Evie
We walk across the empty field, with Star in my bag, and both of my daggers out in my hands. I don’t trust the quietness of the place or the lack of guards surrounding the lands. There should have been someone here to stop us. I glance at Trex, who has both of his axes in his hands, and his eyes drift around us every few seconds. He doesn’t trust this, either. The house slowly comes into view, and it’s less of a house, and more of a stadium you’d expect to find in Greece. It’s completely white, with dozens of pillars on the walls outside, and only one large door as an entrance.
“This is too easy,” I say quietly. “Nothing should be this easy.”
“I know.” That’s all Azi replies to me, and the others are silent. Connor looks over at me, pulling his sword out, and stepping closer. I look to my right to see Nix has done the same thing as Connor, all of us are on high alert now. We walk faster up to the door, and Azi walks in first, with us all following him inside the dusty room.
“What is that smell?” I ask, holding my hand over my nose at the awful smell of rotting that is filling the room.
“I have a torch, one sec,” I hear Connor say, and hear him shuffling around in his bag.
“I’m sorry,” I hear Azi say in clear sympathy, as Connor flashes the light on, and the sight of two bodies on the floor greet us. Connor’s flashlight falls to the floor, as I hear him step back, but I don’t take my eyes off the dead women.
“No,” Nix says, his voice full of grief and horror. Azi throws a ball of fire up to the ceiling, lighting up the entire room after a brief silence. The women both have black hair, pretty faces, and long black cloaks on that cover all of their body except their faces and arms. Their arms are spread wide, both the arms are burnt but you can see where their runes used to be. They stare up at the ceiling with dead, empty eyes and I know straight away that they are the princesses from the reaction I see on the Protector’s faces when I look at them. I stand still as Connor walks to the side of one of the women, kneeling down, and closing her eyes with his fingers. Trex walks to the other woman’s side, doing the same, and unclipping his cloak. He covers her face and bows his head, whispering some words. Connor covers the other woman as I look around at the wall, seeing the writing in blood on the wall.
“Come to me, the last one is where the sun touches hell,” I read out loud. I feel Azi come to my side, looking at the wall with me.
“I know where that is, it’s not far from here. We should go if we have a chance of saving the last princess,” he says, and Trex looks at us as we turn around.
“No. We bury Emily and Esther. We can’t take their bodies with us, but I will not leave them here in hell. We will have a fire built,” Trex demands, his angry eyes watching me. I don’t think he is angry at me, but he needs to bury them before doing anything else.
“That could take all day and well into the night, and the last–” Azi starts off.
“Will keep her alive. Roth is playing a game and wants us to come to him. He won’t kill the last of his bait,” I interrupt Azi, who looks at the Protectors, and finally back to me with a long sigh.
“I will go and get wood,” Azi finally says, walking out of the room without looking back.
“I’m going as well,” Nix says, and steps close to Connor. “You should come, too. We must bury our royals because they deserve that.” Connor stands up silently, and follows Nix and Azi out of the room. We are silent for a long time, and I only move to put my bag down near the corner of the room, looking in to see Star fast asleep inside. I don’t want to wake her as she walked for at least two hours today, and she must be tired. I turn when I hear Trex speak.
“I grew up with Emily and Esther. They used to make me come to their tea parties in their treehouse when I all I wanted was to be fighting. When my parents were gone, Nix and I were sent to live with the royals. Erica didn’t want us there, but Emily and Esther did. They were like sisters to me and Nix,” he stops, his voice turning into a growl. “And I failed to protect them.”
“You didn’t fail. This isn’t on you, Trex,” I say.
“Does it take two of my friends being murdered to get you to be nice to me?” he asks, and I know he is changing the subject. He doesn’t look at me as he speaks, but I imagine I could see the guilt in his eyes. I can certainly hear the guilt in his voice.
“I may not like you, but I know what it’s like to blame yourself for your friend’s death. I might as well have killed my guardian, my best friend,” I admit, my voice echoing around the dusty room.
“What happened?” he asks quietly. I only tell him because I think he needs the distraction. Because even if he is an asshole, he shouldn’t live with this guilt.
“When Hali was born, everyone wanted her dead straight away. She is a death-marked witch, after all. My friend, well she wouldn’t let her daughter die, so she ran away, and I helped her. It was eight years later that my friend came to see me, like she did every year, and that was her mistake. I told her not to come, but she wouldn’t listen. The witches found her, and I had to watch as I held Hali, as they drained her magic, slowly and painfully killing her. I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t help her without risking Hali’s life,” I say, rushing the last of the words out. The only one that knows this is Hali, because she watched, too. I couldn’t make her look away, and she knows we couldn’t move to help her mother. We were lucky to be outside, walking back from the pizza place with food when they attacked.
“I am sorry,” he says, and I know he means it from his voice.
“When they thought she was dead, they left, and I ran to her, holding her as she died. She begged me to help her, to finish her off because of the pain. It killed me to do as she asked, but I told Hali to turn around, and I did. I couldn’t let her suffer, and that has haunted me for as long as I can remember. Don’t let this haunt you, get revenge instead,” I tell him. I look at the women, seeing how pretty they are, and how innocent they look. They didn’t deserve this.
“Did you ever get revenge for your friend?” he asks, finally pulling his eyes away from the princesses, and to me. I pause for a second, deciding if I should tell him, but something in his green eyes makes me want to.
“I get revenge every day that Hali lives. She is destined to kill a royal witch, and there is only one queen of the witches left, the woman who killed my friend. That is Hali’s destiny, and I will help her get to it. That is my revenge, even if it will take time, now think of yours,” I tell him, and walk out the building to get some wood for the fire. I turn back once and see haunted dark-green eyes watching me until I can’t be seen.