Under Crimson Rain (Book Two)

⋆˖☽ Chapter 18 ☾˖⋆

My erratic breathing began to slow, the harsh scrape of each inhale echoing off the walls as I rounded the corridor toward Mikaeus's office. Why did it have to be Emeric? Of all people to find me in the aftermath of that vision... I would have given anything for solitude.

A sigh slipped past my lips. I dragged a trembling hand through my hair, wincing as my fingers snagged on a tangled knot.

"It's the truth," I whispered. The words fragile in the empty hallway, but I needed to hear them aloud.

I dragged my boots to a halt before Mikaeus's door, closing up the lingering phantom of Emeric's gaze and shoving it into the darkest corner of my mind. I pressed my shoulder toward the wood, straining to listen. No murmuring voices bled through. Just a profound, insulated quiet, broken only by the dry, rhythmic whisper of a page turning, followed by the steady scratch-scratch of a quill. He was alone.

The chaotic ghost of Emeric vanished, replaced by the towering reality of Mikaeus. I had to face him now. My fingers wrapped around the handle, the metal biting cool against my palm. I drew in a long, slow breath, pulling my familiar mask of indifference into place, locking every rogue emotion behind it. Only then did I push the door inward.

He sat in absolute stillness behind his sprawling desk, chin dipped low, his focus pinned to the parchment before him. His posture was rigid, yet the flickering amber glow of the hearth fire betrayed him. It caught the bruised shadows beneath his eyes, revealing a bone-deep weariness he usually managed to hide.

He looked up.

The moment our eyes locked, my boots rooted to the threshold. The exhaustion bled out of his gaze.

"You are a bit early," he murmured, his voice rich in the quiet room. "And the first one here." A warm smile curved his mouth, softening the hard planes of his face, but it was fleeting. A slight twitch claimed the corner of his lip before he forced it back into a guarded, stoic line.

Breaking his stare, I stepped deeper into the room, claiming the chair furthest from his desk. I sat, my fingers finding a loose thread on the rough fabric of my trousers, pulling at it.

"How was seeing Aurenoxious?" he asked, his voice softening with genuine care. He stood from his desk, his boots tapping rhythmically against the stone floor as he strode closer, choosing to sit in the chair directly across from mine.

"It was needed," I answered, letting the words hang. I chewed on the inside of my cheek, debating how much I should share. The memory of him pressing for my trust earlier still sat heavy on my chest. "They... needed each other."

Mikaeus rested his forearms across his thighs, leaning in until the physical space between us was thin. "They may have developed a bond. A dragon chooses their rider. It is entirely possible," he paused, his intense gaze sweeping over my face, studying every expression, "that Ondina is his."

"A dragon chooses their rider," I breathed, the ancient, mythical weight of the concept settling over the room like a thick blanket. "What exactly does that mean for Ondina?"

"It will not harm her," he stated.

"I didn't think it would," I replied, my voice dropping to a near whisper.

He offered a slow, deliberate nod. "It means he will protect her with his own life."

My lips parted on a soft intake of air. For a fraction of a heartbeat, Mikaeus’s eyes darted down to my parted lips, but it snapped back up to meet my gaze.

"He will always answer her call," Mikaeus murmured, his voice dropping an octave. "Just like I will..."

His gaze dropped to his hands resting on his knees. His long fingers slowly opened, then curled into fists. When he looked back up at me, his eyes were raw. Desperate. He looked at me as though I were an illusion spun from smoke, terrified I might vanish into thin air if he blinked.

"She would do the same for him."

She already has.

He shifted in his seat, the chair creaking in the quiet. "Alanah." My name on his lips was unsteady, his voice vibrating with a undeniable tremor. "I... I pushed too hard earlier today."

"You did," I agreed. I dropped my gaze to the floor. It makes me uncomfortable, I confessed to myself.

"I am sorry." He leaned in a fraction closer, as if to physically bridge the gap between us. The smell of bright lemon and dry parchment completely filled my senses. His breathing briefly hitched, immediately followed by a slow, deep inhale.

The world seemed to stop spinning. The only sound to be heard was the faint, rhythmic echo of approaching footsteps in the outer corridor. I wanted to reply, to say something, but the words refused to form on my tongue.

Three sharp knocks shattered the tension surrounding us.

Mikaeus physically flinched, pulling back as his head snapped toward the door. The door swung open, revealing Mira and Ondina at the threshold. Ondina stepped in first. Her eyes swept over me and then darted to Mikaeus. A silent, knowing question flickered across her features before she pressed her lips into a tight line. Without a word, she crossed the room and claimed the empty seat beside mine.

Mikaeus pushed up from his chair. As he moved to circle back to his desk, he paused. He stepped right behind my chair, his large hand coming to rest on the backrest. His grip tighten, the wood groaning faintly under the pressure. For one agonizing, suspended second, the heat of his body hovered just inches behind my shoulders. Then, he tore himself away, his jaw locked tight as he retreated to his desk.

Mira glided into the room, a picture of lethal grace, and smoothly lowered herself into the very chair Mikaeus had just abandoned.

"Thank you," she said, her cool eyes tracking him across the room.

He ignored her. Mikaeus dropped back into his desk chair, his broad shoulders slumping for a singular, defeated second before his spine locked straight again. The impenetrable mask was back, bringing with it the crushing, shadowed weariness to his eyes.

"I couldn't find Emeric," Mira announced, her tone clipping the silence.

"He will be here soon, I am sure," Mikaeus replied.

My nails bit into my thigh through my trousers at the mere mention of his name.

As Mira and Mikaeus fell into a rapid, rhythmic exchange of strategy, Ondina leaned her shoulder into mine. "Thank you for earlier," she murmured, her voice barely carrying over the room's murmur.

I turned to her. Despite the deep, bloodshot red framing her irises, a soft smile touched her lips. The anxious crease that usually pinched her brow had melted away. The reunion with Aurenoxious had healed a fracture in her spirit. She truly needed him.

My gaze drifted past her to Mikaeus. He was already looking at me. Across the room, while Mira spoke, his eyes held mine captive. He will protect her with his own life, his voice echoed loudly in my mind. Swallowing down the thick knot of tension in my throat, I broke the connection, turning my entire focus back to Ondina.

I was burning to interrogate her, to explain that the massive dragon had chosen her as his rider. Instead, I forced a gentle smile. "I am glad that you both reunited."

"I am just—"

The heavy oak door slammed open.

A biting, aggressive draft of winter-cold air surged into the office, carrying Emeric with it. The entire room died into silence. Emeric stood in the threshold, his features carved from merciless stone, his jaw set so tight a muscle ticked violently at his temple.

The only sound was the sharp click of the door shutting into place behind him.

His movements were jagged, tightly coiled with a dangerous, kinetic energy. Refusing to meet a single pair of eyes, he stalked toward the far corner of the room, his boots thudding against the floor.

An icy pressure seized my lungs, trapping the frantic flutter of my pulse beneath it.

He hit the far wall, flattening his broad back against the cold stone. He slid one boot up the wall, crossing his arms over his chest like a barricade. His dark eyes locked onto a blank, meaningless spot on the floor.

I swallowed past the sudden abrasive knot in my throat, my eyes tracking the violent, erratic tick of his jaw. When will he...

"Since everyone is here now, we should begin," Mikaeus said. His authoritative tone left no room for any other thoughts. "Let's start with the intelligence we've gathered, and bring Alanah and Ondina up to speed on what they have missed while recuperating these last few days."

He leaned back into the worn leather of his chair, his weary but calculating eyes sweeping over us. "The Vow have been quiet. They have made zero movement on the waters."

"Which is highly unlike the Vow," Mira interjected. As she spoke, her ice-cold eyes locked onto Ondina, devoid of anything resembling warmth.

Ondina didn’t flinch. She met Mira’s dead-eyed stare head-on, her chin tipping up in a silent challenge. "And?" Ondina prompted, her tone sharp.

"Nothing at all," Mira replied. Breaking the stare with practiced indifference, she turned her perfect posture back to Mikaeus.

"We understand that we are looking for a cave," Mikaeus continued. The deep, steady timbre of his voice re-centered the room, pulling our fractured attention toward him. "Though in all the time we have searched… I do not believe we have found what we are looking for."

His gaze shifted to Ondina. "Alanah does not know where the Underkeep is. But," he paused, letting the silence stretch until the weight of it settled over us, "we believe you do."

Ondina remained still. "I do. And I am willing to help." Her spine went rigid, straightening vertebra by vertebra, even as her pale fingers dug so into the arms of her chair. Her green eyes flicked to mine. "I have been with the Vow for a long time." The end of her sentence fractured, her voice dropping into a ragged mumble. "Not by choice."

In the periphery, Emeric was a ghost. He didn’t twitch. He barely seemed to breathe, remaining fused to the shadows of the wall.

Mira’s head tilted, her sharp eyes picking Ondina apart like a puzzle. "What made you want to leave, and why wait so long to do it?"

"I never wanted to be a part of that place. I just never had the courage to run, knowing the monsters they would release to hunt me down." Her chin lifted. "But Alanah gave me that courage… and Aurenoxious. He never gave up fighting. He deserved to be free."

I didn’t do much. I shifted in my seat. Why does she always make it sound as if I carried the world for her?

"Alanah did have you heading in the right direction," Ondina continued, her tone steadying, "but I do not think you would ever find the location on your own."

"And why is that?" Mikaeus asked.

"It is hidden between two places. One which people do not travel to, and actively avoid."

"There are many places humans avoid." Mira crossed one leg over the other, her lips pressing into a flat, unconvinced line.

Why is Mira pushing so hard? It was usually Emeric. I cast a quiet, sidelong glance toward him. He was still a statue against the wall, but a muscle jumped in his locked jaw.

Ondina let out a quiet huff of air, a sound only loud enough for me to catch. "It is between the Witherfall Woods," she paused, her stare sharpening on Mira, turning into something dark and dangerous, "and The Blighted Glade."

Emeric’s head snapped up. Genuine shock etched deep into his features, shattering his stoic mask. As he turned, our eyes met across the dim room. The vulnerability vanished, hardening into a bitter scowl before he dropped his gaze back to the floor.

Mira whipped her head toward Mikaeus as he began to speak.

"That—" Mikaeus paused, a rare hesitation crossing his face as he weighed the tactical nightmare of those locations. "We can’t proceed without knowing more. They would see us coming long before we saw them."

"Not necessarily," Ondina countered. "As long as we move after the moons begin to make their descent, the guards will have finished making their patrol."

"But Ruslan..." Mira pressed, her voice pulling tight with suspicion. "He may have changed the orders since you left."

Ondina shook her head. "He may be cunning, but above all else, he is prideful. He will assume that after what just happened, we would not dare attempt another strike… at least, not this soon."

She’s not wrong.

"It could still be a trap." Mira stared hard at Mikaeus, practically pleading with her eyes for him to shut this down.

"We will need to take the risk," Mikaeus stated, letting the strategic reality settle over the room. "We have to know the exact layout before I bring others from Luminethra to join us." He looked up. Our eyes locked, and he held my gaze with an unshakeable, terrifying certainty. "And I trust Alanah."

Across the room, Emeric drew in a sharp, agitated breath that sounded like a blade scraping stone.

"If she trusts her, I do as well," Mikaeus declared, ignoring him.

"No one goes into those woods… the monsters there are different." It was the very first time I had ever heard Mira actively question Mikaeus's judgment.

"She isn’t wrong," Ondina conceded, "but… if the Vow uses the woods, there will be safe ways to travel. I have navigated it before."

My mind flashed back to the people of the Cinderwake, a cold dread pooling in my stomach as I wondered if they were truly that ill-prepared. Is it possible…

"It is stories shared by the Vow," Ondina explained, twisting her pale hands together in her lap. "They release the creatures on those who travel through Witherfall Woods… The Blighted Glade is different. Not even those in the Vow will enter past the border."

Has she been there? The unspoken question passed over my features. Ondina's eyes flicked down to her white-knuckled hands, then back up to me in silent, haunting confirmation.

The heavy reality of her words settled over the room, suffocating any remaining argument.

"Then we will move by foot," Mikaeus decided, his voice forging steel. "Ondina, you will be our guide." He left no room for question or defiance.

"When do we leave?" she asked.

Mikaeus looked between Ondina and me, assessing our battered states. "In three days… I believe you both should be recuperated and—"

"Two days," I interrupted, my voice firm. "We need to leave in two days. If we wait any longer than that, we risk Ruslan being even more prepared." My fingers curled into a fist at my side that my nails bit into my palms. It is not time yet.

"Two days, then," Mikaeus repeated in quiet agreement.

"You do whatever she says."

The words bled out of Emeric in a hushed, venomous scrape—so deep and utterly bitter that for a fractured second, I thought the shadows had spoken. His gaze remained locked on the ground. A suffocating silence followed. The corner of his mouth curled into a dark smirk as he let out a soft, hollow laugh that held no warmth. "You always say you do what must be done." He rolled his head back against the wall, the friction disheveling his dark hair. "Yet… you leave us rotting in the dark, demanding blind faith in your words."

His boot slid off the wall, hitting the floor with a resounding crack.

"Eme—" Mikaeus started.

"No, not this time." Emeric's voice dropped into a lethal growl. He pushed off the wall and stalked straight over to Mikaeus's desk, slamming both hands hard against the thick wood as he leaned in. "I want the truth."

Pure rage and raw desperation bled from him in suffocating waves. I stiffened in my chair, the phantom weight of the secret I had revealed to him settling over my shoulders. I was the one who lit this fire when I told him to seek the truth from Mikaeus. Seeing the devastating explosion firsthand was a volatile, burning feeling I knew too well.

Genuine bewilderment crossed Mikaeus's features, the lines around his eyes etched with deep concern. "I will find you all later. Mira, please take them back to their rooms."

Mira nodded, standing from her chair. Ondina followed, yet I couldn't command my limbs to move. My body remained frozen, sinking deeper into the chair. Emeric's head jerked over his shoulder. For a heartbeat, his eyes met mine, ablaze with reckless fury, but just as quickly, he snapped his fierce attention back to Mikaeus.

"Alanah," Ondina called from the doorway, the soft sound pulling me from my paralyzed state. I forced myself to stand.

"What is this about?" Mikaeus asked from behind me, his tone laced with confusion.

Will he reveal everything?

Mira pulled the massive oak door shut, the thud severing us from Emeric's angry answer.

Our boots tapped rhythmically against the cold stone floor as we followed Mira down the winding corridor. Will Emeric listen? I shook my head, trying to shove the anxious thought away. There is no need to dwell on it.

Ondina looked at me, her mouth twitching in sympathy for a fleeting moment, but she offered no platitudes. Instead, she turned her attention toward Mira's retreating back.

"I can feel you staring at my blade," Mira stated, not bothering to look over her shoulder.

"Yes. I was admiring the craftsmanship of your daggers," Ondina replied, her tone level.

Mira came to an abrupt halt. She spun on her heel to face us, squaring her shoulders and effectively blocking the corridor. Her fingers twitched at her side, hovering over the hilt. "Do not—" She looked Ondina up and down with predatory calculation. "—even think of touching my blade."

Ondina, standing taller than Mira by a full head, looked down at her impassively. "I wouldn't. I need my own weapon, not someone else's."

"And what do you wield?" Mira asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Daggers. Just as you do."

Mira's lips pursed, a sudden glint of interest flashing in her dark eyes. "Are you the one that trained Alanah?" A grudging, faint note of respect laced the question.

"Yes. I am the one who trained her."

The icy hostility melted from Mira's posture. "Then…" She paused, raising a hand to her mouth in deep thought before letting it fall with a sigh. "No, you are still injured and healing," she muttered.

"I've fought in much worse states than this," Ondina challenged, her voice dropping to a low purr. "If I cannot handle myself, how would I have stayed alive?"

Mira’s fingers twitched again. A knowing smirk played at the corner of Ondina’s mouth.

The air in the corridor snapped.

I side-stepped, pressing my back flat against the cold stone just as Mira lunged. Silver flashed, the dagger striking upward in a lethal arc aimed dead at Ondina’s throat.

But Ondina was a fraction of a second quicker. Her hand snapped up, catching Mira’s wrist in a bone-locking vise just inches before the blade could kiss her skin.

The tension held for a breathless second, the two warriors locked in a silent test of strength. A genuine thrilled smile broke across Mira’s face.

"Then let’s head to the training grounds." She wrenched her wrist free with a deft twist and, in one fluid motion, sheathed the steel.

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Note from Kali Rae:

​Hello readers!

​Thank you so much for the incredible support! Your moon tickets and comments truly mean the world to me. I wanted to check in and see how you’re enjoying the journey so far. I’m also dying to know: who do you like more, Mikaeus or Emeric?

New Schedule:

I have some exciting news. Starting the first week of June, our schedule is expanding. I'll be dropping new chapters every Tuesday and Wednesday.

But for now, see you next Wednesday!