Defiance

4.4

Chapter 44

E L Y S I A 

I gasped when I could see clearly. My body shook uncontrollably - it was Aldric - all I had seen was Aldric screaming in pain.

The hole in my chest was wide. I struggled to breathe, to even recognize that what I saw wasn't real.

They were dead.

They were all dead.

I didn't realize I had been crying. I wiped my tears with my arm and tried to soothe my panting chest. The pace of my heart only seemed to intensify and I rubbed my eyes.

Illusions.

They were illusions.

Illusions, I chanted in my head over and over again. Aldric's body, cut, and torn flashed through my eyes and I found it difficult to breathe. Velanora and Raesana's screams made it worse.

Stop, I hissed at myself. None of it was real.

But parts of it were - the way I had been left homeless. The way Aldric had fucked Freya after our fight. Parts of it were real, some of my worst fears had already come to life. What would stop the others -

Stop. Stop. I hissed at myself. I forced myself to stop thinking, to breathe in and out, the way I reminded High Priestess Guinevere. I took a deep breath again, letting my chest relax, reminding myself the single fact that Freya's illusions were intended to tap into my mind and bring my fears alive before me. High Priestess Guinevere, though torn and broken, was slowly recovering. It would time, months, years but I would recover. The hardest part would be reminding myself of that.

I blinked a third time when I recognized where I was - not in the witches' base. When I was struck, I had faded. I couldn't remember what had happened. The majority of the witches would assume I did it to save High Priestess Nai but I knew High Priestess Nai was intelligent enough to connect the dots.

She can't prove it, I reminded myself. She won't be able to prove why you did it.

But I had certainly fed enough suspicion into her mind that I was the treacherous witch her base.

She can't prove it.

"You're finally awake," The voice startled me and only then I realized I wasn't alone. I sat up almost immediately and met with Freya's electrifying blue eyes. Wolf base.

"Where am I?" I demanded. "Where's Aldric?"

"He wants you to leave," Freya hissed, the anger in her voice sounded like venom. "You saved Heera -"

"That's not answering my question," I cut her off. "Where's Aldric?"

Laric. I called through my bond to my familiar. Laric.

A flash of pain passed through my body and I suddenly stumbled down. In a brief second, I saw a bloody visage of blood - the visage of my dead body. As fast as it had appeared, it disappeared. Laric sent me that - I knew he did.

Aldric was in trouble.

Freya's eyes were wide as she crossed her arms at me. "Where is Aldric?" The urgency in my voice increased trifold and I forced myself off the bed, standing before Freya.

"He doesn't want you -" Freya started again.

"Do you not understand my question?" I snapped at her.

Freya did not respond.

Something was wrong, something for so clearly wrong. I pushed past her, towards the exit of the tent we were in. I called Laric once more but was heard back with a painful moan.