VALKYRIE

Chapter 21: Juno's POV

"No..." I gasped.

The necklace.

It was...gone.

Just like that.

I stared at the pile of ashes at my feet.

Our only hope.

Our only option.

Our only chance.

It was incinerated, in a pile of ashes. We had nothing now. Nothing at all. We were hopeless without it. This was it. The end.

We were going to die. This was where we were going to meet our end. In a dark palace full of people evil and rotten to the core. My mind flooded with images.

The Dark Leader had taken over all of the realms. He had made his own personal realm for the prisoners. Millions of people were either dead or kidnapped. I shook my head, overcome with rage and emotion.

The Dark Leader stood for a moment, both taken aback and triumphant. My eyes widened as his mouth slowly curved into a smile  that grew wider and wider, until he just threw his head back and laughed loudly, a sound like nails on a chalkboard.

Eric glanced over at me, clearly terrified. I took a small breath, more like a gasp, as the Dark Leader turned to us. Eric was taking deep breaths next to me, lifting his chin up and down slowly.

My chest tightened as I thought of the way the Dark Leader had mercilessly killed my mother, without even stopping to think about the consequences or problems he would cause. But then again, that was how the evil, awful Dark Leader did everything.

The Light Leader was standing defiantly, refusing to look or act threatened.

"See? You are no match for me and my extraordinary power. Give up now, and I might spare your tiny, insignificant, miserable lives," the Dark Leader boasted, putting unnecessary emphasis on the miserable part. I lifted my chin up a bit, trying not to show any fear.

I stood myself up much straighter and willed myself to look directly into the Dark Leader's monstrous eyes.

"We will never back down. You can try all you want, but you will never break us. We may have been broken by you too many times, but you cannot keep breaking something that's already broken. You will never win," the Light Leader said, clenching her teeth in protest, slightly squinting and glaring in the process.

The Dark Leader's amused expression turned into a glare. If looks could kill, each one of the three of us standing here would have been absolutely slaughtered by the way the Dark Leader was shooting daggers at us through his eyes.

I could feel the intensity of his gaze, and I mean that I could literally feel his eyes burning into each one of us. Eric breathed in beside me, then swallowed and let it out. A group of eight Dark Soldiers burst into the room, obviously trying to tell their evil Leader something.

"The Valkyries! They've come! They're attacking the castle!" One of the soldiers wheezed breathlessly, tired from the run. The other soldiers looked around nervously, terrified of what the Dark Leader was going to do to them. The Dark Leader roared and screamed with absolute rage on his voice and in his eyes.

He slashed his hand left. The soldier that had just spoken crumpled to the ground, and slowly vanished into oblivion. Black smoke poured into the already murky air.

He flicked his hand right, and two more disappeared. Then he raised both of his hands, and the remaining soldiers tried to bolt. As if in slow motion, the Dark Leader brought his hand down.