No matter how much my mind fights against me, I have to be strong. I turn my head again and force myself to watch, wanting to know what is happening. As he swipes his arms back and forth across the corpse, the black mist crawls up his arms and over his shoulders. It winds around his torso and moves back across the table and into the corpse's chest. Kane's voice echoes through the entire room, words that I feel deep down are familiar but I do not recognize.
I watch in horror as the broken and swollen flesh on Drogaem's corpse begins to mend. The dark energy flows through his veins, growing his tissue back together, tightening his skin, reconnecting bones and healing wounds. It surges all around him, cracking and clicking, reforming the places where the flesh had completely gone away. The smell begins to lift, and in its place… I smell flowers. It's strange, like the lilies that used to grow in my father's garden. For such an evil man, that is not the smell I thought would come from him.
It takes a few moments but eventually his flesh and bones reattach and almost instantly his body begins to convulse. My eyes shift up to Kane, his eyes completely black, his face contorted. The words begin to slip from his lips as he too shakes violently. The dark mist swirls back up his body wrapping around his neck and surging over his chin. Kane's body jolts, his arms flying out to the side and his head tilting back. His mouth opens and I expect a scream, but instead, it is an inhuman sound, what I would imagine the death of a 1000 men would sound like all at once. It's so loud it hurts my ears and I clap my hands over them.
Suddenly his mouth closes, and the dark and damp space around us goes absolutely silent. The wind blows around me, extinguishing the candles that line the walls. The only light is the large torch behind me on the wall. The shadows dance wildly around as it flickers. I slowly sit up, straining my eyes to find Kane's body. Through the darkness, without warning, he leans forward, stopping just inches from my face. I freeze, my eyes wide, my heart barely beating in my chest. His face looks strained, his eyes completely black. His mouth hangs open as the dark mist swirls down his throat.
Tears gather in my eyes and I lift my hand to touch his face, but before I can, he falls to the ground. The body next to me begins to move, and I scoot back as far as I can without falling off the table. My body feels so weak, as if I've got nothing left inside of it. I reach back behind me and wrap my hand around the dagger, beginning to pull it from its sheath. I watch Drogaem’s corpse as it comes to life, his eyes opening wide, his mouth curling into a vicious grin. Slowly he sits up, running his hands over his face, and down into his long dark hair.
At this point, my entire body shakes with fear. He slowly turns his head toward me and I yank the dagger out, lifting it up over my head. Drogaem doesn't flinch. Bringing his other hand up, showing me the crown in his hand, he smiles. My mouth twists into dismay and I scream out as I prepare myself to plunge the knife deep into him. But before I can, he lifts the hand and touches a single finger to my chest. I freeze, the dagger falling to the ground and bouncing off into the darkness. I'm able to look down just enough to see the trail of dark mist come from his crown and into my body. Our souls are intertwined, I feel the cold rush up over me and I only see one last thing before everything returns to darkness.
It's Kane, and he's still alive.
* * *
The wind whips across my face but I don't know where I am. I feel as if I'm soaring through the air, but everything is dark around me. I hear voices, they grow louder. All around me light begins to spark faster and faster until it connects and swirls around me. Flashes of images move through the air, so fast I can barely focus on it before it's gone again. They speed up, until they begin to flow into one another, a moving picture in front of me. I tilt my head and watch, seeing Drogaem, as if I am Lux looking up at him from the tomb floor.
Blood runs down his shoulder and over his arm, and he laughs wildly. The sound reverberates through my head and I cover my ears, closing my eyes tightly. When I open them again, I'm no longer in the darkness, no longer soaring through the air. I stand in a room, a room in the Castle looking around one of the beautiful dining halls. I hear laughter to my right and I shift my gaze, watching a beautiful blond headed woman, her skin sparkling, walking with a vampire arm in arm. They both look at me and smile sweetly.
I turn, catching a vision of myself in the large mirror hanging on the wall. But it's not me, it's Lux. The vision changes and I find myself standing outside of the castle, rolling magical light in my hands, tossing them into the air. I feel someone come up behind me and lips press to my neck. I have no control over this body. I'm living through Lux in this moment. I'm living in her memories. I turn with a smile laughing, finding a young Drogaem standing there. I reach up and touch his cheek and bat my eyelashes.
The scene changes again, and I stand outside of Drogaem's chambers, listening to him speak to someone in low hushed tones. "I will tell her. She loves me.
