Page 1 of Scars and Burns

Avalon

Prologue

A war torn land. Brother slaughter brother. Sisters betrayed each other. The land of Avalon was all but lost.

Three-hundred years the war has raged on. For three-hundred years Fae of the same land massacred one another. The three realms once a peaceful continent now a battlefield. The rivers run red with the blood of our fallen.

Two princes inherited thrones with vengeance in their eyes and the desire of death in their hearts. The land divided, all because I chose another.

I stare down at my fallen mate in my arms. His chest lay bare. His skin torn open. The gaping wound where his heart use to reside now an empty cavern. I brought him back once, thinking it’d be enough. But my light could not prevail. He is not just my mate. Our bond is greater than that. Our souls are woven together just like the heavens and the earth. One cannot exist without the other.

A shadow peers over us. The shadow of the male I once thought to be my mate. The shadow of the male you has bound himself to me. The shadow of the male that ripped the heart of my true mate’s out of their chest.

I look up into the night sky. The stars are without number just as is our dead. But the sky lacks one crucial thing. The moon. The spirit of the Goddess is absent. She has abandoned us. Disapproving of what has become of her world.

The land has been divided long enough. The world we know hasfallen into chaos. Dark spirits as well as good roam this land freely. Throwing the magic of the cosmos out of balance.

It cannot continue.

I cradle my mate one last time in my arms, making him this vow. You are my light in the dark. My soul foreverfatedto yours. I bind my soul to yours, in this life and the next, and for all our lives to come. There is no me without you. Us together in perfect harmony. The balance of life and death.

I push the last of my magic into the earth. Banishing the spirits back to to their own lands. Ceasing the fighting.

Looking up at the male that still holds the blood dripping heart in his hands. He crouches down in front of me, to say, “You may have stopped the fighting now. You may have chose him. But do not worry. I have harnessed the power of rebirth, defying death, escaping its fate. I will be here in every one of your lifetimes with him. Ensuring one of you dies so that you may never truly mate.”

Then I fade, reappearing in the sky.

I

Part One

1

Dinalia

They say our memory is directly linked to our senses. Perhaps, that is why I am still haunted by that fateful night.

I was five when we fled our village during the attack from King Perseus. The ruler of the Shadowlands.

Our village lay on the border of his realm and that of the Celestial Realm.

Typically, the Celestial Realm was said to be safe due to its isolation and terrain of the mountains.

Wanting to expand his power he laid waste to my home leaving nothing in his wake but death and destruction. Black smoke filled with blue flames descending from all around us obliterating everything in its path.

I will never forget the sizzling sound of flesh burning.The gurgling of one’s last breath as their lungs filled with blood. The smell of crimson spreading through the air as my neighbors were gutted.

Hidden in our home, my Mother confronted an intruder telling me to stay down. Warning me not to expose myself. Peeping through a crack in my hiding place I watched the man as he seemed to be searching for something

~or someone~ ransacking our home and shouting demands.

The prophecy, something about a prophecy.

Refusing to comply, he threw her to the ground. Beating her into submission. Drawing his dagger, I was sure I was about to witness my Mother, my only companion in life, be slaughtered. Murdered right in front of me. Then he tossed it aside. I saw him crawl on top of her and lure her skirt up with one hand. While the other held both of her wrists restraint above her head. Tears rolled down her face and her eyes met mine as she turned her head away. I saw it on her face. Urging me to look away and stay in place. But I couldn’t just sit there and watch this happen.

What was I to do? I had no battle courage or fighting ability. No great magic wielder. Not even a family name to give me a place of belonging in the world. I was no one.

Filled with disbelief. Frozen in fear. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears. Unable to breathe around the lump in my throat. I needed to do something. To be something. Anything so that this wouldn’t happen.

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