The Fallen Prince

was ruining it.

She was about as terrified as she’d ever been. Her life was painstakingly being wrapped inside a slowly hardening shell where she would eventually die. Alone. Her memories siphoned for the enjoyment of some creature.

“You are sad and it is my fault.” The muscles in his jaw tightened. “I wish I could explain. My feelings are complicated in the matter. I want to help you, but doing so will—”

“You will instantly be put to death.” She found a four-leaf clover nestled against the rough edge of the marble floor and held it out to him. “My life is over, and your life will go on.” She pressed the clover in his hand. “It is not your fault.”

“All we need is luck.” He touched the delicate green leaves with his finger. “I could…”

She waited for him to continue. Her breath suspended painfully in her chest.

He stood, walked a few steps away, then turned back. “I could help you do it, give you power to implant an idea, but it would have to be someone who needed you. Loved you. It’s too risky otherwise.”

She held out her hand and he helped her to her feet. “My father.”

“Yes.” He nodded slowly, almost hesitantly, a spark of hope springing to his face. “He has the power and ability to do much.”

“He has nothing like your power. In fact, there is really only one person who can save me.” She stared straight into his eyes. They were so warm. How could people ever call him a monster? “You.”

His face, with all the hope he’d been feeling, fell. “And to do so, I must be free.” He shook his head. “It will never work. Your father will never agree to free me. This I know.”

She clasped his hands in hers. “Never say that. I will make him do it, and when I am done, he will think freeing you is the best idea he has ever had, because it will be. You will help me, Teag, Dylan…everyone.”

He pulled away, and for a moment she thought she saw a flash of guilt. “This is not an easy endeavor. It comes with risks.”

“You are giving me a chance at life. The only chance I have left.”

He took a ragged breath and let it out. “You are sure this is what you want?”

“Is there another way?”

He shook his head.

“Then I am prepared to take the risk.”

Taking her hand, he directed her to lie down on the patch of earth within the shiny marble ballroom. As soon as she was settled, forget-me-nots sprang up around her. “So that the memory of you will be strong, and that I may never forget you.”

He went to a nearby marble column etched with flowers and pulled life from the rock, returning with a cluster of bleeding hearts. He wrapped her fingers around the long stems. “So that your father will remember you are his pride and joy and that his heart will never be whole without you.”

Before he could pull away, she grabbed his hand. Her fingers suddenly cold within his. “If nothing comes of this, please remember me fondly.”

He cupped her cheek, sweeping at a tear clinging to her lower lashes. “Oh, my sweet girl. You, I will never forget. Not as long as I live. You have brought joy, brought life back to my battered soul.”

She smiled and let go, but he didn’t rise, and the lines at the corner of his eyes deepened. “The power I am about to bestow on you is wild. Frightening. Do not let it go. Hold on tight and exert your will over it. I have faith you can do this.”

Baun stepped away, and as soon as he did, a cold mist slipped along the floor, cracking the marble and frosting the blades of grass around her. The flowers quickly disappeared beneath an icy sheath. Kera shivered as the mist wound its way around her. Her breath turned to puffs of white that escaped her mouth faster and faster. The cold mist clung to her, encasing her skin in a cocoon as real as the one the boy in the cave was making.

She stared at the black sky sprinkled with a thousand stars. One by one, they began to burst like fireworks on a clear and cold night.

The stardust zipped across the sky. Falling. Falling. Falling. Until it swirled around her, sinking into her skin, flooding every nerve with a magic so intense she couldn’t breathe.

Her body convulsed.

Her heart beat once.

Twice.

Then stilled.

Seeing Is Believing

The bodies are buried. All fourteen of them.

I killed fourteen men. Me. Alone.

When I think about it too much, my stomach gets tight. The grave mounds slowly sink into the ground, instantaneous internment. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I can’t watch, and I turn away. Squatting beside Bodog, I stare into the fire he made. It’s safer, except the images of the dead soldiers I try to push deep into my mind won’t stay buried. I slip my right hand within the fire and let the orange and red flames lick at my fingers, willing a jolt of pain to chase the images away. After a while, I pull away and examine my hand, burn- and pain-free. “It’s not right.”

Faldon’s face shifts and the wooden lips part. “Right or wrong, the power we each have is a gift and not to be used lightly.”

“I guess Jason didn’t get that memo.” My thoughts darken thinking about my former friend. “I’ve been meaning to ask you how power is given. Jason seems to have an awful lot of it.”

“He does.”

“So how’d he get it?”

“Whoever gifted him with power made sure he either had an unlimited reserve for a specific time period, or they created a new way of permanently altering his human status.”

“Like he died and was reanimated?” My causing Jason’s meltdown and then giving him the power to enact his revenge gives my life just one more sick twist.

“It’s an interesting theory…”

“But could it happen?”

“I don’t know. I’m more familiar with Granel’s genetic alterations he created for Navar.”

Out of all of Granel’s creations, the hellhounds have given me the worst nightmares. I hate those damn dogs. “It’s a creepy hobby he’s developed.”

“It was banned hundreds of years ago, after the werewolf uprising.”

“Werewolves?” He can’t be serious. “Are you telling me you guys made werewolves?”

“Our people are masters over nature, but even we have our share of failed experiments. Werewolves were designed to control one specific human nation from wandering too far outside their boundaries, but the werewolves migrated and caused havoc when they developed a taste for human flesh. The few who survived were placed in the Unknown, where access to magic is limited. To be honest, no one knows exactly what is in there, what has survived. Thrived. Adapted. It’s how the area got its name.”

I rub my stomach and wonder if I’m getting ulcers. Seventeen and I’m killing myself with worry. “Kera’s in there…so are Reece and Signe…with those things and God knows what else. Why would you create something like that and then let it loose? It’s sick.”

“We were put here to create order out of chaos. To use our talent with science and magic and refine the rough edges of nature.” He paused. “When mistakes happen, we needed a solution.”

I push to my feet, unable to hide my disgust. “If you haven’t noticed, you guys are having an epic fail moment.”

I start toward the bridge, my worry growing with every step. Someone has to know what’s in the Unknown.