The Raven Flame [The Crown Saga III] (First Draft)

Deceiving Realities

Air was knocked from my lungs when the ruthless ground broke my plummeting fall.

Pain weaved a web of paralyzing tension around my limbs as the sinking slope sent me tumbling across the uneven terrain. Each blow to my bones made a scream more painful than the last lodge in my twisting throat. By the time I finally stopped rolling, my skin was so tender and bruised even the light breeze sweeping over me felt like knives, but I wasn't dead.

A grunt was all my depleted lungs could muster. I couldn't even tell if the empty darkness in front of me was a result of my closed eyes or the illusionist.

Because that was the only viable explanation as to why that fall hadn't ended me in less than an instant—the Illusionist. I just couldn't figure out how the illusionist could so skillfully manipulate not only what I saw but what I felt, what I heard, and what I smelled.

"Willow?"

I flung my eyes open, and misted moonlight chased the shadows away. Grass cradled my body, its leaves teasing my brow and nose as I strained to lift my cheek from the dew-coated ground.

"P-Piper," I whispered, my voice breaking. Spirits, it hurt to twist my neck like that.

"Willow."

There she was.

Her blond—almost ashen hair—shone in the moonlight as she stepped through the weeping branches of the willow trees bordering the rippling swamp behind her.

Tears of relief burned the corners of my eyes at the sight of her. "Piper," I muttered past a strangled cry as I pushed myself onto my elbows. "I'm so glad to see—"

"Do you know where we are?" Piper suddenly said, looking over her shoulder to sweep her shadowed gaze across the waters.

My heart clenched at the sound of her voice, acid threatening to work its way up my throat. She sounded like Piper, but not really. Her voice was dark and distorted, as if shadows had infested her heart, and the salty sea corroded her vocal cords.

"A swamp, not far from my home," Piper continued, not caring to wait for my answer. "I used to spend so much time here, whispering my dreams to the winds and hoping they'd carry them to charitable spirits. To think that they almost came true...."

Dread slithered down my aching spine as Piper turned her gaze back to me, her usually kind eyes filled with so much hate they nearly glowed.

"For years, I worked so hard my limbs begged for mercy every night, my eyes aching in desperate lack of sleep, but I never gave up. I carried on until they finally noticed me—until my name ranked among the twenty-four suitors."

The glint in her eyes turned bitter as she squinted them at me. "Then you came along and ruined everything the twenty-four of us had dedicated our lives to achieve. You stole what was rightfully ours."

"P-Piper," I stammered, crawling back when she stepped closer. "W-what are you saying?"

"You took him from me, Willow!" Piper shouted. Water sloshed behind her as if answering to her anger. She was going to attack me.

"Piper!" I shouted when the sloshing became waves crashing against the shore. "Why are you acting this way? I thought you—"

"I had him, Will! He was mine!" she shouted, her face contorted in a harrowing expression of fury. "And you took him from me!"

"Who?"

"Atlas!"

My stomach dropped, my breath lodging in my throat as Piper raised her hands and commanded the swamp to attack.