War of the Realms Box Set

by Sarah J. Stone

  The Fae Queen’s face dropped and she looked around her as if she had heard something. Feeling her spike in awareness Pike stood up, putting his hand on the butt of his sword. He glanced from side to side, but there was nothing out there that he could see.

  After a few moments, Leonetta began to speak again, only this time her voice was lowered to a whisper. “I cannot tell you the details, there is not time for that. And I lack the knowledge of the entire meaning of this message. I do know, that you must come back to the Vale and you must hurry.”

  Pike shook his head. “I’m sorry Leonetta, but unless I know what this is pertaining to, a trip back to the Vale would not be wise for me at this time. I am still healing from the past.”

  Leonetta whisked her hand out, bringing up a vision of the realms. The time sped quickly in this picture floating to her side. It started at the rise of the Dead King, showing the land dark and dry. It sped through his death, and beyond, showing Pike the flourishing that was happening all around them.

  She let the vision fade. “We are all still healing from the past. And those of us that encountered the greatest of loss will forever be in recovery. But I fear that there is very little time left. Something dark and ominous is rising in the shadows, something stronger than anything we have faced before. We need the Wolf King. You were bestowed that honor and must understand that you are being called on by powers higher than me, higher than any living creature. Fate is at play here, and we must ensure it does not include our demise.”

  Chapter Fourteen : A Sister’s Fear

  Helena’s hair whipped wildly behind her, now long and combed, cascading down her back. She wore black leather pants and a flowing top with a skirt of chiffon bounding from the back of it. Her boots laced up her leg to right below the knee and on her head was perched a small fabricator with a black veil covering her face.

  She stopped and lifted the veil up and over her head glancing over at the dragons who dipped their heads down. She ran her palms carefully over the tall grasses as she stepped through the field leading to the cliffs. Helena spent a lot of time in those fields with the flowers blooming all throughout. The colors were vibrant and her mind assimilated the positive flow of energy from their life force. It brought a peace to her heart, as did her company of nine valiant dragons that followed her wherever she went. Not only was she royalty but she was the savior, no matter how much she didn’t want to think of herself that way.

  Helena glanced down at her clothes, a stark contrast of black to the wild blues, purples, and oranges of the flowers around her. The tall grasses ended and the ground turned to moss and stone as she approached the edge of the cliffs. The sky was bright blue, with only small puffs of white cloud swimming along. The ocean below mimicked the colors of the sky, the waves rolling to the base of the cliffs with large white peaks.

  She closed her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. The smell of saltwater permeated her senses. It was not a bad feeling, though. It was a feeling of relaxation, of separation. She longed for a quiet moment in the castle, but those rarely found her anymore. Instead, she was forced to take flight atop of one her dragons and coast toward the crashing waves, letting everything from the Vale melt away from her shoulders.

  It wasn’t that Helena didn’t love her people. It wasn’t that she thrusted herself away from the throne, but the last seventeen years had been long and hard. After returning from ridding the realms of the Dead King, she tried to settle in. Her daily duties as Leonetta’s sister, however, seemed boring and dry. She spent many days walking to the cliffs, wondering if there was anything else beyond parties, charity, and recovery for her. That was when Leonetta enlisted her in helping to restore the realms. It gave her something to get up for, to look forward to.

  The people she met reminded her of when she was a child. Regular people, looking forward to the warm summer nights and the chance to catch a glimpse of the Fae royal family. She dove in head first and filled the hole in her chest with as much as she could. That was when she met her husband, Hunter. He was young and smart with a perfect smile and dimples to match. He adored Helena with everything in him, and she found a contentment in that. Deep down, though, she knew that her heart belonged somewhere else.

  That contentment she found with him turned into a marriage with a Fae wedding for the books. Leonetta knew her heart yearned for another, but she put her heart into making Helena happy. Not long after the marriage the children started to come. She gave birth to twin girls, Millicent and Elda. Then just a short four seasons later came her son, Kalmin Hunter. He was her pride, a possible heir to the Fae throne, and a boy with wisdom far beyond his years. It had been many moons since the Fae found a prince in their mists.

  It was a life she could understand, make sense of, and not fear. And though secretly at night she would listen to the howl of the wolves far off in the distance and think of him, she knew that she had to keep moving forward.

  By the time all of the children were born and she had recovered, the realms had found peace and splendor again. Leonetta gave her positions of her choosing from dealings within the castle walls to outreach into the realms. She found she was good with talking to people, especially since, despite the overwhelming male presence of royalty in other realms, they took her seriously. She created bonds between kingdoms that hadn’t been there in a very long time.

  It was only later that Helena had realized that Leonetta had been prepping her for the throne. Something just in case the worst were to happen. None of the children were old enough to take it and Leonetta felt she had not been given enough knowledge to step in at a moment’s notice. So, she did that for Helena, even as the girl argued with her sister. She refused to believe there was even a chance that anything would happen to Leonetta. Not for a very, very long time.

  Helena wanted to believe that loss was behind them. That it was smooth sailing for their lives. They had already faced so many bitter endings during the war. But those hopes did not last as long as she could have hoped.

  Hunter had always been a dragon tamer, one that road the wild until they were suitable for royal courts. When Helena married him, he became the Champion, a role that Leonetta installed to ensure there was a full program in place to help the wild become what they wished to get back to. The dragons were not pets or servants, they were soldiers. They volunteered, and were given the proper training to perform their duties. Hunter could have easily commanded his other trainers from the safety of the ground, but that wasn’t his way.

  She could still remember the morning that he had left with a new Wild that had come in the day before. He had picked the girls up on each hip and kissed them gently on the noses. He put them down and smiled watching them run back toward their nurse, ready to play in the gardens. He then bent on one knee and looked Kalmin in the eyes, whispering something only the two of them would keep. When he was done, he patted him on the head and walked to Helena, kissing her on the lips. It had been the first time she had closed her eyes and sunk into his embrace. Little did she know it would also be her last.

  The word had come in before dusk. Hunter had been riding the Wild when a small swell blew in from out in the ocean. Lightning had struck one of the Wild’s wings, sending it spiraling out of control. The others tried to retrieve Hunter, but the waves were too large and commanding.

  Being a Fae, Helena believed wholeheartedly that he would be found tired and hungry on the shores. Every day she sent a team out to look for him, but every night, they came back empty armed. The dragons did regular patrols of the beaches from dawn to the next but never could see any hint of his presence. Helena clung to the necklace he had given her, keeping her pulse on his, their connection through marriage strong in the Fae mind.

  It was a brisk fall morning five years to that day that she had awoken like any other. She left her room after dressing, checked on the children and their studies, and made her way to the dining hall to have tea and berries. As she entered, though, her knees buckled and she could feel a pressure an
d ache in her chest like nothing before. In her ears she could hear Hunter’s whisper, his echo of goodbye as she clung to the very last moments of his life force leaving his body.

  It wasn’t long after that day that they finally found his body, washed ashore just a mile from the base of the cliffs. He had been injured falling into the waves and had drifted off farther into the ocean. He was a Fae, and though they seemed indestructible, they too were able to fall victim to the elements and the starvation he must have incurred. It was a dark day for her, and for all of the Kingdom.

  Helena breathed in a deep breath and rolled her shoulders. She had been in mourning for five years, longer than most who lose a partner. She feared for the longest time she would never recover. Two loves lost, one gone to the great and the other lost in his own grief and pain. However, as she stood there staring at the birds flying through the air, she could feel the burden begin to free itself from her bosom. It was as if all the pain and sorrow that had followed her like the plague, finally dissolved and blew into the wind, sinking into the very depths that had taken her husband five years before.

  One of her dragons stepped up next to her, lowering his head and speaking to her telepathically. Your highness. The hour is surging by and your court will be awaiting your return for dinner to be served. We should get you back to the castle.

  Helena kept her eyes on the ocean, a smile curving up her lips. Yes, heaven forbid I make them wait to eat for the ninth time today. But I suppose you’re right. I have ventured out in mourning for far too long. I believe it is time for me to break this fast of life, joy, and love. To start living once again and free my heart to the splendors of this life. After all, we only get one.

  The dragon snorted. As your confidant, your highness. I couldn’t agree with you more.

  Helena giggled and took off her hat and veil, tossing it out over the edge of the cliffs. The wind caught it and carried it further out over the sea. She twisted her lips contently. “I suppose it’s only fitting my break of mourning shall be carried out to sea as well.”

  She put her hand on the dragon’s snout and turned, walking forward to the dragon that she would ride home. As her feet stepped down into the tall grasses a heat blew over her and lingered tightly in her chest. She gasped loudly, falling on all fours and digging her fingers into the dirt. One of the dragon shifters changed, grabbing his robe and hurrying over to her side.

  She sat up on her knees, throwing her head back, her eyes clouded with white. The vision hit her hard and fast, the images flittering quickly by. She could hear the all too familiar sounds of screams echoing through her head. It was the same vision her sister had, that Pike had, and that the others had too. Only this time, the vision did not end with the eyes. One more scene slowly unfolded before Helena’s mind.

  In front of her, laying in a clearing, surrounded by fallen apples and vegetables from a basket was Asphodul. She wheezed and coughed, her face full of fear. Below her a pool of blood collected, soaking through the grasses and creating a small stream down the small incline where she laid. Helena’s vision followed the blood down until it stopped. A flash of Asphodul’s face, her eyes barely alive with the Fae light flashed through and then Helena broke from the vision.

  She breathed in heavy and hard, gripping the front of her shirt with her fist. She panted heavily for several moments and then lifted her head, looking at the shifter. “We must get back to the castle. We must do it with haste.”

  The shifter helped her to her feet and up onto the saddle on one of the dragons. As she took off, the shifter transformed back into his dragon and took off behind her. Helena could feel something different in the air. Something that was whispering softly to her, letting her know that there was a strong force and it was headed their way.

  Chapter Fifteen : Stepping from Vision to Reality

  Leonetta cleared her throat and wrapped her shawl tightly around her. She sat on her balcony, gazing out at the forest on the other side of the cliffs of the Vale. The trees blew lightly in the breeze and the sky was just a little darker than it had been a week before. She had spent the last five days, perched in her chair, putting off the duties of the kingdom. The vision she had was firmly etched into her mind, and she knew that things were going to change very quickly.

  She glanced back and forth at the moon, out before the sun had even set. She could see the sharp edges arising. Leaning to the side she etched out another day on her calendar, finding it only two days until the Anniversary of the Dead King’s demise. The day she couldn’t help but feel would be significant to her visions.

  Behind her, in the doorway, Holland stood, staring at her. He smiled, seeing the same glimmer of magic he had had known all his life with her. She was still the most enchanting and beautiful woman that he had ever met. Through the trials and tribulations that the universe had sent them, he forever stayed true in his heart for Leonetta. His life had become something he had only dreamt of long before. But there was a veil of anxiety, a disquiet that he could almost see simmering at the edge of Leonetta’s aura. The same feeling, he had every time he closed his eyes, the visions burned into his memory.

  He walked up behind her and put his arms around her shoulders, his lips by her ear. “It is time for dinner in the hall. Everyone awaits your presence to begin.”

  Leonetta closed her eyes and breathed in his scent. “They may proceed. I will be fasting until the others arrive. I want to make sure that my powers are at full capacity. There are too many questions floating about for me not to make sure I am centered and focused.”

  Hollands face fell from pleasure to worry very quickly. He stood up and pulled another chair over next to her. Sitting, he leaned forward and took her sketching coal and parchment from her hands. He set them down atop her calendar, noticing the Dead King Anniversary on her calendar.

  He took her warm hands into his and pressed his lips against them. She turned and looked at him with caring, rubbing her hand over his wild hair. “You’ve been riding or flying?”

  Holland chuckled, smoothing his hair back. “A bit of both today. I couldn’t resist with the cool wind blowing from the ocean.”

  Leonetta’s eyes shifted downward and she let the air out of her lungs as she turned back toward the skyline. “An unseasonably and odd cold wind.”

  Holland nodded, not having thought of it that way until that moment. “True. Do you really believe that the others are coming?”

  Leonetta looked up at the distant etch of the moon in the still blue evening sky. “Undoubtedly. I can feel their presence as we speak. This is not a fluke, Holland. I know we want to believe that peace will be everlasting but as history has told us, that is only a dream. Strong winds are pushing through and storms are brewing in the distance.”

  Holland looked up at the waving branches of the forest. “Do you think they all saw the signs?”

  Leonetta nodded. “Yes. I do. In fact, I know they are close. All of them should be arriving by nightfall. They are as confused as you are, and I only a bit less because of my history with these visions. Still, we must be together. They must find their way to the Vale and stand with us to face whatever it is that will be heading this way.”

  Holland sat back in the chair. “I will have the staff prepare the guest rooms for them. And have the kitchen create a late night meal for those weary of travel.”

  Leonetta looked over and took Holland’s hand, her lips pressed tightly together. “Have them serve it in the grand meeting room. When they have all arrived, I want us to collect and talk about the visions that each of us have experienced. I want us to understand fully what the signs are trying to show us. For those that come to the aid of the realms have been handpicked by the ancestors of these lands. We are the protectors.”

  Holland looked down at the ground, his feet shuffling to the sides and back. “I have said before…”

  Leonetta shook her head. “We will discuss it all tonight. Do not worry yourself. Have food, enjoy the children, for our path is unknow
n at this moment.”

  Leonetta stood up and rubbed her hand across his cheek as she walked back into her room. Holland sat there for a moment, watching his daughter playing in the garden below. She laughed wildly as she skipped around the roses, her eyes sparkling wildly. He loved that laugh but, in that moment, it brought the fear chasing back to him.

  Long ago a child had been born, and though presumed dead by the kingdoms, Holland felt differently. The Dead Child seemed to crawl through his dreams at night, powers stronger than anything witnessed in all of the realms. She was cunning and dark and everything that had been given to her by the Dead King was everything of himself, plus more. If the child still lingered in their world, it could be the undoing of everything that they had come to know and love of their world.

  ***

  Nekane, breathing heavily, stopped and leaned his arm against the tree. Though his body was tired, his mind and soul pushed him along. He had been hiking for five days, moving further and further into the forest. The deeper he went the less life lingered about. The trees were a little less fruitful, the plants a littler drabber, and the animals became scarce. Not only was this a sign of negative yet to come, it made it very difficult to hunt each night.

  Still, he could feel the strength of his visions growing stronger by the moment. They guided him, like a hand pulling him along through the vast jungle of trees and vines. It was cooler in the woods then outside, the canopy keeping a constant shade on the ground below. Nekane took in a long deep breath and opened his eyes, staring at the forest ahead of him.

  In the not too far distance, a twinkle of sunlight cascaded down from the center of trees, bringing light and life to the ground below. He tilted his head and pulled his bag onto his back. Nekane moved carefully forward, realizing that what he was seeing was a clearing in the woods. A clearing that made no sense that deep and dense in the forest. A strange feeling crept through his bones as he shifted his eyes right and left, approaching the open space.