The Death Match

Prologue

Rain splattered in the mud as the Seelie Courts army marched forward towards the Faery Peak. Hadleigh Anwyll, King to the Fae-folk, marched in the front lines with his men. His armor was no different from theirs and his stride never faltered. He was marching into a war that would be the turning point for all beings of magic. His court, the asylum for all creatures of magic, was being challenged by a new reign of power: The Crown.

A group of Faeries that fractioned themselves from the Seelie Court, called themselves the Crown. They considered themselves a new way of governing the creatures of magic and their land by ripping peace and prosperity into ideals of war and discrimination. A once whole and beautiful land was now being plagued by the Crown—and it was happening faster than Hadleigh Anwyll had anticipated.

Hadleigh Anwyll felt his heart heave as he knew what was about to come of this war. His court would be taken over, and he had to some how be okay with that for now. Him and his advisors had devised a plan that would one day hopefully save their court. Hadleigh prayed to the heavens that Aziel, his best friend, had made it to the human lands to protect what he treasured most until the time came where what must be done will happen.

He had his advisors spread word of his arrival on the final battlefield steadfast in hopes to buy Aziel more time. Hadleigh shivered under his armor as the eyes of his beautiful wife consumed his mind. The specks of blue and gold triumphed any Fae beauty. Her soft and gentle features were unmatched by any in the land, and his love for her and the child she bore was unbreakable. As Hadleigh continued to march forward in silence with his men, he found himself humming his courts anthem to every step he made. Soon, the men around him followed in suit. The beat of their armor and the drum of the rain around them was their music as the humming shaped into words. Their voices filled louder and louder as the Faery Peak began to break the horizon. Hadleigh Anwylls strides became stronger and the words to the anthem became one with the earth as the Seelie King and his army marched closer and closer to their end.

The Faery Peak stood before them with all her might. The blackened stone that reached for the heavens in shear peaks taunted the Seelie King and his army as it came more into focus. Dark clouds reigned above the largest of the three peaks, and Hadleigh Anwyll noticed the black and red smoke that shifted in and out of the clouds. Reapers and Firebirds began to flood the sky as Hadleigh Anwyll and his army stopped on the top of the hill side. Their singing did not stop as their feet did. Each and every man and woman stared in awe as the masses of Reapers and Firebirds began to sweep down the peaks in clusters of black and red. Hadleigh Anwyll and his army sang louder as the anthem began to come to an end.

The men besides Hadleigh Anwyll unsheathed their swords as the final words approached. Hadleigh Anwyll closed his eyes as the Reapers and Firebirds reached the bottom of the peaks to join the Crowns own army. The song ended and the shrills of the Reapers war call boomed across the lands. Hadleigh Anwyll did not hesitate as he unsheathed his sword and charged forward.

Metal boots churned the vibrating floor beneath the Seelie King as he and his men ran forward. Their war song changed to that of masculine cries that thundered through the air. Their armor glinted in the shadows as the Reapers and Firebirds began their attack.

Fire burst through the air. Its flames exploding from the Firebirds in a form of hot lava. Several of Hadleigh Anwylls men cried out as the flames of lava scorched through their armor, killing them instantly. The Firebirds in the sky laughed their shrill cries, fire pouring the tips of their hands to destroy the lands.

Hadleigh Anwyll continued to run forward. He swung his sword, slashing into the black wings of the Reapers. Their red eyes beamed down from the sky, searching in earnest for their next kill. They were blood thirsty creatures. Forged by faery magic, the Reapers were demon shifters. They hunted the Seelie faeries for the Crown, and any other creature that stood in opposition to the Crown. And now, they were fighting the Crowns battles for them, alongside the Seelie Kings Firebirds.

Hadleigh Anwyll dodged the flames of a Firebird. Betrayal tore at his heart, but he reached into his boot and pulled out a knife. Throwing the sharp blade through the air, it struck true. The Firebird let loose a shrill before tumbling towards the ground. The Seelie King did not wait to watch his men hack at the traitorous creature he had once loved among his kingdom. He pushed back all distracting feelings, and his eyes met the King of the Reapers: Lucian Xanthias.

“Lucian!” Hadleigh Anwyll yelled into the battle. The King of the Reapers turned his demonic face into a twist of a smirk. His glowing red eyes shimmering with the thought of blood.

“I warned you, my dear friend,” Lucian Xanthias beat his large raven wings, the air pushing the Seelie Kings men away as they tried to attack him. “Your rule must come to an end. The Unseelie are upon us, and the Crown offers war. You do not.”

“Then, what do you call this?” Hadleigh Anwyll, the Seelie King, motioned to the carnage wreaking havoc around them.

Lucian Xanthias raised his blood covered sword. “A means to an end,” he growled before lunging forward in a whirl of wind. Teeth snapping, eyes glowing, Lucian Xanthias sword clashed against the Seelie Kings.

Hadleigh Anwyll dug his heels into the ground. The blowback from their swords meeting threatened to send him flying backwards. Calling upon the magic of the land, the Seelie King gritted his teeth just as the land listened.

All around, the ground tore and cracked, revealing swinging, and lashing roots. The Firebirds were knocked out the sky, one by one, forced to fight on land against the Seelie Kings soldiers. Swords tore through the masses of Firebirds as the land listened to the Seelie Kings inner cry for help. The Reapers began to fight against the whipping roots, but to no prevail.

Lucian Xanthias growled as his own men began to die around him. In a fury of wings, swords, and lightning, Lucian Xanthias charged at the Seelie King.

Aziel Alaric ran through the outer forests of the faery lands. His hand gripped his kings lovers as he ushered them between the trees. Adia Huang, a human stowaway amidst their lands, was pregnant with the kings daughter.

Aziel used his faery strength to pick up the human. She gave a quick cry of protest but did not push it any further. She knew Aziel was just trying to make haste in getting her out of the faery lands before the war between the Seelie King and the Crown ended.

A tear fell from her teal colored eyes. The Seelie King had become her lover quickly over the past few years. He had spent many days in the human land, risking his throne to love her. When she had become pregnant, the Seelie King had taken her to his castle. She had been in awe and terror of the faery lands, but she knew the king would protect her. Now, she was not sure about her protection.

She was grateful for Aziel Alaric. She trusted him to take care of her and her daughter in the human realm. Adia swallowed her tears as the forest began to thin. Her hidden home among the hills of Monte came closer along the horizon. The circular home that the Seelie King had built for her protection loomed in the distance. Its outer walls were veiled in magic to keep intruders out.

Aziel Alaric ran faster. His feet carried him along the wind, whisking them both forward. Once at the front of the house, Aziel kicked down the door and set Adia inside on a chair.

“You must listen to me, Adia Huang,” Aziel grabbed the humans face in both of his hands. “You must never tell your daughter about her father. You must never tell her of our kind, and you must never wish to go back into our lands.”

Adia Huang nodded her head, Aziel hands still pressing her cheeks together. “I understand,” she said, and the male faery stepped back. She watched as Aziel closed his eyes and called upon his magic. Where a once tall and slender faery stood, was a human man. Aziel had used his magic to disguise himself as her kind. Adias mouth fell open.

Aziel opened his human eyes and gave her a look of great sorrow.

It must have been the sun that morning that brought tears to my eyes as I ran further and further away from the ever leaking scent of cherry blossoms and patchouli. Its rays were soft and tantalizing as the sun rose just beyond the cliff tops of Monte. The vibrant green blades beneath my bare feet sliced small wounds that almost reached my heart with each step I took further from my home.

I couldn’t go back. Wouldn’t go back.

She had passed, the only thing I truly had left, and something inside of me disappeared with her as her dying hand stayed caged and bolted against my soul.

My Uncle Aziel was standing there, in the middle of door frame, two hours later as I made my way back home. Determination to not let my mother’s death go in vain vibrated through me as I stomped the last couple of yards to meet Aziel’s grim face. His lips had thinned in a sorrow line since my mother’s passing. I lifted my face as the stretch of distance between us became less grand with each dragging step.

“Let me see her,” I demanded. My bones trembled. He shook his head and placed a hand firmly on the door frame, closing off my path to getting back inside.

“Delaney,” he said with a breaking tone. “She’s gone and you have to let me bury her.”

I looked into his Irish blue eyes. He seemed so sad, but strong within his weakness. I could only imagine what I looked like in my nightgown with the sun beaming through the light material, exposing me, making me more vulnerable than I already was. “Then just please let me see her one last time.” My voice broke and his hand slipped from the frame.

“Go inside child,” Aziel said as he stepped aside to let me enter the small cottage I’d called home all my life.

It was tiny, that much you could see from the outside. But, this house was the most cherished thing my mother ever had, or so she said. My mother constantly told me about the way my father built this house on the first night they met. How he did it so swiftly and with such ease that it was nearly like magic.

I’ve never met my father, nor have I ever been able to conjure up an image. I’d mainly relied on pure imagination when it came to picturing the man that had once loved my mother.

My mother was always bittersweet when she spoke of him. She loved him, anyone could tell just by the way her body would relax and the way her eyes sparkled whenever she spoke of him. But, then her disdain was seen in her lush lips as they flattened whenever she spoke of my father. Her hands would fidget before rubbing her arms; her nails digging slowly into her skin.

He’d left her as a mess, and most days I wished I’d known who he was so I could find him and force him to fix her.

My mother’s days of happiness and time for fixing were over. This became evident when I stepped completely into the house.

My mouth parted as I breathed out a silent breath of awe. There she was in the middle of the round house, sleeping eternally. Her golden blonde hair was fair, and not from age. Her skin was clean and smooth, and her hands were at her sides.

I stared at her hands and shook my head. Thinning my lips as she would do when speaking of my father, I walked carefully on my tiptoes over to her and knelt down at her side. Reaching over her body slightly, I grabbed both of her hands in my own and placed them gently on her stomach, folding them together elegantly.

Sitting back on my heels, I looked at her in warmth. She seemed to be smiling now that I had placed her in a status she only gave me stories of when I was a child. But to me, she always was a queen and no one would ever take that away from her.

Aziel cleared his throat behind me and I looked at him from over my shoulder. “Delaney,” he called to me and waved me over to where he stood near the small closet hidden behind the opened door.

The sunlight shone in bright as I slowly stood onto my feet. “What?” I asked, almost annoyed that he would want to ruin my last moment with my mother for me.

He opened the closet with a flick of his wrists as his hand gripped the knob tightly. “You’ll have to get dressed,” Aziel said as he reached into the closet and pulled out a backpack.

My eyes widened at the sight of the back pack. “Aziel,” I said, worry shaking my breath. “Where are we going?”

Aziel stopped jerking the bag free of dust. I then wondered how long he had this pack ready, but then I also noticed another thing. He only grabbed out one pack, not two. So when he told me, “Not we, Delaney. You.” I already knew.

I didn’t move as I stood there with my hands trembling at my sides. I carefully lifted them to my mouth and tried to keep back the gasp of tears that threatened to fall.

Aziel clicked his tongue and dropped the pack on the ground. In two steps, his arms were around me in an embrace. But I shook him off, stomping my barefoot into the ground.

“Don’t!” I shouted at him as I dodged out of his outstretched hands. I glared up at him. “You couldn’t have at least waited until after we both buried my mother?”

Aziel’s eyes looked pained. “I sent a bird while you were gone for the Reapers to come get her and do the job.”

My heart leaped out of my chest as I stared at him in shock. “You’re going to give your own sister to the Reapers!” Shoulders hunched forward, I hissed a shaky laugh as I looked at him incredulously. I could not believe my uncle had sent for the Reapers. They were known in the small town of Monte as raven-like demonic Faeries. I was not naïve to their tales of stealing human and faery bodies alike to feast upon their flesh within the faery lands. My mother had kept me well informed, and I knew Uncle Aziel knew how much this pained me.

“They’ll pay me for—” my Uncle Aziel began.

“For her bones!” I shouted, interrupting him as I jutted a finger at him viciously.