Winter
Once again, I find myself in the middle of the arena, a little scared, but more determined to make a better future for the children like Marie. Her sweet face flashes through my mind, I have to do this. I have to win. I have no idea what I'm up against and Dabriel has tried desperately to see any part of this future. He says a blue wall is blocking his vision and we suspect Taliana has found a way to block visions like the vampire king did before his death. Atti has tried finding out by asking around the witches he trusts, but no one is talking, and everything we are hearing is just rumours.
The queen smiles down at me, her black cloak wrapped around her head today as she sits alone on her throne. She’s wearing a long green dress that I can see through and a black cloak. Atti, Dabriel and Leigha are at the sides watching me. Wyatt is helping move all of Jaxson’s pack into the castle. There’s space but it’s cramped. It doesn’t help when the werewolves and vampires don’t get along. There have been many fights but Wyatt and Jaxson end them quickly. Alex and Drake are working closely with Harris to keep the guard up on the castle. They run twenty-four-hour watches around the castle grounds and in the local village. We haven’t sent any people to check out Paris yet. There’s little point, the red wall is impossible to see through and our magic won’t work on it. The humans say technology can’t get near it without exploding. So, what little photos they have are from a distance. That’s good in a way but people are angry, they can’t get in touch with their loved ones and I fear that the demon king has them possessed to make an army.
I glance back at the queen when she claps her hands and the arena goes silent. I look around, noticing that many witches have their cloaks down today, and many smile at me as I meet their eyes.
"Witches have the ultimate control over the elements. The next challenge is to see if the human can defend herself, or will die when the elements are used against her. Any true queen would be able to survive this," the queen’s voice surrounds the arena; her sarcastic tone isn’t lost on me. The crowd cheers and the metal gates open. I look down as four witches come out. Two light witches and two dark. There seems to be one male and one female for each side. They all stop in a line a few steps away from the gate and a good distance from me. I can’t see what they look like as they have large cloaks covering their bodies, the only reason I know what side they are on is because of the colour of their cloaks.
One of the dark witches, wearing a black cloak steps forward and holds his hands high in the air.
"Fire," he says into my mind and a stream of fire leaves his hand and surrounds me in a circle. The heat warms my skin but not enough to burn. The second dark witch steps forward, she bows her head slightly at me.
"Earth," she says and the ground underneath me rises. I fall to my knees, unable to stand, as the loud sounds of the earth cracking fill my ears. The ground rises around ten feet in the air before it stops. I stand up and move as close as I can to the edge. The fire rises higher until I can’t see the witches anymore, only the tops of the arena.
"Air," a man speaks into my mind. The fire mixes with the air and twirls up into a whirlwind tornado of fire. The tornado stretches high into the air, leaving only a small hole of sky when I look up.
"Water," the last witch says, and the ground shakes roughly making me fall backwards onto it. I crawl towards the edge, pulling my head over to look down just as a section all around the raised ground falls in. It’s instantly filled with deep water that shoots up; I move out of the way just in time and watch as it shoots into the sky. Mixing with the fire and air tornado.
Holy shit, I'm completely trapped. I can't see the sky anymore when I look up, and it’s getting harder to breathe. Or even think.
"Winter, use your power, stop this," Atti says in my head. Everything starts to blur as I call for my power. The pressure builds as fear for my life takes over, the hot water starting to scald my skin as it falls from the top of the tornado. Death by suffocation is not a good way to go. The edges of my vision are going black. The pressure of my power is building but I can’t think straight because of the fear.
“Winter, I’m coming love, hold on!” Atti shouts in my mind, his voice frantic but muffled to me.
My head snaps up as pressure I'm not used to takes over, filling my body, and the blue wave shoots out of me. My feet leave the ground as a blue wave of my power hits the tornado, pushing it away. The water falls away, as does the fire and wind, as I take in a deep breath, and open my arms. My feet are slightly floating off the ground and my blue waves are still leaving me. The last thing I see before everything goes black is the queen’s shocked and fearful face.