Sun Queen

♛ Sixty-Four ♛

                           ♛ Darkling POV ♛

Zoya and I raced back to the camp, sprinting around the uprooted trees and suddenly created snowbanks. All of my knights and the horses are unharmed, thank the Saints, but that doesn't fade the question etched into the stone of my mind.

What happened?

Not wanting to be stuck in the forest if there's another tremor, we pack up and head back onto the original trail. Zoya is back to being silently angry with me and I'm sure I'll get an earful later, but for now the stress and terror from the quake keeps everyone quiet and alert.

I only start to relax once we're out in the wide, snowy fields beyond the forest and before the mountains. We'll have to travel through these patches of fields if we want to stay safe. It's not ideal, but I would like to be alive to slit the throats of the Fjerdans.

"General!" One of my knights calls out from behind me, pointing east, towards the mountains.

I look over and see what he's gesturing to. Small black shapes move between two of the mountains, heading towards us in a fast crawl. I stop my horse, pausing the entire group on the flat snow hills. I wait calmly as the shapes grow larger, but my shadows are hiding under the thickness of my coats. A deadly glint shines off my eyes as I watch the dark shapes melt into Fjerdan carriages.

There's three carriages, black and nearly windowless, drawn by dark brown horses. Groups of men rides alongside, thirty Fjerdans in total.

I should cut them in half and leave their blood to drain out onto the snow.

Zoya senses my seething rage towards the Fjerdans and lifts her head to the approaching carriages. "Wait Darkling, they might have information on Alina."

I hold off for now, but I make sure to memorize every face when they come close enough. I'll be sure to kill them all later.

A man draped in silver-gray furs leads his horse to the front of the gun-clad group. "General Kirigan, we need you to come with us."

"And why would I do that?" I answer back coldly.

The man has a serious, cunning tone to his words. "If you want to see your Sun Summoner again, you'll come with us."

♛ Alina POV ♛

I'm suddenly collapsed against nothing.

The door beside me is completely gone.

I shiver with the cold and shake as I look up from my ball. The blood from my nose is still pouring out in a slow pace. All around me the walls of my cell have been blasted off. A huge crater in the entire left dash of the T shapes building is gone, left to the howling blizzard that now ravages the wreckage like a vulture.

I'm the very center of the explosion, dark streaks pouring out from me and staining the white ground. My mouth lets loose a shocked exhale and I rise to my feet unsteadily with bent knees.

Only a few seconds ago I was crying for the jurda parem, my begs screaming through my veins.

My mind latches on to this and I wrap my hands around my arms to conserve the little warmth I have to my chest. The jurda parem, I need it.

The rest of the building lies in chaos a few dozen feet from me. Guards begin to swarm the large hole the explosion dug out of the building. They see me, standing amongst the dissipating smoke being swept up by the blizzard. Shouts ring out, foreign Fjerdan hits my ears as they sprint into an approach.

I don't move from my position, just taking in the awe of the ruin. Even the mountains beyond have curled under the tremor's weight, there are large cracks in their bases and mounds of crumbled rocks gather at their feet. The forests shake with unnatural shiver, trees sticking out with odd, jutting edges.