Of The Faye Box Set

by Mary Duke

  His eye, which was as big as my head, was all that I could see in the soft glow of the moonlight.

  He spoke slowly, his voice raspy, “Sno Kaliel Endora.”

  “That is my name,” I responded, though I had not heard it in full since I was a child.

  “I am honored to take you into the first battle,” he said, gently nudging me with the side of his head.

  I laid my arm around his nose. “Thank you, Emerald.”

  He lifted his head into the sky and howled into the darkness, as I climbed onto his back behind Zavery.

  “I think he likes you,” Zavery said as Emerald jumped from the ground.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  One by one the dragons and riders filled the sky and spread out around us.

  I couldn’t help but lose myself in the moment. This was an overwhelming feeling for me. I was finally a part of something. This was my place; deep down in my heart, I knew this is where I belonged.

  However until now, that hasn’t set in, and just as it begins to sink in, the realization that I may lose it just as quickly also comes to light

  Zavery began to move, turning his body around to face me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “You wanted to know the battle plan, right?”

  “Yes, that would be helpful,” I said a tad too sarcastic than I meant to.

  “Look,” Zavery said, his tone deepening. “As I told you on the beach, you do not know who I am. You only know the lies that have been told.”

  “I know enough,” I said, not wanting to get off topic.

  “Yeah?” Zavery asked, pressing the palm of his hand against my forehead.

  Memories from his childhood sped before my eyes, and before I knew what was going on I was standing in a darkened room with Zavery beside me.

  “Where are we?” I asked scanning the room.

  “My bedroom,” he whispered.

  I narrowed my eyes in disbelief. Zavery was the only child of the most powerful Queen.

  “Watch,” he said pointing to the wall.

  On cue a doorway opened in the center of the stone wall, and the Queen entered, dragging a young boy behind her by his hair.

  “Please, mother, please don’t leave me in here,” he pleaded. “I can do it. I know I can. Give me one more chance, please.”

  The Queen cast him into the corner. “You cannot do it,” she spat. “You are weak!”

  “Mother please,” he pleaded again, as she began to walk away.

  She turned on her heels and, striking Zavery across the face, knocked him to the floor. “What have I told you? I. Am. Your. Queen. You are no child of mine. A child of mine wouldn’t be such a disappointment.”

  Before I could say anything, Zavery pulled us from the room and into another memory.

  Zavery was now a teenager, standing in the center of a training arena in chains. The Queen sitting in the judges’ stand, with another man, watching him.

  “Do you believe he is ready?” she asked the man.

  The man nodded, “Yes, my Queen. He is ready.”

  “My Queen,” Zavery called out to her. “This is pointless. You are merely sending these men to their death. Do you not care for your soldiers, do you not care for their families?”

  She ignored him and turned her head back to the man. “Give the order.”

  The man stepped forth from the judges’ stand. “This fight will be to the death,” he said turning to the twenty men who gathered behind him. “There will be no mercy shown here today. Only one man will leave these grounds.”

  The Queen snapped her fingers, and the chains securing Zavery vanished; a single sword appeared at his feet.

  Zavery held his hands up. “I will not do this.”

  “Then you will die,” the Queen spat coldly.

  Time and time again, he pulled me through memories from his childhood. Each one worse than the previous. My mind twisted and my heart sank, as time after time, the truth of his life proved the lies I had heard wrong.

  I had no words to say to him that could express how I felt. I was sorry that I had believed so many lies, but what he had just shown me wasn’t something anyone could have imagined.

  In the end, his life mirrored my own. Our lives were both filled with more loss, misery, and sadness than any life should be dragged through…and as he had said, our lives were more alike than I cared to acknowledge.

  Zavery pulled his hand from my forehead, and my surroundings came into focus.

  The sun had begun to peek over the horizon, and the ocean beneath us mirrored the underbellies of the dragons.

  “Why did you do that?” I asked softly.

  “You would have found out soon enough anyway,” Zavery replied turning back around in the saddle.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Once we get to Mahkana, you and I have three jobs,” he began to explain. “When our feet touch the ground, our first job is to get to the vault. We are not to stop, no matter what we see, no matter who is dead. Once we get to the vault…” He paused taking a deep breath. “We must merge.”

  “Merge?” I questioned, unsure of what he meant.

  “Itheus only explained so much. He said when the time came we would know what to do; it’ll be an instinct.”

  “Okay,” I said. “But what does that have to do with me knowing about your past?”

  Zavery huffed. “The only way I have been able to wrap my head around it is by thinking we will become one. This vault was sealed by a goddess using her full power. It would only make sense that the sole way to unseal it is to merge two that were forged of her magic, right?”

  “Are you kidding me?” I said, shocked. Merging wasn’t something light witches and wizards do. “That’s dark magic.”

  “I know,” Zavery said his eyes fixed on the horizon.

  “Look at me,” I demanded. “This is serious. Not everyone who merges comes back, sometimes they are lost within the other person.”

  “I know,” he again responded in a shallow voice.

  “You really don’t have anything to say on this?”

  “What do you want me to say, Sno? What am I supposed to do? This is our only option. We have to believe in each other, put faith in what we are capable of.”

  I sat in silence for a moment, not wanting to admit that he was right. We were out of options. We were the last bit of hope left for our people, and I was being selfish.

  Swallowing my pride, I apologized. “I am sorry.”

  “Why?”

  “You were right. This is about more than you and me. There is so much at stake, so many lives. I’ve let my insecurities ruin my judgment, and I’ve let gossip become truth.” Zavery remained silent, but he turned back to face me. “For the better part of my life, I believed my life was the worst, and that I had been through more than anyone. Anytime I faltered, or chose the wrong path, I used it as an excuse. Instead of standing up and being there when I was needed, I hid behind what others told me I was, behind the excuses I myself had created.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” Zavery spoke softly, a smile starting to curl in the corner of his lip. “We all lose ourselves to our demons at some point.”

  FIRE. Every inch of me felt as though it was on fire. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I could only feel the flames licking at my skin.

  “How dare you,” a voice called from the distance. “How dare you talk to my son.”

  “Sno,” Zavery yelled, grabbing ahold of my shoulders.

  The voice yelled at me again, as the burning roared in my ears. “This is all your fault. You are the reason he suffered. If you would have died the first time, this…” Her voice stopped, and the pain dulled, as my vision faded back in.

  Zavery held my face in his hands, his eyes searching mine.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked.

  “Jadea,” he answered. “She must have tied herself to that turquoise stone you wore on your neck.”

  I reached for th
e necklace Rowan had given me, but it was gone.

  “I had to destroy it,” Zavery said. “That’s where the black fire was coming from.”

  “That was the last piece of him I had.”

  “I know,” he said hanging his head. “Kegan told me. I had no other options.”

  I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves. I couldn’t deal with this right now. There was now land beneath us and Mahkana was close.

  Kegan reached out to me, as he landed on my shoulder. ”I cannot help you here.””What do you mean you can’t help me,” I replied.

  The hawk lowered his head. ”Do you remember what I told you about the sacred law between Guardians and Gods?’””There really is more to this than what’s been said, isn’t there?””Much more,” Kegan answered.

  “I hope you’re ready,” Zavery shouted back at me, over the war cries below.

  The ground was now just under the tips of Emerald's wings, and I grabbed ahold of Zavery to brace for impact.

  We slid off the dragon, and he was gone, leaving us among the second wave from the island.

  “Is that blood?” I asked looking down at my feet.

  Zavery nodded and pulled his sword from his belt. “We need to save as much energy as we can; we will need it when we get there.”

  I followed suit, gripping my mother’s sword in my hand. “Wait,” I said, grabbing ahold of Zavery’s shoulder. “You never told me what the third step was.”

  A smile spread across Zavery’s face. “Make it out alive.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Zavery and I crept forward with the second group, stepping over the dead bodies that littered the ground and around the burning piles of body parts.

  The stench that lingered in the air was unbearable. I pulled my cloak over my mouth and nose, and yet the taste of blood still dwelled in my mouth.

  Cries of agony and vengeance ripped through the air, but I couldn’t bear to pull my eyes from the motionless faces we stepped over.

  I didn’t know whose side they were on, whether they were ally or foe. My heart ached for them, and my stomach churned at the fact there were so many scattered upon the ground.

  Sensing my disgust, Zavery pulled me closer. “This is war.”

  I had seen death more times than I would care to acknowledge. I had witnessed the aftermath of villages raided by the Demons, a field littered with the bodies of the men trying to save their families, but none of those could prepare me for this. “It’s sickening.”

  Zavery nodded, as he stooped to roll a body over.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, scanning our surroundings.

  “I know him,” Zavery said, as he ripped a small sack from the man’s belt.

  “Oh, so it’s okay to steal from a dead person, as long you know them,” I said sarcastically.

  “It’s not stealing,” Zavery said, patting around the man’s waist.

  “Then what is it?”

  “Taking back what was once mine. I’ll show you,” he said as he pulled another pouch from a back loop of the man's pants and emptied the contents into his hand. Zavery picked the up the pocket watch and turned it over in his hand. Engraved on the silver was Theod Montgomery Blade. “This was,” he started to say.

  “Your father’s,” I said finishing his sentence.

  “YOUR LEFT!” Talin shouted, diving in front of us.

  The warriors from the second wave gathered around us, fighting off the few demons that had gotten within range, but it was too late.

  Talin now laid on the ground with the others, a spear through his chest.

  Zavery lifted his head off the ground, as Talin’s hand gripped the spear.

  “Go,” Talin gasped. “Leave me.”

  “We’re not going to leave you,” I said, gripping his hand.

  “Time cannot be wasted this day,” Talin said, squeezing my hand back.

  “I can heal this,” Zavery said reaching for the spear.

  “No,” Talin said knocking his hand away. “Save your energy.”

  “We have to go,” a man from the crowd said, pulling on my cloak.

  A tear slid down Zavery’s cheek. “I will never forget all that you have taught me.”

  “Nor I what you have taught me,” Talin replied.

  Zavery placed the palm of his hand on his forehead, and Talin’s eyes drifted closed.

  The crowd encircled us, their magic keeping the arrows, rocks, and spears from getting close, as we made our way through what remained of the city.

  Balls of fire rushed over our heads, and between those who stood behind me, I watched a small group of demons who tried sneaking up behind us crumble to ash.

  Zavery’s and my eyes met at the same time; there was only one witch we knew on our side that could have done that: Tamara.

  “Who in the hell let her come here?” I demanded pushing through the men.

  “Jethero said he wasn’t letting her come,” Zavery said, fighting through them besides me.

  As we pushed through the last wall of people, Tamara unleashed another wall of fire, wiping out every enemy in sight.

  Standing over top of her father’s body, eight-year-old Tamara stood guard over her oldest brother.

  Before we could reach them, she turned to us. “I’ve cleared the way. Go.”

  “You can’t stay out here,” I said to her. “Why don’t you and your brother fall back with the group?”

  “Call Emerald, he will get you out of here,” Zavery said looking to the sky for his dragon.

  “I will leave when it is time,” Tamara stated, yet again letting off another whirlwind of fireballs. Her voice was not that of a child’s.

  “Let’s go,” Zavery said, linking my arm with his.

  “We can’t leave her,” I said.

  “You don’t know Tamara like I do. She has more determination than anyone I’ve ever met. The only way we are going to get her out of here is to finish this.”

  I sighed, looking back at her and her brother. This wasn’t right, but putting an end to this was the best choice.

  One by one anyone who tried to get in our way, as we ran towards the vault, was either slain by a sword or swallowed in fire.

  When Zavery and I stepped onto the platform surrounding the vault, everyone and everything around us was gone.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Every fiber of my being was twisted and pulled apart, as soon as our feet became grounded on the platform. Darkness consumed all that surrounded me before a burst of light revealed that we were no longer in Mahkana.

  My eyes were quick to adjust to the sunlight, as I took in our surroundings.

  “Where are we?” Zavery asked.

  “I don’t know, but I know we’re not in Mahkana,” I responded, my attention falling on the vault to our left and who was sitting on the platform in front of it.

  “Jadea,” I cursed under my breath, walking towards her. I could feel the rage building. There were so many ways I could justify ending her life, and there was nothing more I wanted than to do so, but first I wanted answers.

  Zavery reached out to me, as our minds must now be connected. “What’s your plan?”

  “Kill the bitch, open the vault, and find out where the hell we are.”

  “Simple enough.” Zavery thought. “But how exactly do we do that?”

  “Oh, I can think of a few ways, but we can be creative.”

  “Before you come any closer,” Jadea said rising to her feet. “Let me introduce you to my friends.”

  From the far side of the vault, one by one, the elders that made the council joined her.

  “What is this?” I demanded looking at each of the faces I grew up idolizing.

  Zavery laughed. “You really couldn’t find a better leader after The Queen died?”

  Jadea’s eyes snapped to Zavery, and a smile curled at her lips.

  The man standing beside Jadea spoke, his voice escaping his mouth as a deep growl. “We have always, and will always, re
main loyal to our Queen,” he said looking to Jadea.

  A smirk remained on Jadea’s face, as she waited for Zavery to piece what was just said together.

  “There’s no way,” Zavery said, shaking his head. “I watched you die, your body burn.”

  “Oh darling,” Jadea chuckled. “I was sick of that face, that life. I needed a new one… one with more power,” she said looking down at her palm where black flames began to build.

  “This doesn’t make any sense. If you caused this war, if you wanted this war, why are you feeding your own people to the enemy?” I asked.

  “You know I never liked you,” Jadea said cocking her head in my direction. “You were always filled with questions and lived off the words of your parents, as well as that stupid pet of yours.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “What makes you think I was giving my people to the demons?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.

  Before I could answer her, she continued.

  “Because Talin told you? That old coot has always let his mind get the better of him. How is he, by the way? Oh wait,” she said holding up her hand. “He’s dead,” she ended, a soul now hovering above her hand.

  “How do you have that?” I said taking another step towards her.

  “It’s my job, dear. I mean that is what reapers do isn’t it, collect souls?” Jadea said, a smile returning to her face.

  “No, it isn’t,” I corrected her. “Reapers do not collect souls; they guide them to where they go in death.

  “Mmmm, but you see that wouldn’t help me,” she said pointing back at herself.

  My fingers curled into fists. She was harvesting people for their power.

  “I don’t get it,” Zavery said. “You created this war. Are you collecting the soul of everyone who dies?”

  “Every single one,” Jadea replied.

  “When does it end? Will it?”

  “Of course, it will.” She smirked. “I mean, I have to have mortals to rule over when I come back. Someone has to keep up the population to feed this monster.” She laughed and spun herself around.

  “You’re sick,” I said.

  “And twisted,” she replied pointing her finger back at me. “Don’t forget that.”