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

Chapter Forty-Five: A General's Betrayal

Behind them, somebody slammed their fist into a wall, and they both froze.

"Traitor," the person behind them rasped. "A human, Myra?" He whirled around to face the voice. His blood chilled. It was Diaz, and her eyes were filled with hate.

Jasper cried out in pain and whirled, not fast enough to stop the knife embedded in his leg. Myra's eyes burned with fury, but he could barely think through pain. There was so much blood...would he die here, his aunt hating him, at the hands of a valkyrie? At least I got to tell Myra I loved her, he thought as the world went black.

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Myra

All through her years on the battlefield, all through war and hatred, she never remembered such fury. Her world narrowed down to the knife in Jasper's leg and the person who threw it, and she drew a long, steel blade.

Diaz paled at the sight of the sword, remembering suddenly who she had just accused and attacked.

A warrior always, she drew her blade and steel flashed in the dying light of the sun.

"You're a traitor, Myra." Diaz hissed at her. "To think I once followed you. Respected you."

"What's so wrong with caring for a human, general?" she asked, cold rage filling her bones. Jasper was bleeding on the ground beside her, and she was going to slit Diaz's throat.

"They are filth. They are weak and cowardly. They are beneath us."

"Why? Because they were born different?"

"Because they are unchosen. Belle and Sarai rejected them as the filth as they are, and in their name, I bring justice upon you and the human."

"You don't have to do this, Diaz."

"Once you were great, Myra. So, I shall let you die on your feet, fighting."

"There isn't much you could do to stop me doing that," Myra yelled back and threw the first of her daggers at Diaz. The general swerved to the side, but it drew blood from her arm. Angrily, she spat at Myra and threw a blade of her own. But her anger had made her careless and she dodged the dagger swiftly.

Myra darted towards her, swift as an asp, and brought her blade to Diaz's. They clashed violently, a screech of steel on steel.

"I will make you regret this," her general promised, but she only laughed. Inside, she worried about Jasper, bleeding out on cold concrete. This needed to end soon, so she did something she never would have thought she would. The valkyries always treated each other with respect in their duels, but the man she loved-loved-was close to death, and she would give up her pride for him.

Her foot reached out quickly and Diaz slipped, falling to her knees and hissing with pain. Myra didn't give her a chance to get up and pressed her sword to her unprotected throat.

Suddenly the reality of what she was about to do hit her. Could she take Diaz's life? Before her anger had made her fight her old ally, but now she stilled. Never before had she taken a valkyrie life. Elves, yes, and humans plenty, but never a valkyrie. Diaz was one of her own people, a warrior and a general.

"Leave," she said weakly. "Go to the Northenmost Land for all I care, but I never want to see you step foot in Miras again."

Diaz fled like a wounded animal and did not look behind her.

Myra rushed to Jasper and carried him to the governor's palace, pleading with Sarai, Belle and the all-knowing Lyra to save him.

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