Seemed his fangs, in fact, didnothold up against stone.
Maura stumbled back, immediately feeling drained from the magic. She released her hold on the spell and nonchalantly stepped over the body.
The underground tunnelswere damp with the stench of rot. Maura had searched for the truth, and it reeked even worse.
A carved out underground system ran like roots below the castle. She’d stumbled upon them while sneaking around—the night she discovered the Skell King smuggling Vinter Coalfrom Vinterland. Something no ruler should’ve been able to do.
Maura’s mind pounded. If he could breech one land, what would stop him from infiltrating them all?
The Vinter King was rumored to be the most merciless ruler within the Ferie Realm. Housing the most lethal weapon—Vinter Coal—which now laid in the Skell King’s hands.
“Sacred souls,”Maura cursed.
A chill caressed her spine. The air shifted to make room for the dead.
Maura’s sixth sense, herinkling, flared.Warning her of a presence.
A plasmic light approached. Asoulhad sought her out. The spirit spoke to her mind, not in words, but in prophecy:
“The Skell Queen will carry a child of trueborn power,
The first in Ferie, born of two great lines,
A forked path lies before them—one of free will, one of fate,
Should they choose the written path,
All shall bow,
Even the mightiest ruler shall bend the lowest and rise at their side.”
Needle-prick sensations ran across her skin, hairs raising.
It was no ordinary soul, it was ancient—the Soothseer.
A cool,crisp breeze rustled the leaves at her feet, rolling them forward. The wind at her back pushed, as if begging for haste as she ran through the forest to the portals. Maura wouldn’t have much time before the Skells would realize she’d vanished.
The King was wicked incarnate. He searched all of HallowLand to find the strongest Soulsayer as his prized queen for breeding, wanting a child of both Soulsayer and Shadow Wielder abilities.
One of the elders in the village, Tabitha, was a woman of the Craft. She’d helped Maura come into her Soulsayer abilities growing up. Even taught her to concoct potions to avoid pregnancy when she got older—a clever skill that hadn’t failed her yet.
Maura wouldn’t allow the Skell King to break another innocent child, turning them into a creature of darkness. She’d seen it before. He’d murdered every bastard child he sired when foretold they’d never have power. All exceptone. The King’s lowly Soothsayer foresaw the unlucky boy having shadow-wielding gifts and like a dog to train and brutalize when he saw fit, he kept him.
Maura knew the King’s madness couldn’t be contained, that other rulers needed to know the truth.
But first, she needed David, her most trusted friend. It’d been ages since they’d seen each other. David, now set to be the next Lord of Loveland, didn’t have time to sneak away like he used to. And he didn’t know what had become of Maura. That she was now the Skell Queen, living in a dark cage of nightmares.
As a girl, Maura had stumbled too far into the forest one day. It was forbidden to portal into another land uninvited, but she was nothing but wild and curious. The moment she saw that carved heart on the trunk of the cherry blossom tree, it called to her, so she touched it. It rifted her to a pink beach in Loveland. David, a prince on patrol, caught her making sand-angels like a giddy toddler. Instead of arresting her, he joined her. They’d been kindred souls ever since, sneaking in secret to explore the realm,together.
The moonlight painted a haze over the portal trees. Panicflooded Maura’s body, being so close yet so far from freedom. So she bolted, placing her hand on the intricately carved heart and rifted.
Loveland was silent, and yet, a cacophony of noise: the rush of a waterfall, the chirping of insects, the tapping of flowers swaying in a breeze. Then came the familiar flapping sound she grew to love.
A warmth imbedded itself inside her chest as a half-dozen Cherubs burst from beneath the waterfalls, wings glowing cream-white in the moonlight. Loveland’s ancient guardians. Mischievous, and armed.
They swarmed above her, weapons drawn, one aiming a neon-red bow at her heart. The string crackled with red-hot, molten energy.
Maura yanked her hood down.
