Northern Lands: Bound by fate

Chapter 23

CALANDRA

⌘ Asterion, fae realm.

When the cloud of heavy magic settled around me, and my consciousness slowly returned, the realization of where Zohra had taken me brought me back from the induced slumber.

My tattered nightgown hung in pieces from my frame, dirty from the walk through the woods and the murkiness of the dungeons. The cuts on my skin had been caked in with dried blood and mud. My mouth felt dry and it couldn't pronounce a sound from my chapped lips.

The dark magic still wreaked havoc.

I blinked as my eyesight got accustomed to the sudden bright light. The carpeted floor felt foreign, as I had been in contact with the hard and cold ground from the dungeons. The fibers scratched against my irritated skin, while I lifted my tired and exhausted frame from the ground.

Wobbling unsteadily on my feet, I reached for the bed frame for support. It took a moment until I recognised the chambers of the visitor's wing. These rooms were designed for visiting members of other realms and friends of the Asterion crown. Zohra had brought me to this wing instead of the cold and harsh dungeons, locking me up once again. I felt like a bird with clipped wings, kept in a gilded cage for a wicked puppeteer to command.

I sat down on the broad ledge, with newly placed metallic bars in front of the windows, and I looked up to the two moons; the sun illuminating them as the bright golden globe disappeared in the horizon.

Asterion was breathtaking. I missed my land and people in these two years I had been away. Northern Lands was my home now, but I had lived my entire life here. A part of my soul would always remain in this realm.

I wished I could have returned under other circumstances.

When I gazed outside, the colors were duller and at sundown the rain poured heavier than usual. It was like the forest and the magical creatures that roamed this realm wept with me. They felt my pain and the sacrifices I had made.

Having lived my entire life in between the walls of this castle, I had never been taken to the lower levels, living a protected life in the glass bubble of royalty. My parents hadn't taken many prisoners during their reign. This was a peaceful realm, and there was no need to rebel against the crown.

My intuition told me that the person who had orchestrated this had other plans for our peaceful community.

The pain in my back had been an omen of the return to the land where I was born. My wings had been slowly growing back, and as they hadn't been a fixture on my body during the time I spent in Northern Lands, something that should be painless was proving an excruciating experience now. The shift in weight on my body and the energy it took for them to sprout from my psyche left me unbalanced. I gnashed my teeth together to bite through the pain.

Zohra had my magic under control with her Penumbra critters, weaving an attenuator over my abilities, making the whole transition more difficult. It made it harder for me to concentrate on my surroundings and pick up clues to who was behind this.

The rattling sound of the lock on the door interrupted my trail of thoughts and I moved away from the window, seeking the shadow of the draperies that decorated the high bed frame. The sickly sweet scent of Zohra's dark magic alerted me of her presence in the room.

"Little princess." Her mocking voice drifted towards me and the goosebumps on my skin arose. "You need to get cleaned up."

With my back against the wall, crushing my growing fae wings, I didn't move as Zohra dropped a bag onto the duvet of the bed. I bit my tongue as the sharp sting hit my spine and held my breath as she sauntered back towards the door, the sound of the lock clicking back into place resounding as a macabre echo.