There stood my father. The man who meant everything to me. The one I hated for so many reasons but could never stop loving. Perhaps it was our strange love that made me capable of the complex love for Demir.
‘Hello, my heart. I’ve missed you, but what a queen you have become. I am proud.’ I held onto my arms tightly, hugging myself, as all I wanted was to catapult myself into these people’s arms.
‘What do I do?’ Asking no one, yet everyone all the same.
‘Giveeverythingup,’ two deep rumbling voices came. Amidst the shadows, there stood Axia and Ember. The dragons I had last seen in Sage’s memory, who sacrificed everything to protect us from the Mrak the last time. Shaking my head, I didn’t understand.
‘I did, I gave it all up—my life, my love…’ I said, looking at Demir as he stepped closer to me. Brushing his fingers through my hair as if to sweep it from my face and tuck it behind my ear. My sister stepped forward then, pointing to the emblem on her chest. The emblem engraved on my sword and on every building in Maureia: our family’s crest. Two dragons dancing.
‘The Mrak has nearly followed you completely; it’s been drawn to you not because you are the Queen of Darkness, but because you are the Queen of Light. Give me the eternal flame,’ she said, right as my mind began to reel.
‘Why? I’m here now. Let it come for me.’
She shook her head at me, sending me back to my childhood as if I were a naïve child. ‘You’re not truly here, not like us. You can still go back; you can save Demir, but you have to leave apiece of your soul here with us to call the Mrak and keep it enthralled and trapped. You must go back without the biggest piece of your soul. Leave your power, your birthright, then you and Demir can depart—it is an exchange of power like no other. But you will never be the same; the soul link between you will be destroyed.’
Panic threatened to consume me as I processed her words.How could any of this be real?‘How?’ was all I could say. It was barely audible, but they heard nonetheless.
The dragons spoke next, commanding the space. ‘With us as your guides.’
I snorted at those words, as everyone I had tried to touch in that plane of existence was nothing but ash and air.
‘It won’t be the same.’ I turned to Demir. ‘I could stay here with you like this, where we still remember how we feel. I don’t think I can go back and be alone again. I don’t want to go back more broken than I was before,’ I sobbed, sinking to the floor and letting my fears finally be exposed.
Demir kneeled down before me, his misty fingers brushing my chin to look at him. ‘I choose you. Not this bond, not my soul, but my heart, body and mind. I choose you, Skylar. Not the flame. It was never your gifts; never your power, but instead, it was the power that is you. It was your smile, your depth, your generous heart, your pure vulnerability, your fearlessness, your fight and your unyielding strength. It was always you. Just you, Princess.’
I searched his eyes, looking for any shred of doubt but there was none. ‘What if I go back to hating you?’ I breathed the words that revealed just how selfish I was in the face of his declaration of selfless love.
He smirked. ‘Don’t worry; I’m a pretty persistent guy. I’m sure I can worm my way back inside you, deep inside you.’ A laugh escaped me at the most inopportune time.
‘I like this one,’ Zoe called from behind us. ‘Almost wish I had stayed around long enough to give men another chance,’ shejoked. I was faced with the world ending and surrounded by death, but I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at the girl I considered my second half until I met Demir.
Turning to my sister, I reached my hand out, inhaling deeply. ‘Take it all.’ For the first time since I had entered the spirit realm, I felt her touch—soft, cold fingers clasping my hand—as searing white light erupted from my skin, bleeding into hers.
‘Say goodbye, sister. I hope you don’t come back for a long, long time.’
I quickly turned to everyone I had lost over the years and whispered that I loved them all before my eyes settled on Demir who now stood stroking Ember and Axia. As the last traces of light seeped out of me, I felt the bond snap. I went from feeling everything while looking at the man I loved, to feeling nothing. I couldn’t feel him anymore. None of the warmth of the bond remained; it was now hollow. And as the final crack of it broke, a pain like no other shook through my body. I stepped forward towards him but found myself back in the clearing. As I woke up, Demir stood before me, grinning with his hand outstretched. I hesitated, fearing his fingers would just melt through my own again, but he held me firm, pulling me to my feet. I reached for his neck, seeing a faint scar where his father had cut through him. Only then did I feel the weight of my own sword in my other hand, but the blue stone now sat lifeless, no more molten blue flames roaring within it. As I took in the length of my blade, I saw in its reflection that my own blue eyes had been replaced by my previous dark brown ones.
‘It is time for Skylar of Azdaja to end this once and for all.’ Two dragon-shaped spirits stood behind Demir, speaking to me as they had in the spirit realm. Demir turned abruptly, having heard them as well; at least I was not completely insane.
A groan came from the ground, and there at my feet lay Sebastian. The one that started all of this for me. That is what the dragons had meant. Demir looked at him with cold indifference, but I almost pitied the man before me. He looked like hehad aged twenty years without the darkness feeding on him anymore.
I stood over him, blade poised. All the things I had wanted to say to him no longer mattered as I pressed the blade down and through his heart. I watched his eyes shutter and close. I expected to feel calm or happy like I had in my previous visions from theOracle, but instead, an anxious feeling clawed at my skin as I thought of Demir. Axia and Ember’s spirit forms faded then as an invisible wind stirred the trees, the sound of their wings thunderous.
‘Where are you going?’ I asked.
‘To cleanse every soul touched by the Mrak and any dark magic before we return to the spirit realm,’ they replied. And just like that, they shot into the air and headed for the battlegrounds with a roaring shriek. I had thought all this time that I needed the dragons to win the battle in the first place and that we were doomed to fail, but perhaps this was how it was meant to be all along.
My mind was put at ease as Demir leaned into me and whispered, ‘You should have made him suffer.’
‘How are you feeling?’ I asked, leaving out the needy part of me that wanted to know how he felt about me now that the bond was broken. The excitement of war had come to an end, and the threat of his father no longer kept him from his home. But with or without a bond, he knew me that did not mean he still wanted me.
‘I feel like I want to go home with you and fuck you until you scream like you did last night,’ he whispered as he breathed into my ear.
‘You still want me?’ I asked, still slightly uncertain.
‘I’ll always want you, Princess. Nothing and no one else.’
‘What about your people?’ I asked, looking down at the dead King of Morgad and back up at the next rightful heir.
