The King's Cursed Bride

Being Saved

            

Carissa nearly wept with relief when Elon stopped climbing stairs. It felt like someone had driven a thick metal stake through her skull as the pain in her head had intensified. In this state, how was she going to help Elon fight the Reapers?

When Elon set her down, her legs resting on hard stone, her back against the metal bars of a cell, she startled, realizing she'd closed her eyes.

Though she blinked several times, her vision still remained hazy. Elon's figure moved, then he held a piece of shining silver in his hand. A key? He must have taken it from one of the guards. A grinding noise echoed around the dungeons, and the cell door opened.

Three figures emerged—a child, a bearded man, and a woman. Carissa was glad they all appeared so different, or as disoriented as she was, she might have mixed them up.

Lyron approached her. "Carissa? What's wrong with your eyes?"

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The black part in the middle is really big and round in both of your eyes, but the right one is a bit smaller." Lyron shifted to the left, then the right. "And your eyes aren't following me when I move. It's kind of weird."

Elon's figure neared them, and he placed a hand on Lyron's shoulder. Or was it his head? She wasn't quite sure, and the harder she tried to look, the more her head hurt. "Carissa had a head injury, Lyron, so she's not feeling well right now and she's having trouble seeing."

Carissa turned her face towards Elon as best she could. Even if her gaze weren't fixed on him, as Lyron had said, she could at least appear like she was looking at him. "Elon, how are we to bring the Reapers to us?"

Lyron jerked backwards. "Reapers?"

Elon replied, "We make a commotion."

"And how do you propose we do that?" she asked.

Elon gestured towards the stairwell. "With him."

A figure appeared at the top of the stairwell, shining in silver armor. A guard.

"I left him alive," Elon continued, "so he could pursue us once he came to."

The man seemed to turn to face them, then he drew his sword and charged, bellowing out a battle cry. Lyron began yelling too—though Carissa suspected the sound stemmed more from fear than rage.

Elon strode forward to meet the guard. The guard swung his sword, and Elon moved to either dodge or disarm. Frustration heated the blood in her veins as she suppressed the urge to help Elon fight. But if she did so, she'd likely get in the way rather than help. Or she'd just keel over and start vomiting again.

The man's sword skidded away from him, and seconds later, the man crumpled to the ground.

Elon returned to them. "The Reapers should be joining us in just a moment."

A small squeak escaped Lyron. "You're certain that there's not a way to–to, I don't know, avoid the Reapers? Use a secret passage like last time?"

Algernon snorted. "Man up, boy, and stop acting like a child."

"You do realize that I am a child, don't you? And as a child, I'm entitled to be scared senseless when I please."

And then Carissa felt a chill spread over her skin and sink into her bones.

Elon held up his sword. "You might want to ready yourselves. I can feel them approaching."

Though she grew colder, Carissa didn't see anything as she scanned the dungeons. Then the temperature plummeted, and it grew neither colder nor warmer. The Reapers were here, but where?

Lyron huddled next to her, pressing his back against the cell behind them, his quick intakes of breath painfully loud.

And then Elon straightened. "Algernon, duck."

Algernon stiffened, turning as he skimmed the dungeons. "But there's nothing—"

"Duck."

He did so just as a Reaper parted from the shadows, swinging a Scythe where Algernon's torso had been a half second ago. Algernon barreled into the Reaper's black form as he tackled the creature.

A second Reaper appeared from a darkened corner, surprisingly close to them. How had they entered and hidden themselves without her seeing any movement at all? Or without any of the others noticing?

Elon twirled his sword once before charging the Reaper.

Carissa glanced at Algernon again, wincing as the sudden movement made her head flare with pain. It didn't take perfect vision for one to see he was losing the battle. Not only had he little experience in close-range fighting but he was battling a Reaper. Not just anyone could kill one.

But she could.

Carissa straightened and grasped the cell bars for balance as the figures danced in and out of focus, filling her vision with a jumble of hazy images. Just looking at it made her head hurt.

A gleam of silver caught her eye. The fallen guard. Perhaps he had a sword.

Carissa staggered towards him. She managed a few steps before falling to the stone floor. If only the world would hold still—just for a moment. She crawled the rest of the way towards the guard.

With her skewed vision, it appeared there were many—at least four. But which guard was the real one? She ran her hands along the stones until she felt the cold brush of his armor. Hot pain sliced across her palm as she discovered his sword. Once she found the pommel, she grasped it and crawled to where Algernon was fighting the Reaper.

As she neared, she caught a blur of red across Algernon's face and arm. Was he bleeding? He likely couldn't hold out much longer. Once she'd drawn near enough, Carissa raised her sword and swung it in front of her. The blade thudded into something.

Judging from how quickly the Reaper turned to face her, she'd hit him. The Reaper raised his Scythe, and Carissa scrambled out of the way, the blade whistling past her ear and stirring her hair.

After her sudden motion, pain erupted in her head, making her vision churn more violently, and the world turned into a soupy mess of color. Her sight steadied just in time for her to see the Reaper swinging his Scythe down once more. And this time, there was no escaping it.

"No!" Faster than her vision could register, someone crashed into her, their body cocooning hers.

Carissa had only a moment to glance up into Elon's eyes before the Reaper's Scythe hit him.

***

Author's Note: So if you read that last line and really hate me right now, then stop your hating and go to the sneak peek. It has certain details from the next chapter you might be interested in learning...