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After winding down several abandoned side streets, I emerge in a small, empty square.
In front of me, the looming facade of an orphanage brings back floods of memories I’ve tried to forget over the two hundred years since I was released from here into Eldrion’s care.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
If Alana is coming for the Shadowkind next, they should be warned. And I have to begin here. With the most vulnerable.
I rap on the door firmly with a clenched fist. It swings open to reveal an elderly Shadowkind fae. Black robes, hair pinned back into a tight bun at the base of her neck, thick dark-rimmed glasses.
She clocks my wings, then the sky, then starts to duck back inside, preparing to slam the door in my face.
“Please, wait.” I put my foot in the doorway. “Don’t shut me out. I’m here to warn you.”
Still silent, she folds her arms and narrows her eyes at me.
“There’s trouble at the castle. It’s hard to explain. But all Shadowkind need to leave the city. Lord Eldrion is coming for us.”
I do not mention Alana. It is too much to explain, and her name will not instil as much fear as his.
The Shadowkind fae in front of me nods slowly and looks at the sky again. “I thought as much,” she says. Then she steps over the threshold and closes the door behind her.
Pushing past me, she makes her way to the gate.
“Where are you going?” I call, spinning around and hurrying a few steps after her.
“Going to warn my family, of course,” she says.
I look back at the building. “What about the children? Who’s in charge?”
She stops, tilts her head to the side, and says, “Well, I guess now I’m gone... no one.” She rolls her tongue over her teeth, then sighs. “They’ll have to fend for themselves. I have my own kin to worry about.”
And then, just like that, she is gone.
I turn back to the orphanage, push open the heavy wooden door, and step inside. The familiar musty smell hits me immediately– a mixture of old books, dust, and something vaguely medicinal. It’s a scent I thought I’d forgotten, but now it rushes back, bringing with it a chilling sense of nostalgia that settles on my skin like ice.
My footsteps echo in the empty hallway as I make my way towards the dormitories. It’s late; the children will be in bed.
Each step feels like I’m walking back in time, to when I was just a small, frightened child, thrust into this place with no idea what was going to happen to me or how long I’d be here.
Foolishly, for the longest time, I thought I was here to find parents. A family.
I didn’t realise I was here to be prepared for my years of servitude to Eldrion.
I pause outside the dormitory door. Taking a deep breath, I push it open.
The room is dim, lit only by a few flickering candles. Rows of small beds line the walls, each one occupied by a child. Some are sleeping, others are sitting up, wide-eyed and alert. The sight of them, so vulnerable and afraid, makes my heart ache.
Each has their wings bound.
I swallow hard and try not to notice the bile building in my stomach as I remember exactly what that felt like.
The pain.
The humiliation.
As I step further into the room, another smell reaches me– the faint scent of sage. It’s coming from the small sachets hung at the end of each bed, a futile attempt to mask the underlying scent of fear and loneliness that permeates the air.
I remember those sachets. I used to hold mine close at night, breathing in the soothing scent, pretending I was somewhere else, anywhere else.
