The Cruel Crown (A Young Elites Fanfiction)

Raffaele Laurent Bessette

Adelina Amouteru has spared him once. She will not spare him again. She has shown mercy on all the Daggers; she has a weakness.

And so do I, he finally admits to himself within the confinement of his thoughts. I hunger to see her cold blood on the edge of my dagger. But if I kill her, than I will also be slaying Enzo, as his life is one with hers. I couldn't bare to do such a horrid thing.

Enzo has not spoken much of her since they had parted. Enzo had betrayed Adelina and broke off whatever kindling relationship they shared. But Enzo, he thirsts for revenge against his tethered one, his former love. Adelina should not have been the one to link with him because it opens an inopportunity to kill her; if she perishes, Enzo too will drop dead as soon as the life snaps. He fights alongside the Daggers once again, but Adelina was once formerly his lover, perhaps she will be the one to hesitate with blade in hand. Though, Raffaele will not construct his plan built on the hope of something impossible, for the girl who would be merciful harbors no heart.

They stole Enzo back. But how can you steal something back that was supposed to be yours in the first place?

Enzo is a large woe of sadness and scars; his own fire had begun to burn his flesh so that burnt indentions devoured his hands up to his forearm. But they have gained an Elite who has the talent to heal by a small touch of his hand. Scars are the sign of healing.

"Raffaele," Lucent barks, "I asked you a question."

She had inquired: Will Gemma want to come back? Will we bring her back? We must.

Gemma Salvatore. He watched her fall into the depths of despair, watched her become wrapped in a sheer blanket of dismay. He watched her die as she plummeted off her balira and watched the ocean swallow her whole. He can still hear the crashing of waves as they met in between with a sickening smack. He felt all of her energy fade until it went black and Gemma was to be no more. They had lost their Star Thief, the Elite who stole the minds of beasts. Lightning had struck her off, and then she was gone with a mere strike of blinding, inevitable light.

One clear memory he can remember of Gemma was watching her stone alignment. The adamant stone glows prominently in his mind—she aligned with ambition and joy, though peculiar that it was only two stones and not more. The glittering stone's placed a fierce burn mark into his mind. The diamond represented Gemma's ambition, and her joy was represented by midnight-blue sapphire. There was no goodhearted ambition or joy that night in the sky to save her aura from failing and semblance scattering; it was utter chaos on the baliras with bloodshed everywhere. She had nothing to align with to lend her strength; the downfall of having an alignment to content emotions. Contrary to Adelina, who aligned with all contempt qualities.

"Maeve?" He looks to the Beldish Queen who sits and stares into nothing, which might as well be oblivion because she doesn't hear him. Raffaele knows of only one more girl who craved to be queen that is younger than Maeve. Though he has heard of no coronation ceremony but if the rumors are true . . . He shakes his head.

"Raffaele." Lucent's glass eyes stare. "We need her before we regroup and hunt Adelina down. She— she cannot be replaced, you must know that. Raffaele, are you listening to me?" She snapped the last sentence, and he thinks a thread of sanity broke from the solace, and very sane, girl. Maybe one thread lies untethered now, or two, or ten.

She has her cloak, which is the dark shade of ebony, still hanging off of her small framed shoulders, off her thin, frail, wirey frame. Her copper hair is tied back and hidden inside.

Her wrist had been broken. Her bones have been mended but will continue to break until they can no longer be healed. He suspects, it was caused by an excessive use of her power. Her bones will continue hallowing out and soon her whole body will break and she too will be consumed by death. She will be dead within mere years because she is the Windwalker, because she is a Young Elite—she is punished.