Blood of Kings

'It's no good: all of this death, all of this hurt. I won't allow it any longer. How long will this darkness prevail?'

He stood alone in the library hall. They were all gone. They had left him according to the words of his request. There was only the stairwell, a clever means of slipping away into an underground world, which remained open to him. This had been his home, and those whom he had loved as family and cherished as friends he had hidden away within its walls, held in the safety of its depths.

‘I appreciate your devotion and your sacrifice, truly, I do, but, this time, as I said, it is my turn to give to you.’

He stretched forth his hand and let out a slow breath of air. Fire flew from his fingertips and impacted the carved stone of the wall, closing the entrance to the stairs and concealing it neatly beneath the bookshelf. He lowered his arm, content to have procured the safety of his companions.

‘If I die, I die, but none shall perish beside me. For, if a man must die today,