Legend | Celeste Academy Series BK #2

Chapter 40 ♕ The Finale Begins

"What? Where did you take me?" She glowered at Valeriana. "Take me back to Loquin!"

Valeriana rolled her eyes. "Sorry to break it to you but . . . this is Loquin."

"You are not saying . . ." A small squeak of regret and guilt trembled with her voice and her eyes widened considerably as she took in the sight. The sight of her previously glorious city—now in shambles . . . in ruins. "No! This is not Loquin . . ."

"I did not expect it to be this bad either. All it took was mere days, and your city destroyed itself."

It sent a hole through her heart. Dilapidated houses, shattered windows, crushed walls, and broken doors. The place was void of the liveliness and alacrity she once used to admire. The snow that used to sit on the rooftops now gone, the white pureness absent—leaving everything bland, dark, and grey. With no exaggeration, the city was in shambles.

Asthore was distraught.

"Loquin cannot live alone." Valeriana said. "Your declaration of the city's isolation cut off the flow of goods that supported your people. Preluresia's literally an ice-haven, so crops aren't able to grow—which basically means no food. Add in the constant changing of the weather."

It was all making sense.

"Everyone might have broken into other people's home in an attempt to find some food that could ease their hunger. The melted ice is stagnant from the lack of flow, so it might've made everyone sick." Valeriana's mind worked around the possibilities and the harsh reality. "Your citizens are dying."

"So I . . . because of my selfishness . . . I destroyed everything my father worked hard for. Why? Dear lords, why? I'm so foolish . . . so foolish . . . what should I do? Oh gods, what should I do?"

Valeriana looked down at the girl in pity, feeling bad for a mere teenager to be burdened with such thoughts of having to revive the city she herself destroyed. She must be having those chest-constricting, heavy feelings of disappointment and self-anger.

"I did all this . . . no wonder everyone . . ." She looked up at Valeriana, her icy-blue eyes filled with pain. "Kill me."

Or she was not thinking of reviving it at all—but dying herself?

Valeriana was filled with shock at the statement, but she made no hesitance to push Asthore off of Avaro for the second time in mild annoyance. Asthore herself was a bit taken aback. However, in contrast to the results the spoiled brat had been expecting, she landed on the ground with a loud thump—not harshly enough to break any bones in her body or to make her bleed but just enough for a bruise or two.

"O-ow . . ." She grumbled. The younger girl looked up at Valeriana as she and Corvan's familiar landed softly. "Why did you push me?"

Her clothes were now messy and she looked far from her groomed self.

"Because I can't kill you." The fifth-ranker answered her unhesitatingly. "You know, you seriously get on my nerves. You're such a spoiled brat! Even at the very end, you're so selfish you keep only on thinking of yourself!"

"I already said I deserve to die!" Asthore screamed.

"That's crap!" She exclaimed. "Dying is not enough to atone for the mistakes you committed. You think that's gonna make up for it?" She huffed and jumped off of Avaro. "Sure maybe the people will be happy you died but that doesn't mean it'll give them back what they lost."

"But I . . ." She balled her hands into fists and gripped her torn dress.

"You seriously think that's gonna solve anything?" Valeriana approached her and knelt in front of her, her expression hard and the look in her eyes unyielding. "If you ask me, death is such a lenient punishment for you."