AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let me go!” Elara screamed, her shout rattling the high glass as the guards dragged her and I toward the dais and the altar had been erected there, the surface already stained with red blood from the wedding ceremony.
The crimson stained altar.
“Let us go!”
This was it, in all the stories Da told, this was where Elara would take on the queen.
This is where the Red War began.
My magic was screaming now as the guards dragged us forward, strong boots kicking the backs of my knees and sending Elara and I down before the altar.
“Stop this! Stop, Silas! Let me go!” Elara was still yelling, still fighting as they pulled her arms around, pulling both our hands forward across the altar where a set of chains were waiting.
“This isn’t what we had planned these for, but I have a feeling this will be even better.” The guard, Silas, wrapped the chain around Elara’s wrists, the snarl in his voice a grind as he pulled my wrist forward toward the waiting chain.
My mind ran through the motions of removing his head from his body, of sending what was left of him over the crowd and into one of those stone pillars. A flame across his chest, a shift of ground to bring the temple down…
“Accidents can happen in these ceremonies after all–” Silas continued, only to be cut off by Elara as she spit in his face.
“That’s for the Boy,” she snarled, hatred dripping from her as she leaned forward and the guard recoiled, his hand lifting to slap. He didn’t get that far before I wrapped my hand around his, the chains he had been attempting to clasp around my wrist rattling to the ground as I grabbed him.
“You really don’t want to be doing that. Any of it.” My fire was prepared to flare, to singe his skin and let him know exactly what was coming. I memorized his face, the hooked nose, the blonde mousey hair. I had a feeling he had hit her before, that many of them had with how she fought.
That wouldn’t be happening again.
Especially not after we ended the queen.
“I’ll do what I want, Catalyst filth. You won’t have a say soon, anyway.” Silas grinned in supposed victory, and pulled his hand away. Or tried to. Before he could make more than one attempt, I pulled him in, rising up as I clenched his hand.
“Funny. Because I do what I want to.” He looked confused for only a moment before I slammed my head into his, releasing his hand as he fell back screaming, clutching head and nose as blood rolled down his face from his nose, splattering over the surface of the altar.
The shadow of pain lashed over my forehead as he stuttered back a step, clutching his nose as I sent a whip of flame his way. The crackling power cut through the air, spreading over the ground in a ribbon as it snaked through everything to reach him. Screams echoed over the marble and stone room and I turned, ready to send the rest of the guards and the frightened onlookers into the ground. I only wanted the queen after all, even these casualties would be nothing compared to what was coming. To what I could stop.
Everything rattled and shook as the marble floor cracked. The priestesses were still even as everyone else attempted to flee.
“We have to get out of here, we have to find the queen,” I hissed at Elara, sending a few more guards back in a whip of flame. I grabbed the one closest to me, my hand wrapping around his wrist as I let my magic shift. My icy glare reflected back to me as he stared up in horror.
The expansive flavor of his life and magic was as deep as a forest, the vastness of everything and the depth of a world. This was the taste of golden life that I had somehow been missing my entire life. I had tasted this before, when I had taken it from my great-grandfather. It was then that I first felt that endless edge of power. That taste that consumed me.
The taste of Fae.
Part of me screamed that I should care, but how could I when a taste like this was rushing into me. It tightened through me, pleasure and desire mixing with a taste as though I had eaten a forest whole.
I have never tasted a life like this. So rich, so deep. I wanted more. I wanted all of it.
“Tell me,” I growled, well aware my voice rumbled with the desire of his magic even as it swelled and sparked inside of me. “What color are my eyes?”
He only sputtered, his skin wrinkling in a sallow gray as he faded away.
“I… I…” the words were little more than air, cut off by the scream of the princess right behind me.
I turned, letting what was left of the Fae drop as I faced the girl who was attempting to fight with one hand, water and fire streaming from her as she worked to free herself from the shackle that bound her to the altar.
“Hold still Elara!” Raising my hand, I pulled at that fire, ready to burn away the metal and free her so that we could fight the woman that was coming. Take on the icy chill that was suddenly everywhere.
The chill that was wrapping over everything.
That was freezing everything in place.
