Nothing frightened me more than the burning scarlet eyes that belonged to the Seekers. The moment the spell was released, a strange ripple of the air around us stretched out for several hundred metres radius. I could feel it extend, cover as much land as possible.
I could feel the power continuously flowing through Katherine’s fingers linked with mine, filling me with a growing energy that didn’t seem to stop.
“Now!” I heard Rosemarie shout triumphantly at the top of her lungs.
Every Seeker in sight lay on the ground, their furious red eyes glaring at us from where they lay, frozen and paralysed by the code.
“It’s not going to hold for long!” I wheezed, feeling the code start to weaken when I let go of Katherine’s hand and charged forward, igniting my fists.
“Then we get to them before they can get to us!” Jocelyn shouted scrambling forward.
The unmistakable cries of the Specialists behind us erupted through the air as they slashed at our predators who lay useless and snarling. Half-bloods or not, they had been awakened and there was no turning back. I only hoped it wouldn’t be the same case with Tucker.
With the dagger in one hand and a crew of Specialists keeping an eye on me, I slashed deep into the chest of a Seeker at my feet. The life left their eyes almost instantaneously and for a moment, they looked harmlessly human. I tried not to even consider if they were half-bloods or not. The fact that I may have killed a human – or something that once was one was too horrific. Adrenaline numbed these thoughts and urged me forward.
From the corner of my eye, four fleeing figures branched out into different directions, a horde of Specialists tagging after them. They were getting into position, where the other hives were. I just hoped I got the one with Tucker.
Gradually, more movement started rousing in my vision. I turned and felt the blood drain from my cheeks at the sight of the Seekers stumbling to their feet. The code was weakening and before long, I’d be against them on my own. Everybody else was too busy trying to get to all of the Seekers before they got to us.
Clenching my fists, a sheet of orange formed beneath my feet and flew me upwards. Out in the distance, tiny specks all gathered together were positioned in four different places across Fairwyn. Jocelyn’s signature blonde head of hair and bright yellow colours gave her away. I caught her already halfway towards her assigned hive and section with a team of Chroma trailing hot on her heels. She’d be fine.
I threw my hands into the air and a web of orange forming a tracking code pulsed above me. Multiple rays of light shot out, pointing to five different areas of Seeker concentration. Where the Queens were bound to be located.
A shrill, high-pitched screech pierced the air and sent me to my knees on the platform. I held my hands up to my ears, urgently trying to block out the sound. My head felt like it was about to explode –
A burst of pure yellow light exploded in the air to my left, the shrill scream fading almost instantly. Jocelyn had done her part without a hitch. There were only four more left to go.
I anxiously searched the perimeter, looking for another burst of colour to jet into the sky when screams of pain erupted from beneath where I stood in the sky. Glancing down, I was horrified to find a swarm-like formation had gathered below, a lone figure in the centre as they encircled my team of Specialists. The only way I could help them was to kill the Queen but in doing that, I would risk Tucker’s life. I chewed on my lip, throwing wave after wave of exploding orange light but it was no use: they were heavily outnumbered. And the signal hadn’t gone off yet: where was Tucker?
As if on cue, another piercing scream burst through the air yet it was cut short unlike the first. I whipped around, momentarily distracted from the scene below and was relieved to find a brilliant jet of blue blow up in the air in the northern side of Fairwyn. That was Peter’s area. Like father, like daughter.
“Two more,” I muttered, lowering myself and swiped my arms to the side, releasing a large crackling ball of orange and released it at the Seekers below. Jocelyn nor her father had given the signal that they’d found Tucker. The Seekers were no doubt about to grow more ruthless and with three Queens still left to be killed, we had to be quick.
Faster than I’d expected, another shriek burst through the air, signalling the death of yet another Queen Seeker before a spurt of red spiralled through the air stylishly: Rosemarie’s signal.
I frowned, wondering when Katherine’s would come up. Please hurry, I thought nervously. Come on Katherine –
My brow creased and all of my thoughts trailed off at the sudden silence washing over the Council Hall area I hovered above. There was not a single sound, no sound of protests, pain or even a wretched Seeker’s wail.
I averted my gaze below, eyes widening as far as they possibly could.
A lone figure – undoubtedly the Queen – stepped forward. Her piercing red eyes glared up at me from a hundred metres below where the team of Chroma had been captured; three Seekers to one.
“Chroma, you come down here and give me the information that may spare their lives,” she shouted in a booming voice which reached my ears with ease.
From my right, a brilliant jet of white twirled through the air, signalling Katherine’s success – but no other indication of having found Tucker. Trusting that the others had searched thoroughly, this left only one possibility: this was Tucker’s Queen. Now the bane of my existence.
I placed the dagger into my pocket and tucked my tunic over top. Slowly, I came down and cautiously put up walls to separate myself from the Seekers as I stood face to face with the Queen.
Unlike the other Seekers who took on humanoid forms, the Queen was much taller, much slimmer and much fiercer. Rugged. Ancient. She reminded me of a starving, carnivorous animal. Her red eyes were bigger than most and her features were perfectly symmetrical. There was not a flaw on her skin nor her face but everything about her screamed danger and bloodshed.
“Tell me where I can find the reader of the ancient language.” Her voice rang out clearly, a sense of power leaking through her tone.
“Let them go,” I growled, igniting my hands again and held them up defensively. “And I will spare you.”
She barked out a laugh and narrowed her red eyes at me. “You think you can defeat a Seeker who has been around since the creation of the first Queen?”
I pressed my lips into a grim line then nodded curtly. “Yes, in fact I’m willing to bet on it.” Be careful Lex. She might just hold Tucker’s life in her hands.
“You are no threat,” she seethed. “Tell me where the reader of the ancient language is and I will spare this town.”
Growls and hisses reverberated throughout the crowd of Seekers fanned out behind her while the captured Chroma gave me urgent looks, begging to be released from the faces of death.
“What do you mean ‘reader of the ancient language’?” I questioned slowly, lowering my hands but kept my guard up, prepared to use any code necessary. But I was more itching to ask about Tucker. If he wasn’t found with the other hives then why couldn’t I see him here?
“The only Chroma in existence who is able to read the Latin language,” she replied coolly, her long fingers curling into fists. “Give me the name and I give you my word the town will be left unharmed.”
“It’s too late for that,” I snarled. “You’ve already killed our townspeople.”
“Not my doing – my sisters,” she shot back, her thin lips curling back in annoyance. “You are wearing my patience, Chroma.”
Realisation washed through me as I deciphered exactly who she was looking for: someone able to read Latin without any translations, someone who could read the ancient books and Latin commands without a hitch. I had a feeling she’d tried the Keepers already – they were the only others that had studied the ancient powers of our kind, the ones that had learned Latin over the years. But while they needed time to learn and study it, the Queen wanted someone more capable than the Keepers.
That someone was me.
With my eyes widening in shock, I took a step back and bit my lip, earning a frustrated look from the Queen.
“You know,” she snarled, taking a long stride forward and walked through my barrier as though it were mere air, completely unaffected by the strong power I was pushing into it. “Tell me –”
“You need me!” I blurted out, clenching my fists tighter and licked my dry lips. “I’m the one you want, not them. Let them go and I will do what you want.”
The Queen narrowed her eyes at me, a ferocious glare in her glowing red irises. “Would you dare to lie to me, Chroma?”
“No,” I said hastily and shook my head. “I’ve been working with the Keepers for several months, deciphering codes and spells –”
Her hand shot forward and cut off my air supply, lifting me off the ground by my throat. I choked on nothing, scrabbling at her leathery skin and watched the black spots dancing across the edges of my vision.
“If you are wrong,” she hissed, squeezing her bony fingers into my throat. She prolonged her words and the lack of oxygen sent alarms through my body, causing it to writhe. “Then your entire town will pay for your lie.” She released me, dropping me in a heap on the ground.
My hands instantly massaged my stinging neck, tears welling in my eyes as I stared up at her through blurry vision. “Done.”
She lifted me to my feet with a yank of my arm and threw me to a pair of Seekers who immediately latched onto my arms, snarling in my ear. “Take her inside.”
I twisted my head around and glanced at the Fairwyn Library where her finger pointed at and felt my stomach lurch. Would I even be able to get out by all these Seekers surrounding the place? Would I even live to see sunlight again? And what exactly did the Queen need me for?
The enormous library doors shut behind me once the feral woman entered. The entire space normally filled with tall bookshelves had been cleared to the side, the books miraculously still intact and resting on the wooden ledges.
“What do you want with me?” I hissed, trying to yank myself out of my captors’ grip but to no avail. They clung on like vices.
“You will read the ancient scripture written by my creators,” the Queen replied in a monotone and seemed to glide across the room, resting in the centre under the dull lights scattered across the vast ceiling. She turned to one of the Seekers protectively surrounding her and leaned down, long stick-like legs beckoning elegantly. “Bring in the others and the scroll.”
Fear began stabbing my chest as I squirmed in captivity, uncomfortable with the proximity between me and my captors.
“If you cannot read the prophecy, your entire kin shall die for your mistake,” she told me smoothly, tucking her hands behind her back and kept them there.
I waited and stilled, trying not to move too much to ignore the Seekers holding me until seven struggling figures stumbled down the wooden staircase and into the library.
“Alexi!” Stefan gasped in shock, a pained look on his face when his captor hissed and tightened their grip on his wrists.
“Mr Calloway?” I couldn’t hide the shock in my own voice. “You’re all still alive!”
“Don’t screw this up, girl,” Landon snarled to me as his Seeker snapped the old man’s head back roughly.
“They were unable to read it and they are the readers of the ancient codes,” the Queen spoke in an infuriated tone. She turned to me, red eyes piercing my brown ones and forced me to shudder at the anger burning through her eyes. “Read the prophecy correctly, otherwise –”
“Where’s Tucker?” I blurted out, cutting her off immediately. “Where is he?” As much as I wanted to save the town, I needed to know. I needed to see him – before I killed her. What if two days ago was the last time I’d ever see him again?
The Queen’s bushy black eyebrows lifted in annoyance. She sighed, turning to one of her subjects and whispered something that just sounded like a bunch of hissing tome. In less than a second, a familiar blonde figure with blazing red eyes came into view, right beside the Queen Seeker herself. How I could have missed his familiar face, I wasn’t sure. “My second worker whom I sent to weaken your barriers.”
My brow creased as I registered her words. “Second? You mean he’s not the first?”
“You have not figured it out, the Keepers have not figured it out,” she snapped. “Terrance, reveal yourself.”
A choked gasp forced itself through my lips when a figure dropped from the ceiling, red eyes narrowed at me viciously. They widened in shock, almost as if they had realised who I was. It was the first time I’d ever seen a Seeker with a shred of humanity in their eyes.
“Terrance!” I exclaimed in horror. “You – you’re the first Seeker she sent?”
“Tucker here had no idea – Terrance was sending me all the information I needed,” the Queen spoke coolly. “He told me of a Chroma with the ability to read the ancient language effortlessly.”
“Sage,” Terrance whispered. It was unlike a Seeker to show emotion other than rage, hunger and the lust for the power that ran deep in our veins. He whipped around to face his Queen. “You promised to keep Sage safe. Only her.” A gasp of surprise resounded from the Keepers and myself at Terrance’s shocking statement. But I found my eyes drawing back to Tucker instead.
“You forgot to mention she was the reader,” the Queen snarled cruelly. “Give her the prophecy.”
Terrance whirled around to give me a pleading look yet his glowing red eyes made me flinch back. “Sage, don’t –”
The Queen only needed to brush him with a long arm for Terrance to fly back as though he had been hit by a truck. “You do not fraternize with prey.”
I shot the Queen a look, narrowing my eyes at her. My gaze strayed to Tucker who looked to me with a burning hunger in his eyes; the hunger to rip open my heart and drain my powers. No remorse at all. “I’m willing to negotiate. You have the reader of the ancient language in front of you but considering I’m the only one in existence –” Maybe she wouldn’t see past my bluff. “– I am in a rightful position to bargain. I can kill myself and you’ll never get another reader again.” Another bluff. I kept my expression firm.
Her red eyes narrowed to slits but they looked more bored than intimidated. “Talk, Chroma.”
“I will read your stupid prophecy on several conditions,” I said slowly, careful of the words I was about to use. “The rest of the town, the Keepers and Tucker and Terrance included will remain untouched and safe once you leave the town of Fairwyn forever.”
I glanced at Tucker whose expression remained unchanged, still burning with desire to kill me. I had to remind myself miserably that it wasn’t Tucker; that my boyfriend was still in there somewhere. Inside the monster.
“Alexi!” Stefan shouted in horror. “Rosemarie will –”
“Done.” The Queen held out her leathery hand and inclined her head to her subject who instantly let go of me.
I rubbed my wrists, feeling a bruise starting to form. With trembling hands, I reached out and the Queen grasped mine tightly. I had made a deal with a woman who had complete control over Tucker’s body. I shuddered at the tough surface of her skin and the strength behind her grip. When I glanced at Tucker, I felt my stomach lurch nauseously. My heart ached to be near him again, to hear him talk to me with reassuring, kind words.
“Now give me the prophecy.”
A moment later, a scroll of parchment lay in my hands and when the Queen gave out an impatient snarl, I opened it up gingerly, kneeling on the floor with my hands ablaze with orange. I had a feeling my powers might be of use.
“Alexi, don’t do it!” I heard Jillian call out, her voice suddenly muffled as soon as the words left her lips.
“I’m sorry – the deal’s been made,” I whispered, trailing my finger along the ancient words inked in cursive handwriting.
Already the words had started deciphering in my mind and the prophecy had left my lips before I could stop myself.
“When Seekers and Chroma turn predator and prey,
Reader of the old language is born and pays,
The price in which both races must make,
In order to save a future at stake.
Darkness arises and the three are summoned,
To destroy the gift that has strengthened and weakened,
Predator and prey shall be no more
Seeker and Chroma is no more.”
The room felt oddly silent except for my own heavy breathing and the thrumming pulse in my ears. My fingers started to tingle strangely and my mind started to reel, taking in this prophecy word by word. My bluff hadn’t been a bluff at all; there was only one reader of this language, the scripts of our ancestors. Oh crap.
“So you weren’t lying,” the Queen mused thoughtfully, sitting cross-legged across from me, the piece of parchment being the only thing separating us. “This prophecy is significant for my kind but yours as well. Since you are the reader of the ancient language, you play a part in this prophecy, Chroma.”
I felt my eyebrows shoot up in disbelief. “No, it’s not –”
“Seize her!” she demanded at the top of her lungs when I heard Jillian and Stefan yelp loudly over the sudden hiss of Seekers.
Hands and fingers roughly pulled and tugged at me as I squirmed and thrashed around, frantically trying to escape their grasp but to no avail.
In less than a second, my limbs were pinned to the ground by four Seekers and their cursed strength. I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to pull my arms and legs from their grasp but nothing would work. I was done for.
“I gave you my word,” she snarled, taking a bony dagger from one of her surrounding Seekers which included Tucker. Oh Tucker. “But I never gave my word to keep you safe, dear Chroma.” I know. She ran a leathery finger along the blade of the strange shaped dagger and glanced down at me with a cruel smile. It made me sick, knowing she held a piece of her own bones in her hands. “Even if the creation of my race wasn’t to last, I do not wish to die. If you die, the Seekers will live on forever. We can feed off Chroma until the end of time and I will no longer have anything to fear.”
I screamed again, my throat already starting to grow raw as I turned to Tucker and let the tears leak from my eyes. “Tucker! Tucker, darn it you listen to me!”
“You can’t break a hive’s bond,” the Queen sneered, leaning towering over me while continuously stroking the dagger lovingly. “He can’t hear you.”
“Tucker!” I shrieked. “Look at my finger – look at my ring! I’ve worn it all this time to remember you! Tucker, remember everything that we’ve been through together and fight for me. You promised!”
My heart clenched and my breathing roughened as the panic and fear settled in my chest. The fear only heightened when I caught Tucker’s expression, still unchanged and hungry.
“Tucker,” I whispered with a broken heart, my pulse seemingly increasing in volume in my ears as the Queen lifted the dagger with both hands, a malicious smile on her face. “I love you.”
It all happened too fast, too fast for me to even comprehend.
The last thing I had seen was the dagger plunging down with the brute force of the Queen Seeker, poised to stab my heart. I closed my eyes and listened to my heartbeat flutter and surge with every second –
A shriek of fury burst through the air and the weight lifted off my limbs in a flash. I snapped open my eyes and rolled out of the way, trembling with fear – but I was alive.
The Seekers had formed protective rings around their Queen while one figure remained separated from them, still crouched in the same pose but he was facing his own kind.
Tucker.
“How dare you go against your Queen?” she bellowed, a shriek of rage emitted through her thin lips. Her red eyes snapped to me, her forked tongue running along her lips hungrily. “You’re mine.” The Seekers parted automatically and the Queen leaped forward with incredible speed, my eyes widening as I begged my body to move.
I felt the breath being knocked out of me as I was tackled to the ground, my heart threatening to burst from my chest.
“Tucker!” I gasped in surprise, scrambling to my feet just as the Queen barrelled out the doors of the Fairwyn Library.
The Seekers let out a wail of despair for their injured Queen and came pouring out of the Library, siding with their leader outside the Council Hall.
Relief, anger, hope and love surged through my veins as I clung onto Tucker’s chest and felt the tears well in my eyes.
“You’re back,” I cried out, wishing we had more time to stop and relish the fact that he hadn’t let the Queen kill me.
“Alexi!” Stefan’s deafening voice boomed through the library as the Keepers who’d broken away made a quick line in front of us, forming a Protection code and shouting out the command. A burst of colourful light shone before their outstretched hands, knitting together a vibrant wall of pulsing energy. “Alexi, get the dagger out and kill her!”
“She’s not close enough!” I shouted, slipping the weapon from my pocket and clutched at the rugged hilt. My hands began to shake.
“Gah!” Tucker fell to his feet as a thunderous rumble burst through the vast room, courtesy of the Queen ramming into the shield. The vibrations shook my entire frame. He turned to me, one eye burning red and the other a piercing blue. “Do it, just stop this!”
I tore my gaze away from him, wiping the tears from my eyes and ran through everything I’d learnt, all the codes and the commands I could think of. I sniffed, flinching from yet another boom as the Queen slammed into the wall which barred her from the library and us.
Beyond her long form I could see her Seekers battling with an oncoming wave of Specialists and Chroma, all shooting their different coloured powers and attacks through the air. My friends, Peter and mother had come in the nick of time.
“Hurry up and think of something!” Landon yelled furiously, his hands glowing bright purple.
My fingers clenched the dagger, trembling and my hands ignited orange for what I thought would be my last time. I could – possibly would – die doing this but for Tucker’s and everybody else’s sake, I wouldn’t have wanted to die any other way.
As soon as the Queen threw her lithe body against the wall again, it shattered into a thousand colourful fragments. She let rip a raged shriek and charged towards me, quick on her feet.
I tucked an arm behind my back and conjured up a panel of orange right beneath my feet and felt the power buzz inside of me, prepared to launch me at the Queen.
“You’re mine!” she screeched, her red eyes burning with wild hunger.
As soon as she came within a six metre distance, I bent my legs and launched myself straight towards her, shortening the distance between us. The momentum of the orange board threw my forward like a bullet.
Time seemed to slow as our two bodily forms came close to colliding with each other. My Arm seemed painfully slow as it drew out from behind my back, pointing the blood-stained tip at the Queen. My predator.
In what should have taken less than a second seemed to drag on for all eternity. The dagger I held burned a blinding orange and thrust forward, sinking deep into her chest as though it were mere butter. Her red eyes were widening further and further as she slowly came to the realisation that my dagger had driven straight through her heart. Blue blood began to spurt across my hands.
I released every bit of energy I had left, every ounce of power I could feel filling up my entire body. Every single fibre of my body seemed to ache from the last of my energy I freed from my body and channelled through the dagger.
When her scarlet eyes met mine, her mouth fell slack but her vocal cords worked at its fullest.
The familiar shrieks from before were nothing compared to the deafening, shrill sound that exploded from her lips and right in my ears. The moment I could no longer keep my eyes open was the moment the two of us dropped to the ground, my hands still pulsing power through the dagger where it remained stuck in her heart.
Warm blue liquid poured across my whitened knuckles, momentarily nudging me from unconsciousness. The Queen’s lips had sealed shut after letting the last banshee scream signal her death. I felt time speed back up and suddenly I was rolled onto my back, barely able to keep my eyes open as a pair of concerned eyes stared down at me, wide and alert.
Rough hands shook me vigorously, lolling my head about while I groaned, feeling the blood of the Queen dry up fast on my knuckles. No more, I wanted to say. Too tired. No more.
“Tucker,” I rasped out, my eyes fluttering shut as familiar, comforting arms pulled me into a hug.
I didn’t think I had any more energy left but whatever I could muster up, I was grateful for. I was so sure killing the Queen had taken everything I had. How Jocelyn or Rosemarie were still standing, I hadn’t a clue. Had I tried too hard?
My hands limply found Tucker’s cheeks. His lips were moving too fast for me to read and I could no longer hear anything except my thundering pulse.
“You’re alive,” I whispered before I let go of his face and felt myself drop against the floor. Nothing but relief welled in my chest.
My head knocked into the velvety flooring of the library, darkness shooting across my entire vision and obscuring it in black.
No more. Too tired. No more.