Watty's Shortlist 2023
"I have been waiting a long time to meet you."
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When two warring kingdoms hear of a magical object that will end the conflict once and for all, two rival heirs embark on a quest to retrieve it and bring their...
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The wooden oak doors opened, revealing a large hexagonal room, lined with many beautiful portraits and precious artifacts. There was a marble dais in the middle, with a cup on top of it, golden flames encasing it in an entrancing glow.
Aila took a step forward, mesmerised. The two men at her side had temporarily slipped from her mind, but when a sharp pain seared down her side and sent her sprawling to the floor, she realised just how low her guard had dropped. Her body cried out in pure pain as it collided with the marble floor.
Kaiden had reached the dais, a hand stretching out to grasp the chalice.
"No!" Aila yelled. She struggled to her feet, freed the dagger at her belt and aimed at the man in front of her, the man she had briefly, almost considered a friend.
Her gaze locked with Kaiden's. She expected fear to flash there, fear that he was outnumbered, two to one. As Kaiden lifted the prize from the dais and as she flung the dagger towards him, she heard Castor yell. She expected him to stop Kaiden, to strike him down where he stood and claim the cup for her.
For Merelia.
Confusion slammed into her as she found herself colliding with the floor again, this time with a heavy weight on top of her. She felt a cool steel press against her throat, and a wry chuckle from the centre of the room.
"Cas, what the hell are you doing?" Aila exclaimed, taking such small breaths so as not to slit her own throat accidentally.
"I guess you kept yourself hidden well after all, little brother," Kaiden said, and shock slammed into Aila as she first registered the smirk in his tone, a voice that was so unlike anything she'd heard from him before.
His words then crashed into her harder than the creature in the first trial could have.
Little brother.
Aila's mouth went dry as she looked to Castor helplessly, wanting him to deny it.
Needing him to deny it.
Instead, she found him wearing an expression she had never seen before. One that didn't look like it belonged on his face.
"I... what?" She murmured, dumbfounded. "You... you're..."
"Kieran Ashwood," the man pinning her down supplied. The friend she'd grown up with, the boy she'd grown to trust and love like her own brother.
Except he wasn't her brother.
"Huh?"
Kieran rolled his eyes. "I am Kieran Ashwood," he spoke slowly, patronisingly. "I am the brother of Kaiden Ashwood, the second heir to the throne of Perador."
"But, no... you don't even look alike!" Aila sputtered, still unable to come to terms with her whole life having been a lie.
Her reeling began to spiral out of control further when before her very eyes, Castor... Kieran, began to shift.
