-Taken-

Lilak had never trusted Drew Thorne, lineal or not. And the anger she felt now was a smoldering volcano just waiting for its next victim—that infernal man and his harebrained scheme to willingly walk into the dark ones domain.

And with her son.

Beside the spear on her back, she kept a mace at her side, a token from her academy days. Unlike most poor souls who lived trapped in the dying embers of Whisten, almost ruins themselves, Lilak’s parents had scraped together enough coin for her to receive the elite training.

She hadn’t needed to come back to the outskirts of civilization, but Lilak had always been plagued by a blasted sense of duty. She couldn’t leave the people she’d grown up with to languish and continue to dwindle into oblivion while she married some handsome academy man and lived in the golden towers of Deporta.

Alic. The boy was just like his father. Curious about things he shouldn’t be. Eager to learn about the dark ones with unholy eyes instead of fearing them like every other sensible person.

And Thorne. It pained her to admit it, but Drew reminded her of Warlan more and more each day. His dark hair bordering on unruly, the darkest, calmest blue eyes she’d ever seen.

But Warlan had been missing for seven years. Alic didn’t even remember his father. Lilak desperately wished at times she could forget.

But that’s how love worked. It seeped into your bones and clung there, full of perfect trust and confidence in things you couldn’t see.

Lilak would never stop searching the horizon where the Ruins broke the perfect seam of sky, waiting for Warlan to come back, sword on his back, long wavy hair framing his face, smiling creases around his eyes from grinning too much, unabashed to revel in happiness and joy,even when the world was full of so much darkness.

He was her light.

And Alic was all she had left to remember him by.

I’ll kill that Drew Thorne when I get my hands on him…. If anything happens to Alic—

Lilak shifted from a jog to a sprint, her body unfazed by the harsh pace. She’d taken up running to keep the memories from catching up to her these past seven years. Her heart still ached, but her body had grown lean and strong, prepared to weather Whisten. Strong enough to lead her people, people she fiercely loved, even if they were as coarse as her emotions.

The stars were diamonds above her head, the tree branches many arms interlinking, like a community tied together with sap and blood.

And Drew Thorne had taken her baby into the Ruins. A place Lilak swore she would never go again after Warlan had entered them and never returned.

No one entered the haunted space. No one had wanted to.

Until Alic saw those alien eyes, horrible blue orbs like fallen stars, full of fierce and strange intelligence, knowing. Eyes that had seen more than their fair share. Eyes that didn’t die.

And instead of reeling back in horror like Lilak had done many summers before, Alic had been intensely curious ever since. Determined to see them, like the abominations had corrupted his mind, seeped into his desires.

Apparently they had corrupted the new lineal as well, warping the two as badly as the battered and broken remnants of some city from another time—the Ruins.

She ran silently, light on her feet, her breathing just as quiet as the slight wind that caressed the trees. Her mace, tucked firmly at her side, remained quiet. All was still as she hunted.

But when she reached the cursed tree line and nature fell away to destruction and the splayed corpses of buildings, she dropped to her knees in horror, a terror that rattled through her heart and tightened her rib cage.

I can’t do this.

Memories from seven years before came flooding back like the starlight filling the shattered structures, illuminating their insides, their gaping holes and dark, open entrances.

Eyes closed, she saw the eyes, so many pairs of eyes, beaming like spotlights, closing in on her, reaching for Alic, for Warlan…

Hand to her mace. A deep breath. Eyes open. She tucked a dark piece of hair back into her elaborate braids and stood, straightening, forcing herself to take a step forward.

The paralyzing, living fear wouldn’t take another person from her tonight. Warlan was gone, but Alic was still in here, with those things.

Scanning the buildings, ignoring the feeling of nausea creeping up through her gut, Lilak looked for a glimpse of movement, a glimmer of ruby light—anything. Anything that would indicate where her son was.

As she looked, she unconsciously shifted to a fighting stance, one hand on the shaft of her mace, ready to withdraw… there. A ruby glimmer, peeking between two tall buildings that leaned into each other like confidants.

Thorne.

She’d come too late. They were already climbing through the body of the broken city, going into the heart, completely exposed to the dark ones. To the icy eyes.

Another deep breath. The grief was pacing in the shadows of the buildings, threatening to rush toward her, cut her down, an easy opponent.

Warlan…

He had been brave. The dark ones roaming these broken frames hadn’t stopped him from wanting to make a better life for their people. It was impossible for her to forget his confident, excited musings on how Whisten could grow to become one of the most prosperous cities in Ealias with the potential knowledge and wealth hidden in the Ruins.

If they understood the beings, didn’t fear them, perhaps even worked in harmony with them, people would no longer go hungry, farming only the land untouched by the Ruins’ shadows. Wouldn’t be afraid to have children, families. Friends.

Warlan had been Whisten’s future, and when he’d been swallowed into the Ruins, the settlement’s fate was devoured alongside him. Lilak had been around to pick up the pieces, but it was hard to repair a broken people when she herself was far from whole.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

It was time to be brave like Warlan. Lilak plunged after the lineal and her son, focused on reaching them and ripping all of them out of this nightmare before the shadows came to life and looked down on them with wide, unblinking eyes.

Wind whistled through the broken windows, caused ripped fabric to rustle, gently swung half-open doors from side to side. Her skin felt plunged in ice water, even though it was still several months from the snowy winter.

And though her eyes remained trained on the dark forms of Drew and Alic, her ears were desperately sifting through the background noises, listening for footsteps, breathing, any sounds that didn’t belong in the graveyard she was treading through, unwelcome.

Every moment she got closer. She could have called out to Alic, demanded he come back to the safety of Whisten with her, but if there were dark ones lurking in the ruined homes and buildings she didn’t want to divulge their presence.

There was also a part of her, the helpless romantic, that desperately wanted to search for her husband. She’d lived in the shadow of fear for too many years. Could he have survived, lost somewhere in this maze of broken structures and wild nature?

But he would have done whatever it took to come back to her and Alic.

Suddenly, the lineal stopped, holding up his hand to warn Alic of something Lilak couldn’t see. The two conversed in low tones, too quiet for her to know what was said. Alic stiffened, and although his back was to her, Lilak knew her son’s eyes were wide.

Had they ran into the beings that roamed these parts? Lilak frantically looked for the bright eyes. Nothing. Nothing but the faint glow coming off of Drew’s ruby armor. She watched, stunned, as the lineal’s fingertips lit up with the man’s unnatural Orenda, Orenda which then fell over her son. She almost lunged forward, about to draw her mace, when the ruby light became similar armor, encasing Alic.

The lineal was worried. At least he was doing what he could to protect Alic, although Lilak would still wring his neck for taking her son out into the Ruins when they were safely back in the settlement.

Those in Deporta might revere their lineal, but out in Whisten the title held no fondness. Previous lineals had abandoned the settlements, too focused on empowering Deporta and building towers of glass stretching into the skies like they were some kind of divine being.

The people of Whisten knew the truth. Lineals were no different from anyone else. Just people who were in the right place at the right time, chosen to lead more on circumstance than on skill or ability.

This Drew was probably the same, although it bothered Lilak that the man had been so quick to come to Whisten personally and investigate the disturbances. Her people thought the weivers were growing stronger or encroaching on their settlement, but Lilak knew differently.

They were worried about the wrong creatures. But her abhorrence and fear of the Ruins had rubbed off on the people she tried to guide and serve. Curiosity fed by people like Warlan had changed to single-minded decisiveness—the Ruins brought nothing but ruin.

Lilak still couldn’t see any sight of the dark ones, but she removed her mace regardless, slowly circling, studying the houses around her. She was in the middle of a dirt street between the rows of houses. As she studied the houses, looking for eyes, she started to begrudgingly notice that these buildings were unlike structures she’d seen elsewhere in Ealias. Even Deporta, who could afford to build with more than just wood and timber, didn’t build places like these. The craftsmanship was stunning, such intricate details in things that didn’t matter. The door would have functioned the same without the carvings and the paint that still glimmered even though it was clearly being overtaken by the elements, but whoever had built this city had cared about more than the functionality of these rows of houses.

She was studying the second story of one of these strange houses when she caught a glint of blue out of the corner of her eye.

She whirled, the mace swinging viciously.

Nothing was there. The dirt path was empty. Alic and Drew were still talking as they slowly walked toward a massive structure in the middle of this forgotten city. It reminded her of the towers in Deporta. Did Drew know something about that tower? He seemed to recognize the structure and was clearly making his way over to it. Alic was following behind, unconsciously imitating the lineal—his mannerisms, the way he strode through the darkness, the way he held himself.

Lilak felt her heart clench. Alic should have been able to imitate Warlan. The usual ache was stronger here, in the very place where he’d vanished from their settlement and her life.

And I wondered why I never came to look for him… I can’t bear the absence I feel here. Like whole families once lived here in this forsaken place. Lightstruck Warlan, why did you have to be so optimistic?

She blinked back a tear in surprise. She thought she’d gotten past the outward manifestations of sorrow, loss. Someone had to be strong for Whisten. For Alic. For Lilak.

When the pair reached the tower they stopped once more, giving Lilak a chance to return to her examination of the building with the blue glint. Her knuckles turned white from gripping the handle of her mace so hard. Her teeth were clenched together, and her whole body struggled to stay still.

Something was out here, with them, right now. She could feel it, deep in her bones, in the balls of her feet.

And that blue glint could only be one thing.

The fear rose up like a tidal wave, and Lilak started walking toward Drew and Alic, her head on a constant swivel.

Glancing at one of the houses in front of her, she saw another glint in the broken glass of a large window on the ground story. But looking behind her, she still saw nothing. No large blue eyes hovering in the black.

Her walk became a jog. She would have to pass between two broken buildings to get to the next dirt path. A couple hundred feet from her son. So close. But walking in the abandoned houses’ joint shadow—

If Alic and Warlan could fearlessly tread this broken land, Lilak could too.

Pushing her shoulders back, she kept the mace in her hand, gripped so tightly she was afraid she’d break the wooden handle. She stepped up out of the large dirt path onto some kind of smooth stone and then into the wild, shin-high grasses growing up to the sides of the houses in all directions.

But before she walked between the two buildings she looked behind one more time. The wind had somehow shifted from a soft breeze to a harsh slap across her cheeks. The broken door across the street was hitting against the wall like drum beats, or her electrified heart.

She didn’t see any eyes, and let loose the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding before taking a step forward into the darkness.

Darkness punctured by a pair of icy-blue eyes the size of saucers. They seemed close enough to touch, and they were well above her eye level. Lilak had never considered herself a short woman, but the thing gazing down on her dwarfed her.

This close she could make out basic features. Broad shoulders with muscular arms and long, powerful legs. The being must have been clad all in black, because she couldn’t make out more than an outline. Her knees threatened to give out, and she forgot about the mace. Forgot to breathe. Forgot even about Alic.

Turning impossibly fast, she dropped her prized weapon and tore back the way she had came, fear and adrenaline giving her already quick pace even more speed. Anything to put distance between herself and that… thing.

She was almost back to the tree line when she remembered Alic and fought to retain her meager dinner.

He was still out there, with that horrible creature.

Lilak turned and ran back, careful to keep to the shadows as much as possible, taking a different route back to the tower, which was easy to pick out from the other buildings.

She slowed as the tower grew taller and more intimidating until all she could see was the hulking structure, half eaten by plants and vines competing for space.

Alic and Drew had vanished. She frantically ran around the entire tower, straining for any glimpse of ruby light. No light. Nothing but stars. Stars, and two large blue orbs in the shadows of a house near the tower. Orbs that loomed over her, peering through her eyes into her very soul, taunting her, teasing her. The icy color froze the blood in her veins, and she fought to yell, to cry out for help.

But no one would answer her call.

Lilak’s body turned to stone, betraying her.

Alic and Drew were gone.