~A Wattpad featured and Wattys Longlisted story~
Lana can hardly remember what it's like to be free. After nine years as a captive on board a ship ruled by ruthless bounty hunters, sailing across Maris with no clear direction, she's desperate for so...
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IT'S LIKE HER body is on fire and she can't see anything beside the golden glow magic encircling her body, stealing its strength, claiming control over her, yet somehow creating her into an ethereal being, superior and all-deciding of what happens in this moment. A roar of noise overwhelms her senses, pounding against her head and ears as if the world is exploding and all of its weight is being pressed against her. The peace she had felt moments ago about sacrificing herself has vanished and all she feels is horrifying fear in its wake.
She doesn't want to die.
A sob escapes her, and in the blinding cage of magic, her resolve both strengthens and crumbles. She's sacrificing herself for Skye, for all the innocent people of Orleyn and Maris, but even as her heart swells at the deed she's undertaking, it breaks as she realizes everything she's going to miss. Being with Skye...finally living a free life...it's all slipping through her fingers so terrifyingly quickly as she feels her very life force being torn from her soul and into the spell she no longer has any control of.
Pride, yet doubt. Finality, yet fear. She doesn't want to die.
She lets the tears fully fall from her cheeks, unabashed by her display of emotion. No one can see her anymore. She is already gone. But just as she feels the final tendrils of her life fading from her fingertips, someone grabs her hands, bringing her mind back from the abyss it had sunk to. She looks up, startled, and Skye's father stands in front of her, his hands firmly holding hers and his eyes wide and determined. His very touch sends a large thrum of magic rushing through her, reinvigorating her fading magic with his own, and she tries to pull away.
"What are you-?"
"We don't have time." Atol yells quickly, his voice considerably muffled by the roar of the destruction and creation around them, and he glances back at the portal. "I never intended you to die. Or Skye. Or any of you. This is my burden to bear. My price to pay after all these years."
She can't help but feel bewildered. "What are you talking about?"
"The prophecy." Atol tightens his grip around her hands with wild eyes. "A price of old must paid. I could've saved my friends that day when they fought to protect Maris, when they fought to protect you but instead, I hid. I could've been a better father to my son, but I drank her issues away. It's me the prophecy wants to die."
The world at her fingertips with a fatal choice between heart and mind.
"No I can't-"
A death at Skye's core to change him forever.
"Tell my son that no matter what, I love him and I'm proud of who he's become. And...I'm sorry. For everything."
Lana feels another surge of magic, and his hands slip out of hers as he crumples to the ground, completely spent. Before she can even react, everything explodes. She feels a dragon body cocoon around her as the buildings cave around them. She feels herself falling...falling...falling...
