I don’t hesitate for one second. With shaking hands I fumble for the lock of the window and push the panes open, letting in the cold wind and the promise of being close to Alistair.
A part of me expected his image to vanish, but as I poke my head through the window frame, I still see him below, standing by the gardens, wearing his usual black linen clothes and a smile on his face.
That smile . . . oh, how I love it. Especially the way it’s not only a movement of the lips. You can see the joy in his eyes, in the slight scrunch of his nose, in the dimples on his cheeks. My heart immediately gets flooded with longing, so extreme that I can almost feel it physically. My eyes begin to water, and I find myself opening my mouth to shout his name.
But thankfully, I remember where I am at the last minute. I stop myself, pursing my lips and finding myself cracking the biggest smile I ever had in a while. My cheeks are stinging, but I don’t mind. I start
I stumble up the stairs to my bedroom, making a beeline towards my closet to pull out the first dress I see. It just so happens that the one I get is one of my old red ones, and I wriggle into it, my wet hair sticking to my face and the satin bodice.What do they want to do with me? I wonder as I exit my room and run back down the stairs. They’ve been avoiding me for days and now this? This is insane.A guard meets me at the bottom of the stairs, avoiding my eyes as I arrive in front of him. “Please, Miss, follow me,” he says in a clipped tone, gesturing to me to go with him. His arm is wobbling as he points me the way. “Are you ready?”“Yeah,” I mumble, and together we walk.Like everyone else, he’s keeping a distance from me. I guess it’s natural since I am supposed to be dead, but this just makes me want to act like a zombie to scare them all off. It doesn’t really seem to matter now, though,
“Hey!” I try to push Hendrik off of me. My skin is tingling with his touch, and not in a good way. “Let me go!”Hendrik doesn’t let go. If anything, his grip on my upper arm gets tighter. It’s pretty dark in the shack and I can’t see his face, but I’m pretty sure I’m getting a smug look from him now.“I swear, I will scream,” I threaten. “I will scream and people will hear me and they will know how much of an assaulter you are!”He sighs. “If you stop wriggling, I will let you go. I just want to talk in private and this is the only place I know where no one will listen. Now please, just stand there and listen. This will be over in a couple of minutes.”The exasperation in his voice tells me that he’s not here for the purpose that I thought. No one can possibly sound so done and want to assault someone at the same time. And he does seem to be honest, because whe
Queen Zuri gasps, her body growing rigid as more blood flows from between her legs. The cream colored gown she wore under her rich robes is now getting soaked with crimson, spreading around the area like a blooming flower.Her other hand snakes down to her crotch, her fingers getting smeared with blood. She lifts her stained fingers to her line of sight, then I watch as her expression transitions from pain to absolute terror.“No,” she mumbles. “My baby. . . .”A small whimper of pain escapes her lips, then she falls back against one of the mannequins. She tries to avoid the fall by flailing her bloody hand, but she only manages to get blood all over the dresses. Her face is scrunched up, with tears on her cheeks shining under the lights. I rush towards her and try to help her, but her scream stops me in my tracks.“Don’t you dare come near me and my child!” she yells ferociously. “Don’t you dare!&rdqu
“Are you alright?” Hendrik asks as soon as we exit the throne room, closing the door behind him as he holds the small of my back. “Elora, talk to me.”I can’t. I don’t want to open my mouth. I’m not even sure I heard him properly, what he’s been saying and what he just said right now. It seems like there are cotton balls stuffed inside my ringing ears, allowing me to block everything. My heart is beating too fast, and I have to gasp for breath as we start to walk along the hallway. My cheek is still stinging, but I’m already numb inside.Tomorrow will be my last day here in the palace. I will be out of this place forever. It’s what I wanted since I came back, right?Then why am I still hurt?Did I kill the baby? Was that the reason for my subtle exile? Is this why I’m getting banished? Did I—?“No,” Alistai suddenly says. “You didn’t.”&ldqu
The world seems to have frozen for a millisecond, allowing time itself to slow down and almost sputter to a stop. It's almost in frame by frame that I see my nails digging into the priest's robes, ripping the fabric and exposing his chest. The tips of my nails graze his skin, leaving long open lines that spurt crimson seemingly everywhere.Sheer shock makes me stumble back. Disgust makes me get down on the platform. And fear, so thick and so opaque that it's blurring my vision, makes me bolt towards the exit.As I run, I hear the priest's body hit the floor when he falls unconscious. I hear the gasps of Father and Uncle Osman. Then, I hear the swift footsteps of Hendrik behind me."Elora, don't run!" he says in a panic, trying to grab my arm. "Elora!"I don't listen to him. I keep running, reaching the arched door and bursting into the early morning like a bird freed from its cage.The cold wind caresses my face, making my skin feel tingly, perhaps a
My brain stops working. I can’t quite comprehend what I’m seeing. I’m shaking badly, but at the same time my body feels incapable of any kind of movement. All I know is that I can’t look away from the creature slowly crawling out of the sewers, its legs as thick as branches. Its face is pale and just . . . wrong.It has eight eyes like a regular spider, black and beady and scattered on its forehead. Its hair is long and flowy, and I don’t know if it’s just me, or if it has that blurry, crawling quality that makes my skin prickle.I can’t believe such a creature still exists, and I can’t believe it’s lurking here in the open. I can’t believe no one has seen it yet.But that’s not true, because now that I stare closely, I can see mangled bones littering the sewer floor.I reach for Hendrik’s hand, too scared to mind what I’m doing. I just want to feel someone next to me, someone a
Sheer shock invades my body like a lightning strike. I blink rapidly to make sure that what I’m seeing isn’t just a product of wishful thinking, and I’m right. The one I’m looking at right now is no other than Jossie.“I see Jossie,” I whisper, pulling Hendrik’s hand. “I see her.”“Who?” He frowds as he follows my line of sight. “I don’t recognize anyone. Is she an enemy? Should we go?”“She’s one of them,” I say. “One of the Supernaturals.”Hendrik’s face lights in realization. I look back at the spot where Jossie was standing but she’s no longer there. All I can see is the back of her head as she runs in the opposite direction. She must have seen me, and that’s probably what prompted her to leave.Before Hendrik can react, I run after Jossie with my heart pounding in my throat. The only thing I’m following now
“Where are we going?” I ask anxiously as Jossie leads Hendrik and I deeper into the forest. “Where are you taking us?” “Just follow me,” she replies curtly, which doesn’t help my nerves at all. “That’s not reassuring,” Hendrik mutters, still with his sword drawn. “I’m telling you, one wrong step and I will—” “Poke me with that sword? I’m telling you, I can break that shit in half. Now shut up.” Hendrik looks at me with a “let’s get out of here” expression, but I’m too in my head to take notice. The forest of Corrin is not much different from those I’ve seen, but the beginning of fall is already making a mark on the leaves, turning their edges orange and yellow. The glow of the afternoon is setting them ablaze, but I can’t see any kind of beauty. I’m nervous. My heartbeat is a wreck and so is my head, even though there’s only one thing that’s been inside my mind since I saw Jossie. “Will I. . . .” I falter, taking a deep breath. “Will I
⇼ 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