Marked

40

Nyght

The black fabrics of Drakes cloak fell to the ground below.  He had tricked her, used our connection to bring Myra here. To kill her. But she was here. “What were you thinking coming here?” I turned to Myra the sun trickled through the trees and shone off her scarlet hair “You could have been killed.”

She took my hands and started to cut through the ropes that held them together in front of me. “But I wasn’t.”

“Thanks to Ransom and her talent.” It was the only explanation for the Ax stopping in midair like that. She had used her talent to save Myra. The twine unrivaled and when my hands were free I pulled Myra into my arms. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Her green eyes meet mine. “Same to you.”

The bridge started to shake.  I had forgotten about the large Dusk that had tried to kill Myra. Drake had left it behind. Whichever curse Ransom had used must have worn off. We turned to face the threat. Dust rained down around us, Mikhail stood in front of me with my twin blades in his hands. How had he gotten them, the last time I had seen them was back in the underground castle. When I was first taken hostage. And how did he get here? Was Ransom with him?

“Are you going to stand there staring at me all day?” Mikhail asked.

Myra grabbed my hand and we ran, the pounding of feet following us. Up through the winding bridges; past darken homes and broken furniture. To the highest structure, the bright light of the sun shone through the cracks of the trees. The blue painted roof chipped and dull. Nothing like the first time I had seen it. Ransom waited at the door for us.

The door slammed shut behind us with a crash. “Now what?”

Mikhail light a lamp his dark eyes scanned the room. This was once his home. Scraps of a life he had lived littered the floor. I could see the pain that being here brought to him. He had lost everything. “This way.” He used his talent to open up a passage through the tree trunk in the center of the room, set down the lamp and walked through the tree.

I had expected a gasp from either Myra or even Ransom. Neither of them said a word. What had happened to make them both so solemn? Sure, we were being chased by the Dusk and trapped with what looked like no way out.

Myra gave me a sad smile. “His talent, it came too late to save his people.” She walked through the passage disappearing behind the bark.

Mikhail stood on a small ledge near where we had stepped through. I looked down. The wood had been smoothed down in the center. “There’re in,” Ransom said, knocking me onto the slide.

I slammed into the ground sooner then I thought possible. My breath knocked from me, I started at the blue sky peeking through the trees above.

“We have to move.” Ransom pulled me to my feet.

Myra’s hand was in mine. My lungs burned with every breath while we ran, over dirt paths and through open fields of grain. Not stopping until we had no breath on a path hidden in the field of poppies. I pulled Myra into my arms. I drank in the smell of her, fire, dirt and lavender. Her tears soaked my shirt, she looked up at me.

            The moment our eyes meet I know something was wrong. Luka had made his choice. He had joined Drake. A burning started at my feet moving up my body, Myra dropped to the ground screaming. Luka’s memories flooded my mind, flashes of people and places, a fish, his siblings, parents, me and the Hideaway.

The Hideaway… Could this be what Mikka had been trying to warn me about? What was it she had said? So much had happened since then.

Myra screamed.

Myra. I called to her with my mind.

Luna the blue haired girl I had met in Vail, flashed in my mind. She was standing in a field near a lake that reflected the sky, smiling at me or was it Luka. I... He smiled back at her. Thunder crashed behind me. The sky turned rust colored in an instant. A patch of that same color blossomed on her chest.

The goddess Mikka’s voice broke through the memory. Replace the bond.

I heard Ransom screaming my name as my knees hit the hard ground below. My hands on my ears, I screamed.

Replace the bond.

Myra screamed next to me. I reached for her. She was curled in a ball on the ground next to me, her eyes close and her hands on her ears. Myra. I pulled her close to me.

“I don’t understand,” I cried.

Mikka voice entered my mind again. Only this time the words came with a memory. I was in Myra’s father’s study and her parents. They were talking about the Dusk, when Queen Tait falls to the ground screaming her hands on her head. I could hear Rowan in my mind pleading for Tait to let go.

I wasn’t sure I understood, but I need to do something. Somehow I got us both to our knees. Touched her forehead to mine and put my hands on her face. Her tears soaked my dry skin. My own tears streaming down as I pleaded for her to stay with me.