Forged in Frost and Fire (Book 1 in the Chronicles of Kings trilogy)

Epilogue

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾　　☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

I was trapped. Wherever I was, it was dark and cold. I'm on my knees, trembling. I'm in pain.

But my body was fine. My body was moving. I open my eyes to see I was...walking. I was seeing through my eyes but I was not controlling my movements. I couldn't stop myself. I banged against the restraints that held me but I had no real arms to control. I had no control anymore. I was nothing but a thought.

I watched as I stepped around the ballroom, surveying the chaos around me. I let out a laugh, dark and wretched. It was an awful noise. It wasn't like the laughs I'd shared with my cadre, or with Eira when we were tucked away in bed, between the sheets. Eira. Where was Eira?

The throne room was not how it had been before. I turned to see that what once used to be a golden throne was now ink black. Along with the walls and the carpets. Everything was dark, everything coated in the power that now ran through me. The power that was fueled by the crown on my brow. My shadows were one hundred times stronger than they had ever been before. But I didn't want it. I tried to scream but I had no voice. I could only watch....trapped inside my own mind.

"The king is dead!" someone shouted. I watched as two guards stumbled into the room, their swords raised at me.

"The king is not dead," I said. "I am very much alive."

"But you're..." the guard was afraid. I could taste his fear on my tongue. "You're not his majesty."

"I'm not?" I asked. I didn't even need to raise a hand to send a dark tendril of power careening into the second guard. The man let out a gasp as the shadow ripped a gaping hole in his middle. Cutting clean through. He fell to his knees before collapsing. Dead.

"Send word that there is a new king. A better one," I said, walking over to the throne. I ran a hand down the arm of it, feeling my new power flicker greedily in response.

"Yes...Yes your majesty," the man said. I had never liked two words any more. The guard left and I walked over to the balcony, throwing open the doors and walking out. Cold, brutal wind assaulted me, whipping at my clothes, and I thought of Eira.

"Where is she?" I growled to the servant who had been hesitating at the doors.

"Where is who?" the servant asked. She looked awfully pale. Terrified. Good. I could smell her fear and I delighted in it. It made my darkness sing.

"Eira Gellert."

"People saw her fleeing the palace with the others. Your...your cadre," she said, her voice shaking. Anger flared in me and my shadows lashed out. The woman squealed, fighting the urge to run away from me.

"Send word," I said. "Tell the kingdom that Eira Gellert is mine and I will find her." The servant only nodded before scrambling off. Like a scared mouse.

I leaned over the railing as two parts of myself battled. The dark part of me, the king, wanted to wrap one hand around Eira's throat and have her on her knees before me. While the other part...the sane one, prayed that she'd run far away from me before I ever got the chance. Darkness swallowed me up before I could scream.

The end of book one.