29

  The light dimmed around the center of the ballroom. Everything outside the center was still bricks of solid gold reflecting in the light, while the center had a vague tone. Every scholar and royal eyes were on the eldest daughter Luna, and King Phizer as they took the ballroom by storm. Tension crept around every muscle twitch, slowly reaching for the invisible knife on each other's back.

  “I never took you as an etiquette dancer, child.” King Phizer seized. Luna didn’t hesitate but put her chin on her father’s shoulder in silence as they swayed. The orchestra on the other side of the room brushed its strings delicately, with the brass of the instrument swarming through the hall. The polished marble floors underneath them squeaked and rejoiced.

  Luna continued to sag her body, but her father continued to lift her. He kept their appearance from being stale. Many of the royals saw Luna’s dead expression. If the King commanded such a thing as her hand, he could have it. Amy and Damian were next to them, as their father gained their attention with a sickly cough.

  “I would like you all to listen closely to me,” Phizer called to them. All three of his children drew their gaze at him. “Do not fail as I did.”

  “Father, what nonsense do you speak of?” Damian laughed, seeing his father as a mirage of himself. “You told me never to cower or show mercy to this below us. Now you have a change of heart?”

  King Phizer angrily looked at his boy with conviction. “Watch your tone boy, for I am still the King. But maybe, not for much longer.” The King’s head shifted downward, as the sway fell to an almost complete stop. Panic crept behind the ears of both his daughters, as they searched his saddened gaze for an answer.

  The King struggled to find the words, continuously fumbling them in his hands. When they finally had been clenched in his arms, they stuffed his throat from the sheer torment of repeating them would be. “How can I tell them…?” His expression glared to his youngest daughter, Amy. A frown befell his face like a crescent moon.

  Finally, he drew a deep breath, his hands choking his daughters arms though they anchored him to speak clear enough. Luna ignored the sharp pain, as her attention lifted to her father. “There is a group, called the Specters.” Luna’s jaw tightened, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. Shock bore all over. “For generations, they have tormented our family. Wanting this realm for whatever reason. They have tried so hard to take it. Using me as a pawn.”

  Luna knew of the danger her father had been facing in secret. She searched all of the courts around them. Whether the eyes of the Specters or innocents remained unknown to her now. All she knew is her family faced a greater danger than she could ever know. Painful glares shot out of the crowd, seeing most of them just watching her every move. She turned back to her family, continuing their slow dance together.

  Though Amy and Damian were in the dark, they heard the name. Specters. Monsters among men. Diborn among men, intended on turning civilization into their own. The greatest threat of the Pale. The greatest threat of Eurafalia at their doorstep. It had been defended by their father for all this time. All three of the siblings astounded by their father’s patriarch stood in awe.

  “I know Leonidas is a Diborn. And I know they are coming for me now. They took your mothers all from me, yet, in fear, I narrated a story in fear. Until. Until, they threatened to take you all. Now, they have threatened to take my children if I open the borders.” Phizer grinned at the thought, hesitation. “But I cannot allow evil to take our land. Not again.”

  Time became a matter of essence. Luna didn’t flinch. Omar noticed Luna drawing her gaze to him, shaking her head. Confusion sat upon his face. She couldn’t let him read her mind, nor could she say it out loud. The flowing ounces of determination falling from the center of the ballroom became enough.

  Omar turned his head, shaking it to Magnus, Natasha, and his sister. Time is of the essence and they needed to leave now.

  The Diborn turned around heading to his friends and family. Pushing through the crowd, it became clear no one could be friend or enemy. To many details have been left out. The siege may have already been underway. Omar couldn’t blink, slowly moving through the crowd, until a cold hand brushed his shoulder.

  This touch a familiar one, graced, Omar. He turned swiftly and saw a betrayer. A Specter. A man who would live to tear the soul of another if it granted him the satisfaction. The reaper. Death’s assassin.

  “Surprised you didn’t put a knife in someone’s back on the way here.” Omar unapologetically, shrugged Shay’s hand off of him. “Or did you? I can’t see.”

  Shay dropped his shoulders. He sighed with an eye roll. “Omar…” He called his name as if they were long time friends. It rolled off his tongue with a passion that bore fruit.

  Omar shut him out. “No.” He calmly stated, while the ballroom cheered on the royal family. “We have no further business.” Battle lines were drawn between them. Half foot apart now felt like an eternity of darkness and hatred. “Keep your distance, for we know where we stand now.”

  “Omar.” Shay stopped with the soft speech. He talked normally to his long-time mate.

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  Omar snapped. “Shay, just get the fu – “

  Shay grabbed his arm. “Omar! Damnit listen.” Desperation surfed around his face. Omar saw the fear growing like a mountain around Shay.

  Shay showed his other hand, one covered by a piece of cloth with black writing. “Mr. Black. Our letters have been found. Leonidas read them all. He intends to find Elysium and destroy it. And now I, his pawn.”

  “Impossible. How?” Omar gasped.

  Shay couldn’t believe it still. He couldn’t lock eyes with Omar, as his head tilted to his side. Disappointment spread faster than Diborn’s rise in Halluburg. “He found our stash of letters at our base. He said prove my loyalty or else.” He muttered.

  Confusion dismembered Omar’s . “So what, you stab me? Now, apologize? Because you found yourself in a deep hole.”

  Ignorance is bliss. All over Omar he continued to ignore Shay’s plea. The Diborn rage many heard about, became a forerunner. Shay ignored him, turning to Luna. “No, I came to warn you. Get Luna. Get your people. Get the hell out of here now.” He pointed to the closing doors of the balcony.

  “Shay…” Omar hesitates. Realizing Shay is serious. “What is going on?”

  Omar turned his head to the doors closing. Leonidas and another man in all black steel armor shut the balcony and exits to the ballroom while the royal dance continued. He followed Leonidas’s every movement in the crowd across the other side of the room. “Omar, wait!” Shay warned Omar.

  The lush romantic melody paused, as Omar rushed to the other side of the dais. The uplifting beat that created warmth and joy on the inside silenced. The crowd and the King’s family paused assuming the dance concluded. The musicians slowly rubbed against their instrument’s strings, with a low aching ominous dissonance creeping behind the royal family.

  Silenced punctuated as the musicians changed. Three men wearing all black leather armor laughed playing the instruments. The other musicians were missing. All three men didn’t appear nothing like bards. An uneasy silence rose.

  “They’re here.” King Phizer froze.

  Omar hurried behind the dais, where the second betrayer met his gaze. His brother. Dante. Leonidas turned seeing the Diborn who once killed him, but now all three men were on equal playing fields. Dante held a swift dagger; the same one he stabbed Omar with in Halluburg. Dante smiled with confidence as he had already bested him.

  “Later.” Dante waved with the knife in hand.

  Omar screamed, catching the attention of everyone. “Dante!”

  “I’m too late.” King Phizer clenched Luna closer. He grabbed hold of Damian and Amy, as the crowd slowly spread with black onyx eyes within them. Stalking the family like predators waiting to kill prey out in the open.

  “Too late for what?” Damian demanded an answer. King Phizer couldn’t answer him. He watched the crowd in waves.

  The esteemed welcomed and invited guests moved slowly into an unsettling rhythm. Their graceful swirls and bows suddenly took a sharp edge. From the first glance, it seemed like the attention sat upon the royal family. The golden light all around the ball shifted into a consuming darkness. Each chandelier reflected a dark blue flame now. The raised goblets, polite conversations were over. This felt off, but unmistakably only the royal family and those from Belkos could notice.

  Small clusters of guests on the wall exchanged glances, all wearing the same black leather armor. Their expressions fleetingly more serious then the next. Before a signal whistle hung in the air, breaking into hollow smiles. The new orchastrea seemed unusually synchronized by stopping the music all at once. The wall clusters shifted into the crowd guided by the signal.

  Deliberate and calculated. This whole place now welcomed itself as dinner. The guests moved with a choreographed movement performed by hours of practice. “The Diborn have come.” Luna turned to her father in fear, but needed confirmation. He nodded. “Luna get your brother and sister here now. Dragni is after – “

  A noblewoman’s scream halted King Phizer. “Ahhhhh.” Her dress spewed with red wine.

  The scream sharp, but not forced at all. She responded with a second scream as the wine on her dress spread. It wasn’t wine. Eyes darted from behind her, with a hand reach from behind impaling her with a dagger. She screamed and shook wildly until she fell to the ground.

  “Oh, Omar!” Leonidas called out. He swung his great sword to Omar, who dodged it in a hurry. “Elysium is ours. You can’t have it.”

  Omar bit his tongue, holding Leonidas’s great sword. “I don’t have time for this shit.” He botted Leonidas in the chest, but the indominable object didn’t move. He caught Omar’s foot and swung him across several ball tables.

  Leonidas barked. “Then make time.”

  “Omar!” Luna screamed.

  The battering of dozens of tables were just the background music to the massacre. Fifty assassins slowly slashed through the crowd, cutting away everyone surrounding the royal family. Blood and guts spewed out of the observers. Esteemed guests who cried for the King, but he couldn’t do anything.

  The royal family noticed Leonidas having his sights set on Omar. Stepping on the heads of survivors and bashing their skulls in as he called for Omar. The vindictive monster Leonidas laughed as he winked at the King.

  “Oh, my gods! My husband. My husband!” A woman screamed. Footsteps came behind her, as Dante quickly slit her throat.

  “Are you not pleased?” Dante laughed holding his bloodied dagger. “Are you afraid? We Diborn evoke fear. You should.” The screams matched the height his voice rose to. “No hero is coming to save you all. It is time we take what is ours. We will rest no more. I am taking what is rightfully mine.”

  “Damian, take your sisters to Belkos.” King Phizer ordered. “Tell Mistress Hera to do what it takes to raise those wards,” King Phizer demanded with a confident grin.

  “Father,” Luna called for King Phizer. “I am King. Now go!” Phizer pulled out a sword from his belt buckle. A whip sword, that wrapped around the neck of an assassin, decapitating his head. “Omar!” The King shouted. “I trust you will save this realm now!”

  “I will sir.” Omar nodded, quickly rushing to Luna and her sibling's side. He hurried escorting them all out of danger.

  “Come now!” Magnus hurried them. “We have to go the dungeon now.” Maeve took Amy, Damian, and the others with her, quickly teleporting with a sigil portal. Natasha, Luna, and Omar joined Magnus, all bunched together.

  “My mother says this will take us to Gaia,” Omar warned. “Be ready, our gear is within the sigil.” Everyone nodded, as their escape was quick and crisp, without leaving a trace.

  “Go. Save our fallen world.” Phizer nodded. From behind, a man turned King Phizer, and with a brutal smile, Dante drove a dagger into his heart. “Dragni sends his regards.” The knife plunged deeply three times into King Phizer as he fell on his back. Dante stormed away. “We warned you, old man! Die like a mongrel…”