Chapter 2 King of shadows

Looking around, it appeared we had a clear shot into the woods as long as no one spotted us. The shouts of men dying and steel against steel were at our backs, and I knew we couldn't look back now. So many of the guards assigned to protect my journey were already dead and Xiomara was missing.

As we skirted around the bodies, I had to hold in a scream as a wet hand snaked out and wrapped around my ankle. I looked down to the bloodied bodies in horror as I realized it was Xiomara that was holding onto me.

She was covered in gore and barely recognizable anymore. Blood trickled from her parted lips as she turned up from the soaked ground to look at me. Her eyes were empty, and I didn't think she would actually recognize who it was she had a hold of until she whispered her last words to me.

"Hide princess. The hunt has begun." And then the light in her eyes flickered out before her feeble grasp on my ankle fell away.

"Oh, gods save us!" Nadene cried at my side. I had never witnessed someone die before, and I wondered if this was the first time for her as well. Xiomara's last words clung to me like a cold shroud, and the chill of the night air didn't help as shivers caused my body to tremble.

"We have to run, Nadene".

"Let's go!" I tightened my grip on her hand and moved faster over the dirt road until we reached the trampled grass leading into the cover of the surrounding woods. I could hear the handmaidens hard breathing behind me as I dragged her through the trees in the cover of darkness.

The sound of fighting faded, and I wasn't sure how long or how far into the woods we had run before the sound stopped completely. By then my legs were aching from running and my lungs were burning from gasping in the night air.

We paused to breathe under the assumption that we were far enough away from the fighting that it was safe to do so. Nadene hunched over with her palms on her knees as she inhaled deep breaths.

I looked up to the trees and met nothing but black and small glimpses of starlight through the foliage. We did not know how far we were from Ayden's fortress or any village at this point in our journey, not without the driver who had been steering the carriage.

A thunk resonated through my ears, immediately followed by the sounds of strangled breathing. My eyes whipped over to Nadene and I couldn't stop the strangled scream that ripped through me as I saw the black arrow sticking through her chest and coating her white dress in bright red.

"Nadene!" I lurched forward to catch her and didn't even notice the hot tears that were now freely flowing down my cheeks. She was heavy in my arms and I nearly fell to the ground clutching her in my arms. I sank to my knees with her body shuddering in my arms and the last of her choked breaths leaving her.

By the time I laid her on the soft grass, she was still.

"Oh gods, no, please no," I whispered to no one. I knew now that the gods were not with me at this moment. I was on my own and death was near.

Voices in the distance from behind me reached my ears, and I knew that whoever shot the arrow into Nadene wasn't too far away to shoot another. The longer I sat here, the easier of a target I became.

Clenching my teeth and balling my fists, I rose from Nadene's body and sprinted over the forest underbrush. The thin layer of my dress tangled about my legs, and I had to lift my skirts to run faster.

Something whizzed past my ear and I whimpered at the proximity of that arrow that had narrowly missed my head. I didn't know how far away these bandits were or how good they were with those arrows, but my heart was bumping adrenaline through me and I flew over the ground faster than I had ever run before.

It wasn't enough. Growing up in the kingdom of light, I didn't make a habit of running around in the darkness. This wasn't my home, and it was unfamiliar terrain. My foot caught on something.

In the blink of an eye, I was crashing painfully onto the hard forest floor. My nose stung with the pain from the impact and my wrists ached at the force from attempting to catch myself. An unbidden groan left my lips as I rolled myself over in the cold grass, trying to blink away the lights behind my eyes.

At the sound of heavy footsteps crunching near me, I held my breath until the sound of my thundering heart almost overtook the sound of someone stomping closer. Enough starlight shone through a break in the trees to show me my attacker.

He was a shadow among shadows.

The darkness appeared to follow him. Tendrils of shadows were reaching out in his direction, as though they yearned to be a part of him. The shades extending with each step closer he took.

All the air left my body once he stood directly beneath the beam of light from those stars above. My blood was pumping fast, and I felt as though I was buzzing with the need to flee.

A mountain of a man in shimmering black armor towered over where I lay prone on the ground. Sharp spikes curled up from his shoulders and there was a dark crown that looked like tall spears welded into his helmet. The face of the helmet gave me the sense I was soon to be preyed on by a faceless demon.

But in the dark slits for his eyes, it was raging amber eyes that shook me to my core with fear. The black armor told me our enemy had indeed attacked us. The shadow elves had found me.

Yet it was the grotesque crown on the top of his helmet that truly told me who I had the unfortunate pleasure of being in the presence of. There were enough stories about the blood on his hands that I didn't need to guess.

The ruler of the shadow elves, King of the Thanatens, Caliban Mor'gen was hovering over me with a blood-soaked sword in his hands.

My family's sworn enemy is going to kill me.