Page 65 of Rising Out of the Darkness (Divine Guardians Duology #1)

A bead of sweat rolled down my cheek. The walls in the room were closing in on me. I tried my best to control my breathing and my thoughts. The last thing I needed right now was to unleash my dynamis by accident. With all the parchment in the room, it would build to a roaring flame in seconds.

My fingers trailed back over the papers that contained lists of plants and herbs.

After a few moments, my brain made the connection.

It shocked me so much that my teeth pierced through the flesh of my bottom lip.

As I read the words, the taste of copper that filled my tongue became surprisingly appropriate.

“… ginger, rosemary, thyme, hawthorn berries, peonies, blood of an Empath…”

Blood of an Empath?

These weren’t just lists for planting, these were recipes, lists of different elixirs. Someone had created a potion to help stop the suppression of dynamis.

The final ingredient was blood.

Meaning they had to use blood magic.

Hells.

G rabbing every piece of parchment I could, I shoved them inside my back pocket. My mind was working faster than my feet, and I stumbled over the stairs I was taking two at a time.

“Damn!” I cursed as my forehead hit the rough stone wall.

Reaching the top, I closed the door behind me. Again, it made a thud. However, instead of silence, this time I heard something else.

“What in the Hells?” shrieked a female voice from behind the peony bush.

“Shh…stay back.” A familiar voice hushed the female as heavy footsteps began to make their way towards me. Slowly, I rose, finally meeting the speaker’s eyes.

“Freckles?”

“Guilty.” I shrugged.

“Lena? For gods’ sake, you scared the life out of me!” An extremely out-of-breath and slightly disheveled Clara emerged from behind Killian. Killian’s tunic was missing three top buttons, and his hair was ruffled like he had just woken up.

Killian folded his arms over his chest. “What are you doing out here, Lena? Eloise told me you had gone to bed hours ago.”

I raised my chin to match his glare. “What exactly were you two doing out here?”

Killian’s shoulders fell as Clara ran her fingers through her ravished hair. “We, uhh…we were just… umm.”

Unable to suppress the mirth, I watched as Killian stumbled over his words. Eventually, he gave up, running a palm over his flustered face.

“Can you blame me?” He tossed his head towards Clara, whose cheeks flushed.

No, I couldn’t blame Killian at all. If Declan were here, I could only imagine what I would be doing right now. The thought instantly heated my cold cheeks, until I remembered why I had rushed up those stairs in the first place.

My palm crashed against my forehead. “Hells, I almost forgot why I was in such a hurry.”

Fishing the papers from underneath my tunic, I shoved them towards Clara and Killian. “Our dynamis is being suppressed, but someone else has figured out how to fix it,” I whispered. “They used blood magic.”

Clara’s breath hitched, and Killian rubbed his chin as he thought.

We made our way over to the small stone bench, now overflowing with three of us.

Clara’s eyes wandered over the pages of elixir recipes, and she paused now and then to raise a hand over her mouth.

Killian riffled through the letters. With each one, the crease between his brows grew deeper.

Silence lingered. Every so often, Clara and Killian would cast silent looks towards each other, and they would switch papers and continue reading.

My hands fidgeted within my lap as I chewed at my already bloody bottom lip.

Just when I thought I was about to scream to erase the silence, Killian rose from the bench.

“What is it?” I whispered.

“Where did you find this, Lena?”

“Over there.” I pointed at the trapdoor I had discovered earlier.

“Cover it back up, now.” The urgency in his tone startled me. “Make sure it looks like it was before. It’s important that no one knows that this exists. Understand?”

Swallowing down my fear, I nodded.

“Good. I need to inform Declan. He’ll want to know about this immediately.”

Flustered, I went back to the trapdoor. Clara followed behind. Scooping soil back around the door, I realized there was no way that we could make it look like it had before.

That was until I remembered my dynamis lesson from earlier with Nayla. I reached for that same emotion I had used before to grow life over the door beneath my fingertips. Just like before, I felt the warmth of my dynamis ripple against my skin and flow through my fingertips into the soil beneath.

“Gods, Lena…you’re glowing,” Clara breathed.

Opening my eyes, I saw the moss beginning to take root over the door.

Moving slowly, I let my dynamis flow until I was confident there was no longer a trace of the door to be seen.

I even let it flow over the metal latch, just in case.

Before I pulled away, roots began to take shape on top of the door.

Twisting and turning, they formed into branches as thick green leaves sprouted on top.

I had to blink to make sure I wasn’t dreaming when pale pink peonies began to bloom over the newly created bush. Earlier I’d been able to create a single flower. Tonight, I’d created a whole damn bush. Still in shock, I fell back onto my heels, raising my trembling hands in front of me in awe.

“Lena”—Clara gulped— “I’ve never seen a Terran do that before.”

“Me either.” Killian gawked from behind us both.

“Nobody else’s entire body glows while they work?” I scoffed, trying to make light of the situation.

“No one else has ever created life, made something grow anew like that, Lena,” Killian whispered.

Panic began to flood through me, and I felt my dynamis prickle against my arms. Something about the way everyone had reacted to my Terran dynamis made a million thoughts rush through my head, none of them good.

My chest constricted as I struggled to pull myself out of my downward spiral. A warm palm landed on my back, rubbing circles. Another fell on my shoulder. Warmth began to spread throughout my body as Clara worked her healing magic in more ways than one.

“Breathe, Lena. Deep breaths.” Killian spoke calmly.

I was finally able to take a deep breath. My shoulders sagged at the same time as my head. One tear broke free from my restraints. Ashamed of my show of emotion, my weakness, I rubbed it away. Shaking off their hands, I stepped a few paces away to give myself some space away from them.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. If I could use my dynamis to become invisible at this moment, I would have.

Clara rose from where she had been kneeling with me on the ground, dusting off her skirt. Killian grasped her hand in his, then extended the other towards me. With arms tightly wrapped around my body, I eyed his extended hand with hesitation.

“Come on, Elena, take my hand. Let’s get you both back inside your rooms, where it’s safer.” He wiggled his fingers towards me. With a heavy sigh, I stepped towards them, placing my hand inside his. With a tug, Killian pulled us both into his chest and zephyred us into my room.

“Good night, Lena,” he whispered, then placed a kiss on Clara’s cheek before leaving.

C lara and I slid down into the chairs around the fireplace. Every part of me was laden with exhaustion.

“Lena…” Clara whispered.

“Hmm?” I mumbled, fidgeting with my tunic. I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for whatever conversation we were obviously about to have.

“You want to tell me why you’re so embarrassed about what happened back there?”

“What?” I feigned ignorance. “You mean being caught in the garden alone?”

Clara pursed her lips. “Elena Morrigan…”

This conversation was going to happen, whether I wanted it or not. Massaging my temples, I tried to muster the words.

There were things that I’d carried with me all my life. Things that I’d tucked away, from Bri, my parents, even from myself. Years I’d been shoving away my darkness, but I was exhausted from trying to hold onto everything myself.

As if Clara could hear the struggle in my mind, she spoke softly. “In the garden, I could feel the darkness that festers deep within you, Elena. Honey, it’s time to release it.”

Her eyes pleaded with me to let go. So, I did.

“I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning.”

Clara slid her chair closer to mine so that our knees were now touching. “Go ahead, Lena. I’m right here.”

My trembling hand enveloped hers and squeezed tightly. Sucking in a deep breath, I began unlocking my past, the source of the endless battles I had within my mind.

“Since I’ve been small, I’ve been plagued with vivid dreams. Dreams of wars, battles, loss and pain.” I swallowed, struggling to pace my breathing to remain calm.

“Wars here, in Ehora?”

“At first, I thought so. I thought I recognized our kind, our landscape. However, in each dream I was transported across realms—so many different races and landscapes. There was once even a realm that was entirely made of water. In every battle, we were always fighting against some darkness, something deeply evil.” A shiver ran down my spine as images of the enemy flashed in my mind.

“You said ‘we.’ Who were you with, Lena?”

“In my dreams, there were others, fighting alongside of me, like we were fighting together for a purpose. I could never remember their faces when I awoke. The only part of my dream that was consistent was one voice. She’s the one who always pulled me out of my dreams.”

“So, these dreams, were they the beginning of your fears? The panic attacks?”

“It wasn’t so much the dreams, but the evil that lurked within them.

I could never see their faces, as they were always cloaked.

However, I could always feel them …smell them.

Even now, I feel like the scent is permanently ingrained in my senses.

It was what I imagine death smells like—horrid, rotting and full of decay. ” I shuddered at the memory.