CHAPTER TWELVE: LOST TIME
1013 Words
Elera pov
We'd been walking for hours, maybe more.
I'd lost track of time somewhere between the endless trees and the ache in my legs that wouldn't stop
Every step felt like dragging weights through mud.
"We need to rest," I said, my voice coming out weaker than I wanted.
Kael glanced back at me, his expression unreadable.
"Five minutes," he said, not arguing for once.
I sank down against a fallen log, my whole body trembling from exhaustion.
Kael stayed standing a few feet away, giving me space I'd demanded but somehow his distance felt worse than his closeness had.
The silver marks burned under my skin, hot and insistent, spreading like wildfire.
I could feel them moving, crawling up my neck, across my collarbone, claiming more of me with every passing hour.
"Kael?" I said, my vision blurring at the edges.
He turned quickly, "what's wrong?"
"I don't," the world tilted sideways, darkness rushing in from all sides.
"I don't feel."
Then nothing.
When I opened my eyes the light had changed, wrong, too dim.
The sun lower in the sky than it should be, I was lying on the ground but I didn't remember falling.
My head pounded like someone had taken a hammer to it.
Kael sat nearby, watching me with an expression I couldn't read, wary maybe, or afraid, there was a fresh cut on his arm, blood dried dark against his skin.
"What happened?" I asked, pushing myself up, my hands shaking.
"You don't remember?" Kael asked carefully, like he was talking to something dangerous.
"Remember what?" Panic clawed up my throat.
"I felt dizzy and then, how long was I out?"
"Three hours," Kael said, his voice quiet, "and you weren't out, you were awake, walking, talking, but it wasn't you."
The words hit me like ice water, "what do you mean it wasn't me?"
"Seraphina," Kael said simply, "she took over."
I looked down at my hands and my stomach dropped, blood under my fingernails, dark and dried.
Scratches all over my arms that I didn't remember getting.
My dress torn in places, dirt ground into the fabric.
"What did I do?" I whispered, horror crawling through my veins.
Kael stood slowly, "come here," he said….. "I'll show you."
My legs barely held me but I followed him through the trees, he stopped at a clearing where the ground was torn up…..deep gouges in the earth like something had been dragged, blood spattered on the leaves.
"There was a wolf scout." Kael said, his voice careful.
"Sent by the Shadow Guard probably, you attacked him."
"Did I?" I couldn't finish the question.
"No," Kael said, "but you tried, you went for his throat like an animal, clawed him, I had to pull you off."
I stared at the blood on the leaves, my blood-stained hands, "and you?”
I asked, gesturing to the cut on his arm.
"You fought me," Kael said simply.
"When I tried to stop you, you didn't recognize me."
"Oh god," I backed away, my hands going to my mouth.
"I hurt you, I attacked someone, I don't even remember."
"It wasn't you," Kael said, "it was her."
"It was my body," I said, my voice breaking.
"My hands, I'm becoming her Kael, I'm losing myself."
"No," Kael moved toward me but stopped when I flinched away.
"You're still you, you came back."
"For how long?" I asked, tears burning in my eyes.
"Three hours Kael, three hours of my life just gone, what if next time I don't come back at all?"
Kael opened his mouth but no words came out, he had no answer because we both knew the truth.
Every time Seraphina took over it would get easier for her, harder for me, until one day I wouldn't come back.
"This is your fault," I said, anger replacing the fear like fire burning through paper.
"You bound her to that castle, you created this curse, you brought me there knowing this would happen."
"I brought you there to break the curse." Kael said, frustration bleeding into his voice.
"Liar," the word came out sharp and vicious, "you brought me there to give her a body, just admit it."
"I can't," Kael said.
"Can't or won't?" I took a step toward him, "I'm done listening to your excuses, when we get wherever we're going I'm leaving, I'd rather die alone than let you use me."
"Elara please," Kael reached for me.
"Don't touch me," I jerked away, "don't ever touch me again."
Something broke in his expression, pain or regret, but I didn't care, couldn't care, not when I was disappearing piece by piece, not when my own body was betraying me.
We walked in silence after that, hostile and thick.
The sun sinking lower with every step, casting long shadows through the trees.
My whole body felt wrong, like wearing clothes that didn't fit, like being trapped in someone else's skin.
The marks burned hotter, spreading further, I caught glimpses of silver in my peripheral vision, patterns crawling across my skin like living things.
"How much further?" I asked, my voice flat.
"Another hour," Kael said, "maybe two."
I nodded, kept walking, one foot in front of the other, ignoring the way my vision blurred at the edges, ignoring the whispers in my head that sounded like Seraphina's voice.
Then it happened again.
The world tilted, that same feeling from before, like being pulled underwater.
"No," I gasped, recognizing it this time, "not again."
"Elara," Kael spun around, his eyes going wide.
"Fight it."
I tried, god I tried, pushing back against the darkness rushing in, but it was like trying to hold back the ocean with my bare hands
"Kael," I managed, his name breaking on my lips.
My vision flashed silver.
Everything shifted, my body moved but I wasn't moving it, my mouth curved into a smile that wasn't mine, cold and triumphant and terrible.
"Hello again my love," I heard myself say but the voice was wrong, older, colder….Seraphina's voice.
"Did you miss me?”
- Writer
