I was dead. I knew it. It was so obvious — I had died. The knight swung his sword down and killed me. Both of us, more than likely. There was no way my body could actually, truly, protect another. Except, I heard my father shout out and could feel as the entire room went still. It was like a forceful wind, hitting all of us, and I finally cracked an eye open to look down at the boy I was now on top of. Were we both still alive? His pale eyes were glaring up at me from under furrowed, dark brows. There was a hint of something other than hatred there… confusion? Maybe, but part of me was hopeful that it was gratefulness.

  Though my father continued to bark orders at me, and everyone else, I refused to let go. I knew the second I did, this boy’s chances of surviving got slimmer. There were so many questions that needed to be answered, most for our kingdom — and a few of my own. He was from outside. He knew what the grass felt like on the other side of the walls, what it looked like to stand in the woods under the tall trees, and perhaps even what the oceans smelled like. All were things that I’ve never gotten to experience, but craved. I know that I’m more safe inside Sunspire’s walls, but it called to me. Maybe that was where I could finally find my peace, and tap into my magic. If I had any.

  My mother was the one who tugged me off the boy. I felt her hands under my arms as she hoisted me up with all of her might, forcing me to my feet and pulling me away. “Come, my child,” she murmured. “You need to listen to your father.” I smiled at her, letting her know I was okay as she kissed my forehead. I could do nothing as I watched the knights pick the boy up and yank him around. I watched as more knights brought in others that looked similar to him, all with the same wild, dark hair and piercing, pale grey eyes. They were all older than he was. The largest man stood directly in front of my father, and he looked like a leader. His long hair was tied back into many braids, with silver streaking it to show his age. His beard was long and braided as well. He stood with his barrel-chest pushed up high and out far, and I noticed that his large arms were covered in similar tattoos to the boy.

  “Soleil,” my mother whispered softly to me as we listened to my father speak with the intruders. She was worrying over my wound to my chest, even though it was barely a scratch. I eventually turned away from her, hoping she would stop fiddling with everything so I could focus on what was happening. “You can see the cloaked person with your father?” She asked, and I nodded to confirm. “... And you can hear it speak, as well?” I nodded once again, tilting my head back to look up at her. She looked terrified. Eyes wide with concern with worry streaking lines across her face and settling heavily into the light wrinkles she had. “Oh, my son, I am so sorry.”

  “What do you mean? Can you not see it?” I asked, and she glanced up from me. Her eyes lingered for only a moment in my father’s direction before she looked back down and gave me a weak, reassuring smile.

  “I can see it, but I cannot hear it. We’ll talk more about this later, in private. It can only be seen when it doesn’t reveal itself by… mages.”

  It can only be seen by mages? But I hadn’t had my ascension day yet. Not only that, but why could my mother not hear it, and I could? My father seemed able to hear and see it like me, but he was no mage. All this did was bring up more questions that I wanted — no, needed — answered. I looked back at my father when he asked the figure to reveal itself, and watched as everyone else could now clearly see what I had been able to see the entire time. As it spoke, it was still like harsh whispers being hissed out, but it was more audible to me now. It listened to my father and began speaking directly to the boy. I felt my mother wrap her arm around my waist and pull me closer to her as I had taken a step forward. I had to stop this, as I watched that same withered hand that had reached out to touch my parents now touch this boy.

  “NO! STOP!” I shouted out, fighting against my mother’s hold as I watched the boy fall to his knees and cry out in pain. The large man who’d spoken before shouted with me, telling the boy to get back up to his feet. “Father, please! Make it stop!” I blinked tears out of my eyes, feeling them spill over. I watched as my father clenched his jaw and continued to stare ahead at what he was causing. Wholly unaffected, uncaring… this was not like the man who had raised me. My mother used one of her hands to cover my eyes as she pulled me back against her frame and held me. “You’re killing him, please!” I begged, crying out and watching it fall on deaf ears.

  This wasn’t what we did. I knew that there was a capital punishment. I’d heard stories and read old history books about how we’d once cut off the hands of thieves, would hang murderers in the middle of our marketplace, and even exiled those that deserted our military. Sunspire had a dark past, but my mother and father hadn’t ordered an execution in years. The last one had been after discovering a string of murders that were all connected to the same person, but I’d thought that other than that our people hadn’t been subjected to the same harsh punishments from the past. Some time spent in prison, locked away in a cell, or made to work to help upkeep our kingdom were the only punishments I’d known of happening. This? This was too far.

  “Adira, please take Soleil away.” My father spoke to my mother. I continued to sob, unable to stop the tears that kept running down my cheeks and soaking my robe. “Make sure he has his wounds checked. This boy is to be escorted to the bedchambers as well. He will have his own room and be tended to as if he’s any other guest. Am I understood?”

  I felt my mother tugging me away, still trying to hide my eyes. Her fingers slipped and I could see as knights began to pick the boy up from the floor and drag him behind us. The large man that had shouted with me looked back at my father, clearly intent on continuing their conversation and receiving his own punishment. The door shut behind us and my mother rushed me up the stairs to our bedchambers.

  “Soleil, I need you to listen to me very carefully.” My mother’s voice was hushed as she continued tugging me up the stairs. “That boy will be fine, in time. He just needs to rest, but the hex cast upon him will remain. You must stay by his side, lest he feels that same immense pain.” She stopped and turned me around, grabbing my shoulders. She stayed quiet as the knights carried the boy past us and to one of the guestrooms, the one directly beside mine. The ladies in waiting began rushing about afterwards. They went to tend to him and to make sure he was comfortable. One even came to me and went to check my chest, but my mother shooed her away with quiet thanks.

  “That… creature… it appeared by your father’s side one night. It came claiming to be an envoy from the Goddess, saying it could grant us with Her blessings and help us strengthen the magics in our walls.” Her bright green eyes were wide as she stared into mine, making sure I was truly listening to her. “Master Esau told me that it lies. It isn’t an envoy from the Goddess, it isn’t a celestial at all. Instead, it is an ancient, old being that has remained here. They’re everywhere, lingering. The celestials all but wiped them out thousands of years ago, and the ones that are still here have found a way to feed off the magics left.” She tightened her grip on my shoulders. It almost hurt, how tightly she was holding me. “That’s what it is doing to me. Your father and I told it, as long as it did not touch you, that it could feed from us and grow strong enough to help us protect Sunspire. It latched onto your father so quickly, and I am too weak now to help him. Our walls weren’t to keep us in, but to keep them out.”

  “Then… how did it get in?” I was taking everything in, but my head was spinning. Ancient creatures that the Goddess had once fought were still around? Here, on this plane, with us?

  My mother shook her head. “I’m not sure. There are more I see around every day. The fact that you can see this one now, oh, my boy.” She pulled me close to her and wrapped her arms around me. “You’re blessed. Your magic is finally beginning to manifest, and when it does I’m terrified that they’re going to begin feeding on you, too.”

  I’m blessed? I was actually, truly, blessed by the Goddess? I’m blessed… This is a good thing, right? It should be… No, it is. And yet, I’m more terrified now than I was earlier today thinking about what it meant if I wasn’t blessed and the royal bloodline’s magic died with me. Now I have to be worried about ancient creatures who still roam the land and feed on magic. Now I have to be worried about how one of them has hold of my father, and my mother, and as such means it also has hold of our kingdom.

  “When the time comes, Soleil, I want you to leave this place. I want you to leave Sunspire and never look back.”

  “What? No, I-, I can’t do that!” My voice raised and I felt my mother’s hand clasp over my mouth. How could she tell me to leave our home? How could she tell me to never return?

  “Master Esau has seen the future, my dear boy. Our future… your future. I know there is a part of your father still fighting against that creature. He defies it even now, by making it keep that boy alive. He is your key to getting out. You’ll go with him and you won’t look back, do you understand me?” My mother had such a stern look on her face. I shook my head in protest, but she held a finger up to my face and pointed it fiercely at me. “Without you here to feed from, it will wither and die in time. You are the future of our people, Soleil. You will survive, you will live. That has been promised to me, and it is the only thing I’ve asked the Goddess for.”

  I shoved my mother’s hands away from me and ran to my bedchamber, slamming the door shut and locking it. Leave Sunspire? It was something I’d dreamed of, but to leave and never come back? To abandon my people, my family, and my duties? How could I ever do such a thing? I can’t fight, but there had to be a way to stand our ground and fight back. But if Master Esau had seen what was to come… if he was sure that I must leave, because that was the correct thing to do for whatever reason, then there was no changing it. If he’d seen my departure from Sunspire, then it was going to happen. He’d rarely had visions, but each one he’d had always came true.

  I sat down on my floor and pulled my knees to my chest. Why was all of this happening? Why were these ancient beings still here? Why were they targeting my family? There were so many questions and I had no answers to any of them. Every time I got overwhelmed like this, or felt helpless, the only thing I could do was cry. My mother told me it was good to be sensitive, but others always made fun of me for it. It felt like I had no control over my own emotions; I broke down even when I felt stronger than ever and wasn’t able to stop my tears as they flowed.

  What did she mean when she said the boy who’d tried to kill me would be my key to getting out? Surely he wanted to go home. That’s what I’d do first, I’d work on finding a way out for him and his people. If I could get them out of the kingdom and on their way back home, then Master Esau’s vision couldn’t come true… but what about the hex that had been put on him? I couldn’t leave his side. That meant I just needed to find a way to break the hex and get him out. I’d get them all out, and then we could focus on figuring out how to purge those creatures from Sunspire and building our walls back up.

  Eventually, I stood up. Cracking my door open and checking to be sure no one was standing outside of it. I saw some of the ladies in waiting rushing around, but otherwise the coast seemed clear of my mother or any knights. I crept out, making sure my door shut back as quietly as I could make it, and made my way to the bedchamber next to mine. It was intended to be my sibling’s, but my mother told me that she’d lost their first child very early on, and that when she had me they didn’t want to try again. I often wondered what it’d have been like to not be alone, to have someone else that understood everything I was going through. Maybe they could have been the one that went on to rule the kingdom…

  I had to stop thinking about that, though. As I carefully pushed the heavy wooden door open, I stuck my head in and peeked around. The boy was lying in the bed, clothes already changed, chains gone, and bandages on some of his minor scrapes from the tussle with the knights. Tiptoeing in, I walked as quietly as I could over to his bed, and looked down at him. They’d given him dark blue robes, which suited him. His hair was still a mess of waves, wildly splayed out around his head from where he’d been moved around so much. The bits of his eerily pale skin that were exposed had stark, black designs intricately decorating it. I’d seen tattoos before, but none like his. They all look like they told stories that I couldn’t understand, as if each mark was a letter of a language that I had never witnessed before. He didn’t have as many as the others with him had, but even still it was clear to me that these were important to his people.

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  His face looked flawless. There wasn’t a blemish or mark across it except for the small scar that cut through his eyebrow, and I noticed there was a small tattoo on one of his temples that seemed to go beyond his hairline. He looked absolutely nothing like me, as I was completely covered from head-to-toe in spots. Kisses from the sun, as my mother called them. Birthmarks, beauty marks, and some splotchy patches where my skin was paler… more like my mother’s compared to my father’s. There were plenty of different people in Sunspire, but there was just no one quite like him. Asleep he looked younger, more like his age. It was hard to believe that someone who was only in their seventeenth year could be so tall and muscular, but maybe I was just small for my age. Maybe I’d get tall and strong by my seventeenth year, too.

  I noticed a red mark on his chest that was covered by the robes he had on, and without thinking I reached down and carefully pulled them open. Exposing more of his chest and seeing a sunburst that looked as if it had been burned into his skin. It was just below his collarbone, on the left side, and it gleamed angrily as my fingers got near it. As if it were reacting to me being near… and then I felt my wrist be snatched.

  *

  ***

  The air smelled so sweet, and it felt so warm. I certainly wasn’t back home, even though for a moment I forgot where I was. The bed I was in felt soft, and I didn’t want to get up… until I remembered I had been captured. That bloody mage had touched me and I passed out from the pain. I heard footsteps in the room with me, but I kept my eyes closed. Pretending to still be asleep so I could let whomever it was come closer and make striking them easier.

  Our seers hadn’t told us that the king was also a mage. Actually, they had told us the opposite. It was only the queen and her child who were of the royal bloodline. It was only them who held the powerful magic that needed to be eradicated. And what of that cloaked figure who had appeared out of thin air? They never saw it or hadn’t told us of it, but it clearly wasn’t a person in the sense that we were. I needed to get to my uncle and find out what was going on, and then we all needed to get out of this cursed place. We could come back with more warriors, better prepared for a true fight, and let our shamans know that there were more mages here than we anticipated.

  I felt a hand tugging at my clothes and knew that this was my moment. I reached up and grabbed the wrist of the intruder tightly, not letting go as I yanked them down onto the bed with me and quickly scrambled to get their limbs pinned. Getting on top of them before I realized it was the dratted prince, once again, underneath me. I held him down by his shoulders and bared my teeth, something I had always been taught to do from a young age. Animals showed their sharp canines to intimidate their enemies. A warning that they, and I, would attack. He looked up at me with those big, dazzling green eyes. His skin around them looked swollen and slightly red, as if he’d been crying. Even his cheeks, which were now clearer to see without that stupid little mask covering part of his face, had clear tear streaks down them. Glistening in the light, just like his wide eyes.

  “Did you really think you could come in here and kill me while I was unconscious?” I almost growled the words out. Not moving my glaring gaze from him. Those that you underestimated the most were the ones who often struck and did the most devastation. “You’re as dumb as you look, then.”

  “No!” He nearly shouted the word out, his eyes growing wider as he glanced towards the door in a panic. “No, I swear, I didn’t come to harm you.” I let out a scoff at his words. As if I was supposed to believe that he wasn’t here to take his revenge on me for trying to end his life. “I just wanted to check on you.” His eyes darted back and forth as they looked over my entire face. “I mean it,” he was uncannily good at reading people, or maybe I was terrible at hiding how little I believed him. “The mark—”

  I followed his eyes down to my chest, which was currently exposed. The robes that I had been dressed in while unconscious were hanging open partially, revealing down to the middle of my sternum. There was a sunburst that looked as if it had been branded into my skin, and it… glowed. I let go of the prince’s shoulders and sat back, trying to get a better look at the mark. It still stung, so touching it made me sneer from the slight pain. It felt worse than any of my tattoos, but not as bad as some of my former wounds.

  “What did you do to me?” I sat back even farther. Trying to scoot away from the prince as far as I could without leaving the bed. This is what his people did — left their mark with their filthy magic.

  “I-, I didn’t do anything.” The prince stuttered out. I glared at him and he sat up from the bed, holding his hands up defensively. “I swear, I didn’t want this either. I don’t know why my father ordered this.” He reached out to me, his fingertips were almost touching the mark, and I slapped his hand away from me. As soon as I connected with his skin, I felt the same burning sensation that I had when that creature had touched me. The prince yelped, holding his hand, and then looked at me with knitted brows and feigned concern. “No, it’s true. It really is a hex…” He started to reach out again, but paused. Pulling his hand back and looking down dejectedly at the bed. “We need to find Master Esau and see if he can help us reverse this.”

  “What exactly is this?” I pointed to the mark on my chest. “What do you mean it’s a hex?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. That’s what my mother called it, but Master Esau will know more. He told me that hexes are forbidden curses that some mages have the ability to use. It was outlawed here hundreds of years ago, and the last known hex to be cast here happened during the Goddess war.” The prince’s voice was soft, and faint. Maybe that was just the way he normally spoke, but it seemed nothing like when he was yelling at his father. He commanded attention, he held power — now he was weak and feeble.

  “Goddess war? Do you mean that heretic that you all worship?” I sneered again. These people believed that their Goddess was the only correct one to worship, when in truth she had betrayed all the others. All the ones we worshipped. “Etaphine, wife of Fanir, her holy war is what divided our lands. The selfish goddess who wanted all of the power and glory to herself.” The prince’s eyes lit up when he realized I knew the name of the deceiver he worshiped, then his face fell as I continued to speak.

  “That’s not the important part, and I’m not going to argue about ancient history, but what matters is that a hex hasn’t been recorded being cast here since that war. Since the Gods and Goddesses still roamed here.” He was trying to prove a point that I wasn’t getting. “We just need to speak with Master Esau. He’ll know what to do—”

  “I’m not going to speak with anyone but my uncle.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Where is he, and the others that were with us?” Why was I in this pampered room, and they weren’t here with me? Now I felt the fear starting to creep in. What if they’d killed them, and I was here in a warm bed the entire time it was happening? “Were they…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  The prince noticed my hesitation, and he looked worried for just a moment. “No, I don’t think my father — no, I know my father wouldn’t have them ordered to be killed. That isn’t the kind of man he is.”

  “Isn’t the kind of man he is?” I repeated his words back to him. “He put a hex on me! You just said yourself that this kind of magic is outlawed here, and your king, your father used it on me!” He winced at my words. “I slapped your hand and I felt more pain than I have ever felt before in my life. Why? Because of the words that thing said? A simple slap caused you harm?! How pathetic and weak can someone be?!”

  The prince abruptly stood up from the bed, and then tripped over his own feet and fell backwards. As soon as he hit the ground I felt a shot of pain go through my entire body again. It caused me to gasp from the shock of it, and then I felt my anger starting to bubble over. “Get out!” I grabbed the soft pillow and threw it at the prince as hard as I could, hitting him in the face. Thankfully I felt no pain from that, because if I had then I might as well go ahead and take my own life rather than be subjected to feeling pain each time this idiot breathes. How was I supposed to complete my quest of killing him and saving my people with this hex?

  The door slamming shut was the only sound that came from the prince leaving. I needed to find out where my uncle was, how I was going to get rid of this hex, and how we were going to get out of this place. I didn’t even know where exactly I was, though. I had to still be inside the king’s house, but this was nothing like my home. We had some large villages, with houses built tightly together… however we were normally spread out far and wide. You may not see another village after walking for a few days. You may see a random hut built in the middle of the woods, far away from anyone else, but that person was still part of a tribe. These people were on top of each other, and there were so many of them.

  I started to look around the room more, realizing that the walls were made from stone. We normally only used wood. There were arches and other intricate designs carved everywhere, with gold shining brightly as it outlined the entire room. Plush rugs that had been carefully handwoven covered the floor, and the few pieces of furniture that were scattered around were also made from fine craftsmanship. Nothing less for a royal family. It was the same for our people, our leaders had the biggest houses with the finest things. The most wives and husbands, if they wanted them, and the most servants. Inside the walls of this place felt — suffocating.

  There were trees and grass, but it was overpowered by all of the stone. It was nothing like the wilds. Out there everyone and everything was truly free. You could pick a direction and walk, and the only things stopping you were your lack of tools to cross the change in terrain. Inside this prison of a kingdom you could walk until you hit a wall, unless you knew where the holes were in it that had been crumbling away for years.

  Just as I was looking at a shelf that was filled with books that all had colorful spines, I heard a tapping on one of the windows. I cautiously walked over and looked out, not seeing anything except for how high up this room was. I unlatched the locks that held the window shut and pushed it open, taking another step forward with the intention of sticking my head out of it, until I was smacked in the face by a wing full of feathers.

  “Zev! Zev!” A croaking voice shouted, and then a high pitched squeal came next. “Zev!” The feathers kept frantically flapping around my head, before I finally reached up and snatched the winged creature that was intent on beating me to death.

  “Mani!” I exclaimed, holding my crow companion. She had come with us, but was acting as a scout for us before we’d all been captured. Her entire job was to return home and let them know we’d succeeded. “What are you doing here?” I asked as I held her out at arm’s length from me. She tilted her head at me and blinked. “You were supposed to return to the village, Mani.” I explained.

  “Mani stay with Zev!” She croaked back at me, in my sister’s voice. “Mani stay—” I held a finger up to her beak, telling her to be quiet.

  She settled down, staring at me as she often did while waiting for me to speak. “Why didn’t you go back to the village? Is it because… I failed?” She tilted her head again, as if asking what I meant. “I couldn’t do it, Mani. I tried, but the mages here are stronger than we thought.” There was also a part of me that wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to kill the prince. Even if his people had been responsible for so much suffering in our villages, it wasn’t his fault. At least not yet. He didn’t sit upon the throne, his parents did. “Uncle and the others are—”

  I stopped speaking when there was a knock on the door. “Hide, Mani.” I whispered, letting her go and watching as she flew up to the top of the bookshelf to hide in the shadows. When I didn’t answer the door, it eventually creaked open just a crack. The prince stuck his head inside and looked around, landing on me and smiling.

  “Oh, you are in here.” He spoke quietly. “I have something to show you.” I realized that he’d changed his clothes. His bright robes were now all black, and he had a cloak on that he had tugged over his golden curls. “But first, you’ll want to cover up more. It makes sneaking around easier.”