Scaling Mountains of Fire

Chapter 18

Two months passed by before Dev awoke from her rejuvenating sleep. The moment her consciousness came to, she immediately missed the darkness of the sleeping abyss. A hammering migraine had her squinting even in the darkness of her rooms but when she closed her eyes, terrifying images shuttered behind her eyelids.

Her brother eventually felt her presence in the hivemind and visited.

"How are you feeling?" Emelious asked with a soft voice. Much too soft. Soft like she might break.

She didn't answer, instead stared at her bare hands. She swore red still stained her skin. The pulse of a heart resonated through her bone.

"Deviska."

Don't call me that. She snapped at him.

Her fingers closed to fists.

Emelious sighed. "I've spent a long time figuring out the magic behind our neck brace in secret while I was sequestered to the stronghold. I could never figure out why it was preventing us from speaking. In the end, an additional spell had been weaved in the enchantment. "

A spell?

She remained quiet.

He cleared his throat. "Turns out, the magic protecting our throat from burning from our powers does not require us to be mute to work. All this time I thought that since I had never used the fire breath and would never be expected to, it was the reason I could speak. Or I was some sort of fluke. There was a reason he kept me away from everyone else. He had linked the spell to his own essence, the essence of King-..."

Do. Not. Speak of him. She snarled, her entire face contorted in fury.

The smell of singed cotton stunk the air.

"I'm sorry."

I don't want to know. Any of it.

The bed dipped next to her but he kept to himself.

"You've been healing for a long time. So have we, in a different sense. It will take time to find a new sense of normalcy. No responsibility is expected of you-..."

Dev shoved the burnt blanket off her and threw it at her brother.

Don't treat me like a fucking child.

Her knees wobbled but she stormed out of the room from sheer will and fury alone.

On her way to the courtyard, many crossed her paths. Tentative smiles. Short words that hurt her ears. Chatter echoed through the halls.

There was too much noise.

She kept her eyes down. Refusing to acknowledge any of their pitying –or worse– revering gazes. When she ignored every verbal communication, some attempted to open a mental connection that deflected against her tight titanium mental wall.

She stormed past the lunchroom, past the courtyard and eventually let herself get lost in the wisps of the trees. Her legs kept going until the soft breeze and chitter of life were the only noise.

Dev closed her eyes to bask in the silence.

And the images returned. The agony of losing her wings, the pitying eyes of her mate, the hatred in her father's eyes, his pain, his beating heart in her hand.

Vomit oozed against the white snow.

—--

Dev didn't attend her father's official rite of passage into the stream of energy. The King. She didn't know anymore. For the longest time, she had stopped seeing him as family. Any sign of her father had vanished long ago.