“Serene, dear.” Her lips curl upward. “You shall sit here with the Royals while the chosen fight.”
“I am a damn chosen,” I snarl. I can feel the eyes of everyone around us as they glare at me. But I don’t flinch. I don’t look. I straighten my back and never blink.
“That you are, but you have no Realm. You will obey and stay beside me.” The Queen nods, pulling on her rein to guide her horse over to Dryden. “Please take the Light Stone, and lead the chosen into battle.”
Dryden arches his back, chin rising as he grabs the Light Stone and holds it up into the air. “Let’s kill some darklings!” he shouts, just in time for the mountain cliffs to begin to yell. Rocks tumble off of the cliff and down to the open, charred land. Some of the bones break with impact.
The chosen sprint forward towards the battlefield, their horses brightening the way with the elements—a kaleidoscope of colors ripping apart the darkness.
My fingers dig into my palms as I watch the darklings crawl over the mountain.
The horses weave through them as the men slice the darklings in half.
“Something feels off,” Florian grunts, holding his side. “There are more than last year.”
“Everything is fine.” The Queen lifts her chin high, watching the men fight below us.
My knee bounces as I steadily watch Koen. A darkling lunges, knocking him off of his horse and slamming him into the ground. I rise, lifting my body off of my horse's body as my nostrils flare with rage.
“Sit,” the Queen barks.
Fighting the urge to completely disobey her, I force myself to sit and slam my body back down.
My Fireninze scuffs her hoof against the ground, kicking up the ash and black dirt. Her head bobs, anxious to go down there and fight. I can feel her urge. I can sense it.
Dryden is thrown off of his horse, tumbling and rolling along the ground as he repeatedly stabs the darkling in the face.
“Antivianna,” Florian hisses through his groans of pain. “Something is wrong!”
“Silence!” she yells, red flushing up her neck.
My eyes widen as I catch sight of more fire darklings beginning to leap from the mountain top, their claws digging into the ash-filled ground when they land. Their yellow teeth peek through their charred lips as they hiss.
“Is this normal behavior for the darklings!” I shout, leaning against the neck of my horse to focus on Florian. But my heart plummets when I see his eyes filled with fear, his head shaking side to side.
“They are going to die if they don’t leave!” Florian begs the Queen. “Tell them to flee!”
“If they are the rightful chosen, they will survive!” Her hands grip her reins tighter. “If they die, they were meant to die.”
My body shifts backwards and my brows deepen. “You are mad!”
There are too many of them. The creatures continue to claw at the edges of the mountain as they climb down. Thousands of them, if not more, come. As if they are tiny ants, blending into the darkness of the cliffs, making it feel as if the mountain is about to tumble down and destroy them all.
Including the man I love.
My friends.
I cannot allow this to happen. How the hell does the Queen expect me to stand here on the sidelines and watch? They will die if we do not use the gifts from the Gods. I can’t understand how the Queen forbids us to use them. Even if everyone in theRealms believes the powers we have are curses, we can use them to wipe out the darklings for good.
Unless… the Queen doesn’t want that?
What if she has me sitting here, purposely, to watch my friends and the man I love, die? For payback.
A deep, violent exhale escapes through my nose. I close my eyes as I listen to the groans and screams of the men down there.
The darklings’ sinister screeches send goosebumps along my body and I grip the fire of my horse's mane tighter. Her hooves dig into the ground, sensing my rage, my desire, to run out there and burn the darklings to their death. I want to watch the embers light the sky. I want the smoke from the fire to block the sun as I watch them disintegrate into the air.
I forgot what power tasted like until the darkling from the cave reminded me.
