Lightning flashes outside the giant windows positioned on both sides of the throne room. I smile at the High Priestess trying to show off my slightly elongated canines. “I’ve come with a warning.”
She chuckles to herself and looks to me, her eyes saying to continue.
“There is a kingdom in Elkwood Forest, ruled by a tyrant Fae named, Evaflora,” I continue. Kane and Jax stand just a step away on either side of me and Zube is wandering around the chamber, gawking at the immaculate works of art. “She wants to enslave all mortals on Abella and she has an army of monsters to follow through with her desires. I wish to stop her before she acquires what she wants.” I don’t tell her anything more. The High Priestess doesn’t need to know of my relation with Evaflora.
The High Priestess stares at me, her eyes glossed over. Her headdress of curling metal reflects the chandeliers above like a mirror. She chews on her tongue as if pondering my words and thinking of what to say. I’m suddenly aware that, to my surprise, besides my friends and her, the room is empty of guards or sentinels.
“What other kingdoms know of this?” She spits like she tasted a vile drink. Her voice echoes through the chamber and I try not to shrink away. Why do I fear her? She is nothing but a powerless human. I have true power. I think of the Void, my telekinesis, and the new power crawling within me, yearning to come out. I still haven’t tried to use my Winter Kingdom High Lady abilities.
“Febrei and Marzia,” I say. I look to Kane who steps forward trying to take her attention and maybe convince this close-mind human.
“I am the High Lord to the Winter Kingdom, another Fae kingdom in Elkwood and we have allied with Equadoria,” Kane explains to the High Priestess. She smiles at him and lets her eyes travel down his body. I uncontrollably snarl at the queen. She shifts her eyes to me; a dark glare of hatred glosses them. Jax even stiffens behind me and I almost heave a sigh for letting my emotions slip. I have been working so hard at hating Kane that it’s becoming hard to continue, but I just remember his lie and manipulation and then I am fine.
“How dare you growl at me,” She seethes as she rises from her throne and looks down at me. I step forward and stare right back.
“Don’t threaten a coiled snake,” I tell the High Priestess and she steps off her dais and approaches Kane. Zube stares out the window as another bolt of lightning flashes. Even after it passes I see large bolts of electricity arc along the ground as if the lightning had struck metal. Zube glances from me to the window. Thunder shakes the castle and the High Priestess smiles as she studies Kane, and then Jax.
“You have some very strong henchman,” She smiles.
“They’re not henchmen.”
“Than what are they?”
“My friends,” I bite my tongue, keeping myself from spitting a string of curses as she slides a hand across Jax’s chest. He glances from me to the High Priestess, and I barely stop the growl that wants to come out of me. “I don’t treat my friends as property, unlike you.”
The Queen just waves her hand in a circle tossing my explanation away like a spoiled fruit. She saunters back up her dais and sighs onto her throne. With a bored look on her face she glances between me, my mate, and my greatest ally.
“I want them.”
Jax bursts into laughter, genuine laughter for once in his immortal life. Surprise makes me look at him and Kane, who chuckles as well. “You want friends?” Jax chokes through cackles and a grin splits my features.
“No!” The High Priestess howls. We instantly go silent. “I want the two immortals as a trade for my army.”
A laugh, louder than Jax’s, passes my lips. Then I notice her serious features. “Never,” I say with even words so she gets my point. I would never trade my mate and Jax for a simple alliance with a mortal kingdom.
“Then don’t expect me to give you my army,” the High Priestess plays with an invisible lint on her metal dress. I glare at the human queen and she refuses to look at me.
“But you don’t understand,” Jax begins to mutter, but then Zube looks back to us, panic in his eyes.
“Guys,” Zube mutters. “You need to see this.”
“I do understand!” The queen booms and I look to the window. Lightning sparkles from outside and I also see the warm glow of fire. A large ball of fire flies at the window and Zube rolls out of the way as the fire implodes the glass. Rain slants sideways into the second story room and the High Priestess is immediately off her dais and running for the throne room doors. I run to Zube and pull him onto his feet. Before I can look outside the window, two sentinels who were guarding the door, bust in and look for the High Priestess.
“Alpri is under attack,” One of the men shouts with a quivering voice, his fear filling my nose. I don’t have to try hard to guess what may be attacking, but maybe like Marzia, Alpri has trouble with another Mortal Kingdom.
“By whom?” The queen asks. The two sentinels look at each other, then back to their leader.
“Monsters,” answers the other man. The High Priestess looks at me and I run past them all. Kane, Jax, and Zube follow me through the entry hall and outside into the penetrating rain that beats down like heavy pebbles against our skin. I hiss at the heat the large droplets leave and I wander around the side of the castle. As I round the corner, I see the growling and snarling horde of Forsaken. They all are running towards the gardens, and I follow. Above the tall hedges I see a purple aura from the lightning and flames light mixing together. Their origin is unknown to me, but I know what I need to do, and I ignore Kane and Jax’s shouts of disapproval as I follow the Forsaken into the maze garden. I turn down path after path and eventually find myself turned around, lost within the maze. I try a different path each time, only to find a similar walkway to a turn I passed. I make a right and I see a long path that breaks off, but straight ahead is the center. A Dreag falls before me, it climbed over the hedges. It snarls but I ignore the strange facial structure of the abomination. It isn’t muscled like the one in my Proving, but I feel the beast is dangerous all the same. I feel its ribs with telekinetic fingers and shatter every damned bone in the creature’s body until nothing is left but a pile of skin and blood on the gravel of the garden.
The sky lights up and I run toward the center of the maze. A multi-level ring descends to a stone well, overflowing with water at the center. The large circle is filling with water and I stomp through the pool. I don’t care for wet shoes, but because of this pounding rain I’m soaked through and through whether I stand in the small lake or not.
I look down the different paths that break away from the center, all of them different paths that lead to the middle of the maze. Somewhere within these gardens is whatever it is the Umbra wants me to find. I don’t know how I know, but it’s a roiling feeling in my gut, like this was meant to happen.
“Ariadae!” Someone yells from behind me and I look towards the direction from where I came to see Jax, Kane, and Zube all running towards me. I just stare at them until my hair stands on end. A prickling feeling crawls up my spine and I realize my Fae instincts are roaring. I turn around and see about thirty Forsaken beasts coming towards me from the path ahead. My hands erupt with Void flames that illuminate the impenetrable darkness with purple hues and I toss up shields of flame that melt the arrows flying from the Troglodyte quivers. An Arbor roars and Kane starts firing large, dagger size, ice shards at the beasts that are huddled in the path. Jax blasts a wall of wind at the creatures, throwing them off balance and keeping them from coming into the center. I cast telekinetic shields around my group and start sending whips of purple flame down upon the Forsaken. The Arbors get swallowed by my hot flame and the Dreag wail as they die.
“Guys,” Zube shouts from behind us. “A little help please!”
I glance at him and notice all he has is a sword against a Troglodyte warrior. When I look in front of him I see another horde of Forsaken beasts coming down a different path. I run towards Zube and let my void consume the Troglodyte he was fighti
ng. He nods his thanks to me and I begin sending walls of flame at the scrambling abominations. This time instead of normal Forsaken, I see armored Troglodytes, muscled Dreag and Wendigos, Tall, long limbed Nymphs, and even Arbors made of marrow, not bark. Evaflora’s army is changing and mine hasn’t even been completed. Maybe this will show the High Priestess of Alpri that messing with the Fae is not something you want to do, and getting into a war with Evaflora will be way worse than becoming allies with Equadoria. I feel my body trembling as I break bones, snap necks, burn bone and skin alike. The Forsaken die, but more come, they arrive quicker and quicker and we can’t kill them fast enough. Another path gets blocked with another dawning horde. Soon we can’t keep the monsters contained to the paths. They leap from hedges and claw at my friends. We all begin to become a singular unit working together to keep one another alive against this onslaught of Forsaken that somehow nobody saw coming. I would ask Prometheus for help, but the damned gods have seemed to curse my troupe with the worst luck in Abella history.
Soon the tall walls of ivy surrounding the center are burning bright golden flames like the ones I saw in the throne room, that send ashes into the storm cloud above. I ignore the gruesome scene of black blood flying everywhere, my friends and my mate focused in battle. I keep an eye on Kane and observe the perfect killing machine he truly is. Ice spikes rise from the pool of water, penetrating a body and vanish before coming back and giving another killing blow to a different beast. Zube is in his Fae body and using the Alprian sword to his advantage. The scim is firm in his white knuckled hand as the steel slices through skin and bone, showering him in blood. I cut down two Wood Nymphs; their new tall limbs make them even scarier; as if their hunger for human teeth wasn’t horrifying enough. I glance at Jax who uses his wind-thanks to his mother Lhys- to send large flowing gusts into the Forsaken’s nostrils and mouths causing them to explode from the inside out. Some just fall mid leap and I don’t want to know what he is doing to them with his strong powerful wind.
I focus back into the battle and continue to kill Forsaken. Soon all I see is rage, blood, battle, fire, and death. I hear a constant ringing and before I know it the Forsaken numbers are dwindling. My hope rises and I start to see an end to this battle.
I scan the battle field; my partners have vacated the scene. About fifty Forsaken have turned their attention onto me. I let the Void whisper to me as my splayed palms erupt in flames. A hand grabs my arm yanking me clean out of the center of the circle. I stare into sea-green eyes and I fall into his form. Tears stain my cheeks. They haven’t left me. I look back at the approaching legion and gasp as lightning strikes down from the storm cloud above and claps against the puddle before sparkling atop the water. It crawls into each beast standing in the foot-deep pool of water that formed from the well and the rain. Each monster, shaking and writhing, splashes into the obsidian pool and thrashes around turning the dark water into an ocean with waves that lap over the steps onto the stones and gravel.
The fires burning the hedges were from the golden glow I saw while inside the castle. The lightning is from the Fae Druid of the Storm, the girl with the white hair beside me. The flames are from the Fae Druid of the Solar, Lunan who is next to the girl. And I am the Fae Druid of the Void. We are together; Lunan offers me a hand and pulls me to my feet. I grip his tall form in a hug. He’s my brother. He told me how to save my father. He was one of my few allies in the Summer Kingdom during the summer. I look over his shoulder to the female with snow white hair. I saw her for the first time in Elkwood when an Umbra took on the form of her slim body. Find the girl who sparkles like lightning and the male who burns like a thousand suns.
I have found them, Prometheus. And for once in the start of my immortal life, I see the most beautiful thing ever.
I see the possibility of us winning this war.
~The End~
Acknowledgments
Writing book two has been a whirlwind of emotions. I can’t describe the feeling of when my friends read my book and get passionate about the characters or world! It’s like a blooming of warmth in my stomach that is so euphoric I can’t help, but get all giddy. So thank you to those of you who have taken the time to read the book.
Thank you, Heather Falotico. You have given me more and more opportunities and all of this happened because of you! As much as you want to be proud of me, be proud of yourself and thank you for this. Thank you for helping me find my path in life and continuing with me on this journey that I know I will bring you on until the very end!
I also need to thank Danielle, James. You two have listened to me for hours and hours reading what I wrote from the horrible first draft. Even when I am the most annoying person on the earth you two stick around and show me your love. You two mean the world to me and your involvement in this book is the reason why it’s dedicated to you two. I love you guys <3
And I need to acknowledge my friends and extended family! All of your support through this journey has been heartwarming and if it weren’t for ya’ll I wouldn’t be so excited to share these stories with you, so thank you.
To my grandparents, (all of you) you guys have always been around, always loved and cared for me and the acceptance I receive along with that means more than the world. There’s nothing better than giving your grandparents something to brag about to the neighbors! I love you all so dearly.
Mom, Dad, and Sam, ya’ll see me every day and hear the ridiculous stories in my head through and through. I’m sorry for the bother, but I just love you guys and your support is truly helping me more than you know. I love you, and thank you.
Thank you to my readers, and my fans that have started following along my journey. Shout out to the girl who came excitedly squealing up to me at the movie theater! You scared me half to death, but it has to be one of the best fan experiences ever! I love everyone who I have seen at different schools and locations in New Jersey, who listen to my ramblings for whole class periods. You guys are giving me the dream I never knew I wanted. Thank you.
About The Author
Zachary James is a high school student who has turned his hatred into a passion. His first novel, The Rise Of Titanium, is the first of many in the future. His best friend is his cat named Kitty who gives him love and affection, his human friends and family are good supporters too. If you want to stay up to date on any of the bookish details from Zachary James follow him on the provided social media below.
Instagram: @ZacharyJamesOfficial
Twitter: @_ZacharyJames_
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Website: https://zacharyjamesnovels.wixsite.com/novels
The Reign of Queens: A Kingdom of Diamond Antlers Novel Page 25