57. Second Choice Fight For Your Freedom
Second Choice: Fight For Your Freedom
The amphitheatre is the central stage within Oceanview Harbour. Elemny claim it’s the most beautiful theatre when an elemny awakens, but the one in the Kingdom of Crystal was the most mesmerising to look at.
Pink glaciers crystallised around the amphitheatre, and there were three tunnels leading within.
Ice filled the floor, glistening like diamonds and sparkling like rippling water on a sunny day when the light reflected on the surface.
Ice elemny designed the ice to look like a snowflake, and from above and looking down, you could see how magnificently beautiful it was, and how our powers came together when awakening was awe-inspiring.
I want to awaken there, but that won’t be for a while, and I wonder if I can defeat the one waiting for me inside.
I step inside the amphitheatre. Their walls are mirrors, and the stars brilliantly look down.
The moon gleams across, casting silver light in the centre, and where Reen sits on the comfortable chair that elemny strap themselves into in case of a chaotic outburst with their powers.
His dark red hair falls forward, and his elbows rest against his legs.
Reen’s piercing red eyes watch me, and he arches his brow at the short yellow dress I wear.
“You aren’t going to sway me with lust, are you?” he chuckles with amusement.
I smile. “If I were to die, I’d die in something cute.”
Reen sighs as he rises and tilts his head to the side when he says, “When you’re ready, Pandora.”
After taking a deep breath, I roll my shoulders, relax my arms, shuffle my right leg back until it firmly grounds itself, and then I glare at Prince Reen. “I’m ready.”
Within the blink of an eye, I suck in a breath when he appears before me and raises his leg to kick me in the stomach.
I hop back and out of reach and move my hands in front of me to guide the hands that come toward me after his kick and direct them across from me.
My left hand guides his arm away from me while my right hand presses up at the elbow to break it when he twirls around until his back presses against mine, and we stand tall, facing away from each other.
Burning heat ripples from him, and a comforting feeling flushes my cheeks. I drink the moment in, tipping my head up to the sky until the moonlight shines across my face and the stars burn as bright as day. I rest against him momentarily, wondering what he’s thinking about.
Then, the heat becomes uncomfortable, and I step away and turn around.
His hands reach for my throat. I duck, roll away from Prince Reen, and stumble to a stance a few feet away from him.
Shaking off the strange memories coming to me now, I raise my arms and nod swiftly to encourage him to go forth and fight me.
It’s more of a brawl as my fist slams into his jaw, and his knee punctures my ribs until I feel the tearing, splitting open across the lining of my stomach. I spit blood across his face, blinding him before I tackle Reen to the ground, and we roll across the stone until I’m straddling him.
My hands tighten around his throat when another jagged memory splinters to the surface, and I overlook him…no…Desmond becomes crystallised ice after I sink the dagger into his chest.
“Why!?” I cry, and hot tears streak down my face while my hands slacken around Prince Reen. “Why do I have to kill everyone I fall for?!”
I shuffle off Prince Reen and kick away from him when reminded of Desmond. Now I have to do the same to Reen because if I don’t, he will kill me.
Why!? Why does this always happen to me? Why can’t I grow with someone!? I can’t win in Eraminia, can I? Everyone I fall for ends up dying by my hands…
“Pandora,” Reen drawls. “Get up.”
I rise.
Taking a deep breath, I glare at Reen. The memories of the days we spent together and the heated kisses down my throat fade until they’re numbingly painful.
If I don’t close off my heart and turn it to stone, he will kill me, and I didn’t drag myself from the depths of hell to die.
I’m surviving because it’s what Desmond would have wanted.
No.
It’s also what Reen wants.
“Ready?” he questions.
“Ready,” I say, and when I say it, I peel the layer of adoration away until I stare at the enemy that’s hunted me for nearly a month.
We circle each other, but I make the first move.
I duck underneath his arm, grip his hand, press my hip into the side of his waist and flip him over until he slams into the ground with a resounding, shuddering thud.
I then land atop him and reach for his throat again when his leg kicks up, twists around mine, and with force, he flips me over until he’s on top of me.
Before he straddles me, my knee rises and slams between his legs. Reen grits his teeth but persists, places his hands around my wrist, and pins me down on the ground.
I wiggle underneath him until his hand moves to my neck.
I suck in a breath when his long fingers move around my throat, but he doesn’t tighten his grip.
With that said, my body slackens and hitches a breath at the thought that I could kill the infamous Prince Reen.
Not now…not after everything that’s happened between us.
It’s a sick and twisted love story…one with a bitter ending because no matter what, Reen can’t change his course of who he is and what King Ragan shaped him to become.
“Do it,” I say.
His hand slackens around my throat, and he hisses, “Fuck me, Pandora.”
My eyes widen. “Right here?”
He throws me a dagger look as he rises off me. “Your vulgarity has no bounds. Get up, we’re going again.”
“How many handicaps are you going to give me?” I say as I rise. “You could have killed me. What’s your game?”
“I want you to fight for your fucking freedom, not roll over and die,” he says, flames licking up his shoulders. “Fight for your freedom. Like Desmond always wanted from you.”
My breath hitches, and my heart tightens, but his words give me resolve.
“Okay, Reen. I won’t hold back this time. I will show you what a Hart is really made of.”
I move my hands over my eyes and peel off the layer I haven’t taken off for a while. Watery vision blurs my eyes until I blink rapidly. With every blink, Reen’s face comes into focus, and when it does, the heat inevitably penetrates my core until I’m crying out in agony.