Music starts behind us, but I’m caught off guard with a shooting pain throbbing in my arm. I fall to the ground screaming in pain. Everyone watches me thrashing but do nothing to help.
“Help me.”
My eyes shoot open, and I’m in a plain white room. A bright window is beside my head, with a white curtain hanging across it. A hand strokes my hair, and my head is soaking with sweat. My entire body burns, my arm most of all. I feel like I’m being tortured. Just when I had some peace, I am dragged back through the veil into this recurring pain.
I thrash at the body beside me; white flames shooting from my hands. Everyone jumps to the side or ducks to the ground, and the flames scorch the wall opposite me. Before I can lash out again, someone grabs my jaw, forcing my mouth open and pouring a liquid in. I gag as it slips down my throat.
My body goes limp as the warm solution sends me into a deep slumber.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Wyatt
Choking and retching, I vomit on the side of a riverbank.
“Well, that was disgusting,” Kaleb says from above me.
Wiping my mouth on my sleeve, I grasp his outstretched hand.My clothes are drenched with… shit... I don’t know what was in that pool, but whatever it was smells like it died a long time ago. Shivering, I follow Kaleb along the path. Everyone sits around the table in the mess hut, gaping through the open doors at me. Some clap and cheer, others are disgusted at the state I’m in. I ignore them all and walk over to Caelan and Arel, who is stifling a laugh.
“The fuck was that?”
Caelan stands up, raising his hand like he is about to pat me on the back, but changes his mind when registering the filth on me.
“You did good, kid. You passed the trial of resilience. Kaleb took a week to get out of there.” I turn my gaze to Kaleb, who has found an empty chair at the table and is happily stuffing his mouth.
He splutters, “I can’t help it if the fruit was fucking delicious.” Chuckling, he continues to squash in more food.
I turn to Caelan, sneering at my soaking wet clothes. “I’m gonna change. I don’t know what was in that water, but I reek.”
The folk at the table all shout together, holding their noses. “Yeah, you do,” and “Putting us off our food here.”
I slosh away to my hut, chuckling to myself. What in the veils was that?
First trial done, one step closer to finding Nia and Elana.
I place the gemstone onto the shelf beside my bed, it gently lights up my dark hut. New clothes are laid on the chair in my room. My hut… I’ve never had my own place before. It’s kinda nice. A place that’s mine and mine alone. Not being stowed away in the box room of Nik’s flat, not sleeping on the couch at Nia’s.
It’s not much to look at, but I don’t need much anyway.Wind sails through the open door, swirling the god's awful smell around the room. Gagging, I grab the clothes and a towel, and head to the hot springs for yet another dip.
Most folk have left the table by the time I arrive back at the mess hut, except for Caelan, Arel, Ronan, and Kaleb. I load up my plate with the food left over, hastily eating, barely chewing before I swallow. I didn’t realise how hungry I was.
They all watch me as I fork food into my mouth. I glance up at them. “What?” I mumble, incoherently through a mouthful of food.
“We were just discussing your second trial,” Caelan says, trying to hide his smirk behind his hand. I scan the faces at the table, none of them can look me in the eye, each one stifling a laugh or grin.
I try to swallow the food without chewing. “Already?” I say, picking up my goblet and gulping down my ale, washing down what’s left in my throat. “Another task. Today?”
“No, we need a few days to set it up.”
“What about my family?”
Caelan crosses his arms on the table, leaning forward. “I wondered when you would ask. I have sent people to Vendyl, hoping to find clues about where they’ve been taken. At the moment, they’ve found nothing. But Aron and Izaac have already left for Zury, they’ll sneak in and find out what they can.”
The vein in my head throbs. How can two folks just vanish? I place my head in my hands, ripping at my hair.
Arel sets his hand on my shoulder. “We’ll find them.”
I nod, pushing the thoughts from my mind. Get through the trials, focus on training, and then I’ll get them back. Second trial’s just around the corner. I can do this.