Unknown Darkness (Dominions Book 2)

Chapter 15: Selena

Selena sat in the chair and watched as Catlynn primped and readied her for her dinner with Gedeon. Her black hair was now curled to perfection and tied up in an intricate bun with strands hanging around her face. She was given an emerald gemstone necklace to wear that matched her dress perfectly. Selena felt uneasy getting this dolled up to see her captor.

What could he possibly want with her? Why was she so dressed up?

She watched as the sun dipped below the horizon and stars replaced the sky. The once busy street full of beggars and knights was quiet as patrol guards strolled through the streets. Selena heard them chastize anyone who was out of their house at this time of night.

Selena's heart drummed quickly in her chest at the same rate that it had all day. She was a ball of anxiety as Catlynn finally stepped away from her and smiled. "You look beautiful," she said.

"Thanks to you," Selena said. "I was a disaster before your help."

She toyed with the bracelet with the purple gem on her wrist. The bracelet had blocked her power, and the more she tried to pull it off the tighter it seemed to wrap around. She held it up to Catlynn quizzically.

"Are you able to take this off of me?"

Catlynn frowned. "Afraid not, Lady," she said. "That's a spelled bracelet. Only the one who spelled it can take it off of you. Or deactivate it for someone to take it off for you."

Selena pouted and walked over to the window. She looked at the stars and the sky and she wondered if they were the same ones that her friends were looking at back in Saffron. Had they been looking for her? She felt tears well into her eyes and began to blink rapidly. She took her pinky fingers and placed them in the corner of her eyes to stop the tears from spilling over and messing up Catlynn's hard work.

"It will be okay, Lady," Catlynn said. "We will overcome this. You're a holder of a Dominion. A powerful one at that. When the others arrive to save you everything will fall into place."

What if they didn't come?

Selena tried to erase those thoughts from her mind as they battled to get to the forefront. Over and over she had to remind herself that her friends were not the kind of people to leave her to rot. They were doing everything in their power to get her back. In her head, she knew that but staring at a blank cell wall day in and day out made that hard to remember. Why hadn't Gedeon tried to kidnap any of the others yet? Why had she been the lone person to get taken? And why was this freaky purple darkness thing reaching out to her in her dreams?

She was jealous of her friends.

She hated being here. It was like a vacation from hell and she had a first-class ticket. Though it pained her to think and admit it, she realized that she wished it had been one of the others. Maybe that was the reason that Gedeon picked Selena. Maybe he saw some darkness in her. The kind of darkness that would wish for her friends to go through someone like this instead of herself.

Selena hated herself every time she had those thoughts.

A knock at the door sent Selena's head in a tailspin. She looked at Catlynn with fear, and her first response was to try her hand at escaping through the window. She felt her body begin to move when the door opened and Delmar stood in the doorway.

"Let's go-" he paused and looked at Selena confused. "What are you doing?"

Selena didn't realize how close she was to the window. She turned and looked at the night for what could be the last time in a while. She stuck her head out the window and took a deep breath in. "I just wanted to look one more time," she said as she turned regrettably and walked toward the door. "I don't know when I'm going to see it again."