Wake of Darkness [1]

Chapter Twenty-Two

♕ Burning Red ♕

 She had not allowed herself to puke in the middle of the burnt down floor. Not out of fear but anger. All consuming anger that made her see red. Aubrette felt her skin burning through her as she made her way out of the castle.

Izabella had not been on the floor. Had not been in any other room. Aubrette had thought of searching, but she knew, as she ran through the castle looking for signs of her white hair, and deep brown skin that it was useless.

Maybe it was stupid, and exactly what they wanted, but Aubrette could not see past the anger. All she could see was Izabella. Struggling to fight against whoever had come and taken her. They'd been fools. Each and everyone of them had been fools to believe a few dozen extra guards would be enough to protect the city form this. From another marked to go missing.

And she had ignored the gut feeling in her stomach telling her otherwise. Had ignore the voice in her head telling her to remain alert, to look past the distractions. She had ignored that, for a few minutes of happiness that could now be paid with a life.

Aubrette hurried her steps, running through the city, looking, searching. Her steps guided her towards the sea. Where a lingering breeze of coldness remained. And she knew that they meant her to run the other way, knew that they had assumed she'd run towards where the cold was strongest.

She almost had given in to the pull of the cold that would surely have guided her to the memoir court, but she could feel the trails that hadn't been so carefully hidden by the humid breeze of the sea. So Aubrette kept running, even after her lungs begged her to stop.

When she got to the shore, Aubrette did not see the flicker of light, the soft flow of golden tattoos near her. But just as it had been with Layla... there was something wrong.

And then she smelled it.

Aubrette froze on her place, as the smell of blood flooded her senses making it hard to breathe, hard to think. For the first time in days, she hated the way her magic did not respond to her, hated that she could not bend the world at her will. Hated that she was so slow, too slow.

The weight of the sand dragged her steps as she ran towards the boat line, where Layla had been, and there hidden amongst the edges. She saw them.

Izabella laid on the ground, her tattoos nothing more than scars, dried blood staining her skin. Both of her hands wrapped around the girl's neck that was dressed in golden armor above her.

When the girl turned, Aubrette felt her body scream at her to run. The drained eyes of the grey lady meeting hers, a lingering smirk resting on her lips, her nails digging into Izabella's hands, yanking them away from around her throat.

☾

It was not possible. It couldn't be possible and yet...

She had seen her die, she had closed her eyes, had screamed as the goldcrest guards dragged her body away, screamed as they'd marked her skin with golden feathers, but she was standing in front of her. Her eyes were open, and she was moving. The same way the guards in Memoir had been able to.

"Bree!" Izabella yelled, pulling her out of her thoughts. The screaming shattering every bit of commotion that ran through Aubrette's body.

The grey lady stood from Izabella, and Aubrette saw as she tried to stand from the sand, tears rolling down her face as she took in the scaring of her tattoos. Her tattoos who'd been filled with light and warmth a few hours ago were now torn away into nothing.

"I was wondering when you'd show up" the grey lady said, her eyes turning black. For a moment, Aubrette thought shadow might surrounded them but none did. "Thank you for sparing me another trip to the palace, it's horribly hot in there"