‘Me. I am talking about me – your friend who has access to any and all books in this library. Including the books that detail duelling techniques that the queen most likely won’t teach you, and might not want you to learn.’

‘Evera, don’t tease me. Are you saying –’

‘Sit here while I go and retrieve them.’

‘No. I’m coming with you. I’ll carry them while you search.’

An hour later, Sapphire exited the library with a stack of books in her hands and her hopes higher than they had been when she entered.

These books spoke of magic she had never thought possible. They gave her new ways to use her powers, ways that were twisted and deadly.

They gave her answers, a fighting chance to prove herself worthy of her surname.

She sat at the desk in her room and read about how to remove all the water from someone’s body or control the blood that ran through an opponent’s veins. About drowning somebody from the inside out – filling their lungs with water until they were sputtering as they tried to breathe.

Thoughts of what was possible clouded her mind. A darkness took root in her, a hunger for power, a longing for destruction.

Drowning.

Suffocating.

Controlling.

The words on the pages blurred together until she could no longer decipher them. It was then that the familiar, chilling voice broke through the haze.

You’re only beginning to wake, my child.

The words ghosted against her skin, and she slammed the book closed quickly, tucking it away in its rightful place in her washroom closet, and tried to shake the feeling of a presence that did not belong.

That night, she dreamed of the child for the fourth time in a row, watching as the girl ran from monsters Sapphire could not see. The sight of the girl in a tattered gown made her stomach turn – it reminded Sapphire of when she would hunt and then run to escape the Beasts.

Sapphire watched as the girl looked around wildly before stumbling over a log, causing her to fall hard against the ground. It was then that Sapphire saw the figure emerging. Shadows masked them as they made their way closer, and Sapphire watched as the child cried out in fear.

‘Please save me,’ the child begged. ‘Please don’t let them take me.’

Sapphire felt a pressure on her chest, and as the girl stretched out her small hand, everything in her being said no. Walk away.

But she couldn’t leave the girl, so instead, she offered her hand to the child as the shadows engulfed them both.

As their hands met, a shrill scream filled the room, and Sapphire shot from her bed, gasping for air. She kept her eyes closed in an effort to calm her erratic heart.

You are safe. You are in the kingdom. And you are safe.