Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,140

it glowed. My head pounded, and I lifted my hand to my forehead. Stepping back, I watched as the other doors started glowing as hidden wards pulsed to life. The pain in my head grew until Knox grabbed my arm, pulling me with him, away from the door while studying my face.

“Careful. Most of these doors are warded to protect from you and your family line, Aria.”

Frowning at his warning, I moved to the side of the house and peered in through the thick glass, staring at the upturned furniture. The table had massive cuts in its top, and the depth of the sword marks sent a chill racing down my spine.

It was in the same disarray as the other cottage I’d seen. They were all ransacked, and those who had lived within them had vanished without a trace.

Chapter Forty-Seven

I turned to look out through the open meadow and gasped. Hundreds of skeletal remains lay around the field, each connecting to the next by either limb or skull. My hands trembled as my heart pounded in my chest. My breathing grew labored as I stepped forward to study the scene. I took in their moth-eaten clothing and what remained from the harsh elements and insects.

“Jesus,” I whispered breathlessly.

Everything inside me said to turn and leave, but the table sitting in the middle of the remains drew me forward. My fingers trembled as I reached out, running my fingers over the skull of a toddler who sat cradled in her mother’s lap. I fought the tears taking in Hecate’s mark that covered the poor thing’s skull and peered at the others at the table.

Their clothes were of higher quality, which was discernable even through the rot. This family was in the middle of the dead, posed and left there as if they’d taken a meal while the others lay dying around them.

“Tell me what you see, Aria,” Knox asked softly, and I shook my head.

“Evil,” I stated, turning to look at him. I whispered it, accusation marring my shaky tone. “Pure evil that thinks it is good.”

“Indeed, but who decides what is evil, and what is good? What you see as evil, we see as a right to be unoppressed by our oppressors,” he countered, peering over my shoulder toward the family of corpses. “Sometimes, the world needs a villain more than it needs a hero, Aria. Every villain starts out thinking they’re doing what is right, or what is needed. The world around them forces them to become the monster. I’m the monster your family created by taking those I loved away from me. You’re the monster I am creating because I am threatening to do the very same thing to your family. Which one of us is the hero, and which is the villain? Who decides? It depends on which side you stand, does it not?”

“If we are to kill the children, then let us burn. They are the only innocent beings of war. They could not choose a side or know their mind. They’re innocent of crimes, and not wicked of ways. If we are to burn, then let us all burn together. Let us destroy one another, but never the ones who have yet to harm another soul.”

“War isn’t black and white, Aria. In the Nine Realms, your birth decides your side of a war.”

“I don’t believe that. Not for one moment would I decide to be evil just because of my parentage. In fact, my mother taught me my most important lessons in life. She showed me that birth doesn’t decide who your parents are. I would always choose the side that is fighting to protect innocent lives.”

“And yet you refuse to join me because of the side your family is choosing,” he stated as his jaw clenched, and I frowned. “This is one of several villages attacked at the start of this fight, Aria. You have yet to see real evil.”

“Are the events in this village your doing?” I whispered, turning back to look out over the dead as his words ripped through me. “Did you murder these children?” I pried, turning watery eyes to his.

My family created Knox, the monster he became was because we’d failed to protect him from our people. Now he was returning it tenfold and was planning to force me to help him. Maybe it was karma’s way of righting a wrong, but I intended to fight him to prevent him from succeeding.

“This happened a long time ago, Aria.”

“I didn’t