Dorian Wraith's Arc

Chapter 13 of 27

Dorian slept unclothed under a thin blanket in the cabin loft. The dream took him fast. He saw a stone stair inside the black castle. He saw the winged fairy with pink hair carrying Evander up it. He saw guards flood the landing. He saw the king step forward with a long sword and drive it through the fairy's chest. He saw the pink wings fold. He saw Evander drop to his knees. Dorian gasped awake, sweat on his back, heart pounding. The room was empty. Callie was not in her cot. Dorian swung his legs down and grabbed the pink and yellow grimoire from the floor. He climbed out the loft window bare and dropped into the grass behind the sunflowers by the blue door. He opened the book on his knees and flipped past ward diagrams until he found the teleport page. The words were short. The cost was steep. He read them once, pressed his palm to the page, and thought of Evander's face on the road when the king took him. Yellow light burst around his hands and swallowed him. He landed hard in a village lane, knees in dirt, book against his chest. A woman screamed and covered her eyes. He stumbled up and ran to a laundry cart at the corner. He pulled a long gray robe off the pile and shoved his arms through it. The wool scratched. He tied the belt and kept the book under one arm. The black castle stood on the plain past the last house, its obsidian walls dull in the morning sun. He started walking, then running. Halfway across the field the gates opened. A cart rolled out first, then riders. Dorian dropped flat behind a low stone wall. He watched the king ride in the middle of the column on a black horse. Behind the horse, two soldiers dragged Evander by the arms. His blonde hair was matted. His blue tunic was gone and his bare chest was bruised. He was walking. He was alive. Dorian's chest cracked open with it. He looked for pink wings in the column. He looked at the cart. He looked at every saddle. There was no fairy. There was no body. There was nothing of the mentor who had trained him for a year. Then he looked in the gate and saw it. A bird cage with a shrunken Beak in it. Dorian pressed his forehead to the stone and breathed once. Then he lifted his head. The column was turning south, away from him, Evander walking in the middle of it. Dorian tightened the belt of the stolen robe and moved along the wall, keeping low, keeping the king's back in sight. He would not cast again until he was close enough to touch him. He had come to save two. He would not leave unless both Evander and Beak came with him .