Three Broken Kingdoms-Book 1 of the Lost Continent (Completed)

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Sister's Betrayal

Lysandra's Point of View

She held a sliver in her hand as she prepared herself for the task to come. The task that would rip her to pieces.

It must be done, she reminded herself. Fail, and the world would crumble. The valkyries and the elves would be the first and though their fall was inevitable, at least Lysandra knew some would survive. With the ShadowBreathers able to replace them, she knew that none would live past her mother's wrath. Soon there would be no escaping her Medea's rule, not even for Lysandra. She could never take the throne if the ShadowBreathers were released into the world. Aaron would simply bring his mother back.

It would be the end of everything in the way elfin magic never could be.

The sliver pulsed with darkness in her hand, and she was careful not to let it slide into her veins. That would cause her blood to go dark, something no one had yet experimented with and did not want to. She felt her magic deplete from creating the sliver. At most she could make five at a time; more than her brothers, less than her mother. That seemed her constant fate.

Sweat beaded down her forehead, half from the heat and half from fear. She walked to Aaron's room, her breath coming quickly now. He wouldn't remember what she had done. She would make sure of that. But she would remember all of it well enough for them both.

"Lysandra?" Aaron asked, turning around. Now. It had to be now.

She ran her fingers over the sliver nervously and threw the razor-sharp shadow bolt right into her brother's head.

It passed through, and she breathed a sigh of relief. When Aaron turned to her, there was nothing in his eyes. No life and purpose in those bright blue eyes that had greeted her all her life.   His usually golden skin-a rarity amongst dark-skinned Kallians-was sickly pale.

"Why?" he asked, and Lysandra broke. Her heart shattered completely in that moment and she froze.

"I'm so sorry, baby brother," she told him, her voice little more than a whisper. "But I can't let you continue the ShadowBreathers."

"Why?" He repeated. His eyes were so soulless, compelling her to answer.

"They will destroy everything," she whispered. "They are unnatural, Aaron. They will plunge the world into darkness."

"They would have been people. So many people."

"Our mother cannot have that power," she told him. "You know this, Aaron."

"It would have made her so happy," he said. "She would have loved me so much. You took that away from me!"

"She already loves you," she answered. "And if she needs you to do this to love you, then she doesn't deserve your love at all."

"You betrayed me. You put a sliver in my head! You lied to me, too-I didn't even know you had magic. What other lies are there, sister?" And because this is the only time she can confess, the only person she can confess to, she tells him.

"I will frame our brothers for treason.," she began. Aaron's face was hollow; empty of the shock and betrayal she had expected.

"I am working with the rebellion, and later, I will make sure they are blamed for what I have done. I will do this to become heir, and to protect us both." She tells him, and the words release her burden - slightly. The heartbreak in his eyes only makes her feel worse. "I feel no guilt for it. They are horrible, and I want them dead and I want to be heir. And...when they are dead I will kill our mother, not to save the thousands she is tyrant to, but to win the crown myself."