Champion: A Prophecy Series Novella

by Jessica Wayne

  “We must go,” the Sorceress said.

  “I can’t leave her.”

  “You must.” The Sorceress grabbed his arm.

  “Coral!” Armes yelled, desperate for her to know he was near and watching over her. “Coral!” he roared.

  “Centaur, we must go, now.”

  Yelling sounded outside, high pitched, terrified screams that sent chills up his spine. What is happening?

  Armes yanked his arm out of the Sorceress’s firm grasp and ran to where Coral sat in the corner, tears streaking down her pale cheeks.

  “Give me that child! This will all be over if you give me that child!”

  “No! You’ll have to kill me first!”

  “Don’t tempt me,” Queen Iris growled.

  Armes reached for Coral, his hand coming into contact with her skin. She glanced up at him, eyes wide. “Armes?” she whispered.

  “I’m here, my love.”

  “You!” The queen roared. “I’ll kill you for this!”

  “We must go!” the Sorceress yelled, and lifting a hand, she shot a blast of power out. It contacted with Queen Iris and sent her slamming into the wall. The Siren warriors rushed toward them.

  Armes released Coral, ready to fight them off.

  “Armes? Where are you?” Coral screamed, looking right past him as if she couldn’t see him. Was it the physical contact that allowed her to see through the illusion?

  “Come, Coral. We need to go.” The Siren who’d delivered Rosabel knelt beside her, lifting her with a hand around her arm. “We need to get you both to safety.”

  Armes watched conflicted. If he grabbed Coral now, she would see him, would know he was there, but his gut told him whatever was happening outside had everything to do with the destiny the Sorceress spoke of.

  Could he risk her future? Risk the future of Atlantis by disobeying the Sorceress?

  His heart screamed for him to go to her, but his head urged him to follow the Sorceress.

  “She will be fine!” the Sorceress yelled to him. “But we need to go or you will not be!”

  Ripping his eyes away from Coral, Armes made the most difficult decision of his life and gripped the Sorceress’s outstretched hand.

  Coral’s face faded from view as the world around them fell away.

  Chapter Ten

  Atlantis

  Coral

  Coral scanned the room, frantically searching for Armes. He’d been here! She would’ve thought she’d imagined it had her mother not seen him too!

  The room shook again, sending the glass trinkets on her vanity crashing to the floor.

  Clutching her child to her chest, she gripped the hand of the midwife as she pulled her to her feet and raced into the hall.

  “What’s happening?”

  “Atlantis is falling.”

  Coral stopped in her tracks. “What? What do you mean it’s falling?” Panic raced through her, sending ice through her veins.

  “The queen, she was going to kill your child. Those of us who don’t want her in power rose against her, but by turning on her, it triggered something in our world. Everything is sinking, we need to get you back to Terrenia. You’ll be safe there.”

  “I can’t leave all of you,” Coral insisted, duty to her people and her world shining through the hate she felt for her mother.

  “You don’t have a choice. Without you and your child, our line will die. We are saving as many as we can, but we cannot survive without Atlantis’ power, Coral. We cannot hold our Siren form without it, and we will drown.” Tears filled her eyes, and Coral stared, horrified, past her through the window.

  Atlantis was once a string of connected Islands. Large beautiful landscapes decorated with lavish open living spaces. But now, all that remained was the one they were on.

  Everything else was gone, and Coral found herself staring out at nothing but a watery landscape dotted with screaming Sirens.

  “We must go!”

  The ground shook, and they ran, racing down the hall toward the exit.

  “Coral!”

  Her mother’s voice rang through the hall behind them, and despite her aching body, Coral pushed harder.

  If they survived, she could rest and find a way to bring her world back, but if she didn’t, if she allowed herself to be so horrified by what was happening that she didn’t make it out, there would be no hope.

  They burst out of the castle and onto the porch that overlooked their watery kingdom.

  Screams filled the air, Sirens who swam in the water gaped at the horror of what had once been their home now sinking into the Atlantic.

  “Come on!” the midwife yelled, yanking her further down the steps.

  “But we can’t open the portal!” Coral called out. “Only the queen can!”

  The midwife didn’t answer, just kept moving as quickly as she could through the water that had overtaken the island.

  Water splashed ahead, and Coral screamed, jumping back as her mother and the two Sirens appeared just in front of them.

  “Forget you can swim?” the queen sneered. “Can’t say I’m surprised, lately it seems you’ve forgotten all about your heritage and purpose.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Coral asked. “Why won’t you let me be?”

  “You are the reason this is happening!” Queen Iris was red-faced, as she transformed back to her human form and stood before them. “They want you over me! Chose to be loyal to you, and our world is punishing them for it!”

  “Atlantis is punishing you!” the midwife insisted. “You killed dozens of your own people!”

  Coral gaped at her. “You did what? Why? Why would you do that?”

  The queen narrowed her eyes. “They thought to dethrone me. Were planning on taking my crown by force.” She touched the golden shell in the center of the crown on her head. “I showed them I will not be pushed out of my own kingdom.” She lifted her hands and water began to rise around them.

  Coral could swim, her daughter, however, would not reach an age she could for another twenty years. Panic and fear had her gripping her daughter closer and backing toward the castle.

  “Do not fear,” the midwife said softly. “We have help coming.”

  “Who?”

  The midwife smiled. The water began to rise, and Coral closed her eyes, calling to her Siren blood so she could make the change and hold her daughter above the water.

  “Why can’t I change?” Coral asked as she kicked her feet, treading water.

  “Your body needs to rest after birth,” the midwife explained, and Queen Iris laughed.

  “I will rid myself of you both then, won’t I?” The water continued to rise only around them, and soon, they were suspended well above the ocean. All it would take was her mother letting them go, and neither Coral nor Rosabel would survive.

  “Please, Mother,” she pleaded. “Please don’t do this.”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  She flicked her wrist, and Coral screamed as she began to fall.

  Light shot across the sky, blinding her as she tumbled. Just before she would have made contact with the water though, something caught her, holding her just above the water line. Rosabel cried, screaming from the activity around her, and Coral clutched her tighter, as she stared up at her mother, who was still on top of her watery throne.

  A man stood before her, holding a staff. She couldn’t hear them but could see her mother’s angry face.

  He gestured below to Coral, and Queen Iris yelled something she couldn’t make out. The man shook his head sadly, and Coral caught the glint of a blade behind his back.

  Coral watched in horror as he slashed it in front of him with speed she’d never seen, and blood began to pour from her mother’s throat. The two Siren warriors with her yelled and attacked, but both were down, falling into the water below within seconds.

  The man turned to the midwife just as Coral found her voice. He embraced her, and lowered them both back to the ground.

&
nbsp; The man’s kind eyes regarded her warmly as he walked toward her on the invisible barrier holding her and Rosabel out of the water.

  “Princess Coral, it is a pleasure to meet you. Fiona has told me so much about you, I already feel as if I know you.”

  He reached a hand out, and warily, she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

  “Who are you?”

  “I am Soren, king of the Luxe people.”

  Coral gaped at him. She’d only ever heard rumors of the Luxe. Other than Terrenia, they were the oldest world, their magic rivaling that of the Sorceress.

  “Fiona,” he gestured to the midwife. “Delivered my son when our own healer was unable to. She is the very reason my world has an heir.” He smiled down at her.

  “I was sent a vision of the Luxe Queen in distress. I arrived just in time to assist in Prince Thames’ birth,” Fiona explained.

  “When she sent word telling me of your trouble, I knew I could not leave it be. She’s told me many times that Queen Iris consistently turned her back on your people. A true leader would never harm her own.”

  The water roared, and Coral spun just in time to watch her castle sink into the ocean. She cried out and fell to her knees.

  “Here.”

  She turned, and King Soren handed her the crown he’d ripped from her mother’s head just as she fell into the ocean. “Put it on, and the world will have a new queen.”

  “The world is gone,” Coral insisted.

  “Only while it doesn’t have a leader,” he explained.

  Fiona reached for Rosabel. “I will keep her safe,” she said softly when Coral jerked away.

  Nodding, Coral handed her daughter to the other Siren, knowing that if she’d wanted to harm them, she’d had plenty of chances before now.

  She hadn’t wanted this. Not once in her entire life had she dreamt of becoming queen of Atlantis. She was to be the Champion, to live her life below the surface, not above while ruling it.

  That was not her future.

  Or at least, it hadn’t been.

  Kneeling, Coral bowed her head as the king of the Luxe held the crown above her head.

  “It is time,” he said. “For Atlantis to have a new queen.”

  Cheers erupted around them, and Coral opened her eyes, surprised to see that some time while they’d been talking, the remaining Sirens had surrounded them.

  “Are you ready?” he asked her, and after taking a deep breath, Coral nodded.

  He placed the crown on her head, and the second it came into contact, power surged through her.

  Every nerve ending in her body fired, sending tiny explosions along her skin. Looking down, she gasped at the light being cast from her.

  Water roared around her, shooting up into the sky, blocking her off from everyone but the king.

  “You will be a good, honest leader,” he told her. “Keep your people safe, Coral, and your world will thrive.”

  “I will.”

  The water crashed back to the ground, and cheers erupted once again.

  “What will we do now?” she asked him, gesturing to the empty water.

  “You will survive below the surface. Your home is waiting for you.”

  “We cannot live below the water for long, our people won’t survive.”

  The king smiled. “You’ll find things have changed now. Your new world awaits, Queen Coral. You need only to open the door.”

  He gestured below them, and Coral looked down. A glittering light below the surface caught her eye, and she waved her hand, parting the water below.

  The Sirens around cheered more loudly and swam toward the opening in the sea.

  Coral couldn’t find words as she stared down at her castle, sealed safely away inside a sphere.

  “This power will hold as long as a pure heart remains on the throne. Lose that, and Atlantis will be lost forever.”

  He touched her shoulder gently. “Protect your child,” he said softly, glancing over at Fiona. “Raise her to be kind so she may one day reign.”

  Fiona placed Rosabel back into Coral’s arms, and she looked down at her daughter.

  “I will.”

  “Good.” In a flash of light, the king was gone.

  Coral watched as her people returned to the castle, the barrier opening just long enough for them to slip inside.

  Her heart was full, and although she grieved the loss of the mother she wished she’d had, Coral smiled at the future that awaited her.

  She’d never wanted to be queen. She’d only ever wanted to find love, to have a family.

  Now she’d known love, she had a daughter born of that love, and a kingdom she could share with her.

  She would see Armes again one day, but for now, her people needed her.

  Smiling down at her daughter, Coral ran a fingertip over her soft pink cheek. “Shall we go home Rosabel?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Terrenia: Present day after The War

  Armes

  Armes watched Anastasia and Dakota disappear through the portal. As soon as they were gone, he let out a deep breath and rubbed a hand over his hair.

  The war was twelve centuries in the making, and now that it was over, he wasn’t entirely sure what was next.

  The birth of the Luxe prince sent the cores into an uproar because they’d sensed what no one else had: evil.

  Now that the evil was gone, the cores no longer required a guardian.

  “I suppose I should return to Atlantis,” Coral said softly.

  He turned to her. Even after all this time, the mere sight of her sent his heart skipping uncontrollably. She was beauty incarnate.

  “Why?”

  Her golden eyes looked up at his. “I’m the queen, Armes. I don’t have a choice.”

  “There is always a choice, Coral.” He walked toward her and reached down to run a hand along her cheek.

  Leaning into it, she closed her eyes on a sigh, and Armes relished in the feel of her skin against his palm.

  “I’ve missed you, Coral. More than you could even imagine.”

  She opened her eyes and pulled away from him. “I think I could. After all, while you slept, I was awake, pining for you and something I could never have.”

  “Do you honestly believe I never longed for you?” Anger tipped his words, and he tried to keep it from his face. “That even though I slept, I did not dream of you? I thought of you every moment of every day over the last twelve thousand years, Coral. There was not a day that passed where I did not dream of you or our daughter, and wish with everything I had, that I could be there with you both.”

  Eyes wet with tears, she stared at him. “I’m sorry, I never considered that.”

  “When I was woken, the second time,” he clarified. “And discovered that my people had abandoned me, that the only ones who remained were those I’d chosen to slumber with me, I considered leaving. Abandoning everything and finding my way back to you.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Her voice was a whisper he barely heard above the sound of his thundering heart.

  “Because then I would have been a man without honor, and you deserved so much better than that.”

  She sobbed, covering her face, and Armes reached forward to wrap his arms around her. She leaned against him, her head resting just above his abdomen while he was in his Centaur form.

  He ran his hand over her soft hair, the strands slipping through his fingers just as they did all those lifetimes ago.

  Before they were ripped apart.

  “I need to return to Atlantis,” Coral said, pulling back.

  “Would you allow me to come with you?”

  Her eyes widened. “Armes, you don’t understand. Atlantis isn’t the same as it once was. We no longer live on the surface.”

  “Why?”

  “It fell the day Rosabel was born.”

  Realization dawned on him. “The Sorceress knew it would, she must’ve known all along.”

  “What?”

  �
��I was there that day.”

  Coral grabbed his hands. “I didn’t imagine it?”

  “No.”

  “I thought I must’ve. Even after my mother saw you, I thought I’d made the whole thing up. After all, how could you have been there?”

  “The Sorceress brought me to see you, to see Rosabel. She said your destiny was in Atlantis, but that we would see each other again.”

  “The Luxe King killed my mother after she killed the Sirens who rose up against her. He made me queen.”

  Armes released one of her hands to run a finger along the gold crown. “You always were my sea queen.”

  She smiled. “I’ve missed that,” she admitted. “I’ve missed you.”

  Armes leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers. “Let me come with you, Coral. Please don’t leave me again. I won’t survive it.”

  They stood silently as he let her think on his words. He had no life without her, not now after their duty was done. If the cores needed them again, they would know. The magic would reach out, but until then, their lives were their own.

  For the first time.

  “We were doomed from the beginning, Armes.”

  “We don’t have to be,” he insisted. When she didn’t respond, he said the words that had been weighing on his heart since her revelation to Anastasia.

  “I’m sorry about our daughter.”

  She pulled away from him. “I was supposed to protect her, Armes. It was my job, and I failed.”

  “You did not fail her, Coral. She chose her path.”

  “I forbade her from coming to the surface, did to her what I hated my own mother for.” Anger shining in her eyes, Coral looked at him. “I should have taken her to the surface, allowed her to see the world for what it was. Perhaps then she wouldn’t have gone with that Sorcerer.”

  Armes shook his head. “Don’t pull away from me, Coral, please,” he pleaded. “Rosabel was not your fault, you must know that.”

  “Words will never change how I feel, Armes. She was all I had and now—” her voice cracked, and she closed her eyes. “She’s gone, forever.”