CHAPTER 49 #2
My body hunches over, stuttering each breath I try to take and I slide off my horse.
The land before me blurs, and I catch sight of Koen’s curls bouncing as he charges towards the dragon.
The sounds of his voice breaking into groans of agony mix with his violent scream for death.
But as I watch my man charge towards my sister, straight into a field of bones and ash, my head beats against the ground with a powerful impact.
I hear the screams of Theon and Kaine, their voices cracking into a deep raging plea to the Gods.
This isn’t good.
It’s as if time slows down, watching Koen stumble to a slower pace as he glances over his shoulder towards me. His emerald eyes widen, the dagger in his hand slipping from his trembling hand and falling to the ground.
He cries out to me with eyes wide, tripping over his feet as he runs towards me.
My breathing comes in ragged breaths while my trembling hand hovers over the dark, onyx arrow that pierced my chest. The raven-black liquid drips from the tip of the razor-sharp blade, and I let my finger glide along the surface, feeling the thickness of the toxin.
“I shall embrace the curse, for my Queen.” I hear the sinister cackle of Skydance in the distance. My eyes shut as I inhale a deep, choking breath while a sharp, radiating pain shoots through my heart.
Koen charges towards me, falling into the charred dirt with full force on his knees as he picks me up into his arms. My head rests in his lap while his bloody hands grab mine.
“I’m going to kill him!” Koen snarls, his lip rising with pure rage.
I cough. “No, I’m going to kill him.”
I suck in a deep, painful breath, and Koen helps me rise up on my feet.
“Let us fight this for you.” His eyes are filled with fear.
“No. This is my fight.”
My hands tremble over my chest. My eyes lock onto the arrow.
“Ren!” Theon screams as he punches a darkling in the face. Blood is stained all along his white hair, mixing in with the charred dirt of the Darklands. “Is she going to be okay!”
I can hear the fear cracking in his voice, catching the attention of the rest of the chosen.
Their life matters.
Them living is what I fight for.
My eyes glance towards Koen, watching him focus on the ground trembling beneath our feet. The rocks are jumping along the surface as the insects flee to another mountain. The bones rattle in the air as the dead logs break, chipping apart.
But Koen is silent. He doesn’t respond to Theon.
The constant tick in his jaw makes my heart flutter. He thinks I’m going to die.
Maybe I am.
“I am fine!” I shout towards Theon, nodding to make myself believe this.
“No, you are not!” Koen hisses, his eyes flickering to red.
I reach out and let my fingers tangle into his. “I will be fine.”
The rocks kick off the mountain cliff as the darklings part way for… wait.
Skydance walks up on the edge of the mountain, his curls whipping in the breeze with a new dark, onyx eyepatch.
But what seizes my breath is the other men that follow.
Around twenty men, in dark leather suits that resemble Tileatha’s.
Dragon scale armor, wrapping around their chest like ours, yet with a crimson-red hue glistening under them.
Skydance is up front, chin high as his lip tugs into a wicked grin once he meets my eyes.
“Hello, Serene.” His head cocks to the side, glancing down towards the arrow in my chest. “Stand down, or more will be shot.”
I take a fierce step forward even though my eyes are flashing to dark. I am losing too much blood.
“I will never stand down!” My fingers stretch wide, but no sparks ignite.
My eyes trace down my body, staring at my palms that won’t wield the magic from the God of Fire. I glance towards my horse, who patiently waits for my call, and shake my head, no.
I will not have the people I love die because of me.
I will not have her die. The last fire horse, because of me.
“Dixyn!” I hear Klayra cry out, noticing her stumbling to her knees as she sees him next to Skydance.
He glances her way, his crimson eyes glistening from the flames of my fire horse. His white hair is twisted in a few small braids that reach down to his waist. Him and Theon, they could almost be twins.
Yet darkness consumes him. His eyes are lifeless.
Her voice breaks as she cries out to him. “Please come back to us!”
“Silence!” Skydance screeches, snapping his fingers, and I notice movement in the high cliffside mountain. Archers.
“Klayra, enough!” I snap, eyes flickering from her and the archers who are ready to leash their arrows at her.
Tears stream down her face as she hunches over to weep.
“I need you all to go,” I whisper towards Koen.
“I’m not leaving you.” He strides towards me.
“I am dying. I can feel it.” I swallow the knot inside my throat, eyes burning with tears that I force to stay in. “But you all can live. Go.”
His head shakes, ash falling from his chestnut-brown curls.
My lip tugs into a gentle smile, allowing the back of my hand to glide his hair away from his eyes. My favorite thing about him.
“I want to look at you one last time,” I breathe out.
“No.” He takes my hand, placing it on his chest. “I won’t allow this.”
“Please, go.” I push on his chest. “Now!”
“Serene, I can’t leave you.” His voice cracks, eyes glistening as they still flicker a red hue.
“I need you far away from here.” My palm reaches up to his cheek, holding his face one last time. “Please take them to safety. Listen to Death, and go to the sea.”
“I’ll be back.” His eyes flicker between mine. “I’ll take them to safety, and I will come for you.”
I nod, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Okay,” I say, but I know he won’t make it back in time for me to see him again.
He pulls me in gently by the face, letting his lips meet mine one more time, and with eyes still shut, he turns away.
With the back of my hands, I wipe the tears that won’t stop falling from my eyes and shift my body back towards the swarm of men who stand to fight for Tilly.
“Let them go.” I choke on my words.
Skydance nods, hand lowering for the archers to stand their ground. “We don’t want them anyway.”
The sounds of wings beat in the air, and Tilly soars on the back of her dragon towards the darkness in the distance. She glances over towards me one last time before flying off into the dark clouds that begin to block the sun.
“What.” I sarcastically laugh. “My own sister can’t watch my death?”
“She has a war to start. She is getting the men ready for battle,” Dixyn says, crossing his arms.
My lips tug together, glancing over my shoulders one last time to see the chosen, Florian, and Koen headed to safety.
“And what about me?” I tease.
“We will bring your dead body to her once we find the Oracles to remove the stones.” Skydance raises his arms, and I hear the archers ready their bows.
I will die trying to live. I can’t go without a fight, what Queen would that make me? Even if my body wants to fall over and just let the Gods wrap me in their arms to take me away.
I inhale deeply, arms outstretched, fire flickering at my fingertips before extinguishing in mere seconds. My mind pleads with the God of Fire.
Don’t leave me now.
My fingers clench into fists, stretching wide once more. My lips part as I steady my breath, tears cascading down my cheeks.
You chose me.
I remind the sky, eyes locking onto the clouds that rumble by. The Gods. As if right now they are my traitors, leaving me here alone to die when I just returned.
What sick game is this?
You chose me. I keep repeating it, as if that might hold back what is to come. As if I believe the God of Fire will scorch me once more and be a shield to my protection.
You chose me. Don’t let me die.
“But you must,” the woman whispers in my ear like the soft wind. Chills race down my spine as my heart pounds wildly.
“Trust the Gods,” the elder's voice resounds, and the metallic scrape of arrows against strings fills the air.
I gasp as the arrows pierce my back, feeling the sharp blades slide through my body. One finding its way perfectly to my heart.
To a broken heart.
My bottom lip drops. The air goes silent. I taste copper, feel wetness on my lips as the slow, salty track of a tear slides down my cheek.
My eyes blur, yet all I see is him. Koen. Flashes of our time together, replaying like a broken record. How I wish his arms would embrace me once more, but he’s gone. He is safe.
Upon impact, I collapse to my knees with a heavy thud, clouds of ash and dust rising around me. My lips part, desperate for air, but I choke on my own blood.
My gaze drops, hands trembling over the twenty arrows embedded in my body, all oozing with dark, raven-hued liquid. The toxin. Forged from the lava of darkness.
A Deskyiara’s weakness.
“Trust the Gods, child.”
I want to spit in her face right now by the pure rage I feel.
How could the Gods allow this?
I want to rise above them and set fire to these lands. Scorch every last one of those who betrayed me. Including the Gods.
I have been trusting the Gods. It is all I have ever done.
How am I supposed to let go when I just got him back? How am I supposed to let death take me when I finally have the man I love?
The world is blurring at the edges. I see Skydance through a red haze, fire burning around me that unleashed from my palms without me knowing. And for a moment, the hues of his crimson eye is the only thing I can focus on.
As if I am embedded every hue and tone of his eye inside my head, so I can use it to fuel my revenge.
Because I will have my revenge. I will look into his eyes and take his soul.