Whisper in the Dark

Chapter 18

Adult Content 18+

Alexa holds her head, a sudden wave of nausea hits her and she doubles over to spill her stomach on the floor. She feels sick to her stomach, not sure if it is over the events that have just unfolded or the portal travelling.

“Sorry my dear, portal travelling causes nausea the first few times until you have gotten used to it.” Alexa glares at Arabel.

“Where is my sister?” She asks through gritted teeth. “WHERE IS MY SISTER?”

“Like I told you. Your sister’s life is not in danger but yours is. My job was to get you.” Arabel says with clear annoyance. She rolls her eyes at Alexa.

“I. Don’t. Care! You left her in a place she is not even familiar with. How could you?” Alexa is furious and she feels like she is about to lose control as she stares the woman down.

“Girl, you do not know who you are messing with. I did what I did to protect you. Calm down before you do something that you regret. Your sister is well capable to take care of herself. She will be fine. You should have not run and left her where you did if you cared so much for her,” Arabel is starting to get irritated at Alexa’s flaring temper.

Alexa screams and everything around her begins to shake and shatter. Arabel loses her footing for a moment, but quickly regains her composure before stretching out her hands towards Alexa, containing Alexa in a bubble with her magic. There is a great turbulence in the bubble as Alexa loses control of her abilities.

“CALM DOWN!” Arabel screams at Alexa. Alexa continues to scream until the bubble starts to dissipate around her, causing her powers to take over the cave and making the walls starting to crumble. Arabel’s eyes widen at the force of the power that is working through Alexa. Startled she freezes for a moment causing the power flowing from Alexa to throw her against a cave wall, rendering her helpless. She tries to stretch out her hand towards Alexa. She can’t hurt her, although at this point, she badly wants to teach her a lesson.

Alexa screams until she has no breath left in her and falls to the floor as she passes out. He enters from behind her and catches her before the fall can hurt her. He pulls her into his arms and smells her hair before cradling her against himself.

“I hope you know what you are doing. This one is a loose cannon.” Arabel says as she gets up from the floor and glares at him. She does not like to be humiliated like that. Especially not by a girl as young as Alexa that has had no formal training. Unfortunately, Alexa is too important for her to have used her full power on her and incapacitate her.

Arabel glares at him as she walks past him and into the coven. He just sighs at her pettiness. This is going to be a long exercise with these women.

~~

“Good day, I am here for the position available. I was told to come and see Lanca.” He says as he fiddles with his hands nervously. He was dressed as a typical warrior. The sorcerer did their part and when he looks in the mirror he looks like a typical tribal, but he still feels out of sorts and like they will recognise him. He looks around to see if anyone is near that might recognize him. Nothing. He feels extremely uncomfortable in his new skin. It will have to do for now and hopefully not for long. He is already yearning for the water.

“Oh, yes, please follow me,” she gets up from where she is sitting and walks out of the office into the hallway. She motions for him to follow him.

“This way please.”

He follows her down the hallway and into another room. He sees a burly man sitting at a table busy eating.

“Lanca?” He looks up at her. “Here is someone to see you.” He looks behind her and sees Perseus. He motions for her to step aside.

“Ah, yes! Morlé, isn’t it?” He says while stuffing another piece of food into his mouth.

“Yes sir.” He wants to show his disgust at the man’s clear lack of manners but he refrains himself.

“Please sit down, please close the door behind you,” he motions to her before she leaves.

Perseus takes a seat in front of the man, not quite sure what to expect. His father has set all of this up for him. He was just told to meet the sorcerer and then head to the castle to meet Lanca, who will inform him of his duties. Further it was business, keep as close as possible to her and do not make yourself know.

“Perseus,” Perseus’ eyes widen, “do not look so surprized. I know who you are and what you need to do. Therefore, I am assigning you to her floor. You are hired as a guard at her door. Do not speak to her with anyone around and always obey orders.” He nods quickly.

“Right, let me take you on a tour of the castle and explain your duties.”

~~

The bed is so comfy she is laying on that her eyes do not want to open from their slumber. The bed at the village has been one of the worst beds she has ever slept on and this was by far the best rest she has had in a very long time. She eventually forces her eyes open. The room is clean and big. She has never been in such a large room. She looks around and then at her hands, strangely she has not been restrained. She quickly gets up and grabs her head. She feels dizzy. She tries to remember what happened and then it dawned on her. Where could Alexa be? Were they kidnapped? Not again. She wants to start sobbing and curls up into a ball on the bed. If they have been kidnapped, why is she in such a nice room? She feels the exhaustion creep up on her and eventually cries herself to sleep.

Soraya wakes up in darkness. She must have slept most of the day away. She still can’t recall what happened exactly that led to her being here. She gets up and decides to explore and see if there is a way out of the room. She needs to find Alexa. She tiptoes to the door and turns the knob. It is not locked. That is quite odd. Why would they leave the door unlocked? She opens the door slowly and peek her head out. She is immediately startled by a face staring at her.

“Hello miss.” Frightened she slams the door shut again in the young man’s face, running towards the bed. What could possibly be going on.

A moment later the door opens slowly. Soraya cowers into the middle of the bed. A woman approaches her.

“Do not be alarmed my child,” the woman says in a soothing voice, “I am your mother.”

Soraya almost jumps out of her skin. “That can’t be! My mother was slaughtered in front of my eyes.” Tears start forming in Soraya’s eyes, the memory is still hard to recall.

The woman approaches Soraya and sits elegantly on the bed. “I am telling you the truth. I am your biological mother. Those people kidnapped you at birth. I have been searching for you all this time, and here I finally find you in my own kingdom.”

“Your own kingdom?”

“Yes, I am queen Vaneska and you are my second born daughter Velvette. Your sister was called Starlette.” Soraya shakes her head in disbelieve. How could this be possible? Everything so far has been one far fetched story. One peculiar thing after the other.

“Why would they kidnap me?”

Vaneska looks down at her feet. “I am not sure, but I think it is because your sister is the next to rule and you both have great power within you. They most likely wanted to use you as a weapon. Your powers are not even fully developed and yet they are powerful. I can already feel your powers radiating from your body. All royals have some kind of power. You and your sister have even greater power because you have been born from a very powerful king and a royal high sorcerer.”

Soraya looks at her wide-eyed. “My name is Soraya. I . . . I”

“Whatever you prefer my darling! I am just so grateful to have you back in my arms. I have so much to catch up on. You are even more beautiful than what I imagined you would be. May I?” Vaneska extends her arms to hug Soraya. Soraya shifts up to move into her mother’s embrace. The warmth of Vaneska immediately makes her relax.

“I cannot believe I have my baby back. I have missed you so much. I am never letting you out of my sight. I will do whatever I can to protect you, don’t you worry about that. No one will ever take you away from me again.” She finally has a family again. Alexa. Where is Alexa? She finally remembers about her sister.

“Where is my sister?”

Tears form in Vaneska’s eyes before she looks away and back again at Soraya after composing herself. “We hoped you might be able to tell us.”

“We . . . we lost each other in the forest. That is the last I remember. I cannot remember being taken or how I got here.”

“Oh darling, I know all of this is a lot to deal with. Please do not overwhelm yourself. Take a few deep breaths. We will find her. I am certain about that. I will not rest until I have both of my girls with me.” Her promise is soothing to Soraya.

“How did you find me?”

“Well, about a month ago there was a strange magic in the forest that wiped out a good section of it. We have never seen something like that before. I had one of my guards track the source of the magic. Once he saw the two of you, he informed me and I went myself to identify you as my children. The guard saw you running through the forest and flying against a tree. He decided to bring you to me. We did not want to just take you and your sister. We wanted to prepare properly and since we had no idea how strong your powers might be, we did not want to take a risk until the right time. Today we were too late. He could not just leave you there unconscious."