CHAPTER 22
“As the huntress’s blood courses through the Royal, she shall hear whispers in the air of her path. Of her destiny. If she strays from it, the callings will stop and eventually, she shall be burned for what she has done.” - Book of Azure
MY CHEST FEELS LIKE IT'S being crushed, tightening with an unbearable force. I flinch, my body curling as these arms hold me tightly, clinging onto me as if he is afraid to drop me.
Florian saved me.
Rescued me.
He came… for me.
I desperately try to suck in air, but my nostrils collapse with every weak and shallow breath, leaving me gasping for oxygen. My eyes, blurred and burning, flicker open and shut as I violently cough up water, each convulsive gag wrenching my body as I struggle to inhale and cling to life.
It burns.
Despite the frozen water, my throat feels as if boiling water is stuck inside me.
I can’t see who holds me, but it must be Florian. It has to be him.
“She is turning blue.” His voice reaches me through my muffled hearing.
But who is speaking? I can’t tell, because pressure pulses inside my head, a constant, torturous reminder of me drowning.
Of being helpless. I groan, coughing up water and feeling it drip down my chin.
Make this stop. This pain that is coursing through me feels unbearable, as if at any moment my heart will stop beating.
I heave, feeling a heavy weight pressing down on my chest, squeezing the breath from my lungs.
Each heartbeat echoes with a sharp, relentless throb that makes my eyes squeeze shut.
“We need to take her to the stone!” a voice from afar screams, shaking with each word.
As he carries me, my body sways in his broad arms and it hits me like a force of lightning crackling through the sky. A scorching heat flickers violently inside me, from my feet up to my heart, electrocuting the muscle. Awaking me from this deadly, frozen estate that is on the verge of killing me.
My nose inhales, and I finally take in a deep breath as my lungs fill with oxygen.
His smell. The familiar smell of a burnt fire mixed with a floral aroma.
No. It can’t be. It shouldn’t be. As I suck in a deeper inhale, my chest expands as I let out a shaky breath, gagging at the very last second.
Leather fills my nose as these familiar arms hold me close to his chest.
I remember this safe feeling. A feeling of comfort. Protection. I vowed to myself to never feel this feeling… but with his arms around me, it’s uncontrollable. I need the Gods to curse me from never feeling this way.
I know it’s him. But, he shouldn’t be holding me. Why did he rescue me?
Koen.
As my blurry vision slowly comes to, I see his face.
His eyes are soft, but on the edge of… tears?
Impossible. He would never cry for me. His eyes dart around as he pulls me in closer, scanning the area as he rushes to the stone.
Why did I leave the bag there? It is as if the voice had full control over me, dictating my every move as it took my mind over. I had no choice but to follow it.
With every step, Koen's jaw tightens, his gaze shifting from me to the path in front of him. His breath comes in ragged gasps and white clouds puff around his face as his lips quiver uncontrollably. Panic. Fear. Pain. They are all there in ways I’d never seen, not from him.
Never from him. And never for… me. I almost don’t recognize him.
“Hurry!” Florian shouts ahead of us, and Koen picks up speed, letting my head flop against his chest. My eyes close.
Embracing this heat that radiates off of his chest, despite his wet clothes, I curl into him, trying to escape the cold.
My body is frozen, shivering every second.
His hands clasp me as if he might never have the chance to hold me again, his grip confirming that I am still here. Still alive, still with him.
For now.
My eyes sluggishly open again, drifting to his face. He meets my gaze and forces out a weary smile, his lips twisting with the effort of holding back the emotions that threaten to overflow. His eyes seem so tired.
“I got you, Spark. Don’t die.” Koen's voice trembles with each word, almost breaking. He shivers and his lips try to pull into a smile, but he is too weak to do so. Ice sparkles along his eyebrows as water drips from his soaked curls.
I let out a deep exhale before closing my eyes. “I won’t.”
His arms are like a furnace as I melt into him. I’m not sure how it's possible to feel such heat burn from his body, especially in the condition he is in. The condition we are in.
He saved me.
If I survive, I shall do everything I can to save him from the darkness inside of him.
As I attempt to turn my arm that flails helplessly with each stride he takes, an excruciating blaze scorches my skin with relentless fury.
Boiling agony sears through me. I gasp, my eyes clenching shut as I remember the same pain from when I touched the stones in Alaska.
I recoil, curling into myself within his grasp, unleashing a piercing wail that rips from my throat with every ounce of strength I have left.
It hurts to scream. It hurts to move.
Koen's eyes slam shut, deep lines furrowing between his brows as ice breaks off his hair from the sudden movement. His jaw clenches through my scream and tortures his very senses.
It burns. I feel as if I'm being toasted.
I sob. Tears pour out as they slide across my cheeks. I groan through the short breaks of my screams.
“Kill me!” I cry out, my hand moving to touch my arm, but my fingertips burn at contact. “Kill me, now! I can’t do this!”
I can’t take this. The pain is too much. I am burning from the inside out. I feel as if I am being scorched alive.
“No!” Koen hisses. “You must fight through it!”
“I can’t—” I convulse, my stomach squeezing and my chest tightening. “Koen, it burns. Everything hurts.”
He grunts. “I will not kill you!”
I stare up at him, watching his veins pulse against his neck, his jaw clenching with every muscle strain that ripples through his body. He is fighting something.
He is fighting back the urge to let… no way. It can’t be. His eyes water, unsure if it's from the cold wind that whips at his face as he rushes over the frozen lake, or if those tears are for me.
A light brightens around me, and Koen squints as he tries to look away from me. Wait. Is the light coming from me?
With a trembling hand, I reach out, forcing my fingers to rub over my skin despite the scorching heat that radiates off of me.
I feel something. My finger glides over what feels like a stone, its edges smooth yet rigid at the touch.
But the heat is like nothing I have felt before.
I pull away, staring at my shaky hands. My skin isn’t red.
There isn’t a hint of my skin being burned.
My skin isn’t peeled, no blisters or swelling, just a normal soft pink tint.
What is happening to me?
“Koen—” My voice trembles as I choke on a sob. “What is happening?”
He glances down at me despite the bright light hovering around my body, terror blazing within his emerald eyes. “I don't know,” he chokes out. “But I have you.”
“Grab the stone!” Florian shouts out. I can hear the panic breaking in his words. “I need to get her to the Vitaei waters.”
Through Koen’s heaving panting, he mutters out, “she could burn, scorching her body until there is nothing left but bones!”
“You still don’t believe me!” Florian bellows, making me flinch in Koen’s arms. “How can you not see that she is her?”
“You are going to get her killed!” Koen grunts, his biceps flexing as rage shoots through him.
“You didn’t find anything in the archives that leads to her being the last Deskyiara.
The Prophecy Queen. It’s a myth. A tale that our families would tell us for us to believe our Realms would one day be at peace. It's a lie!”
“You are going to get her killed, brother,” Florian hisses, mocking Koen. I groan with pain from the volume of their screams. “Look at her! She survived traveling through the Light Stone, without even a scratch!”
With every breath I inhale, a sharp dagger of pain shoots through me. I should stop breathing. It hurts to feel alive at this very moment. They need to stop fighting. I’m too weak to say anything.
“I was blind, as the elder said, I couldn’t believe it until now!
” he barks, pointing with a trembling hand.
"No one has ever traveled through the stones except a Royal!
Now, the first stone pulses within her, its power coursing through her veins!
This is destiny unfolding, the written ways of what our Gods told us would happen are happening right before us!
This is what has been written, what must happen, and you are blind to see it!
A war is coming, and we must be prepared! "
“Florian…” Koen's voice shakes, dropping into a hoarse whisper filled with dread. He clears his throat, almost holding in a faint cry that is on the edge of release. “If this is truly her, she won’t live long. There is darkness that is coming. I can take the pain away from her so she won’t have to face the brutal death that awaits her.
You won’t understand…” Koen's voice shatters like glass, a raw sound that makes my heart seize. He clears his throat before a choked, tearful whisper escapes his lips. “It can’t be her.”
Darkness claws at my vision. I am fading fast. But I fear, I heard Koen correctly. Is he saying, kill me? My lips part to speak, but I am too weak to say anything. My tongue glides over my dried lips, my body shivering despite the heat that still pulses inside me.
“You’ve gone mad!” I hear Florian holler as my muscles begin to loosen and I let my arms fall, a high pitch ringing sound beginning to pierce my eardrums. “What are you even saying? How could you dare speak like this?”