Crowned - 13 | A Drain Chain

 

CHAPTER 13

“Do you mind?” Kaeo snapped.

“Yes!” Elvira snapped back, scowling, “Death does not solve anything. Death is cowardly and a means of escape. Let him live,” Elvira spat, “He’ll live with his scars, right here, with his collection of oddities, wondering every day if today would be any better!”

“Well said, child,” the throned Count agreed. “This lad here began poisoning me as soon as he was out of school because I had planned to leave my title and estate to a better successor.”

Countess merely clenched her eyes close and looked away.

“Pfft—I st-til lilived as nobility, y-you will be nothing m-more than a c-curse.” Helif stuttered.

Elvira kicked him in the face and attained a sense of peace.

Kaeo hated that he enjoyed the way Helif rolled after Elvira’s blow. His head hit the elevated platform’s edge and he passed out. The magic circle disappeared from Kaeo’s knuckles and left behind a bloody sight. He would have to ask Kairo to heal him, considering someone else was siphoning the majority of his power so that ancient dead folks could punish their children. 

He walked away, scowling.

“Elvira.”

The girl looked up and smiled at Clary’s acknowledgement.

“I’m glad that you’re okay.”

“Elvira.” Clary repeated, stepping closer.

Elvira frowned as she realised that Clary’s eyes had changed into a murky grey, similar to how Kaeo’s eyes had changed to a deep amethyst.

“Clary, are feeling better now?” Elvira asked. She turned to face Yuna and Lira but, suddenly, she felt Clary grab her waist and pull her in a hug.

“I—thank you, I just wanted to say that.” She sounded so much like the Clary Elvira used to know. Though, there was something foreign in this new Clary’s touch. Something consuming.

“Elvira.”

The girl looked up and found the Count and Countess staring hungrily at her.

“So, that is what your name is. El. Vi. Ra.”

The Count enunciated as he got off his chair and stepped down. Clary did not let go of her as the old Count kneeled in front of her and held out a hand.

“May I?” he asked.

Elvira wanted to step back but his beady eyes rendered her stiff and immobile.

“Allow me,” the Countess said, suddenly appearing in front of Elvira. She grabbed a hold of her hand and placed it over her husband’s palm. 

Elvira felt lightheaded. She was surrounded by dead people, she realised, stuck in a siphoning hand-sandwich.

The Countess did not let go as her husband pulled Elvira’s hand to place a kiss.

Whispers birthed around the hall.

Elvira caught the scandalised gazes of Yuna and Lira.

Her world felt blurry.

She wanted to get rid of them. Their touch clawed at her skin. Jitters ran over her body. Her feet felt cold and her palms turned clammy.

She wanted to take a step back but she couldn’t.

She felt dizzy.

And suddenly, darkness consumed her.

. . .

“Elvi, wake up, it’s time for papa and I to leave.”

Her eyes fluttered open, reluctantly. A heaviness levied them, hindering her comprehension. Yet, she could recognise the bright yellow and blue accented walls even with the faintest of glimpses.

“Don’t go anywhere, don’t invite anyone inside, you know the rules.”

Elvira got up and held her throbbing head in her hands. The heaviness wanted to weigh it down until her forehead was on the ground, yet, Elvira persisted and stood up. Her room was a mess of chrysanthemums, crumpled pages and pencil shavings. She walked past her desk, over which a paper fluttered owing to the open window behind her. There were only two sentences on the page and they were titled, ‘An Obituary.’

She dragged her feet out of her room and into an unending hallway. It was tinged an unappetizing blue, a hue of gloom with a depth of silence.

Instead of seeing her parents’ back, it was Zinna who was standing at the end of the long hallway.

Elvira gasped as she held out a hand, in order to run and reach her. But, every step she took, the hallway seemed to be pushing her farther away. The distance between them kept growing and suddenly, Zinna turned.

Her warm brown eyes glowed scarlet.

Her mouth opened into an ear-piercing scream and threads of darkness connected her jaws.

“Zi-zinnie…”

The walls of Elvira’s house disappeared. Suddenly, they were in an open field. The wind whipped past them. Predatory birds shrieked overhead.

Elvira lost her balance, terrified out of her wits. She fell over a bump in the ground. Slowly, she turned to see what she fell on. It was a grave with the epitaph reading: Here lies, the boy you killed.

The winds carried his voice. A plea. A call. A message. A warning.

Horror blinded Elvira and birthed a screech out of her. Her body shivered violently until a jade magic circle appeared over her head and pulled her out of the haze.

Once again, Elvira opened her eyes. This time, instead of her childhood home, she was in the confines of Kaeo’s living chamber. Her ears rang and her head throbbed to her heart’s beating.

Kairo was sitting by her side and his mouth seemed to be moving but Elvira couldn’t grasp a word.

In a deafened haze, Elvira turned her head. Beside her laid Kaeo, passed out or dead to the world. She did not know.

She knew nothing anymore.

Nothing made sense.

Where was she?

Who was she?

What was she?

What happened to Kaeo, Clary, the Count and the Countess?

What happened to her?

“Elvi…are you okay? Are you feeling better now?”

Her ears caught sound again. Like a flabbergasted chick out of an egg, Elvira faced Kairo.

“You passed out at the Count’s Estate. I think I have figured it out, a part of your magic. I know it is still a theory but, hear me out. Your magic, it reincarnates at its own will, right? I don’t know how or why but what I know is that, when you bring back someone with a lower power level than yours, they seem to siphon the magic out of you. Considering they need an immense stock to sustain in the living realm. You are their anchor, so of course they will drain from you! But, if you bring back someone with a higher power level than yours, you get to feed off their power! Like Kaeo, you made him your anchor—well, now four people are draining his power, BUT, we got to know something new!” Kairo ranted like an excited child.

Elvira tried to sit up but failed.

“Don’t get up, you should rest and eat. You cannot keep siphoning off Kae,” Kairo said and picked up a plate full of fruits from the bedside table. Observing Elvira’s guilty look, he elaborated, “Don’t feel guilty though, even with four people draining him, he’ll live. Because, in actuality, he is draining from whatever your magic source is.”

“It’s a drain chain,” Elvira croaked out.

“Yeah, but don’t worry, I will do more research in time.” He passed her the fresh fruits.

“What about everyone else?”

“The other not-so-dead people? They’re back at the Estate. If you want to keep them alive then you should stabilize Kaeo’s power first. Marry him and half of this will be solved instantly.”

Elvira scowled at Kairo’s straight face. “What’s a marriage going to do?” she spat and instantly regretted it she felt the muscles in her stomach pull.

“Everything!” Kairo replied, ecstatic, “We did not know you were alive or where your body went but Kaeo said that he could feel you. He insisted that all the random pain he felt was a share of yours. Then, on the day you used your magic, Kaeo got glimpses of the burning estate and I was able to come and get you. If you marry him, this one-sided bond will merge when you Stars align. You have a shadow star and he has a noon star so I believe that it will help solve a lot of problems.”

“You…believe?”

“Well, it would be strange if I had experience, right?”

Elvira did not have the energy to scoff at Kairo’s snarky retort.

“Why did you take so long…when your father trapped you in the dark illusion realm, what happened?”

Kairo’s face hardened and she felt a shift in the air around them. He stood up and took a step back, “Consider my words, I have priorities as well. Remember, I am your friend, Elvira, not theirs. If they begin to take a toll on my brother, I will not hesitate.”

Elvira clenched her jaw. Her gaze hardened as she nodded.

This.

This was a testament of how less she knew about them.

Kairo walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Elvira held her head again, spiralling.

“I managed to escape the Count and somehow, I’m trapped again, this time by familiar faces. It’s like childhood all over again.”