It was all wrong.The corridor was too tight. The guards were too close. Too tall.It was too cold, suffocating.He was meant to be in the room to at least give him some time to think."Are you alright?"The boy snapped to the voice. What was a blink to him, was long enough to land him on the ground, palms to the floor to keep his entire body from shaking. He didn't know how long he had blanked out for, but the king had taken a knee to come closer to him, washed with concern as a few of the surrounding guards hovered over the scene to see where they could offer help."Come lad, can you stand?"His gut twisted at the way he tried to help him up, but with Vera bracing his other side he couldn't very well squirm away from the king. He doubted that he'd even have the energy if he decided to. But he knew now with the scene he'd caused that he would have to respond with more than a nod.Cilvren would have had his translational enchantments up to date, but there was a standing risk of a few
Veronica sat on her bed, stuffed like a spring hen but still buzzing with birthday energy. She had only played with one of her gifts throughout the night, a dinged up wooden dagger that she'd managed to hold away from her mother until the gazes of the guests forced her to allow the gift to remain in her hands. She had looked for Mr. Bunny afterwards to show him her new prize, but Horus had informed her of his early departure.She knew that they had planned for today to be their last, but the disappointment lingered nonetheless. She still had one last gift she had hoped to give him.Veronica sighed, grabbing for a fairytale on her shelf instead of the books that had piled from Jackling's tutoring. She had gotten a few new stories to read Cinder before bed, but the phoenix had taken a particular liking to the golden lettering of one title."The Adventures of Locke Lanbrellhande..."She stopped at the small tap that met her ears, glancing at the side of her bed where Cinder was still per
After scaling a few levels of the roof, they found a cracked window and slipped into an empty guest room, the door to the hall barely ajar to show its lack of a guest.Veronica could see the sliver of a guard's shadow to the left, her hopes withering as she looked back to the window they had come through. But her gaze fell on the boy instead as he whispered a spell into his cupped hands, a small butterfly glowing with golden light fluttering from his palms and out the door.There was a small commotion as the guard to the left spoke with another one, two pairs of footsteps following the enchantment until they grew silent. The boy lead the mission, tiptoeing through the empty corridor until they rounded a corner to face two guards sitting at the end of the hall.Veronica swallowed her gasp, confused as the boy continued to lead her up to them. She heard a noise when they'd gotten close enough, one of the guards letting out a soft snore as his head drooped against the second guard using
The red star, had fallen. A cloak of astral black tailed the vanquished light, killing sight and sound alike as the trees whispered and danced to a sinister song. Elisious stopped running, taking in a couple sharp breaths of the icy air to look around. He'd seen the final light. Faint and quick as it died, and he certainly felt the tingling of energy in the air. He should've been right on top of it by now... or close.He looked around for any figures in the towering black trees. Mystral ran out only twenty minutes before he got the news. Twenty minutes deeper in the foreboding black of night, and twenty fatalistic minutes lost in the forest chasing a shade of a rumour come to life.Somewhere in the wall of trees, her only child had run out. Deep into the forest that had seen more blood than rain for weeks."Rastastrill," he said as he formed a brilliant ball of light in his cupped hands, illuminating the unholy surroundings. Before he could scour the dancing shadows there was a snap,
PRESENT DAYA binder full of papers rocketed towards the floor along with a couple of worn down textbooks, a grey blur fleeing the scene and pattering down the hall. Ronan shot up out of his covers. Eyes alert for danger and a threateningly fluffy black sock in his right hand— ready for defending if need be. It took a while for him to process the scene before him, and by then it was too late to punish the culprit."Jay," he growled, pushing off his mess of white covers and jumping to his feet. His ebony hair was a makeshift bird's nest, the few strands poking in his vision glistening in the sunlight reaching through his window.With an instinctive glance he inspected the time, it's 7:23.He groaned, seven minutes of sleep wasted. The day like any other day had begun.A uniform sat folded on his smooth metal desk, it was unique — to say the least — with its navy blue plaid overcoat and silky black dress pants that flapped madly with the slightest breeze. Ronan threw it on, tiredly scoo
Ronan stared at his textbook pretending to read the small section on buoyancy, but his focus was entirely on the exchange student. Sonya had left with one of her friends to ask Mr. Sanders a truckload of review questions, leaving him to babysit Red. That in itself would have been fine, if he hadn't caught the creep staring at him over his odd book every time he looked away. He flicked his gaze up again, catching Red as he quickly looked down, his vacantly friendly gaze pretending to skim the texts of his own book. The silence ensued, Ronan slowly turning back to his textbook, and slamming it shut with an audible snap as he felt Red's gaze upon him again. He smiled at Red's confusion, gently placing the textbook down and rising to his feet. "I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." A chair screeched as Ronan turned away, forcing him to stop and glance at the Russian exchange student closely tailing him. "I'll be right back. Can you just watch my textbook?" Red stopped in
He stared in cold panic at the cloaked figure perched upon the bus, their menacing shadow blotting out the sunlight as they slowly rose with a creeping smile. He couldn't tell if it was the same person Red had been stalking, nor if they'd been sitting on top of the bus this whole time, and shirked his attention. All he knew was their presence held an inhuman quality, their sharpened pale features stretching into a wretched grin as they stared at Ronan.Before the figure moved, Ronan did what came naturally to him, lifting up his phone and snapping a picture against the halo of sunlight shadowing the creature's form. As he stared at the blackened shadow living in his camera, his mind raced to wondering what the hell he was doing, the real panic sending a pulse of energy straight through his heart as he jumped to his feet.In the chaotic jumble of emotions, the only thing the stranger had moved was its mouth, teeming with amusement while its beady black eyes carved through his soul. Ron
Ronan ran faster than he ever knew he could, desperately pushing to keep up with Red's abnormal pace. The band of bat monsters were close behind, holding their human appearance and riding the tailwind of the two boys, gradually picking up speed.Groups of people leapt out of the way as they tore down the sidewalk. The acreage was in sight, but exhaustion took over Ronan as he gasped for air and slowed his pace. He stole a quick glance over his shoulder at the billowing cloaks of their guests, they were closing in fast. Ronan yelped, doubling his speed and whipping past Red into the grassy field.The two boys vaulted the gate without even checking the lock, and dashed into the house. Ronan immediately snapped down every lock he could find on the door, bracing the doorknob with a chair he collapsed on to regain his breath. "What the f—""Chirops," Red cut in, giving the window a quizzical stare. "They're not supposed to be here.""Chirops?" Ronan gave Red an exaggerated nod as he smiled