away, meaning… I’m on the plane of the large emblem of Cain between the towers.
I run for what seems like ages before I’m at the edge of the flipped pyramid. Down and along the side of the windows, I scour, searching for some sort of sign of Castrel. Nothing.
“Wave!” It’s his voice, but from behind. Relief washes over me as I turn, though it quickly dissolves to terror. Panicked and bleeding, Castrel rushes toward me from the opposite side of the pyramid.
“Watch out!” he screams.
He isn’t running from something, rather, he is running toward it. I turn to see a soldier, mere meters from me with a sword raised, hysterically shouting, “Found you! Found you! Found you!”
The only thing I can think to do is cross my arms in front of my face and wince. Once again it is Zein who fills my pre-death thoughts, only this time, a flood of anger accompanies them. A pulsating hate that burns with betrayal, revenge, and... love. It’s a hate so strong that only shattered love can fan its flames.
FWAAAASSHHH!
“RAAAAHH!” A horrific roar bellows, echoing across the cement, steel, and stone, and I force open my eyes. The vampire soldier before me convulses upon the ground, whimpering in pain as his skin and muscles melt off of his bones like candle wax. I look down.
Radiating lavender. Stunning violet. White hot power extends from the joints on my wrists in the form of two long and slender lines. The further out the power extends, the more purple it turns. A soft, although sinister purple. Gazing at them for too long sends a sharp pain into my skull, my eyes branded with recurring spots of yellow, green, and white. Slowly, I lift my wrists, trying to comprehend the extensions as I keep a perpetual peripheral eye on the still-writhing vampire.
What on earth did I do to him?
I locate the starting point of the power. The wristlets. The epicenter shoots out from the fleur de lis amethysts that have, at some point, met with the blood from my previous wound. Oddly enough, despite being so close to the violet power, my wrist feels no pain, not even a tickle. I cautiously swipe the opposite hand through the extension and it reacts as if it’s light. In fact, I think it is light.
“I can’t believe it,” Castrel says laughing, mouth agape as he sprints toward me, “Thank God, how did you summon it?”
“Summon it?” I murmur, analyzing the strips of thin and condensed power again. “It-it just happened. What are they? How do I get rid of them?”
Castrel’s face falls as he looks around, gripping his bleeding arm.
“I don’t think you’ll want to put them away any time soon.”
Several soldiers had been making their way out of the windows and up the walls, all beginning to surround us, albeit timidly. They each take their turns whispering to each other while analyzing me, their eyes burning with confusion, laced with fear.
Castrel smirks. “They know. They know you’re the heir and now they are the ones that get to fear for their lives.”
My eyes fly from him to the soldiers, and then to my wrist extensions. This is my power as the heir apparent? It’s... real?
“But now what?” I ask.
Thelor shows up on my left with a fresh, bloodied lip.
“Now, we hold our own until Ceti arrives and pray that none of the purebloods decide to take matters into their own hands,” Thelor says as he drops into a fighting stance, pulling out two diamond tipped daggers.
As the soldiers near, I drop into my own fighting position, one I hadn’t practiced since the recreation periods at Nightingale. My arms shake, my heart skips a beat, and fear sparks a low boil in my blood. The vampires spring forth toward us with incredible speed, but it seems slower to me, now.
“We have to last until Ceti arrives. Hopefully that’s soon,” Thelor states as he rushes to meet a couple of snarling beasts in battle.
“Stay behind us,” Castrel orders me. And it’s not a hard task, because I’m frozen in place, anyway.
I watch helplessly as Thelor and Castrel take on three or four soldiers with shocking ease, but more are coming. There is absolutely no way they can keep it up for as long as we need. A Basten-drawn chariot with Ceti at the reins is nowhere in sight. The potential for me to encounter Zein increases by the second, and my heart beats faster and faster with agony.
What would I