CHAPTER 48
“The one chosen, scorched by the God of Fire, will be forever protected unless the Gods choose to forge her into a huntress. The marks along their skin will protect them.” - Book of Azure
I SHIFT MY BODY, WIPING the tears and blood from my face, and limp towards Koen.
His arms embrace me, catching me before falling.
“I got you, Spark,” he whispers against my head. His fingers tighten around my body, pulling me up to where I meet the warmth of his chest.
My chin rises to meet his weary eyes. “They’ll never stop until one of us is dead.”
His eyes shut gently, pulling me in tighter, leaving no space between us. “I know.”
The crowd screams at us, their voices screeching through the air as they start throwing steins and trash our way. The weak, little humans are impatient to watch our deaths.
Cowards.
They have never felt what it feels like to fight in the games. They have never felt what it feels like to watch a friend be ripped apart or scorched to their death.
Just staring out towards them makes my blood boil with rage.
They don’t deserve to watch us die. None of them do.
My shoulders rise, my deadly heart rate steadying as I fiercely rip the dagger from my sheath. “We must save the chosen. They don’t deserve this.”
His fingers gently touch my chin, lifting my view up to meet his. “They don’t. No.” A brown curl of his catches in the breeze, lightly brushing across the healing wound along his forehead.
Will this be the last time I ever see him?
My throat tightens, feeling it burn as I try to speak. “I shall end my life. I was reckless. Careless.” My voice cracks. “You don’t deserve this. I should have left for the sea when Death told us too. I put you in this mess, let me get you out of it. ”
“No,” he growls, resting his chin against my head.
“Let me die for you!” My eyes burn, fear clinging onto my heart knowing this is it. I will die loving a man I will never be able to have. All this time, wasted, fearing I would scorch him to ash.
Only to die moments after we finally reunited.
“I would never allow that.” His voice breaks into a heartbreaking growl.
“I can’t have the chosen die over this.” I glance over towards them, watching Dryden’s head weave side to side. He is fading fast. I know I should hate him for the hell he put me through, but there has to be good deep down inside him.
My lips part before tightening into a trembling line. “I can’t have you die over this.”
“Together.” His breath brushes against my head. “When your heart stops beating, so does mine.”
I pull away, eyes flickering between his emerald eyes that are glazed as a tear escapes. “You can’t.”
“I will have nothing more to live for.” He leans closer. “You are my life. My heart. My air. A life without you could never be a life,” Koen exhales. “I’d give you my heart, over and over again, just so you could live. I’d give you my heart in every single life if I could to protect you.”
“Koen,” I exhale.
“I’ll never forgive myself for putting you in danger. My Spark—” He reaches out to me. “Forgive me for failing you.”
I weep, feeling the touch of his fingers glide along my cheek. His hand stops, resting against the bottom of my chin, and gently brushes against my skin.
This is the way I want to die, with his hands on me. I want my heart to stop beating, listening to the sounds of his pulse with life under his chest.
“I’ll never forgive myself for asking the Gods to take away my feelings for you,” I whisper.
“They could never take our love away.” His head shakes, ripping the dagger from his sheath against his chest. I notice the blood-stained knuckles, fresh wounds along his hands as he grips the dagger tighter.
“I don’t want this.” My voice shakes.
He scans my face, his lips pulling into a soft smile before it fades.
“This isn’t our decision, it is mine. My life is tethered to yours.
It always has been. Since the moment I saw you as a young boy, I knew I was destined to love you till my last breath.
As if the Gods made me only for you. Even if I was never truly meant for you, I’d like to die thinking I am. ”
A tear drops from my chin, sliding down my neck as I nod. “I have always felt the same way. I’m sorry it took so long to return.”
“At least you returned.”
I rise on my tiptoes, feeling the throbbing pain of the arrow shooting in my thigh as my lips brush against his.
“I love you,” I whisper.
His dagger-free hand grips my hair, pulling me in a tight embrace to press his lips against mine once more before breathing out, “I love you.”
He takes both his hands, the cold hilt of the blade brushing against my skin while he kisses every inch of my face before his eyes lock on to mine, slowly nodding.
“Together,” he whispers.
And we take our daggers, pointing them to our hearts.
“Together.” My lips part, breathing a trembling breath as my hands shake.
The tip of my dagger rests against my chest while the tip of his rests against his.
The crowd chants, in sync with everyone around them as they holler, “Death to the dragons! Death to the dragons!” My eyes shut, feeling the fire flicker throughout my skin but no power to control it.
It’s as if the damn toxin truly has blocked the ability to wield from the Gods and the powers they gifted me.
They finally created a weapon to weaken a Deskyiara.
I always knew I had a weakness. I just hate that now is the moment it decides to show.
“Die!” I hear Skie rip another raging scream from the depths of her stomach.
The sound of her voice makes my eyes shut.
Damn her. Damn Lykia.
Damn my sister.
I fall to my knees, allowing my body to slam into the ground as I inhale the smell of the world around me one last time.
My nose sucks in the air, fire—a floral aroma mixed with fresh dirt creates flashes of my life as a kid.
The joy I had running through the field of flowers, chasing dragonflies as they danced away in the blue sky.
How I used to love splashing in the water, grabbing fish with my hands before I had to sneak back into the Kingdom right after curfew.
But the most important memories are the ones with Koen.
When it was Florian and I, sitting next to my parents as young teens, my eyes would always drift to him in the far dark corner.
When it was our engagement party, dancing the night away with Florian, faking a smile for the whole Kingdom, I ran straight to Koen afterwards on top of the mountainside cliff and we slept there together under the night sky.
It has and always will be him.
And all those years hiding our love from the Royals, now only to die together for loving each other in front of hundreds of unfamiliar faces.
“Together, Spark,” he exhales, and my eyes open, snapping me back into reality.
He grips the dagger tightly, creating ripples of veins throughout his hands.
I nod.
Even if everything inside me is breaking.
But as we both go to force the tips of the daggers straight into our hearts, the sounds of the people in the stands turn from chanting, to screaming at the top of their lungs.
Some of them are thrown over the arena walls, falling to their deaths.
Some are stomped to the ground as others flee out.
A strong gust of wind beats at my back as a screeching sound of a dragon roars in the air.
Koen’s eyes widen, desperately reaching out to grab me, but his fingers miss me.
It’s as if time slows down, his arm stretching outward, fear etched into every detail of his face.
But I am flying away.
My stomach burns as the claw snatches me, yanking my body up into the air.
I desperately beat against it, catching sight of the dark, onyx scales, lava rippling underneath it and realize, it’s a damn dragon from the Darklands.
My breath hitches, eyes frantically searching up the enormous chest, noticing a few arrows that have pierced the dragon's neck. But it doesn’t phase the beast.
I watch the scales ripple like waves before fire explodes out into the clouds above us. Scorching the air and creating clouds of thick smoke.
The Royals must have never fixed the wall after the dragon escaped. Such fools.
I throw my fists into the beast's claw, knowing I am unable to wield any of my powers. But as I glance back up, I see blonde hair whipping in the wind.
You have got to be kidding me.
She leans over, grinning a wicked smirk. “Hello, sister.”
“What the hell are you doing!” I scream, feeling my head pulse.
She shrugs. “I suppose, saving you?”
Her brow raises before her body lifts back up to ride the dragon and soar us out of here.
I know this is no saving, she is taking me back to the Darklands to destroy me herself.
My body squirms, kicking and beating against the scales of its body. But it’s useless, and as if the beast gets annoyed with me fighting against it, the grip tightens, slamming one of its claws into my thigh.
I let out a gut-wrenching cry, feeling the blood drip down my leg and watching it fall into the air.
My eyes blur, fading to black as I notice Florian climbing over the ledge of the railings. Skie desperately clutches at him, her cheeks flushing red as she tries to reel him back, but he leaps, and in that heart-stopping moment, he shifts easily into a dragon.
In front of everyone.
No bones cracking in the air. No cries for help. But transitions, without hesitating.
Without fear of the Royals coming for his head.
Arrows rain down upon him, slicing through the air as he weaves left and right, missing them all.
Below him, Koen rushes to the chosen, taking his dagger and ripping the ropes apart. Within seconds, his hands are plunging into the sand, his screams echoing from the clouds where I drift off to.
And just before the clouds take my view away from them, I watch him transform into a dragon.
Now all of the Realms will know what they are.
Who they are.
And the Royals will stop at nothing to kill us.
The breeze shifts from a warmth to an ice cold, making goosebumps along my body rise.