Page 16 of A Kingdom of Lies

“Release him.”

I spluttered as the hold on my upper arms released. My legs gave out, my back slipping down the vine-covered pillar until I was in a ball at his feet.

It took everything in my power not to look back up at him. To my relief, Erix stepped back, stare locked to a spot on the pillar behind me. He moved as though he was soulless, empty and void of who he truly was. It was hard to hate him for his actions, that fact shattering my soul more than I believed possible.

Hewasmine, but now Erix belonged to another.

“Help theHunterfrom the floor, my berserker.”

Erix followed Doran’s command, gripping my father’s frail shoulders and hoisting him from the heap he lay in at our feet. I tried to stop him, reaching out for my father, but Erix battered my attempt away. The back of his hand cracked into the side of my face, sending me sprawling back to the ground. Teeth cut into my lips, filling my mouth with blood, stifling my frustrated cry.

“Now…” Doran purred, dragging out the word until it was unbearable to listen. “Shall we end this?”

“Give him back to me… Erix…” I stared deeply into his unseeing eyes, pleading.

I reached out again, winds howling around us like screams that mimicked my inner turmoil. But before I could so much as get off the floor, Doran gave a final command.

“Kill the Hunter.”

“Father!” I screamed as winds ripped up throughout the ruins. The ominous presence no longer warned me to stop. Magic thrust outwards, but a moment too late.

There was no stopping the crack of bone. It sang above my winds, the clearest noise I had ever listened to. I was powerless to stop Erix as he twisted my father’s neck. For a brief moment, I watched as my father’s eyes exploded open, full of knowing before the life drained instantly from them.

All I could do was watch, disbelief storming through me.

This can’t be happening.

This isn’t real.

Dark, scarlet blood oozed from the jagged wound on the side of Father’s neck where bone protruded through skin. It spread down his neck, covering Erix’s hands. Helpless, I watched as it splashed to our feet. And there it melted the ice-covered ground until the foliage drank it.

I blinked once, twice, only to see the greenery turn black. It rotted before my eyes, spreading quicker than my ice until the ground was covered in dead grass and vines.

“Oh dear,” Doran sang, his voice muffled as though he spoke beneath a body of water. It was near impossible to hear through the ringing in my ears. “It would seem I have angered a god and a king all within the same moment. Howterriblyinconvenient.”

A growl built in my chest and exploded outwards. I first believed the shaking that gripped the world was a result of my fury, but it was the ruins themselves that trembled, caused by an unseen hand.

Erix lost his footing and dropped the lifeless body of my father to the ground. Doran’s pleased face cracked with concern as he watched Welhaven tremble.

“I’ll kill you!” I screamed, black rot devouring the ruins around me. It drained the colour from the beautiful flowers that draped from beams and filled trees. Where my father’s blood spread, so did the decay, until plants shrivelled and the sweet smell of death filled the air.

“Best we be off. Erix, come.”

I jolted forward, nails reaching for flesh, only for the ground to shake so violently I lost my footing. Stone fell down around the scene, cracking against the earth, all whilst Erix walked calmly through the ruin towards Doran, who waited by the dais. There was a hint of fear in the king’s eyes as he looked around the ruins. Dust showered us as the deathly cracks of stone began to explode, no longer held up by the strong foliage as it perished.

Welhaven was dying. Altar’s sacred land had been defiled by my father’s blood and His anger echoed through the air of this place.

But my fury was nothing compared to that of Altar. It boiled inside of me, bubbling like Althea’s flame, so inconsolable the temple could’ve fallen on me and I would’ve welcomed it.

The air grew thick with cold mist as I allowed the magic to be free. In the place where my heart had been was now a storm of ice.

I thrust a desperate hand outwards, battering a wall of frozen wind towards the bloated king. But he cast it away with a gesture of his jewelled hand. “You may have power, but you still do not know it. You do not have the power to kill me, Robin Icethorn. I am your equal in magic. And I shall sleep well knowing I took everything from you.” Doran grinned, lifting a hand before him until the air began to peel in two, revealing his portal of light.

My mind was hardly allowing me a moment to make sense of what had happened. All I knew was fury and a thirst for death.

“You run like the coward you are.” I seethed until the magic in my body ached against the skin, begging for release. “Wherever you go, I will follow.”

“And I will be ready to greet you with my army, whereas you will be alone. No army, no one to fight for you.”

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