A Court of Love and Hate

Chapter 1- Evalin

--- Welcome to my story! Sarah owns the majority of these characters, though some are mine. The worlds, terminology, etc. all belong to her! ---

Snowflakes danced through the air as a whirlwind of a woman sprinted through the strange forest, a beast of inky tar and an overpowering acrid scent chasing behind her.

A slew of curses made their way out of her mouth as she stumbled over a branch sticking up from the ground.

"Five seconds," she huffed. "I just need five seconds!"

Farther and deeper into the forest she sprinted, desperately searching for a safe place to pause her bolting. She slid on loose rocks and pushed hanging branches from her face, praying to any gods that could hear.

The girl dashed until she heard running water. A river! She directed herself toward that glorious noise as she passed tree after tree, the rumbling beast hot in pursuit. She flung herself farther past a line of trees and found herself at the bank of a river.

She flung her hands out blindly and leaped onto the bridge of ice she had made, and as she crossed that river, she melted the ice behind her and grinned with a lethal look in her eye as that gruesome monster roared when it plunged into the wintry water.

Once she had made it across the river, she sliced her palm, dipped her fingers into the blood, and wrote the Wyrdmarks onto the frozen ground. The moment the swirling portal appeared, she jumped through and closed it from the other side, just in time to watch the beast, in all of its putrid glory, rise from the rushing water.

"Evalin?"

Gasping, the girl whirled around to find two teenage boys gaping at her, in her bedroom.

    "Hey guys!" she cheerily greeted them as she walked to her closet and pulled out a clean pair of clothes.

    "Evalin, where were you?" the taller of the two questioned. He had golden hair that was the exact same shade as hers along with the emerald green eyes of his mother.

    Evalin shrugged her shoulders as her lips tugged at the corners. "Dear cousin, I must admit that I am not really sure."

    "And what is that... erm, goo?" the second boy, the one with silver hair and turquoise-and-gold eyes, gestured to her. "All over you?"

    "Well, Sam, that is for me to know, and you to find out." she turned on her heel to prance behind the dressing screen, but Sam grabbed her wrist.

    "Evalin! You have to be careful! You are the heir to a country. What do you think is going to happen to Terrasen if something terrible were to occur to you?"

    "Since you're second in line to the throne as my little brother, I believe that you would happen to this country."

    Her cousin face-palmed. "Evalin, you are the heir to Terrasen! You have to be more responsible!"

    "Orlon I swear that I was perfectly safe the entire time! Nothing was going to happen to me!" she glared at the two overprotective boys before her, one with pointed ears, one with rounded.

    "Fine. But next time you are gone for longer than an hour, I will report you to your mother and father."

    "Orlon, I swear if you tell them anything I will personally cut off your manhood and feed it to the frenzied women who swoon over you outside of the castle gates." she threatened as she pointed a dagger at her cousin.

    The twenty-three year-old boy gulped, his eyes trained on the dagger. He knew she wouldn't do it, but there was just something about looking into those infuriatingly dangerous green eyes that convinced him to nod once. Twice.