The Heir and the Undoing

Prologue

"You thought you could betray me?" my brother roared as their swords clashed.

Around us, the battle raged. A scent of blood and fire filling the air and burning my nostrils. I was sure I would still be able to smell it days later, as it filled my body with each panting breath. Perhaps it would never leave, or perhaps I wouldn't live long enough for it to be a concern.

I did not know how long it had been, but my arms ached with the effort of swinging the sword my Mother had gifted me for my sixteenth summer. The last one before her and Father were stolen from us.

I practised with it every day, sometimes for hours, but nothing compared to the intensity of fighting for your life against another who was fighting just as fiercely for their own. The Dearg Due before me let out a piercing shriek of fury, her grey-blue face contorted with rage as I met each of her blows.

I should give my full attention to this moment. I should focus on fighting and eliminating the danger. Action, not distraction. That's what Alessia, my trainer and guard, always said. She would be furious if she knew the way my brother's fight was drawing my concentration.

I wondered where she was. She had been at my side as we lined the valley, grim faced and ready to drive out those who had threatened our people.

It was her battle cry that rang in my ears as we rode towards them. The chaos of the fight saw us separated shortly after, and I hoped she was safe. She was the fiercest fighter I knew, but still worry tightened my chest at the thought she could be hurt.

Then I saw my chance. My opponent raised her sword over her head with both hands clutching the handle, likely intending to put all her strength into this strike.

Her body was entirely exposed. It was a mistake she would not live long enough to regret.

My sword flashed and her eyes widened in shock as the silver slammed into her throat. The sword slipped from her hands, falling somewhere behind her, and her fingers fluttered uselessly at her face. There wasn't much blood; initially, at least. I watched the life fade from her eyes and her body sagged forwards; the weight causing me to stagger back.

Yanking my sword out, I span away as her blood sprayed from the wound like a morbid fountain. Her body was already crumbling to ash before I had even stepped back.

I swiped my sleeve across my face to clear the worst of the splatter, but there was no time to be precious and panic over how disgusting this all was.

Refocusing my attention on the two clashing in the treeline my heart almost stopped. My brother, older by just two minutes, and the chaos court boy who had stolen his heart, fought violently.

Ayden was strong and powerful, everything a good King should be. But Duncan was stronger and faster than he had ever let on and had him back against a tree.

It was hard to believe that just hours earlier we were planning this battle and believing the information he had provided us on the number of Dearg Due invading our shores. It wasn't until the moment our army emerged from the trees that we had even suspected the lie.

The one hundred souls we had been prepared for was, in fact, closer to three hundred. We were not ready, and it had quickly become a bloodbath. The likes of which I hadn't heard of in any of our recent history.

Darting through the bodies, I began slashing and fighting my way to them. I had to reach my brother, had to save him.

Ayden thrusts his sword up and the reverberation when it strikes his lover's forces Duncan to release it with a sharp hiss of pain. "You thought you could betray me?" Ayden repeats, his voice equal parts hurt and angry.

I am so close now that I can see when Duncan smiles a slow and chilling grin, nothing like the loved up looks I have been used to seeing them share over the last two years. Pulling a concealed dagger from his thigh, he reaches to cup Ayden's face and I watch as my brother leans into it automatically. "Oh my love, I already did."

Ayden's eyes bulge as the dagger plunges deep into his abdomen and he rears back away from it.

"No." my piercing scream bursts from me as I watch my King, my brother, fall.

The battle continues, totally unaware of the significant loss we are experiencing, the noise swallowing my cry.

The scream becomes a wail of pure agony as I watch Duncan pull the dagger free and then slam it in again and again. Something in me breaks and I fight the last few meters to him. My balance feels of, and I am dimly aware that the ground is trembling.

I throw my sword up to block the next hit before falling to my knees beside Ayden's limp body.

My horrified gaze tilts up to the Prince who promised to love him. "What have you done?" I whisper, my weapon slipping from my hands as I try to pull my sibling's limp body into my arms.

"Why Princess, I killed a King." he grins, spinning the dagger in his fingers, either totally oblivious to what was rising in me or too stupid to care.

Rain had begun falling at some point and a low boom of thunder rumbles across the battleground. My fingers tingle with something. A power I hadn't known was inside me. Awakened by my pain and thirsting for revenge.

The ground was cracking where Ayden's blood had spilled. Splitting apart, as though the very earth was breaking, as I was, at the loss of a great King.

The wind picks up around us, whipping against my skin but I cannot feel its sting as I recognise the first flicker of fear in Duncan's eyes. He can see it now. Now he is starting to regret his actions. Now he finally senses the power rising in me.

It's oddly satisfying to know that I can instil that sort of terror, but I am focused on Ayden. My power reaches for him and for a moment I think perhaps I have the gift of healing as his skin ripples and blood smears tracks on his skin as it pulls back into his body.

There's an intense pressure, like a band pulled too tight in my head until I can no longer bear it and my power snaps. The blood rolls out of him again in a river of red.

This doesn't feel like the healing I have heard others describe. It is a rawer, darker gift.

I feel tendrils of it reaching for Duncan, prepared to inflict what he so richly deserves for stealing my only remaining family from me. He takes a step back, as though somehow he thinks he stands a chance of escaping me. Escaping my power.

Tilting my head back to the sky, I cannot contain it any longer. There was something inside me that wouldn't stop until the whole world was blood.

I opened my mouth and screamed.