“The ‘folds’ within the Wilds are terms used to distinguish the strange phenomena where certain tiers of flora and fauna choose to contain themselves. So, while they are helpful to the uninitiated to comprehend that there are, in fact, layers to the Wilds, they fail in one regard: They forget to include the tiny detail that the ‘folds’ overlap.”

- Sir Sire’s Encyclopedia Vol 29

I stood there, covered in mud and gore, staring at my elven friend. She wouldn’t meet my eyes. Rage consumed my thoughts, and I feared the redness I saw collecting at the edges of my vision a result of that. But no. Tears, hot and unkempt, were the culprits to my blurred sight. My lip quivered.

“How—how could you?” It came out as barely more than a whisper, but everyone heard me.

“Aww, is the little rat sad?” James drew out the last word in a melodramatic drawl. He began to laugh. It was a high, cackling sound that set my nerves on edge. It was the same laugh he used when torturing me. I now saw that this situation was no different. He was just digging in a different type of claw now. I ignored him.

“HOW COULD YOU?!” I screamed at Lizzy. She flinched back. The others in James’ team laughed. I faintly noticed that Gavin was nowhere to be seen, nor was Charles.

Good, I thought. Two factors I seriously don’t want to deal with right now.

One of the boys shoved Lizzy in the back, forcing her forward. She stumbled, her arms clenched tightly across her chest. She seemed so small now. So frail. But when she finally met my gaze, I saw the fire there. It wasn’t directed at me, but neither did it warm me.

“I won’t go back to him,” Lizzy finally said. “I will never let my father use me as his puppet ever again. He—” her voice cracked and the others laughed, but I pushed their noise away and focused on my traitorous teammate. I needed to know. She seemed to sense my desperation, and finished. “My father would enthrall me for days, even weeks at a time, forcing me to forget each time. It wasn’t until one of my servants broke the ruse that I finally discovered the truth. He…He would parade me around to his friends. He planned to give his device to whichever suitor would pay the highest bride-price. I will never go back.”

The admission broke me, but something about what she said bothered me.

“Then how did you manage to break your enthrallment in the camp? We saw you escape from that other elf’s tent?” I croaked. She blushed and looked away again.

“Oh, Lendolin over there? Her ‘friend’?” James interrupted, laughing even harder. “He’s the reason we learned over Lizzy’s little secret in the first place. It must be terrible to attend balls where everyone knows you and you can’t seem to remember any of them! Old Lendolin over there told us who she was for a place on my team. Quite a good deal, if you ask me. He’s been apologizing to her ever since, though, which is quite the drag.” James pinned Lendolin with a venomous stare, and both elves shrank back. James closed the distance between him and Lizzy in a blur. He clutched her jaw like he owned it.

“We didn’t enthrall her; we didn’t need to. She’s been such an obedient little wench. Why break what’s already broken?” He turned to address me, enjoying every moment of my discomfort and anger. “Those two were likely comforting each other in that tent while I dealt with Charles.” James’ words hit me like a slap to the face.

Charlie is dead? I thought. No. I would need to see his body for myself before I believed this snake.

“You viper!” I spat at the princeling. He chuckled and shrugged.

“You know what vipers eat, don’t you? Us snakes dine on rats like you and your friends. And we came here hungry.” At his words, the five others, Lendolin included, raised their weapons and began to approach my wounded friends. Elio had somehow managed to tie a makeshift tourniquet around his arm’s stump. Gwyn, weaponless, was slowly getting to her feet, but her legs were more wobbly than Bartrum’s drinking buddies. Only me and Az were in fighting condition, and I only counted myself in that category because of the ungodly amounts of rage and determination I felt flooding every vein in my body.

I knew, in that moment, that we were all dead. We were like the Zengo behind me: wounded but too stubborn to go gently. But like the Zengo, I would die before I bowed to my enemies. James smiled and activated his collage of enchanted items. Thick plates overlapped across his body into tightly formed armor. It blazed with gold and red energy. His claws were joined today by a two-handed sword he twirled around like it was lighter than air. A half-helm formed across his brow in the faint outline of a crown. I groaned, peering down at my two gauntlets and shoddy leather armor.

Still, I took in a deep breath. My heart slowed as the world narrowed to this moment—this cliffside. The wind started to pick up, and the already overcast sky darkened as if in anticipation of this imminent battle. Azuris snuck a final glance at me, and I saw something flash across his gaze as our eyes met. Acceptance. He knew we would die too, and yet there was no reluctance or disappointment that it was us he would die with. It warmed my heart more than I thought it would.

I returned my attention to James, who sauntered casually toward me. He was everything I had come to hate about Orions. He was arrogant, ruthless, and vile. He was honorless. I smiled at him when I came to a sudden realization: Azuris, though a tiefling and a member of the infamous Wraith clan, held more honor than this prince of the realm. James caught my sardonic grin and a crack formed in his vicious veneer.

“What?” He barked at me.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You’ve got some shite on your chin,” I answered with a straight face. He actually halted and tried to glare down at the spot in question. I lunged, using the momentary distraction to cover the distance. He looked up just in time to see my fist connect with his armpit, the razor edges of my gauntlets more than up to the job of severing the thin metal and leather there. He screamed as blood dripped from the wound. He backhanded me across the cheek and I went flying. Numbness and arcs of agony intertwined through my face as whatever enchantment his claws had navigated through my nervous system.

I rolled with the impact and got to my feet. Azuris was a blur of motion, defending against four of the five assailants while another went to finish Elio off. I tried to go help my pugilist friend, but James rushed me. The prince swept his sword down and I ducked below the blow. I punched forward but my aim was off. The fist glanced off of his armor with a loud clang, but no damage was done. I rolled again as he made a pass for my torso. The giant sword hissed as errant moisture in the air burned away in its wake. It glared red like a coal as he spun it in his grasp. He cursed and then dug the blade into the cliff. He sprinted toward me, the tip of his blade gouging a long line in the sturdy stone.

At the last moment, he twisted and lanced forward, rock spraying into my vision and blinding me to the exact angle of his blow. I jumped back, preferring the pain of the cliff against my back than whatever overpowered enchantment the Valorian royalty was currently wielding.

“Come back here, rat! Stop scurrying away!” James yelled. A scream suddenly drew our attention. We both looked as Azuris sheathed his dagger in the heart of one of his assailants. The man spat blood across my friend’s face as he died. James screamed, though it sounded more out of outrage than grief. His swings grew faster, yet wilder. It was all I could do to dodge, but my energy was waning. I tried to blast him with my right gauntlet, but he tanked each hit like it was nothing.

He had prepared for this.

I watched and waited for a moment to strike, but while he was clearly incensed, it was not to the point of sloppiness. At least, it wasn’t sloppy enough for someone at my skill level to take advantage of.

“I will burn your entire family alive, you stupid rat! I will find them and make them regret the day they bore a vermin like you!!!” James screamed at me. He lunged at me again, and I finally got a foot inside his guard and I took it. He noticed his mistake too late. I grabbed his sword arm by the wrist and yanked him over my shoulder in a move Elio had drilled into me. James yelped as he flew past me, my own augmented strength up to the task of using his momentum against him. His sword scraped the stone and flickered out as it exited his hand. It skidded to a halt just a few feet from the cliff’s edge.

“Gah!” James yelled, scrambling for the blade. I rushed him, and this time, he was the one on the defense. Up close, it became evident he had slacked on his hand-to-hand combat. I wove and dodged his telegraphed strikes like he was moving through molasses, my pain and fatigue forgotten. This was my chance. This was my moment to put this cruel bastard down for good.

For Elio. For Gwyn. And yes, even for Lizzy, though the notion sent a cold spike of anger into my heart. I landed my next two blows with clean impacts. The first was to his gut, knocking the wind out of him, even through the armor, and the second followed up with a sucker punch that connected with his chin. He flew back for a second time in as many minutes. This time, he was the one to skid to a stop by the cliff’s edge.

Azuris yelled out in pain from somewhere behind me. My head swiveled, and what I saw confused the living hell out of me. Gone were the five elites James had brought with him, even the one facing against Elio. In their stead, cadets I barely recognized were finishing them off, brandishing spears and swords I knew belonged to those defeated warriors just moments before. And leading them was Charles.

Pain lanced in my side as James’ claws dug into them. I screamed and shoved him away with a kick, but the damage was already done.

“No!” Charles yelled. He tried to rush toward me, but Azuris blocked his way, misreading the situation. “YOU!” My best friend snarled. “It’s because of you she’s in this mess! You know that, right?! They wouldn’t have singled her out if you hadn’t gotten involved with her! Why do you keep stealing the things I love?!?” Charles demanded. He didn’t give Azuris a chance to reply as he wove his sword around in blurs of motion. My best friend was going to kill him. I knew it like I knew the sun would rise.

“Don’t kill him, Charles!” I croaked, trying to keep James in my sights while addressing the enraged human trying to make my tiefling ally a pin cushion. Azuris, for his part, was exhausted from the fight, and could barely block the augmented strikes. Charlie locked eyes with me, a red gleam there that hadn’t been before.

“See?!” He spat at Azuris. “You’ve already poisoned her mind. She sees me as the enemy when you’re the murderer. The rapist. The monster.” Charles spun his sword around in a feint, only to kick Azuris so hard in the chest he flew back over ten feet. He stalked toward him, but Gwyn tried to tackle him. He saw her attack coming and backhanded her with the pommel of his sword. She crumpled to the ground.

It was my turn to scream. Suddenly, ending James was just a means to an end so that I could prevent this nightmare from continuing. I turned to the prince, hatred and resignation pooling my eyes. Thunder peeled through the air. I raised my head, confirming that this was not, in fact, a surge starting. Still, it was a storm in the Wilds, and we were on a freaking cliff.

I needed to end this. Now.

“Please, spare me,” James whimpered. He backed away, his sword forgotten.

I laughed mirthlessly. “Oh, like you spared those girls? Like you planned on sparing me and my friends? And I’m willing to bet my Orion blacks that this wasn’t some new phenomena in your life, James.” I said his name like it tasted of poison. “You’ve probably been abusing and crushing those beneath since you could lift that silver spoon of yours.” I approached him, Shardclaw spikes aglow. He kept whimpering, but I knew that I had to end him. If he died after I stabbed my gauntlet into his reproductive organs, that was on him. He slashed at me, but I caught the blow on my right gauntlet and punched down with my left. The blow connected and the Shardclaw crystals started to form where my blades punctured his leather leggings. He moaned in agony as the poison turned his privates into something he would never be able to use again.

“You know how to cure it,” I whispered to the prince in a fetal position.

I turned away, but I heard the scuffle of armor against stone and acted on instinct. My hand rocketed back as I turned, using my entire body to slam into the face of one desperate royal. But right before my strike would’ve landed, a thin shield sparked to life inches from James. The wind billowed and a lean man in a gray cloak stood before me. I caught sight of his face for a split second. His arm was raised from where it had blocked my strike and some strange device on his forearm glimmered one last time before he stepped back in surprise.

This all happened in a split moment, but while the intruder had stopped my strike from landing, it did nothing to stop James. The prince grabbed me by both shoulders in my moment of shock and yanked with all of his might. I flew into the open air, the edge of the cliff passing me. Time slowed for me as I hung suspended there in between heartbeats. I saw Azuris pull his hand out of thin air and a short sword of gray bone emerge. I witnessed the gray cloaked figure pull James away in a burst of speed from the fight. Gwyn and Elio were nowhere to be seen.

Then the moment faded and the cliff blocked my vision as I fell into the chasm below.