“Hold out your hand, the bride goes first,” Troph intoned.
Reluctantly, I extended my hand. Just as the blade hovered over my skin, a fierce wind swept through the forest. The necklace Sin had given me seared against my flesh. “Ahhhhhh!” I screamed, collapsing to my knees as pain burned through me. Panic erupted around us; everyone rushed to my side.
“Cut this foolishness out right now! It’s only the wind—the ancestors are speaking!” Hoax bellowed, slamming his staff into the ground.
Sin caught me before I tumbled into the water. “Get it off!” I shrieked. He tried to remove the necklace, but it burned his hands—the metal had absorbed the energy in the air, growing hotter as something powerful approached.
“What is that?” someone shouted, eyes wide with terror.
“I’ll be back!” Sin promised, vanishing into the chaos.
I sat trembling on a rock as Blair and Jinx pushed through the crowd to reach me. “Are you okay? What happened?” Jinx asked, worry etched in her voice.
“I’m fine. The necklace just burned me—something is here,” I replied, still shaken.
“Where did Sin get that from?” Blair pressed, but I could only shrug.
Suddenly, a woman’s piercing scream split the air, followed by thunder cracking the sky. Jinx and Blair hauled me up, but only a few feet away, a spear impaled one of Hoax’s warriors. Right before our eyes, he shrieked as the spear reduced him to ashes.
“What in the fuck was that?” Jinx screeched.
“I don’t know, but we need to get the hell out of here!” Blair urged.
They helped me out of the pool, but we froze at the sight ahead. A portal spun open, double rings etched with ancient symbols whirling on its edge. From it stepped a tall, shirtless, caramel-skinned figure, masked, with black and gold spinning gears embedded in his body. He must have stood at least six-foot-seven, his athletic, muscular frame radiating menace. Around his wrist, a long gold chain glinted, links thick like a Rolex.
Without hesitation, he wrapped the chain around an elf’s neck. The links morphed into spikes—he decapitated the elf in one brutal motion.
“Kill him!” Hoax roared, sending his army surging forward.
Behind the intruder, a dozen masked, shadowy figures emerged from the portal, hands glowing with power. Swords and strange weapons materialized in their grip. The elves and male fairies rushed to meet them, only to be sliced apart, their bodies falling in halves.
“If you’re not part of Hoax’s army, run and hide! Stay, and you and your children will be slaughtered!” the ring leader bellowed.
Hoax’s dragon staff unleashed a ball of blue fire, but an orb flashed around the chain-wielding man, causing him to vanish. These were warlocks—how had they breached Charmden? Our realm’s portal never opened for outsiders.
“Where’s Lune?” Blair cried, squeezing my hand in panic.
I was frozen, watching the warlocks turn fairies and elves to ash. They moved like living shadows, and it seemed no magic or weapon could touch them.
“I don’t know, but we have to go! Our magic can’t even scratch those monsters!” Jinx insisted.
We ran, dodging through the carnage as blood soaked the grass. I glanced back—Sin was fighting beside his father. I begged the ancestors to keep him safe, though I wished Hoax would perish. Jinx and Blair’s wings burst from their backs as we prepared to take flight, but a shadowy figure hurled a net, trapping them together.
“NOOOOOOO!” I screamed.
“Eboenia, get out of here before they capture you. You have to protect it!” Jinx shouted, meaning my wand. But it was too late. I summoned my wand, casting a dome-shaped shield over them just as I was tackled to the ground.
“They’re killing everyone!” Blair screamed as I struggled with the eyeless figure. I slashed at it with my extended nails, but my hand passed through its shadowy form. The dome’s magic shattered the net, freeing Blair and Jinx, who pounded on the shield, desperate to help.
My wand was knocked from my grasp. “Get off me, bitch!” I spat, wings fluttering. Twin gold daggers, engraved with flowers, appeared in my hands. I drove one into its eye, and the figure vanished.
A fairy soared overhead, clutching her baby, chased by a monstrous Rottweiler with gold eyes. I leapt onto its back, tearing at its ear with my teeth.
“Bitch, run!” I yelled at the fairy.
The beast clamped its jaws around my leg, yanking me off and hurling me deep into the forest. I crashed into a tree, my wing snapping. Pain seared through me as it slowly healed. The dog crept closer, growling, drool dripping from its maw. Suddenly, a whistle echoed through the woods, and the Rottweiler bolted, its massive form toppling a tree as it fled.
I staggered to my feet, determined to return to the village. But a portal spun open before me, gears whirring like the inside of a clock. The energy uprooted trees, the light nearly blinding. The deadly figure appeared—the one behind the massacre. He stepped out, his imposing frame and spinning gears radiating power. The portal vanished, and he pulled down his mask.
