Unknown Darkness (Dominions Book 2)

Prologue: Selena

Selena fell to the floor and frantically looked around her surroundings. From the second she landed into this room a cold chill ran down her spine. Gedeon's chuckle echoed throughout the room. She stood inside what looked like a cell that couldn't have been more than six by six square feet. Iron bars lined the front of the dark room, and a small cot with a burlap blanket sat in the right corner. On the left side of the cell,  was a small window where she could see into the cell next to her.

"Gedeon let me out!" she screamed.

She knew that her cries were hopeless. Gedeon was seeking revenge after all. Just hours earlier Selena and her friends had sealed his love, Deidre, in a prison in her own mind. Gedeon knew Selena and Judah were together and wanted him to feel the same hurt that he felt.

Selena took a deep breath through her nose and instantly regretted it. The smell was putrid. It was as if onions were left out in the sun too long and cooked into a toe fungus casserole. She felt a nausea wave circle in her stomach.

I have to get out of here. Selena thought to herself. She ran over to the bars of her cell, her hands trembled as they wrapped around the cold stone. "Hello?" she called out into the hall. A single torch was the only light that illuminated the dark corridor. "Hello is there anyone here?"

"Quiet!" A deep grizzly voice roared.

Selena heard heavy footsteps and instinctively backed away from the bars of her cell. Her eyes widened when she saw a giant purple monster with a furry skin. The monster's head was smaller than the rest of his body, and his face was taken up almost entirely by his warty nose. Yellow teeth that almost glowed in the dark filled his mouth and Selena smelt his vile breath from the middle of her cell.

"Don't make me come in there girl," the monster teased from the corridor. "I'd hate for yous to get hurts."

Selena wasn't afraid of monsters. Or at least that is what she was telling herself at the moment. She had stood her ground in fights on multiple occasions. Selena could control the weather with a mere flick of her wrist, or depending on her mood at that moment. Lightning could shoot from her hands-on command, and she could instruct the sky to do the same.

She willed lightning to circle her hands and was surprised when she felt nothing. Sure, she was new to practicing the craft of magic. The guardians of Glorianna had only just discovered their true identities, and their memories were still a little shotty when it came to remembering the past, but Selena never struggled to capture the essence of lightning before.

The monster chuckled from outside the hall and pointed to the right of the hallway. "Your magic is no good here, Princess," he sounded out of breath just from talking. Selena backed further away from the cell door. "Sees these bars?" he mocked. "These here bars have magical abilities they do. Magical abilities that prevent yous from using your powers. Now, I repeats myselfs," the monster said. "Shut up before I haves to come in there and deal with yous myself."

Selena knew that the guard couldn't hurt her. If anything happened to her power, Gedeon would have this man's head, but if staying quiet meant that this ogre would walk away and she didn't have to smell his disgusting breath then it would be worth it.

However, Selena was never keen on taking the easy way out.

"You don't scare me," Selena said matter of factly.

"No?" he asked. The ogre grinned a grin so ugly that Selena wasn't sure if she was shivering from the damp cold or the fact that she realized a face like his existed. "I don't knows what it was like where yous come from, but here in Coventry, The Vein gives us the ability to do things likes this," He held up a round object into the air. It was around the size of an eight ball, and Selena couldn't help but lift an eyebrow into the air. What was he going to do? Play her in pool to the death?

The ogre twisted top of the ball and a searing noise filled Selena's ears. She grabbed onto her ears and hunched her body in contorted pain. Selena felt anger rise in her chest as the ogre twisted the top of the ball again and the noise shut off.

"Delmar, would you like to give a guy warning next time you're turning that thing on?"

The voice came from the cell next to her, and Selena couldn't help but feel that it was oddly familiar. She wanted to walk over to the window and peek inside, but instead looked at the ogre and scoffed. "Delmar? That's your name?"

"You got a problem with it?!" the ogre raised the ball in the air again and Selena instinctively shut her mouth. A chuckle escaped the foul beast's mouth and he tossed his weapon into the air. "That's what I thoughts," said the ogre as he walked away down the hall whistling an ugly tune.

Selena felt her back touch the cold cell wall. She sunk to the floor, wrapped her arms around her knees, and couldn't help the tears that were falling out of her eyes. She hadn't even been kidnapped an hour and she already ached for her family. Ached for her friends.

Ached for Judah.

How long would it be before they noticed she was gone? Would they bother looking for her? She imaged a life where everything happened within the confounds of these four walls. Panic rose in her chest and she hoped at the very least that outside this dungeon the people of Coventry were experiencing the full fledge of her power with a monsoon or a hurricane.

A girl that looked to be Selena's age came walking down the hall. She was holding a giant wooden bowel that looked cracked and worn. There was a giant wooden spoon inside of it, and it was then that Selena noticed the wooden slab on the floor. It was sitting on the outside of a hole for meals to pass in and out the cell without having to open the door.

When the girl saw Selena she glanced at the ogre walking away and then back to Selena. Her eyes welled with tears as she dropped a gray puddly substance onto the wooden slab.

"You have to help me!" Selena called as she ran over to the cell. The girl's eyes widened and a fearful expression crossed her face. She glanced at the ogre who glared at Selena and shook her head. She walked away without saying a word.

"I said quiet, brat!" Screamed the ogre.

"Wait!" Selena pleaded with the girl! "Come back!"

Delmar twisted the ball once again, and a screeching noise emitted from the hallway. Selena fell to the ground. An instant migraine formed in her head and she cradled herself into a fetal position.

"I said, quiet." Delmar said. His voice sounded like a whisper due to the severity of the noise that just pierced Selena's ears. "Next time you might listen."

"You'll never get anywhere in here if you're defiant like that," said the voice from the next cell.

Selena sniffled and wiped the tears falling down her face. Her hearing was starting to come back, but the searing headache that plagued her mind was still going strong. "Yeah? Well, forgive me for being pissed off considering I was taken from my bedroom and all."

"Can't lie and say I'm disappointed," said the voice. "After all you are the reason I'm in here."

Selena raised an eyebrow at the remark. Slowly, she got back up on her feet and walked along the wall until she reached the window of the cell next to her. The window was no bigger than a football, and Selena had to stand on her tiptoes to be able to look through it. She felt her heart thump in her chest as she peered into the hole. She couldn't see anyone at first. She scrunched her eyebrows and did her best to squeeze her head deeper into the small opening.

"Heya, Megara!"

Selena fell backward and her butt hit hard on the floor. She squealed as she instinctively backed away from the window. His shaggy blonde hair that was so neatly done on their last battle was tangled and matted. His reptilian blue skin glistened in the light of the fire torch and his crystal blue eyes pierced her from the window he gazed through.

"Ander."