. His skin feels so warm and silky, he doesn't feel like he's carved out of ice anymore.

Is this really happening? Is Vyndren really...human?

His brow furrows with pain as he tries to move. "Adara?" He rasps.

My heart skips a beat with relief. "Vyndren!" I quickly pull him against me in a crushing embrace. I don't care that the whole world is watching us through the fire that still burns around us. It's like no one else even exists anymore, it's just me and him. "You're alive!"

"How...? What happened?" Even his voice sounds different! It's still as deep and powerful as a symphony in a cathedral, but now his voice is saturated with a heavy southern accent that makes his words sound as slow and heavenly as honey.

"You're human!" I marvel as I hold my hands to either side of his face.

He finally opens his eyes and I'm instantly rendered speechless with amazement. His eyes! He really has real, actual eyes now. I've never been able to see such emotion in his gaze before, I feel so breathless just at the sight of them. Now he has these exquisite, deep blue eyes that look as luxurious as lapis lazuli gemstones. His gorgeous eyes might as well be oceans, they're so deep and beautiful, I feel like I could drown in them.

"Look at you," I whisper with disbelief and awe as I look him over. I feel like I can see my own soul reflected back at me as I gaze into his dark eyes.

"How is this...possible?" He shakily lifts his hands to stare at them, his wide eyes shine with tears. "Adara," he quickly pulls me into another crushing embrace. "My love, I...I just can't believe..."

"Shh, rest," I gently hush him and lay him back down. "Just rest, Chief, I promise everything will be okay," I shakily caress his face.

"Don't...don't go," he mutters deliriously as he struggles to hold onto my hand.

"I'm right here, I'm right here," I promise, squeezing his hand. "Oh, Vyndren...I'll never leave you."

"Adara," he mutters my name once more before he falls unconscious again, his body and spirit absolutely drained from such a dramatic transformation. I barely feel two seconds away from passing out myself but somehow I find it within me to push myself up to my feet. 

I summon my control of fire and finally quell the flames lapping around us.

The audience is stunned silent as they stare at me. The rain has slowed down to nothing more than a mist as the storm rolls farther away, lightning still dryly flashes in the dark sky above us but the thunder is a distant echo now.

"Where is she?" I pant, my eyes dart over the crowds in search for the Queen of Hearts. "You!" I point to the King of Hearts on the fridges of the crowd. "I know you know what she has planned next! Tell me what it is now," I command.

He swallows hard as he warily eyes me.

"Answer her!" Adisonia snaps, shooting her father a glare.

He flinches. "Alright, alright! I don't know what she has planned next but I... I do know Regina has a portal in the Maze of White Roses. She's probably going to escape through there." He glances nervously over his shoulder at the colossal maze looming in the distance.

"I'll lead the soldiers through the maze at once, My Alice," Dad tells me. "We'll find her and -"

"No!" I anxiously shake my head. "Don't go in there! It's rigged. I can sense it. She wants us to follow her in there, she'll try to pick as many of us off as she can before she escapes. I'll go alone. Only I can sense where the traps are," I insist. I mean, no one else here has the sixth sense I've developed since my Labors. They'll be blind in the maze.

"Adara, I'm not letting you go in there alone," Dad insists gravely. "During the arrest of the Blood Prince, most of her Black Heart assassins escaped, they'll be in there with her and -"

"I can handle them. I'll handle everything." I summon a sword in a flourish of white light. "Take him to the Infirmary," I gesture at Vyndren laying under his blood-stained cross.

The soldiers hesitate and glance questioningly at my father.

"Now!" I command with more authority. They scramble forward to gather around the now human Dark Rider. "I have to finish this," I tell Cornelius as I hurry towards the Maze. "Somehow this feels like my final Labor, and I gotta do it alone."

"Adara -"

"Just trust me!"

Without waiting to hear his argument, I take off running towards the Maze of White Roses, anxious to end this battle that has been raging for over eighteen years.