Chapter Text
Only when the adrenaline has left my body did I finally feel the sharp pain that burned more with each passing second.
I screamed and clutched my bleeding eye. It shouldn’t bleed this much – It shouldn’t hurt this much. But some invisible force was tearing me apart – tearing my mind apart. My magic was going out of control. All I could hear was the sound of the howling wind as the sand whipped around me. I could see everything around me crumbling, turning into fine sand. My Unique Magic grew fiercer and out of control.
The assassin didn’t expect this.
He shrieked as he watched his arm disintegrate into sand. His eyes turned all big and white with fear as the blade clattered to the floor. He picked it up and lifted his other arm to try and cut the deterioration, but the magic won’t stop. Or rather I couldn’t stop. The pain and the fear burned in my head, and I couldn’t control it.
I could hear the darkness trying to swallow me. Howling and wailing as everything around me was being consumed.
Suddenly, an arm shot out through it all and grabbed me. I yelled and was about to attack the hand when I managed to see who it was through the blood.
“Leona!” He clutched my shoulders tightly and stared at me with an urgent but calm look. “Leona, everything is going to be okay!”
It was as if someone turned on a switch inside of me. I could hear again. I could think again. That thing that was trying to tear me apart from the inside out died. Taking a deep shaky breath, I relaxed and smothered the angry magic that swirled around us. The sandstorm was gone, and we were back in the room, or what was left of it.
The guards and even some of the servants stood a good distance away from the both of us. I could see the fear in their eyes.
“Help my brother!” He stumbled slightly as he got up to his feet and motioned for a healer to come. He had cuts and cracks on his skin as if someone turned his skin dry, and I knew I was the one who caused them.
Other hands came out to me – more hesitant and fearful. A rough cloth cleaned the blood from my eye before something calm and soothing was smeared across it. I tried to push away, but those hands had a firm hold on me.
“Falena!” The king, in his royal nightly robes, stormed into the crumbled room and immediately headed to my brother. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but Falena shrugged off the king’s hands and pointed in my direction. Only then did the king see me and the pool of dried blood at my feet.
“Leona, what happened? Are you okay?” he said, coming toward me. He started to cough horribly. His face was rather pallid, and there was a tremble in his hands. My eye was wrapped tightly with bandages, but he didn’t hesitate to push back my hair to inspect the injury. “Who did this to you?”
I could hear bits and pieces of the healer’s words as he tried to explain. “Some sort of ancient curse… Lucky it only nicked him… The eye would’ve turned blind.”
“How could this happen?” the king growled as soon as the healer finished his assessment. He turned to his guard with undeniable rage fit for his position. “What were you all doing while my son was attacked?”
Not saying a word, the guards immediately sank to their knees and bowed in shame. One of them, the captain, came forward with a rather terse look on his face.
“The assassin managed to slip through all of the barriers. I saw no tampering with them.”
“What?! How is that possible?”
“Your Highness, you should see this,” a voice in the back said tersely.
The king went over, and the room immediately went quiet.
With one good eye, I looked over to see what the guard was holding up. The first was the dagger that had managed to cut my eye. It was curved at the end and still had a bit of blood - my blood. I immediately grabbed onto my bandaged eye and looked away. Even though my eye no longer hurt as bad, I could still feel the poison coming from that blade. Slowly, I realized something - the dagger wasn't affected by my magic. Forcing myself to look up, I stared at the piece of metal that had injured me this badly.
The royal mages immediately crowded around that dagger with their purified robes and wands. However, they still held the weapon tentatively and muttered that everyone will need to be cleansed after this. Something none of us will look forward to.
The guard who held up the dagger also lifted up what was left of the assassin – the arm that didn't turn into sand. On the back of the hand were fresh cuts that had been deliberate. Squinting a bit with my good eye, I saw that the cuts were actually the shape of a sigil.
A long and silent hush fell across the room.
“Wake the entire house,” the king said quietly, finally speaking.
"Sir, I don't think-"
“I don't care what excuse they give. I want them there fifteen minutes ago. NOW!”
Everybody rushed around us, hastily trying to follow the king’s demands. The only one who still looked at me was Falena.
“Leona, it’s going to be okay,” my brother whispered and hugged me.
Liar, I thought but didn’t say the words.
I recognized the sigil. Everybody in the room recognized that sigil. It was the same one on my clothes and on Falena, and, more importantly, on the king. It explained why the assassin could so easily slip through all of the barriers in the heavily guarded palace.
Someone in the royal family tried to kill me.
