Moonveil Academy: Trapped With The Five Kings

Elara:

The glowing blue eyes vanished almost as quickly as they had appeared, swallowed by the darkness above me, and gravity immediately reclaimed me.

I kept falling. There was nothing beneath me, nothing within reach of my hands, nothing I could grab onto to stop the inevitable. The wind tore through my hair and clothes, forcing the breath from my lungs as the cliffside blurred around me.

For one strange, terrifying moment, I couldn’t believe this was how my life was going to end. Not surrounded by people who loved me. Not peacefully in my sleep. Not even after accomplishing something worthwhile. I had been in Starfall for barely a month, had barely begun understanding what I was, and already someone had decided that my existence was inconvenient enough to erase.

My parents, Felix, my old life, the academy, my powers, my plans... everything flashed through my mind in scattered fragments. I thought about Myra. I hoped she was alright. I hoped someone had found her. And then, strangely, I thought about the academy and all the people who had made those first weeks unbearable. Reign’s arrogant face appeared in my mind for no reason at all, followed by Kairo’s irritating smirk, Violet’s bright laughter, Crazy’s endless commentary, and even Professor Fenrith’s permanently unimpressed expression.

I didn’t want to die. The realization struck me with such force that my chest tightened painfully. I had spent so much time telling myself I didn’t belong here, that I wanted nothing from this strange world, that I didn’t care what happened to Starfall or its royal family. But somewhere along the way, I had started building a life here. A tiny, fragile one, perhaps, but it was mine. And I wasn’t ready to lose it.

The ground rushed toward me. I could see jagged rocks scattered across the valley floor, each one becoming clearer with every passing second. There wasn’t enough time. Even if my magic suddenly decided to cooperate, I wasn’t sure I had enough strength left to summon it.

I reached for that familiar warmth anyway, desperately searching for even a spark beneath my skin, but my body remained frustratingly numb. The drugs had stolen whatever little control I had managed to gain.

My eyes burned, but I refused to cry. I had already spent enough of my life crying over things I couldn’t change. If this truly was the end, I wanted at least one final moment where I wasn’t begging the world to spare me. So I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the impact.

I imagined pain. I imagined the sickening crack of bones. I imagined nothingness. Instead, something rushed past me with such incredible speed that the air around my body shifted violently. My eyes flew open just in time to see that same enormous black creature diving beneath me. It moved so fast that I barely registered its shape, only the flash of dark fur and those brilliant blue eyes before my body crashed into it.

The impact still hurt. God, it hurt. But it wasn’t the bone-shattering agony I had expected. Something warm and solid absorbed most of the force beneath me, and for a few seconds I couldn’t even understand what had happened.

My ears rang violently, a high-pitched buzzing drowning out every other sound. My vision blurred until the world became nothing but vague patches of darkness and silver. Pain radiated through my back, my shoulders, my head, but somehow I was alive. I tried to breathe and immediately regretted it when every muscle in my body protested.

The creature shifted beneath me, and I felt its warmth disappear before something else caught me. Strong arms wrapped around my body and pulled me against a solid chest. I couldn’t see the person’s face. I couldn’t even properly hear anything anymore. But there was something familiar about the scent surrounding me, something that my half-conscious mind recognized before my rational thoughts could.

Then I heard a voice. It was barely more than a whisper, but it was shaking, almost terrified. ”I won’t let anything happen to you.”

My brows pulled together as I tried desperately to understand why that voice sounded so familiar. I wanted to open my mouth and ask who it was. I wanted to look at him. But the darkness was already creeping back into the edges of my vision, swallowing everything piece by piece. The last thing I felt was those arms tightening around me as though whoever held me was afraid that if he loosened his grip even slightly, I would disappear. Then consciousness slipped away.

- - -

When I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t in the mountains. At least, I didn’t think I was.

I pushed myself upright slowly and stared around me, utterly bewildered.

White.

There was nothing except white. White beneath my feet, white stretching endlessly in every direction, white above me without a visible sky. There were no trees, no mountains, no walls, no ceiling, no sun. Just an endless, blinding whiteness that seemed to swallow every possible sound.

I turned around, searching for something familiar, but there was nothing.

”Hello?”

My voice sounded strangely distant, as though even my own words were being swallowed by the emptiness. No answer came. I looked down at myself. I was standing barefoot, dressed in the same clothes I had been wearing when those men attacked me, except there wasn’t a single tear or stain on them. Even the pain was gone.

I touched the back of my head where I remembered being struck, then my ribs, my arms, my legs. There was nothing. Not even soreness.

”Am I dead?” I whispered.

The question felt ridiculous, yet there was no one around to laugh at me. Maybe this was heaven. If there was a heaven in this bizarre world. Although if this was supposed to be paradise, someone had clearly forgotten to add furniture.

I started walking. I had no idea where I was going, but standing still felt worse. My footsteps made no sound, and no matter how far I walked, the scenery never changed. There was no horizon, yet somehow I could see far enough ahead to know there was nothing there.

I kept going anyway. Perhaps I walked for minutes. Perhaps hours. Perhaps days. Time seemed meaningless in that strange place. My thoughts became quieter the longer I walked, the memories of the cliff and the men slowly fading into something distant. Then, finally, something appeared ahead of me. At first, it was little more than a dark speck against the white.

I stopped and my heart began beating faster. I wasn’t alone.

I picked up my pace.

The speck became a shape. Then a structure. And then... a cage.