Page 146 of Of Realms and Chaos

“You are a liar, Mia. A liar and a wicked soul,” I seethed. Though they were harsh words, it was grief that conjured them. Because when I found out the truth about Mia, I lost the only mother I had ever known.

She sneered, the look too eager to be hurt. “Oh, but I am not the only one, my flower. Does the male behind you not keep secrets?”

Bellamy stilled at her words, pulling my hand towards him and letting out a growl of rage. “Do not,” he said, the threat of violence resting in the few feet between us and them.

“Come now, Asher. Who else do you know that has unruly dark hair and a dimple upon his cheek? Go on, think about it. I will give you a moment.” She smiled as she spoke, blood coating her perfectly white teeth. Malcolm chuckled beside her, his eyes trained on Bellamy before he winked at me and disappeared beneath the magic of the moon.

Memories of Xavier’s smiling face bombarded me, his left cheek showcasing a single dimple when his smile was full enough. And his hair, the dark waves he preferred to wear knotted at the base of his neck. And how similar were their half smiles? Those smirks I so often found both endearing and infuriating. But it was Mia’s eyes that held the truth, her piercing irises that I had once wished nothing more than to have. Because there were many times that I wanted to be her daughter, in truth—in blood.

The rain continued to blur my vision, but I saw the victory that suddenly shone on Mia’s face, and I knew that I had not felt true terror until then.

Bellamy grabbed me, pulling my body behind his as he frantically searched for Malcolm’s shadows to return, but I only had eyes for Mia as she crossed her arms and nodded slowly.

“Your parents and I had planned for you to marry Baron. There was never a future in which you did not sit the throne, but I will not pretend like things were not made easier when that demon king came and stole my son as so-called retribution. Though, I do miss Florencia and Herberto.” The words held little emotion, as if the death of my parents was an inconvenience at best. A tear slipped down my cheek, merging with the rain. “Lo and behold, you still found a way into the arms of my darling son.”

“You are not my mother! A mother would have never let me be mutilated and tortured!” Voice breaking, his fingers tightened around mine, but all I could think was that it was simply another lie. Bellamy’s discretion I could reason within my mind. I knew he wanted me to have the chance to heal. I knew Pino warned him to maintain certain secrets. I knew he loved me. But Mia and Xavier? They had allowed me to feel the guilt of being the sole survivor of a demon attack. Every day for two centuries they allowed me to wallow in the pain of something so tragic. Worse, they knew their son had been taken, and they did nothing to help him. “I could not even talk or walk. I was a youngling. I was innocent!”

That was when Malcolm made his reappearance, shadows forming chains as he swung towards Bellamy. My prince dodged them, sliding left and summoning his own shadows—the darkness merging with his fire. The Fire power he got from his father.

They fought, and in the distance, the drums of battle came in the form of pounding feet and furious shouts. As the two princes of Eoforhild clashed, so did the demons, the fae, and the mortals. All the while, I was left to listen as Mia casually spoke once more.

“No, Baron, you were nothing.”

Losing your mind is a strange thing. Like watching all reasonable thoughts flee your consciousness. Which was exactly what happened then, the insult to Bellamy’s worth the final nail in the coffin I would surely put Mia in tonight.

Running, I screamed as I ripped a sword from the hand of a dead Golden Guard. With the best swing I could muster, I aimed for Mia’s neck. Her laugh came and went, cut off as I yelled with anger at the way my blade got stuck in the shield of mud she had crafted.

“Do you think that I did not train? I was a princess once, too.” She laughed again, her lips forming a mockery of the soft smile I once knew and worshiped.

“Funny, because you did not train me at all. Some princess I must have been.” I was inches away from landing a kick to her stomach before she stopped me with a large rock, the chunk of earth making me cry out in pain.

“You did not need to train!” she shouted, blocking every blow as if it were nothing, the mud hardening beneath my steel. “Your magic is unlike anything this world has ever seen. You do not require a sword because you are the sword! Do not let some male convince you otherwise!”

This time, my weapon could not be freed from the thick brown liquid, stuck in place before being yanked from my hands. Mia caught it, twirling the blade in her hand and then pointing it at my throat. I stilled, only the sound of the two separate battles at my back combating the silence.

“I promised that you would only know death until you returned home to me, and as you are well aware, I keep my promises,” she hissed, her clenched teeth and lifted lips crafting a brand new smile—one that would scare even the most wicked souls in the Underworld. “Malcolm!”

Turning, I caught sight of Bellamy as he beat down Malcolm’s shadows, using both magic and power to tear them apart. And though Malcolm had clearly been losing the fight, he still managed to portal away. Disappearing from Bellamy’s side only to return to mine moments later with a chained male at his feet.

My scream of horror hurt even my own ears.

Diving, I was midair when a slab of rock hit me, sending my body careening in the opposite direction. My back made contact with Bellamy’s chest, his shadows still dissipating from portaling, and we both crashed to the ground from the momentum. Groaning, I rolled from my back to my stomach, needing to get to them before—

“I told you, Asher. Come home or watch it all wither.” She feigned sadness, the despair for what she supposedly had to do a farce I once would have blindly believed. The sword that was in my hands moments ago was now gliding through the air, drawn to the flesh it would call home. I screamed in horror as it stabbed into Jasper’s stomach, his shrieks muffled by the cloth over his mouth and the chain around his throat. “You made your choice.”

Malcolm let Jasper fall, his screams growing louder when he hit the ground. Somewhere in the distance, a male wailed in agony. A soulmate who felt his other half dying.

Farai’s shouts of grief and loss reminded me so much of Ranbir’s that my eyes clenched shut. I let myself remember it, allowing that sorrow to fill me for a moment. When I opened my eyes, I was moving for Jasper. Bellamy shouted my name, but then I heard him take off in a run too. The two of us charged forward—both without the energy to really do so, but neither willing to back down. Bellamy took Mia this time, using his Earth power against hers. The ground shook at our feet, thorned vines and boulders flying through the air. Malcolm laughed as I ran for him, not even bothering to lift his dagger.

What little magic I had left tried and failed to break past the wall of darkness that protected Malcolm’s mind, his forearm blocking my swinging fist. I tried again, swinging up with my free arm, but I was too weak to do much when he stopped me again and smacked me across the face. I winced but took the opportunity of his smug inattention to grab his shoulders and lift my knee, connecting with his groin. He cried out in pain, his eyes wide with surprise as he fell to the ground. I leapt onto him, straddling his waist the same as I had Lara so long ago. Like then, I did not hold back as I rained the wrath of a million souls upon him. My fists hit and hit and hit, the male laughing when his head smacked the mud for what had to be the nineteenth time. When he reached up and caught both my wrists, I screamed. And then his head pitched forward, cracking into mine. Again, my cries of pain slipped past my lips.

I stood as fast as I could, lifting my foot and slamming it down into his face. Once, twice, thrice. He did not move, but I knew he was not dead. This, though, bought me the time I needed. I scrambled to Jasper, falling to his side and trying to see how badly he was bleeding through the rain. My fingers touched the sword, and he yelped, pale skin going green from the pain.

With little knowledge on how to fix him, I reached up and gently removed the cloth. He breathed deeply, wincing when the act moved the blade within his stomach. Tears ran down my cheeks, tickling as they mixed with the rain drops.

“You will not die, Jasper. Do you understand me? Farai is here, waiting for you. So, you will live, and you will go to him.” I spoke the words between heavy breaths, my mind racing to come up with a solution I would not find.

“I am scared, Ash.” We both broke down then, our sorrow and fear taking center stage. Jasper reached up, placing a hand around my neck as tears ran down his cheeks. But it was not the finale. No, we were at the penultimate chapter. Behind me, the true ending began.

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