Palace of Moonlight

by Payton Taylor

  Cerise and a battalion of soldiers appeared, and Westin must have come to the same conclusion as Jo because he immediately hurled a dagger at her. She moved, just enough so that the dagger embedded itself in her shoulder rather than her chest.

  The pain must have distracted her because Sunny's cries were cut off and then she was up. Her mind reaching out to grab at Cerise. Jo didn't have the strength to sync her mind with her sister's; she needed to reserve it for the king, but she knew by their violent stare down that this was an internal battle.

  Sunny grinned as Cerise's eyes glazed over a bit and she took out her whip, running it through her hands. "I've been wanting to do this for a long time," she said, a grin spreading across her face as she approached the king's second-in-command.

  Cerise's cry of pain echoed through the chamber and Jo allowed herself a vicious smile as she turned her full attention to the king.

  He was back on his feet, his eyes boring into hers as his psyche snapped and clawed at her own. Jo fended off each swipe, each attempt at control with her own Gift.

  Around her, her friends fought the soldiers and the assassins she'd had to relinquish control over in order to focus all of her attention on the king. Westin faced off against five assassins at once, his face a mask of fury as he savagely gutted the man before him. He turned, driving his knife deep into the eye socket of one assassin while his foot kicked out behind him, sending another flying. A woman snuck up behind him, attempting to get her arms around him, but he grabbed her by the hair and hurled her against the wall of the tomb. The sound of cracking bones echoed over the noise of the fighting and she fell to the ground.

  Dead.

  Jo's Match bond with Leo allowed her to track him as he moved invisibly throughout the room, leaving no trace as to where he'd been except for the sound of dead bodies hitting the floor, their necks slit open wide.

  An assassin neared Jo as she fought the king, her mind barely present enough to draw her sword to fend him off. She needn't have worried though, because the man slumped to the ground, dead, before he could reach her.

  Behind him stood Leo, holding the man's heart in his hand, a gaping hole left in the man's chest. Jo's eyes widened as she realized he had used his Gift to reach into the man's chest and rip out his heart. With his bare hand.

  Leo winked at her and disappeared, the heart falling to the ground with a wet splat.

  Leo wasn't their only invisible fighter. As Sunny faced off against Cerise, any soldiers that neared her would suddenly fall or get knocked aside and Jo knew instinctively it was Gordo, guarding her back.

  Likewise, Daiya was using her Necromancer abilities to guard Westin. One opponent reached for his knife to use on Westin's undefended flank, only to find it missing from his belt. He turned to find it dangling in midair above his head, just out of reach, and Jo could almost hear Daiya's delighted cackle.

  Nearby, Tweety swept through the room, pecking at soldiers and grabbing them with his talons, flinging them at the walls.

  Kian and Seren fought back-to-back, their faces wearing twin expressions of pure focus. Kian fought three soldiers with nothing but his bare hands, snapping their necks without so much as a grunt of effort. Seren grabbed an arrow from his quiver and plunged it into a guard's eye, before ripping it out and firing it from his bow into the throat of another soldier, all in one fluid movement.

  Zahra's sweet voice filled the chamber, her Siren's song leading soldiers to her with dazed, happy expressions. Expressions that didn't even falter as she lined them up single file and whipped out her bolas, decapitating them one right after another.

  They fell like dominos.

  Marzanna was more limited there, with no plants around to control. But she kept the soldiers at bay as she tossed out seeds from her pouch, forcing them to grow in midair so that when they rained down on her enemies, they weren't harmless seeds but thick, strong vines that wrapped tightly around them. Tears filled her eyes as her vines squeezed the breath from their lungs.

  Khione used her Gift to freeze the water all around them, causing the assassins to slip. Hurling icicles sharper than knives at them. Freezing the blood in their veins just enough to make their movements slow, sluggish enough for her to take them on.

  They were doing it. They were actually holding their own against the king's soldiers. Jo even dared to begin to hope they might make it out of there alive.

  That was her mistake, though. Letting her attention slip just a little too far away from the king to keep an eye on her friends. Giving him the chance to lunge for her, not mentally but physically, and knocking her down onto the cold stone floor of the tomb.

  Jo struggled against him, but she couldn't reach her swords. Couldn't keep enough of her mind free to call for Tweety to distract him.

  The king took out his knife.

  His mind forced its way into hers with a strength that shocked her. A strength that shouldn't have been possible. A strength that wasn't human. He took control of her, forcing her to hold her arms down by her sides, to not fight back as he brought up that wickedly sharp dagger.

  He grinned down at her, his eyes filled with a manic gleam. "You're my daughter, Josephine, whether you want to admit it or not. I'm going to leave you with a reminder that you belong to me. To Ettria."

  And he brought down the knife.

  Jo screamed in pain as the blade bit into the skin of her temple. As the king dragged it down in a crescent arc from her temple to the corner of her mouth. Her body knew only pain as he marked her with the symbol of his kingdom.

  Jo let the pain flow through her. Since she'd come to Writhia, since she'd found out about the terrifying strength of her Gift, Jo had always held back. She was afraid of what she was capable of at full strength. Of the destruction she knew she could wreak. So, she had always held back, just a little.

  But as the pain coursed through her body, there was no holding back. The pain seared through every barrier she had put in place for herself, every line she'd been afraid to cross.

  So, she gave herself over to the pain and struck back.

  But not with violence. No, she struck back at the place he was weakest.

  She forced her thoughts out from herself. Willed them to take form.

  "Azmodeous! What are you doing to our daughter?"

  The tomb went silent. The only noise was the sound of everyone's ragged breathing as the fighting ceased completely.

  Azmodeous' head whipped up to find Eleyna standing before him.

  Jo's thoughts, taking physical form. "Eleyna," he whispered as he rose up a bit.

  A bit more, Jo thought as she struggled to channel even more of her energy into her creation.

  Eleyna's eyes traveled the room, widening as they took in the scene of violence. "What are you doing, Azmodeous?" Her eyes landed on Jo's face which continued to throb. "What have you done?" Her horror- filled whisper seemed to echo through the cavern.

  Azmodeous inched back from Jo and stood, his entire being focused on her. His eyes flicked to the side and landed on Sunny before darting back and forth between the two.

  Something, some vague realization, seemed to settle there. As if he finally understood.

  He took a step toward Eleyna and Jo did not allow her focus to waver, even as she pushed herself into a sitting position. Even as she struggled to get to her feet. No one moved to help her. She didn't want them to.

  "I have searched for you, my love," Azmodeous continued. "Everything I have done was so I could see you again." He took another step forward and his fingers began unbuttoning his shirt.

  Surprise registered dimly in the back of Jo's mind as her father removed his shirt to reveal the scars that sliced and puckered his flesh. Her eyes settled on the huge one on his back, the remainder of the Mark that was once there evident at the edges.

  It reminded Jo of another scar. The one that had stretched across her mother's upper back, as if someone or something had sliced off her skin in one thick layer.

  Azmod
eous continued speaking. Around them, friends and assassins alike stood still, eyes darting back and forth as if trying to understand what was happening.

  Azmodeous held out his hand, "These scars are proof of my love for you, Eleyna. Proof of everything I have done to find you." He smiled then, the most real smile Jo had ever seen from him. "He told me I would see you again, but that I had to be strong. It hurt when they cut it off, but it was nothing compared to the pain of never seeing you again. I had to be powerful enough to make it possible and he told me it was the only way."

  He took another step closer, passing Jo completely.

  "I have missed you, my love."

  Jo struck.

  The cut on her face burned as she reached for her sword and lunged.

  And stabbed her father through the heart.

  Chapter 41

  Sunny

  Writhia, 5220

  The Wastes

  Sunny's head snapped back with the force of

  Cerise's fist.

  She hit harder than Sunny had expected. Blood dripped down both of their faces, falling to the floor of the cavern in dark drops.

  Then Jo's scream pierced the air. Followed by a cry from Leo as he lunged for her. But the king's soldiers surrounded him from all sides, attacking him to keep him from reaching her. Blood streamed from his nose and his movements were slower than usual. He was running out of power. But as Jo screamed again, he lunged forward with renewed vigor.

  Then a force tackled her from the side as Cerise threw herself at Sunny. They hit the ground, Cerise on top. But Sunny reached up and grabbed a fistful of her hair in one hand as she jabbed the thumb of her other into the stab wound on Cerise's shoulder. She shrieked in pain as Sunny ripped her off of her, before rolling and smashing her face into the hard stone floor. There was a crack as Cerise's nose broke and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.

  Sunny took out a knife, but before she could stab her, she heard her mother's voice echo through the cavern as everyone around them went still.

  Sunny looked up to find Eleyna standing over Jo and the king, a pleading expression on her face.

  She looked back to Jo, amazed at what her sister had accomplished.

  She watched as the king removed his shirt, revealing those grisly scars. His voice was a distant buzz in the back of her mind as she realized her sister's plan and waited for him to take that final step closer to the illusion of his lost love.

  Finally, Jo struck, and ice filled Sunny's veins as she watched the man she hated fall to the ground, her sister's sword impaling his chest.

  And then Sunny was running to her sister as Jo wrench her sword from her father and shoved at the king with her foot, rolling him onto his back. Leo lurched forward as well, reaching her at the same time. Blood seeped from a deep gash in Jo's face, obscuring her eye, but she met Sunny's gaze, the image of Eleyna winking out of existence behind her.

  Azmodeous lay on the ground coughing blood, his pale eyes blinking rapidly.

  Sunny drew her whip as she moved to stand over him.

  She glanced at Jo. "Do you want him?"

  Jo looked down at her father, a detached look of disgust spreading across her face. "You can have him. I'm done with him."

  She turned to Westin, a silent question in her eyes. She and Jo weren't the only ones who had been abused by the king.

  But Westin only bared his teeth in a feral grin.

  "He's all yours."

  She held his eyes for a moment longer before turning back to the king. They gave her the strength she needed to do what came next.

  Sunny cracked her whip and the Dark King's eyes found her face and held.

  Her whip slashed out.

  A gash ripped open along the king's right arm. "This is for Westin, and all of the things you forced him to do." She lashed out again, ripping open his left arm. "This is for torturing my baby sister."

  Her whip slashed backwards in the air before surging forward to wrap tightly around his neck. "And this is for making me into what I am now," she tightened her grip, "My name is not Eleyna." Then she yanked, severing his head from his body.

  His death was a release.

  A ragged gasp left Sunny's mouth as the king's head rolled across the cave floor. Whatever dark bond he had created between them snapped, a break she felt inside of her, deep in her soul, that was as pleasurable as it was painful.

  Pleasurable because she was free. She was finally free.

  Westin's hand came to rest on her shoulder, squeezing gently. Sunny smiled up at him before turning to her sister. Leo held a blood-soaked piece of cloth to Jo's face. His entire right arm was bare. He'd ripped off his sleeve.

  Sunny looked around the group, catching their gaze.

  They were bloodied and tired, but alive. Their enemies' bodies lay scattered around them. "We did it, guys. We killed the king."

  "How are we going to get out of here?" Marzanna asked, eyeing the closed off corridor they'd arrived through and then the hole in the ceiling over a hundred feet above their heads.

  Sunny looked around, her gaze coming to rest on the stone tomb that lay in the center of the room. A sarcophagus.

  "Jo? Westin?"

  The group gasped as a little girl appeared out of thin air. Her large hazel eyes looked sadly up at them.

  "Zoe? Where have you been?" Jo asked, taking a step toward the girl.

  "I was so scared," Zoe said, and tears filled her eyes as she ran up to Jo and threw her arms around her.

  Sunny frowned. Something didn't add up. How had

  Zoe found them there, of all places?

  But before she could ask, Zoe's sobs turned to cackling laughter.

  "Fools," Zoe pulled back and grinned at them, but the voice that came from her mouth was not the voice of a child. It was deep and ancient. Powerful.

  Jo's arms fell to her side in confusion as Zoe walked over to run her hand along the top of the sarcophagus.

  The ground trembled beneath them and Sunny looked down to find the blood that leaked from the king's lifeless body making its way toward the sarcophagus, flowing toward it like stream. With intent. Two other puddles of blood followed suit.

  "What's going on?" Sunny asked, her eyes going back to the little girl who stroked the ancient coffin, a loving expression on her face.

  Zoe laughed, "You fools think you came here to stop the darkness. But your blood fuels the darkness." Her eyes met Sunny's. "I am the darkness."

  Then the blood reached the coffin and cracks appeared along her skin. Zoe spread her arms and rose into the air as black light seeped from the cracks. Higher she floated as pieces of her skin fell away. Until the black light burst forth, enveloping her completely.

  Stone ground against stone and the coffin exploded, shards of rock flying everywhere. When the dust cleared, an ancient mummy lay there completely intact.

  The orb of light, Zoe, descended into the ancient weathered corpse. Then the light seemed to seep into the body, and where it seeped, the body rose to life. It started at the toes, changing them from wrinkled lumps to tan, sandaled feet. The legs filled out, starting with the calves, then the knees, then the thighs. Muscle swelled, golden skin spreading over perfectly formed legs. Then the stomach and chest, broad and muscled to perfection. That leathery mouth sucked in a breath of air and Sunny knew that its lungs were inflated.

  Then it sat up. Suddenly. Stiffly. Then it turned to look at them, its skeleton teeth grinning maniacally as that golden skin spread over it to form perfect features. Jo's cheekbones. Sunny's nose. Their eyes. Their dimples.

  Sunny's golden hair topped his head, in an abundance of curls. He cocked his head at them in a birdlike gesture.

  And the power emanating from him was unlike anything they had ever felt before. It was a physical force, a static that filled their brains and veins with cotton. Sunny felt small. Imperfect.

  Human.

  It was death that surrounded him. That was his aura.

  Death was staring the
m all in the eyes.

  He smiled, reading her mind, "I am death. Finally, my granddaughters have awoken me after thousands of years."

  Sunny didn't take the time to ponder that statement.

  She needed to get out of there. Now.

  She grabbed her sister's and Westin's hands, sending the command out for everyone to grab on.

  Then she looked down to the ground at her feet.

  Where a large chunk of Zoe's skin lay. The right half of her face, her single hazel eye staring blankly at the ceiling. And Sunny could still feel the tiny scrap of power that clung to that skin. The Traveler's Gift.

  So, forcing back bile, Sunny knelt and lifted the bloodied remains of the girl's face.

  Then she closed her eyes and pictured Vianna.

  Time and space seemed to press in on her as the world around them stretched. Sensations filled her. Hot dry air followed by a burst of freezing rain whipped at her face. Then a whirlwind of sand, stinging her cheeks.

  And then. . . gasps. Cries of alarm.

  Sunny opened her eyes to find herself and her friends in the throne room of the Viannese palace.

  The room was packed, filled with court members and dignitaries. All the royals they had met at that ball so long ago. They were all dressed in gold. Gold everywhere they looked. On the walls. The flowers. The furniture.

  Khione straightened, looking around. "What's the meaning of this?" Her voice was hard, but her eyes were bright with fear.

  A man in military dress stepped forward, introducing himself as General Jiraq. "I am so sorry. Queen Asteria is dead." Khione gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

  Sunny went numb. Numb at the loss of the family she had found and lost so quickly.

  Numb as the man placed his hand over his heart, bowing at the waist. "Leaving you, Princess Noelani, as our rightful queen."

  Behind him, the rest of the room followed suit. "All hail the Queen of Daylight."

  Epilogue

  Cerise

  Writhia, 5220

  Ettria

  The Ettrian Palace had never been a pleasant place, at least not that I knew of, but he had taken it and made it his own. His web-footed, reptilian demons flew through the halls and slithered over the marble floors.