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The wise voice of the seer echoed all around me, seemingly everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. A translucent vision of her stood before me, her inky black gaze capturing my attention in an instant.
“Yes,” I breathed.
“Good.”
She pitched forward towards me, her hands reaching for me. Her palms slammed into my chest, and I tensed, her ancient magic flowing through me with boundless wild power. Immediately, white tendrils of magic seeped out of her fingers, sinking right into my chest. The white glowing mystical energy tingled through my chest and wound through the muscle fibers of my heart. Slowly, violet magic seeped out of me, taking the pain along with it. I sucked in a ragged breath, slumping forward as I met her gaze. The obsidian depths of her eyes stared into mine.
“Your price?” I whispered, terrified of the answer.
“You must take Sophia as your one true mate. She must be marked.”
“That is your price?”
“You will understand the price I have taken when the time is right,”she replied. Her voice was thick with meaning, and I didn’t fully comprehend it. She didn’t give me enough time to ask any further questions because she snapped her fingers and disappeared.
Instantly, the battle sprang back into action.
Sophia and Mais circled each other, their swords poised with deadly grace. The clash of steel filled the air as sparks erupted from their blades.
Sophia’s eyes blazed with furious determination as she lunged forward, her sword arcing through the air with lethal precision. Mais parried with swift agility, her curved blade deflecting the attack with a resounding clang.
With a swift motion, she withdrew a small glass vial from her belt, the contents swirling with a mysterious purple haze. In a calculated move, she shattered the vial against the rocky ground, and a resounding snap pierced the air.
As the glass shattered, an ethereal portal materialized, a gateway to the castle of Helheim. Swirling purple clouds beckoned, promising escape from the raging battle. Mais seized the moment, darting towards the portal with a swift leap. Sophia, caught off guard, lunged forward in a desperate attempt to stop her, but it was too late.
The portal swallowed Mais whole, her figure vanishing into her home realm. Mais looked back over her shoulder, showing me her real face. Dark glowing purple eyes stared into mine as she smiled. It was startling to see the jagged burn scars that had destroyed the right side of her face. Her lips were most jarring of all, eaten away to expose the flesh of her gums and the sides of her teeth. The sight of her was unnerving as she smiled, her eyes dancing with malevolent intent.
With a steel resolve, Sophia leapt forward, fully intending to follow Mais into the portal, but with a swift, ominous clap, the portal snapped shut just inches from her outstretched hand. She snarled out loud, her frustration at losing her foe clear.
The hooded figures rushed towards her, and I roared with restrained fury of my own. Without another thought, I shifted into my dragon form, fully free for the first time in more than five hundred years. Muscles elongated and bones rippled as my wings unfurled from my back with a loud snap.
I rubbed my tongue against the roof of my mouth, igniting the flames at the back of my throat. Careful to avoid Sophia, I roared and rained flames down on the figures racing to attack her. Two made it through, but Sophia slashed her own blade down in a whirling arc, catching the first directly across the throat in a volley of blood. The man didn’t even have time to scream before he fell to the ground in a slump. Then she sunk her blade deep in the belly of the second man before yanking it free with a hard jerk.
I turned my gaze to Malachi, setting my sights on him once and for all. I flapped my wings hard, lifting myself up into the air above the treetops. He threw balls of wind and magic towards me, trying to throw my flight off course. He would fail.
As Malachi unleashed his magic, I soared through the air, evading his every onslaught. My instincts guided me, my senses heightened in my dragon form. I twisted and turned, my powerful wings propelling me with speed and precision, dodging the tendrils of dark violet energy that lashed out towards me. The air crackled with the remnants of his failed attempts to ensnare me, but I remained elusive, a phantom weaving through the storm of his attacks. As I deftly avoided his magical onslaught, I could feel the surge of exhilaration coursing through my veins. With a mighty roar that shook the very foundation of the earth, I dove towards him, my claws slicing through the air like sharpened blades with the full intent of disemboweling him alive.
Malachi’s eyes widened, a flicker of fear betraying his confident façade. But he refused to back down, summoning dark magic in a desperate attempt to repel my attack. Bolts of powerful violet energy crackled towards me, but I avoided them effortlessly with a swish of my wings. Closing the distance, I unleashed my fiery breath, a torrent of poisonous green flames that engulfed him, searing through his defenses before he had enough time to use his magic to block it.
As the flames subsided, I saw Malachi, his body scorched and broken, struggling to regain his composure. With a menacing growl, I closed in, my razor-sharp teeth poised to deliver the final blow. A glimmer of resignation flashed in his eyes, the realization that he’d finally met his match, and I reveled in it.
With a primal fury, I lunged forward, fully intending on sinking my teeth into his flesh, but Sophia got to him first.
She emerged from the shadows, her sword gleaming with determination. With a swift and decisive motion, she raised her weapon high, the blade catching the dim light with a deadly glimmer. In one seamless motion, her sword cleaved through the air and sunk into his throat, meeting its mark with an explosive force. The sound of metal meeting flesh reverberated through the battlefield, accompanied by a sickening thud. Malachi’s head soared through the air and slammed into the ground with a loud thunk, a chilling testament to the end of his terrible reign.
Sophia stood tall, her breath ragged, but with the adrenaline of victory written all over her features.
She turned her head and met my gaze.
“It’s time for you to take back your crown.”
CHAPTER22
Sophia
I walked up to Roken on shaky legs. Before today, I had never killed anyone, and the surge of that victory was making my thighs tremble. I tripped as he shifted back into his human form, catching me before I fell. His arms wrapped around me so tightly that I could scarcely breath.
“He could have killed you,” he scolded, but his tone remained light with relief. His arms squeezed a bit tighter, revealing the emotion that he wouldn’t voice.
