Your emperor is an emperor-slayer, the entity hissed.
Next we saw Ash walking with a tray of food, heading for the quarters of the old emperor. I heard mutterings coming from the sentries behind me.
The vision flickered and another replaced it. It was Tejus and I, our first kiss at the banquet—the image playing out in slow motion, our lips meeting, my flushed skin.
The commander of your armies loves only his once-human girl, and will leave this land the moment he gets the chance.
The vision changed again, showing Nevertide, but burnt, broken. Fires raged throughout the forests, the fields scorched, homes and castles nothing but rubble.
This is the Nevertide they promise you. The Nevertide to come. If you fight today, you fight for nothing but ashes and dust.
The visions ended abruptly. Tejus had lunged forward, his blade aimed toward the base of Jenus’s throat. Jenus batted the sword aside easily, grabbing Tejus’s forearm and causing him to drop the sword. It clattered to the ground. Tejus staggered to the floor, grabbed the blade, and swiped it across Jenus’s lower body. Jenus flew back just in time to avoid impact. In my mind I heard the entity laughing.
Tejus rose, this time focusing on the shadows that were starting to re-emerge from the forests. I joined him, holding a broadsword in one hand, my precious dagger in the other.
I glanced back to the armies of Nevertide and GASP. They too were fighting off the approaching shadow, and my mom leaped into the gloom. As she landed, one of the creatures formed, and she buried her mouth in its neck, tearing at the ashen flesh. The white light appeared, and the creature combusted into ash. My great grandpa, Aiden, was wielding two swords at once—not even bothering to use his claws as he annihilated the oncoming shadow, his face fixed in a deadly grimace. Micah and Kira were working as a pair; one leaping up, one attacking down—tearing at the ashen flesh from both ends. Bastien joined them, and soon they were creating a widening circle where the shadow refused to approach, backing away to attack somewhere else.
“Hazel!” Tejus yelled.
I turned to see part of the shadow inches from me. I lunged with my dagger, lifting the blade upward as the creature’s face emerged from the mists. A second later, and it was gone. Without any time to think, I began to battle another, faintly repulsed once again by how easily my blade slid in, and astonished by how real the flesh of the creatures seemed to feel, just the same as Queen Trina’s.
I could still hear the screams of the guards and ministers, but they weren’t as frequent. I glanced over at Tejus. Even in the midst of battle, danger on every side, he was watching me. He smirked, plunging his sword into another member of the entity’s army.
“Showoff,” I managed, taking out another one.
A roar of fury distracted me suddenly, and I turned to my left, seeing Ruby alone, a little way off from the rest of the army. She was battling one of the creatures, but the shadow was starting to form around her.
“Ruby!” I cried, trying to warn her.
I rushed forward, but Ash got there first—leaping forward toward the gloom that was encroaching on Ruby as she battled. He swiped his sword once, slicing through one of the creatures, but out of nowhere, the shadow lifted him up—a hand appearing out of the mists and raking though his torso.
“ASH!”
I watched, feeling like the movements of the land and everyone around us had just slowed down. Ash’s body twisted in the air, his blood already seeping through his robes, and then landed, crumpled onto the ground.
“ASH!” Ruby screamed.
Ruby
No.
NO!
I dropped to the ground, ignoring the shadows that surrounded us, growing closer by the second.
“Ash?” I rasped.
He looked up at me, and all I became aware of was his warm brown eyes fixed on mine, not betraying pain or fear, but just the same steady look he always gave me that let me know I was loved.
“Ash?” I repeated, praying that he would talk to me—say something so I would know he was going to be okay. I looked down at his body. My throat tightened, and my entire body felt like it was plummeting down into the earth like a dead weight. He was soaked in blood, the opening of his robe revealing the torn flesh beneath his shirt. The cuts were deep.
Too deep.
“Hold on, Ash!” I cried, looking around for something to compress the wounds. He would bleed out if I didn’t get him somewhere safe. Not knowing what else to do, I tore off my own top, pressing it against the wound.
“Ash, please speak to me,” I begged, keeping one hand compressed on the wounds, the other cradling his head. I kept looking back toward his eyes, making sure they didn’t glaze over or flicker shut.