King of the North

Chapter 4

Blase

I grabbed Bastian's hand and ran, dragging him to Aleia. "You two, hide. I'll find you later."

Aleia nodded and took Bastian with her as she disappeared in the crowd. I turned back toward the gang of elves and saw that it was more than just a gang. It was an army.

The other eight were already fighting them, a ring of fire around the elves so that none could escape. A hand grabbed at me and whipped me around, punching me across the face. "It's you, isn't it? You're the witch! I'm gonna bash your head in and feed your flesh to the Northern wolves!"

I looked at the elf who punched me and rolled my eyes. "Oooh, shiver me timbers!" In one quick flick of my wrist, his head blew clean off his body.

With my foot, I pushed his corpse, still standing, to the ground and stepped over it. More elves were coming from the main entrance, now knowing who exactly the witch was, they targeted me. One of them had Aleia in a choke-hold, I had to get them away from there.

I ripped my mask off my face. "Yoo-hoo! Follow me, assholes!"

One thing I underestimated about the elves: their speed.

Once they all started to run toward me, I booked it through the first corridor I saw. I was definitely more powerful than them, but I couldn't concentrate while running for my life.

Maybe I should just them let catch me, I thought. Let them rip me apart limb from limb.

And then I thought about Bastian. The way his cold fingers traced meaningless lines across my back. The way he always smiled when I pulled him close to me, bright and beautiful. The way he looked at me when he didn't think I'd notice. Like I was the only person in the world to him.

I spun around, using my magic to light all of the elves on fire.

If I was going to die, it was going to be after I told Bastian how I really felt about him. He deserved that much, at least.

There were so many elves and they just kept pushing through. I slipped into a small room, and elevated all of the elves into the air, crushing their bones. When it went silent, I let their bodies crash to the floor, and closed the door with telekinesis. I needed a moment to catch my breath.

The bad thing about using too much magic was that it exhausted you. And I was exhausted.

I looked around, the room I was in looked like a study room. It was quite small and there was a desk, a few bookshelves, and an armchair I sat in. I pulled a book off of one of the bookshelves and a piece of paper fell out. I picked it up and opened it, I was too curious.

It read:

My dearest Kelpie,

I do not know if you will get this letter, or if you will still be alive by the time it gets to you. You know I'm not good with words, so please bare with me. I am by your bed as I write this, you're currently sleeping off the medication the nurses gave you. You are beautiful even when you're sick.

I have to go away. I can't see you like this, it hurts me too much. I know it's selfish of me, but I think it would be the best for you as well.

You will always have my heart, Kelp, I will never forget you.

Your forever lover,
Theo

Kelpie? Princess Kelpie? Four years ago the faerie princess had been poisoned and became irreversibly sick. Three years ago, she had died.

A crash came from the window and I dropped the letter, leaping to my feet. A tall, pointy-toothed elf stood in front of me, hands balled up into fists at his sides. I shot a bolt of magic at him but he had some sort of anti-magic clothing on. He lunged at me, I dodged him but he grabbed my arms and put them behind my back as if he were some sort of police officer, slamming me into the wall. I pushed off the wall with all my force and tried to shake the bastard off me but he was too strong.