"You're—a-as—du-umb—as—h-hell—" Ravenna rasped as she collapsed on the floor from the blow the warrior struck moments before. "S-stupider—th-han—a—st-tick—"

The warrior-dude snarled as he raised his metal-tipped whip back above his head. He twirled the rope in the air, gaining momentum slowly.

"A-and—so—ug-gly—that-t—hor-ses—b-barf—w-when—they—me-et—y-you—" Ravenna stuttered as she took deep breaths—in through her nose, and out through her mouth. She gritted her teeth as she shifted on her side, the torn muscles through her abdomen screaming in pain.

"You'll regret saying that you brat," the warrior spat as he finally brought the whip down on her chest, but she twisted so suddenly she screamed in pain from both the whip slashing down her arm and the agonizing twist of her skin over her stomach.

"S-so—stup-pid—" she laughed hoarsely as she tried to get up. The warriors had removed her chains almost instantaneously, though leaving the black, magic-repelling goop stinking all over her.

She twisted her neck to see Mara writhing on the floor after being electrocuted by a high-voltage tazer. Daeva was crawling towards her but was immediately struck down by a sword, aiming to chop off a limb, but only cutting her finger.

"Y-your—comra-des—don't—s-seem—so—s-mart—e-either—y-you—dumbass—" Ravenna retorted. She grinned slightly seeing the warrior's eyes narrow in anger. She slumped more on the ground waiting for the next blow.

"You little bitc—" the warrior screamed as he brought out a dagger and slammed it into her leg. It struck bone and Ravenna screamed. She didn't stop screaming until her tears of pain choked off the ear-splitting sound.

She bit her arm to take away the burn of the pain, but without someone removing the dagger from her right leg, the pain wouldn't go away.

She clenched her fist and screamed loudly enough for the warrior to stumble back, long enough for her to clench her bloody fist around the dagger's hilt and yank the dagger out of her leg.

Her scream tripled in volume as she used her arm to pull her thighs to her chest, curling up into a little ball.

A bellow of outrage slipped by her ears as everything became muted against the pain of her leg. She was too scared to look anywhere besides the rocky walls with the chains hanging off them.

She felt someone turn her onto her back and she sobbed as the warrior made her lie flat on the ground. She felt something tear in her stomach. Shoot. She neutralized her expression and glanced up at him unimpressed as she watched his eyes glaze with anger.

And hatred, she noted with some sort of psychotic, smug emotion.

The warrior breathed heavily, "I'll start with your feet and crush my way up to your head and I shall enjoy watching you die."

Ravenna knew she needed to keep up her facade so she shrugged and used up the rest of her self-control by trying to lie still.

She tilted her head slightly to her right to see Daeva kneeling as she took in each blow of the whip. Mara was heavily cursing the warrior's very existence.

"I hate you," Ravenna said as evenly as she could. She plastered a smug smile on her face and the warrior's face contorted in anger. She was preparing for something to come flying at her head, but someone slammed the door to the "dungeon" open.

Amax strutted into the room and grinned at the bloody mess around the once-pristine room.

"Are you ready to talk now?" Amax asked, clearly in a better mood as he watched one of his warriors finish off a disemboweling blow to Daeva's stomach.

Mara snarled in annoyance, "The only talking here is you when you explain what the hell all of this is about."

Amax chuckled, "You still haven't figured it out?"

"I swear on your fat mother that when you're old and—" Mara started. Daeva shook her head subtly.

"No, of course not with your warriors whipping us every few minutes," Daeva shot as she grasped her arm to staunch the flow of blood.

Amax circled the room once and noted the blood around him. He kicked Ravenna in her wounded leg and she had to bite her arm hard enough to draw blood to keep from screaming.

"I could tell you, but I would have to throw you in a fire after," Amax said joyfully. He gleefully dismissed the warriors back to the weapons rack as he surveyed the damage on Daeva and Mara. Ravenna caught the flinch Daeva gave as she turned her eyes downcast.

"Do you think I could sell you off for compensation for your capture to the French Queen?" Amax asked. 

"Flipping barf potato," Ravenna muttered to herself as Amax made another round of inspections. He checked the posture of several of his soldiers and sent two away to do morning chores.

She absolutely hated his nonchalance. 

"Then burn us. Why did you capture us?" Daeva asked, her hands grasping for purchase on the smooth tiled floor. She panted heavily and didn't look at anyone.

Amax watched her for a long time with something like regret in his expression. He shook himself out of his daze and grinned with pure malice. "I would enjoy that."

He cleared his throat, "You two are criminals. Easy enough to understand? Ravenna is a major illegal factor. So she must be killed."

"How is Ravenna involved in all of this? She's just a girl," Mara spat, she tried getting Daeva to look up but Daeva ignored them all. She seemed like she was in her own world.

"A powerful weapon," Amax corrected. He spared another glance at Daeva but this time, his lip curled in disgust.

"You look here, young mister. You leave us all out of your government shi—" Mara was cut off when Amax clamped a hand over her mouth.

"You better watch what you say. This response could lead to life or death," Amax warned as he let go of Mara roughly. "I don't particularly care about you two, but answer these two questions, or you get it."

Mara nodded stiffly.

"Where is the Queen's Crown?" Amax asked. Mara froze and turned white with shock and fear. Daeva's head shot up, her bleak eyes wide.

"We sold it," Mara said dully. Amax spluttered and his eyes lit up with rage and hatred, stronger than before. He stomped around the room throwing a mini tantrum. He yelled his frustration and turned blazing eyes back to Mara.

"What do you mean you 'sold it'?" Amax hissed.

"It means we pawned off the tacky thing for the farm," Mara snapped, faking impatience. Ravenna watched the exchange with wide eyes. She reached a trembling hand for her throat.

"You WHAT?" Amax screamed. "That tacky thing was a weapon—OF MASS DESTRUCTION. Who did you sell it to? Do you know what you did?"

"Clearly we did you a favor," Daeva muttered.

"WHAT?!" Amax screeched. "'Did me a favor?"

"Now, you get to have an adventure finding the crown!" Mara said, over-cheerfully dull. She rolled her eyes and turned her back to Amax.

"So, you're telling me you pawned off the most important artifact in history for a pathetic farm?" Amax spewed. Mara and Daeva gave him matching smirks as they crossed their arms in defiance.

"How about we discuss the terrible treatment from your guards? Hm? The service here is freaking terrible, and let's not even mention—" Mara was cut off by an unearthly scream coming out of Amax.

He twirled and took a heavy ax off the wall and ran outright for Mara. Without pausing, he slid past Mara and smoothly swung the ax toward's Mara's neck. His arm pushed the ax forward and he let go, letting the weapon spin towards Mara, the iron tip aimed at her neck.

Mara realized what he was doing too late. The ax hit her neck and she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Daeva screamed and fought against her pain to get to Mara. 

The ax toppled from her neck and fell on top of Mara's delicate body, dripping blood. Her body was twisted in an awkward angle, and with the ax atop her body, she looked like a dead damsel. Dead—Ravenna choked back a sob of grief.

Amax was breathing heavily, his arm still outstretched toward Mara. He stalked over to her body and lifted his clean, black, polished boot and stomped on her face, making more of a mess.

Daeva gaped at her wife lying dead on the ground and slowly lifted rage-filled eyes towards Amax. She drew a line on her neck, promising a torturous death as she screamed a battle cry, reaching for a mace on the ground.

Before she moved an inch, the warriors leaning against the wall grinning like cats realized the danger their master was in and threw every weapon on the rack towards Daeva.

Like the setting in the room was switched, the assortment of weapons flew towards Daeva's raging body. The impact was brutal and when Daeva collapsed, utterly dead with so many weapons protruding from her beautiful self, Ravenna felt something stir in her blood.

Amax was still livid, but he straightened up. "Good, they're taken care of. Personally, their deaths were the highlight of my day. Now, let's continue with our interrogation."

Ravenna let out a strangled sob as she saw through newly cleared eyes the picture of both her parents leaking blood on the floor, only five feet away. I didn't save them. I could have done something and got off my lazy, useless butt and helped save them. I could have—

Her hand fisted. Don't relent. Don't give in. Don't back down. Keep fighting.

The words became a chant in her head as she slowly got up, her stars stark against her pale skin. She shakily stepped out of the pile of black goop on the floor and watched the warriors' gulp.

Her eyes burned with unshed tears. Her body was on fire and there was so much . . . power.

She felt her blood go still in her body and run slower. Like some invisible tether on her was cut, she felt raw magic coarse through her body. She felt powerful—no, she was power.

Hot tears continued to streak down her bloodied face as she raised her hand toward the line of warriors. They realized the danger and they ran in several different directions and unsheathed their many weapons, all aimed towards her heart.

The nearest warriors didn't even swing their weapons before they were incinerated in a heavy blast of purple flames.

Amax slowly backed away, towards the door. She aimed her outstretched hand at him, but she felt more than saw two warriors sneaking up towards her with an old-fashioned bullet gun.

She swung her curled fingers towards them and she watched them melt into nothing through her peripheral vision. 

She felt new, so strong.

With that newfound power, she erupted in a flaming ball of purple. She screamed in pain as the fire surrounding her pulsed with electricity and took out three soldiers. She fell to her knees at the moment the fire consuming her exploded and took out the remaining warriors. Unfortunately, Amax had already sneaked out of the room. She wanted him dead, and that primordial need brought her back to her feet, her eyes shining with unnatural fury.

Her body was no longer hers. God, said a mighty force inside her head.

The single word shocked her from her raging and her eyes returned to their dull purple.

She glanced around the room, assessing the melting walls and dead bodies littering the ground—or what was left of them.

She slowly walked towards the couple—her parents, only a few feet apart even in death. Their eyes were half-open and worry-lines mostly smoothed out.

She sniffed and took her moms' hands in her own as they slowly began to burn. But this wasn't the raging hell she wanted to bring upon Amax, but a release from this life, a pathway to the next. A way to the heavens.

She watched their ashes float up into the air and out the door. Always together, finding their way out.

When the last of the ashes were out of the door, it felt as if her parents had finally left her. She was truly alone now. With that realization, Ravenna dropped to her knees and bowed her head. Her hand gripped the silver pendant tucked under her shirt and silent tears began sliding down her face.

Alone.

She swiped a hand against her cheek and stood up on wobbling knees. Her chest heaved with unshed sobs but she stifled the urge to cry.

Alone forever, darling. Her mind was stolen from her with that very transmission of thought. Her hand moved out from its own accord and she aimed her clawed fist at the ceiling and it collapsed around her.

The rubble completely avoided her as she threw out her other hand to slam up a shield against the onslaught of rock.

Her feet began rising off the floor the second the dust cleared. She drifted up as her hands settled back to her side. When she reached a solid fifty feet above the cracked ceiling of an . . . was that an outhouse?

The separate white building was outside of a large mansion set on top of a cliff overlooking the coastline.

Are you serious? 

Ravenna rolled her eyes, but once again, her hand drifted down out of her own control and curled into a half fist, with her finger dangling loosely. Ravenna watched as power rushed from her core to her arm and out of her palm.

The dazzling purple flames hit the white concrete ceiling and the entire dungeon—outhouse, whatever—exploded into crumbling bits of stone.

She raised her shield again and there was a faint tinkling sound from where the debris hit the protective bubble.

She looked down again and found the land where the horrific white building used to be in transformed into a large sand-blasted ditch.

With no small amount of satisfaction—even if it wasn't her own doing—she saw that the edge of the huge mansion was charred black from the explosion nearby. Take that, you no good, lousy, nosy, and freakishly stupid mansion owners.

She stayed up there, half a hundred feet above the ground, hovering in the suddenly stilled air. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second, reveling in the sudden freedom.

When her eyes reopened, she looked toward the horizon—toward the setting sun and found two matching trails of black ashes dancing in a gust of wind. She watched the dark trails until the sun finally disappeared down the horizon and the black ash became invisible to her.

She tipped her head up to the sky and watched the stars—still shining bright despite what happened—and wished.

Heyy! How are you all? I am so happy if you've even read up to this part considering. the amount of times I've rewritten this and the extremely long chapter haha

I promise, the gory part is over, and the rest is just . . . um, well enjoy it! Hopefully you like the book because I have no idea how many times during the day I randomly get inspiration for a twist in the story or my Spanish teacher giving me ideas on how to expand my characters. (Don't ask, but he was yelling at the class about turning in our hw and being able to do it anywhere, even on campus (the school wifi sucks) and yeah. iDeAS lmao)

I swear I'll actually update this now weekly? Maybe bi-weekly? Depends on my hw schedule though XD

Well, just expect updates! (And I'm totally not starting a new book, but you might want to watch out for a book coming out soon O_O)

PACE!

<333

—azra