⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼
“Elora!” Jossie screams, limping towards Elora with a scared look on her face. She tries to reach Elora, but she’s still wrapped in this small tornado of lightning that’s making the air hum with energy.
I hold my hand up for Jossie. “Don’t!”
Gynith appears from nowhere with blood streaked across her face. I can see from a distance that she just detached herself from a dead man and is now looking at Elora too. “But she’s in danger! Briar did this—”
“No,” I say, loud enough over the crackle of energy. “She’s not in danger.”
As soon as I say these words, I immediately know that they’re no lies. Elora really isn’t in danger right now.
Hendrik tries to protest and just marches up to Elora, but thankfully I manage to stop him in his tracks and push him back in his place. “Let her be,” I tell him, then I turn to everyone. “Let her be!”
I know what I saw. I know what I’m seeing. All this lighting and the danger hang
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼ “That can’t be true,” I whisper, but deep in my heart I can already see the big possibility of it being true. I can see the facts. Things are making sense, connecting in a way that they haven’t done before. But still, there are loose ends, and these loose ends are what I’m holding onto right now. “It just can’t be true.” My dismissive tone makes Jossie stand and open her mouth to retort, but a quick knock on the door makes her stop. She grits her teeth and wheels around to rant, but then Candor’s voice comes through from the other side. “Sir Alistair, we need to go now. You need to lead the way.” “Tell him he can lead,” I say to Gynith in a low voice, and I meant it. Candor can lead, not only because I can’t, but because he has a good head on his shoulders and I trust him. “Tell him that I need to be . . . alone with her.” That again is true. I feel like I have to stay with Elora on my own so I can test their theor
⇼ E L O R A ⇼ I’m frozen in my spot. I had no idea that we arrived in the camp and we’re surrounded by all the allies. I try to unstick myself from the wall to see what exactly is going on, but Alistair motions me to stay in my spot. “No,” he whispers before turning back to Candor. “Show her now!” the old man is yelling. “We will not tolerate this any longer.” The anger in his voice causes a wave of shame to overwhelm my body. It’s cutting through the thick layer of confusion wrapped around my head. I don’t know if it’s the kiss or what happened in the watchtower, but warmth is still simmering on my skin. I also have no idea if it’s just my imagination or not, but the inexplicable warmth seems to be getting worse. “Why
⇼ E L O R A ⇼Alistair’s words make me stop and freeze in my spot. I heard that from him before, the part about me being his mate, but only now do I feel the real weight of it.And only now do I realize how freeing it is to hear what seems to be the pure truth.It’s different now. Even with the hundred pairs of eyes on me, I can only see him. I can only feel him. Our gazes meet as he turns around to check on me, and for a brief moment I see his wolf form. No longer menacing, no longer aggressive. Just a creature that’s majestic. A creature like the one I transformed to.‘You are his and he is yours,’ the voice in my head says, and in my heart nothing is more true.Slowly, the allies begin to back off, taking slow steps back one by one as they lower their weapons. Alistair doesn’t move until every single one of them is gone, even our friends. I vaguely see Gynith hesitating but following the others nonetheless, cl
The soft murmur of voices brings me out of my sleep. Slowly I open my eyes, letting myself take a moment to adjust to the soft light of the sun slanting in from the small window. I’m lying on the soft rug, wearing only Alistair’s cloak and covered in a soft warm blanket. The fire has been put out. And Alistair is nowhere to be seen. Again my attention is swayed by the voices outside. I pick up my clothes from last night and get dressed, the memory of last night still fresh in my head. My face heats up, but I just continue and head outside. Standing outside the little hut is Alistair, surrounded by a dozen of people including Candor, Jossie, and Hendrik. I freeze halfway through the door. “Um, good morning.” Alistair turns around. “Elora.” Hearing him say my name after he moaned it last night feels weird now. “Hey.” I nervously turn to the other people. “What’s happening?” Candor steps forward. “We would like to apologize to you
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼“Are you okay?” I ask Elora, tapping her shoulder to get her attention. She’s sitting on a bench inside the arena, staring at the fighting area even though the last fight has long been over. “Elora?”She flinches, and only then does she snap out of it. “Oh, Alistair!” With a quivering smile, she stands up and offers her hand. “Let’s go?”“Okay,” I say a little uncertainly, carefully watching her face, which is scrunched up in a worried expression. “Everything good?”Elora nods, but once we arrive at my quarters underground, she sits down on the bed and says, “Hendrik asked me how I will face my Father when the time comes.”“Oh,” is all I can say.I have to admit: I am taken aback by the question. For a moment I just stand there by the door silently, thinking of how to phrase what’s been on my mind and what we ha
⇼ E L O R A ⇼Everything is happening fast. Perhaps too fast. The moment I get up and get dressed, things just go by, flicking past me like images from a rushing carriage’s window. Everyone in the camp is getting ready or packing up, separating into six big groups that will go to every city-state and attempt to dismantle the authoritarian government in place.Like Alistair said, Hendrik and I will be left here in Corrin, but we will not be staying in the camp. We will go with Kristoff, the designated diplomat, to head to the town square and make our presence known at the Feast of Independence.But that would be tomorrow. For now, we have to get the others prepared.I’m currently in Jossie’s tree house, helping her pack the weapon kits that will be distributed among them. She will be with Alistair in the Capital. He’s currently meeting with the diplomats.“You okay?” Jossie’s voice brings me out of my reveri
⇼ E L O R A ⇼ I blink rapidly. Even though Uncle Osman’s face is clear and unmistakable, a big part of me still wants to believe that what I’m seeing isn’t true. I would much rather be facing Governor Celso or any other big shots in the government. Just not my uncle. Just not the man who basically raised me. With my heart flooding with denial, I slowly take a step back. And another, and another. However, with every step back I take, he takes a step forward, levelling the distance between us and maybe even closing it. “You didn’t think I would find you?” he asks, and I expect his tone to be gentle as always, but right now it’s clear that he’s mocking me. “You didn’t think I would know? I know you, Elora. I know you got attached to the scums. I know you like my own.” His gaze briefly passes on Hendrik. “And you’re here too. Unexpected, but understandable.” “Uncle,” I begin, my throat still tight. “You have to know why we’re doing this. Why I’m doing thi
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The path to the Capital is long and unforgiving, and the strong cold winds of the dawn doesn’t help. I’m the only one carrying a small lamp to light the way and to lead everyone, and even though it’s enough to illuminate my immediate surroundings, I still feel like we’re in the dark, like I’m leading them in the dark. Perhaps in more ways than one.“The sewer is where we’re supposed to go,” Jossie tells me in a hushed tone, sidling up close to me. “Hendrik said that we might be encountering something there. He was trying to explain but Candor cut him off.”“That’s Candor for you,” I say jokingly, trying to lighten up the mood, but as we go deeper and deeper into the forest, I’m starting to feel darker. My mind is drifting towards places and people. People who aren’t here with me now. People who might be in danger. People who might get hurt because of this mission. “Are you still regretting splitting up?” Jossie suddenly asks. I don’t answ
⇼ E L O R A ⇼ Days passed. Then weeks. Before I knew it, a whole month had passed, and when I woke up earlier with this realization, I just felt like a gigantic weight had been lifted off my chest. Life goes on, I realize. No matter how bad the situations were, my life still went on. And so did the lives of the others. The past month proved that. I open my eyes and look at the ceiling of the guest room, which we have designated among ourselves due to the renovation and the reconstruction that we’re doing for the palace. Some of the people from other city-states are going in and out of the Capital to help, also to take part in the planning process of our biggest project ever: tearing down the walls from the palace and the Capital. From outside the window of the room I share with Alistair, I can already see the shrine of the heroes in the courtyard. It’s a ten feet tall marble obelisk with all the names of the fallen. I didn’t include
⇼ E L O R A ⇼A scream builds up in my throat and escapes my mouth, ringing inside the chapel and out into the forest.With my entire body shaking, I scramble out of the dark building, my skin still covered in goosebumps. I slip and slide against the marble floor and almost fall more than three times, but I don’t care. All I want is to put as much space between me and the monstrosity that is my uncle’s dead body, which was missing just hours ago.How did it get there? What is it doing there? Why did it look at me? Why am I here? How did I get here?These questions all swirl in my head like a deadly mix, making me whimper all the way back around the lakeside. Small stones are digging into my soles and I’m just slipping everywhere, but I keep going like a wild prey getting away from its predator. No matter how many times I blink, I can’t get rid of the picture in my head, the picture of Uncle Osman’s glassy eyes staring at me.My feet keep sinking in
⇼ E L O R A ⇼I want to scream, but no sound escapes me. It’s as though my voice completely vanished, and now I’m left here staring at my dead uncle as he grabs my arm and forces me to walk with him.And the weird thing is, I can actually feel his hand clasping my ruined wrist. It’s almost as though he’s more solid than anything in here, more solid than me. It’s like I’m a dream but he’s in a higher form of reality that conquers mine. This notion only gets stronger when I try to struggle but he just doesn’t budge. He’s solid. He’s stronger than me.“Why do you want to leave so bad?” he asks me, his voice as gentle and as good-natured as I remember. He points at the chapel with his other hand, and as if on cue, the lights from inside glow brighter. I can actually see silhouettes of people from the windows, and they’re not moving. They’re all just standing there, completely still.
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼“No,” I hear Elora whisper, and my heart just cracks for her. She sounds so broken and so lost that I forget just how confused and afraid I am. I go up to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, and she wheels around to face me. “Are you sure this is the place?”“Yes,” I say, my voice low. I point at the smear of blood scattered along the massive elevated platform in the middle of the circular room. “Kalem said that they gathered the remains of the King’s brother and put him in the catacombs behind the chapel, in the room at the end of the tunnel.”Even though I remember what Kalem said perfectly, I still look around just to make sure we are indeed in the right place. There’s no other room in the catacombs, just these hallways with cubby holes on the walls, each containing either porcelain jars or wooden boxes with peeling gold paint. Apart from the blood on the slab of rock, there
⇼ E L O R A ⇼Coldness creeps into my body, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Madam Mara’s eyes are filled with nothing but pure and cold fear, the kind that will petrify you on the spot. For a vague moment I wonder what she actually knew, what she has seen and heard that still makes her shake like this even though Uncle Osman is already dead.But when she said he’s not human . . . I felt that was true.It was in the way he fought Alistair and I. We’re both Supernaturals, and I know we’re not used to fighting, but we should have been able to overpower him in a second, no sweat. But no. He was prepared. He was resilient. He was fighting back. And at some point he was even winning. It really wasn’t normal, and I was definitely thinking about it, but I don’t think I truly considered the possibility of it until Madam Mara came to me.And now she’s staring at me intensely like she’s going to explode
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The sheer shock that thundered inside my body is enough to make time seem to slow down. I watch numbly as the Queen’s hand, still clasping the fork, draws closer and closer to her swollen belly. . . .I sweep closer, landing on my knees in front of the prison cell. I slide my hand through the metal bars just in time to move my hand right between the fork and her pregnant belly. She ends up stabbing my hand with enough force to let the tines sink into my palm with an abrupt squelching sound.The pain makes me gasp, but I take this accident as an opportunity to grab the fork and take it away from her.With my hand dripping blood, I turn to Jossie and Kalem, who are both horrified at the scene. “Do you have the key? Let’s take her—”“NO!” Queen Zuri shrieks, ramming against the metal bars. “It’s evil! Evil, I tell you! Get me out of here, please . . . I am begging you. Just take
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The way to the prison cells of the palace is steep, dark, and incredibly eerie. Jossie and Kalem are right beside me as we walk along the narrow hallways leading down, but I feel alone. I feel cold. It’s as though this part of the palace is full of invisible hands, slowly pulling me under a pool of freezing water.After my talk with Elora, Jossie found me and informed me that I must oversee what’s being done to the new prisoners.“We need to know how we’re going to do all these things and just . . . make a process,” she said, her confusion very apparent on her face. “I honestly don’t know what we’re going to do with all these people, Alistair. I don’t know if we can trust them to be here when there are still soldiers around. Even the soldiers of their own city-state are here too.”“I understand, and don’t worry, I will find a way,” I told her then, pretty con
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼The Queen holds out her arms for me to bind them, but I’m empty handed apart from the cannon I stole from a guard just moments ago. I look at Elora, and she cuts off a strip from the hem of her shirt and ties it around the Queen’s wrists before pulling her up to her feet.Around us, the handmaidens all get to their knees, touching the ground with their foreheads as they face us. For a brief second I have to wonder what they are doing exactly, but then it occurs to me that this is their sign of surrender. They are changing their allegiance. They are showing that they are now ready to serve us since we basically dethroned the Queen and invaded the whole palace.To be frank, I don’t know how to feel about all of this. I want to tell them that it’s alright, that they don’t need to bow, but I can’t find the right words to say.Would it even be alright to show some kind of consideration or sympathy after I
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼ The path down has absolutely no amount of illumination, not even the tiniest one. The light from the throne room isn’t sneaking into the hole, which makes me think that it’s nothing but a black hole gaping at the floor of the dais, with nothing inside it. But Elora is just making her way down as though this isn’t a problem. I want to stop her and ask if she is certain, but the determination on her face and her slow deliberate movements are the answer for me. I peek down and notice that she’s holding onto metal bars and not just floating down, but this does very little to assure me. The darkness reminds me of shadows. And shadows remind me of my magic. The magic that killed those innocent guards. The magic that poisoned them to death, blackened their veins, and mangled their bodies. . . . “Are you going to follow me or not?” Elora’s voice, thin and fragile and barely audible, snaps me out of my reverie. I quickly nod