Trial by Obsidian by Naomi Kelly

Author:Naomi Kelly [Kelly, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-12T16:00:00+00:00

Eleven

The lavender soap from my bath made drifting off to sleep easy. I dreamt of the Harvest Festival, except this time instead of trying to escape I was welcomed. I wore a floor length dress, that was deep crimson in colour and draped beautifully from my hips. Large crowds separated as I approached to reveal Reuben standing in the town square in a ceremonial Chambers uniform. I knew all eyes were on us, but I could only see him, and his outstretched hand that awaited me.

He wrapped his arm around me and held me close. There was no music or words, but we began dancing in sync, moving fluidly throughout the square and into every corner.

Reuben held my hand as I pirouetted under his arm span. My dress kicked out and unfurled into a twirling circle of fabric. I kept spinning until the people around me were a blur from motion and excitement. When both feet finally stopped twisting, I cleared the loose tendrils of hair that had freed themselves from my pinned back curls to see the crowds had vanished.

Reuben was gone.

The town square was now void of ruby bunting and feast tables. Instead, it draped in black bows and was littered with grey candles. Music had been replaced with the heavy silence of mourning.

I spun again but with less grace and more panic, only to find black threads woven around my ankles. I delicately untangled one of the threads and noticed it trailed across the square. I began to follow its path and before long I recognised where it was bringing me.

As I got closer to Teriam's cottage the thin thread in my hands began to glow with a dark tinge that seemed somewhat familiar. It had the same inky shade as the magic energy from the Onyx magicians who were trying to escape the wrath of Karnes and Douward.

The images before me were not from my mind anymore.

They were from Reuben's.

I dropped the power thread and took off running the rest of the path. I made it to his cottage, but I couldn't open the front door. I stomped the ground in anger as I remembered I couldn't invade his memories. I could only observe. Frustrated, I made my way to an ajar window to see the Alpha and his wife in the depths of a heated argument.

"Would you rather he perished with the rest of those rats?" Karnes spat and threw his hands in the air. A younger looking Mara flinched from his frantic movements.

"Stop saying rats, you're beginning to sound like Douward," she sighed and sat down on a stool, "And don't talk like that in front of him."

"He's asleep," Karnes said running his hand through hair that was more golden than the grey of today, "He hasn't been awake all morning."

"I think he's only pretending," Mara spoke with a maternal gentleness, "Isn't that right Aspen?"

Across the room, curled up on a thin sofa lay young Aspen Onyx in the same charcoal singed clothes as when Karnes and Douward had found him.

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