Iᴍᴘᴇʀɪᴜᴍ (Bᴏᴏᴋ 1) (editing)

Chapter 1- The Fall of Terra

Time stood still as his gasp of pain echoed throughout the room, his eyes slowly became lifeless as the Occidere dagger pierced his back and went into his heart.

But his focus was not on the pain. Not the cool of the metal mixed with the burning of the poisonous liquid that coated the dagger and seared his insides. No, his blue eyes stayed focused on the pain burning in his daughter's violet ones; he hoped that his killer didn't see her as well, his little witch. In his last moments, he looked to her, memorizing his daughter. Her eyes like her mother's, the calm of blue combined with the fierce vivacity of red. Her chestnut hair like her mother's in length and color; her heart-shaped face, with her mocha skin just like his but with the honey warmth of her mother's. The tiny freckles fell on her button nose and her dimples that dipped in her cheeks when she smiled. He watched as tears flooded down those round cheeks. As he felt the blood start to come up his throat, he closed his eyes, trying his best to concentrate as he pushed his final thoughts out to his daughter.

"Run."

The little princess heard her father's last thoughts; with hesitation, she began to back away, feeling the tears still rolling down her face. What she hadn't realized yet was she had just witnessed her father's murder. She didn't know that if she got caught, the killer would not hesitate to take her life as well. What she did know was she needed to get to her mother's room before someone found her.

"Evaneset," she whispered as she started to turn around. She disappeared with that simple word; she was invisible to anyone following her or waiting at the doors. She felt her heart beating hard in her chest as she navigated her way through the tunnels in the dark with the dimmed candles in the hall to her mother, her feet feeling the cool touch of the cobblestones sending chills up and down her spine. She turned down the hallway to the right and came up to the second wooden door to the left. She pushed her mother's door open once she reached it, and her mother jumped out of her chair, with a fireball already in her hand, when she saw no one there, ready to attack any threat.

"Videtur," the little girl said and appeared in front of her mother, "Mama, it's me!"

The queen sighed with relief, and the fireball disappeared, but she soon became worried once more when she noticed her daughter's shaking form and tear-stained face. "My love, what's wrong?" She knelt in front of the little girl rubbing her arms to try and soothe her.

The princess turned from her mother to push shut the door that she had come through and then let out a shaky breath as she faced her mother, "Mama, someone attacked Papa. We were in his room; Papa was reading to me before bedtime like he always does when there was a knock on the door. Papa told me to hide in the passageway because he wasn't expecting anyone so late. Lord Serpentine came into the room, and they were talking, then they started arguing. I was trying to listen, but they were whispering too low for me to hear. Then Lord Serpentine pulled out this scary-looking dagger when Papa had his back turned, and he stabbed it in his back, Mama! " She sobbed as she came to the end of her story.

The queen pulled her little princess to her chest as she recalled her daughter's words of what she saw. At the news of the King's murder, the queen's heart felt as though it was breaking at the thought. Her love was gone. Before she let her anger take hold of her, she pulled away, holding her daughter at arm's length as she spoke, "Are you certain, love, that it was indeed Lord Malum Serpentine that did this? It can be very dark in the room at night; it might have been hard to see."

The princess shook her head, her hair swinging back and forth, "No, I am certain, Mama. The candles were still lit by Papa's bedside and by his window. They lit the room. I saw Lord Serpentine."