Lyla woke up to stinging on her cheek; her eyes struggled to open as she fought against the haziness.
"Wake up!" Whose voice was that?
Another sting, and her eyes fully opened. Chocolate brown eyes and a head of curly hair met her.
"You're finally awake," the man grinned, and that's when it dawned on her. The ambush, the fight, the capture, Lucien almost dying, his scream for her. It all slammed into her like a boulder, making her foggy brain throb.
Her first instinct was to go for the male before her, but something held her back, chains like the ones they had clamped on her, only these were long and tied to stone—they were in a cave.
"Now that you're awake, mind telling us who you and your friends are?"
Us? Right the woman
Turning, she spots the brown haired female at the corner of the cave, redressing the wound on her thigh from her dagger.
"Hey, I asked you a question."
The smack came again and again till it turned to kicks and punches, then cuts by daggers and knives. She didn't know what time it was, but at some point, the torture stopped, and she was forced to consume some water before she was left alone.
Perhaps it was minutes or hours or days, but she was again woken up by assault, this time a punch to her gut by the female.
The questions were the same, Who are you? Who sent you? How did you know what we were carrying? Who are your friends? Who else knows?
She didn't deign to give them a response, so her body continued to scream from pain as she faded in and out of consciousness.
*
Lucien had woken up in an inn, all his friends surrounding him. The first thing he wanted to do was to run out the door and find her; it took Leo and Felix to stop him. They needed to think it through
So they did, but he couldn't stop thinking of her, of the fear on her face as she watched him struggling to get to her. She was horrified, and the relief that came after he didn't understand. It wasn't until a body slumped to the ground beside him that he knew. She had seen the oncoming attack and feared for him.
She was the one being taken away, yet she was worried about him. The emotions swelling in him threatened to choke him.
He had to find her, he must, and he won't stop until he does
*
Lyla's time at the cave had a routine; wake up to being hit, torture, water, or bread dipped in water— sometimes, her captors would leave, then she would lose consciousness.
She had figured, though, that they were still in the forest somewhere and that her two captors were waiting for someone, a higher-up of sorts. Carson had taken the obligation to threaten her with him, that if she thought what they were doing was bad, it was about to get worse. She believed him, but she didn't have the strength to worry.
Another thing she had discovered was that the chains around her hands and feet were somehow stopping her access to her magic and at the same time eating at her strength. She had tried to summon her destruction first, then creation, illusion, projection, but nothing. She had even gone as far as to try to reach her last gift she still didn't know of, but it was as dormant as ever.
So she endured the torture, endured the hunger while praying to the heavens to help her.
*
Lucien knew they had to be torturing her, and the thought gave new meaning to fear. He didn't know when or how he started caring so much for her, but he did; he cared so much it scared him. He knew his friends noticed it, but neither of them mentioned it, and he could also see the worry etched on their faces. At a certain point, the lost girl from Luminara had marked herself in their lives.
*
They were right, the man they were expecting was far worse. By the time he finished his torture sessions, Lyla could barely remember a thing.
He was a muscled male, not tall and far from good-looking, but that wouldn't have mattered either way because he was a sadist. He lived for pain and fear, consuming them like a drug he'd never get enough of, and he made sure he got a lot from her.
It had to have been days since she was captured. Would anyone ever come for her? Would she die here, did Lucien and his friends care enough to come for her, would her friends in Luminara ever know what happened to her, would she ever see her family? The thoughts were becoming more often, and with them came hopelessness.
'You can't lose hope, chosen one'
'It's you again, who are you?'
'Who I am doesn't…'
'Yeah, that's what you said last time'
The woman chuckled, 'as I said, don't lose hope, you still have much ahead of you'
'Did the heavens send you?'
'No, at least not this time'
'What do you know about my last gift? What is it?'
'I can't tell you that'
'At least tell me your name'
The woman walked to her, placing a hand on her cheek, her glowing, dark hair drifting on an invisible wind. Her green eyes surveyed her face before she smiled.
'Keep fighting, Lyla, never stop. Only you can right the wrongs of the past. I know it is hard, but you have people who care; let them be your strength.
The woman's figure blurred, 'I'm Callista,' were her last words
Lyla woke up with a jolt to find the space empty, where her captors were; she didn't care, but that one name kept ringing in her head, Callista. Why was the name so familiar? She knew she had heard it before, but where?
Cold realization fell on her when she finally remembered why the name had sounded so familiar. There was only one significant person who held that name here. A person who history would never forget
Callista, the last Queen of Luminaraeth
*
Lucien was silent on top of Max as they meandered through the forest. They had set out early that morning to begin their search, going back to where they had last seen her.
Their plan wasn't much; they would follow the path and the horse tracks and hope to find her. They had already passed the spot marked by the ashes of the wagon the bastards had set on fire before leaving with her. The caravan had returned to find both him and Felix unconscious. Felix awoke before him and had taken them to an inn at the nearest town before sending a panic signal with his bracelet.
He had also managed to get a rough map of the paths within the forest from Gerald after feeding him the lie that the others had led them away from the path and attacked them. He believed them mostly because they had taken Laura.
Their search went on for hours before Leo suggested they rest. He would have refused if not for Max, who looked so exhausted. So they set camp.
After many fruitless attempts, he finally slept, but images of her being captured and dragged away haunted him; her scream for him jolting him awake. He didn't dare sleep again.
*
Lyla woke up to hands touching her. The sadist stood before her, grinning, his hand trailing her thigh.
"You know you're a pretty little thing."
She wiggled against the restraints, but he only held her tighter. His hands traveled from her thigh to her hip before cupping her ass.
"You got a hot body too," he whispered. She looked around in panic, spotting the other two beside a wall. Her eyes pleaded, but Carson only smiled, and the female looked away.
"Don't bother with them, they won't mind watching, and I'm sure he wants a turn."
"Don't touch me," her voice was hoarse and strained her throat, "Don't touch me."
Don't touch me, don't touch me, don't touch me.
Her anger rose with every word, and with it came blazing heat from within. Up and up it rose, feeding into her fury and rage.
A scream from the man before her, followed by Carson and the female, filled the cave, vibrating from every wall. They screamed until no sound remained, and their bodies stopped moving.
She watched the green flames consume their corpses until only one single ember remained, and in it she saw the gift that lay dormant.
Fire, Queen Callista's fire. Gift of the Fae