The Silver Knight
Chapter 1
Prologue
Chapter 1
Sigrid appeared in a fog of ice back in her estate, her knees folding as she dropped to the floor. Blood dripped from her lips and her bones creaked, as if they were being pressured into submission.
It would’ve been less painful if they were to just break. But they wouldn’t snap. They weren’t going to make it that simple on her.
She bit her lip, which was already ripped from previous gnawings. Pain tended to force you to do that. And for someone so used to getting wounded and injured, even she couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by it.
Six years. All these years later, and she didn’t have the power needed to do what was necessary. She could pull off just about anything. And nothing was out of her reach. But who would’ve thought the one thing she couldn’t obtain wasn’t because of lack of power, but merely because she was herself.
Stupid barrier.
She coughed up another spatter of blood, her arm around her stomach to hold back the contents. Her body had been trying to turn it inside out on itself, and if it was the same as last time, this darned spell on her would eat away at her power until she lost conscious if she didn’t get control now.
Long silver strands of hair laid around her as her head pressed on the ground. Her arms were on either side of her temple as she groaned. Her nails dug into the floor before she breathed deeply in, calling every ounce of strength she had to push through.
One. Two. She didn’t even reach three before her body writhed, pushing the dark magic intent on trying to at least bleed her dry before leaving her nothing but a husk. Her skin bristled. Her vision blurred. And her ears began to ring viscously until she was certain she was bleeding from them.
She wriggled on the floor for what felt like hours, under the fall of the dark beneath the trees surrounding her home. A breath of fresh air entered her when she finally expelled the dark magic from her veins, and within moments, everything began to return to normal.
It took her a second before she stopped seeing double and forced herself to stand.
She pushed back her hair, spitting her bloodied saliva on the floor before breathing in deeply again. Why had she willingly went to go search for pain again? Ah, yes. To achieve the one thing that mattered to her in this world. Surprisingly, it had nothing to do with furthering her own power.
Who would’ve thought.
She sighed, uncoiling the cloak covering her body and turning around. The one thing she needed right now was rest, a very long one.
All of a sudden, her stride immediately paused. Her head snapped up, and she stared at the pair of unfamiliar eyes staring at her dubiously.
She stilled.
In her focus to not lose consciousness, she had let go of the concentration she had on her surroundings. She hadn’t realised or sensed that there had been someone before her. Her eyes looked into the dark, seeing him clear enough even within the dark.
She placed her had on the sword at her hip. “Who are you?”
He stepped forward slowly, coming into the brightness of the moon.
She silently stared at the stranger dressed in a night robe, her brows furrowing momentarily. Since her brain was still a little bit of a mess, it took her a moment to remember that this was her residence.
Which meant the night barriers had gone up. The only way for a stranger to be here is if they entered during the day time. And that was impossible with her knights protecting the estate.
The man before her did not look one bit lost. In fact, he looked more than comfortable with his wet dark as night strands, almost as if he had stepped out of a bath. There was a slight look of shock on his face as he stared at her.
He didn’t reply, and for a moment she thought he had ignored her. But his focus was elsewhere. She followed his line of sight, looking down at herself, her eyes catching her light, almost moon like skin.
Her body stilled. She was in her other form.
One every person in this empire recognised.
One that had been proclaimed dead seven years ago.
The previous queen, Lilian Rose Lovell.