⇼ 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 ⇼ After a long time in the darkness, floating and disappearing, I begin to stir. Slowly and surely, with very little of my sensations coming back with every second passing. Memories of what happened begin to come back to me, and my heart just explodes in pain. Hendrik . . . Hendrik is gone. He was killed right in front of me. He was killed trying to save me. Tears begin to flow down my cheeks. I try to extend my hand because of what I was doing last, hoping to reach for his hand, but then I realize that I can’t move. My wrists are bound by thick rope. My eyes are covered in a thick strip of cloth, same with what’s between my teeth. My ankles are also tied together, and my torso is stuck to the backrest of the chair I’m sitting on due to the tight knots around
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼ ‘Don’t hurt them!’ I try to tell the wolf, but it’s no longer listening to me. I’m pushed all the way inside our shared consciousness, so deep that the only way I can get out right now is if the wolf lets me. But no. There’s no chance. The only thing going on in its head is war and his desire for a bloodbath. The soldiers fire another round, and the wolf only growls, but all the ammunition disappear midair. That’s when I realize that the wolf and I are surrounded by this acidic cloud of darkness that’s melting everything that comes close. Jossie is driving our own allies away from me. They all look terrified of what the wolf is doing. Some of the soldiers are scaling the wall to get close to us, and the wolf just runs to meet them halfway. ‘None of you will hurt me,’ it says menacingly. ‘Not again. Never again.’ The wolf rears as the men try to attack us with a spear, and instantly a cloud of shadows engulf them. Th
⇼ E L O R A ⇼ Everything stopped existing all at once. I could swear everything turned black the moment Father uttered those words. I don’t even know what to call him now. My whole life was a lie. I was never the heir, never the princess. The whole thing I based my entire world on was never based on the truth. And surprisingly, knowing this gave me a sense of relief. Yes, my life just got into disarray because of this revelation, but at the same time, the puzzle pieces are finally coming together. All the things that I worried about before are now being answered, just because of that simple statement. I look down at him, the man I thought was my father, and he stares up at me with a mix of apology and regret. “It was all in the letters,” he says, his voice breaking at the last word. “Ravea often left the palace to roam, and it was because she still visited them, met up with them, given that they wore disguises. She was in love with one of them
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼ The bricks of the wall behind me start to cascade down in a cacophony of thuds and cracks. In a puff of smoke, the entire section of the wall crumbles, taking down some of the guards standing on top of it, sending them crashing right on the ground. The crack of their bodies hitting the concrete is grating my ears, but it’s doing the opposite to the wolf. It’s music for it. I can sense its dark satisfaction, rippling through its body like a wave of warmth in a bitter winter. I look to my side and see that my allies have made it down safely, but they’re still backing into the corner, away from the palace guards and away from me. Any moment, they could be attacked. If all these guards, who are pointing their cannons and other weapons at me, turned to them and decided to hurt them instead, they would all be dead. And it would be my fault for not being strong enough to control the raging beast that’s dominating the show now. ‘Please let
Hello, everyone! I have been made aware that my chapters have been repeated for an embarrassing number of times, and for this I am sorry. The problem is fixed now and you can view the new chapters as they should have been set. Again, I am truly sorry for this inconvenience. I am currently using a very old device to write the story, and I will get a new device after getting paid here. I hope you understand. Thank you to the people who left comments and raised this to my attention. Thank you for not giving me a bad rating because of this. I really appreciate your support and your patience. Please, if you have time, give this story a review. It will help get this book a boost in the ratings and this will also give the book more exposure. So if you enjoyed it, please let me know! Also, if you have any feedback, I would love to see those as well. The book is approaching its end but this will undergo serious editing and revision, so any kind of construc
⇼ A L I S T A I R ⇼ I stare at the man who claims to be the King’s brother. I have seen King Odion a couple of times through images, and up close when we were entering the gates of Gailis. The resemblance between them is pretty clear. Not uncanny, but really hard not to miss. He tries to step forward, closer to me, but I stop him by raising a hand. “Do not come any closer.” Osman stumbles back abruptly and almost knocks over one of the mannequins. “I’m so sorry, please do not kill me.” “I won’t do that,” I say, making my way around the place slowly, not taking my eyes off of him the entire time, especially when he lowers his hands. “You said you’re going to show me where the King is?” “Yes!” he answers breathlessly, sinking into another deep bow and falling forward. He lands on his knees, and in the same jerky manner, he straightens up, brushes himself off, and bows again, but much carefully this time. “But I have one condition, sir. Just one
⇼ 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