Page 16 of The Faebound Trials (Mates and Madness: The Phantom Prince and The Bloodweaver #1)

After washing, I had never felt so clean and lithe. I felt better, I felt different. As if I could do everything.

I laughed, excitement bubbling in my chest. I wore the fresh clean clothes and I felt so good when I smelled flowers on it.

I tried to lay down, attempting to sleep and rest, but I was full of energy. So I stood up and wandered around the room.

The idea of leaving crossed my mind but my hands went to touch my wound. I felt how heavy my tired body was.

So I decided to just take a rest for today and try again tomorrow.

I might be full of energy but I knew my body well, I’d collapse if I tried to bloodweave.

Until I saw a brown paper sticking out on top of the table, I mindlessly went to touch it. When I did, I saw a stack of papers and ink on top of it.

Sitting down at the nearest chain, I wondered if I could use it to write something.

The aching of my bones vibrated in my body and I knew I needed to do something other than sleeping.

I started recollecting the days leading up to this.

Maybe If I started writing something, it would help me solve how to thread through time exactly to where I want to go.

I needed to go back home. I needed to go back to my sister.

I pushed away the sad thoughts further down the drain as I started writing on the paper.

At first, I was scribbling, drawing leaves at the edges of the paper because I couldn’t make up my mind.

But when my mind drifted off to the eyes of a certain silver-haired Etaran I closed my eyes to shut off those thoughts.

How could I dare think about him when I didn’t even know his name?

Before I knew it, I was drawing the back of his hair. I recognized the broad shoulders and the elegant and dignified aura he had.

I crumbled the ends of the paper and moved it away from me.

I was enchanted. Charmed.

Why would I draw him in the first place if I wasn’t enchanted?

I sighed.

I felt more exhausted than when I started drawing so I plopped down the soft sheets and drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up. I was back to where we started. 13 boys stood atop the platforms bound by magic.

All looked disheveled more than I last saw them.

I even saw a wound that looked worse than it was before.

I looked away and focused in front.

“You were gone. We thought you were dead,” the boy beside me said. I remembered him as one of the silent ones.

“Thankfully I wasn’t. Were you able to find a way back home?” I whispered my question.

He shrugged, suddenly looking defeated than before.

“They had eyes all over the forests. We were back to the house as soon as they’d seen us. It turned out alright when we saw water and some bread when we returned.” He looked ahead. “Right now, well, we’ll just try to survive.”

I nodded.

We were gathered around a body of water. I hadn’t seen an Etaran around.

“What’s gonna happen? Where are they?” I heard someone ask.

When I looked up, water fell heavily down a transparent glass container, it kept the water inside.

It looked modern, it reminded me of the future. How were they able to create one like this in the past?

It was one of things that made me confused. The many things that I had seen here that I was expecting to exist in the future and not in the past.

Electric blue reflected against the light as I saw the underwater rocks and fish swimming inside it. And with the way the container and the bodies of water glowed inside, it somehow transcended time.

The rest of the boys were stunned too as to how they could see below the waterfall without actually diving to see it.

“Stay alert!”

My brows narrowed when the water fell heavily down the glass, much angrier than the last time, the water poured forcefully as if nature had gone wild.

And as it filled the glass, my heart started to pound loud against my ear.

And I felt the dread of an incoming doom.

Then the water inside started to whirl like a coming typhoon. I took a step back.

“Run!”

And my worst fear happened.

The container shattered. Water slammed fiercely against us, and I was underwater the second the water pulled me down.

“Help!” a boy shouted and later on their voices were muffled.

Air came out of my mouth and I gasped widely like a fool. Water filled my lungs. Panic made me dumber than I was.

And it burned. It burned so much I could feel fire instead of air.

I choked. I flailed around helplessly.

I thrashed, desperate to grab anything.

And the more I did the more the water pulled me down.

The current of the water was wild and fast, pushing me deeper and drifting me away to where I once stood.

I saw a figure slamming against me. Another mortal drowning.

But the next thing he did when he saw me made my heart race in panic.

I knew those bloodshot eyes, desperation rimming the corner of his lips. He grabbed me with hands wide like claws in desperation for air.

Air bubbled in his mouth as he angrily muttered something, but the water wouldn’t let him speak.

The air was too thin, his force was stronger, and the surge of the current smashed into me. Fear settled in my stomach.

And then he started pushing me down using his feet. I realized what he wanted to do. Every sense sharpened as determination settled in me.

He started kicking me everywhere as I held him firmly on the arm, not letting go as I realized what he wanted to do.

But he wouldn’t stop kicking me. His left foot slammed onto my shoulders and I heaved and choked at the force.

The water was heavy and thick with his every kick. He wanted to kick me as if I was a stepping stone to help himself swim upwards. And if he succeeded, I would plunge deeper into the water, drowning me in the process.

And I refused to die right here.

Anger ripped at my chest and my lungs felt like it would explode every second I stayed under the water.

I used my nails and gripped him deeply into his arm then grabbed him forcefully so he could come face me.

I tried to rip through his face, clawing everything I could. I felt my nails grazed his eyes, slashing, gouging, tearing every part of him as I could. Then I felt a sticky bloody liquid as I kept ripping him out in anger.

His mouth formed in a way a person would when he screams. Red danced in the water, blurring my vision.

I felt his grip on me loosened and I had seen a glimpse of his mangled face. Bloody and disfigured from trying to drown me.

When I positioned my feet as if stepping on him, his face changed.

A foreboding expression lined the corner of his eyes and his lips.

And then what I did next didn’t surprise me.

I used him as an anchor to pull me up, towards the surface, I kicked him harder than he did right into his mangled face.

And he wasn’t able to stop me because I was fast.

I was running out of oxygen and it was the adrenaline working.

When I emerged from the water, I gasped and coughed the water lodging in my throat.

I steadied myself as I floated, keeping myself calm.

I examined my feelings. But there was no guilt as I looked around to check if he was able to come out of the water.

Guilt didn’t consume me like how it did when I murdered Lowen Vespertine.

I remembered how guilt gnawed at me when he told me he loved me and that he would die for me.

The difference was the man I pushed deeper into the water was someone I didn’t know. He was someone disposable.

But Lowen…

Lowen was different.

My heart dipped at the memory of him.

I knew the sound of Lowen’s footsteps even if I closed my eyes.

I knew in my heart that there was a piece of me that belonged to him.

And it would belong to him for the rest of my life.

The whole place was submerged in water and I floated as I waited for the water to go down.

The place remained submerged but the land before the waterfall was beginning to resurface.

I swam towards it when I finally could see it fully.

But I slipped when I saw Silver standing in the shadows, watching me.

When I blinked, he was gone.

I focused on lifting myself up.

But a question remained in my mind.

Did he see what I just did?

Dread crawled up my skin, wishing he hadn’t seen it.

And what I was willing to do to survive.