Page 82 of Legacy of the Heirs (The Lost Kingdom Saga #2)

Elisara

T he soldier before Elisara faded in and out of view.

Blinking hard, she swung her sword but missed her mark.

She swung again and, this time, hit his shoulder.

When he doubled over, she pushed the sword through him.

Her vision refocused. She did not know what was wrong.

Dark eyes met hers in the near distance to her left—Caligh.

Was Nyzaia right? Could he really be affecting my power and exhausting me?

Caligh bowed his head to her before switching his focus. Yes.

Elisara spun, following Caligh’s eyeline, who stared intently at Kazaar. He knew. He knew she was a thorn in his side and would refuse to let him take Kazaar.

“No,” Elisara murmured. She tried to shove through the soldiers, yet struggled with each step and swing.

“Elisara!” Kazaar called for the hundredth time. He had not stopped calling for her since the damned wolves separated them, both helping and hindering them.

“Kazaar!” she called back, trying to reach him.

A light moved overhead, forcing her to look up.

Farid. Elisara gasped as wings of flaming feathers pierced through the drizzle of rain and swooped low.

Farid swiped at the heads of the soldiers with his sword, and Elisara paused, her mouth falling open.

She had little time to question Farid’s wings, provided he still fought for Nyzaia.

He hovered every few strikes, searching for someone.

Elisara followed his sight to where Nyzaia stood several rows from Kazaar, striding for him with determination.

Elisara tried to mimic it, yet her steps were heavy as she battled towards the man she loved, with Nyzaia on the other side and Caligh to the right of them.

Three attempts at the man she loved. Three attempts for someone to take him, two for good, one for evil.

But Caligh’s expression did not mirror the panicked determination on her own.

The man of darkness was confident, his cloak fluttering in the breeze as he strode forward with a smirk on his lips.

He batted away every Novisian soldier who reached him with ease like they were nothing more than irritant flies encroaching his space.

Powerful . He was so powerful, and yet he allowed this battle to continue.

He is toying with us , Elisara realised.

General Caligh knew he would win, but their struggle was a mere form of entertainment to him.

A flicker of raw fury lit within Elisara; he thought he could take what was hers.

Focusing on the flame within, she prayed it would blossom and ignite her with the power she and Kazaar were supposedly blessed with—the essence of a god—yet nothing reached her fingertips.

Elisara’s anger was the only thing spurring her forward as she inched closer.

Caligh stopped. He glanced at Nyzaia on his right and Elisara on his left.

Raising his hands either side as though this were a theatrical performance, he leisurely drew them together.

Elisara frowned at the absence of his power.

She felt nothing. So what was he doing? The surrounding soldiers slowed, and Elisara paused as Caligh turned his hands until his palms faced outward.

He grinned at Elisara and forced his hands out.

Darkness erupted. Shadows forced away the soldiers from both sides and launched them to the ground.

Elisara crouched and braced her sword. Her hands trembled as the sword wavered beneath her.

A wall of darkness stood, blocking Elisara, Nyzaia, and anyone from reaching Kazaar.

Yet the fighting continued outside of its wall, with the copper soldiers now oblivious to Kazaar’s presence, intent only on pushing the realms’ back.

Elisara rushed forward, resting a hand against the shadow, which hummed at her touch.

She pushed, trying to force herself through it, but it did not relent.

Through the wisps, she saw Kazaar, his sword raised before Caligh.

The general did and said nothing. He simply looked Kazaar up and down, his expression one of disgust. A flash of orange clashed against the shadows, illuminating Nyzaia, who stood next to Farid, pounding her fists against the darkness the same way Elisara was.

Elisara reached for her power to blow the shadows away. Nothing. Nyzaia bombarded it with flames, a miniscule flicker in the walls' defence.

Kazaar, she whispered into his mind. Only silence greeted her. Kazaar!

He stood braced on the sand, raising the Sword of Sonos raised. No wisps of shadow and light held the sword to him, as it usually did. He turned his head to Elisara, his eyes widening when he realised he could not reach her mind. She pounded against the wall again, screaming.

“I’ll kill you!” Elisara shrieked. “Touch him, and I will kill you!” Still, Caligh did not move. Kazaar’s patience faded as he moved, angling the sword towards the general. Darkness flashed, and a sword crafted of shadows emerged, so dense it may as well have been forged from metal.

Elisara’s sword vibrated at her side like it had every time it met the Sword of Sonos.

She raised it in her hand. With every strike Kazaar made against the general, Elisara made the same against the wall.

Over and over, Kazaar and Elisara fought, fighting for their friends, their kingdom, and one another.

Caligh laughed a manacle laugh that pierced Elisara’s bones.

That flicker of fury ignited in Elisara again as she collided with the wall.

The shadows shrieked as an indent formed, but it repaired itself just as quick.

She screamed and hit the wall again as Caligh’s laughter heightened, yet Elisara continued fighting for the other half of her.

Kazaar ducked, hooking his legs around Caligh like he had countless times with Elisara.

Shadows shot from Caligh’s hands and encircled Kazaar’s foot, twisting him over onto his stomach.

No. Caligh pushed his boot against Kazaar’s back, holding him down while his shadows reached for the Sword of Sonos, placing it in Caligh’s hand.

Nyzaia faltered on the other side of the wall.

Her hands rested against the wall with wide eyes as she watched her brother.

Get up , Nyzaia mouthed. Get up! She appeared to be screaming now, tears welling in her eyes.

“Get up.” Though it was not Nyzaia who spoke, it was Caligh.

His voice was deep and ancient, stoking the fury left inside Elisara’s empty body.

Caligh removed his foot from Kazaar’s back, who shifted instantly, flourishing his hands.

No power emerged from his fingertips; nothing reached out to defend him.

Kazaar’s eyes widened momentarily before he jumped to his feet and reached for his weapons, yet he had none left.

Elisara swung at the wall again. She would do anything—give everything—to reach him.

She would relinquish her title, her realm, her power, her tie, anything to get through the wall.

But no one answered her pleas for help; no spark ignited within her. She was powerless.

“She is relentless,” Caligh said to Kazaar. “Elisara.” He nodded in her direction.

“Keep her name out of your mouth,” Kazaar growled. Caligh laughed again, circling Kazaar; he caught Elisara’s eye as he passed.

“So possessive, those with a celestial tie,” he said.

Elisara hit the wall again. “You feel emotions so strongly.” Caligh waved his hand, and shadows snaked along the floor for Kazaar’s feet, climbing around his legs to lock him in place.

No. Elisara reached within her soul again, searching for that power.

Someone help me ! She screamed to the gods in her mind. Do not take him from me.

“Hatred.” The shadows twisted around Kazaar’s abdomen as he clenched his jaw.

“Friendship,” Caligh murmured. “Passion.” The sword glowed as he raised it and faced Kazaar, who was only a few steps away.

Kazaar looked to Elisara then as she pierced the wall again, screaming.

He opened his mouth to say something, to mouth words they had promised not to say until this was over.

“Pain.” Caligh grinned and plunged the Sword of Sonos through Kazaar’s chest. Elisara screamed, piercing the sword through the wall of darkness as her heart ripped in two.

Elisara screamed from the pain as a piece of her was forced from her body and as Kazaar’s body fell in time with the walls of shadow.

And just like when her heart once shattered in tandem with a falling statue in the Vala gardens, destined to be pieced back together by this man, Elisara’s heart splintered as her sword broke through and the shadows fell.

“No!” she screamed. “No, no, no.” Caligh pulled the sword from Kazaar’s chest and stepped back, the shadows engulfing him as Elisara ran to Kazaar.

She did not notice the shadows weaving throughout the war or separating the copper soldiers from the Novisians.

She did not notice how everyone paused or how the creatures retreated at Caligh’s whistle before silence descended across the Ashun Desert.

All she saw was Kazaar’s chest slowing, the shadows falling away to reveal blood seeping from him, his hands slack by his sides.

“Kazaar,” she whispered. “Kazaar.” Elisara fell to her knees at his side.

“Kazaar, look at me.” She placed her hands over his wound to stop the bleeding.

Reaching for a dagger, she sliced her hand, letting her blood fall on his wound.

“It will be okay; we are tied,” she reassured him.

“You will heal.” Yet, as Elisara glanced at the stickiness on her hands, as he tried to speak, she found they were red.

Only red. No silver blood flooded from her veins; no sign of their tie remained.

“No,” she sobbed. Kazaar tried to reach for her hands as she pulled his leathers aside.

The silver film on his sun scar faded, leaving only the faint reminder of raised skin.

“Angel,” he murmured.

“No!” Elisara sobbed. Kazaar’s breathing slowed beneath her, and he coughed, sputtering blood, red staining her skin and clothes.

Time stilled as Elisara memorised his features, his lips that promised her the world, a smile that lit up only for her, and eyes that promised her an eternity together.

Elisara’s hands trembled as she clenched his wet leathers, squeezing her eyes shut .

“Eyes,” he wheezed, “on me, angel.” Elisara opened them to meet his face. She moved her hands to his cheeks, staining his face with her blood.

“There is no existence without you,” she cried.

The dark and light tendrils from the universe faded in his eyes to their fiery amber glow from before and then the final brown that belonged only to her.

Kazaar blinked slowly and opened his mouth to speak when his hand stilled on her wrist. Elisara clutched his face as his fire faded and his head lulled to the side.

Her hands faltered as his face began to crumble, stealing Elisara’s chance to say goodbye with a final kiss.

“No,” she whispered as Kazaar began to disintegrate, killed by the Sword of Sonos. “No!” The other half of Elisara’s soul disintegrated before her, fading into blackened ash that floated on the wind. Elisara fell forward, dragging her hands through what remained of him.

The fury that had been within her twisted, the pain within her as he left her burned under her skin. Elisara shrieked, her scream echoing across the desert and bouncing off the darkened clouds. Lightning struck, and the ground trembled. Elisara screamed as the universe took him.

Someone laughed behind her, and Elisara’s tears fell in the ash as she turned when Caligh emerged from his shadows. When Elisara looked around, everyone was paused, trapped by the darkness.

“We could end this here, Elisara.” His voice whispered to her in the wind. “I took him. I got what I wanted, but now, there is you. It seems only fair that I stay and add you to my collection of deaths.” Elisara said nothing, the agony within her threatening to overtake her reason.

There is no I without you.

“I will give you two hours to mourn your deaths and regroup before I take your kingdom, as I have taken so many before it.” Caligh tossed the Sword of Sonos on the sands by her feet, a smirk on his face as she frowned .

They should have known. They should have known this was never the end, that Caligh would take Novisia like he took Ithyion.

Elisara said nothing as she turned back to where Kazaar had laid, her hands clenched in his ashes.

Her fingers caught on something smooth, which she pulled from his remains.

His talisman. The only piece she had left of him.

When she turned back to Caligh, he had faded into the shadows.

The darkness holding back the people of Novisia dropped, and her people ran to her.