(13x Featured, Award Winner)
She is ruthless. She is scorned. And her blood? The darkest shade of blue.
***
When Queen Aravena basically life-threatens Gunderson, an evil merchant, to find the best warrior candidate in just a day, she doesn't know h...
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Aravena
Screams and cries engulfed me from every corner of the street.
My feet swiftly moved through the slippery gray concrete, occasionally slipping and making me lose my balance.
I stumbled.
I rolled.
I tasted mud and filth.
And, I stood up.
Again and again.
I pushed past the curious, wailing crowd until I reached the familiar tall golden gates of the palace.
Guards I had seen sleeping earlier were now awake and throwing shields and swords in the face of the commoners.
Those people wanted to get inside the burning brick stones in search of their guard sons and maid daughters.
But my clumsy mind was not there. No. Rather my churning heart was busy counting each beat of my possibly suffering family.
And so far, it seemed I had already lost connection with one of the hearts.
I vaguely registered the searing hot burn for one last time and then...
Nothing.
Tears trickled down my cheeks as I rushed through the grand burning entrance.
Orange flames and swirling smoke greeted me home as the sizzling noise sang songs of misery. My chest heaved up and down at the heavy smell of churning wood and burning cloth.
I coughed loudly—breathing in the stiff, scorching air—as I stumbled on my way while grasping at thick black smoke.
Somewhere, something heavy dropped with a boom, shaking the whole establishment for a freaking few moments. It sounded like a pillar or something concrete. I didn't know.
I couldn't focus on anything other than four rapidly beating foreign hearts inside me. One of them was lost already. Who? My dreaded self wasn't certain if she wanted to know or not.
I waved my hand in the thick air, rushing toward the first-floor staircase according to my intuition.
I could even spot the vague outline of the curved, wide, humongous dark stairs afar.
With determined steps, I pushed my frenzy self forward only to stumble upon something and collapse on the hot burning tile.
I gasped as a sizzling sharp wave of pain traveled through my tingling hot palms. Fresh batch of hot tears trickled down my cheeks.
