by Olivia Ash
Alarms sounded and traps in the halls triggered. Nighthelm guard rushed behind the group.
Sophia rolled her shoulders and pulled on her sword and dagger. It had been a trap all along. She whispered, “Vocavi.”
Haris’s image evaporated into mist from her arm, swelling and growing until he solidified next to her. He stomped his feet and nodded his head up and down, seeming agitated and itching to get this fight done and over with.
She patted her friend’s flank and said, “One more fight, my friend, and we’ll have the heir restored.”
He trilled and shook his head. A groan rumbled in his throat and he dashed forward.
“Protect the heir!” Sophia shouted and rushed into the fight.
Wraiths surrounding Madison shifted and cloaked her in shadow while others rushed forward to take out the guards that would sooner kill everyone, blindly following the orders of the duchess rather than using their brains. The guards wouldn’t listen to reason or believe Madison was the true heir to the throne.
All at once, spears shot down from the ceiling, jutted from the walls, and poked up from the floors, right as Sophia was about to step into them. She shifted her weight and slid along her thigh and rotated to stop before getting skewered. They seemed like they were on a timer, with an impossible window to get through before becoming a kabob.
She took a few steps back as grunts and screams echoed from behind her. The castle seemed like it was throwing everything it had at the group.
Risking a glance behind her, a few squares of floor opened up and some fire traps had caught a few wraiths. She cursed under her breath. They had to move. They couldn’t risk harm to Madison. She knew it was only a matter of time before someone triggered a trap over the very spot the heir stood. If she didn’t figure out a way out of this mess before then, the whole mission would be for naught.
Sophia conjured a ball of light and studied the spears that shot out simultaneously directly in front of her. They were metal and stone and wood. If she could time it right, perhaps she could break them with her sword. The guards on the other side of the traps held out crossbows.
Of course, this would get much more difficult.
Magic bubbled just beneath the surface of her skin. She kept it down. The last thing she wanted was to incinerate Madison in an effort to take down the guards. Though she felt more confident about having control over her magic, she didn’t want anything to happen to the heir before she could reclaim her birthright.
But maybe…
A plan formulated in her mind. If she could direct her magic, instead of letting it out in all directions, perhaps she could focus it outward and take out the trap and the guards.
It was a risk. She just wasn’t sure it was a risk worth taking. And time ran short.
She turned to the wraiths. “Protect the queen. I’m going to try something.”
“What are you doing?” Edric asked.
“Saving our lives,” she said. “Hopefully.”
She pulled on her magic, it pooled in her belly and she felt it pulsing through her arms. She steadied her hands, extending them in the direction of the trap and guards.
“Get behind me,” she said as she held up her arms. They began to glow and spark with blue, purple, and white.
She took in a deep breath and kept her focus.
A dart flew past her, catching on her arm. Sharp, stinging pain throbbed as her sleeve soaked up the blood. Luckily, the dart clattered to the ground after hitting her arm and the wall just beside her.
Refocusing, she lifted her arms and held her hands toward the guards. With a battle cry, she released her magic. A blast of heat burst from her palms and shot forward. The force knocked her back a few feet, ending with her on her back. She quickly scrambled to her feet and checked that none of the men were hurt, and more importantly, Madison.
“That was amazing, Cousin!” she said as her eyes met Sophia’s.
Her men were fine.
The trap and the guards, however, weren’t. And without missing a beat, she rushed down the hall, keeping her ears trained on any sound outside of footsteps and her eyes alert to any movement.
She wasn’t sure how many more traps she could take out with her magic. She used the sword for any others that could be disarmed, and her and her men took out any guards that stepped in their way.
As they fought, they inched closer to the main floor of the castle. The closer they got, the more traps and guards they had to fight through.
When they finally reached the door to the main floor, the group paused to catch their breath. There was no telling what they would find beyond the door. It could be empty. Or, it could be filled with the remaining city guard.
Either way, they needed to collect themselves.
“Everyone all right?” she asked.
A few grunts and groans, but for the most part, they hadn’t endured a loss in their numbers.
She nodded and placed her hand on the handle of the door. Twisting it, the door clicked and opened an inch.
Now or never.
She stepped through and stopped as her eyes focused on the second of the possibilities. The guard stood at attention, weapons poised and aimed straight at her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sophia
Who would ever think returning the heir to the throne would be such a pain in the ass? Particularly for Sophia.
She was winded, but still stood strong, especially with her magic. She had repeated her little tactic from the halls beneath the castle, and each time she had better results. But it seemed like the more guards she took out, more of them would appear.
Haris remained in the shadows, picking off the guards that got too close. His movements were quick and fluid, and because of his size, he easily toppled a few guards or knocked them back. He seemed as strong as ever.
Sophia looked for her men. They took off with the group of wraiths not guarding Madison and headed in all directions to take out the guard. She couldn’t see them.
A guard approached and nearly took her head off with his sword. She ducked in the nick of time and parried with an attack of her own. But he was strong, and with each one of his attacks, she was pushed farther back, toward a wall.
She tried to gain more ground, pushing him back a step with her attacks, but the effort seemed useless. Her boot stomped on a stone behind her and the castle started to shift.
Another trap.
Before she had time to realize what was happening, it was too late. She had been separated from her men and Madison. She knew the men were more than capable of holding their own and would stop at nothing to make sure Madison remained unharmed.
She was capable as well. And if it was the last thing she did, she would knock that undeserved crown from the duchess’s head. Smile and all.
Jumping into action, she ran down the halls, searching for the woman. She had a vague idea of where the throne room was and assumed, if she were the duchess, that was where she would be. Sitting all high and mighty in a seat she didn’t belong in and acting proud of her efforts to bring the monster of Nighthelm to justice.
With a few disarmed traps and a couple of dead guards later, Sophia made it to the throne room. She paused to catch her breath. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest.
As she stepped in as casually as she could, her eyes shifted to the throne where the duchess unsurprisingly sat.
The image of that woman being in her cousin’s seat fueled Sophia’s anger, as well as her energy and strength.
The duchess angled her gaze at her, looking down at Sophia from the bridge of her nose. Her aunt’s crown sitting upon the woman’s head.
Bitterness filled Sophia’s mouth like poison.
This woman had the audacity to kill Sophia’s family for the throne. She nearly succeeded in killing her and her men. But the bitch’s reign ended tonight.
Sophia held her sword out, tip of the blade pointed at the duchess’s heart. “You have no right to sit there.”
/> The duchess laughed and clapped her ring covered hands. “I have more right than a little contritum like you.”
“Less right than Madison,” Sophia said.
The duchess rolled her eyes. “You are a constant pain in the ass. Still, though, you are of use to me. As my slave, you will serve me and remain in my power.”
“Fat fucking chance,” she said. Sophia’s anger churned within her veins, boiling and bubbling, making her magic rise. She quickly took in a deep breath realizing that the duchess was trying to get her to lose control.
She began wondering why the duchess wanted her to lash out, and why she wasn’t afraid if she did. Sophia’s gaze quickly swept across the throne room, just in case the duchess had some sort of trap or surprise. She stared at the woman, holding on to her magic and forcing herself to calm down. Her next move would have to be a calculated one.
The duchess shifted on the throne, straightening her back. “I intended to break your soul or end your life. Just like I killed your precious family. No thanks to Winston for fucking up my original plans.”
“For what? Power?”
The duchess smiled. “Oh no, my dear, for so much more than power. But I don’t owe you any explanation. My plans are my own and have worked for the better part of a decade. Until you came along and started shoving your nose into business it didn’t belong in.”
“Perhaps. But the only reason why you are caught is because I was smarter than you,” Sophia said, keeping her sword trained on the duchess, never letting the woman see her waiver. Not even a little.
“You will never take this crown from me.” The woman sneered. “I shouldn’t have even let you live. But that magic would’ve been wasted. I couldn’t let that happen. No, it doesn’t matter anymore. Even if you were to take this throne from me, the people will never accept you or your so-called heir. The monster I turned you into will make you hated forever.”
“You have already lost the people,” Sophia said, her voice echoing through the room. “They have already cheered my name. Which you would know if you weren’t so preoccupied with stealing a seat that wasn’t yours to begin with.”
“Ha! One simple event doesn’t free you of who you are.” The duchess stood. “You are a monster, a broken, little thing. You don’t even know what happened to you, do you? Your mind is as jumbled as a child’s puzzle. If you do not submit to me, now, then you’ll never learn the truth of what happened to your parents.”
For a moment, the comment stung her. More than anything she wanted to regain her memory and understand more about her family, especially since she found Madison. However, the duchess had proven herself untrustworthy and manipulative. A murderer. Usurper. Her words would have to be carefully sifted through, and even then they would be worth little. No, Sophia would find out the truth, and her beloved men would help her, along with Madison—the true queen of Nighthelm.
Sophia saw through the duchess and refused to let the woman manipulate her feelings. She knew everything she needed to know, and she would see to it that the duchess got her just desserts. She would die to make sure her cousin got the throne back. Madison was the rightful queen. Not this pretender.
As the duchess approached Sophia, her amulet around her neck started to glow. “You are going to join your family. As soon as you watch me murder your cousin, I’ll make you suffer a long, torturous death.”
Bells sounded outside of the castle, mixed with growls and the cries of the people. They echoed around her, and she couldn’t contain her anger anymore.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Andreas
Andreas knew the second the castle had shifted that he, his brothers, and men were separated from Sophia.
Luckily, Madison had remained with them and safe. A few of the wraiths surrounding her joined the fight at moments when he and his brothers were nearly overwhelmed with the sheer onslaught of guards fighting against them.
He could only guess how Edric was holding up, forced to kill the very men he once led. Andreas quickly searched for him between fighting guards. He had just taken down another one, met Andreas’s gaze, and shouted, “Keep fighting! We must stand for the rightful queen!”
His wraith brothers roared, filling his blood with pride. Edric, ever the commander, knew just what to say to keep the group motivated. He was destined for leadership. Bred for it, even.
Andreas shouted, “For the queen!” and shifted.
He quickly checked on Madison again and started taking out guards, tasting their fear and rushing to them before they could get a chance to do the same to him. Though it was a bloodied fight, having endured some injuries of his own, he knew in the end, Madison would take over the duchess’s position and become queen. Her birthright.
“This is what we fight for!” he shouted again, aiding Edric in keeping the fight going strong even though he knew strength was ebbing.
They needed to get Madison to the throne room. Then they could rest. He knew Sophia was safe. It almost seemed like there was nothing that could hold that woman back. He chuckled to himself. That woman of his. He never could get enough of her. She was the only one who ever looked at him from the start and truly saw him. A person. Not a monster.
Edric’s voice called out, “Your queen stands before you. Stop fighting us and see her reclaim the throne.”
“Lies,” one guard said. “You’re under the spell of that contritum woman. Nothing you say is truth.”
“But it is true, brothers. Sophia has done no harm,” he said. “Look at the girl, she is your true queen.”
Madison stood a little taller, even though her eyes were wide with fear. This was probably the same sight she had seen just before being put into that crystal coffin. Andreas felt for her. He didn’t want to see any more death himself. After what she had been through, he couldn’t blame her for being afraid.
“Mockery,” another guard said, aiming his pike at the group.
Andreas said, “We are of our own free will. Let us pass and end this bloodshed so that we may prove her right and claim to the throne.”
Though a few of the guard seemed to see reason in his and Edric’s words, he knew by the way their gazes darted between them and their comrades, they wouldn’t dare turn on their group. They were banded together.
“Blasphemy.” The insult came as an echo among some of the other guards.
Andreas sighed. It seemed like it would take much more to prove Madison was the rightful heir, more than just words. They were too far under the power and corruption of the duchess to even entertain his and his brothers’ claims. They barely held a human look in their eyes.
Ezekiel stepped in front of Andreas as he turned to face off with another guard. He took him down with a blast of fire and then ice. “They’re not listening. We need to get Madison to the throne room.” He didn’t so much as blink before rushing off to take care of another.
As he passed the carnage, the damaged walls and torn tapestries that once hung across them, he knew by the end of this fight that they would need to do considerable repairs to the castle. He was sorry Madison’s arrival had to be amidst a battle, but the duchess and her forces left them no choice.
But before any of them could work on rebuilding, everyone needed to be healed, of course. His own body ached from blows landed and his arms stung from cuts endured.
Despite the damage done to the castle, the important thing was keeping Madison safe as they made their way to the throne room. Even with some of the most severe close calls Andreas had dodged, he managed to hold his own.
He just hoped he could keep up the momentum until the throne room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sophia
The duchess reached Sophia on the main floor of the throne room and paced a circle around her. Sophia kept up with her, never taking her eyes off the woman for one bloody second.
The woman walked to a nearby wall and pulled off a ceremonial sword that had once belonged to one of Sophia’s ancestors. She paused to examine th
e blade and said, “Did you know, child, that even ceremonial blades are kept sharp?”
Sophia didn’t answer.
The duchess smiled as she angled her gaze down the blade and swiped it through the air a few times. Sophia thought she was showing off.
Big deal. You can swing a sword.
Hu-fucking-zah.
Sophia was far from impressed. She just wanted to get the fight going already. All that talk about killing her and the damned woman wanted to show off a bit of basic skill? She shook her head.
The true test of skill would be in how she wielded the weapon and stood against Sophia.
The duchess shifted her gaze to Sophia. “Once I defeat you, I’ll have you chained until that heir is captured. Then I’ll execute her right in front of you. You’ll break completely and submit to my control, or I will kill you.”
“A lot of talk for someone with a plan of action. Stalling doesn’t suit you,” Sophia said and held her position against the duchess.
“Smarting off to your master isn’t wise,” the woman said. “Guess I’ll have to teach you a lesson as well.”
Sophia snorted. “How to talk someone to death?”
The woman leveled her cold, hardened gaze on hers and said, “No dear, to respect your elders.”
She attacked with amazing fierceness and strength. It surprised Sophia that the woman actually knew how to handle and use a blade. No matter. They were more evenly matched now, and that gave Sophia an advantage. An inexperienced fighter was unpredictable and more dangerous than experienced fighters at times. Now, she could gauge the woman’s movements and predict where the next attack would come from.
Sophia blocked the next blow and parried. She felt a little stronger, urged to continue.
The cries from the citizens continued and grew louder, getting closer to the castle. So were the growls and howls of the grimms.
She needed to get this fight done and over so she could take care of the damned creatures. She wondered why the grimms charged into the city. Now, of all times. But before she could figure that out, the duchess swiped her blade toward Sophia’s mid-section, forcing her to jump back or get sliced open.
