Page 94 of Rising Out of the Darkness (Divine Guardians Duology #1)

Declan

P ain radiated through my body as I struggled to come to. The back of my head throbbed, my eyesight cloudy and blurred. Blood seeped from my wounds and fell to the rock floor beneath me. I attempted to move, but a piercing pain shot through both of my arms and chest.

My fingertips traced the point of a thorn as my eyes adjusted to my surroundings. Thick black roots completely encased my body in thorns. A frustrated growl launched from my chest as I kicked and thrashed against the vines, fighting with all I had to break free.

Elena.

The last time I’d seen her, she was snuggled up against me in our bed. Damn! Could she be here—wherever the Hells here was? As I thrashed against my thorny cage, I reached out to her through our bond.

“Lena?”

Silence.

“Love?”

My heartbeat pounded against my ears as I hoped desperately for her response.

“Lena, my love, talk to me!”

That familiar area in my chest started to throb, and instantly I recognized it as our bond. It felt like it was pulling me in the direction of my mate. She had to be close.

“Elena!” I yelled through gritted teeth. My words rattled against the hollow cavern walls before silence fell around me.

“Fuck!” Every effort I made to break free was met by the vines that wrapped around me. They tightened impossibly around my body, slicing deep gashes into my skin. I pulled for my dynamis, but I felt nothing but emptiness. It was almost though my dynamis no longer existed.

“Son, there’s no use in resisting. The vines will just continue tightening until they break through the other side.”

The air from my lungs vanished. The familiar voice I’d known all my life didn’t come from above me—instead the sound rang from right beside me in the cavern.

“Trust me, I know from experience,” my father’s voice rasped as the crackle of vines filled the air. A grunt, then a stream of curse words flew from his mouth.

“Where. Are. We?” The disdain in my growl was evident as I tried not to make any more movements that could lead the vines to tighten more.

I heard the sharp intake of my father’s breath, followed by the crack of bones. The sound of bones breaking was something that I knew far too well.

Screams of agony overloaded my senses. It wasn’t just my father I was hearing; a female scream rang through the air as well. A scream I’d heard before. Elena.

Rage ignited inside of me. Whoever dared to lay a hand on the love of my life better be prepared to face the judgment of the gods, because they would be meeting their end very soon.

A grunt forced my attention back to the man next to me.

“As far as I’m concerned, you deserve every fucking bit of suffering you’re enduring. For once, maybe you might feel a smidgen of what you have been doing to the people of your kingdom,” I snarled. “Start. Talking.”

Blood boiled within me, my jaw tightening with each moment I waited for my father to open his damn mouth. I needed answers, anything that might be able to help me get out of here so that I could save Lena.

“You’ve been out for days. We’re in Alastor’s lair.” His words were hissed through clenched teeth. There was a time in my life when I might have felt remorse or sympathy for the man next to me. Unfortunately for him, that ship had sailed.

There was only one person I’d burn this entire world for. The one who had wrapped herself tightly around my soul, my guiding torch in the night, my one and only love. Elena.

Another of her screams rattled against the cavern.

Once more, I began thrashing against the chain of thorns.

The pressure closing in around my chest was so intense, I couldn’t tell if it was a result of my overwhelming panic or the vines sinking deeper into me.

All I knew was I needed to get to her, now .

“Stop!” my father boomed beside me.

“NO!” The vines broke skin around my ankles and arms. “Oh, fuck.” A gasp slipped out as the thorns shredded through my open wounds.

“Hells, boy! For once in your damn life, listen to me!”

“I’ve got to—” My lungs burned from lack of oxygen.

Shallow breaths escaped my lips with each wince of pain brought on by the vines.

“—save her.” Thorns sliced closer and closer to the bone.

Pressure began to build behind my eyes, but I had no energy to expend on trying to hold the tears back.

Tears mixed with my blood as they rolled down my cheeks.

“Declan—son?—”

I stilled at the agony in my father’s voice. The way he said “son,” dripping with regret, the word burned a hole through my chest into my heart.

“Son.” His voice cracked. “You will not be able to help her if you don’t breathe.”

“You have no right to?—”

“Shhhh…breathe, my son.”

Everything around me started to become cloudy. I was stronger than this. I had to fight, to pull through. The kingdom, my family, my friends, my love, they were all counting on me. This couldn’t end here, not after everything that we’d been through.

“Think of your brother…your mother,” he whispered. “They need you to pull through, son.”

He was right, everything I did was for them. One deep shallow breath slipped in my lungs. Good, keep going. Two, breaths. Three. Four. The tightness in my trembling muscles began to ease before my father spoke again.

“You—you’ve always been stronger than I ever could be, Declan.”

A twinge of remorse swarmed inside my stomach. My father had always despised the fact that my dynamis was more powerful than his. It made him furious that someone like me, who was weakened by anxiety, could be given such a power.

“I’m not talking about your dynamis, Declan. You’ve always had a strength within you, a power that no gift from the gods could ever replicate. Even as a little boy, I could see it shine through, no matter how hard I tried to break it.”

Silence filled the air as I struggled to contain my shock over the conversation we were finally having.

“Even with everything I put you through all these years, things that would break a lesser man, like me, they never once touched you.” A sob broke free from my father, my jaw tightened at the sound.

“That’s what got me into this miserable position in the first place.

It’s how—” His breaths were becoming shallower.

“Father—”

“No, son, let me finish. I’ve done nothing to deserve you listening to me, but please allow me to try to atone for the atrocities I’ve committed all these years. Please, just give me a chance to explain.”

“Well”—I winced as the roots tightened at my slip of movement—“it’s not like I can really go anywhere, given our current situation.”

It was silent for a moment before I heard a muffled laugh from the tomb next to mine. Even the edges of my own lips turned slightly upwards.

“Good point. Well, now that I have your undivided attention, let me get on with it.” My father cleared his throat. “This has all been my fault.” I would like to say I was shocked by his admission, but sadly, I wasn’t. “When Alastor arrived, the kingdom began to fall apart.”

“Don’t blame the beginning of our downfall on him.

That was entirely you, Father. Your lust for power and your intolerance towards the humans is what began this darkness.

Alastor just helped spread your hate campaign throughout the kingdom.

” My words were harsh, but I didn’t give a damn.

If he wanted to have a heart-to-heart, he was going to be truthful.

A heavy sigh filled the air. “You’re right. The desire for dynamis, power…control…had blinded me before Alastor ever set foot in our castle. Alastor is not what we all believed him to be.”

“You think?” I snapped.

“I believe he may not even be truly Elysian.”

“Stop beating around the bush. What are you saying, Father?”

A frustrated grunt rumbled out of my father. “I’m trying to apologize for unleashing this evil in this kingdom …for being weak and giving into my desire for power. Alastor has been syphoning my dynamis for centuries.”

My brows shot to my hairline.

“He can syphon our dynamis to make it his own, but only after being given consent. If you don’t consent, there are other ways he can force it out of you.

Mine was the promise of complete control of my entire kingdom, and the promise that our family would continue to be the most powerful Elysians in the land. ”

“He’s responsible for the suppression of dynamis, isn’t he?” The words left my lips short and clipped.

“Yes, but it’s not just those outside of the cities. I believe that Alastor was the original creator of the blood magic in this land. As you know all too well, that magic has an underlying evil about it.”

The scar behind my neck burned against my flesh, as if responding to my father’s words.

“Every Ascension, he places another curse upon this land. Each new Elysian who goes through the ceremony leaves with substantially less dynamis as the kingdom darkens and decays.”

“Darkens and decays?”

“Have you not noticed that everything in this lair is dead, foul-smelling, and rotted to the core?”

I took a moment to look again at my surroundings. He was right, this place smelled like the breath of ten thousand of those dark beasts. Darkness shrouded every corner. Everywhere I looked screamed death.

“These roots are burrowing their way through the kingdom, killing the land. Poisoning the water in the aqueducts.”

My breath caught in my chest, his words striking a chord within me. Could this be why my father had been shutting off the water in different areas of the city?

“Those beasts…those humans and Elysians who have gone missing …” His voice faded off, allowing me to puzzle together what he hadn’t voiced.

“He didn’t—” My teeth gnawed against my cheek. “Father, please tell me those beasts are not subjects of our kingdom?” I tried to fight off the wave of nausea.

An audible swallow came from my father. “I could tell you that they aren’t, but I’m tired of lying to you, Declan.”