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“We both know a relationship between us is impossible, so you backed away because you’re the kind of man who does the right thing. I get that. In fact, I was thinking the same thing after the kiss.” I narrow my eyes at him, letting some of the hurt and anger seep through in my words. “Butyou could have been man enough to come tell me that. I’m a big girl, I promise you I can handle anything you throw my way.”
His shoulders slump and he takes another step toward me. “I couldn’t come see you,” he says. “You’re right, a relationship between us would be impossible. It shouldn’t happen. I shouldn’t have let us carry on as we did.” He takes another step closer until he’s only inches from me. “And I knew if I saw you, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that.” He reaches out and holds my hand. “I don’t want to tell you that. I want to take you in my arms right now and throw everything else to the wind.” He drops his head and then lifts it again, staring into my eyes. “Sky, I think I’m falling for you.”
I raise a brow. “Does the redhead know that?”
He scoffs. “She is nothing but a distraction, to try to get my mind off of you.” He rubs his thumb over the top of my hand. “You’re the one I can’t stop thinking about.”
I close my eyes for a moment, just enjoying the feel of my hand in his. But the truth is, if he does what he says he wants to and kisses me right now, despite knowing it’s a bad idea, I’d probably go along with it and hope everything finds a way to work out. I have too much hurt and too much drink in me. But he doesn’t, which means he’s going to do the right thing after all. I open my eyes and pull my hand out of his, taking a step back. “Sometimes, life isn’t about what we want, right? I told you the first day we met not to fall for me. Go back to the redhead, Kellan. I’m not the girl for you.” I shrug. “We can’t change who we are.”
I turn and walk away, and this time he doesn’t follow.
Daimis was right about me hurting him, but I didn’t expect to get hurt, too. I wipe a wayward tear and keep on walking. I make my way back to my rooms, change into my nightgown, wash my face, and let my mood and the fuzziness of alcohol drag me into sleep.
I’m in the greenhouse with Daimis. He had asked me to meet him here, but a bright green light caught our attention from across the room. We followed the light, but kept hidden, crouching behind some bushes. My father and the King have their hands on the rim of a large metal bowl on an altar, and whatever is in it is glowing a bright green. Although we’re too far away to understand exactly what’s being said, I can vaguely hear my father’s voice murmuring fae words for a spell. Soon, both of the men’s eyes are glowing the same green.
I glance at Daimis who looks at me questioningly. I shrug and turn my gaze back to the scene before us. I’d seen my father do spells before, but I’d never seen one like this. I wondered why King Berhane would be a part of it.
A man in a Steel Guard’s uniform storms in. He’s Kellan’s father, Galen Fareway, the king’s third and the commander of the Steel Guard. He has always scared me. His face is hard as he takes in the scene. “Stop this at once!” he yells. “I will not allow you to ruin the kingdom of man.” Kellan’s father brings his blade down on the altar, but he’s too late to stop whatever is happening. The green light turns blacker than night and shoots straight up, shattering the glass ceiling of the greenhouse. I scream and throw my arms up over my head. Daimis covers my body with his until the shards stop falling. We both look up, following the black cylinder until it stops far overhead. The sky where the darkness has stopped splits open, the edges of the tear glowing green. Dark skeletal creatures, dripping in shadows, visions from a nightmare, slip through the tear. They fly overhead and more come into our world with each passing moment.
I look back to my father who is exchanging what looks like strong words with King Berhane, while Kellan’s father and several Steel Guards stare at the flying creatures in horror. My father and the King are still holding the edge of the bowl when a blast of my father’s green magic strikes the King’s chest like a bolt of lightning. The King collapses to the ground, his eyes staring into nothing, devoid of life. Dead. One moment he was there and the next not. My mind can’t make sense of it until Daimis’s anguished scream pierces the air.
His cry is like a blade slicing into the core of my soul. Deep sadness consumes me, as if it were my father on the ground. I grab Daimis’s hand as much for my comfort as his. He squeezes back so hard it hurts, but I don’t let go. Not even as Kellan’s father descends on mine. He thrusts his blade into my father’s chest, locking in his fate. The rest of the Steel Guard join in. I watch in shocked horror as they stab him over, and over, and over again.
My screams fill the air, sounding foreign even to my own ears. My father locks eyes with me. His expression, full of pain and anguish, of regret and sorrow, and of love. He crawls toward me. Though he never reaches me, his blood does. I watch confused as my father’s body slumps to the floor, his lips still formed around the last word of his final spell. He lays still in a pool of his own blood, eyes open, sightless, lifeless. The heavy metallic scent of blood is all I can smell. It sits heavy in the air, making it hard to breathe. A bright orb of magic, my father’s magic, leaves his body, floating through the air before colliding and absorbing into mine. His final spell, I realize.
As soon as the light touches me, it is as if every cell in my body vibrates with warmth so intense that I would’ve crashed to my knees had Daimis not been holding my hand. His firm grip keeping me steady, lending me strength. Through the fog of the new magic, I try to understand the horrors in front of me; Daimis’s father, dead, my father, dead. My young mind can’t make sense of it. Father is so strong, so powerful, he can’t be dead.
Heroes don’t die.
A crippling numbness settles over my body and mind. This must be a nightmare, it’s the only possible solution I can conjure. I slowly shake my head. A nightmare. . .yes, that’s right. . . only a nightmare. My father, the only family I have in this world, is not gone. I will wake up, and I will go to his bedside to tell him about this horrible dream, and he will take me in his arms, and he will stroke my hair, and tell me everything will be alright.
“Get the girl!” Kellan’s father yells, startling me from my thoughts.
Daimis steps into my view. I look up at his tear-streaked face, a face I know as well as my own, to tell him that this isn’t real. I want to tell him that our fathers are fine, but his lips are moving, and he frantically shakes my shoulder with his free hand. “Run! Run, Sahra!” Daimis screams. He releases my shoulder and yanks me in the direction of the spiraling stairwell. Reality crashes into me, shattering my world with its cruelty. Real. This is real, and if the Steel Guard catches me, I will be joining my father’s fate. Fear, now a war drum in my heart, propels me forward. I run down the winding stairs with Daimis, slipping, but catching myself on the railing before tumbling into him. The sound of armor and heavy footfalls echoes in the stairwell behind us. We have a slight lead, but we are small. The guards will catch up before long.
Once we hit the bottom of the stairwell, Daimis turns to me. “I’ll hold them off so you can get away. Cloak yourself and get out of the castle. I’ll meet you at the fountain in the main square. Stay cloaked, stay hidden, and wait for me.”
I nod, but a voice in my head screams,don’t let him go. I look down at our still joined hands. I don’t want to let go.
“Run, Sahra. You have to go,” Daimis says. He looks back up the stairwell, where the sound of pursuit is growing in volume. “Go,” he says one last time and pulls his hand from my own before giving me a small shove.
I stumble from his shove and recite the incantation for the cloaking spell. The magic responds quickly and with such force that I gasp for air after. I back farther away from Daimis when the first guard appears, running down the stairs.
Daimis unsheathes the blade at his hip and yells a battle cry before surging toward the guard. The guard blocks his strikes. One after another and another. Daimis doesn’t relent, and the guard stays on the defensive. He will not strike back at the young prince, not unless he wants to lose his head. I take the precious time Daimis is giving me, turn and run, hating with every part of me that I’m leaving him behind.
I only get a couple of feet before vice-like hands wrap around my arms and yank me back. I look up into the Regent’s cold dark stare. “Finally, I’ve found you.”
This is all wrong. I’m supposed to run away. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. And yet, even as my mind knows this isn’t my story, I still feel the bite of the Regent’s hands on my arms. Fear consumes me, drowning me until it’s everything I am.
“No! No!” I scream, struggling against the Regent’s hold. “Daimis!”
A deep voice shouts at me, though I can’t decipher the words. It’s like hearing underwater. I try to find where the voice is coming from, but my fear and the Regent won’t let me go. I struggle, fighting to break free. I can’t escape. He’s going to kill me like he killed my father. I feel myself shattering as the glass had. Too many pieces, too much blood, too much death…death. And darkness. Darkness everywhere.
“Wake up!”
“You’re having a nightmare. Wake up!”
Daimis?
