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Although I was still furious with Nik about her recklessness that caused her to lose her baby, I was still able to sympathize with her grief.

We both had losses. And we both handled our pain in different ways.

At least I had my mate. But I’d dealt with my pain by avoiding conceiving and brief breakups with Lucian.

Nik had lost her mate before losing her child, so she had no one.

I couldn’t fault her too much for numbing herself with drugs, though I hoped that she’d be sober enough to come to the wedding, and perhaps even make up with Mother and Father so she could come home.

I missed her so much. I hadn’t seen her in almost two hundred years.

Father came in the room and nearly wrinkled my gown from hugging me so tightly. “You’re so beautiful and I’m so happy you’re finally seizing your chance at happiness.”

Mother made a sound calling for our attention and addressed me with solemn copper eyes. “This may be the last time we’re alone for a long time. There’s something important you need to know. I finally found out why ours and Lucian’s matriarchs wanted this union—”

She broke off as the palace shook under our feet. The light streaming through the windows dimmed.

Suddenly, we heard screams from outside.

Concern for our people took over. My parents and I ran out to the balcony and gasped in horror. The beautiful late spring day had turned eerily dim and gray, like a solar eclipse, only neither of the moons were anywhere near the sun.

The ground shook again, and there, to the East, we saw a nightmare.

A giant hole had been ripped in the air, creating a portal that screamed in agony at its pained formation.

When I recovered from that sensory assault, my brain processed the rest of what I was seeing and hearing.

Hordes of warriors, mages, demons, and corpse-walkers were pouring out of the hole and slaughtering nearly every luminite in sight.

“Mephistopheles,” my father moaned in agony.

“We must fight them!” Mother screamed. “Kerainne, you must hide. I know you and your sister had your secret places. Go to one of them and don’t tell us where.”

“To Irkalla with that.” I tore the train off my gown. “I’ll get my weapons and meet you.”

Before they could argue, I transported myself to my suite and grabbed the sword that our instructor had custom made for my grip. The hilt was sticky with cobwebs and dust. With no time to change clothing, I released my wings and launched myself from the balcony.

Everywhere below me was chaos and bloodshed. My people were fighting back, calling their magics to incapacitate the mages and warriors with various methods like immobilization spells, quicksand, roping vines, and shielding barriers.

As the corpse walkers were already dead, luminites could kill those without being hurt. And we did. I incinerated many with fireballs and the farmers and townspeople did damage with various tools of their trade.

Our few human and faelin residents proved themselves invaluable with their contributions as well. With no hindrance on killing, they took out the evil mages, warriors, and demons.

At first it looked like we’d prevail, and I seethed with anger and grief over our casualties and the destruction of my beautiful gown that I’d worked so hard on.

I missed Lucian with every cell of my being and wished he was here.

His swordsmanship was far superior to mine, and though it had taken him longer, he’d achieved the purple robes in his mage studies and would soon attain the black.

However, after I don’t know how many hours had passed, the tide turned for the worst. More and more enemies poured out of the unnatural portal, including the Evil One himself.

Mephistopheles floated on an octagonal platform carved from bloodstone and grinned smugly at the slaughter before him.

Waist-length black hair framed the two curved black horns on his head and flowed behind him.

His gaunt, sharp features would have been beautiful if not for the twisted hate and violence radiating from his being.

His blazing red eyes met mine, burning into me with a smug, malevolent triumph that made my stomach quiver with nausea.

A child’s scream tore my attention away. I flew down to see a group of the Evil One’s soldiers rushing toward four children and their sobbing mother.

I swung my sword in a wide arc, slicing the backs of their knees, making them all collapse, though they would live.

I gathered two of the children in my arms and gestured for their mother to take the other two and follow me.

We flew to the borders of the kingdom, where they could hide in the woods.

But a mass of warriors poured out from beneath the trees.

One, and archer, shot an arrow through the mother’s wing.

She cried out in pain and spiraled down, but thankfully, held on to her two children.

Another arrow pierced my left wing. The pain was sharp, but I held on and shouted for the mother to follow me. Before I could turn, an arrow pierced her throat and she dropped like a stone, her children falling with her. Their little necks snapped on impact.

Tears blurred my vision as I tried to fly the two remaining children far away, but a blast of power hit me in the back, sending me tumbling out of the air. I held tight and tucked myself around them, which lessened their impact, but their cries of pain stabbed my heart.

One luminite boy sprained or broke his ankle, the girl’s nose was broken and gushing blood. Before I could recover my breath, the children were yanked out my arms and my arms were seized. Something hit me in the back of my head and pain exploded in my skull.

As I slipped away into the darkness, my last thought was that at least I’d see Lucian again in moments. And my family and people would be reunited again in Luminista.

But when I awoke with a throbbing headache and the stench of blood and death heavy in my nose, my heart wailed in desolation. As I sat up and my vision cleared, the sight of the dead mages, humans, luminites, and, dear fates, children, made we wish I’d died.

Only one thought kept me from falling on my sword. My parents.

I scrambled to my feet and tried to fly back to the palace.

Pain exploded in my wings, pierced from the arrow and crushed in places where the enemy must have stepped on me.

I tried to do a simple transport spell, but it only took me a mile.

And that’s when I realized what else was wrong.

The air around me was no longer full of magic, I could feel it being siphoned away, leaving only malicious empty hatred in its placed. It choked me.

Despite the pain, I forced my wings to work, once I was airborne, I flew, keeping low in case a wing gave out.

When I reached the hill that overlooked the village, I landed, panting in exhaustion as I searched for my parents.

Winged figures continued to fight, but they were outnumbered.

The yellow-tinted dimness kept me from being able to see if any of the luminites still standing were my mother and father.

A shadow closed over me. I turned around and my heart froze with horror. Mephistopheles stood over me, blood covering his face and black armor.

“Hello, Princess.” His voice was low and rough, like dry bones grinding together.

I threw a fireball at him, not caring if it killed me, as long as he died.

He threw up a shield with a languid hand. “I’m afraid I don’t have time to play with you before taking the spoils of war.”

His red eyes flared with sick hunger as he seized my arms and shoved me backwards. The moment I hit the ground, he was on top of me, tearing at the skirts of my gown. The blood of my people, still warm, dripped all over me, making me gag.

Sharp, awful pain pierced me, and a red haze overcame my vision. What he was doing should have been impossible. My mind recoiled at what was happening and mercifully tugged me back into oblivion.

When I awoke again, the horrid weight of him was gone. But his stench remained, and so did the pain between my legs. Despair weighed me down, making it more difficult for me to rise. And when I finally made it to my feet, I wondered if it had been a mistake to even try.

My kingdom was utterly decimated. Everyone was dead.

And soon this whole place would be taken away to become another part of Qua’ al-fán.

And the Evil One had… the thought of what he did to me, his stench, mingled with the reek of the dead made me double over and vomit.

I heaved and heaved, stomach roiling, throat burning, until there was nothing left.

When I recovered my breath enough, I forced myself to look down the hill again. Just in case there was someone still alive. In case there was something to bring me hope. But the longer I looked, the lower my heart sank.

My people fought valiantly against Mephistopheles, but they could not win. I cursed our inability to destroy as tears ran down my grimy cheeks. My vision swam with bloody wings and severed limbs. Thankfully night had fallen, obscuring the tragic sight.

My people were all dead. I was the sole survivor, but at what cost?

I’d faced Mephistopheles, but my magic failed to even hurt him, and instead of killing me, he’d…

raped me. Luminites were usually only sexually compatible with our own kind, and sometimes faelin, if their magic was powerful enough.

Something about us projected a sense of repulsion on other species, so they had no desire.

Though sometimes, in very rare cases, normal humans had been able to mate with luminites, either consensually or by force, and halflings were born.

I gagged again, even though I had nothing left in me to come back up. Why did he have to be one of the rare cases?

I knew I needed to leave this place before he returned to take this land and merge it to the world he was creating, a world wrought of evil magic and the blood of innocents.