Yoska said. “I hear something coming.”
“What is it?”
Yoska tilted his head. “I’m not sure. I will go check it out.” He lifted himself into the air without a word and flew from the room and out the balcony door.
Not yet. Please. Not yet .
Her eyes fixed on the storm outside. Thunder crashed, and lightning followed.
Aria didn’t want to admit it, but it was happening—one of her worst fears.
Wexcyn was making his move.
Lord Franco shook his head. He rested both hands on his staff. “Elahe save us.”
The sky became green, two layers of clouds crossing paths, highlighting a faint light from the moon. A sound even louder than the thunder resonated throughout the entire kingdom. It sounded as if the entire world was cracking into two, and it was.
The ground split below, and they trembled above.
Doom had arrived to make her people suffer, and Aria could do nothing about it.
Everyone rose to their feet.
Their hands went to the hilts of their swords, but Aria knew that weapons would be useless against what was coming to destroy them.
A roar came from the sky.
The ground rumbled, and Aria tensed.
Please. Don’t abandon us now.
Silence.
The Ancients had warned Aria.
There would be no more communication between her world and the Overworld.
The palace shifted, sending everything from the shelves on the wall to the floor as the palace continued to make its descent to the ground. What once floated serenely close to the clouds met the soil, crushing those who were beneath it in the courtyard.
“Wait,” Lord Franco said. “It might not be over.”
Another blow never came, and Aria crawled to the balcony.
She had to see what had assaulted her ancestral home—the home Liam would one day rule.
Aria stood at the stone railing of her balcony and looked from the calm sky to the sea. The palace was at the edge of the sea and level with the ground. Soldiers and servants waited, watching the sky in a daze, and her gaze followed theirs.
Aria held her breath.
There was a hum as a cloud of smoke descended upon Oren until it was lost in a thick fog.
PART TWO
FAINT CHANTING MADE Emperor Kavien risk opening his eyes.
Exhaustion had taken over days ago, but he would try to reach Lilae once more. He needed her, but he knew it wasn’t Lilae chanted those words. It continued as if to taunt him with its haunting beauty.
While his body remained frozen in a death-like curse, he still controlled one of his powers. Therefore, he peered outside of his mind to places only his mental powers could reach. Any escape from this nightmare was worthwhile.
He stood up from his place on the cold, wet floor and pounded his fist into the wall. His hand bounced away from the wall of visions, and he stumbled back disoriented.
He pounded on the wall of his own mind’s Sight, a place of darkness and dread, where The Horrors awaited.
Kavien’s mother would lock him in an empty wardrobe and make him stay there in the dark. He had been five years old the first time—right after Wexcyn first visited him in his dreams.
Young Kavien would sit there miserable in the dark for hours, with those voices, trying to focus. Not until he could see her and speak to her when she was halfway to the other side of their home would she let him out.
“What are you doing?” Kavien asked as he finally located the source of the chanting.
Sona stopped abruptly. “What was that?” Realization filled her blue eyes. “Oh. It’s you, Emperor.”
Kavien watched Sona straddle a man in the middle of an abandoned street somewhere that looked much different from Avia’Torena.
A tight grin formed as she plucked an eye from the young man’s head, all the while ignoring his shrill screams of terror.
“Why haven’t you arrived with the antidote yet?”
“Wexcyn needs me here in Kyril. You will have to wait.”
Just as he’d feared. His father was going to make him
“What is it?”
Yoska tilted his head. “I’m not sure. I will go check it out.” He lifted himself into the air without a word and flew from the room and out the balcony door.
Not yet. Please. Not yet .
Her eyes fixed on the storm outside. Thunder crashed, and lightning followed.
Aria didn’t want to admit it, but it was happening—one of her worst fears.
Wexcyn was making his move.
Lord Franco shook his head. He rested both hands on his staff. “Elahe save us.”
The sky became green, two layers of clouds crossing paths, highlighting a faint light from the moon. A sound even louder than the thunder resonated throughout the entire kingdom. It sounded as if the entire world was cracking into two, and it was.
The ground split below, and they trembled above.
Doom had arrived to make her people suffer, and Aria could do nothing about it.
Everyone rose to their feet.
Their hands went to the hilts of their swords, but Aria knew that weapons would be useless against what was coming to destroy them.
A roar came from the sky.
The ground rumbled, and Aria tensed.
Please. Don’t abandon us now.
Silence.
The Ancients had warned Aria.
There would be no more communication between her world and the Overworld.
The palace shifted, sending everything from the shelves on the wall to the floor as the palace continued to make its descent to the ground. What once floated serenely close to the clouds met the soil, crushing those who were beneath it in the courtyard.
“Wait,” Lord Franco said. “It might not be over.”
Another blow never came, and Aria crawled to the balcony.
She had to see what had assaulted her ancestral home—the home Liam would one day rule.
Aria stood at the stone railing of her balcony and looked from the calm sky to the sea. The palace was at the edge of the sea and level with the ground. Soldiers and servants waited, watching the sky in a daze, and her gaze followed theirs.
Aria held her breath.
There was a hum as a cloud of smoke descended upon Oren until it was lost in a thick fog.
PART TWO
FAINT CHANTING MADE Emperor Kavien risk opening his eyes.
Exhaustion had taken over days ago, but he would try to reach Lilae once more. He needed her, but he knew it wasn’t Lilae chanted those words. It continued as if to taunt him with its haunting beauty.
While his body remained frozen in a death-like curse, he still controlled one of his powers. Therefore, he peered outside of his mind to places only his mental powers could reach. Any escape from this nightmare was worthwhile.
He stood up from his place on the cold, wet floor and pounded his fist into the wall. His hand bounced away from the wall of visions, and he stumbled back disoriented.
He pounded on the wall of his own mind’s Sight, a place of darkness and dread, where The Horrors awaited.
Kavien’s mother would lock him in an empty wardrobe and make him stay there in the dark. He had been five years old the first time—right after Wexcyn first visited him in his dreams.
Young Kavien would sit there miserable in the dark for hours, with those voices, trying to focus. Not until he could see her and speak to her when she was halfway to the other side of their home would she let him out.
“What are you doing?” Kavien asked as he finally located the source of the chanting.
Sona stopped abruptly. “What was that?” Realization filled her blue eyes. “Oh. It’s you, Emperor.”
Kavien watched Sona straddle a man in the middle of an abandoned street somewhere that looked much different from Avia’Torena.
A tight grin formed as she plucked an eye from the young man’s head, all the while ignoring his shrill screams of terror.
“Why haven’t you arrived with the antidote yet?”
“Wexcyn needs me here in Kyril. You will have to wait.”
Just as he’d feared. His father was going to make him
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