CHAPTER 25 #2
“I can't be her.” My eyes dance between his. “If I am her, Koen will want me dead. I don’t know if I can live with that.”
“I’ll protect you from him. Believe me with everything I have that the woman who stands before me is who we have been waiting for since the battle…” He holds out his trembling hand, wanting to brush my strands that are filled with ash away from my face. “You are the true Queen of Azure.”
“You can have me killed for what you are saying!” My voice drops to a soft growl. “You really think Skie and the Queen will want me around if rumors spread about this?”
“I’ll keep you away from all of them. We’ll put you in the palace courtyards… I can keep you safe.”
Skie approaches and with a flick of her wrist, she starts to twist her finger around the strands that frame her pointed jaw. “How cute,” she sneers. “I’d like her as far away from me as possible too.”
Her heels dig into the gravel, while her long charcoal gown glides along the ground. “Smells like burnt flesh here. Disgusting.”
My fingernails press sharply into the flesh of my palms, leaving deep, raw imprints. But the heart-wrenching cries of Kaine pierce through my fuming haze, pulling me back. “You only have two heals left, Florian! We can take him to the healing sanctuary.”
“I don’t know if they have time for him…” Skie tugs on her strand that is wrapped around her finger. “They have many men they are trying to save from the dragons, unsure if they will want to heal a man who tried to attack a Royal guard.”
I lunge forward. “He wasn’t attacking anyone.”
She remains still despite my abrupt attempt to attack her. She doesn’t fear me. Maybe I should fear her, knowing she can take the air I breathe and turn it into a deadly toxin to kill me. Her lips curl into a sinister smile. “The healers don’t know that, but a little birdie might tell them so.”
“What is your deal?” My teeth show, hissing as I am a breath away from her. One movement of mine and she could burn, yet she stays calm. Unphased.
“You know exactly what my deal is.”
“So due to your hatred for me, you would let Florian slowly die? He only has two heals, then he is taken to the sky to meet our Gods. I thought you loved him,” I hiss, feeling my throat tighten.
Her eyes dart towards me as fast as lightning. “You don’t know shit about love.”
“Ren.” Kaine’s voice shutters. “Take me to the healers. Don’t let Florian do this.”
Florian hustles around Skie and I, rushing to take the side of his friend as he grips his hand and rests it against his chest. “You know I’d give my last breath to you, friend.”
Kaine coughs, blood dripping over the bottom of his lip. If Florian doesn’t do this… Kaine dies.
“And I hate you for that,” Kaine weakly teases, his chest convulsing as he coughs.
A fierce light erupts from Florian's hands, almost blinding us all.
I rip my eyes away for a moment, resting my hand across my brows.
A blazing light with molten streams of golden tones surges beneath Kaine's skin.
The radiant energy courses violently through his veins, raging like a wildfire until it reaches the wound, pulsing like a heartbeat.
I drop to my knees next to Theon. “Do not take him,” he pleads out to the Gods.
“Why did the guard do it?” My vision blurs, tears puddling.
Theon glances over towards me, his braids freckled with blood and his eye bruised.
“Some hate the Royals for the curse. Some praise the Royals for it. The guard might be a part of the Darklands, somehow snuck into here for a sick agenda to kill us off. They have a hatred for us. They’ve been working on a poison so deadly, it can kill a Royal in minutes.
Even the Vitaei won’t save us from that sort of magic. ”
He nods over to his mother as she traces his path to where the guard stands and he mouths out, “Darklands.”
“Take him,” the Queen shouts, pointing towards the guard.
As the other guards take formation around him, one kicks him on the back, knocking the helmet off of his face.
He falls to his knees, and a loud grumble emerges from his throat.
Inked, pitch black markings cover the left side of his face, twisting and circling around, almost resembling the language of the flames. But this feels wicked.
The piercings cover his pointed ears, filling his earlobes, and his eyes beam with a crimson red, reminding me of Skydance’s.
“Where is Skydance?” My heart sinks.
Theon rubs his head violently. “He got away.”
Shit. Which means…
“He’ll be back for me.”
“I know.” His eyes soften. “Take Florian’s offer, stay in the Kingdom. You’ll be safer there.”
“What about you… Kaine?”
“Don’t worry about us. We can handle him.” A side of his lips tug upward.
I crave to reach out to him, to hold his hand. But I’ll never be able to.
“She is coming for you all!” The man with the pointed ears maniacally laughs. “All the Royals must fall for their crime!”
“What crime!” Queen Antivianna grabs a blade from her thigh, pressing it firmly against the pale skin of his throat. “Who are you!”
“You won’t know until it’s too late.” His yellow teeth show as his lips curl into a wicked grin.
The Queen digs the blade into his throat, blood dripping down his neck. “Tell me, or I’ll have your head!”
“I’m dead anyway.” His head shakes as he rises upward on his knees. “She is here watching us.”
An arrow on fire soars through the sky overhead, catching his throat before he can say another word. He gurgles on his blood before falling to the ground. The guards panic, circling around the Queen as they shield her with their body.
“Take them all to the courtyard of the Kingdom!” Queen Antivianna orders, her arms flailing widely in the air, pointing at multiple guards. “We must take shelter at the Pyre! Order the archers to stay guard!”
We sprint forward, the guards encircling us in a protective formation, their bodies a living shield against any potential arrows that might come.
Their armor clinks and clatters with each step as the night falls to dark.
Florian carries Kaine in his arms, looking over his shoulder towards me with worried eyes but gives me a sudden smile, showing me everything will be okay.
But it isn’t. Nothing will be okay. He must never use his hands to heal again, or he dies.
As we charge ahead, the dimly-lit tunnel stretches before us, its stone walls cold from the night air.
The faint light from flickering torches guides our way as we make our escape towards the safety of the Kingdom.
We flee through a different tunnel, not the one that would take us to the dormitory, but one that leads us…
to the Kingdom courtyard. A fountain of five horses comes into view once we enter.
As if one was forged by fire, another by ice, one by water, one by air and lastly, one by darkness.
The cobblestone structure with a few solid onyx doors wraps around in a circle, enclosing us safely in. Torch light flickers in arch windows, hovering up to the clouds above.
“What is this place?” I step forward, catching sight of the lights weaving around the trees and connecting to the walls. “Where did you take us?”
“This is for the chosen eight.” Queen Antivianna’s chin rises. “Only those who are chosen once a year to fight to break the curse may live here for a year. They train night and day, finding ways to defeat the Wailing Mother.”
My brows pull in, glancing over my shoulder towards the Queen, who dusts off her dress and gestures to the guards to leave. “The chosen eight continue to fight for a year?”
“Yes. If they feel in their heart that they need to. Most of the time they spend their lives here, hunting the Wailing Mother. They continue to join the battle games every year to have a chance to continue to live here.” She steps forward towards me.
“This is a sacred place, only those I see fit to be here may rest here. Live here. If I don’t see it within the depths of their soul, they may never set foot in here. ”
“Why did you bring me here then?” My throat tightens, the chilly air nipping at my exposed skin. Night is here. “I know Theon, Kaine, Florian… they are Royals. But me, you don’t like me.”
“I don’t.” Her shoulders shrug before letting out an exaggerated sigh. “But my son does. And from what I saw this evening… I need you close. I think we can help each other.”
I don't trust her. My eyes flicker around, scanning the walls that seem to block out the rest of the Realm. “First, please take Kaine to rest.”
She nods gracefully, a side to her I have yet to see. “Florian, take him to the flames wing. Have him rest, and I’ll send Ivker.”
“May I visit him?” My eyes follow, watching Florian hold Kaine’s body as if he died. But he lives.
“I’ll have the ladies fetch you some water and let you know when he is awake.” She glances at Theon. “Take her to the water wing, she must rest on that side of the division for tomorrow's training.”
My head falls back, letting my shoulders relax even though with any sudden movement, pain shoots through my body. “Training for what?”
“Dear.” She steps forward. “You are still in the games.”
Of course I am.
“I suppose what you saw won’t have me removed from them?”
“If I remove you, the Realm will consider me a weak Queen. You must continue.” Her heels tap against the cobblestone flooring, the milky white stones shimmering against the night. “And I believe you won’t have any trouble winning.”
“You don’t think they’re furious at you for throwing me into the games to begin with?” Our eyes lock, both of us burning with hesitation towards another. “I won’t burn anyone. Ever again.”
“You are forbidden to use any curse in the games anyway.”
I briefly look down, staring at my hands that feel forbidden to me. “You think this might be a curse?”
“The stones? The burning?” She scans my body, catching sight of every new bloody scar and healed wounds on my skin.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. But the oracles believe any sort of magic, or power from the depths of the Darklands, is a curse.
The Gods have punished us for what happened that day in the battle. ”
Magic? So the Gods did hear me.
“What truly happened that day?” I cross my arms. “Why would the Gods punish the Realms over a battle? What is so special about the Deskyiara bloodline?” I mutter out the questions that have been in the back of my mind this whole time with the brothers, ones I never thought to ask.
“They had the powers of all the Realms burning through their veins, through their blood. A true Deskyiara, the closest bloodline to the Gods, was stronger than any other Royal. It’s been over two hundred years since the battle, and everyday, the Realms struggle due to it.
Especially the Royals who lived through it, Florian, Kaine… ” She looks away. “Theon.”
I stumble back, my heart pounding against my chest. “What do you mean, they lived through this?”
A sudden shocked expression paints along her face. “You don’t know how old the Royals are?”
“I suppose I had never asked…”
My chest heaves, they look the same age as me. Twenty-six.
“The Royals live for centuries, depending on how strong the bloodline is and what the powers of the Realms give the Royals. But due to the curses, the powers have weakened, killing off most of the King and Queens.”
I let out a shaky breath, parting my lips to control myself. “How long has Prince Florian, Koen… all of them been alive?”
“Around three centuries.” She tilts her head to the side. “They were young teens when the battle happened. But when the fire blazed from the sky that night, none of us stayed the same. Everything changed.”
“I never knew.”
“You are quite strange, everyone in the Realm of Azure knows of this.”
“I told you all, I am not from here.”
She inhales, her chest filling with air as she looks away. “Well, you live here now. Time to start acting like it.”
Her heels tap against the cobblestone ground, and her gown drifts behind her like a rumbling wave. “I’ll send Octavian to you soon, we need to find out what the stones do. If anyone would know, it is him.”
My finger glides around the stones, tracing the black marks that lead to each one. “Will he have a way to remove them?”
Her scrawny shoulders rise before falling. “Unsure.”
“Who will be training me?” I gesture my arms out to the side. “I can’t train by myself, I doubt the chosen eight will want to help me continue in the games.”
“Your two favorite men.” Her brows lift with amusement, as if the very thing she is going to say will either make me fume, or make my heart leap. “Florian and Koen. And you must learn to ride the four, or you shall die in the games.”
Shit.