Prisoner of Chaos (Redemption Book #4)

Chapter 32

Okay, I apologize. That last chapter wasn't very polite in how it ended and I thank all of you readers who are still with me!

Kyla

"Yes, I want this," I hear my voice say.

Strange, I'm not speaking it. My eyes open and adjust to a dark room.

A blonde woman with a tattoo on her forehead is holding up a strange mechanical box.

Earth tech.

I realize it's where my voice is coming from too.

"Trust me, dark magic is eager to take hold, you've got her," the blonde says, setting the box down. She holds up a key at me and our eyes meet. "You're awake." A smiles curls the corners of her unreally sculpted lips. "Good." Her hand reaches below my neck the key pointed toward me.

Click.

"What's happening?" I ask, groggy for reasons I can't explain. Did they poison me? But how?

"You belong to Prince Wes now," the blonde says with a sneer. Wes walks up next to her and leans his head on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Diana," he says.

Diana?

"I'm the woman he loves, Kyla," Diana says. She laughs and adds, "How could he love you when you have ugly dragon wings fused to your back like a horror-movie science experiment?"

Drakon. That's what we call them here. This woman is definitely from Earth.

"Don't be cruel, love," Wes says, his expression uncomfortable.

"Go ahead," the woman Wes calls Diana prods. "Use it. Make her dance. She's your trained monkey now."

Wes blinks awkwardly at me, and holds the key out. I gasp as my limbs move not on my own accord, then I remain, fastened to my seat by an invisible force.

So this is what it felt like for Father all those years... and I can't talk. The fucking coward is not allowing me to talk.

Dread forms a painful knot in my gut. What is going to happen now? Everything is spinning out of control in my life.

Again. My beast wants to take the reins completely. Forget I've got a human side. Time to dish out punishment on all those who have used or are using me!

"C'mon, make her do something embarrassing!" Diana says, clapping her hands giddily.

"N-No, I get that it's working," Wes mumbles, he doesn't look me in the eye. He's ashamed.

"I bet you're wondering how we stunned you like that?" Diana says. "It take a super powerful toxin to make a Cursed black out for even a second, and even then we had to catch you by surprise. Clever, huh?"

When I can't answer, she stomps her foot as if she is an impatient teenager. "Wes, stop making her a mute!"

"I think we should go, Diana, pretend like nothing has happened," Wes says. "She can hide the collar in high necked clothing. She won't tell anyone about it because I'll ensure it. Come on, Kyla. Go back to your room and pretend this never happened."

I'm still mute, but I obediently get up from where they sat me down in an abandoned garden shed and walk out the door stiffly.

This is so wrong. I've lost. There is no Kyla anymore. There is just a puppet Cursed bride of Wes. It hurts that Wes did this to me, his betrayal wrenches my very soul, and I'm afraid of what he intends to do with me. Especially if he commands me to tell the truth about what happened to my pregnancy. And what happened with the Dark Lord.

I walk up the steps to my room and open the door to see Rift standing there. He doesn't see me, and I can't talk. I can't shout out for help even though every fiber of my being longs to. Rift can save me. He can tame my beast so Wes can't hurt him with it, and then he can destroy this entire castle of Erlund and give me back my freedom.

Instead I watch while Rift's back is to me, as he places something down on my bed and vanishes.

My eyes get glassy when I see what he left: of course, a Queen Chaos card.

Rift

I should have known I'd loved her all along.

I recall seeing her that first time. My mother had sent me to the palace to kill her with the dagger and a pack of her own lies.

"If you do this, son, I will teach you everything I know about power. I will make you a god," she'd told me, then she'd kissed my cheek. "I cannot wait to feed off of the chaos this will cause. Can you?"

I'd smiled at her wickedly, because this was the only thing I got meaning from at that time. She hadn't allowed anything else for me. "My first kill by my own hand," I said, it would feel so good. All that dark power. The only thing that felt good to me save a jaunty game of Chaos cards.

"Yes," my mother purred. "This is your destiny." She handed me the key to the Fe collar of the Drakon she'd had me capture. "Now, go. Ruin them, my Rift of Chaos."

I'd mind controlled a noble to take his clothes. At that time I hadn't grown powerful to conjure up my own illusions. It was easy to get in. The guards at the palace didn't even see me coming. They let me pass. No one wore protective gear against dark magic. Everyone had grown complacent in Underlund since Saul's defeat.

I entered the great room and scanned the room for my quarry, which turned out overwhelmingly easy to spot.

The Princess had her back to me, but her glossy black hair, cascading down her back which was covered by a dark cloak made her stand out as a Queen of darkness in this room of vibrant colors.

Strange, why does she wear all black? Why does she not dress as other nobles, to draw attention?

The Princess turned around so I could get a glimpse of her from the front, her shimmering crystal blue eyes searching the room. My gaze dipped to the body of this woman I'm supposed to kill, taking in her supple breasts and small waist with hips that flared out like the curve of a wine goblet.

Damn the Dark Lord, what a hot piece she is! Pity she has to die. I sucked in a breath.

My hand rested on the hilt of the dagger, but my gaze slipped up, back to her face.

I cannot do it. Not ever.

The music picked up once again and everyone at the party joins in.

Fuck it, I'm going to ask her to dance. No one else is, which only shows she's spent her entire life around a bunch of idiots.

And so I'd approached her, a being of such powerful energy, but of incorruptible soul, and it leads me here.

Father Ryland waits for me back at the Sanctuary.

He's found the location of the Dark Lord's crypt. A place hidden by magic in the ruined northernmost city in Axus, Hyland.

"I've been able to decipher that Corseth himself placed him there," Father tells me. Pointing at a very old map. "Inside their Sanctuary crypt."

"What happened to Hyland?" I ask him.

"I don't really know, but I've been able to decipher that Corseth's grandson was involved in it's complete obliteration, as well as the end of the great Cursed wars."

"Let's go then," I say. "The sooner Kyla and I can fly off to the Isles of Nyst the better."

"Nyst?" Father Ryland asks, cocking a brow.

"It's where her nest is," I answer, a hint of smile on my mouth.

"I take it you mean literally," Father Ryland says with a chuckle. "You mean I'm a grandfather then?"