Arcane Rising: The Darkland Druids - Book One, R Nicole [suggested reading TXT] 📗

He walked around one of the display cases. “These are some of the things that were brought through the Darklands. Nwyfre steles, daggers, jewellery, crystals… All from the other Earth.”

I joined him and studied them all, wondering if there was some kind of biohazard risk bringing things from another planet. Maybe it didn’t matter considering they were the same place, just slightly different.

“Why are you showing me all of this?” I asked, looking up at him. “What does this have to do with what I did?”

“You’re descended from a family with a rich heritage, Elspeth. All of this is a part of who you are. You are entitled to it, just as much as anyone else.” He stepped closer. “I—” The library door opened with a loud creak, silencing him.

“There you two are,” Jaimie declared, lumbering across the room. “When you weren’t in the training room, I was worried you’d gone into the city.”

“Ach, I know I like to bend the rules, but not that far,” Rory complained. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” Jaimie replied. “Delilah is looking for you.” He turned to me and smiled. “And how are you getting along, eh? Graduated from flowers yet?”

“Well enough,” I told him. “I’m starting on illusions.”

He whistled and nudged Rory with his elbow. “Going hard, huh? Good for you.”

“Tell Delilah I’ll be along in a minute,” Rory said, his brow creasing.

“Right.” To me, he said, “Dinner?”

I grinned and nodded enthusiastically. “Same time, same place.”

Jaimie waved a big hand at us and sauntered away. His easy-going nature was infectious and some of my anxiety began to ease. I wouldn’t know what to do without those two Scottish rogues looking out for me.

My smile faded. Dissolve. That’s what I’d do…like I’d almost done in the training room.

“Rory?” I asked, glancing at the library door. I waited until Jaimie had closed it before I went on. “What did I do earlier?”

He bit his bottom lip. “You were… You were becoming essence.”

I frowned, my brow furrowing so deep I felt a headache coming on.

“You were transcending to another reality,” he added.

I stared at him, not quite grasping what he was saying. “I was Spirit Walking?”

“Yes and no…” He glanced around the library and pulled me into the alcove. “Elspeth, you were ascending.”

“Ascending?”

“If I hadn’t stopped you, you would have evolved.” He grasped my shoulders. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I swallowed hard, my mind trying to grasp notions that were far beyond what I knew.

Ascension meant to rise beyond the physical. To have one’s consciousness exist as pure energy. I got why he was so worried—if I broke free of my body, I might never come back to it.

I nodded, a knot of fear tangling in the pit of my stomach. I was concerned, too.

“I don’t understand it,” Rory murmured. “We have to be careful from now on, okay?”

“Okay,” I managed to choke out.

“It’ll be all right,” he said, pulling me in for a hug. “I’ll be there to help you.”

I trembled in his grasp, my eyes wide and unseeing as I began to realise the depths of why the Druids and the Chimera were fighting over me.

It wasn’t about being mixed blood. It was something more sinister.

Dead in darkness… What was I becoming?

* * *

Troubled by what I’d done, I skipped dinner and hid in my room.

I hadn’t bothered to unpack my suitcase, but I sat before it and took everything out, folded it, and put it all back again. Zipping up my packing cubes, I revelled in the organised neatness—the only thing I seemed to have control over.

How tragic.

Holding out my palm, I studied the creases—the heart line, the life line, and the fate line were the only ones I knew. I was unlucky enough to not have a fate line. What that meant was a mystery.

A faint spark of Colour bloomed where the crease was meant to be, and I closed my fingers with a sigh.

Finally bored of my own downward spiral, I went to bed at a cringeworthy early time of eight-thirty.

I dozed at first, my mind swirling with a thousand images, then I fell into a deep slumber.

I stood in the close where I last saw Owen. I knew it was a dream, but something about it felt more real than a vision created by my subconscious.

Rain fell in light bursts, swirling then clearing as the wind buffeted across the rooftops four stories above. The stone underfoot was slick and tinted green where it met the houses. Delicate moss clung everywhere the dirt had gathered, even in tiny holes in the cobbles, giving away how damp Edinburgh was year-round.

Elspeth.

I turned at the ragged whisper, the sound of my name clawing painfully down my spine.

“Who’s there?” I called, my dream voice echoing.

No one replied and I turned, crying out as I came face to face with Owen.

His face morphed between Fae and human as he sneered at me, his power palpable in the enclosed alley.

“They can’t hide you forever,” he sneered. “I’ll come for you when the time is right and nothing will stop me.” He held up a clawed hand and reached towards me.

I was frozen to the spot as the close shrank around us, pulling Owen closer.

Something wasn’t right. I blinked, trying to force my feet to move, but they wouldn’t budge. This didn’t feel like a dream anymore. The rain was cool against my skin, the scent of damp stone filled my nose, and the power of the Chimera made me sick to my stomach.

It was real.

Run, Elspeth. Run.

Colour bloomed inside me and I turned with a cry. I sprinted up the close, leaping up the stairs, propelled by the power Rory had taught me how to harness. I careened out onto the Royal Mile with Owen’s Dark presence on my heels and kept going.

The road was empty, the lack of human activity unsettling as I sprinted past St. Giles Cathedral.

“You can run, but I will catch you!” Owen shouted. “The Chimera will