Page 30 of The Faebound Trials (Mates and Madness: The Phantom Prince and The Bloodweaver #1)

I could feel the heat regulating back, the heat first touched the soles of my feet, and it crawled up to my body as if it was electricity.

I breathed in and stayed like that until I could produce enough heat to fight the haziness and drowsiness from the cold.

My eyes fluttered open, and I breathed in slowly.

My eyes focused on the black bars that kept me inside.

“Hey, slowly. Lowen. Are you okay now?”

A figure standing in the cell across me had his hands wrapped around the bars as he waited for me to regain my consciousness.

Another laid on the floor with a pile of clothes wrapped around his body.

The cold did not dissipate but I could control the heat in my body better now.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.”

I saw Ellis exhaled, as if a huge burden was now gone.

My cheeks were cold and red, and it took me minutes before I could finally gather myself up to sit up.

“Easy there. Easy.”

I felt my cheeks were hot, slightly embarrassed at what just happened to me.

“Hey, what about Kell?”

“Kell was trained for circumstances like this. He’ll be fine. Don’t worry about him.”

My eyes remained on Kell, I couldn’t make out his silhouette now.

I nodded at Ellis in understanding.

“Thank you. If it weren’t for your instructions. I might’ve died and left Lera all alone,” I babbled.

I couldn’t see Ellis’s face now, the light entering a small square about 6 meters high, dimmed.

The sun went down.

“Is Lera family?” He sounded small when he asked that.

I smiled, my sister’s face crossed my mind. She had always been my strength, my hope in my own cruel choices.

“My baby sister. I left her for a chance to play in the Faebound Trials.” I tried to sound normal, but the sadness in my voice lined the hoarseness of my throat.

“The Faebound Trials were a trap.”

My brows knitted at his words.

“What do you mean?” I stood up and walked closer to the dungeon bars.

Before Ellis could speak, we heard a loud, rumbling cough.

We both turned to Kell.

I thought he was waking up but then Ellis’s face turned pale when he fell on his knees to check on Kell.

Ellis’s silhouette panicked, he heaved, he was shaking. I saw him rake his hair through the shadows in frustration as he slammed his palm against the bars.

He pulled all the clothes covering Kell and I couldn’t see them in the darkness.

“What’s happening?” I asked in the darkness.

But the sound of his rustling and his panicked breaths filled the cells.

“I don’t know, Lowen, there’s liquid dripping off Kell’s mouth.” I heard Ellis choke back tears.

“It was blood,” I finished when I realized the smell lingering in the air.

He nodded. Ellis’s face contorted in worry.

“What should I do? What should I do?” His voice broke and I felt my chest tightened at the sound of his desperate frustration.

Then Kell’s cough turned worse.

Cold sweat covered my palms as I watched and listened, unable to do anything to help. My throat burned, my chest was heavy.

And for three days we were both unable to sleep as Kell’s cough worsened.

Ellis and I shouted for help but none came.

We begged and begged for help.

We begged for them to check on Kell but their ears were closed.

We were nothing but a bunch of animals to them.

Maybe even worse.

My hatred grew and chained my feet on the wound. Sealing my fate.

We tried to use our powers but bloodweavers could only weave themselves and could not use it on others.

And I wished we could.

Remember what we could have been if we could use it on other beings?

We’d be unstable, we’d rule the world.

Even fae would fear us. Crumble beneath our feet.

Worship us.

I imagined tangling and controlling their blood vessels, weaving and constricting it. A melody of screams would fill the air.

Then I would crush them into pieces, a chorus of cries would make my heart leap in joy as I watched, savoring their suffering, blood pooling onto the ground, my laughter entangling with their pleas.

My power would make then submit to me, controlling them like a bunch of fucking puppets.

Immortal and powerful beings watching us in horror as we pull the threads of their power as we drain them of their bloods, savoring the infinite power none could rival as we drain their immortality they highly boast around.

My hatred burned hotter inside me.

I wish I could make it happen.

I wish I could ruin the fae, make their lands burn to the ground.

I wish I could rip them open like what they did to us. What they did to the mortals stuck here.

Three days we were left with nothing. We were locked and abandoned for being mortals.

How was I blind to not feel hatred before?

How was I able to be still and do nothing?

The Lord Prince was once sitting beside me teaching me languages of the old, he was too close to me and yet I didn’t stab him with the quill when I had the chance.

And I kept forgetting their powers over us. Their favorite thing to use on us mortals.

They kept enchanting me, shaping my emotions and feelings into something light and peaceful.

Eradicating the feeling of hatred, anger, and frustration. Erasing our negative feelings using their powers.

I was charmed, I was played, enchanted out of my own thoughts and feelings.

I knew something was wrong and yet why did I remain blind?

Why did I remain silent, smiling, and following them like a fool?

Because from the start they controlled our minds into submitting to them, using their majestic beauty to stop us from stepping into our own thoughts.

And they kept doing that again and again.

And I keep forgetting it, an invisible chain was wrapped around my neck.

Those thoughts and feelings were becoming my reality, I believed everything was okay with everything without realizing everything was wrong.

And when I healed my wounds, my powers thrummed, my immediate response was to bloodweave and go back to where I belong.

All my true feelings surged into me like waves, drowning my heart, filling me with electricity that the fae had pulled away from me.

Controlling me like a piece of doll.

What should I do now?