Cursed Blood

Her eyes were painfully bright and I had to fight back the urge to squint at her. The Queen was yelling, her son shouting as well in a way that made it all muddled noise. The volume and sheer pitch of the Queen's voice drove me crazy along with the burning light of my opponent's eyes. I clapped my hands over my ears, panting as my fangs scraped my bottom lip. The taste of copper was rich in my mouth as blood came from the scratch, painting my mouth red like a true demon's. My wings flapped wildly as I tried to drown out the noise, my brothers calling my name.

"Just... just shut up already!"

Along with the boom of my voice, a blast of black smoke came from my wings, the feathers ruffled as what seemed like a magical force began to block out the noise, creating a physical dome over the woman and I. It pushed back the crowd, leaving us in our own fighting ring for everyone to see. Wherever the guards were, I didn't know, but there was no one to solve the situation now. The only way to get rid of the pesky woman would be to send her out of the castle on her ass.

Storm-Cloud?

I'm fine, Kai, I thought, just... an incident occured. I'm okay. Magic is working for me just fine.

Be careful, Storm-Cloud. There's quite a commotion. Guards are rushing toward the ball, and they're talking about bringing Kyra out as a protection force.

I cursed under my breath. Thanks, Kai. I'll keep that in mind.

The woman's lips curled into a smirk. "So you do have some power behind you, hybrid? Not just some fancy mutations."

I growled, licking blood off my lip. "I'm going to throw you out of this castle, lady. This is a ball. That maid made a mistake, it's not like she tried to kill you," I snapped, wishing I had brought a weapon with me. My sole focus was getting this over with without ruining the ball for everyone else, but with the transparent dome I had no control over, I knew that it was already over. The dome itself was out of my control - I had no clue what I was doing with it. The texture was nearly that of a bubble, with the black oozing liquid traveling in swirls along the surface.

"You should learn to respect me, peasant. I am one of the Queen's ambassadors, Eileen Sheamus. You are below me."

My thoughts flashed back to the assassin, sneaking in to kill the royal family in the middle of the night.

The one I let go, also of my own free will.

Let us weaklings fight our battle.

If that assassin genuinely believed I belonged at the top, then who was this mere Lightblood ambassador to tell me I was below her?

I growled, the dome above us churning. This time, instead of black magic coming from my feathers in the form of swirling gas, the ribbons of magic curled around my fingers and wrists as I gritted my teeth together. My morals were all over the place, my thoughts a jumbled mess. I wanted to kill her -- to have her eat her words, but I also wanted to stay true to who I was.

Who I thought I was.

A Lightblood farmer girl with a little extra power; a blessing, maybe. But the itch to prove myself as something better than her was nearly driving me crazier than I already felt, and there was crackling energy in the magic circling my hands. Worried faces peered in from the other side of the dome, but one didn't looked worried. One was amazed.

Rebecca was smiling.

I tore my eyes away from her as Eileen rolled her eyes.

"I don't have all day, sweetheart. You should've stayed out of this and played your part of some stupid trophy for the Queen," she spat, eyes flashing dangerously. Their white glow threatened to burn even brighter.

"I am not a trophy," I snarled, lunging for her. For once there was fear on her face, and my sharp claws only barely missed her abdomen. The ambassador sneered, still unaware that I was dangerous.

"Do you really believe that the Queen values the Darkblood you brought here? Do you really think she'll leave her alive?!"

I stopped cold, my heart jumping into my throat. Eileen cackled, the sound like a witch's laugh echoing through the room, even with the slight barrier of the dome.

She pointed at me, her face a sculpture of smugness. "The Queen cares nothing of what you and your Darkblood kin do. She wants to wipe them out, and you will never change that! You are worthless, hybrid, just some toy for her. An experiment. That werewolf will never again see the light of day!"

My heart was slowly shattering. A familiar voice, not one of a dragon, but someone else with bright blue eyes, echoed in my head, but I pushed it all away. Even when Kai shouted for me to realize she was lying, I couldn't pay attention.

Because, by now, the doubt was crushing me. Breaking me down until I couldn't figure it out anymore. I looked back at where Rebecca had been with my brothers and saw she was gone already, but whether or not she'd been taken was unknown. I flew at the dome, pounding on the unbreakable surface I'd formed with my own magic. I shouted through it, pointing to where Rebecca had been. Charles gasped, and I heard him yell her name. The twins and him soon left, my father worriedly glancing back at me.

"Go find her..," I whispered weakly, but somehow he heard it. They all left, pushing through the crowd of stunned Lightbloods to find my friend.

Said Lightbloods watched like I was an animal in a zoo as I turned to face the ambassador, looking over her shoulder into the eyes of the Queen. Amara's eyes shone with moisture, but I refused to believe they were tears of sadness for me. Instead, I suspected them to be tears of guilt. My voice of reason was gone, and I wished more than anything that I could get rid of the ache in my chest as I eventually met Eileen's eyes.

"They won't save you now," I shrugged, my voice sounding broken as a weak, sad smile appearing on my face. I had lost it.

Eileen smirked as I lunged for her, but the expression dissolved into fear almost instantly. My wings flared at my sides, taking me into the air as I drew back a hand, my claws pressed together like a dagger. The swirling magic crackled with dark and light energy, the two envelopping my hand as I flew toward Eileen. She gasped, throwing up her hands. A blast of telepathic force shook everything in the room -- but me. Her weak blast did nothing to stop me as I landed on her, holding back from using my claws just yet. The kick I executed instead sent her flying back into the churning surface of the dome, and she screamed. The surface itself was burning her, the magic reacting to my emotions. Eileen screamed, scrambling away from the dome as I realized I had one giant weapon all around us.

"And you thought I was below you..," I mused, stomping over to the woman in a burnt, stained gown. She staggered to her feet, fist flying toward me in a sloppy motion. I deflected it easily, batting her aside with inhuman strength. What was meant to be a simple block turned into her flying sideways into the dome, her screams causing my frustration to increase at all the noise. I shook out my hand with the crackling energy, relaxing what I could of my magic. She wasn't worth this energy.

I began striding toward her, but stopped short when I caught a whisper in the crowd and saw them turning toward the doors to the ballroom.

"...werewolf, she's bleeding..."

"...looks bad... think it's permanent..."

Rebecca, I thought, throwing caution to the wind. I ran for the dome, nearly tripping over my skirt. Gritting my teeth, I leapt into the air and soared toward the edge, fist first. My knuckles connected with the barrier and it shattered, dissolving in a poof of hot magic. Only one or two Lightbloods were brave enough to help Eileen up as I landed on the banister, gasping. My brothers and father were supporting a bleeding Rebecca, Terrance and Warren holding three men at their feet.