The Past Lies Ahead (A Throne Of Glass Fanfic)

Chapter 13

A sharp pain stung his jaw brutally waking him from his sleep. Sam grabbed the knife under his pillow and jumped out of the bed, ready to fight whatever fool had broken into their home.

But there was none. Sam could see nothing out of the ordinary in the dark corners of their bedroom. That is, until he heard a moan then a whimper followed by a thrashing sound.

He dropped the knife on the ground and leapt unto the bed, grabbing Celaena by the shoulders. She whimpered again, her face had a pained expression and was covered in sweat.

«Celaena, wake up!» he shook her shoulders. Her brows furrowed and she moaned again.

«Please.... stop. Don't... no...» she flailed around again and he barely dodged her. He shook her harder, shouting her name. He even tried slapping her across the face, but nothing worked.

Cursing colourfully he shot for his clothes, pulling on a shirt and trousers. Then sprinted as hard and fast as he could for the Torre.

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The iron mask across her face muffled her screams. Chains fastened to the ceiling and around her wrists kept her aloft in the air as the whip repeatedly hit her back.

Her breath came in short rasps when the whippings ended. Her body hung there limply as the dark queen circled her, assessing her new pet. As the dark queen came to a stop in front of her, Aelin tried to raise her head and glare at the bitch. But her head was too heavy for her to lift.

«Strap her to the table.» the venomous voice of the dark queen said.

Aelin could barely hear the rattling of chains as she was lowered to ground. She tried to balance on her feet, but they gave out immediately on impact. They let go of the chain letting her drop the rest of the way to the floor, her face slammed into the stone.

They lifted her unto the the stone table, forcing her to lie on her ravaged back. Her arms and legs were stretched out so much it felt like she would be torn apart, and another muffled scream escaped.

«Let's begin.» the dark queen said from somewhere in the room.

Aelin forced her eyes to open, to see what was going on. And what she saw filled her with cold dread.

«Please. Stop. Don't... no.» she was begging now and she didn't care that she was. Torture and darkness she could handle, but not the thing the dark queen held in her hands. Something moved in the corner of her eye and she turned her head to see.

Cairn put a dagger to her chest, over her heart, and began working on her.

«NO!» she bellowed as loud as she could again and again, while Cairn carved her up, until she passed out.

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The princess drew a deep breath, breathed in this world of light. She had received orders by the Queen to get accustomed to this gloriously powerful body she had given. The city of Banjali stretched out before her, peaceful even in war time, for now.

Drawing up the power of her new body, she readied her attack. A shrill cry came from above just as a white tailed hawk swooped in, shifting into a powerful fae male before her. She looked the warrior up and down, assessing her new enemy that now stood between her and her target.

«Fireheart, fight it. Please.» his voice cracked at the end.

She only gave a cold wicked smirk, putting her hands on her hips.

«Your pretty little princess is gone, my dear chicken.» Oh, she would bring this male to the Queen, make him one of them. They would have so much fun destroying this world.

«You're stronger than the demon, Aelin. Fight it!» the desperation in the males voice only made her smirk wider. She began walking towards him as she laughed at him, she unbuttoned her shirt and dropped it to the ground.

«The Heir of Mala is no more, there's only me now.»

She laughed again, then released the power she had been drawing up. But not at the male, at the city behind him. Drowning it in a sea of dark, relentless flames. The panicked screams of the inhabitants reached them and the male attacked.

He made to deliver a knockout punch, but she dodged, grabbed his arm and twisted. He grunted but wrestled out of her grip and jumped while hurling ice daggers at her. She effortlessly melted the ice weapons and black fire at his legs, to incapacitate him. But the flames got snuffed out by a wind.

They ran at eachother, she caught his feint to the left and rammed a knee into his ribs so hard it sent him flying.

She laughed once more as she let the male get back to his feet. He looked at her, his filled with despair, pain and loss. Then he shifted and flew off. She watched him fly away, but the princess knew he would be back, sooner or later.

She walked into the burning city to watch her handiwork up front. Surrounded by screams and flames she raised her face to the smoke filled sky, and let loose a wicked laugh.

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«She's trapped in her own mind. Yrene we must work together to pull her back out. Whatever you see, do not let it captivate you. We go in, then pull her. That's the focus.» Hafiza gave each order calmly, but Sam could see she was worried. Yrene nodded her understanding.

As the healers prepared their magic, Sam braced his hands on Celaenas shoulders to hold her still. The healers joined hands as they lay a hand to her forehead.

Light glowed from their hands and Celaena began squirm, but he pushed her down into the mattress hard.

«And out, now!» Hafiza ordered.

Celaena gasped and her eyes flew open, glancing around in wild panic. Her eyes settled on his.

«Take a deep breath.» he said. She did, and grabbed his wrists still holding her shoulders, as if she needed to touch, to feel that this was real. «It's alright. You're alright now.»

Yrene slumped into a chair, exhausted from using the magic. Hafiza sat down beside Celaena, who still stared into Sams eyes.

«Tell me what happened, child, and when this first began.»

Celaena met the healers gaze and held on to Sam as if her life depended on it. Then she told her about the dream, how she had used the dream to learn about her magic, about diving into it. She took a few breaths to fight the rising panic as she described the dream she got stuck in. The torture, the black rock then the feeling of body belonging to someone else. Then she told them about the fae male who had trained her and then had tried to stop her from destroying that city. Though she did not mention any of the names and titles that cane up in the dream.

By the the end of the tale her voice was barely a shaky whisper, and Sam stroked his thumb over her hands that still clutched his.

Hafiza left some medicine that would send Celaena into a dreamless sleep, but with a stern warning not to dive into the dream if it appeared again.

When the healers had left Sam began to prepare a cup of tea to add the medicine into. It had been his idea to dive into the dream, and she had gotten trapped in it, she had suffered for it. He swallowed hard as he brought her the tea.

With shaking hands she grabbed the cup downed it in a few gulps, and snuggled in closely to his side as she cried softly before drifting of to sleep.

He barely slept that night as he woke several times to make sure that she was alright, and stroked her hair until dawn broke through the darkness of the night.