Page 55 of Rising Out of the Darkness (Divine Guardians Duology #1)

Elena

T he throb inside my head beat in time with the drips of water leaking through the crack within the ceiling of the cell. Cool stone stung the side of my cheek.

Moss and dirt crumpled under my fingertips as I wrangled my body into a sitting position. Cobwebs hung in the corners of my stone-lined room, and the air was musty. The faint smell of something metallic elicited a shiver down my spine. I forced the fear building inside me back down.

At the end of the hall, a door swung open with a thud, followed by two sets of footsteps. When Clara wrapped her fingers around the bars of the cell, I almost fainted with relief.

“You can leave us now, Ryder.”

The guard, whose nose was now bandaged, grumbled beside her and didn’t budge. I had to lower my head to shield the smirk.

“Would you like to tell the king why you wouldn’t leave the Royal Healer alone to heal the Light Phoenix?” Clara crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her toe against the damp stone floor.

He leaned in close, trying to intimidate her into submission, but the Healer remained as solid as a rock. With a huff, he blazed past her, grazing her shoulder. The door slammed behind him, and the guard was gone as quickly as he’d come.

The clang of iron reverberated against the cell door as Clara unlocked it and swooped down to embrace me. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said breathlessly, tossing the keys aside.

“What was all that about?”

She gave me a perplexed stare, so I nudged my head toward the door.

“Oooh, that,” she chuckled lightly through her nose.

“Scorned lover. Easy on the eyes, but the emotional range of a turnip. I love my men like I love my onions—sweet, spicy and full of layers.” She gave me a tiny wink.

Only Clara could bring a smidge of humor into this disastrous situation.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, rubbing her fingers over the tender spot where Ryder had struck me.

I winced. She scooted closer, placing both hands on my shoulders. Warmth spread through my limbs and over my cheek, healing me from the inside out. If only her dynamis could erase the pain, fear, and worry that still dwelled inside me from today’s events.

“And now?”

“Better.” My voice cracked, the worry crawling its way out, clouding my eyes with tears.

“Oh, honey…” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in. “He’s okay. What we saw was”—she paused to clear the sorrow from her throat— “horrifying…”

A shudder rippled over my body as unwanted images of this morning flashed before my eyes. “What happened to him?”

Clara’s eyes shifted downwards, twisting the gold ring around her thumb. “Can I tell you a story?”

Nodding, I crossed my legs. Clara’s teeth tugged at her bottom lip as she matched my position.

“This is really not my story to share, but I feel like it’s necessary for you to hear it.” She massaged her forehead as she gathered courage.

“I’ve been surrounded by powerful people my entire life, Lena.

Some who choose to use it for good, and others…

well, others who don’t. I’ve learned you can be the most powerful person in the world and still feel entirely helpless.

Still feel broken inside, no matter how hard you try to piece yourself together for everyone else. ”

Her eyebrow rose as her gaze locked on mine. I nodded. It was hard not to take note of the insinuation in her words.

“Do you know what happened to Queen Lenora and Prince Keir?”

My lashes lowered, and my reply was filled with sadness. “Yes, they were supposedly killed by rebels who infiltrated the castle.”

“Rebels, ha.” Her laugh was void of mirth. “Well, I think you and I both know it wasn’t the Rebellion, but someone unfortunately did murder them both. All of us will forever regret not being able to be there for them. One person carries that burden, that guilt more than any of us.”

“… Declan?”

Sucking in a deep breath, she nodded. “We were all sent away. Each of us had a different task we had to do that day. Sometimes—” Clara’s lip quivered. “Sometimes, I almost feel like Lenora and Keir knew. Like they pushed us all away on purpose.”

My chest began to tighten as Clara’s eyes became glossy and red.

“When everyone returned to the castle that night, we were informed of their deaths. It felt like life was sucked right out of me, out of all of us.” She sniffled. “Lenora had become like a mother to me, especially after Alaric kept me away from my own. That night, I lost my mom all over again.”

Extending my palms towards hers, I cocooned them into my own. She grasped my hands, steadying herself.

“Though it was painful for all of us, it completely shattered Declan. Rage consumed him, and he wrecked his room. Before we could stop him, he stormed into the throne room, grabbed his father and unleashed his dynamis on him.”

A gasp left my lips at the image of Declan and his father brawling. There was no way that they hadn’t punished him for that. Hells, what did they do?

On bated breath, I waited.

“Declan is strong, but at the time, so was Alaric. In the end, Alaric overtook Declan, knocking him unconscious. The king and his advisor punished him with their usual tactics, but when I was finally allowed to heal him…something was different. I felt something festering within him, and no matter how hard I tried to heal him, I couldn’t reach that darkness. ”

I lowered my ward and was bombarded with a wave of her emotions.

Shame, guilt, sadness all seeped into my skin.

The heaviness was unbearable, like my body was being smashed underneath the stone walls of this castle.

Concentrating on the emotions, I reached down deep for my dynamis and pushed them out of me.

A gush of air flew around us, sending our hair twirling.

“We all tried to move on, to find our new normal. It was a struggle for all of us, and Declan…he was lost, cold, distant. Nothing we could do could pull him away from the well of sorrow.”

Heat itched against my skin as I imagined Declan’s sorrow.

“About two weeks after the murders, the king ordered Declan and the Royal Guard into the city. Alastor claimed to have discovered the queen’s and prince’s attackers.

Later that night, I was summoned below to this very room.

As you can see, there are several cells down here.

Each was filled with five or more men and women. Every. Single. One.”

My hand shot up to cover my shock. There had to be at least twenty cells down here. The ache in my heart grew stronger as her hands fidgeted within her lap.

“My job was…to heal them after they”—she cleared her throat— “interrogated them. Before they began, Declan was pulled behind closed doors by Alastor and Alaric. I heard their shouts as he refused their orders. He yelled about their innocence and how this entire interrogation was a fraud. Declan knew they didn’t have anything to do with the deaths of his mother and brother. ”

My mouth went dry. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like the next part of the story.

“They shouted until all at once everything went still. Alastor stormed out of the room with a smirk, followed by Alaric, who looked like he’d seen a spirit.

Declan was the last to leave the room that night.

His face was somber, eyes dark. He pushed past me like he didn’t even recognize me and began to unlock a cell door.

One by one, he began to drag them into that dark room.

One by one, I was sent in to heal them. That is, the ones who had life left in them to heal. ”

Tears began to fall down her cheeks as my own eyes began to line with wetness. Clara’s lips trembled, and she gripped the bottom of her tunic so tightly that I could see the whites of her knuckles.

“These interrogations went well into the morning. No culprit was discovered. Guards were ordered to release the remaining prisoners, a warning that if anyone dared to mess with the rightful king of Ehora again, they’d have to answer to the Shadow Lord himself.”

As she let out a sob, I felt sick to my stomach, and I struggled to stay present in the conversation.

“When they all left, Declan did not follow. I rushed into the room to find him slumped against the floor. Once I healed him almost to my burnout, he finally opened his eyes. They had returned to their normal shade of green, but I could see the fear and hurt behind them. Right then was when I knew he wasn’t the one in control that night. ”

“Dec,” I breathed, a shaky hand covering my mouth.

“He asked me what happened, and Hells”—another sob escaped from her— “I—I…had to explain.”

I lifted my arm around her and pulled her trembling body into me. Drawing from my well of dynamis, I summoned all the warm emotions I could think of and pushed them through her. Clara’s sharp intake of breath was evidence enough that I’d succeeded.

“Declan made me explain every detail. Every. One. I watched as his body turned pale, as shame and disgust tore through him. I watched him slam his fists into the walls until they were so raw they dripped crimson onto the floor. I rubbed his back as he retched everything he ate for the past year, then held him as he sobbed.”

“Hells …” I breathed.

“I promised him I would do everything I could to fix this. To figure out what had happened. That was when I stumbled on evidence that Alastor must practice blood magic.”

“Blood magic?” While reading in the library I had stumbled across a few text that spoke of this dynamis and the horrible things that it was capable of.

“We assumed whatever had happened was a one-time occurrence. However, we were painfully wrong. About a month later, Alastor reported claims of a group of rebels hiding within the city walls. Declan, Liam and Killian did some digging of their own and found it was just a small tavern, a tavern owned by Elysians who did not agree with the man currently sitting on the throne. Declan knew the real reason behind the claim, that the king was disturbed by the lack of support in his own city, and he wanted to prove a point. Obviously, Declan refused.”

“I should have known when they allowed him to not do anything. Gods, I should have known.” More tears began to fill her eyes again.

“What happened?” I questioned, afraid of the answer.

“That night, Alastor summoned Declan to do his bidding.”

The sound of my teeth clenching together rattled inside my head.

“Killian and Liam happened to be on duty that night. They saw him return, covered from head to toe in—in blood.”

Hells . My hatred for the king and Alastor was nothing new, but after hearing this…I began to plot my revenge. Declan did not deserve this suffering they had cursed him with. Somehow, I would make them regret what they have done.

“Declan was walking so slowly, gripping a sword. Killian tried to call him, even ran over to him, blocking his path, shaking his shoulders, trying everything to bring him back to the present. Declan used his shadows to fling Killian out of the way, then headed straight towards the cliff.”

“No…” My voice was barely audible.

“Declan fell to his knees, bringing the sword out in front of him. Aimed directly over his heart.”

Air evaded my lungs, my eyes burning with tears.

“I thank the gods every day that Killian can zephyr. Before Declan slammed the sword into himself, Killian zephyred to him. The force tossed them both over the edge, the sword falling away as they fell off the side. Killian zephyred them both again to diminish the impact of their fall into the ocean. Dec raged against him in the water until they rolled up on the shore and all the fight finally washed out of him.”

Declan’s apprehensiveness to sit next to me on the cliff suddenly became clearer.

“It took him a few days to finally open up, to stop being upset with all of us…especially Killian. We made him very aware that there was still so much to live for, no matter how much life threatened to break us. We all became so much more than friends that day, we became family, and with that formed an unbreakable bond. We promised each other that no matter how hard life may knock us down, we will always rise back up together. Because together, we are stronger.”

Hazel eyes met mine. “Elena, we’ve only just met, but I can feel that you are struggling with something deep inside.

I’ve felt it every time I’ve held you. I told you this story because something tells me you may understand what Declan endures.

We all fight silent battles every day, whether we admit them or not.

The key, however, is that those battles were never meant to be fought alone. ”

Words evaded me. Every word she said rang true, but the fear of sharing the most vulnerable parts of me was overwhelmingly strong. A fear of all I might lose if I did. “Thank you for trusting me.”

“Of course. Maybe one day you’ll trust me as well.” Clara stood, pulling me up alongside her. On wobbly legs, she helped guide me out of the cell, pausing just short of the door. “Alaric wants to speak with you.”

Nerves pinched against my chest. “I don’t think it can get any worse than it already is, right?”