Chapter 1 #2
I stand up and walk away, stomping through the flower beds and only stopping at the edge of the field. I look down at the sea to calm myself. It doesn’t work. Something that looks like shadows appears at my feet and sinks into the sand.
He walks up to my side. He never really left me. He never has. “I am yours, and I am not those weak wolves. I am not going to betray or hurt you.” His growl feels like a warning. For them or for me? “I will make them pay for betraying you. The world is going to pay…”
“Not if I get to them first,” I warn him, and something like a low growl echoes out my throat.
I blink in surprise… I can growl now? What the actual fuck?
I have powers now and I’m not some weak human, but I have changed.
I don’t even know what I am, but I know I won’t let them trick me again.
My voice shakes. “But I don’t think I can trust anyone except for her, and she’s gone. ”
“You can trust me.” He says it so plainly, so openly. Like trusting him is the easiest thing in the world. It’s not for me. I don’t let people in, I don’t trust people, and now I’m simply meant to just trust him?
“Why? Why should I trust you?” I lift my chin and stare up at him. He meets my challenging gaze with one of his own. “What did you say when you told me your name? Where are you taking me?”
“You have family,” he murmurs, his hand lifting.
“I don’t have family anymore.” I shake my head. Tannith was it.
“Yes, you do, and you always have done. Many people have been looking for you for a long time—twelve years, to be exact—and here comes the point when you have to decide what you want. Do you want to be angry and furious—at them, at the heirs? Then so be it. There are many ways you can hit them where it hurts; just like they took from you, you can take from them. Especially from the position of who you actually are in this world. If you don’t come with me, you’ll still just be a human who won the Folkland.
We can hide and do whatever you want—but I do not think that will be enough for you.
Some power comes with the title as Champion, and it is yours.
I don’t think you want to walk away from it. ”
I don’t. I burnt, drowned, and fought the earth to survive, and the title of Champion is all I have left.
“But, as I’ve heard, every single one of you has ended up dead in the districts.
I will not let that happen to you.” He looks at me steadily.
“You have power now. You’re not human anymore…
you never were. You saw what you did to those mountains.
You levelled them with your untamed power.
You’re more powerful than all of those alphas put together, and with your title and your family behind you, there’ll be no limit to what you can do and what you can have.
I will destroy the world if you ask, but you can do that all on your own, love.
” His gaze softens as he continues to look me in the eye.
“What would Tannith tell you to do now?”
I almost laugh. Tannith? She would love this.
“Tannith would find this amazing. She would tell me to rescue the humans, to start a war, become vengeful and angry for all the shit I’ve seen growing up in the human district.
She’d tell me to kill the Crone alpha in revenge and not to let you out of my sight.
” I close my eyes briefly. “Tannith would tell me to stop wallowing and mourning her. But she’s not here and life was never promised to either of us.
I did all of this for her freedom, and I only got mine in the end.
The Folkland, everything I had to do there, all the pain—I did it for her.
Because I wanted her to live in the end.
She deserved that. I was never a good person.
It was always her, and now? It has to be me. ”
“I don’t believe that’s true, and even if you’re not a good person—neither am I. I have never been.” He holds out his hand. “Trust me, love, and we will avenge her.”
I stare at his hand for a long time. Tannith would tell me to go for it, to take his hand and stop being silly.
He is promising me answers, family, protection and revenge.
I want to see this city he has told me about, this family I supposedly have.
Could it be true that I’m not really alone?
“Betray me like they did, and I will never speak to you again,” I warn him as I take his hand.
I need to say it. I can’t breathe when I think of the heirs…
and I don’t know how I will ever face them again without wanting to scream and destroy mountains once more.
He pulls me against his hard body—reminiscent of when we first met, really—and launches us back up into the sky, with a smirk that warms every inch of my broken heart.
My stomach drops, just like the first time he did this.
I barely noticed it then, but now it’s a real effort not to throw up.
He has us up high in the sky in seconds, skimming across the edge of the clouds with his massive dark wings.
It’s cold but not unbearable as we fly over moody grey seas that soon give way to snow-covered land.
I want to ask how there’s even land here.
As far as I was ever told, there was nothing beyond the district islands.
But there is. Then again, the wolves are all liars, so perhaps that was never true.
We travel over the land for what feels like an hour before I start to see something.
Mountains. A valley. A city—a huge city, bigger than I ever thought possible.
The houses spread out in every direction, curling around a vast forest at the edge, with massive gates beyond that.
Zyran takes us up above the clouds, so I get a bird’s-eye view.
We fly for a little longer before he drops us down above the city.
It’s the middle of the day, and it’s packed with people.
They bustle through the streets between golden buildings and white rooftops.
Everything is lightly coloured—except for the castle.
The black onyx castle sits right in the centre, and it is enormous.
It has a five-pointed star right at the very top, with red stained-glass windows and an endless number of towers.
Its base is built atop a great rock, and there doesn’t appear to be a way in except a long bridge in the middle.
Around the castle are fields of dark grass, black-flower-covered mazes, and darker trees.
It’s familiar. I stare at it as we fly towards it, looping around the towers before landing on one at the back—a balcony with black steel gating around it and black flowers planted along the edges, their scent familiar too.
Remember Oblivion. Remember the darkness. Remember the throne.
I wince, holding the side of my head as the voices echo in my ears.
Glass doors line the black brick wall, with warm light coming through from the inside.
Two doors slam open, and a pale man steps out, shadows whispering around his fingertips, dark nails and thick arms. I can hear them whispering, but I can’t understand what they are saying.
The shadows grow darker as he looks at Zyran, his eyes narrowing.
But when he turns to me, they fade and disappear.
He has gold hair—a mop of it on top of his head.
He’s much taller than I. A black crown full of sparkling diamonds is nestled in his hair, too.
A black cloak falls off his shoulders over a stylish, tailored shirt, trousers and boots.
Several gold and black necklaces hang down his neck, all with black jewels in them.
Something about him makes the voices in my head scream. I stare into his eyes. Gold, like mine. “It can’t be,” he breathes. He takes a step closer, a flash of fangs like mine catching the light. “My little sister has returned home.”