Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) (29 page)

We were lifted off the ground slowly, gaining more speed the higher he went. It didn't take long until we were dropping off the edge and getting more air to soar towards the building. The closer we got to it, the more I realized it wasn't just a building, but almost an entire town sitting in
midair
.

I let out a small whimper at some point, feeling myself sliding around on the back of the dragon. Talon held me still, but I stared down at the ground, watching as it grew smaller and farther away from me. My entire body was shaking with fear, and it took all I had not to start shrieking and panicking. I just wanted off, to be on the ground again. That'd be so nice, to have ground under my feet.

"Raine… You've got to get off now." I heard the faint muttering of Talon snapping me out of my panicked state.

Looking over I noticed we were on a platform now. It looked like normal ground at first glance, but ground was down there right? So what did that make this exactly? Slowly I slid off of the dragon, and to my amazement watched as it turned into a boy about my age, with long silver hair and bright glowing, yellow eyes.

I could feel my mouth falling open, but I didn't care. How did that thing turn into a boy? Much less someone around that age? He didn't seem like a dragon, or someone who could turn into one. I had too many questions flying through my head, and couldn't find the words to start any of them.

"Hello. I'm Ryu." He said in a flat tone, his lips pulled back slowly into a small smile. "Didn't mean to give you a scare, I'm one of the Fire Region's Guardian's."

"N-Nice to meet you, I'm Raine." I muttered to him, staring at him still. I still couldn't comprehend what I'd just seen. Though, it made more sense to me with him being from the Fire region.

"Raine, you're going to need to go meet with the King and Queen with your brother, we're going to get situated here and figure things out." Eyloff started, going completely off subject. "You'll be escorted by Trent and Kailen to the King and Queen; oh their names are King Joshua and Queen Lily."

I began to nod my head slowly, walking over towards Tom. I let him do the talking from
there;
he spoke briefly to everyone and then turned to lead me to the doors with him. He looked about as confused as I felt at that
moment;
I didn't understand half of what was going on, or where we were supposed to go.

"Do you know what we're to do?" I looked up at him, hoping he did.

"Don't even ask, I guess we wait?" He mumbled to me, looking down and offering me a small smile.

"Guess we wait."

We didn't have to wait there too long
though;
we were there for maybe five minutes before a tall, thin looking man walked out. He had the darkest eyes I'd ever seen, but they almost looked like they had been molded onto his body. His face was sharp but not too sharp looking. His lips were a thin line across his
face;
his jaw was set perfectly and not too square, cheek bones not too high or too low.

His hair clung around his
face;
it was shaggy but looked amazing on him. It was hanging in his eyes a little bit and curling around his ears that I hadn't noticed till then were pointed. His black hair ended at his shoulders and started to hang forward a little. When I finally looked back to his face he was smiling slowly at us, and then he bowed quickly.

"Forgive me for taking so long, Trent had to finish a duel, he will be here any moment as well." He began to us, his voice sounded like some sort of beautiful melody hanging in the air. I figured that all this was what made him so lethal, he lured you in and then he killed. "My name is Kailen."

"Not to be rude but uh..." Tom started to say, cleared his throat and got a confused look on his face as he looked to Kailen. "What are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry for not formally speaking." Kailen smiled at Tom, it was more of an apologetic smile. "I am a Fey of the Ice Region; I came here with Vallah. If we were to give you our full names you'd have power over us completely."

"I see, well then Kai - You don't mind if I call you Kai do you?" Tom asked him again.

"No not at all."

"Well Kai, I've never met a Fey. Nice to meet one finally." He told Kailen, smiling a little himself.

Kailen smiled at him in reply to that, before he began to fix the Knight's outfit he wore. Then his eyes slowly worked their way over to my own and sat there, he looked at me for a long moment before he spoke finally. "You're Raine I do believe? Piece of advice for you both, do not tell Vallah or me your middle names as well, ever. Or we can control you, it's a fey thing."

"I'll keep it in mind." I said slowly to him, staring at him with an almost wide-eyed childlike stare. "Is that
glamour
or normal skin going there?"

"Normal, you know about glamour?" He asked me, slowly cocking his head to the side like a bird would.

"A
little, I
read about it." I started to laugh nervously, and then looked anywhere but at him.

"I see." He spoke in a bemused voice, then turned his head and looked back at the doors where he'd come in. There was a boy walking towards us, his black wings literally vanished from his body as if they weren't real the closer he got, and he shook his head of white blonde hair making some sweat shake out of it. "Glad to see you finally, Trent."

"Sorry, Rhy's insisted we fight." He frowned at Kai,
and then
looked from me to Tom smiling in a strange way. "Right, follow me."

I stepped after him quickly once he started walking, not caring to hesitate a moment longer. Tom briskly followed beside me, and all four of us stayed silent as we walked down the halls of this new palace… one I could've done without going to.

This place was different from where we'd just come from, the walls were just glass, the floor was made of glass too, and it was almost like the building wasn't even there. I tried my hardest to ignore all of it, and just followed where they went, but every now and then I caught glimpses of the ground below, and sent myself into a panic for a few seconds.

We walked into the new room without even waiting for permission. The King and Queen sat on their
thrones
, looking straight at us. Bright blinding white wing's sat upon their backs and they had a strange unearthly glow to them. They looked like a mirage to me, more than they looked like real people.

The King turned his head to look over at his Queen for a long moment,
and then
nodded his head at her. She raised her hand and looked at us smiling slowly but sadly, as if she wished we weren't really here. "The Chosen, so glad you've made it this far, but so sad to see you're really in our world." She began to tell us, looking from him to me and back again.

"The God's have already started their destruction, four of the six regions' no longer exist, and we are next. We've had your Guardian's meet the other
ones
, we've gathered them all here with you. Kailen and Trent will be staying with you when it happens, and possibly Trent's little sister Kerli, just to make sure you're that much safer." She frowned deeply now, as she looked directly at me for some reason. "Dear, you must know, most of us will not live to see another day."

"I understand." I told her, looking her straight in the eyes. Her gaze then turned from me to that of Tom's.

"I understand as well." He spoke to her, nodding his head.

"Very well, I want you to follow Kailen down to the room we had secured off, we're going to move all the guardian's in with you, and we have sectioned them off already so that half go with you my dear, and half with you boy." She finished up what she had to tell us,
and then
the King sat up straighter next to her as if to speak.

Tom nodded his head quickly and then both of us were pulled out of the room by Kailen and Trent. They guided us out towards a hall, we made our way down it for a long time until we finally came to the doors that we needed to find.

They started to slide the doors open, it took a lot of effort and I was amazed by the strength the two of them possessed. When the door was finally fully open I didn't expect to see what was inside.

*
**
**

The room was full to the brim with people. So many people that I couldn't even think of where to begin with them. I guess it never dawned on me how many guardians' we would really have in the end, between the two of us. How many people it was going to be that followed them as well, because they couldn't let them go alone…

We walked in as slowly as we both could looking around, Kailen began to pull the door shut tightly on his own, until it clicked behind us. Once he was satisfied with it he went ahead of us and stood with the
others
, Tom and I stared at the group in awe for a long time. I couldn't believe how many people were planning to stay with us, to fight with us.

"They said to pair off as soon as they're here." Eyloff announced in his agitated voice, killing the silence within the room quickly. He stepped forward and started to look around at the group of people. "What are you waiting for?"

With that, everyone started to move around. Dolphus was over to me before Eyloff could even get another word out, beaming down at me brightly as always. Fang and Nixon came over as well then Kailen and Trent, the dragon from earlier today showed up as well. Then there were tons of others that I'd never seen before, and I was scared to know who had ended up over with me as well.

When they were all done there were people still left over standing still. We looked at them,
and then
Talon let out a sigh from behind Tom, rolling his eyes a little bit at what was going on. "Pair off too."

Just like that, they did and in the end the total of people we had each was completely insane. I wasn't sure what it meant, or what was going to happen, but I noticed that Tom's group had
begun
to move to the other side of the room and
ours
stood still where we all were.

I accepted it, and waited to see what was going to happen next. Dolphus stepped forward slowly beaming at me from ear to ear still. He cleared his throat almost a second later and began to speak to me, looking around a little as he did. "I'm sure you want introductions?"

"Of course."

"Very well then!" He said to me, in his happy voice. I rolled my eyes a little and smiled at him. "We're gonna name off who you know too so everyone knows each other here."

Staying silent, I watched as Dolphus carelessly walked into the group of us holding up a hand and gaining the
attention
of every last one of them. He proceeded to point randomly at people and started naming off names and regions that each of them had come from, trying to let me have a moment to remember anyone who was new. "That's Nixon Lane, Dhampire, Dark Region, one of the youngest Guardian's to step foot into this mess."