Heir of Golden Storms

A knock wakes me. No, not a knock but a rumbling at the door. Thalia wakes up alarmed. Footsteps can be heard running through the hallway outside. She sits up and turns on the lamp as I enchant myself to hide my horns and wings. I open the door.

“My king, the attack has started,” a knight says. He is breathing hard as if he ran here.

“What!” I shout.

“They did not attack from the Court of Mountains,” the knight says. “They attacked from the west, from the Court of Day.”

The attack was supposed to be tomorrow, not today! “Send knights to fetch the council! I need everyone at the war room quickly!” The knight leaves running. I turn to Thalia, who has already stand up. “Fetch North and get to the war room. I am going to get Breeze and Kalani.”

I storm out from the room. If the High King wants war, he is going to get it if he harms anyone from my court. I am going to curse him to watch his kingdom fall, to bring misery to everything he loves, and to make every heartbeat hurt as much as a constant stab.

I open the door to Breeze’s room. She is sitting on the bed, covering herself with her sheets. “Breeze, it is me,” I say. She instantly takes her covers off. “Come.” I pick her up and she hugs my neck, putting her head on my left shoulder.

I walk through the hallway, hearing a faint roar of people. How close are they? I see a boulder covered in fire, flying through the sky like a small comet. The Court of Swarm would not use fire rocks to attack. That screams the Court of Mountains on every aspect.

I enter Kalani’s room. Something moves beside me, and I take a step back to evade it. Kalani is holding a candlestick that she swung at me with. She opens her mouth in shock when she sees me.

“Sorry, I thought that you were someone trying to take me in all of this chaos,” she says.

“Good,” I say. “You were prepared. Let’s go.”

I leave the room with Kalani closely behind me. I jog through the hallway but stop when I feel something passed me in front of me. An arrow lands on the floor in front of me. I can smell it from here; the arrow’s tip is made of iron.

“Get down!” I shout as I grab Kalani’s arm and pull her to the ground with me and Breeze.

This is the problem of having open hallways within the castle. Archers must be hiding in the night on the nearby mountains. I let go of Breeze and Kalani.

“Crawl to the end of the hallway,” I say. Kalani and Breeze starts crawling. When I see them get to the other side where the walls start, I stand up. “You picked the wrong court to fight with!” I shout.

The enchantment on myself breaks easily. I jump out of the hallway, wings extending, and fly. Arrows start flying at me, but I see them meters away. I can see in the dark with these eyes. I fly to the nearest mountain, finding two archers behind it. I dive towards them. I grab one through the helmet and toss it out of the mountain. I take the second archer through his arm and rise through the air with him, letting him fall to the ground and past the mountain.

As I fly to the other mountain, I see a shadow of someone jumping through the peaks of the mountain. I focus to find the black costume that I have seen before. It is one of Thalia’s spies. It jumps to an archer and stabs it with a knife before continuing to another.

I glide to the next one. The archers see me coming and they fire their arrows. I manage to catch one, then the other in the air. I dive, landing on one of the archers and stabbing both arrows on its chest. I pull the arrows from it. I impulse myself with my wings and jump on top of another archer, sticking the arrow in it. The third one shoots an arrow at me, but I raise the second archer’s body and use it as a shield. I throw the body towards the third archer. It hits it and it falls out of the edge of the mountain.

I fly up and look around. On every mountain now there are more of Thalia’s spies taking care of every archer. I soar back to the hallway and land. I spot Breeze and Kalani right where I last saw them on the floor. Breeze shrieks when she sees me, putting her arms on her forehead. Kalani spreads her arms, covering Breeze from me.

“No, no, no, no,” I say. “It is me, Rowan.” I create the enchantment again, disappearing my features.

“Rowan, how…” Kalani starts to say.

“I do not have time to explain,” I say. “We have to go.” I lower myself to pick Breeze up, but she pushes me away.

“Stay away from me,” she screams. Tears are spreading down. I take a step back as I stand up. She fears me. Breeze, the little girl who shouts happily when she sees me. The little girl who jumps on my arms giggling. The little girl who slept on my side because she felt safe from nightmares. Now I am her own nightmare.

“Breeze, come on,” Kalani whispers at her. She picks her up and Breeze lets her. “Where are we going, Rowan?”

“To the war room,” I say, shaking my head and trying to not think about Breeze.

I take the lead, leading her through rooms. We walk through the stairs and into the hall that leads to the war room. When I open the door of the war room, I spot everyone. Glade, Sir Fafner, Sephira, North, Hesperia, and Thalia are standing around the table with a map and figures on it.

“Breeze! Kalani! You are alright!” Thalia exclaims, jogging towards them. Breeze extends her arms towards Thalia. Thalia grabs her and Kalani lets go of her. “Why are you crying? What happened?”

“She saw me,” I answer.

“Oh,” she says, knowing what I mean. She whispers some things to Breeze as I move towards where my chair was.

“I do not understand,” I say, looking at Hesperia. “You said that they were going to attack from the Court of Mountains and that the attackers were going to be the Court of Swarm.”

“They were!” Hesperia says. “I do not understand.”

“The High King changed his strategy when he knew that Hesperia escaped to warn us,” Glade says. “That is the only explanation.”

“What is the status?” I ask Sir Fafner.

“Well, there are two waves, here and here.” He points at the west of the Court of Storms, almost at the edge, and to the beginning of the Mountains of the Endless Night. “Most of our knights are at the Mountains of Endless Night, protecting the castle. More knights will be arriving soon to increase the defense near the castle.”

“But there is a town where the other wave is,” I say. “Send the coming knights there. Evacuate the town. Look for shelter for the citizens. Even bring them to the castle if the shelter gets full.”

“My king, my queen,” a knight says entering the war room. “The Court of Swarm is coming from the Court of Mountains.”

“Saints, the first waves were a decoy,” Thalia says, looking at the map. Breeze is now sitting next to North and Kalani at the corner of the room. “They did not change their plans! They added other attacks to make us lower our defense at the side of the Court of Mountains.”

“We might need to send the coming knights to defend from the Court of Swarm,” Sephira says.

“How big is the wave from the Court of Swarm?” Sir Fafner asks the knight.

“Bigger than the previous waves,” the knight says.

“Even if we send the upcoming knights to defend the castle from the Court of Swarm, they will only delay it,” Glade says. “We will have too many casualties.”

“Then it is time to return to the first plan that we had,” I say. “North, Glade, and Thalia, I need you to build the wall.”

“It will not keep the Court of Swarm out,” Thalia says.

“I know, but it will delay them,” I say. “The coming knights are still going to be send to town to protect the citizens. Sir Fafner, you-”

“I am going to fight,” he interrupts me.

“Exactly,” I say. “Keep the Court of Mountains away from the castle.” I look at Hesperia. “This is the time to prove that you are on our side. I need you to go with Sir Fafner and prevent the attacker from getting into the castle. Use bees, hornets, moths, anything to keep them far away. I just need to buy some time.”

“For what?” Thalia asks.

“For something reckless that might actually work,” I say. I turn to Sephira before Thalia could speak. “I need you to watch Kalani and Breeze. Do not let them out of here.” Sephira nods. “Let’s get going!”

Everyone that were given command start leaving. I follow them out of the war room. Thalia stops walking and waits for me to catch up. She catches me by the wrist, stopping me from walking.

“Do not do anything stupid,” she warns.

“I have to for the sake of our court,” I say.

“It is not worth it if it costs your life,” she says.

“It will not,” I say. “It will probably cost me a lot more.” I kiss her forehead before she could speak again, and I walk away.

I walk up the stairs and into the hallway. Our knights will not hold against two courts. They will all die in an hour, maybe two if we are lucky. I move to my room where I pick the fanciest dark purple clothes I have and the Cursemaker. I put everything on without glancing at the mirror. I walk to one of the hallways.

I release my enchantment, spreading my wings, and take off. I fly faster than any other time through the night sky. It only takes me minutes to fly above the land and land at the Court of Miracles.

This time, the knights do not try to stop me. Instead, they open the white and gold doors of the castle for me. They were expecting me. I walk through the main hall, only filled with guards. The quiet kills me, since right now there is nothing but riot at the Court of Storms. The knight opens the door of the throne room and I enter.

The High King sits on his throne with a goblet of wine in his hand. He is smiling as his brown eyes watches me walk through the throne room. Easton is standing at his right all dressed in white. He smiles too, the same smile that he used when he was going to do some mischief. Gracin stands with a white dress at the High King’s left. She has a curve in her smile; she expected me to return. There are no knights in the room. The High King must want a private meeting.

“Something told me that you were going to visit,” the High King says, mocking me. I stop, not showing him any feeling. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I beg you to stop the attack on the Court of Storms,” I say.

“I beg you, High King, to stop the attack on the Court of Storms,” the High King corrects me.

“I beg you, High King,” I say.

“My High King,” he corrects me again. I swallow. I need to believe it enough to say it. He was once my High King. I only need to remember those times. I close my eyes, remembering the times that he was right there for me.

“My High King,” I manage to say. He once belonged to me. I once believed he did. That is enough for me to say it.

“Let me think about it,” the High King says. “No.” He takes a sip from the goblet. I remain standing in front of him. “What? Are you not going to curse me?”

I shake my head. “I came here clean, with no tricks up my sleeves.” He takes another sip from his goblet. Then his eyebrows furrow.

“What are you still doing here? I gave you my answer. Now leave.”

“I will do anything,” I say, and I hate to admit it. “Anything for the sake of my court.”

“Anything?” he asks, raising an eyebrow and smiling. “All right. Come.” Easton looks at him confused, but I start walking towards him. “Stop,” he says, inches from him. “Kiss my boots.”

I lower my sight to the white boots that he is wearing. I hate myself. I hate myself for choosing to follow in his footsteps. I hate myself for not standing up for me. I hate myself for doing anything that he asked. I hate myself for trying to be the prince that he wanted me to be.

I sank to my knees slowly. I put my arms behind me and slowly lower my head. I plant a kiss on his right foot, trying not to taste it. I move to the second one and kiss it too. When I am about to move my head back, he kicks me on the face. I fall on my back, teeth biting my lip.

The High King, Easton, and Gracin start laughing. I taste blood on my bottom lip and pass the back of my hand to clean it. I stand up again in front of the High King. He could treat me how he wants me. A king must put his court first and before himself.

“I like your persistence,” the High King says. “This is what you are going to do. I will stop the attack if you agree to step down as king. You will agree that I will marry your queen and I will rule the Court of Storms.”

“What would happen to me?” I ask.

“You will remain at the castle as a servant, watching every little thing that you lost and every little thing I do with your wife. You know, youngblood never tastes wrong.”

My instincts inside me want to scream at him. I do not want to take the deal. I do not want my people to suffer by his hand. I do not want to see he lay one hand on Thalia.

“Who would rule the Court of Miracles in your absence?” I ask.

“I will,” Easton says.

“No, you will not,” the High King tells him. “I will rule both courts until Rowan’s wife bares me a male child. Then that son will rule in my place when I retire.”

“But father, what about me? I am your heir,” Easton protests.

“You were never fit to be a king,” the High King says. “You were always too chaotic and hardheaded to rule. You were never in line to rule the Court of Miracles. It was always meant to be Zephyrus, and even then, I would have chosen Rowan and his tactics before you.”

Easton’s expression changes as if something just clicked inside of him. “Gracin,” it is all that he says.

In one swift moment, Gracin pulls a dagger out from her dress and stabs the High King in the heart. The High King’s eyes fall open. He tries to grab the dagger to pull it away from his chest, but Gracin’s grip is stronger.

“Do you know who killed Zephyrus?” Easton asks the High King. The High King looks at him, realizing that it was not me, as he tries to gasp for air. “That is right, it was me. I thought that if he was dead, I could have the court all for myself, but you. You had other plans for the court. You wanted anyone else but me at the throne. Well, old man, your greediness was the source of your doom.”

Then, Gracin drops to the floor. She starts crying loudly. Easton takes a few steps back and his face becomes pale.

“Guards! Guards!” he shouts. Knights enter the room quickly.

“He killed him,” Gracin shouts between sobs. “He killed him!” She is referring to Easton. He gave the order. He technically killed the High King.

The knights come running at me and the only thing I can do is fly towards a window and escape the throne room.