Beneath Shadows and Secrets

♔ 𝕱𝔬𝔯𝔱𝔶 - 𝕱𝔦𝔳𝔢 ♔

I can't stop uploading for you guys because these chapters and the next few have been my absolute fave. Had me gasping for breath and kicking my legs and shit

♔ 𝔑𝔦𝔯𝔞 ♔

The concentration makes my head throb, but I do not relent. It makes my eyes water, but I do not dare blink. I funnel all my energy into this, and silently plead that it will work.

I imagine exactly what I wish to see. Where lies the softness and sharpness, where will darken, and what will lighten. The image is defined in my mind, but I need it to become tangible. I need it to happen soon, because I fear I am running out of time.

My body begins to tremble despite being sat still. Energy courses through me, power unfurled and ready within my chest. What I need is within my reach, but I do not know how to use it. I do not know how best to bring it to fruition. It is not something I can ask, either, for no one can know.

It is beyond hypocritical, how I wish to keep secrets of my own, but despise those that keep them from me. Except, I do not care, because this... I will not feel safe until I can do it. I will tell them then. After. When I do not need it any longer.

I do not let myself think about what I will do if I cannot manage this.

I do not let myself think of anything at all, for this demands my entire focus.

My body begins to burn. A prickling sort of heat, but I ignore it. Force myself to go on. My head pounds, but I ignore it. A warm liquid trickles from my nose and runs over my lip. I ignore it.

Then, for only a second, there is a flicker of colour. No longer blue, but a twist of yellow and green. A bright and feline sight, split in half with a shard of black. I gasp, and then it is gone, but I know it was not my imagination. It happened. A small and almost insignificant success compared to how much it cost me, but it happened.

My body slumps in exhaustion before I strike a hand beneath my nose and wipe away the blood. It should concern me – to bleed like this – but I do not care. How could I, when for a second, the eyes that looked back at me were Libitina's?

Heavy and hurried footsteps begin to race outside and I right myself, wiping at the smudge of blood across my face and the sweat that sheens my forehead. I am hardly composed before my door bursts open, and I turn with a practiced scowl away from the mirror to meet Tynan's frenzied presence.

"There is a courtesy in knocking." I snap at him, but he does not care.

"It's time." He breathes out.

♔

My feet cannot carry me to the garden quick enough.

I hope Tynan thinks that I run so he can do the same beside me, and does not consider the fact that I am too exhausted to Scere. It is a ridiculous thought; he is likely thinking of little else than the egg that lays in Vasami's nest, moments away from hatching.

I barrel out of the doors, rushing across the grass towards the wyvern that paces frantically. Ryke and Calix are already here, but neither can get close to her. She is positively feral, no longer tolerating their presence as she once did.

She snaps at them when they dare step closer, grunting and growling to warn them away. Once more, her maternal instincts have surfaced, and she is prepared to become the beast she is to protect her young.

My heart plummets when she bites at Calix, teeth clamping the empty air where he stood a second before he Scered from her reach. She would have killed him if she had got him in her maw. "VASAMI!" I yell, throwing a turret of air towards her and knocking her face away from his direction. "Stand down!"