Song of Blood and Reign

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Lyv didn't know how long she'd been humming the same rhythm, the same wordless song down a bond that was hanging on by a thread. The male on the other side of that bond knew she was there, though, and he held on with everything he had, silently telling her he was coming but not just yet. She was trying to tighten her own hold, but the other thing she was humming to wasn't going to let her.

She hadn't meant to be singing to the darkness inside her, coaxing it and strengthening it along with her light magic. But it was sneaky, mischievous, just as she herself was and it wanted her all to itself.

It had to play nice with the light magic inside her, though. And though Lyv favored it instead, she still knew she had to continue learning the dark. The dark magic was the same as what was in Corliss...so why couldn't Lyv continue learning it and using it just as she did?

Because she was going to use it to get those godsforsaken cuffs off both of them.

Four days. It had been four days since she'd been thrown back into her cell. Four days since Mik had been thrown in with her. He was still unconscious, though fully healed. Both gold and iron cuffs were still locked around his wrists. And he and Lyv still had those obsidian stones within their forearms, both glowing dully and ever-present.

Until they were gone...neither one of them would be really free, not even with those cuffs gone.

Lyv's body was weak, having not gotten any food or water since their return to the dungeon. Somehow, she'd managed to lift Mik's unconscious form onto the bed where he had yet to move. She didn't know when she laid down beside him, but she knew she hadn't moved either.

And yet still she hummed that melody, the rhythm of soothing and love and hopefulness to the male who loved her most, to the light that she held close to her heart, and to the darkness she was getting to know as a friend.

She was floating through the fogginess of her thoughts, but didn't mind it. Sleep hadn't found her since that first night, so she would take whatever she could get. It was in that fog that her magic, both light and dark, began to get to know each other just as she got to know them individually.

And neither one of them were going to let her give up.

They wanted to get her out of there just as much as Jai did.

And yet she still hummed that melody.

Mik's steady breathing close beside her kept in rhythm with her. She tried feeling with her magic around him, sensing his doing the same as hers. Light and dark magic getting to know one another after Corliss locked away that kernel of his light for a century as she did. There was only a flicker left within him and nothing more, for the rest of his light magic was back in Ayveri, hidden within that obsidian stone he'd given Allel. Maybe both Lyv and Mik could make friends with their darkness, bend it to their wills to get themselves out.

And yet it was only their magic, both light and dark, keeping them alive at that point.

Lyv didn't need a mirror to see that she'd wasted away even more. Corliss's hold on her with the golden cuff was starving her even more without food. Lyv's magic wanted nothing more than to make her healthy again, but without proper food and drink it too grew weak but still present. One look at Mik and he was the same. His arms were slimmer, clothes hanging more loosely on his usually built frame. Lyv could only imagine what she looked like. Through her thin dress she could make out the severe cut of her hip bones, even several of her ribs. The bones of her arms, more specifically her elbows and wrists, were jutting out in sharp angles. She was nothing more than a skeleton lying on those white sheets.

Her stomach would have rolled at the sight had she had anything in it.

How? How was she wasting away as fast as she was? It had been days, not weeks as it should have been for this much of a drastic change to occur. It wasn't the dark magic within them that was draining them dry. It had to be...

"Corliss."

Slowly, Lyv turned her head in Mik's direction, finding his eyes finally open and staring up at the canopy above her bed. Her hair fell across her face with the movement, the burgundy and silver dingy and dull.

"What?" she rasped out.

Mik turned his head in her direction, hazel eyes meeting hers and holding. "It's Corliss. She's the one doing this. Hoping we'll give in to her before we're nothing more than bones. She's done it before when Kalla tried to run right after Corliss became the Dark Mage, but right before she began her attack on Palrion. That's what started it all. Draining everything from Kalla in order to bend her to her will, promising her protection of both her and Faraine. Corliss...the Dark Mage...she didn't hold up her end of the bargain, though."

Lyv swallowed hard, almost choking when it caught.

Mik closed his eyes, tears falling from the corners. "She did it to Allel, too. When she tried to save me from becoming the conduit. And I hated Corliss for it. Seeing what she did to her while she was still human. Gods, there is still so much we haven't told you about the time before. Things we can tell you and some we cannot. What happened before...we can't change it, not matter what. It was going to come to be no matter what we tried to do. We lost so many. Meron, Faraine, the girls..."

What Mik was saying...it almost sounded like a death bed confession. But they were not going to die here. Not now. Not ever.

Somehow, Lyv managed to move enough to grasp onto his hand, threading their fingers together. "We're going to get out of here," she whispered to him. She couldn't get her voice any louder than that. "We're going to get back to Allel and Jai, back to our family, and we're going to live the life we've both wanted for ourselves with our mates. You want that, don't you?"

"Of course, I do," he nodded, still not opening his eyes. But his breathing became steady, concentrated. "But no matter how much you want to get us both out of here...you know it's only going to be one for now. You."

"No," Lyv ground out, tightening her hand around his. "We're both getting out."

"No," he said slowly, "we're not."

"Yes, we are," she told him as tears clogged her throat. "Stop talking like that."

But all Mik did was smile, lifting their conjoined hands to he could kiss her knuckles. The iron cuff was around his wrist, angry, red welts blistering his skin where it touched. No matter what, Lyv couldn't heal it. She tried.

"What I'm going to ask you to do next...it's something I never wished to. Because I don't know what's going to happen to you once you take some of it on. I've continuously told you not to make friends with the darkness...and yet I'm going to ask you to take on some of mine."

Take on some of mine.

Lyv was shaking, struggling to push herself up to sit. Looking down, her stomach twisted at the sight of her legs, the bones that were jutting out.

"What are you talking about?"

Mik sat up, too, looking just as frail as she was, and kissed her knuckles once more. "I want you to siphon the dark magic from me and into you. The dark magic of the conduit."

***For some reason, I like that these escape chapters are short.  Short yet definitely impactful!  But that just means it's going to be less time between uploads! 

So what are your thoughts?  Comment and vote!

Happy reading!

- Ansley***