AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ann
I’m completely numb as I stand over two of the people I love most in this world, dead, unable to be saved. It’s like I’m in a bad dream and I can’t wake up from it, no matter how much I want to. My nails are digging so hard into my palms that I can feel blood running from them, but nothing changes how broken I am inside.
It’s somewhere between numb and the most heartbreaking pain I ever imagined experiencing.What do I do? How do I keep going?
I… just don’t know.
It feels like the moment couldn’t get worse, until it does. A rumbling builds, shaking the ground, and we know. All of us.
Our group turns to the edge of this world, to the opening into the Void. The Shadow King’s army comes pouring back into this world like a tsunami of death. The grave trolls roar, the shadow beasts growl, and the monkeys chitter eerily. All of their feet hit the ground with a vengeance that’s similar to chaos from an earthquake.
It looks like the end of the fucking world.
Dusk grabs my wrist. “We have to go.”
“Go where?” I ask him, whirling onto the man I care for so much.
He shakes his head. “The castle. The forest. Anywhere. If we stay here, it’ll be certain death.”
But before I can answer, the rumbling stops, changes. I turn back in shock and watch as the grave trolls begin to shriek. The sounds are so painful that I actually cover my ears. And then before our eyes, the trolls begin to melt. As do the monkeys. Only, instead of standing in place shrieking, the monkeys run for the half-dead forests.
It’s eerie watching the monkeys. They’re turning to ash as they run, some falling into piles, with nothing to indicate they were ever living beings. Others are half-burned, creepy-looking things that manage to find cover beneath the trees, although there’s not a lot of cover there still.
The grave trolls all melt, well, collapse into ash, and an unseen breeze seems to ruffle the particles, stirring them into the air. It’s horrific in a strange way to watch the creatures that have terrorized us for so long die, and yet, I don’t know that I’d want anything to die this way.
The shadow beasts, however, don’t turn to ash. They observe the scene before them and then begin to move again, this time more cautiously, toward us. Dusk and Onyx withdraw their swords. I hold out my hand, ready to call for what little power I have left inside of me… when Shenra grabs my wrist.
“No.”
“Shenra, they’re not our people any longer,” Dusk says, his voice grave.
“They are,” she says simply, “and without the king to control them, they can be themselves once more. Someone needs only to remind them.”
“How?” I ask, because the closer they come with their sharp teeth and claws, the more I want to run away from these beasts. To avoid being torn to pieces.
“Without Phantom, one of us should be their new leader. We just need to try to see if they’ll obey our command. If they’ll see us as an alpha. And once they accept us as their new alpha, we can allow them to transform into their other forms and remember what it is to be people. To remember who they are and that there’s more to life than being controlled. Than living and dying for an evil ruler.”
Fuck. She’s right. As much as I want something to suffer for taking Phantom and Rayne from me, it shouldn’t be them. They’re victims in all of this too. They deserve our kindness, as long as it doesn’t cost us our lives.
I let my hand drop. “She’s right.”
“And what if this doesn’t work?” Dusk asks, and Onyx gives me a look that says he agrees.
“We can’t just slaughter innocent people, or what did we even save this world for?”
My words are met with silence, and then both Dusk and Onyx drop their swords.
The shadow beasts are nearly on us when I decide to hell with it. “Stop!” I command. “I am your alpha, and you will obey me.”
In response, they flash their teeth and growl.So, okay, I’m not the alpha. I can live with that.
Dusk is next, and my gut says he’ll be the one, as the oldest remaining family of their line. “Stop. This war is over. I’m your new alpha, your new king, and you’ll obey me.”
They don’t respond, just advance, closing in around us like prey.Fuck.
Onyx looks defeated even before he begins to sign, and then he says one word, too loudly, his tone a little off, but strong, “Stop.”
Heads jerk toward him, but they keep going.
