The Siege Of Drakkon: Book Three Of The Drakkon Series

Chapter Twenty-Two

Alessandra Drakkon

Queen of the Drakkon Empire

Everything around me was in shades, black, white, and gray. I was in a desert but there was no color, no life, it was bleak. There was only coldness, no warmth or light, was I dead? The pain didn't bother me anymore, it let me know I was still alive, but these dreary surroundings almost made me give up hope. "You've survived thus far relatively intact, you impress me Alessandra, but then again you are your mother's daughter. Will you survive the next test though?" His words echoed around me, but he was no where to be seen.

"You are disgusting, a filthy human!" My father appears in the space, colored in unlike everything else. "How could you be my child? You are a disappointment, unworthy of anything!" I yell and lash out at him with my hand, but he disappears like smoke, fading out of existence as quickly as he appeared.

"My daughter? No, you are someone else's child. I've never seen you before. How could you compare to Adhara? She's prettier than you, stronger than you, smarter than you, a better fighter than you. She represents the Solveig line proudly, you will not taint our family, halfling!" My mother is next, but she does not comfort me from this horror, she adds to it, shoving in my face every fear or doubt I've ever felt.

"Why would I ever allow you to have the throne? I deserve it more than you! I let you win, so that you would leave and never come back! I don't even want your filthy blood to taint the planet!" Adhara appears beside her, the two stand together against me.

I stumble away from them, only for them to appear directly before me, hurling more insults and wounding words at me. "How could I ever follow you? You are worse than my previous masters! You torture me every day just by having to stay by your side!" Talon appears next, Raywin, Yanu, and Tanza all stand behind him as they glare at me with disgust and hate.

"Please I'm doing this for you! For all of you! I have to be strong enough to protect you!" I stumble towards them, hoping to make them listen, to make them understand. I gasp as I feel pain as the knife slides into my back, I can feel blood rushing out, though even that isn't warm, its freezing cold like ice water.

"Protect us? You can't even protect yourself!" I choke on blood as Cyrall releases his grip on the blade and lets me fall to the ground, I stare up at the white sky as I feel my blood pool around me, satisfied with my death if it meant they would all live.

"You give up so easily, young one. Where is your fight? Your fire? Where is the Solveig blood I know runs in your veins? Where is the warrior who would choose to defy me and everyone else in order to save those she cares about?" Numa's words remind me, they remind me of who I am, a daughter, a Queen, a warrior, a Solveig, a protector, I would not let them tear me down, they weren't real, none of this was.

I steel myself and sit up, choking on blood as I try not to scream with pain, the knife was like a branding iron in my back, full of heat and fury, I reach behind me with a shaking hand and grasp the knife handle, pulling I shriek as it causes the pain to worsen and my hand to slip off because of the blood, but I force myself to try again, I grab the blade tightly and use the pain to fuel me instead of hinder me.

It is one thing to sit there and endure pain silently, it is another to have to move through it, to fight through it. To fight the urge to retreat, to hide until your wounds are healed, to give up under the pain and die, it is an endless spiral of desires, wants, fears, one never knows which one will succeed until the battle is already over, and they have either lost, won, or hid like a coward.

I was not a coward, and I never would be, I would not retreat from this pain, from this battle of wills, or any other battle in the future, I was the Queen of Drakkon, but I was also the Queen of Solveig and Solveig's bowed to no one we didn't want to, pain and fear will not overcome me, I will instead rule over them, force them to make me stronger.