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I tried to conjure a happy memory. The faces of those that I loved. Anything to die with to make it feel as if it had all been worth something.

But I could find nothing. I could remember nothing.

All there was was fire and rage. Never ending rage at being unfinished. At being incomplete.

And then, somehow, I was climbing up a mountain.

As if in a dream, I climbed higher, but my feet wouldn’t move. I went faster, but gained no ground. Still, I kept climbing and the wind whipped around me, bringing whispers on the breeze.

“Never make a bargain with a fairy,”it seemed to say.

The earth was burning, the air thick with smoke, but still I climbed higher, my hands and feet slipping against the rocks.

“I’ll kill anyone who hurts you, little monster.”

I slipped further back, sliding down the rocks and I cried out but my voice was lost in the whispering wind.

“I love you enough for both of us.”

Finally, I reached the top; clawing, scraping, begging.

“The new heir will be created, forged of Source fire.”

I looked down over raging fire, opened my mouth, and screamed and screamed andscreamed.

I kept screaming, but only then did I realize that I had no words, nor a voice with which to speak them. I was laughing and crying, but I had no eyes, no mouth, I had no body that was not consumed by flames.

And then, I was the flames; burning, blazing, Wilde.

I was fire.

I was creation and destruction; power and magic.

I was life and death.

I was the great equalizer.

I wasthe Source.

31

BAEL

UNDERNEATH

Abreathtakingly beautiful woman knelt in front of me.

She’d approached slowly, her hips swaying and her dark curls bouncing around her shoulders, before lowering herself to the floor in front of my throne and bowing her head in reverence. "My lord," she murmured, her voice like honey.

Rising from my seat, I descended the stairs toward her with slow, deliberate steps, letting my gaze trail over her lovely features. I stopped in front of her, close enough to touch. "You may rise."

With a delicate gracefulness, she rose to her feet and took a step closer…

I swung my arm back with all my strength and smashed my fist into the side of her head.

Several courtiers gasped at the sound of the woman’s skull cracking, and scrambled out of the way as she went flying backwards across the room. She landed in a heap on the stone floor, leaving the room in silence.

I squinted over at her. Hmm. That must have been thirty feet—possibly a new personal record. I should write that down.