The Song of Thyssia: Special Edition: The Thyssian Archipelago by S.J. Stiles

Author:S.J. Stiles [Stiles, S.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

Oxana

Oxana trembled as the hall of judgment billowed with fervor. Her vision blurred as those that hurried around her passed in streaks of gold and green. Shouts cried out between the squabbling regents, but their words jumbled into shapeless heaps in her ears.

Haydrian was always behind her eyes. Haydrian’s voice was in a serpent’s hiss behind every syllable. His words compelled her from consciousness and daylight, from the surface of her world.

Deeper into the maze of her mind, she stumbled through the chaos of her thoughts, pleading for freedom, for someone to listen.

The sound of Haydrian’s voice created a swirling sensation, a whirlpool that spread feverishly across her skin. In a muddied wash of water, her reflection was forever unclear and inconsistent in the rippling current.

Even in her own mind, she did not trust herself.

Oxana’s existence, as she knew it, had her trapped beneath a lake-like surface where she watched life through the crashing tide–a window within the cell of her mind.

Golden veins of sunlight pierced through just enough to keep the darkness of the deep at bay but not to free her from his grip.

Try as she might, no magic or healing could break through the barrier.

She watched the movements of their realm trapped within the corners of her mind, a golden fractal of a window into the world to which she had once belonged.

When her lungs felt like bursting and she could not bear the darkness, the gods brought her air.

Air came as raven, tousled hair and the gentle touch of his hands. Romulus always lifted her above the surface of her nightmare. His voice silenced the words that tormented and cornered her spirit.

It was always his smile that told her she was awake, no voices or darkness.

There were so many things she needed to tell him–to warn Romulus, to warn everyone–but each time she came up from the deep, all those things were gone.

She was vanished beneath the boundary that remained behind her eyes.

She loved him.

She clung to that, to the tether that kept him close to her. The love that held her to the truth. That was all she knew when Romulus’ touch came to steady her.

She reached for Romulus, for the sound of his voice that protected her from Haydrian’s whispers. His cruel words always waited for her to return to the darkness of his labyrinth, welcoming her to the deep.

Each time she remembered herself, she saw Haydrian lingering below like a monster, ready to drag her back to the depths of her mental prison.

As she drifted down again, the teeth of his voice sank into her skin, followed by the delusion that suppressed all hope of escape. She was drowning her in despair.

But this time was different. As the tide of his power rose to claim her, something shifted.

Blinding, searing golden light pierced through the surface above her.

He was in pain.

Someone wounded him.

As Oxana sunk within his grip, she felt his pain. An image flashed through her mind, a golden blade cut through the waves above her.

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