The Raven Flame [The Crown Saga III] (First Draft)

Golden Warriors

"Is this thing safe?" Eos asked, hesitating to accept her mother's hand, inviting her to the ominous platform formed by Pangea's star-blessed powers.

"Perfectly safe," Pangea assured her before wrapping her fingers around Eos' and pulling her the last foot across.

Eos shrieked, the fear whetting the razor-sharp pitches riding the wave of air, making even Torrach wince as Eos landed in her mother's safe embrace.

"See," Pangea said, laughing at Eos clinging to her patched robe. "Perfectly safe."

Caiden carried Alia to Pangea's magic platform next, followed by Art, who still seemed hesitant to move closer than necessary to the lost queen.

"Ready?" Piper whispered, adjusting my arm around her neck.

I snorted. "I've survived three royal trials less than prepared; I've sailed across half of Heliac, defied death more times than the spirit-crossers would probably sanction under normal circumstances, and somehow bonded with a dragon. I think I'll survive stepping onto a magical platform."

Piper tilted her head and looked at me with a sympathetic smile slightly curling her lips. "That's not what I meant, Will," she said. "I meant to ask if you were ready to accept that ridiculous title and embrace this new reality. It wasn't too long ago that your original world was turned upside down, and you were pushed to participate as an enacting suitor in the Crown Trials, which must've been hard enough. A golden warrior, on the other hand, is a crazy responsibility."

An invisible weight seemed to settle across my shoulders as the last word skipped off her unraveling tongue, making my feet heavy and my back stiff. None of her thoughtless statements were observations I hadn't considered, but hearing it from a second mind made it so much more unbearable to consider.

I had spent so much time adjusting to the title of royal suitor and learning to harness the fraction of my power it took for me to get by in those same royal trials. I had barely learned to teleport—let alone control it—when my blood changed... again.

I had barely learned to embrace my Iridis powers, and soon, I would come to find a set of new powers slumbering within me—new powers that I would have to learn to tame while still struggling to manage my original ones. Not to mention how Queen Pangea had spoken of this looming darkness, planning to extinguish the spark of the star that lights this world and snuff out life as if time was short.

My head had started pounding, and I doubted even Kaoru could ease the pending headache.

"Hey," Piper suddenly said, lightly nudging me with her hip.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, scarcely noticing the apologetic shimmer in her eye and the hesitant crook of her lips.

"Forget what I just said. You know how I tend to blab mindlessly when I'm nervous," she said, and I finally noticed the faint beads along her brow and the damp hairline. If I held my breath and isolated us from the world around us, I had no doubt I would hear Piper's heart thumping wildly in her chest and her breath straining to work through her clenching throat. "I'm sure you'll be great and master this mysterious power in no time, just like you did during the trials."

I pinched the tip of my tongue between my teeth. Piper's high thoughts of me were flattering but exaggerated.

I may have learned to manage my air powers and no longer had to fear spawning random hurricanes, but claiming that I'd mastered them was a stretch.

I wasn't stating that my accomplishments weren't noteworthy. Considering the time and resources I had been given, I was proud to have reached this level of control, but I still had a long way to go.