Darkness and Beauty (The Fated Series, #1)

Chapter 23 - Darius - Nightmares

My eyes shoot open, and I quickly close them again against a blinding golden light. Soft laughter and cheery notes fill my ears, echoing off each other. As my eyes adjust to the brightness I see blurry images of women dressed in colorful ball gowns and men in their formal attire, all drunk silly with stains on their white satin shirts. Everyone seems to be smiling, but I can't tell since everything looks fuzzy and sounds muffled.
I look down at my own clothing and find myself still in my nightclothes. Well, my night pants.
The sides of my head are pounding numbly in time with the music. I lift my hand to rub at the ache when I notice my forearm is encased in a small, winding strip of fire. I shake my hand furiously trying to get it to go out, praying that someone sees this and brings a bucket of water. But no one does. No one even seems to notice me and my burning arm.
Staring at the tendril of fire that doesn't seem to budge, I flex my fingers and find that I'm not in pain. My skin beneath the blaze isn't turning red, and I don't feel any abnormal heat as I hesitantly lift my other hand to touch it. That's when I notice my left hand is wrapped in...wind? I can barely see the matter, but it feels like a soft breeze, looks just as fuzzy as the crowd around me, and can't be described as anything else.
There's a weird mark on the inside of my wrist that's lightly glowing silver. It's shaped like two snakes forming a swirl, the tails fading at the ends and brightest in the center. A glance at my right wrist and I find a symbol of three squiggly lines, the center the tallest glowing a red-orange.
Fire and wind?
A loud cheer roars through the crowd and I find every hazed figure now waving at something behind me. I turn around and find a man and a woman both dressed in opposing colors but clear as day. The woman is stunning with her loose brown waves, hazel eyes, and gleaming smile, but it's not her that has my breath catching. It's not her that has me pushing through body after body until I'm standing on the first step up to the dais. It's the man. The...King.
A crown of flames circles his head, his hand encompassed in a ribbon of flames waves at the cheering crowd. His flames - my flames are identical. One look to his left hand also encompassed in the wind and my mind starts whirling.
The pain in my head begins to grow, and this time it's not relenting.
I fall to one knee, my bones screaming at the impact of my weight on the stone floor. The laughter and cheers grow louder, the King and his Queen smile wider, and the flames and wind on my arms move faster. A sharp cry comes from a woman behind me and I can't help but look. The throne room doors have been kicked open. Red-colored darkness tints the golden light with each advancing step of a man in black. His big hood covers his face almost entirely, and there's no sigil or marking on his cloak to show which house or kingdom or group he belongs to.
Six others dressed in the same attire saunter behind him, barely visible snarls peeking out from the shadows of their identical hoods. As the darkness envelopes the rest of the crowd, they all begin to disappear one by one, perfectly calm as the darkness swallows them whole. It takes me a moment to realize they're headed right for the dais, but when I turn to hope that the royals behind me are the reason he's made such a dramatic entrance, they too have vanished.
The stranger stops two steps from me, the joy of the ballroom now taken over by a bloody mist. I stare at him, not knowing what to do or if he even sees me. His head shifts into an assessing position and I look to the others behind him only to find them doing the same.
"This is the one all of the fuss is about?" asks the stranger in a scratchy, low voice. "I don't see how you're having so much trouble." His voice bears a slight accent, one I can't pinpoint, but know I've heard it before.
"The other is with him," responds a smaller form behind the stranger's shoulder. "She's not as easy a pick like this one." A woman, I realize.
"Hm." The stranger slowly walks around me. I stay as still as I can in hopes that he doesn't kill me because a muscle twitched. "Any signs proving our suspicions?"
"Aside from the ones here? No. The other doesn't show any either." Her voice it...sounds familiar.
"Well. In that case." He stops in front of me, his mouth a tight line. I try to see further into his hood, but it's as if he soaks up all the light. Not even the slight glimmer of his eyes show. "Do you know what you are?"
"I-I'm Darius," I answer, slightly confused.
"Not who. What."
"What?"
"Yes, what. Do you know what you are?" Is this a trick question? Like, am I supposed to say I'm a Prince or something? "I'll take that as a no," he says to my silence. He turns to the female behind him. "I want you near him at all times."
"And if I'm forced to leave soon?"
"Then kill whoever's forcing you!" I flinch at the roar of his voice. It...changed. As if his anger physically manifested and altered his vocal cords. "I want you near him at all times."
"As you wish, master." She bows her head and he ignores it turning back to me.
"Now, let us see if we can speed this up."
His hand shoots out and grabs my shoulder, the other quickly reaching for my neck. I try to pull away but his grip tightens painfully on my shoulder blade and I'm forced to stay still. His hand on my neck is gentle, almost caressing. I don't know what's happening. Then my chest collapses and I feel something within me...wake up.
One moment I'm reaching to remove the stranger's hand from my neck, and the next I'm being pulled into darkness and watching from a distance as my arm stops, and my body relaxes on its own. I don't know where I am, only that I no longer have control over my mind. I'm trapped inside myself.
A low growl comes from behind me – trapped me, not real me – and when I turn, I see the biggest damn eyes and sharpest teeth that I've ever seen. The eyes are two different colors, one orange, one silver. Below them lips part to reveal two rows of sharp long teeth, followed by skin that is the darkest of blues it's almost black. A skinny, clawed hand reaches for me, and it's all I can do to jump out of its reach before it unfurls my guts. The thing, the - creature advances on me, and I keep backing away, feeling myself grow further and further away from my physical self.
The thing takes over and as my eyes open and I see the stranger smiling wickedly. I feel as a wave of heat and wind rush from my hands in waves, and I can do nothing but watch as the creature controls my every move and sees my every sight.
No. No!
I sprint towards the creature, pushing out the thoughts of my limbs being crushed by those horrific teeth, but then I slam against an invisible wall mere feet from the horrific thing. My teeth rattle at the impact, and I stagger back trying to figure out what the hell I just ran into. When I look again I don't see anything but that thing forcing the flames to burn brighter. I pound against the invisible wall, trying to regain my body from the claws of the creature, but the wall stands strong, and the creature smiles its triumph.
I have no idea what is going on or if this really is just a dream, but it's getting worse.
As the stranger begins speaking I can't hear his voice. Instead, I hear several voices, and they're all coming from the darkness around me. They get louder and louder and human forms begin to shape out of the mist. I hear my grandmother's words and see her standing not ten feet from me. My cousin's voice yells over all the others and I see her on the floor, sobbing. Memories begin flashing in front of me. My grandmother dying, my cousin being beaten, my father slicing a man's throat...all my bad memories. They pass by me like horses in a stampede. Memory after memory clawing at my face begging me to surrender - to give in. I hear the creatures pleased laugh as the memories grow louder and louder. Faster and faster, more brutal and painful than the last.
I squeeze my ears shut, pushing my hands against them to try and drown them out, but they only continue to sound just as clear. They're in my head.
"Please," I beg. "Please, leave me be. Please."
Just as the voices couldn't get louder, a soft voice comes from afar. A female voice, one I recognize and know means safety. One in which has done nothing but mainly insult me and now begs me to stay. To come back. A voice that I've both come to hate and admire, one that hasn't been around nearly as long as the others, but somehow feels ancient and soothing.
"Darius," calls the voice. "Darius, wake up."
As it continues to call out my name I open my eyes and find a rope by my feet. I don't know what it means nor where it came from, but the voice calls again and the rope shines with its echo. So I snatch the line, focusing on the sound of the voice, and hold on tight. It goes taut at my touch and I feel the other end pulling from a distant place. Not wanting to let go, I move my hand higher up the rope and pull myself out. The creature above me snarls in annoyance, reaching toward the line. I scream my plea, but as his hand touches the rope a thorn three times as big as me shoots out from it, impaling the creature's claw.
The creature screeches in pain pulling his hand from the thorn. It causes the fire on my hands in the real-world to flicker. I look down and find the rope has turned into some sort of plant. A vine. When the voice calls out again it sounds more urgent, so I reach around the thorn and keep on moving up the vine even as darkness completely enfolds me until I can't see my hands, but I can feel the vine and its leaves brushing against my stomach and arms, so I let the darkness claim me.