Kissed by Chaos

Kissed by Chaos (34) - Fire

Kissed by Chaos

Chapter 34 - Fire

I could hear my boots thudding very ungracefully across the floor of the cave. The sound was accompanied by my ragged breaths somehow squeezing through my lungs and out of my unbearably dry mouth. Anything else was lost on me. There was a voice out there somewhere calling my name, but I did not know who or why. After hours of pathetic hope that I would find Elisabeth and be next to her quiet strength once again, the moment had finally arrived.

I reached her before she had managed to take more than three steps. I stopped short of throwing my arms around her as I saw in the very real, physical world the crimson stains splattered all over the front of her dress. Perhaps there had been some wishful thinking on my part, hoping that the bloody part of my vision had only just been my anxious imagination at work.

Elisabeth leaned on the cave wall. She grabbed one of my hands in hers and made a weak attempt at a smile. Her eyes were as tired as an old widow’s as they sought my own. “How did I know without a doubt that you would eventually find me, Claire?”

As carefully as I could, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders. I closed my eyes and buried my face in her wild hair for a moment, allowing myself this small comfort. “Because I am your sister, and you know very well that I would lay down my life for you. I had no choice but to come for you.”

I stared at her, stunned by the reality I was faced with. I was no longer a meek little girl from a small town in the middle of a corrupted kingdom. Here I was in a magnificent cave somewhere in Arabia. My older sister gasped for breath in front of me. Her beautiful smooth skin was scarred with jagged cuts. They sparked a new fury in me for the despicable creature that had caused my sister so much agony. I felt as though the anger would boil through the pores of my skin, eating away anything it came into contact with.

“Oh Claire,” whispered Elisabeth. “I waited so long for you. I was getting a bit impatient, really. I was about to come looking for you!”

I laughed softly, uncertainly, unsure of where the words were coming from. Elisabeth narrowed her eyes at me, her dry lips twisting into a horrid sneer. Her fingers coiled around my wrist, cold and wet like a serpent’s skin. My eyes widened as her grip tightened, tighter and tighter until there was no colour left in my wrist.

“You foolish girl. You really think I would just let your sister come prancing over to you? Have you not realised that I am not a harmless fairy from one of your children’s stories?”

The haze of happiness vanished as suddenly as it had come. I was now hyperaware of everything around me. For one, I could hear Raafi calling from somewhere behind me. It rang clear through the air, into my ears and into my mind, filled with terror and anxiousness. But I couldn’t turn around and look into his eyes now, not when the eyes of a demon stared up at me from the slightly round, innocent face of my sister. If I was yet to be convinced that the world was a terrible place, this was enough to shatter any remnants of hope.

“What have you done to her?” I gasped, realising the futility of my question as soon as I had spoken it.

Elisabeth – or Dunya – stretched out her arms in front of her face. She waved her hands in front of her eyes, inspecting them curiously. When she was done she fixed me with a smirk. “I don’t know, dear. I supposed she might still be somewhere in here.” The smirk suddenly exploded into a glare that could scrape the skin off my face. Except it wasn’t directed at me.

“What in the world do you think you’re doing, your Highness?” she hissed vehemently. “Come to save poor Claire from horrible old Dunya?” she ripped past me, Elisabeth’s shoulder slamming into my chest with a force that knocked me to the ground. In my cold fear, I had not realised that Raafi had rushed over to my side. His dagger was drawn and his eyes were filled with hatred.