Princess Of Darkness (Editing)

Confessions (Edited)

I dreamt of red eyed crows coming at me in swarms from every direction. I couldn't outrun them, and I couldn't hide from them. They were relentless, battering me with their tattered wings, tearing at me with their talons like tiny feathered demons coming to claim my soul. I was completely surrounded, and all I could do was scream as I fought to fend them off, being swallowed up by the swarm.

I woke with a start, heart hammering in my chest, so loudly that, at first, I thought it was the beating of the demon bird's wings, following me from my nightmare. I looked around, the remnants of my nightmare fading as my heartbeat slowed down. I realised I was alone in my room. Safe in the Underworld.

Heaving a sigh, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but I was so worked up from my dream that it resulted in me tossing and turning for the next hour, feeling wide awake, my mind buzzing.

I gave up on trying to sleep, so I threw back the covers and sat on the edge of my bed, just staring into the darkness, the silence so loud that I could hear my pulse in my ears, beating normally once more. The floor was cold beneath my bare feet, like a blanket of ice had covered everything in the room. Ignoring the cold, I fumbled around in the dark, looking for my backpack, but, it was hopeless. I couldn't see a thing.

Sighing again, I summoned a few flames into my hand, leaving them to levitate just above my head, eating away at the darkness, illuminating my surroundings in an eerie, ethereal glow. The flickering flames made the shadows quiver, swaying and dancing to a melody that I wasn't made to hear. In the dim light, I found my backpack and opened it, pulling out a pair of jeans and an old teeshirt, things left over from the life I hoped I would, no, never would, return to.

The denim felt as rough as the stone walls of the castle compared to the delicately soft material of the dresses I had become so accustomed to wearing. Even the worn cotton of the shirt I pulled over my head felt coarse against my skin as I slipped out of the silky night gown, but, I ignored it, and left the room, calling my tiny embers back into my palm to light my way.

I wasn't entirely sure of where I was headed, wandering down the hallway, away from my room. I wrapped my free arm around myself, the air cold and bitter, biting at my skin just like the floor of my room. Eventually, I came across the three steps beneath the archway leading to the library, and I decided to follow them up and search through the books there until I felt like I could sleep again.

I reached the end of the small hallway leading away from the archway, stopping just short of the towering door, where it stood ajar, firelight pouring from the small opening left between the wood and the wall.

Curious, I pushed it open all the way, as quietly as I could so as not to disturb whoever was in the library.

The fire was burning warmly in the hearth, I could feel it's comfort beckoning me toward it, away from the cold, like a soothing embrace. It was giving off the only source of light, casting the rest of the room in an eerie shadow, growing deeper and darker and more forbidding the further it got from the fire.

Standing before the fire, silhouetted against the flames was the tall, muscular frame of Lucian, his back to me, unmoving.

I contemplated leaving him there before he noticed me watching him, not wanting to disturb his peace, but, he turned to me before I could make my escape.

He eyed me, staring hungrily at me, and I just stood there, stock still, like a rabbit staring into the eyes of a ravenous wolf, knowing any move it made would only prolong it's inevitable demise.

I was holding my breath, waiting for something to happen, and slowly let it out, holding his burning gaze.  The flames of his eyes leaped higher, burning even brighter as though they fed on the tension in the room, feasting on the storm brewing between the two of us.