Dark flight - Lore of the angelic book 1

Under pressure

Alice

Three days. Three days go by like the blink of an eye, and suddenly I find myself standing before a throne. Fern's mother looks a lot like him... Queen Siara is tall, with blonde hair and sapphire eyes, wearing a complex dress that would have flattered her curves, if it weren't for her visibly pregnant stomach.

"Alice Goodman... the hero we have all been waiting for."
I kneel like Fern taught me. My heart is sore yet numb as I show my respects, so much so, that she barely even intimidates me anymore.
"Greetings my lady."

"I trust that Fern has ensured your comfort? My youngest is... well he is sometimes a bit thoughtless, but I suppose you are not here to listen to my lamentations about my currently youngest offspring..."
I rise from my knees and stand with my hands clutched tightly together.
"Yes, my lady. Fern has prioritised my comfort."

She sighs.
"I hear you will be attending my middle son's wedding? Has he ensured you are instructed in the ways of our people?"
I reply with a nod.
"He has been giving me lessons."
Her painted mouth tilts into a smile.
"Very well. I am happy to hear you have become his friend. A good relationship between a possible future Angel court and our kingdom will be beneficial to my people, and your people as well."

She hums and cradles her stomach as she looks me up and down with great intensity. I can feel her searing eyes on me.
"I have heard what has happened with your friend. I want to offer my deepest condolences."

I nod meekly and shuffle my feet on the stone floor. I wonder what she is thinking as I raise my eyes to meet hers. She places a hand on her chin.
"In deepest darkness, a light most fleeting"
She said it more to herself than me, but I feel a small flare of helplessness in my stomach. She saw right through me, saw my weakness. I swallow the lump in my throat and bow.

"Excuse me, I have a meeting with Wolf this afternoon and this meeting was very sudden. I have already made him wait on me."
She raises her eyebrows, but she gestures to the wooden double doors.
"You are dismissed. Send my regards to Wolf, he has shown great patience with your training from the looks of it."
The snide comment burns, but I bite my tongue, bow, and turn to walk away as my hands clench and unclench. I know I was short with her, disrespectful... cowardly. But she clearly doesn't respect me either, so what is the point.

I change into my training clothes and grab my bow and quiver, by the time I arrive in the meeting spot Wolf and I agreed on all the steam has left me and I just feel hopeless.
"You're early"
Wolf is sitting on the side of a fountain, depicting a nude woman holding a sword up to the sky.
"I know."

I don't feel very talkative, so I just follow him to the academy grounds. We've gone there daily to work on my archery, and the firing range is impressive for sure, but I have a tough time focusing these days. Even the complex mechanisms of the training grounds can't impress me.

My third shot hits the wooden post besides the target, and I hear Wolf sigh.
"Alice we need to speak about this..."

I snap around to him, in a move that is extremely unlike me, and huff at him.
"I need this. Don't try to stop me from my training right now, I need this damn..."
I feel tears sting my eyes and I wipe at my eyes, but when Wolf reaches out to console me, the queen's words sting me. I am being weak when I need to be strong, I am showing my weakness in front of all these people, and she is right.

So I brush him off.

When I make eye contact with him, I see worry and hurt where moss green and sunlight should be. It hurts worse than my own failing, and so I run away. I can't stand to live with myself if he hates me, so I run for the second time today and I feel shame and self-hatred.

"Alice..."
Wolf calls to me but I don't look back. I burst out onto the academy grounds and dodge several students in green uniforms, stumbling over my own boot clad feet. They carry me without reason or pause, though the streets of the city until I stand with both in a creek that drowns out the remaining noise of the city at my back... And I finally break.

After the numbness of the last days, it washes over me like a wave. John is dead. And there is nothing I can do about it, nothing I could have done, really. I lay down in the water and feel it flowing around me. the creek is just deep enough to cover me up to my cheeks, to drown out the world.

John

Finally. After what could have been days or weeks of no routine, no sunlight, no grasp of real life, I am thrown to the ground in front of the general with the blonde hair and she gives me a dreadful toothy grin. Her angular face is lit harshly by the bright, magical lighting.

"If you think I will simply break a few fingers and let you go, you are wrong."
I snarl.
"I hope not. Give me the dignity of an honest torturing at least."
She laughs. It's bright. It would have been lovely, were it not coming from a master of pain. She delights in having power over me.
"No, your highness... Torture is too high a calling for you and your little co-conspirators. I have a much better idea for you..."

She steps around the table, slowly, deliberately.
"Lurius, Markos, give us ten minutes."
The masked guards salute, and step back through the door, which slams shut behind me, and locks with a heavy clank. This door is not opening for an angry dragon.
"Now... your highness... I hope you remember those harpies you scorned... because the coven wants a rematch to avenge their sisters..."

She pauses to run her fingers over the surface of the stone table placed at the centre of the circular room. It's dim in the room, but I can see the glistening blood on the black surface. She rubs the sticky substance between her fingertips and touches them to her lips.
"And you Angelfolk are no strangers to blood sport, no?"

I bite my tongue, and she laughs again. She licks the blood from her lips and frowns.
"Vampire... They're blood drinkers so they taste terrible to discourage cannibalism. Did you know that your highness?"

She snaps her fingers and the door behind me unlocks with another heavy mechanical sound. Of course I knew this...
"Prepare him for the ring."

As I am dragged away, I spot something on the wall to the left of the door. A hook... the kind one can hang a ring of keys on. The kind that the guard is holding in his left hand right now.