Hidden Stones

CHAPTER 10 | Dark Memories

LUKA

A thousand thoughts keep racing through my mind. A lot of things should be done. A lot of secrets needed unfolding.

I hate being made a fool.

Marina was sitting near the East witch with her eyes closed. I stared at her pale complexion and the fragile strands of hair that frames her face.

The mind reading will cost her. Once the reading starts, there's no stopping it. She can't refuse now.

No one should be subjected to the prying of memories. The north uses this only when nothing else could be done. But I steeled myself. She has consented. And I wanted to know what secrets she have that may lead me to know why my mate dared trick me.

I glanced before me. Zest and Myra were busy staring at each other, a hum of energy started radiating from the both of them. It enveloped the room in darkness. The table started shaking violently. The chandelier on top swivels back and forth. Then in a blink of an eye, the shaking stopped and all that remained was the darkness. Both witches where glowing. Myra in red and Zest in green. The glow ribboned and slittered around Marina and I. Coiling around like glowing snakes.

My eyes felt heavy all of a sudden.

I blinked.

When I opened my eyes I see grass.

I was running.

No. Not me. Marina.

I was somehow in her body. Her feelings and thoughts were flowing through me with ease.

Marina was running through patches of grass. There were scattered logs on the side covered in moss. Marina fell on her knees and glanced behind her. Trees were everywhere. Green. No hints of snow that is typical of the north. No palms like in the beaches of the West. Trees aren't scarce like on the South. So that leaves us with...

The East.

She stood up. Her small grubby hands wiped the dirt on her dress. She swiped dark waves away from her face. Feelings of excitement washed over as a looming structure was appearing before her. "I got back, first! You're both such losers." A girlish squeal came out from her when a boy tackled her to the ground.

"Hell, you run so fast, Yanna." He said with panting breaths. His dark hair waving on the breeze.

Another girl went from behind,  her hand on her stomach, trying to catch her breath. Hair in a braid and a scowl forming on her face. "We'll never play this game again. I can't wait to learn how to teleport." She grumbled.

Yanna, the boy had said. The place is by the East. The looming structure... probably the palace.

It wasn't hard to piece them all together.

Marina is the missing East Princess, Adrianna.

I wanted to wake. To see how the East princess reacts now that she knows her identity. But memories started to keep flashing. Days are spilling before me. Years have come and gone.

I see the princess holding her mother's hand. Then one when the princess was climbing on her father's back while her brother was walking beside them, trying not to laugh.

Flashes kept flooding. Some events flared for a moment and some just showed up and went out.

There were soldiers all around. She was pinning a man double her size beneath her, holding a blade towards his throat. Sound of cheers erupted. "Another win, Your Highness!" One man had shouted amidst the crowd. A sense of pride washes over her.