Chapter eighteen

I am completely alone. Emmet is outside in the villages or something and Charlotte left. The Queen is dealing with some kind of war problem with the eastern kingdom and I wouldn't talk to her anyway Artanis went back into his daze.

So, that leaves me, alone, in my room for the rest of the day.

Blowing air out of my mouth, I throw a crumpled up piece of paper into the air. The paper comes falling to me and hits me on the head as I sit up when I hear a knock on my door.

Throwing the piece of paper off of me, I jump to the door. Opening it to who I hoped, was Emmet. Very much to my disappointment, it is Artanis.

"What do you want?" Artanis walks to me and pushes against the wall. Trying to push him off of me, he pushes hard on my forearms to keep me from leaving.

"The old kings are coming. Hazel, you need to leave. If you don't, the coming war will lead to your destruction." Pushing him away from me, he comes right back and pushes me against the wall again.

"Leave Hazel! You will destroy this realm if you stay. I saw it, Hazel." Artanis glances around the room.

"Where's Charlotte?" Scared by what he is saying, I point outside. "She left." He shakes his head and buries his hands in his hair.

"It is happening. it wasn't supposed to happen yet."

Artanis turns around to me, yelling, "IT WASN'T SUPPOSE TO HAPPEN! YOU NEED TO LEAVE! HAZEL, LEAVE! LEAVE-" He stops, looks at me, and walks out. Just like that, he is gone.

The sound of running footsteps sound. Emmet is in front of me and an elf with a white coat comes rushing in from behind him.

"Hazel? What happened? I need you to tell me!"

I ignore him and think about what Artanis said. He has to be joking. Artanis probably wasn't feeling well and started acting weird. That is all it is, nothing to worry about.

"It is fine he just said something about me getting killed and something that wasn't supposed to happen yet. He mentioned an old king too." Emmets face hardens and he pulls me up.

He stalks out of the room and makes his way to the council room, slamming the door open once he gets there. Following him, he slams his hands down on the table and closes his eyes, saying ina rough voice, "It is coming."

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My council stares at me. Then, it breaks out into a bunch of voices, there is yelling and shouting. Slamming my fist down, I stare at them.

"FOR GOD's SAKE! SHUT UP! I AM BEGGING YOU FROM THE DEEPEST BITS OF HELL!" Finally, they shut up.

"This is a. serious matter and yall are acting like fools. Compose yourselves!" The council looks down and the few that were standing up, lower themselves back into their chairs.

The head council leader clears his throat and nods. "The prince is right. Someone go and inform the queen, will you?" One of the younger council members nods and stands up.

Pointing back to Hazel, I call her forward. She comes to me hastily, stopping next to me. I bring my hand up and point at her, glaring at the council members and the guards in the room.

"Protect her at all costs. You understand me?" Everyone in the room nods.

There is a breath on my ear.

"Why do I need to be protected?" Waving her off, I turn to a guard and wave her over.

Whispering in her ear, she nods and makes her way to Hazel.

"Oh no. This is not happening again. You understand me?"

The guard grabs her arms and stars to pull the yelling Hazel away. Putting my head in my hands until they are gone, I turn to the council.

"We need to plan for what will be coming. The Eastern kingdom will be coming from the right and the old king from the South will be coming from straight ahead."

The council leader raises his hand. Nodding my head at him, he stands up.

"We still have to accompany for-"

"I know. And we will."

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The wind is cold against my face and every once and a while a branch scraps my arm, leaving a small cut.

Riding is one of my favorite things. I love it, especially when I am riding somewhere to end someone's life.

Getting to the old king is hard but, it's nothing I can't handle. You have to ride through a few rivers, go through snake and coyote invested hills and then you will see a giant black castle in the distance.

I have been to his castle once before when I was young. That was his first assassination attempt on my life. Emmet wasn't there at the time, it was just me and my mother. She died while I was in the human realm. We didn't have such a good relationship so it didn't hit me too hard but it still hurt I wasn't there when it happened.

Looking both ways before I start to go into the hills, I see no coyotes so I continue.

The trip through the hills was even more annoying than Hazel's grumpiness this morning. Snakes were everywhere and it felt like every minute I had a snake to kill. I was slashing my sword through heads, stabbing them in the snake's spine, sticking the snake to the ground.

Behind me, there are several snakeheads and a few whimpering coyotes. I didn't want to hurt the coyotes but they were going to hurt me and my deer.

The trip was successful though. Right over the next hill in the distance, the black castles waits for me.

I just have to get in without being killed on the spot.