CHAPTER 29 #2
Yet, Octavian remains on the sidelines with a blade poised in his grip, listening to the chaos unfold.
He doesn’t fight. Meanwhile, Ivker charges with relentless speed, rushing around Koen and setting his sights on Florian.
Reacting swiftly, Florian kicks his sword into the air, the blade spinning like a flash of silver lightning.
He catches it just in time, the metal clashing as he intercepts Ivker’s blade, preventing it from slicing into his neck.
“Are you sure you want to do this, friend?” Florian’s eyes begin to ignite a blazing red. “You do know what and who I am. To kill a King is treason.”
“You are forbidden to shift inside the castle walls, dragon shifter.” Ivker’s lip rises in disgust. “I must have her life if it means to protect us all. To think I once called you a friend, and now you will protect the one that will put forth a blazing fire to the Realms, killing us all! How foolish can you be? You are no King!”
Florian’s grip tightens around the hilt as both their eyes are mere inches away from their swords. The heat of their breaths fog the shimmering blades as they tremble, neither of them daring to move.
“You are wrong about her! Let me prove it.” Florian flicks the blade upward, delivering a punch to his nose, before launching a kick to push him away by the chest. Blood gushes over Ivker’s lips and down his chin. “You all have been deceived!”
As I take a few hesitant steps backwards, my eyes widen as I watch the brothers fight against them over me. A familiar scent rushes through me. Of fire. Of ash. Of a floral aroma.
What is this feeling that soars inside of me?
I can burn these people to ash, yet I allow the brothers to fight for me.
How have I let the Serene of Seattle disappear from me? This is unlike me.
This is not me. I fight my own battles.
But it’s the moment Klayra's blade cuts across Koen's cheek, and I watch him stumble to the ground for a split moment, and that’s when the fire ignites within me.
She shouldn’t have done that.
My fingers curl into fists as my veins rise from my skin. The stones on my arm glow, pulsing like a heartbeat and burning fiercely throughout my body. My fingertips start to tingle, as if tiny electric currents are pricking my skin, growing hotter by the second.
Within a blink of an eye after Florian is thrown to the ground, Ivker twists on his heels and thrusts his sword into Koen’s back.
I gasp. My heartbeat freezes. “No!” My eyes burn as I reach out towards him, stumbling over a broken log. “Take me! Don’t kill him!”
Koen arches his back violently as Ivker rips the sword out with a brutal force that sends his blood spraying across the dirt.
His body collapses to the side, agonizingly slow, as if the universe itself wants to prolong my torment, forcing me to witness every excruciating moment of his life draining away before my eyes.
This cannot be happening.
A guttural scream rips from my throat, vibrating through the air as my ears become suffocated in silence.
I stare at Ivker and Klayra who stand over his body, Ivker taking the sword in hand to finish the job.
My eyes sting with fire, tears poised on the brink of a downpour.
My head throbs with an intense, radiating heat, veins bulging and straining against my temples, pulsing with fury down to my heaving chest.
“Get away from him!” The raging scream bellows from the depths of my soul. My very being.
“Koen!” Florian grunts, holding his bloody rib as he tries to stand but falls to the ground.
Klayra sneers. “You brought this upon yourself.” She kicks his body, and Koen grunts as his almost lifeless body rolls to his back. “Watch as we take his life and know that you did this to him. To them.”
“You’re going to regret what you just did,” I hiss.
My fingers stretch open, trembling, as a searing current of fire runs through every nerve in my body. An intense, blinding light, brighter than a thousand stars against the midnight sky, erupts from my arm. From the stones.
I can’t control the rage inside me.
At this moment, I don’t want to.
A fierce, howling wind whips around me violently, grabbing my tangled hair and flinging it wildly in every direction.
It isn’t a storm rolling in. I am the damn storm.
But as I gaze at his body through the strands of hair lashing against my face, each stinging hit brings haunting images of Koen as a teen—maybe seventeen—dancing through my mind. I see him as if through my own eyes, questioning if they are indeed my own memories.
Or the Gods here are tormenting me for coming to the Realm of Azure.
A surge of emotion wells up inside me, and I grunt, squeezing my eyes shut, desperately trying to shield myself from the piercing ache of recalling whether these visions are truly my memories.
Will the stones now haunt me forever until I remember?
“What is this!” I cry out, falling to my knees as the dirt kicks up with the wind. My hands fly to my head, pressing my fingertips firmly against me.
“Leave me alone!” My chest heaves as I pull my head down, gliding my trembling hands in my hair.
Koen and I are in the field of… wait could it be…
the field of ash. However, there is no ash present.
Just a field of flowers in shades of iridescent colors.
My head rests against him, my golden strands falling over my chest, and my fingers curled within his.
My heart beats, feeling as if the oxygen might finally leave my body.
What is happening to me...
My eyes flicker, burning as I feel wet tears running down my cheeks, trying to avoid seeing this life I don’t remember flash before me.
Through my blurred vision, I see Ivker raise the sword over Koen’s body, deliberately ignoring the wind that is coursing around us like a tornado and the beaming light that glows from me. He still wants to kill him.
He could care less about what is unfolding around us. He wants blood.
I can hear the roaring, manic cries of Klayra to do it, grabbing Ivker’s mechanical arm to pierce the sword through him at last. I want to run to him. I want to throw my body over his and shield him. But I am frozen.
I clench my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut for a mere second to try and control whatever is holding me still.
“Gods, stop this! Whatever this is!” I plea out to them, knowing they will never hear my cry.
“We could run away.” Koen squeezes my hand, taking his other hand to wipe a tear away from my cheek. “No one would ever find us if we left to the Darklands.”
“And what if they did find us?” I can hear my voice cracking. I can feel the pain as if this moment is happening right now. “They would kill you. They could kill you if they see you alone with me. You know the forbidden rule of the Deskyiara Royals, I shouldn’t even be holding your hand.”
“You can’t tell me this doesn’t feel right.” He shifts his body towards me, taking his palms and resting them against my cheeks. “Tell me you don’t feel this, Spark. Tell me you don’t feel that inside of you when you are with me.”
“Koen…” I breathe out, feeling as though this is the last time I say his name.
He shifts closer, his nose resting against mine, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Tell me you don’t feel this, and I will leave.”
I close my eyes, shifting my chin upwards to his lips, but never touching them. I tilt my head, letting out a shaky breath as my lips barely graze his in one sudden movement. “I do feel it. I would be lying to us both if I said I didn’t.”
“I love you,” he breathes out, pulling me closer, inhaling deeply as if he is savoring this moment. “Gods, how I have loved you since the moment I saw you. I shall love you until my dying breath, whenever the Gods decide it shall be my time.”
“I love you.” My eyes open, catching the tones of his emerald eyes that melt with a golden sunset. “Now kiss me before the guards come searching for me. If the war breaks out and we die tonight, I want to at least have this moment with you.”
He draws me in tenderly, his fingers weaving gently through my hair as his lips meet mine with a soft, lingering warmth.
A moment I have been begging for. I feel a fluttering sensation as if the very breath is being swept from my lungs, while his hand glides delicately down the back of my neck, drawing me ever closer into his embrace.
He pulls away, his eyes still closed and his lips still against mine. “Never leave me. My heart shall stop beating if you ever do.”
“And my heart shall stop beating if yours ever does.”
I gasp for air, wheezing violently as though I forgot how to breathe while this memory scorches my mind.
The wind halts abruptly the moment I witness the sword's blade hurtling toward Koen's chest. A ferocious, gut-wrenching roar erupts from the depths of my soul. It feels as if the very Gods have seized my voice, amplifying it for all the Realms to hear.
“No!” I cry out, a sob escaping my lips. My fingertips reach out towards him, trembling in the air as my cheeks are soaked by my tears.
Ivker pauses mid way by the gust of wind that forces both him and Klayra to stumble over, both falling to the ground.
My chest lifts upward as fire rips from my palms with my roaring cry. The fire cracks in the air as the wind whips even faster.
My arms burn like a blazing fire storm as each stone begins to pulse faster.
Tears trickle down my cheek as the dust irritates my eyes. The wind whips violently as the fire inside me feels as if it might explode from my chest.
Colors twist in the air, blending in with the dirty wind that swirls around us. The bright hues blur by the speed, but that's when I see it. Dragons.
Soaring around me in circles. Fire. Ice. Water. Air. Darkness.
They are all there. Matching the realms of Azure.
My bottom lip drops, trembling as my eyes widen before scanning my hands that still flicker with a raging fire.
“What the hell is happening!” My voice cracks, desperately searching for Florian.
I see him. His golden hair is a tangled mess. A grin tugs on his lips and he mouths out, “I told you.”
The dragons erupted from my stones, their figures shimmering in the air, watching me as if they are waiting for my direction. My order.
“This is impossible,” I whisper out.
“You are so close to finding out the truth of who you are, child.” The voice delicately whispers out to me, coherent enough as if the person is right behind me. Yet, they aren’t.
Flames flicker along the fire dragon’s body as it loops in front of me, while shadows flicker out and bolts of lightning explode from the dark dragon's wings.
Even though they are small, they are made from the elements of this world.
Their bodies have no tails, just wings. I can feel their violent energy radiating from them as they whip around me.
The water dragon flows in a graceful arc over me, drops of water falling to my cheeks, leaving trails of mist as it thunders towards Ivker and Klayra.
“What the hell is that!” Klayra’s eyes widen as she scurries backwards, her hands gripping the dirt to try and stand, but the wind is too powerful. “This has to be darkling magic! That is forbidden!”
Ivker stands for a split moment to flee before the water dragon soars over him, throwing his body to the ground once more. “I told you she was cursed! She’s going to kill us all!”
But as they scream my way, I'm in a trance, watching them violently rip through the air, hovering around Ivker and Klayra—warning them, taunting them. The dragons move as if they are listening to me without even having to speak a word. As if my fingers can control them. My mind, connecting with them. Then, it hits me, Kaine warned me this is what his curse feels like… maybe they are all right and Florian is wrong. I have been cursed. But if this will save Koen, I’ll gladly be haunted by this.
I’ll take this darkness in order to rescue him. He must live.
“If they dare move towards him, kill them.” I don’t speak. I just feel them inside me and I know, without even questioning it, that they can hear me. They can feel what I feel. And they know I need them to protect Koen at all costs.
As they soar above Ivker and Klayra with undeniable power, each dragon whips through the air like a fierce wind, swirling around them as the fire dips down, burning Klayra’s arm. She winces, falling to the ground and holding her arm, shielding herself with her back.
“Tell her to stop! Make it stop!” Klayra begs.
“There you are, child,” the voice whispers, and goosebumps form along my body. Shivers run rampant down my spine. “Give into it. Rise for them. Save them all.”
I close my eyes, my heart rate slowing down and the wind beginning to fade away.
My chest rises as I deeply breathe in, calming my racing mind and focusing on the voice.
Even though my eyes are closed, I can still see the flickers of light from the fire dragon soaring around and the cries of Klayra screaming in fear.
My lips tug into a smile, knowing she won’t mess with me ever again. Or Florian. Or Koen.
I slowly and deliberately open my eyes, watching the dragons move gracefully over them in circles as Klayra whips her hand in the air, trying to get them away from her.
“War is coming, child. You need to be ready. Koen is the answer, he is the key to unlock everything for you…”
I close my eyes, my trembling lips parting. “What do you mean?”
“Be scared of the dark, child. Don’t be foolish to think there is lightness where light can’t be found.”