CHAPTER 176: THE TRANCE II

Kael

I came out of the trance gasping for air, my lungs burning like I’d been drowning. My eyes felt strange, different somehow, and when I blinked, everything looked tinted red. The world spun around me, and I fell to my knees on the stone terrace, completely out of breath.

"Kael!" Charis’s voice cut through the haze in my mind.

She came running out of the house, with Slater and Rhett right behind her. The moment I saw her, something inside me broke. I grabbed her shoulders and buried my face against her arms, gasping and shaking.

"What happened?" Charis demanded, looking between me and Isolde. "What did you do to him?"

Isolde looked genuinely confused. "We were just talking, and I touched his shoulder. Then he seemed to get lost for a moment and suddenly started gasping for air like this."

Slater knelt beside me, his face worried. "Kael, can you walk?"

I nodded, though my legs felt weak and unsteady. With Slater and Rhett’s help, I managed to stand and let them guide me into the house and up to my room.

They settled me on the bed, and both boys moved toward the door.

"We’ll let you rest," Rhett said gently.

As they started to leave, panic gripped me. I couldn’t be alone right now, not with those images still fresh in my mind.

"Please don’t leave," I begged, reaching for Charis’s hand.

Charis looked at Slater and Rhett. "Go ahead. I’ll stay with him."

After the door closed behind them, I pulled Charis down onto the bed beside me and buried my face against her shoulder. She stroked my hair gently.

"It’s okay," she whispered. "Whatever happened, it’s over now."

But it wasn’t over. The vision felt more real than any dream I’d ever had. The woman’s words echoed in my mind: Ask her about the baby they took from the underground cells. And who was Raina?

Also, Headmistress Vale. She knew something about my past, about who I really was.

After a while, when my breathing had returned to normal, I lifted my head to look at Charis. Her eyes were full of concern, and seeing her made my chest pool with warmth.

Without thinking, I leaned forward and kissed her.

It was soft at first, just a gentle press of lips, but when she didn’t pull away, I deepened it. All the fear and confusion from the vision poured into that kiss, along with my desperate need to feel anchored to something real.

When we broke apart, she rested her forehead against mine.

"Do you want to talk about what happened?" she asked quietly.

I stayed still for a moment before I nodded. "I’ve been having this dream for a while now. Since the incident..." I paused, staring at her meaningfully and hoping she understood what I meant.

She nodded, and I continued.

"In that dream, there’s a woman chained underground. I can’t decide if it’s a prison or a cave, but she’s chained underground. In the beginning, I couldn’t remember her face whenever I woke up, no matter how much I tried."

I took a deep breath before continuing.

"But yesterday felt different, I saw her face and her smile, and there was blood running down her eyes and nose and mouth. A while ago, on the terrace, I had a vision about her. It felt so real, and she was different this time."

"How so?" Charis asked quietly.

"This time she spoke to me."

"What did she say?"

I hesitated. How could I explain what I’d seen without sounding crazy?

"She insinuated that she knew my mother," I said finally. "She said the organisation took me from my mother when I was a baby."

Charis’s eyes widened. "Your mother?"

I nodded. "Something about having my father’s girth and my mother’s eyes. She knew things about me that no one had ever told me. Plus, I don’t know these things because I have no memory of my childhood. Most times it feels like I fell from the sky and started existing."

"You know that’s not true," Charis shook her head, "and isn’t it strange that you have no memory from your childhood? I didn’t want to say anything before, but it does feel strange."

I nodded. "I know that. Still, it isn’t easy to believe her claim that I was taken away from my mother by my organisation. My master rescued and bought me off when I was seven from the underground fighting rings.

"My thought too. It doesn’t make sense that they took you away as a baby, put you in fighting rings, only to take you back again. Besides, your organisation rescues people, right? Why would they take a baby?"

"I don’t know. But she mentioned a Raina. She said Raina knows about what happened to me."

Charis was quiet for a moment, processing this information.

"What if it was just your mind playing tricks on you?" she asked gently. "Sometimes when we’re stressed or scared, our brains create stories to explain things we don’t understand."

"Maybe," I said, but I didn’t believe it. The vision had felt too real and detailed for me to ignore it."

"The woman in the chains," I continued. "She’s been in my dreams for months. Always in pain, always calling for help. But today she spoke to me like she knew me."

"Dreams can feel very real sometimes."

"This wasn’t a dream, Charis. Something happened when Isolde touched me. Something that unlocked memories I didn’t know I had."

She looked worried now. "You think Isolde did something to you on purpose?"

"I don’t know. She seemed as surprised as everyone else."

But even as I said it, I wondered if that was true. Isolde was good at acting and at making people believe what she wanted them to believe.

"What are you going to do?" Charis asked.

"I need to find out the truth about my past. About who I really am and where I came from."

"How?"

I thought about the woman’s words: Ask her about the baby they took from the underground cells.

"I need to talk to this Raina," I said. "She might have answers."

Charis looked uncertain. "Are you sure that’s a good idea? What if she doesn’t know anything? Or what if she does know something and it’s not what you want to hear?"

"Then at least I’ll know the truth."

She nodded slowly. "Whatever you decide to do, I’ll support you."

I pulled her closer, grateful for her presence. Whatever was happening to me, whatever secrets were buried in my past, at least I didn’t have to face it alone.

But deep down, I had a feeling that the truth about my origins was going to change everything I thought I knew about myself and the people I trusted.

The woman in chains had looked at me with such love, such desperate hope. She must have been close to my mother for her to feel such pain. If someone had taken me from my mother and lied to me my entire life about who I was,

Then, I intend to find out who was responsible.