Blinking, Emily found herself staring into darkness. For a moment, it was only darkness, and then, as her eyes began to adjust, she found herself standing amongst a room of huge statues. As she looked around, she saw Lewis standing off to one side, pointing at something.
With one last questioning glance at him, she turned to see what he was pointing at. She was just in time to see a huge stone arrow fly out of the darkness. Screaming, she ducked, covering her head with her hands as the arrow collided with the statue just behind her. In an explosion of dust and rock, she made herself as small as possible, praying that none of the statues would hit her.
The dust had barely begun to settle when Lewis ordered one of the statues forward. As it moved, it produced a giant stone sword, swinging it at the archer who had fired the arrow that had just missed her. As if the archer had been made of butter, the sword sliced clean through the stone, the two halves of the archer falling to the ground with a crash.
‘Emily, move forward one!’ Lewis called across to her. ‘Wait!’ he shouted a split second later as she made to move forward. ‘Stay where you are.’
Doing as she was told, Emily stayed where she was, watching as the statue of an archer moved to the space next to her. For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then, slowly, a crackling began to fill the air. Out of the darkness, a ball of energy appeared at the top of the tower she had been about to move towards.
‘Cover your head! Lewis shouted as the ball of energy shot towards the archer that Lewis had moved next to.
With a deafening bang that was louder than anything she could have imagined, the archer exploded into a million pieces. Covered head to toe in dust, she looked up. Just as she did, the stone tower began to fracture. Slowly, the tower collapsed in on itself, leaving behind only a pile of dust where it had once stood.
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Before anything else could happen, Emily felt herself stumble forward as the darkness was suddenly replaced by bright sunlight. Everywhere around her, people were shouting. Throwing off whoever was holding her back, she forced her way through the crowds.
Nearing the front, she realised that she was in the courtyard outside the castle in Tristan. Standing at the front of the crowd was Lewis, his bow aimed at Anthony. As she watched, Anthony stumbled back. There was an arrow buried deep in his stomach, the blood mixing with the light red of the ceremonial cloak.
As Anthony staggered backward, Lewis pulled a second arrow from his quiver, notching it so fast she barely even saw him do it. Spinning to his right, he fired the arrow at something out of sight. The arrow had barely left his bow when he staggered sideways, collapsing to his knees.
Screaming, Emily tried to fight her way through the crowd towards him. In the chaos, she found herself knocked one way and then the other before falling to the ground. When the stampeding crowd finally began to clear, she saw Lewis slumped against the gold velvet-covered throne, Amanda at his side, talking rapidly.
Picking herself up off the ground, Emily ran to his side. He looked as if he were completely fine except for the blood that was seeping from his shoulder into his white shirt, despite there being no visible cause for it. For a moment, his eyes found hers as he tried to say something. In the end, his attempted words only came to a soft groan as he closed his eyes.
With a scream, Emily sat up.
Breathing heavily, she looked around. She was no longer in the courtyard with Tristan. Instead, she sat in the spare room of Mrs. Miller’s house. Twisting around frantically in the tangled bed sheets, she looked for Lewis. He was gone.
Running a hand through her tangled red hair, she remembered the argument that they had had the night before. Crawling across the bed, she looked for his bag, but it had gone as well. What has she done? He had left her alone in the spare bedroom that belonged to a woman she didn’t know in a town she hadn’t even known existed until recently.
‘He’s gone. What have I done?’ she whispered. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she buried her face in her hands as she began to cry. Why did they have to argue last night? Would he still be here if they hadn’t? Maybe he had gotten fed up with her in favour of Amanda. Her thoughts didn’t do anything to calm her. If anything, they only make her cry harder.