CHAPTER 31
After lunch Silas leaves to prepare for the ceremony, to break the curse.
We have to wait for the moon to be at its highest point in the sky.
So, we still have a few hours to kill and decide to check the greenhouses.
To my astonishment, everything is finished, the field is completely enclosed and the plants within it are now safe from the elements.
Victor is helping in the greenhouse, putting up lights and a workstation for drying out the medicinal herbs.
Everything has come together, and Silas managed to do exactly what he said they would.
Victor has enough stock to medicate half the city and Silas even gave him a few vials of blood to add to the mix.
Victor is busy compounding medicines while Abigail is helping bottle and label them.
A few volunteers are even helping write down the medicinal properties of each plant so Victor can start teaching a few apprentices.
For once, the people of the city look alive, smiles on their faces and things look like they are changing for the better.
Silas is also in an exceptionally good mood and excited for the curse to be broken.
I feel nervous, nervous that we are missing something.
It just seems a little too easy, say a chant and drink some blood.
I wasn’t sure how curses worked, they were more personal, not something that requires spells and enchantments.
Everything seems to be going perfectly and maybe it is because I have only grown used to disappointment, but I know something’s got to give.
In my experience for everything that goes right ten things go wrong, so tonight I am a little worried, some nagging voice in my head telling me this spell wasn’t for the Dragon Kings but something else.
Even Abigail has her doubts, but she too didn’t voice them after the other day. Even she questions the spell itself.
“Ready?” I ask Claire, looking down at her. She nods but the words that next leave her mouth shock not only me but Abigail and the three Kings standing near us. Her voice is not even her own, but has morphed into something otherworldly.
“Shall rise the Queen Aziza of the Draquin Kingdom.” Her voice sounds melodic, and her words startle me. Yet, the look on her angelic face held no doubt behind her words and that scares me. What could she possibly mean?
Shaking off her words, Silas opens the door staring down at her just as confused by what she said. I am no Queen, and this is not my Kingdom. Walking outside, I gasp and take a step back bumping into Matitus.
“You okay?” he whispers, my mouth falling open at the amount of people standing within the gates. Thousands of people stand watching as we walk out.
“Why is everyone here?” I whisper to him.
“Probably curious to see if you can break the curse, I left the gates open for people to enter. I didn’t think people would come to watch though,” Silas answers but I can see he is also a little shocked.
Walking out, Silas grabs my hand walking us through the crowds, I watch as the crowd parts allowing us to move through easily as we walk to the center where the moon is most visible.
The silence falling over everyone is eery; the only sounds are of the breeze and our footsteps as we make our way to the center of the court.
I look nervously at the crowd, all their eyes watching us.
A Vampire with long hair tied at the back of his neck comes and places a round table next to me, Silas opens the passage of the book that I am to read from. Claire, I knew, wouldn’t be able to read it given her age and would need to recite after me.
Looking down at Claire, Abigail kneels beside her and touches her little face.
I can see the concern reflected in her eyes.
Suddenly, Claire’s eyes turn white, white as snow, her pupils bleed to be almost as white as the whites of her eyes.
Her eyes take on more of a storm, like there is a blizzard caught within her.
“Claire?” Abigail asks panicked and I can see Silas step closer concerned for the little girl standing in front of him.
“Do you hear them Mama?” Claire asks, her voice strong and unafraid.
“Hear what, Claire bear?” Abigail says, looking up at me.
“The whispers, they have arrived.”
“Who has arrived?” Silas asks his eyes darting to the crowd nervously.
“Those of the past have come to give their blessing,” Claire says, turning to me. Her eyes scare me, they look vacant, not a look you expect to see in a little girl who is just shy of four years old. Right now, she was no child but something else, something not of this world.
Claire reaches out, grabbing my hands with her tiny ones and I gasp at her touch. Lightning shoots through her palms through me. The whispers she referred to reach my ears and tears fill my eyes when I hear her.
“I can hear them,” I whisper, lost and only able to focus on her voice as it fills me with happiness and the sadness of her loss. A voice I never thought I would hear again, one I longed for.
“This is what you were made for, don’t fear it my child. You were born to rule, don’t forget who you are,” my grandmother’s voice echoes through me and I feel my tears fall.
“What did you do?” I hear Silas ask, looking at Claire, her eyes solely on me, her eery gaze steady.
“The Chosen One was never me; it was always you,” I tell her, and she smiles.
“You are the Chosen One, I am just the guide that shows you where you belong,” she answers.
I shake my head, this little girl holds power and knowledge that only she can understand, and I know I am right. This is my destiny, but Claire is the Chosen One, the only one that can restore the balance, the one everyone hashas been waiting for.
Claire lets go of my hands. The whispers of my ancestors remain, filling me with their wisdom, echoing around me and filling my mind with their knowledge.
Looking up at the sky, I see the moon is nearly at its peak.
Claire reaches for the goblet, taking it from Silas.
Abigail steps away, and so do the Dragon Kings, leaving only Claire and I in the center.
Claire grabs the dagger on the table, gripping my hand, our ancestors whispering to us what needed to be done, we didn’t need my grandmother’s book with our guide standing with us. Claire slices my palm, holding it over the goblet, my blood running into the cup.
“The blood of spirit and the blood of our ancestors, the blood of the moon.”
I see Taylor step forward, I hadn’t even noticed her amongst the crowd. Claire slices her palm and lets her blood run into the goblet. “Child of the moon cursed to the night,” Claire and I whisper at the same time.
Claire then turns and waves to a human woman in the front row. Claire didn’t even have to ask, she willingly stepped forward holding out her palm.
“The blood of the sun and the child blessed to the light,” Claire says as she slices the human woman’s hand, her blood running into the goblet.
Claire then slices her own palm without even flinching like she didn’t even register the pain at all.
She let it bleed into the goblet as Abigail flinches, looking scared but at the same time trusting her daughter.
Just as she pulls her hand away, the moon reaches its peak and the goblet starts shaking slightly.
I watch as Claire grabs the goblet, holding it above her head, the moonlight lighting up the goblet and her body as she stands directly under the moonlight.
I watch amazed as I hear Claire’s voice echo through the night “Don’t fear for the balance to be restored, a sacrifice must be made, and the Queen reborn.” Her words confuse me as I watch her drink from the goblet. Then, it dawns on me.
We are the sacrifice. Yet I have no fear of death, feel nothing but complete faith in her words and a strong urge to fulfil the prophecy.
My grandmother’s reassuring voice in my head, feel the whispers of my ancestors washing over me like a breeze.
The voices carried with the breeze grow stronger, and louder filling me and giving me a sense of calm and I drop to my knees in front of her.
She tips the goblet to my lips, and I drink from it, feeling the magic in the blood bleeding into my soul, changing it.
Claire places the goblet down on the small table and grabs the dagger.
The night turns silent as I watch her, not even crickets can be heard, the breeze suddenly dissipates, and it is like time stands still.
Like time froze except for Claire. I reach for her as she slits her own throat.
Blood gushes out of her neck spouting like a fountain turning her clothes a deep scarlet.
The dagger falls from her little hands as her body falls on top of me.
Abigail’s blood curdling scream full of anguish and heartache fills the night resounding loudly around us.
Horror washes over me at what I witnessed yet I can’t let her death be in vain and I swallow down my shock, praying somehow she isn’t dead as I whisper the last piece.
“I, Elora Aziza, forgive the sins and right the wrongs of the past, for I shall fall, for the balance to be restored, for we are reborn, and we shall rise.” I grab the dagger, the steel glistening and dripping with Claire’s blood.
My heart thuds in my chest so hard I can hear the drumming sound in my ears.
Raising the knife to my throat, I whip the blade across quickly, feeling the coldness of the blade as it runs across my skin and slices easily through my throat.
My life’s blood spills out of me and I choke for air.
The taste pungent on my tongue as I feel myself grow weaker and my eyes roll into my head.
The screams of everybody surrounding us, my eyes dart to Claire on my lap and the last sounds I remember are the screams of our loved ones, the whispers of our ancestors and my last dying breath.