Unknown Darkness (Dominions Book 2)

Chapter 2: Jayden

Jayden had been spending a lot of his time in the dead world. 

He didn't tell his friends, and he especially didn't want Elora to know about his excursions. Since they were able to free her from the tower, she spent the last seventeen years of her life in, things seemed different. She was no longer as spirited as she once was. The smiles she'd give them when she found them were few and far between, and the outburst like the one she had with Judah was becoming more and more frequent. 

Jayden knew she was under a lot of pressure, but she was beginning to be controlling. And Jayden spent his whole life being controlled by one person. He didn't want to add another into the mix. 

"You haven't heard anything about Selena?" asked Jayden.

His grandfather nodded and frowned. "I have not, Jay. There are spirits, I'm sure who knows something, but if they do, they've remained quiet. I haven't seen her here, though, so that means she's alive," He placed a strong hand on Jayden's shoulder and squeezed. "I'm sorry, son. We'll find her." 

Jayden has had his grandfather searching around and asking fellow spirits news about Selena. He was technically ruler of the Dead World, and while the spirits here have to obey him, the evil ones have a way of being sneaky. 

Unfortunately for Jayden, the evil ones are the most likely to know something.

"You don't have to say sorry," Jayden said. "You're doing more than enough. Unlike Elora, who barely even mentions the fact that she's gone." 

Jayden felt a twinge of bitterness start to form in his chest at the mention of Elora. Since the battle in the Glorianna Castle, she's been a completely different person. She snaps at them, expects them to be the perfect politicians during the council meetings, and barely has any time to help train them with their powers. 

He felt childish having these thoughts, but he couldn't help it. Elora reminded him of his dad with how she's been acting. 

And that is not someone Jayden ever wants to be reminded of. 

"She technically is your queen, son," his grandfather mentioned as they walked through the meadow. His grandfather was the main reason that Jayden frequented here. When his grandfather was alive, Jayden always went to him for advice. After he died, it felt like a part of Jayden left too. 

"That doesn't mean she can talk to me however she wants," Jayden huffed. "We saved her. We didn't ask for any of this. We didn't ask for our friend to get kidnapped or to be placed on a council where the others were constantly belittling us for a choice that she made."

Jayden knew his outburst was silly. While he might not have grown up answering to a queen and being a part of a place ruled by one person, he sure knew the basics. He knew that what she said was how things were going to go. The choices she makes are final, and now that she doesn't need them to help get her out, she can make whatever choices she wants. 

But she also needed to know that their lives weren't that of Glorianna anymore. Even before the Plague of Dread took over the realm and engulfed everything in its path, the world of castles and moats were nothing but fairy tales. Witches, wizards, and magical powers were things that he heard whispered out of his mom's mouth at bedtime growing up. Jayden still hasn't fully wrapped his head around the fact that there were things such as fairies and elves. Where does this stop? Dragons? Unicorns?

His grandfather let Jayden rant, and once he noticed a considerable pause, he stopped walking. His grandfather sat down in the grass that overlooked the vast meadow. A quiet stream glistened through the middle of it, and flowers with beautiful bright colors sprouted around the stream encasing all of the grassy planes. It was peaceful. Not a place Jayden would have ever associated with a place called the Dead World.