Page 71 of Moon Raven Rising
“Do you know nothing of history? Has Aldramani not kept their highborn families educated with the magic of the realms?” He seethes, looking between my fist in his clothing and my face.
“What of history tells aboutmy wifedisappearing through a chamber door that never opened? The only history that is happening now is the history I’m making—When I break the king’s bond we forged and kill you with my bare hands for leading us to this trap.” I ground out with eyes narrowed.
“Think about what you are saying, Dax. Think about what this chamber is and why it’s kept the way it is! Don’t let your temper get the best of you. Open yourself up—feel it.” Osiris says with his lips curled back over his teeth.
I growl as I push him away from me and begin pacing in front of the door. We don’t have time for standing around and fucking history lessons. I think about what I know of the chamber, and I have to admit it isn’t much. With a growl of frustration, I turn to face the prince.
“Clearly, you know more than I do in this situation. I guess I am forced to trust you. Tell me, what is happening? And while you’re at it, tell me why this was not mentioned as part of the plan?” I demand answers from him. I can hear my own teeth creaking with how hard I clench my jaw through the questioning. As my anger tries to become its own entity.
“The door only allows the most pure and royal Aldramani blood to enter the chamber. Between the three of us, even though you are king, that right belongs to Raelle.” He says as he sheathes his sword in its scabbard. The hiss of metal on metal drags my attention to the motion.
“Fine, so we will w—” My words are cut off by a howling voice coming from faraway. My face scrunches up as I try to both pin the direction it is coming from and how the voice sounds familiar in some way…
“Open the gates and restore what was; when the moon has ascended and the unkindness is full, only then will true power unfold.”The words are a whisper on the wind,“A stone of white weeps red, and what has fallen will rise again.”They repeat over and over, beginning with barely a brush on my ears and getting stronger with the wind they travel on.
“We have to go, Dax.” Osiris looks between me and the exit that has revealed itself through the whipping wind blowing through the tunnel.
“I’m not leaving her here.” I hold my ground, though the power of which the wind blows intensifies with my words. “Raelle!”
“This is her mission, Dax. We can serve her better out there. The battle is being raged. Something is happening with Bracarva. I feel her pain. We need to go topside and fight! That is where our battle lies.” His hand wraps at his side, where I know his bond mark with Raelle is—the mirror of hers. “Trust the gods. Trust that fate is on our side.”
“Why should I trust the gods when all they have ever done istake!?” Flashes of everything the gods have taken from me blind me. Their faces, the sound of their laughs, their cries—the painful last words I ever heard come from them replay with vivid clarity, and I don’t blink out of the clutches of sorrow until a firm hand clamps down on my shoulder, shaking me out of it.
“Because they havegiventoo, it’s just easier to listen to the pain when it always seems the loudest.” Moisture fills my eyes as I look up from my clenched hands. Knowing that what he’s saying has a ring of truth to it, but I say nothing.
Clearing my throat, I turn to face the onyx door, raising my hand and placing my palm flat on the stone surface, and close my eyes. A tingle runs over my bond mark, and when I open my eyes, I sigh as the feeling of her essence engulfs me. I don’t feel anything but her presence, but that alone is enough of a sign of goodwill between me and the gods.
“Keep her safe, or even the gods won’t be safe from the darkness I will bring down on the realm.” I growl the promise under my breath. I take a deep breath, balling my fist on the door, and turn on my heel, pushing past Osiris and heading for the exit that will lead us to the war we are apparently meant to fight instead.
Soren better hope it’s not me he finds as his opponent because I have a scorching fury building in my veins and it won’t take much else to trigger an eruption.
The sun is hovering over the horizon when we surface on the other side of the caves. We are further up from where the regime fights, but it will be no time at all until they reach this far into the ruins. We were in the caves much longer than I thought, but there is no way for me to know if it's the night that is gone or if it's the morning once again greeting us with its rude awakening.
There is no way for me to know how we are doing or if fate has once again taken more from me. I won’t accept anything until I lay eyes on all of them. The snow has accumulated on the ground here, casting the world in a haze of white and gray, making it all the more difficult to see. I squint to try to make out the faces of the men and women who are fighting in the group I approach.
I take a glance behind me and see Osiris climbing along one of the embankments along where the caves meet the ruins. When he disappears into a shadowy section of the cliffs, I narrow my eyes on him, but I’m pulled from my concern immediately when I see my brother in combat with two other Fae. I don’t look back as I decide whatever Osiris is doing is of no concern to me in thismoment. I have to believe he wouldn’t break the king’s bond, and my brother needs me. I have to believe that Raelle is ok, and this plan isn’t the end.
Unsheathing the sword from my hip, the runes glint in the reflected light, almost looking as though they are lit from within, and power ripples in a pulse over the battlefield. Like a magical key, it seems to unlock some sort of hidden energy, igniting a powerful magic to come alive in the ruins. It only lasts a second, but multiple faces turn to face the source. Seemingly all at once those same Fae who turned toward me,charge. I am thrust into battle the moment I reveal the blade that I now wield. As though the blade itself calls for worthiness.
Pivoting and swinging my way through the fray of bodies, I bathe myself red in the blood of Fae that I wish I didn’t have to sacrifice. More blood on my conscience because of Soren, but I will rule with Raelle as a better man because of it. I never want my people to have to live through another day where they are more afraid of their future than they are happy to live it.
Every opponent I face, I offer them a choice, and each time they don’t take it, I cut them down without a second thought. Their lives are lost to a choice that fate has given them, and they choose wrong every time. Not once have they changed course, and it makes me wonder what Soren has over them.
Looking up, I see that the sun is just sinking below the horizon, its diminishing glow barely lighting the sky a fading purple through the clouds and reflection of the snow on the ground. A middle ground between day and night, where everything is shades of gray.
The dragon roars as it dips down, menacing fire erupting from its dangerous throat. The fire engulfs both the land and the Fae, which aim their magic at it, trying to bring it out of the sky. Blood and gore cover everything.
Lifting my sword, I continue my battle as I try to get closer to my brother, and as I do, I see more of my family. Maki and Kait fight nearby; Ambriel climbs to the top of a dilapidated small ruin to get higher ground, and Cano fights with reckless abandon. Blood coats our weapons and every inch of our skin. I swipe it from my eyes as I hear a roared battle cry—Trent.He lunges forward, and sinks his sword into a body—a deadly blow.
His hair falling into his eyes, and then I look up to see Maki. He’s running toward us and yells something in my direction, but I can’t hear him over the disarray. The snow beneath our feet is now a muddled brown mess with blood and dirt mixing into a horrific painting at our feet.
A deep growl comes from behind me as I lock eyes on my brother, who is too far away for me to stop the attack that is imminent. I scream for Trent and hear Ambriel’s scream echo my own—Trent spins and our eyes clash as I sprint for him.
Everything happens in slow motion. One minute I'm fighting Fae, and the next I'm running to save the only sibling I have left. Spit flies from my mouth as I rip the muscles in my throat, screaming for him. I watch him fight off one Fae, but another angles their blade to squire him in the back. My shadows pulse from me in a torrent of darkness, blacking out everything in my line of sight; their only command, to kill the one who wields the blade, aimed to take my brother’s life.
A cry of pain comes from in front of me within the darkness, and as my brother comes into view, slamming to the ground a moment later. Confusion strikes me in the chest when I see Trent roll and jump back up onto his feet, ready to fight. But a body where he was staggers forward into my arms. Hot blood sprays my face as I catch him, and when I look down, deep charcoal runs down the leathers bearing the crest I created.
The sharp end of a sword cuts through the center. Cano’s dark eyes lift from the blade protruding from his chest to meetmine as he falls forward. His mouth opens to say something as I stare in shock, narrowly aware of my surroundings, but nothing understandable passes his trembling lips. Only racking, bubbling, black blood-filled coughs come from him, and he drops. Both of us fall to our knees while the melee around us is held at bay by the rest of our family as they fight with honor to give us this moment. I sit in a state of shock, holding my once best friend in my arms as he bleeds out, having saved my brother when I couldn’t.
