The Forgotten Light

69. Fairlight

The portal suddenly disappeared, throwing them straight at the huge wall. Fairlight gasped and leaned her head against it. She winced as her bruised lungs took in the air with pain, and in a moment she squinted as the blinding light fell right on them.

"Shit!" Kaelen put one arm around her waist and put her on her feet. "Get up, quickly! I know you're tired, Fairlight, but we need to hide. Now."

They ran across the empty street, taking cover in the shadows at the base of a huge skyscraper, and Fairlight could finally see anything. In front of them was a huge wall, reaching halfway up the tallest skyscraper in San Diego. Now she understood what Darksen had meant when he had said that she wouldn't escape from there so easily. Not only was it solid and guarded by Beings, but it was also alert to the slightest movement. As soon as they touched it, they were blinded by the light.

"Damn Invicta!" Kaelen slammed his hand against the glass of the building. "He was supposed to send us back to Arizona through that portal, and instead, we're still in San Diego!"

Fairlight shot him a surprised look. "Wait... What? Will someone finally tell me what's going on here?"

Kaelen turned to face her. He looked more surprised and confused than she did. "Are you telling me that he didn't tell you anything about our plan?"

"I don't know anything about any plan! All I know is that he got information about Sedona out of me, and that he disappeared for a long time, and when he came back, he said that the people there were safe." She measured him with her gaze, as if she was seeing him for the first time. "Are you from there? How did you get here? And how do you know who I am?"

"You are quite famous in Ari..."

He was interrupted by a deafening peep from the speakers. The screens on the street around the corner shone, and when Fairlight and Kaelen leaned out to look at them, they saw Thandor.

"It's the guy from the throne room" muttered the blond just above her ear.

The girl clenched her fingers on the wall of the building. "Currently the biggest bastard on the planet. That's the King of Invicta."

Kaelen goggled, and then Thandor on the screens spoke, "Go back to the castle, Raysun's daughter, I'm not done with you yet. Besides, someone is waiting for you here, right, Darksen? You want to tell her, or should I?"

"Ugh, Darksen, what a dark name," muttered Kaelen.

Fairlight gritted her teeth as the pale Invicta came into view. His eyes were blank, his face expressed absolutely nothing. And moreover...

"Didn't he have long hair?" remarked the golden-eyed boy.

She looked in disbelief at Darksen's black mop of hair. They cut his hair.

"As you prefer." It felt like Thandor was looking from the screen straight at her. "Come back, otherwise he will die."

Suddenly, not knowing why, she ran out of breath.

"He wouldn't kill his own son," she said, although she somehow knew it wasn't true.

"Son?" repeated Kaelen, shocked, and a moment later it came to him. He straightened up, his face serious. "He's the Prince."

"Oh yes, the treacherous Prince, son or no son, must suffer the punishment for the worst of offenses," the King continued. "Unless... he returns what he let escape."

She felt as if an invisible fist hit her diaphragm.

"That will be the day," snorted Kaelen. "We are already rushing, only in the opposite direction."