Page 113 of Draekora

She wasn’t sure whether it was the shrill sound of her panicked voice or the terrified look she was certain she wore, but for whatever reason, Kyia decided to trust Alex, tearing off down the corridor to defend Zain against theZeltoraand clear a path for Alex to break through.

Knowing her two friends could handle themselves, Alex advanced forward until she reached the double doors into the throne room, bursting through them and skidding to a halt.

Her breath came out in gasping pants as she took in the sight before her: Astophe lying face down on the ground, silver liquid leaking from his back and staining his formal clothes; Roka struggling against Aven, trying to hold his brother back but weakening by the second from the blood gushing out of his femoral artery.

At the sound of Alex’s entrance, Aven leapt up from where he was crouched over Roka, the sword he held dripping silver to the floor.

What little breath remained in her lungs fled at the murderous expression on his face.

“You!” he bellowed. “You did this!”

“Aven,” Alex wheezed out, hands raised in supplication. “Please.”

“They wouldn’t listen to me.” He slashed his blade violently towards his father and brother. “They wouldn’t listen when I told them what you’d done, what youwere. They were more concerned by what happened to those vermin out there.” He hissed his last words, throwing his hand to indicate the bloodied streets beneath them. “They didn’t evencarethat a mortal had been lying to us for weeks, betraying us,for weeks.”

“I didn’t betray you,” she whispered.

“I fell for you!” he screamed, his eyes molten gold. “I actually thought—” He broke off with a strangled sound, raised a knuckle to his mouth as if needing to bite back his words.

“When I came in here,” he said, his voice lower, but still simmering with fury, “my own father wouldn’t believe me about you, didn’tcareabout you, not after what myGarsethand I had done to his precious mortals. But Roka—my dearbrother—” Aven spat the word, mercilessly stamping his boot down on Roka’s wound and eliciting a desperate cry of pain from the downed prince. “He alreadyknew.”

Alex’s stomach clenched as she jolted forward, only to freeze again at the look Aven levelled her. All she could do was watch with muted shock as the white-faced Roka tried to rise only to collapse on his blood-spouting leg with another muffled groan.

“He knew the filth you were and he never told me,” Aven hissed. “The person I trusted most in this world—he just watched, laughing, as I fell for a disgustingmortal.”

“Aven—”

“Shut your mouth, human!” Aven roared, taking a threatening step forward, only to halt again. He inhaled loudly and rolled his neck as if to compose himself. “The only way to ensure our glorious city remains free of your infestation is if I sit on the throne.” He pointed to Astophe and Roka again. “They have to die. For the sake of Meya, I’ve done what was needed. And having intimately experienced the deceit you disgusting mortals are capable of, I would do it again in a heartbeat, if you hadn’t already ripped mine to shreds with your betrayal.”

Alex caught a sob in her throat. The Aven in front of her wasn’t the one she had come to know in the past, but nor was he the one she knew in the future. The Aven of her time had spent years channeling his rage, sharpening his focus into calculated strategy. ButthisAven was spitting fire, blinded by an animalistic bloodlust. If he’d only stop for a moment, he would realise that everything he’d said—none of it made sense. The mindless killing of mortals. The murdering of his ownfamily. These weren’t the actions of someone who had been betrayed or rejected. They were the actions of someone who had stepped over the edge of sanity, someone who was too far gone to come back to reason.

It was only because she realised she was dealing with a very different kind of danger—a very differentAvento the menace she knew in the future—that Alex was prepared to react when faced with what he did next.

“The king will be dead in moments,” he whispered, a feverish expression on his face, his gaze unfocused. “As will my brother.”

And with an upward swing of his arm, his sword slashed down towards the now barely conscious Roka, aiming straight for his heart.

The blade didn’t make contact though, and that was because Alex leapt forward, summoning A’enara in a burst of fire to meet his strike mid-air.

Aven’s teeth snapped at her, the intensity of his fury sending a tremor down her flaming arms.

“No mortal will deny me of what is rightfully mine,” he stated fiercely. “Least of allyou.”

And that’s when he turned to her fully, lashing out with his sword.

Reacting on instinct and trusting what she’d learned from Niyx, Alex met Aven thrust for thrust, over and over again, not allowing herself to think beyond the next parry, the next deflection, the next lunge. He was competent, very competent, but his skills hadn’t yet been honed by thousands of years like the Aven of the future. And that gave Alex an edge over him—or at least put her on somewhat equal footing. With every attack she managed to defend against and with every offence of her own, his eyes widened more and more at the realisation that she was fighting him not as a mortal, but as a Meyarin.

And when his shock overcame him so much that with one heaving sideways slash she was able to force the sword from his hands to clatter across the room, he stood gaping at her, only to roar, “WHATAREYOU?”

It was then that Alex did something stupid. Somethingso damn stupid. And it happened because the doors to the throne room were flung open, revealing the fight-rumpled Zain and Kyia—Kyia who, with fear flooding her features, bolted for Roka, just as Zain moved to the king’s side, bellowing for the guards they’d likely just sent scrambling. But when those guards surged into the room, they were so stunned by the scene that they froze. They only managed to leap into action when another group of Meyarins stormed into the room—a handful of Rebels who Alex recognised from the midnight meeting at The Scarlet Thief—and it was then that all hell broke loose as swords went flying betweenGarsethandZeltora, with Kyia and Zain jumping up to join the guards.

It was in watching all this that Alex had stupidly,stupidlytaken her eyes off Aven, giving him the opportunity to make his move against her unguarded self.

Before she knew it, he was upon her, his hands covering hers as they wrestled over A’enara. She struggled against him, watching agony fill his face as the flames seared into his flesh; but pained or not, he didn’t loosen his hold.

Exerting a force stronger than anything she could defend against, he shoved their grappling hands in a downwards arc faster than Alex could stop. The momentum was too much for her to stave off, and with a sickening squelching sound, the ice-coloured blade slashed down…

… and drove violently into her stomach.

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