"I'm done running," Izzy's voice echoed though the hall as she approached. "I don't want any of this anymore. If you want me dead then come do it yourself."
The king looked at her perplexed before his gaze fell to the crumpled body of the rhyle on the ground. He laughed, pointing, "Is that what's really made you have a change of heart?"
Izzy clenched her fists but remained silent.
"Do you know why I chose to marry your mother?" He stepped into the hall. Knowing that he would no longer have to worry about her leaving again. "Because love is the one power in the world that leaves one weak, and I knew I could never fall in love with a filthy rhyle."
He continued, "Don't you see daughter. You could've been great. Ruled alongside the me and eventually taken the throne for yourself. But for some reason you've let your emotions come in the way of your power, your potential. Love has made you weak and with it, you are nothing."
The king reached down a picked up one of the swords that had fallen from a guards body. He angerly swung it down quickly, letting its impact against the floor echo through the palace.
Izzy felt herself jump slightly at the sound but continued to stand her ground. Each word from her fathers mouth sunk itself deeply into her mind. She couldn't help but feel the sting of each one. If she had her dagger still, she would thrust it deep into his heart. But she was defenseless.
"You were supposed to be great! And you ruined it! Everything I taught you as a child. Every moment I spent making sure you would be fit to rule, absolutely destroyed." His voice grew louder as his own anger grew.
The princess felt her fingers begin to shake slightly as her own emotion grew. The cloudy feeling in her mind began to slowly transform. All of the pain and sadness she had felt for her mother and for August and the loss of her father was growing within her. Filling her to a point she had never felt before.
"Do you know how it feels? To spend the last twenty three years raising a queen only to have it all thrown to shit because you wanted to be the hero? Well surprise daughter, hero's are the ones who make it out alive!" He inched closer, "Hero's are the ones who are brave enough to fight! Hero's aren't weak , pathetic- " His words were cut off by what he saw. He was looking down at her hands.
Isadora Edwards stood calmly in front of her king but as she looked down she gasped as she saw the subtle golden glow of her hands beneath her. And for the first time in all of her life, she could see the fear creep into her fathers eyes.
"No it's impossible," he whispered.
Izzy now understood the feeling inside of her. It was so much more than her own emotions, it was an energy. Pulsing and flowing from every single thing around her. The palace was practically a generator for it.
The king took his sword and quickly charged at his daughter, knowing that he would have to end her before she had the chance to reciprocate.
Izzy braced herself for the impact, the energy within her was growing quickly. But she soon realized that the strike never came. The blade hovered in the air above her head, as if held by an invisible force. But it was her. She was in control of the power within her.
The princess let her hand reach out toward the blade and slowly closed her fist, willing it to bend itself in half.
The king dropped the weapon quickly as if it were on fire before reaching to grab another. But before he even had a chance to swing, Izzy threw it from his hand, throwing him back into the wall. She was drunk with power and was using every ounce for her advantage.
She stepped towards her father, pinned against the wall. The fear in his eyes replaced itself with anger as he spat at her feet. This was the man who killed so many rhyle before her. Who had caused the kingdom to rise up for his own personal gain. He had killed the one she loved.
He deserved no mercy and Izzy knew it, but as she looked into his eyes she knew that he was the monster here and not her. The moment she stooped to his level of evil was the moment that she gave up everything that she every stood for.
"Go on you filthy rhyle!" He spat once more.
The anger inside of her took over once more as the dark flecks began to move in front of her eyes. Her hand raised, closing off his airway. It had felt so good to be so bad. Holding his life in her hands. She watched as the king struggled to breathe and slowly fell unconscious. It wouldn't be long until his body would shut down fully. Every fiber of her being told Izzy to end up once and for all, but she couldn't.
As quickly as she allowed the energy in, she let herself deflate. The power leaving quickly leaving her grasp as she let the king fall to the floor.
She wasn't a killer.
But he would be out long enough for her to take care of him when she needed. For now there were much more pressing matters.
She ran back to August's fragile body crumpled on the floor. The amount of blood around her body had seemingly doubled in the time it took her to deal with her father. Izzy could see the blue tint that was lining her lovers lips as what little life that was left in her faded away.
It was too late. Izzy had one final idea and quickly pressed her lips against August's. Wondering if true loves kiss meant what it did in the story books. When she came back up, there was still no rise to her chest.
The princess cried harder than she had before. Letting her body fall beside August's grabbing her cold limp hand and holding it in hers. All of the energy she had so forcefully pushed away came back and she let it. Her emptiness felt like a black hole and there wasn't enough power in all of Ostshore to make her feel as whole as August had. It began to grow within her, speeding up her heartbeat as it flowed through her faster and faster.
The princess no longer cared if the magic killed her. If anything death would mean getting to be with August again and that was all she wanted. Her sobs came hard and fast, loudly bouncing off of the walls in the great hall.
None of it mattered anymore. Not the palace. Not her status. Nothing mattered if it meant she couldn't be with the person she loved. She didn't want to live in a world without August Sarkins.
She squeezed her cold hand even harder as she cried.
And then the hand squeezed back.
