Fire's Determination

"Lyra!" someone yelled as they shook me awake, my eyes flung open to find myself looking into Lilly's. Her eyes the exact same shade of golden brown as her father, Nael's. "You were sweating and tossing around, I thought you were seizing," Lilly continued, unaware of the inner turmoil I was fighting. She didn't know what I had just been dreaming about or what she'd saved me from having to relive again. She didn't know about that night where everything went wrong. Didn't know that the fire magic that I now wielded had once belonged to her brother. Or that I treasured it as much as I treasured Ignatius' memory. "Sorry," I gasped out, wiping away the sweat that covered my forhead. I was soaked through with it. "Bad dream again?" Lilly asked, backing up the respectful distance that all mages kept from their leaders. "Yea," I mumbled, swinging my feet out of the bed. "Same one as usual?" Lilly asked and I looked at her again. There was a pained look on the other mage's face and I nodde

I gave my mother a quick forced grin before taking the letter and looking down at it, my eyes skimmed it quickly. "So, these men will be here later today or tomorrow morning, and then what? If this guy decides that I'm," I quickly found the part I was referring to in the letter again, narrowed my eyes at the wording and read straight from the paper, "found to be favorable" I glared at my mother, "then what? He goes back to his King and reports that I'm good enough for the royal line and then I just pack my bags, wait for them to come and load me up and go live in a kingdom full of humans?" My mother took the letter back and put it in her pocket. "You'd be leaving with the King's men when they leave tomorrow," she said softly, looking away from me. My chest tightened. "I didn't see that in the letter," I said, unable to grasp the idea of leaving my home, the only home I had known my whole life so soon. "It was in the other letter. Your father and I thought that one was a little too

Why did the day have to start off so early? I thought annoyedly to myself. I had barely gotten more than two hours of sleep by the time Lilly had woken me up from my night terror. I sighed, thinking about everything else that still needed to be taken care of. There was the council meeting that mother was supposed to be letting everyone know about right now. There was the possible meeting with the man from Scepterfall, if he decided to show up today, that was. And I still needed to find Gil and break the news to him, hopefully before the time of the actual meeting. I yawned, figuring I should probably get started on that first one and pushed myself off the banister. My mother had told me I should get more rest, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I headed out to the training field, where I figured I'd probably find Gil, but only Lorna, one of the oldest mages on the island who lived in and worked for her room in the Villa was there, fixing some of the leather pieces on the training

I froze, my hands stilling where they were, I could feel a drip of blood escape my nose, a telltale sign that my power was waning. It was taking a lot to keep those walls burning. To keep them hot enough to hold the beast, thick enough and high enough that it wouldn't just rush through the flames or jump over them was taking an immense amount of power. "Girl, turn around. Let me see your face," the man commanded. "Man stays put and doesn't move or girl gets throat slit, do I make myself clear?" "Why are you talking like a caveman?" I asked, forcing calm into my voice as I turned around to face my attacker. He stood there, legs apart in an attacking stance, his sword pressed to my neck. Was he alone or were the rest of the hunting party hiding somewhere? If he was alone, that was incredibly stupid of him. Stupid to take on multiple mages single-handedly. Though, I guess the Blood Beasts kind would have evened up the score, normally. If he was dealing with weaker mages, that was. "S

"So, what's this meeting about?" A familiar voice asked and I turned to see Gil walking into the Council room. Apprehension rushed through me. How was he feeling about Wulfrud? How was I going to tell him about the alliance? How would he take it? He froze as he saw me, "You're up already? You used so much energy, Lyra. Are you sure you're ok to be here?" He asked, concern dripping from his voice. My mother had pushed the meeting back by a few hours while I slept, but after my father and I had found her, she had made sure to let me know exactly how displeased she was with how reckless I had been. How happy she was that I wasn't dead. And then, once again how angry she was that I wasn't still resting and recuperating after my ordeal. Once she was done ranting, we had come to the council room to wait for everyone else to arrive. I had avoided telling her or anyone else exactly how I had recovered so quickly. I didn't need my people looking at me like I was a monster. The Queen mage and