BROKEN KINGDOM ✔

Chapter 1

Mare

Only one will stand at the end of it all.

Chapter Music: Mare's Theme

"Mare?" Kilorn stands from his seat on the plane. He takes a step towards me, hand outstretched. He looks exactly as Shade did right before Ptolemus Samos stabbed a metal rod through his heart.

"I'm fine," I lie as I touch the metal of the plane, letting the coolness seep into my palm.

Those words are like a ringing bell.

Heavy, loud clunking of boots walking across the jet's floor comes from Cal's direction. He makes his way through the crowd of soldiers with us on the jet, finding me within a few seconds. The crowd lets him pass, too intimidated to stop the fire prince from answering his call. I share no such fear and I turn my back away from him. When he spins me around, hands on my hips, shivers run their course through me. I stare at the metal floor, at his boots, anything really to avoid his gaze. But Cal's always been stubborn and when his fingers lift my chin up, his liquid gold eyes settle me ever so slightly.

"Calm down," he snaps. He has no time for this. For the lightning girl to bring the plane down because of the thoughts in her head. I almost shove him away, but instead, I nod, trying to do what he says. It calms him a little. "Mare, calm down," he says, this one just for me, soft as I remember us. Wrapped up in our dreams and our hope at the Notch. "Mare."

The alarm sounds seconds before the tail of the plane explodes.

My head slams into the floor, so hard I see stars. I taste the bitter taste of blood as it races down my face from a fresh wound. Cal was thrown too, and now his hand reaches out to me. I stare at his eyes, helplessly hoping for him to fix this as he always finds a way too. But even he can't rebuild the back of a jet-or stop us from plummeting out of the sky. This shouldn't be happening. Cal checked the planes himself.

When my vision clears I see bronze eyes. We cling together, both trapped in a falling star. All around us the metal of the jet peels apart, adding to the terror and the noise. More metal flies and all that is left is the metal frame of the plane. It's freezing cold, and my breaths come in short rasps. Through half-closed eyes I see the ground below, getting closer and closer as we plummet towards it like a cannonball.

I can't find the air to scream, but the others do. Kilorn is on this jet, so are my brothers- Bree and Tramy. They could all be dead, thrown into the wind by the explosion.

The structure shudders, every beam of metal shaking and folding. Re-forming.

The jet is no longer a jet. It is a cage, a trap.

A tomb.

A sick realization twists my stomach. Faulty equipment did not cause the explosion.

My hands reach for Cal's face. If I could talk I would tell him that I love him. Tears swell up in my eyes, but they never get a chance to run down my cheek. The wind sweeps them away too quickly. I almost find the courage to let go of Cal and the beams of metal that keep me in the Jet. To fly away with my tears, to never face the ending Maven has waiting thousands of feet below.