by G. Bailey
“Have you met my sister yet?” I ask.
“Yes. Erica has already passed by my house, and she chose not to come inside out of fear,” she answers me.
“Does that mean she failed the tests?” I ask, feeling a little hopeful.
“I sense that failing these tests is the least of her worries. She is in love with a demon whose heart is so black that love is impossible for him to feel,” she replies sadly. “Love does twist our hearts so much sometimes that we cannot see the evil within it. Erica may have had the perfect upbringing, but you have the most perfect future. Well, one of your futures is. All of Erica’s currently lead her to death,” she explains to me.
“You can see the future?” I ask her.
“Yes. I can show you if you let me. I can show you what you have to fight for, but then you must leave as your fate awaits you yet,” she says, walking right up to me. I keep still as she presses a finger in the middle of my forehead, and a light flashes into my mind. When I open my eyes, I’m stood in the throne room wearing jeans and a white shirt, a massive bump growing out of my stomach. Holy bacon, I’m pregnant here. I look away from my bump to see all my men stood next to the throne which looks different than usual. The whole room looks different. It’s no longer made of glass and gold, instead stone and a silver metal fills the room. The room is full of Protectors, but their faces are blurred and hidden from me. Hali walks through the people, and she is much older, about twenty, I think, and she smiles at me. The room blurs which makes me close my eyes, and once I open them, I’m looking at the nameless woman again. My hands twitch to drop the swords and touch my stomach, but I don’t. The woman smiles at me and bows her head before stepping back.
“There are a thousand of your futures that do not end well, but I showed you the one I will pray for. Good luck, Evelina,” she says and steps back into the shadows of the house, the fireplace light fading away. I force myself to turn around and walk out of the house, trying not to forget everything I just learnt. That was a future to fight for. Everyone looked happy and, most importantly, alive. As I walk into the village, I trying to store away what I just saw, knowing I need to focus on the present to get to that future. I keep following the main path until I get to a stone circle in the middle of the village, which is empty of anything other than alleyways leading off in all directions.
“Hello?” a small voice suddenly speaks once I get to the middle of the circle, and I spin around, seeing a girl standing in the pathway I came from. The girl has blue hair like mine, she is small and covered in mud. I step back for a moment because she looks like a mini me.
“Hello. Where is everyone?” I ask her, and she shakes her head.
“Monsters took them,” she says, wiping her tears away.
“Where are the monsters now?” I ask, this time stepping closer to her.
“Around us,” she says simply, pointing to another alleyway where vile, black, slime-covered creatures are crawling towards the middle of the village from the shadows. I step back just as I hear another voice, and I turn around to see Erica stood at the start of another alleyway. My eyes widen as she pulls Hali out from behind her and places a dagger at her throat. Hali doesn’t look like Hali though, she seems strange and quiet.
“Let her go. Now!” I demand, and Erica doesn’t say a word, Hali just looks at me with an empty gaze, and instead, the little girl speaks.
“Make the choice. I need your help.” I look over to see the creatures are heading straight towards the little girl, and then I look back to Hali. I can’t save them both, and I know this is a test. If I don’t save myself—the little girl, I mean—then no one else can. That’s the whole point of the test, learning to love and save myself.
“Dammit,” I cry out because I still want to run to Hali, but I can’t, and I run to the little girl, knowing I can’t let her die, even if every part of me wants to save Hali. The girl is helpless, and there isn’t a choice here. I just get to the girl, pushing her behind me as the monsters get to me, and I swing my sword straight into the stomach of the nearest one. A blinding light blasts out from the monster, sending me flying backwards in the air, and everything is just white for a long time as I land on something soft. When I open my eyes, I am no longer in the village, and it’s not night anymore. Instead, there is grass in front of my face that smells sweet. I sit up, looking around at the green grass field I am in and spotting Erica stood on the other side of the field looking around as well.
There is a loud clicking noise, and I look up, seeing a white sparkling ball of light floating down from the blue, cloud-covered sky. The ball stops just above the ground and fades away, revealing a gold crown with a glowing blue stone in the middle of it. I run towards the crown at the same time Erica does, and smirk as Star jumps out of nowhere, slamming into Erica and knocking her to the ground. I just get to the crown as pain shoots through my chest, and I look over to see Erica holding a dagger inside Star’s thigh. She pulls the dagger out and holds it over where Star’s heart is. Star growls, but she isn’t strong enough to push Erica away as Erica freezes her to the ground.
“STOP!” I scream, making Erica pause to look back at me.
“Walk away from the crown, and I will stop. Or she dies,” she warns me, and there is nothing but cruelty in her gaze. I have a feeling this isn’t the test anymore. If I walk away, Star lives and Erica wins. If I don’t do what she asks, I will lose Star, and I can’t do that. I love her. She is my familiar and family.
“If I let you win this test. Everyone will die. You will destroy the world,” I whisper, tears falling down my cheeks and landing on my arm which is stretched out, inches away from touching the crown.
“The throne belongs to me. I will do anything to get it and give my one true love the power he needs,” she demands, looking frantically between me and the crown.
“Cex will kill you when he is bored of you. I hope you know that,” I warn her. “I could have been real to you. I would have been your sister if you didn’t choose to be so jealous and crazy. This all could have been different, and now we will both suffer for your actions.”
“No, he won’t ever kill me!” she screams back at me, shaking her head as I’m clearly getting to her. “We could have never been real sisters. You would have always outshone me because of who you are. Now make the choice.” I stare over at Star, and just as I am about to step back to let Erica have the crown, I feel a wave of love and acceptance from her. She wants me to take the crown, I can sense it. Tears stream down my eyes as I meet Star’s gaze. She knows as well as I do that there is only once choice here; no matter how much it breaks my heart, I cannot let the world die and burn. This is just another test, and I have to pray Star will survive this. I wish I could take the dagger for her. I reach for the crown at the same time Erica slams the dagger into Star, making us both cry out. The crown glows a bright gold as I fall to the ground with it, hearing a voice inside my head as the world fades away.
“Welcome, new queen of the Protectors. You chose correctly in each test, and we will honour you as queen until death.”
Evie
“Wake up, our queen,” Keeper Grey’s voice echoes in my mind on repeat, making me slowly wake up, feeling groggy as hell and confused about what happened. I’m confused about what is real and what is not. I blink my eyes open with a gasp, feeling my forehead and cheeks burning slightly. I place my hands on my face, feeling little raised marks like swirls all the way from the side of my cheeks, past my eyes, and they meet in a big swirl on my forehead. I open my eyes to see Keeper Grey kneeling next to me, looking very relieved. “The marks of a queen have been blessed to you. They truly suit you, Queen Evelina.”
“Queen? I won?” I question, and then it rushes back to me as I sit up, looking at the empty space next to me and the blood on the stone. I gasp in pure pain until I feel Star’s bond rush to life inside my head, and I know she is alive, just resting somewhere nearby.
“The keepers healed Star during the test. I sent two of
my keepers to take her somewhere to rest while they continue to heal her and we welcome the new queen,” Keeper Grey explains to me. I shake my head, feeling like I owe Keeper Grey a massive debt for saving Star when I could not. I don’t think I could have lived with losing her.
“Thank you. I thought I lost her,” I whisper, wiping away a tear.
“The test is—and has always been—brutal to our loved ones. That is why keepers are kept close as there is no need for death to visit the tests,” Keeper Grey further explains just as I hear movement in the room. I look over to see another keeper helping Erica up, and the moment she sees me, she gasps.
“NO!” she screams at me, shaking her head as I stand up straight, glaring at her. Every little part of me wants to jump at her, strangle her until she feels the same pain she put my familiar through. Though as I watch her getting more and more angry, I feel a sense of acceptance about her and who I am now. Erica doesn’t deserve to have me kill her. Cex will break her heart and kill her, which is what she deserves and will be far more painful than anything I could do to her.
“The crown was always meant to be mine,” I state, crossing my arms. “This proves everything. You do not belong on the throne, and you will never be on it.”
“You cannot be queen! You’re a street rat, an assassin, a nobody! This is insane!” she screams, trying to come over to me, but two keepers hold her arms at her sides. Erica tries to fight them off, but keepers are stronger than they look it seems.
“I am queen though, despite my past. I look at my past as experience that taught me what is right and wrong. You are wrong, Erica. You will be shown to a court and held accountable for high treason, among other things. You will be locked up for the rest of your life. Every part of me wants to kill you for everything you have done, but I know that is not what our mother would have done. You can live as a prisoner instead of meeting death,” I say, keeping my head high as she shakes her head. I highly doubt I will actually have to keep to my word on locking her up once Cex finds out she isn’t queen, but it felt good to be the bigger person.
“Never!! I will kill you and take what is mine!” she screams, wriggling to get free of the keepers’ tight grip. She calls holy fire, and the keepers’ hands glow white on her arm, and the fire burns away. Didn’t know they could do that.
“Enough, Erica. This is your queen, do not threaten her if you know what is good for you,” Keeper Grey warns.
“It’s not me she has to worry about,” Erica grins suddenly as she holds her hand out and calls a portal which burns into the room before anyone can stop her. I step back as Cex walks through the portal, the sounds of screaming heard on the other side of the portal sound awful. What the fuck is going on? I try to look through the portal as Connor jumps through it just before it closes. Connor is covered in dust and blood, and his clothes are burnt in places. Something is really fucking wrong. Before I can even say anything, Connor rushes at Cex with a hand full of holy fire. I can’t do anything to stop Cex turning and grabbing Connor by his neck like a doll, lifting him into the air.
“Don’t kill him!” I plead, getting Cex’s attention as Connor tries to shout my name. I don’t look at Connor as I focus on Cex who looks away from me to Erica for a brief moment, his face full of pure fury.
“You had one job, get the crown while I destroy the Protectors. How could you fail in such a simple task, you useless woman?” he spits out at her, and she shakes her head. Cex waves a hand, slamming a wave of white looking energy into Erica and the keepers, sending them all into a wall, collapsing to the floor with a loud smack.
“We must leave, Queen Evelina,” Keeper Grey insists, going to call a portal, but Cex sends a blast into him before he can do anything, sending Keeper Grey flying across the room into a wall, knocking him out.
“If you leave, I will kill him. Then I will go back for the others you are so close to like my brother,” Cex warns, holding a choking Connor higher in the air. Connor tries to say something to me before he passes out, and I know I love him too much to let him die. This isn’t a test. There isn’t anyone to heal Connor. There is no second chance for him, and nothing in this world is worth letting Connor die.
“What do you want?” I ask quietly.
“The door to the magic is underneath us. Make me a knight and let me in. Now,” he demands, shaking Connor a little to make his point before throwing him across the room. I wonder for a brief moment if I make a portal near Connor, could I run and drag him through it if I distracted Cex somehow? “Make no mistake, you wouldn’t get far if you try anything, Queen Evelina.”
“I know that,” I spit out as Cex gets to me, grabbing my arm with my black rune on it. “But I do not know how to make you a knight.”
“I do, and it is simple. Your dim-witted sister told me everything I need,” he replies and pulls out a dagger from his belt. He lets go of my arm to cut his wrist and then grabs my arm again, pulling me closer to him before stabbing the dagger into my black rune. I scream, trying to pull away from him, but nothing budges me from his grip as he pulls the dagger out, throwing it across the room. Cex puts his wrist on top of my black rune, and I cry out as he bonds with me. I feel all his power, his dark and disturbed mind for only a moment until he pulls his arm away, and I can open my eyes. Cex whacks me across my face, sending me flying across the room, and I roll across the floor. I turn my head to the side to see Cex punch the stone ground in the middle of the circle, casting a bright blue light into the room. The ground falls away to make a hole as Cex steps back. He jumps into the hole without looking back, and I pull myself to my feet, ignoring the burning pain in my arm and cheek.
“Evelina, run!” Keeper Grey pleads, but I ignore him as I walk to the gap.
“As your queen, I demand you heal Connor and get out of here. Do not follow me, Keeper Grey,” I tell him.
“He will kill you. Please don’t order me to do this!” Keeper Grey pleads with me as he pulls himself to his feet.
“I am the only one who can stop him. If he wants black magic, he will have to kill me first. Do as your queen asks.” I ignore Keeper Grey’s protest of fear as I jump into the cave and start to fall.
Evie
I gasp as I fall into freezing cold water, sinking straight in, and the cold water burns my eyes. I swim straight up towards the surface and the light I can see just above as I hold my breath, feeling the water burning the back of my nose which I really hate. I gasp as I break out of the water, shivering as it’s bloody freezing. Keeping my head low, I look around at the strange place I just fell into. There is an island in the middle of lots of water, where there is a massive tree that stretches to the dark cave above. The tree is glowing a dark red colour across all its branches which are empty of any leaves or flowers. Just dark, dead branches. At the bottom of the tree is a row of black coloured stone angel statues, holding hands around the tree.
Cex is walking up to the tree when I spot him, dripping water onto the sand with every step until he gets to the angels. He hasn’t even noticed me fall in the water, thank god. I need every bit of help I can get. Cex grabs hold of the angel statues and pulls hard, smashing them to pieces on the ground which he just steps over like they are nothing. Cex pours a massive vial of blood all over the tree trunk which makes the tree glow brighter, and there is a cracking of wood noise that fills the room. I swim to the shore as quickly as I can, pausing only to see Cex place both his hands on the tree and start to glow a bright, dark red. Once I can stand, I run in the water and climb onto the shore. I know what I have to do, I just don’t know if it is possible that I can survive it. Either way, this is my price to pay. I have to do this, and it is best I don’t overthink it too much. I run straight up the shore and jump over the stone, stopping next to Cex who doesn’t even notice me.
“If you want black magic, you’ll have to share, Cex,” I say coldly, and he turns his red eyes on me, reaching for me with one hand, but it’s too late to stop me. I press my hands on the tree over the blood nea
r Cex’s hands and scream as a power like nothing else I’ve ever felt slams into me. I close my eyes, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer force of the black magic pushing into my body. Into my soul. I don’t know how long I scream, how much magic I end up taking until suddenly it stops like a power switch being turned off, and I gasp. My throat feels raw, broken from all the screaming, and I feel like my body is even worse. I open my eyes to see my arms glowing red like Cex’s are, and the tree in front of me disappears into ash, raining all around.
“You stupid girl! I want the rest of the power. Now!” Cex shouts, reaching for me, but I hold my hands out, releasing a large amount of red energy that blasts Cex a good distance away. Damn, that’s some power. Cex growls, standing up off the sand and hitting me back with the same energy, sending me flying into the water much further than I hit him. I fall deep in the water, but rather than swimming up, I call a portal. I don’t know if calling portals under water works, but it’s my only chance. The portal appears right in front of me, and I swim in, only looking back once to see a glowing red Cex swimming towards me from a distance before I fall out of the portal on the other side. I quickly will the portal to close as I slide across the floor with the pouring water coming out the portal with me. Thankfully, it closes just as I see a red glow inside, and I take a deep breath of relief.
I glance around, not even sure where I brought myself when I opened the portal, and see that I am in my apartment corridor. A pretty safe place, I suppose. I quickly stand up and open my apartment door, getting inside and pacing for a moment before knowing I need to go to the throne room to find my guys. Cex needs to leave the city or I do, he is too powerful now, and I’m the only thing in the way of him destroying the world. As I walk to the door, it bangs open, and Nix walks straight up to me, covered in blood and dust.
