Epilogue

She couldn’t breathe. She wreathed and clawed at the darkness around her, her hands desperately trying to find the surface. Nothing mattered but the pain. Not the water that seeped into her mouth and filled her lungs or the blinding darkness that tugged her farther and farther downwards. She weakly reached out, her hand begging for a salvation she knew would never come.

Darkness settled over her mind and her will to fight ebbed away. She hung suspended in the water; her hair floated around her head in a dark halo.

Her last thoughts weren’t for her father or her army, but for her enemy; Sirye. I will make you pay for this. You haven’t seen the last of me.

The last of her strength slide away and death, in all his glory beaconed to her. He raised a bony finger and bent it in silent entreaty.

Death enfolded her in his black cloak and Nakira, the demon child, closed her crimson eyes.