“Hold out your hand,” he commands.
I do what he says, and he takes my small hand in his big hand. His hands are surprisingly soft for such a big brute.The moment our hands touch a light between them begins to shine. The light glows around us like a big bright star. People around me gasp, so I assume this hasn't happened before.The King looks at me with a look that I can't understand.“At last, I have found you.”Before I know it, he has picked me up in his arms, as if I am as light as a feather. He walks towards the sea with me in his arms.Behind us the two walls of the ocean crash into each other. I look back and see the face of the angel lady Luna for the last time.KING ROAN HIS POV''It is time King Roan,'' Julias says.King Roan looks at his best friend and takes a deep sigh. He wishes he could just stay here with Julias.He hates this dreadful day that he must endure every year. He hates having to pick a woman even though they are not the one he is looking for.All these deaths haunt him every time he closed his eyes. But he must keep looking for the sake of his people. It has been 3000 years and they are beginning to lose hope.Roan has no reason to think this year will be any different. He did what he thought was best at the time. He did not know he would curse his people instead of protecting them.He stands up from his throne and asks Julias, ''Is the room ready?''Julias nods, ''Yes, my King, the special section is prepared, and Maya is waiting.''''Okay," The King says, "let's get this over with then.''He starts to swim to the surface and with a sweep of his hand his fishtail changes
NOELLE'S POVPressed to the King's chest I can feel all his powerful muscles. It is a nice distraction from the fact that I am about to be drowned.The water is closing in on us, so I close my eyes and wait to feel the water on my face. But nothing seems to happen, I open my eyes and see an air bubble around my head. Another strange thing is that the King suddenly seems to have a tail instead of legs. ''He must have used his magic,'' I think.We are swimming for a short while when a gigantic air bubble seems to emerge. In the air bubble, there is a city as far as the eye can see.Caves are made into cozy houses and everywhere I look there is coral in the most beautiful colors. In the bubble, everyone seems to have legs but outside the bubble, I find the most extraordinary creatures. Mermaids, seahorses, and turtles but also men that look like they are half-shark, half-man. We swim over the city for a while when I start to see a
NOELLE'S POVI wake up to a knocking sound on the door. It takes me a minute to remember where I am. It seems surreal that only 2 days ago I was still at the orphanage and now I am in a strange castle somewhere on the bottom of the sea."Come in," I say when I hear the knocking again.Maya walks in with a plate full of delicious breakfast."I hope there is something in there that you like," Maya smiles."I will start a bath for you and afterward I can give you a tour if you like?" she asks.I smile at Maya and say, "That would be nice."After Maya leaves, I dig into the bacon and eggs and eat until my stomach can take no more. Then I walk into the bathroom to the big round bathtub. The bath smells like lilacs and roses. I take a long relaxing bath and put on the clothes Maya laid down for me.It's a simple brown dress that feels very comfortable. I decide I am ready and walk out of my room. In th
KING ROAN HIS POVRoan walks toward the sea with Noelle in his arms. She feels so soft and tiny lying against him. His mind is going crazy though. He can't believe he found her; it seems surreal after 3000 years.He is so busy in his mind that he doesn't notice that they have already arrived at the tower where Noelle will be staying. He puts her in front of the door and decides to leave immediately, he needs to set his mind right.He is so lost in thought that he doesn't even hear Noelle screaming at him. He goes for a long swim to clear his mind and after that, he is so tired that he immediately falls asleep.He wakes up the next day when it is already 3 o'clock. He still has no idea what to do about Noelle being the lost heir of the witches. Maybe it will be good to talk to Julias he thinks. Just when he is thinking about him Julias walks into his room.''Talking about the devil, I was just going to come looking for you,'' Roan says.Julia
NOELLE'S POV,The next day I meet Julias at the entrance of the gardens at 10 o'clock. I have seen the coral and flower gardens, but Julias told me that the water gardens are a bit of a walk.Maya said that they are a famous sight of the Sea Realm, so I am eager to see them.''Hi, are you ready for a walk?'' Julias asks me.I smile at him, ''It would be great to stretch my legs for a bit and now that I am stuck in this city, I better make the best of it right?''Julias puts his arm through mine, and we begin to walk.''I like your positive approach,'' he says, ''So, I am curious to know more about Noelle, tell me about yourself.''''There is not that much to tell I'm afraid,'' I continue, ''I was left at the doorstep of an orphanage when I was a baby and I have lived there till my 18th birthday. Then I planned to go explore the world and have adventures, but I ended up here instead.''Julias replies, ''It's maybe not the adventure you wa
NOELLE'S POV,Julias and I wait hours for Roan to come back. It's already midnight when finally, we hear the door. Roan walks in all bloody and with a sad and tired look on his face.''You are bleeding,'' I say shocked.He grunts, ''It's nothing I just need to get some sleep and then go back to the village.''I walk towards him and examine the cuts on his arms and chest, ''We need to at least clean your wounds to make sure you don't get an infection. Come on let's get you on a couch so I can help you.''Roan walks to the couch and sits down. I tell Julias to get some bandages and alcohol.''You need to take off your clothes so I can examine all the wounds. Here let me help you,'' I command.I take off his shirt and pants until he is only wearing underwear. If the circumstances were different, I would have gotten shy from such a beautiful body exposed.Julias comes back with the supplies, and I start cleaning Roan's wounds.Julias sits nex
NOELLE'S POV,I wake up by the sound of my alarm at 5 in the morning. It takes me 30 minutes to get ready and then I head out to the entrance.King Roan is already waiting in front of the door. He looks like shit; I wonder if he slept at all.''Good morning, did you get any sleep last night?'' I ask a bit concerned.''No, not much just had a lot to think about.''Before I can say anything else he walks out the door. I follow him while we walk to the edge of the air bubble. Roan stands still and looks at me from head to toe.''Considering what Julias told me about your magic I think you should be able to shapeshift into a water creature. Maybe we can try a mermaid, just think about what you want to look like. Picture everything from the breathing gills to the tail. When you have the image just say Shapolo''I look at him a bit doubtful, but I say, ''Okay let's give it a try.''I think about a long green shimmering tail, a small glit
NOELLE'S POV,The rest of the week Roan and I practice water magic every day from dusk till dawn. On the first day, he explained to me that magic can't stay inside. It is like a well that fills up, it needs to be released otherwise the well runs over. When that happens you have no control over your magic, and you don't know what the outburst will do to people close by.So, every day we start with doing some magic meditation. Simple peaceful spells just to make sure my magic does not get bottled up. The magic we do in the meditation is quite fun. I can make small rainclouds, make shapes out of the water like butterflies for example and make fun currents in the water for little sea turtles and sea horses.But that's the fun part the rest of the day we practice more advanced stuff like protection and battle magic. So far, I have been able to make a small shield. Roan can make protective air bubbles as big as cities. Today however we are going to try making a vortex.
NOELLE’S POV,“Are you ready?” I ask Gabriel.He puts on his jacket and gives me a kiss, “Yes darling, where are the kids?”“Probably at the school saying goodbye to their friends,” I answer.We walk towards the school together and I feel grateful when I think about the number of people that go there today. In the first years after the war, not many people came to Liberum to learn about magic. But with the years of peace growing so did people’s trust and I am happy to say that Liberum is now known as a place of magic and wonders. More and more children with gifts get born every day and it is great to see diversity spread.At the school, we find our 2 daughters surrounded by friends. Fiona our second child is showing off with balls of fire that she is juggling in the air. With her red hair and icy blue eyes, she is a perfect mix of me and Gabriel. However her feisty attitude she solely got
NOELLE'S POV,It is a few hours later and bells are ringing through the city to announce the beginning of the funerals for all the lost lives. At first, we wanted to make a burning woodpile for every single body but then we decided it would be more meaningful to send everyone off on small plateaus at the lake that leads to the sea in Dandion. Everyone worked together the last couple of hours to make floating plateaus for all the bodies.I leave the castle to go to the lake with Gabriel. Everywhere I go people look at me with big eyes and they either bow or clap for me. I quickly gained the image of the heroine that saved the world in the hours that have passed. Tales of how I destroyed the army with magic spread and they even sound unbelievable to me while I know that I did it. I walk to the front of the lake where Luna, Holly, Julias, and Nolan are already waiting. The sun is shining and the only thing I hear is
NOELLE’S POV,While I am contemplating what to do with Hades, I hear running footsteps. Gabriel, Holly, and Faith come running towards me. Gabriel takes me in his arms and holds me tight, “I am so happy you are okay,” he says relieved.We all look down at Hades who is still fighting to get rid of the glowing roots. “What should we do with him?” I ask the rest.Holly looks at Hades full of hate, “You should give him a vision of something terrible and let him die thinking about that.”Gabriel coldly replies, “I have no problem with that.”Faith sounds determined when she says, “No. We can’t just kill him because he will find a way to come back. To be rid of him for good I must heal him and his evil.”We are all quiet when she walks to him and sits down at his head. For the first time I see fear in Hades his eyes and he screams, “No, No, No, not her! Just kill me."Faith put
NOELLE POV,I feel nothing when I explode the dark humans and demons in the tunnel with purple light. I walk outside the tunnel and notice the inner wall being breached. Purple light radiates off my whole body and I levitate myself above the castle. I must look like a bright purple star and people drop their weapons to look at me. I open up my mind to all creatures of the Under Realm and give them visions that they are being chased by their worst fear. The trick works effectively on the dark humans, and they all start running out of the inner part of the city screaming.My voice echoes through the city when I command my people and the dragons to hide inside buildings. I hold up my arms and call out to all the water in the city to obey me. Water starts to rise up from sewers and the small rivers. It all flows back to me and forms a big wall of water up into the sky. I put my hands forward and let a tsunami carry out the demons, stone giants, and fire creatures with full for
NOELLE’S POV,Gabriel immediately takes charge and gives an encouraging speech to the people. They all seem to realize that it is better to go down fighting for a better world than living in Hell. Everyone has a determined look in their eyes and seems to calmly be waiting for the doors to breach. I decide to take the small moment of peace to go look for Thorn. I find him looking much better and luckily Faith tells me she will be able to repair his wing, but he just needs rest.“I don’t need rest; I need to fight with you mistress!” Thorn says in my mind with a stubborn voice. I walk to him and give him a kiss on his snout, “You have protected me fiercely I couldn’t be prouder. Now I need you to take it easy so we can maybe live to fight another day.”Thorn follows me with grumpy eyes when I walk away but he obeys my command. I walk towards Luna who is talking with Zeus. Zeus seems very riled up making big movements with his ar
NOELLE’S POV,As soon as we fly over the wall it feels like I wound up in a storm. Fire and weapons fly around me. I see light and explosions everywhere and it is immediately complete chaos. I can feel the impact of every blow that lands on Thorns armor. I look around to find Hades but all I can see are demons, dark humans, and creatures of Hell. Hades must have put up some illusion so he and the 4 horsemen can stay out of sight and let the rest of the army do most of the fighting.I bite my lip in frustration because there goes my plan B to take out the most powerful play-ers to end the fight. I let Thorn burn demons and dark humans in the field with dragon fire, but I notice it gets heavier for him by the minute. I don’t know how much damage the armor can hold. Angels are dropping light bombs and fighting flying creatures in the air. I see many of the Under Realm army being blown up but every hole we make seems to be filled up with new soldiers just as
NOELLE’S POV,I hear Gabriel call my name somewhere in a distant place of my mind, but I can’t take my eyes off Hades. I stare at him and then I realize what is wrong, Donna is standing next to him, and she is also smiling at me. Shivers go through my body, and I want to scream to Ga-briel that something is wrong, but I can’t speak. The amulet around my neck starts to get warm and levitates me up in the air. It feels like something is trying to pull my insides out of me. I start screaming from pain and I can see purple light flowing out of me into Hades. I keep screaming until the pain stops and the last of the light flows out of me. I fall back into the ground hard and my body shakes from the impact.For some reason no one from Dandion seems to know what is going on because all around me is darkness. The only thing I can see is Hades and Donna smiling at me. Hades makes a tiny flame of purple fire in his hands and starts laughing.&ldquo
NOELLE’S POV,Everyone around me is looking pale and serious as the army comes closer and closer. The grounds seem to shake from all the marching soldiers and the war drums echo in my ears. They stop marching about 50 meters from the wall. The war drums become louder and they all start to shout battle screams in a language I don’t understand. Luna nods at a soldier on the wall and he walks towards a massive horn stationed on the wall. The horn blows a strong and vibrant call through the whole city. I can see everyone take their positions and with de-termined faces, they seem to say that they are ready for whatever comes at them.Then the war drums become silent and the front row of dark humans and soldiers starts run-ning to the wall. I can now see Donna standing a few rows behind Hades. As soon as the sol-diers walk into the magical shield barrier they explode into light. Everyone on the wall cheers because the spells actually worked. I hear running foot
NOELLE’S POV,“Where is she? Where is she?” I hear Gabriel shout. Just hearing his voice already makes my heart explode. Everyone quickly gets out of the way and then I see him. He is running to-wards me but as soon as he sees me, he stops. We just stare at each other for a moment and then he runs towards me and swoops me in his arms. I can’t even begin to describe how good it feels to have his arms around me and smell his scent. He sits down on the floor holding me and I can hear his heart beating really fast. I take his face in my hands and put my fore-head against his, tears of joy travel down my cheeks. I look into his beautiful blue eyes and sigh with happiness. He softly strokes my cheek brushing the tears away and puts his lips on mine. I lean into his embrace and enjoy the sensation of his lips on mine again. I wish this moment would last forever.I look into his eyes again and I hear him say in my head, “I have missed you so muc