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Chapter Eighty-Five: The Great War (p. 4)

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THIRD PERSON ~

Following on from the former King's death, nature lost its vitality. Since Creon had been gifted the essence of giving life to greenery, his absence meant trees withered, leaves shrivelled, and flowers lost their bloom. In memorial of the retired King, the battlefield lost its life, drying up and transitioning into a deep yellow with a brownish cast.

Where dead men lay grew an offspring of thorned, jade black roses which symboled death.

In the distance stood the black witch, Aeliana, gracing the outskirts of the battlefield. With an inability to intervene in the prophecised battle, she had just witnessed the death of a man whom she'd served and respected for years play out. Many would assume her shed tears were for Oberyn, but they were for Creon.

She upheld her solemn stance and continued to observe the frenzied scene that took place around his corpse and grieving son Zachary Beaumont. With Aeliana's intense, purple-eyed gaze locked on the battlefield with fondness, she let a gloved hand crawl up beneath her black veil. With a heavy heart, she allowed her lace fingers to wipe away the lost tears that had fallen from her eyes.

The witch was seemingly affected by the retired King's death. It appeared to have affected her more than it was supposed to. With a single sniff, she let her wet eyes pierce through her mask and continue to watch the battle roll out.

"Fire the catapults!" Roared a raging Richard Harris, the man in charge of the vampire army.

The alpha Raymond furiously led his pack and charged in the direction of the emerging demon-witch troops. The two had been fuelled by the retired King's death and were undoubtedly not going down without a fight. It was as clear as day that they would leave a trail of dead bodies behind first before their own demise.

The battle proceeded like a tunnel with no end and it rained the blood of man. Spears, balls of fire and other projectiles were forcefully propelled through the doom and gloom sky, killing masses of shaken soldiers. Heavy crossbow-like weapons were also used for ungodly acts. With more than one ballista being operated by both sides of the war to shoot arrows, darts as well as hurl stones at each other.

The Kingdom of Asten had fallen into a pit of madness. No one and nobody was safe no more, not even on royal soil. Areas of every region had been invaded by the war of the supernatural, making today a never-ending nightmare for all. The day would not end until there was a victory and surprisingly, the safest place to be, was on the battlefield.

This was no longer a mindless war between the vampires and witches. It had become far more personal. This was now a battle between two kings and peace.

And for it to end, only one of the three could survive.

So, as the saying goes, may the last man standing win.

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"Natalya, come quickly!" Ashira urgently waved. "We- we need you over here," she stammered between rapid breaths, her panicked eyes flickering between a wounded Oberyn and the pale human girl. "Keep him guard!" The witch ordered the men around them. "We shall fix this," she muttered, proceeding to break Natalya out of her frozen trance by tugging at her near-to-numb arm.

Ashira focused on Natalya, planting her hands on her shoulders in all seriousness. "Please tell me, has Oberyn had your blood before?" Natalya had to delve deep into her memory but think quickly.

As she struggled to remember whether he had or not, a hesitant reply left her. "I thi- think so. When we first met, I may or may not have offered him my-"

"-No no that's perfect. Come with me now!" Ashira exclaimed, cutting her off and dragging her down to the patch of dead grass that Oberyn lay on. "There might be a chance we can save him. That is if your blood still runs inside of him."

"How?" Natalya nauseously gulped, disorientated by the clash between her wild surroundings and Ashira's life-and-death speech. "Natalya, it is 50/50 but you must feed him your blood. If what you say is true, you could reverse the effects of the Nixonited blade."

The witch of many faces hastily pulled a dagger from Oberyn's pouch and offered it out to her. Natalya floundered back in the mud, startled. Her thoughts momentarily betraying her when she saw the knife and forcing her to think that it was time for the sacrifice.

When she realised it wasn't, she crawled back to her original position and hung her head to study Oberyn's deteriorating body. "So I- I can save him because he has my blood in- inside of him?" Natalya stuttered, her face grimacing at the graphic gash that had been left by a resentful and bereaved Alexander.

"But Evel- She-"

"Natalya. I heard about Evelyn and we are all mourning the loss but there was no way of saving her if she'd-"

"-Never had my blood. I get it," Natalya released a shaky breath before anxiously chewing on her bottom lip. "Fine..." she eventually said, grasping onto the dagger extended out to her. While cutting across the palm of her hand, she looked to the battlefield around her to distract from the pain.

From her observation, it seemed Alaric was holding his own with Cathryn and Derek by his side. They were standing guard of Zac who looked too distraught over the death of his father to fight. Natalya felt his earnest pain but then again, his father was not a good man. That became clearer the day she'd spoken to him about her heritage.

Pressing her hand to Oberyn's mouth, Natalya's eyes continued to wander to ensure everything was remotely under control. When she saw Preston, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. He happened to be whispering whatever absurdity into Harrison's ear while his 'brothers and sisters' fought in his stead. Watching them interact in this way caused Natalya great anxiety and discomfort. She could not stand questioning her heart's desire but after the incidents with Marcus, Evelyn and now Harrison, she had every right to be cautious of the demon king.

Unable to bear the sight and thought of Preston setting her best friend up for his tragic end, Natalya put her eyes elsewhere. At least Harrison was not doing anything odd as of yet but time was ticking. If Natalya wanted to speak to him, she had to be quick. The steaks were too high. Anything could happen at any given moment.

Natalya's POV~

My eyes grew when I suddenly found Alexander battling it out with Kace over the attack he'd placed on Oberyn. Both parties were very much engaged in their little sparring battle as if the world around them did not even exist.

"That should be enough," Ashira gently tore my palm from Oberyn's mouth and clicked her fingers to two recognisable members of the shadow ancestry. "Take him back and stand guard of him. Unfortunately, there is no telling whether this will work or not."

"We did not prepare for this," Ashira mumbled, following her words with a short sigh.

While some of the Shadow Ancestry witches used magic to safely transport Oberyn back to their hideout, Ashira did not hesitate before ordering me to "stop him. Kace has let his emotions cloud his judgement but that 'bastard' boy is not to be harmed."

By bastard boy, I was assuming she meant Alexander, but- why did she care about him?

Surely the witches wanted to get rid of anyone and everyone closely related to the royal family. Alexander had the dead King's blood in him. Bastard or not, he was apart of that family. And of course, I wanted him alive but why the hell did the witches? How awfully strange.

I must have missed something. Did they know each other personally or...

"What- why?" I knew asking all these questions on a battlefield was dumb but curiousity always got the best of me. I'm sure you know by now that it was a weakness of mine.

"Just do it."

When I was ready to interrogate further, I learned my lesson on asking questions at an inappropriate time, when I heard a loud grunt sound from the direction in which Xander and Kace fought. As my head snapped up, my eyes widened in horror when I saw Aaron (1/6 of the castle torturers) had taken a poisoned stake to the heart in place of Alexander.

"Aaron!" I gasped, bringing my bloody hand to my mouth. I immediately scrambled up to my feet to stop Kace from attempting any further harm on a distressed Alexander and his injured friend.

Throwing my hands out, I sent a great gust of wind his way, one which was strong enough to knock him back off his feet. When he collided with the ground, he knowingly looked over to Ashira and I before finally coming back to his senses. Meanwhile, I bit down on my tongue and winced when the cut along my palm simultaneously stung with my eyes.

Tears trickled down my flushed cheeks knowing that Aaron was as good as gone. There was not even enough time to mourn his death as I could not stand around and watch the same thing happen to anyone else.

Zac especially.

It was up to me to save us both.

After all, for as long as he lived, I would live too.

Why was I beginning to feel like there was a deeper reason Daya and Davina had left me with this piece of information... It was almost as if they'd purposely told me my life depended on Zac, so I would somehow find a loophole to this madness? I thought carefully whilst pressing down on the bleeding slit in my hand.

Actually... My mouth fell ajar in realisation. I think I had an idea. I raised my head and my eyes shot in Zac's direction. A really really good idea.

The only disadvantage was... if the idea were to fail, it could put me at risk of exposing my abilities but honestly, so what? I was sick and tired of having to hide the real me. It felt like the more I hid, the more people that got hurt, including myself. Hiding was a permanent solution for my mother and brother, but for me, it was going to be temporary.  Hiding would not fix anything and at this point the only person I was hiding from was Zac...

After what happened in the past with my mother and then with me in the castle, I had grown more and more hesitant about revealing my family's secret to the people of Asten. But, did I really want to die with it kept secret or survive with it out in the open? Maybe this would be the ultimate test to see if Zac really had become a better person.

If he could accept it like Alexander, Cassandra and Rose had then perfect, but if he was anything like his father or grandfather then I did not see things ending well for either of us. No matter the consequence, this plan was a risk I was more than willing to take for a chance to finally live the life I deserved.

I could not guarantee Harrison would back down from killing Zac if I asked him, especially when he seemed so intent on proving himself after Pres had doubted him. Besides, even if he did listen to me, Pres wouldn't even bat an eyelash before taking matters into his own hands and killing Zac himself.

Even my pleas wouldn't stop Pres. His mind was already set, especially after making me promise not to get in his way of killing Zac.

I was hoping my initial suspicion that Harris was planning something of his own was true but I couldn't be too sure, so I had no other choice but to take action. If I wanted this story to end well for me, I needed this plan to work and for it to do just that, I needed Zac to play the part with me.

As soon as I saw Zac finally making a move and rising from the side of his father's corpse, I made a run for it. He had so much vim in him now, I could see it from his mere body language. His jaw was clenched and his knuckles had whitened from the way he violently gripped onto his sword.

He was preparing to attack, but the last thing I needed right now was for him to draw more attention than what was already on him when I wanted to be discreet in my approach. So, as I neared him, I did my best to blend in with the masses of Astenian men and called for him.

"Zac!"

He did not hear me over the loud clanging of metal and chorus of neighing horses.

"Zac!" I harshly snapped, now sandwiched between the cutting edges of swords, fierce men and battle horses. For extra caution, I plucked a cape free from a dead man's body and deliberately pulled it over my body, using it as camouflage since my torn dress made me stick out like a sore thumb.

Hopefully, this would allow me enough time to run Zac through my plan without being suspected. I would have used my ability if my body didn't feel so abused but I needed it to heal before doing any more channelling. Especially after the several dire nosebleeds that I'd suffered.

And if I could help it, I planned on keeping Zac in the shadows for as long as I possibly could.

When I was finally an arms-length away from Zac, I pulled at his wrist and yanked him into the deeper depths of Astenian men, until he was no longer as visible as before. I certainly caught his attention because he unsteadily whipped around, the point of his sword to my throat as he allowed his puffy red eyes to lock on mine.

"Whoa whoa, careful..." I squeaked, raising a hand in the air and watching him regain his balance.

Zac's eyes glimmered upon seeing me, softening as he instantly withdrew his sword from my neck, giving me a chance to pull the cape I wore back over my head and shield my face from everyone but him.

"Nat? What are you still doing here? It's not safe!" Zac bombarded me with his 'concern' as soon as he recognised me. Frowning as he mentally scrolled through the potential dangers that could strike a human on a battlefield of supernatural beings.

"No no, Zac listen, I need you to be the selfish prince of the past for a minute, don't worry about me right now, okay? I have a plan and if you don't want to die like your father then I suggest you listen."

"Wait a minute... Natalya, why are you here and not with him? Did he send you?" Zac suspiciously interrogated, clearly and obviously hurt by all the deaths he'd seen on the battlefield thus far. "I hope this isn't your way of setting me up as part of some sick revenge. How many more times do I have to say I'm sorry before you forgive me entirely?"

"That's not what this is, Zac. I know you're grieving but there's no reason to start accusing me of such things! This isn't the place nor is it the time to question my loyalty. And for your information, no he did not send me. I want no part of Pres' slaughter."

I calmed myself down.

"I will only shed blood if I have to... hey... BEHIND YOU!" I warned and Zac swiftly swung his sword, wiping out both fast-approaching Hellstone witches in one clean swipe.

Zac staggered back around apologetically. "You're right, I'm sorry I just-" "It has always been hard to read you, I just never know exactly what you're thinking."

To this day, it was hard to believe he couldn't read me when he so easily compelled me in the past... I guess it was my necklace that gave me that small layer of protection, one which prevented Zac's ability from accessing information I didn't want him to know.

I shook my head reassuringly, darting my eyes up at the sky when something wet touched my nose. It had started to rain. How fitting. "Don't worry about it. I get it. I wouldn't know whether to trust me too if I were you, especially when I should be fighting alongside Pres."

"Well, I'm listening now," he weakly smiled, reaching over to pull the cape further out over my head. His generous act of kindness was to make sure I would not get any more rainfall on my protruding nose. I weakly smile back before hearing him speak again.

"What's this plan and how will it ensure that I don't end up dead like my father?"

"Ok so," I inhaled. "Long story short there is a prophecy and apparently I'm the only one who can fulfil it by giving myself up as a human sacrifice," I exhaled, seeing Zac immediately put a hand up to my face before protesting the idea... "No way in hell! That doesn't even make any sense, why you?" Zac repeatedly blinked, "Wait, Nat, who put you up to this?"

I kept my silence and sheepishly shrugged, protective over the witches.

Zac was irritated and his frustrated reaction made it obvious, just like everyone else who I had told about the sacrifice. Everyone but the witches, who of course I trusted since Davina and my Great Grandfather Daya had revealed to me their true intentions.

"Well, whoever it was, don't believe it. That's bullshit and I'm not letting that happen."

Although they had gone the wrong way about achieving it in the past, the witches had proven that their careless, thoughtless actions were all to return the Kingdom of Asten to the serene peace it was before the vampires stole it from them.

"It's not bullshit, Zac, it's serious stuff and no one put me up to- urgh," I calmly seeled my eyes close, "just listen to me, please."

"But I don't get it, why must it be you?"

The rain was spitting down on Aeralin now but it did not faze us or anyone else in combat.

"Trust me I don't know why either but I believe it has something to do with my roots, maybe, I don't know. But, anyway, there's no time to get into the details, what matters right now is that for some insane reason and please don't read into it too much but uhm... Our lives kind of depend on each other."

Even after countless deaths, including his own father's, the idiot still managed to lift the corners of his lips into a smirk. "Oh really? I wonder whether the universe is trying to tell us something."

Yeah that you're a dickhead.

I scoffed. "I thought you didn't believe this prophecy 'bullshit'?"

He pouted with a heavy-armed shrug. "Well, I can't help but feel a little invested now."

"Good because if we both want to live to see another day, you cannot die, you hear me? For once I'm asking you to live, Zac..."

"Sure," he easily accepted the challenge and kept his