Page 11 of Return of the Darkness (The Lost Kingdom Saga #3)

“Could you call him that? Father? After the way I had him treat you.” Caligh smirked when Caellum moved, held back by Sadira’s grip on his arm.

Laughing, Caligh added, “He was such a happy man once. The happiest are the easiest to break. It took me barely a day to work my shadows into his mind and tell him his children were worthless, that they would never be a good ruler like him.” Caellum’s face paled.

Elisara wanted to run to him. “You see, if even the king deemed his children unworthy of the throne, it would be so easy to place a new heir under his nose—a fallen queen, perhaps.” Elisara’s heart broke all over again as she watched Caellum tense in a bid to control his emotions, refusing to break before Caligh’s taunts as the truth dawned on them all.

His father had never intentionally abused his children; Caligh had controlled him the entire time.

“He managed to break through on occasion. Would you like to know when?” Elisara hung her head, recalling the memory shown by the gods.

“Once when he tried to decide which of his children to sacrifice, and then again before he died. Realising what was about to happen to his family, he tried to stop it. His last thought before his death was the morbid realisation of everything he had unwillingly put his children through.”

Ripping free from Sadira’s hold, Caellum surged forward, unsheathing his sword.

Elisara blinked, and a wall of shadow appeared before him, just as Caligh’s collided with it.

Caellum’s chest rose and fell with rapid breaths as he glanced at Elisara, who shook her head in silent warning.

Behind the wall, Caligh laughed, but his eyes narrowed, as if noting the failure of his shadows to break hers.

“Caligh!” Elisara’s shout drew his attention from Caellum, who returned to Sadira’s side. Elisara dropped the wall. No one else would die today.

“What did you say?” Osiris demanded, stepping towards Elisara.

“Step back, Osiris,” Caligh’s tone changed, his eyes flitting between Osiris and Elisara manically.

Osiris looked at Arik, wide-eyed, and moved to scan the surrounding army, searching for someone.

“Stand still, Osiris. I command it!” Caligh roared.

Elisara looked at her protector, who took a menacing step forward, watching the scene unfold alongside her.

Doing as Caligh commanded, Osiris stopped directly before Larelle, gripping her hands.

“Remember,” Osiris pleaded. “Remember what I told you when I asked about Zarya’s name.”

“I’ve had enough of this,” Caligh snapped, summoning his shadows. A swirling twist of threads gathered to pounce on Elisara, but her protector lunged, sending a flurry of darkness to slow Caligh.

“Remember, Larelle!” Osiris called as a strand of darkness wrapped around his throat, tugging him back. Elisara beckoned her army forward while her protector distracted Caligh. Larelle looked at Sadira.

“There is power in a name,” the future Queen of Garridon called.

Osiris nodded, spinning to face Elisara.

She frowned, still not understanding. Caligh finally pierced a shadow through her protector, and she hunched as he retreated into her.

For a split second, before he re-emerged, she caught a glimpse of a memory.

A short woman was dressed in robes, her blonde hair slicked back, highlighting the metal diadem resting on her forehead.

She stood before the man Elisara had watched coat the Sword of Souls.

A pendant hung around her neck, not too dissimilar from that of the Wiccan. She gazed up at the man, nodding.

“There must always be balance. We need a way to reverse things to avoid living in a constant state of chaos.” The man sighed but nodded.

“There is power in a name, depending on how it is used. In this instance, a slave that knows a captor’s name holds the key to their escape.

” Elisara did not have time to wonder if her protector had also witnessed the memory or its many implications.

Elisara looked at Osiris again, who nodded eagerly.

She straightened just as Caligh approached, his shadows swarming and ready to pounce.

The flush on his face spoke of his fury as his mouth twisted into a snarl.

“Caligh Servusian,” she announced loudly. Caligh halted, paling. It was his first emotion, other than arrogance or anger, she had seen.

“Caligh Servusian,” Arik murmured before doubling over.

He knelt on his hands and knees, dropping one of Tajana’s chains.

Slowly, Caligh turned from Elisara as a wisp of shadow climbed up and out of Arik’s throat, who coughed and spluttered.

Yet when he looked up, Osiris grinned. The amber rings around the boy’s irises had faded, freeing him from his debt to Caligh.

“Caligh Servusian!” Osiris bellowed across the desert, carrying the name on the wind.

Osiris cracked his neck as a shadow escaped his mouth and dropped Tajana’s chain.

He flexed his arms and cracked his knuckles while chants of “Caligh Servusian” bellowed around Elisara, with copper soldiers taking up the cry.

Osiris stepped towards Caligh, who retreated, summoning his darkness once again.

“Two hundred and seventy long years.” Osiris grinned, stalking towards Caligh.

“It was so smart of you to take a different body, a different name when you sliced me with that sword.” Osiris smacked his fist against the palm of his hand, and shadows twisted out from it, interlaced with sparkling amber.

It cast a slight glow upon him, highlighting the scar running down his cheek and neck.

“It is so good to be back, grandfather.” Elisara looked between the two—their matching height, angled jaw, and dark eyes.

The only difference in their dark hair was the speckled grey in Caligh’s.

“You know damn well this is not the end, boy,” Caligh spat, slowly stepping to one side.

He glanced at his approaching copper soldiers, seeming to realise he had lost all control.

Elisara frowned. The sword and fragment within her had not whispered about reclaiming the copper soldiers, only Osiris and Arik.

So why had they needed Caligh’s name to break his control?

Regardless, Caligh could not stay and win this battle alone.

Everybody had heard his name. “You cannot tell them everything. You know what will happen.”

“I am fully aware, but I can do everything in my power to give them what I can.” Osiris stepped forward. “Now, I think we’re overdue a little family torture.”

“No!” Elisara snarled, stepping forward.

Osiris turned his head to Elisara, a gentle smile on his face.

“He is mine ,” she growled, but before Osiris could turn back, Caligh lunged for the chain on the floor.

In one quick pull, he yanked Tajana across the sand towards him, and shadows swarmed them both.

Elisara ran forward, but it was too late.

The ball of darkness faded into nothing, just like Kazaar had.

Elisara was left with nothing but the emptiness of her heart and the knowledge she had failed to avenge her love.