A Kingdom of Bloodshed

*¬*Chapter Twenty One*¬*

Frozen, that's what I feel inside. Like I'm stuck in a block of ice and all I can do is look. One minute I was on the balcony, sketching and answering Kaz's questions about my family and their rankings. Which I found odd, but answered them anyways. Then the next it was like my being had been separated from my body and I was trapped within a corner of my mind. Looking. That's all I could do.

Look.

I had to watch as this dark, ancient entity entered my form, took over who I was. I tried to fight it, tried to figure out what sorts of magic I was given when I was created; but I couldn't activate it. I was stuck. Stuck inside my mind, screaming.

That dark mass took over my form, talked like me, moved like me. It entered every crevice of my being and I hated it.

"Who are you?" I try to ask it, trying to push beyond the barrier of my skull. It simply looks at me.

I hate that. The looking.

"Who are you?" I growl once more. You need not worry about who I am. Althea Alinac, you are very popular right now. Everyone is out looking for you, trying to get to you first so that I can waken.

The deep, masculine voice slithers over me, entering my ears and leaving me breathless. "I don't care. I don't care about who is after me. All I want to know is who are you?"

The shadow creature chuckles at me. Then it turns around and begins to move my body. I watch as my arms raise, my legs stretch. Each motion stiff and cold.

I watch is Kaz asks me if I'm alright. I want to tell him that I'm not. That, that's not me he's talking to. But I can't feel him. I can't feel the bond within my mind, or deep in my core. It's as if it's been severed.

"No. Kaz that's not me!" That disembodied creature laughs again.

"Thea, are you ok?"

I watch as I pull away from Kaz, moving my hair out of my face and then turning the lamp on beside the bed.
I inhale sharply when I see my reflection in his eyes. How pale I look, how vacant my eyes are. It's terrifying.

"Althea? Are you alright? Do you feel sick?"

"Hello Kazimir."

My voice is not my own. It sounds like me, but I know that it's not.

"Althea?"

"Your precious Althea cannot hear you, oh you should hear the way she screams. Trapped within her own mind watching us talk to each other. The way she begs to be let out, how she claws at the bone prison of her mind. It's delicious."

But he's right, because I am screaming. I'm pounding on the walls trying to find a way to get out of here. But I can't. I can't seem to claw my way out.

"Who are you?" Kazimir growls. The creature that is inhabiting my body only laughs.

"You need not worry about who I am right now. Just know that you and your mate are not safe. We are coming for her, for you. And when we do; there won't be a single thing you could do to stop us."

I see the anger rise within him, as he tries to sort through the words. I see his magic rise and flare. But it's mine that I'm scared of because I feel it.

Deep within my belly, like a tidal wave aiming for land, it surges up making my skin warm. I feel my magic rip from whatever slumber it was in and it pushes back.

I push back against that creature, that THING in my body.

You cannot win Althea. Stop fighting me.