*Eliza*
A man, wild and crazy, frantically waved the Cryptex around. His eyes were bloodshot. His lips moved so fast that they were a blur, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
My heart hamred in my chest as I watched him freak out.
I’d never seen that man before, but there was sothing about him that was familiar. His hair... his eyes... the curve of his face.... It reminded of soone... soone....
“Eliza?”
Jared’s voice rang in my head like a gong going off inside my skull. Then it fell silent again and I was staring at the wild man with the Cryptex.
He threw it on the ground, spittle flying from his mouth in fury. Raging, he dug through the drawers in the desk behind him. He pulled out a hamr with a determined smirk. Dropping to his knees in front of the Cryptex, he brought the hamr down heavily.
I winced as though the hamr had struck too.
The Cryptex flashed a blinding gold light and shattered. The pieces scattered.
My vision faded in a swirl of heavy mist. I was planted to the ground, my feet like tree roots holding in place. The mist swirled and parted, showing a new vision.
The man who smashed the Cryptex lay on the ground. His body was bent in an impossible position, eyes staring dead ahead, blank and lifeless. Blood dribbled from his mouth; his clothes were soaked in it and a puddle of thick crimson glistened around his immobile form.
My hands started to shake and I looked down at them.
Those weren’t my hands!
Unable to stop myself, I ran toward the man’s body, dropping to my knees beside him. Tears wet my cheeks. They weren’t my tears. Soone else, another woman, was mourning this man’s death, and I was along for the ride.
She reached out to him, a fatal mistake.
Black ink tendrils burst from inside the dead man, clinging to my arms—her arms like sticky spider webbing. The tentacles curled around her arm, burrowing through her skin and sinking deep inside.
“No! What’s happening!” My mouth moved, but the voice that ca out wasn’t my own.
She clawed at her arms trying to pull the inky tentacles away. Once they got hold, they vanished inside so quickly, leaving faint traces of tattoo marks behind.
Those tattoos–I recognized them. They were the sa tattoos that Jared had.
Groaning, I could feel the ink latch onto her blood, sticky and thick like plaque in the arteries. Instantly, her body beca sluggish and heavy. A shadow coursed through her, creeping into every corner of her body.
“Stop it! No!” she wailed, her arms instantly going to her stomach. It was just barely starting to show roundness.
The woman whose body I was witnessing everything through was pregnant.
Oh! Was this Jared’s mother?! Was I seeing what had happened through her eyes?
It made sense. If the man who destroyed the Cryptex was Prince Justin, then once he died, the curse passed to his mate and then to Jared because she was pregnant with him.
My vision shifted again. Still inside the sa woman, she knelt in front of a smiling child with floppy hair.
It was easy to recognize him–King Alexander, or Prince Alexander as he was back then.
The woman I was trapped inside ran her fingers through Xander’s ssy, floppy hair. She leaned in and brushed the tip of her nose against his.
“You’ll be ho soon, right?” Alexander asked.
“Yes. You know I can’t stay away long.”
My heart sank. I knew it was a lie and so did his mother. I couldn’t see her expression because I was witnessing everything through her eyes, but I could feel the heaviness in her heart as she said goodbye to her son... forever.
She kissed Xander on the forehead.
“I love you.”
“Love you too.”
Xander waved and hopped off into the gardens. He hung his head a little as he went back to the garden, crushing dead flowers with his shoe. It was a reflection of the recent loss of his father, but he was completely oblivious to the fact that he’d never see his mother again. He was just a young child too young and innocent to realize what horrors existed in the world, and he was about to lose both parents.
Poor Xander.
Suddenly, my vision collapsed in a swirl of mist. This ti, the mist took longer to clear. My limbs got really heavy like they were weighted down by bricks, pulling onto the ground until I was lying down.
Pain shot through my arm and through my entire body. My hand and arm felt swollen like I’d been stung by a million bees, throbbing, pounding, and swollen. The rest of my body ached.
Groaning, I squinted my eyes closed. When I opened them again, I was staring up into Jared’s eyes.
Jared was looking down at like I was sothing out of the depths of hell. I expected that. I’d seen what had happened to my hand before I was swallowed by total darkness and cast into a world of dreams, visions, and shadows.
I glanced around, blinking to clear my vision as I gazed upon what looked to be a snug cave. Abe was crouching on his heels surrounded by all of our belongings, which were scattered on the ground, drying out, from the looks of it. His blue eyes pierced my own, waiting for to say sothing, anything.
“You can get rid of now,” I said to both of them, my mouth curving into a smile. I turned back to Jared, leaning my head against his head.
He took a shuddering breath. “What are you talking about?” he snapped, and from across the fire Abe chuckled, then blew out his breath. “What happened out there? Why were you ssing with the Cryptex?”
“It wanted to,” I replied, my voice full of gravel.
“She’s obviously deranged,” Abe muttered.
“What happened?” Jared urged, his eyes narrowed on Abe.
He shifted his weight then laid down on a bedroll, flexing his arms. I wondered how long he’d been holding like that.
“I... saw things....”
“See, I told you, deranged.”
“Abe, why don’t you collect more firewood?” Jared asked, shooting him a quick glare.
Abe grumbled to himself but left the cave in pursuit of firewood.
I glanced around and saw a large stack already neatly piled beside the firepit.
“Eliza, are you okay?” His piercing eyes studied , his mouth a thin line. It was like he was waiting for to do sothing extra crazy.
“I’ll be okay. I’m just sorting through it all.” I tapped the side of my head and yawned.
“Get so rest. Abe and I will handle setting up camp.” He patted the bedroll.
Sighing, I let myself relax a little. My arm and hand still ached from when the Cryptex had latched onto . I lay on my side to avoid putting any pressure on that side of my body and propped myself up on my other arm.
Abe and Jared mulled about, taking stock of all the supplies that had been salvaged from the water.
I realized they’d co into the river after , damaging a lot of the food and gear we’d brought with us for our journey to Myrel. Whatever could be saved was around the fire drying. Everything else had been tossed in a heap near the entrance of the cave.
Jared brought a cup of water. He also had a first aid kit in his hand.
“I need to check your hand and put on a fresh bandage.” He nodded toward my swollen, injured arm.
I winced. Every ti a cold draft ca through the cave, it felt like soone was standing on my hand, grinding the heel of their boot into it. The sutures felt tight, chafing against my sensitive skin.
“I put a pain killer in the water. It isn’t as good as anesthetic, but it’s better than nothing,” he told .
Nodding, I quickly drank the water.
Jared sat cross legged on the bedroll. He helped into a sitting position. His large, strong, unusually rough hands handled gently, careful not to touch my injured arm, holding in place until he was sure I was steady.
“Alright, let see it.” He held his hand out to .
I slowly extended my elbow, the joint stiff and crackling from the trauma of my injury. I turned my palm up and laid my hand in his.
“Shit!” Jared gasped under his breath. “What the fuck. It looks even more swollen.”
Shaking his head, he slowly unwound the bloody bandage, the gauze fibers sticking to my skin. Jared grabbed an antiseptic wipe and cleaned the wound around the stitches
I gritted my teeth against the sharp sting that prickled my already sensitive flesh.
“Tell what happened... you were mumbling a lot while you were unconscious. Do you rember?”
“Y-yeah,” I gasped. In my mind, I ran through everything I’d seen in the various visions.
Once I had it pieced together, I started telling Jared everything I’d seen about his father, the Cryptex, how the curse passed to his mother–all of it.
I could tell he was listening, but his eyes were focused on my hand as he poked at the sutures and examined the wound. He was probably looking for signs of infection.
As long as I didn’t look at it and kept talking, I could ignore the worst of the pain.
“I wonder why she ran away,” he whispered so softly I almost didn’t hear.
“Your mother?”
Jared nodded. He pulled bandages and a tube of ointnt out of the first aid kit. He squeezed a generous amount of the waxy, gel-like ointnt into his hand and gently slathered it on my palm.
Imdiately, the burning, throbbing pain subsided. It felt like my hand had been dipped in ice.
I sighed in relief and relaxed my arm.
“She always seed so fragile and... weak, like she had a dark cloud hanging over her head.”
“Like a shadow,” I whispered.
Jared gave a wry, humorless smile. “Exactly.”
He wrapped the bandage around my hand just tight enough to be snug but not tight enough to be uncomfortable. When he was done, he gently clasped my bandaged hand in both of his.
“Almost everything I know about her I learned from people that knew her in Saboreef. I don’t even know if those stories were true. I always had the feeling that my aunt and uncle had a problem with her because when I asked about her, they’d give this look.” Jared sighed and released my hand.
I just nodded and cradled my bandaged hand against my chest.
It was rare to get him to open up about his family and his past. I didn’t want to interrupt when he was being so reflective.
“Now, I wonder if that is because she left my brother behind,” he sighed and shook his head.
“I got the sense that your mother left to protect Xander. It didn’t feel like she wanted to leave him. I think it broke her heart,” I offered, biting my lower lip.
Jared caught my eyes and smiled, nodding.
“Thank you, Eliza.” He brushed his fingertips down my uninjured arm.
A shiver ran through at the featherlight caress.
Reviews
All reviews (0)