Page 31

ELLA

A prisoner.

That’s what I was.

Trapped within the mind of someone else. It was torture. Pure and simple. I had spent over a week locked in this cruel version of myself, one that only grew darker and darker as time went on. Of course, I had tried fighting it. I had resorted to haunting her dreams, as this seemed to be the only time she was vulnerable. She would wake screaming for Garmr who would be there to comfort her.

It made me sick to watch how he was with her. As I knew now the awful truth. He didn’t just use her as a weapon like I thought. No, he used her body and played with her darkening heart also.

Because he actually loved her.

And what was worse, a part of her loved him in return. And the part of me that was trapped, I spent my days trying to will myself to pick up a knife and stab him in the heart with it. The heart she clearly owned.

To watch them make love had been one of the hardest things to bare. But not more so than the day Jared turned up to try and rescue me. His face full of relief at finding me and in return I had been screaming at him from deep inside, trying to tell him to run. To save himself from me.

But he hadn’t.

Which meant that I had been forced to watch as my evil counterpart stabbed him. I had been forced to watch as he bled out on the floor, my cries of pain meaning nothing but a headache to her. My heart wrenching despair was only enough to cause her discomfort as she fell to her knees gripping her head. Just enough to reach out to him, as if it was in my utter agony, that was all I had enough power to do.

But then a portal had opened up and swallowed him whole. My only hope being that he had been rescued just in time to save him. An answer to my prayers I had only received today on the battlefield. The moment I saw him, my heart sang out with relief but like before, it was short lived because it ended with another fight on his hands.

A fight that had finished the moment he thrust a branch into her hands. A bright light had filled our vision as the shadowed figure of our mother Leuce had appeared. I hadn’t recognized her but when I heard the other version of me call her mother, I knew that was who she was.

But even then. Even after seeing her…

It hadn’t been enough.

Not when Garmr had put a stop to it, taking control of her once more and, therefore, me with it. I fought again and again, screaming so loud in her head that I felt her faulter slightly before she could plunge in her sword. And then just before she did…

Darkness fell over us both.

Meaning I had no idea what had happened, only that the next time she woke, Garmr was there sitting next to her on the bed. He smoothed back her hair, and the affectionate gesture had me gritting my teeth.

“How are you feeling, my dear?” he asked softly, making her shake her head before putting her hand to the bandage that was obviously there. I could only see myself whenever she looked in the mirror and, most of the time, I was turning away in disgust at what we had become.

“What happened, did we win the battle?” I heard her ask, making me scoff internally.

“We did, for the cowards retreated.”

I felt her smile, because I could feel everything she could. The way my body moved, the power she wielded, the vibrations of her speech. I could feel it all as if it was my own. I just had no way of controlling it.

“And now?”

“I am afraid we lost quite a few in battle, their remains crushed due to the fall of the statues and rampage of that beast Abaddon they have fighting on their side.”

“Like you feared,” she agreed, sighing before asking, “Could we not steal away the Imp? That way we would control the beast.”

At this I cried out, mentally screaming, NO! Loud enough that it made her wince, and it was a small satisfaction in sight of what she had just suggested.

“Perhaps, but for now I have something to show you, if you’re feeling up to it, my love?”

I gritted my teeth once more, just like I always did at his endearments.

“I am, show me,” she replied, making him chuckle before taking her hand and helping her up.

“Always so eager to hear of my plans.”

“That’s because your plans are always so clever,” she cooed, making me want to gag.

“But they are nothing without you, my dear. Come, for I will show you.”

I was forced to watch as they traveled down a hallway, one that I knew Jared had taken when sneaking inside. As I had heard them speak of how Jared could have gotten in, this discussion took place not long after the attack on him in the bedroom.

Which made me wonder, was this where they were going now? It seemed so, because they walked through a door and into a cave system. The long tunnel seemed to go on forever, until it finally opened up into a cavernous space. A hollowed-out section of the middle of the mountain. But that wasn’t what was so startling.

No, it was the…

Valley of bones.

“It has been disturbed but as you can see, I have my men getting it all back in order now,” Garmr told her, as she gasped.

Millions of bones were all now getting piled up into pyramids by the workers we could see below.

“I don’t know what to say,” she replied in shock.

“Say it can be done,” he returned, making her turn and throw her arms around him, before promising,

“It will take time, but yes, my love, I think it can be done.”

I inwardly gasped as it clicked just what she meant by this. My panic now burst over as the gravity of the situation started to play out in my mind.

“Excellent, for once you have brought back these souls, then I will be master of the greatest army all the realms of Hell have ever known, for nothing can stop us… not as long as I have you by my side,” he said, cradling her head to his chest, before allowing her to pull back to stare back at the sea of bones. One that if she managed her task, could truly mean the end.

And unfortunately, the horror of my situation was one that I didn’t think could get any worse. But I was wrong. Because then he wrapped his arms around her from behind and told her,

“I have another gift for you.”

“You do?” she asked, her voice sounding amused.

“Yes…” he replied, practically purring the word, pausing before whispering what would soon become a new torture for me to bare from my living nightmares…

“I have captured a HellBeast for you to kill.”

To be continued in