Queen of Chaos （Legacy of the Nine Realms, #5）
Amelia Hutchins
Dedication
A huge thank you to the girls who helped get this book out. Truly helping until the very last minute. Lauren, Erica, Kelly, Michelle, and Mandy, my muffins. Thank you for helping me get this finished and ensuring the right ending of this one was perfect.
For Miranda, the daughter I raised, even though you weren’t mine. I’m so sorry that life was painfully hard at the end. I wish I could have saved you. You deserved a happy ending and were so brave at the end. Don’t worry about the boy, he’s safe with me. I love you more than I ever expected to, and know you’re up there holding the light for us.
This one is for those who never back down. The unicorns still standing tall in a world breaking you down. To the ones wishing they were braver, you’re braver than you know. To those we’ve lost this year, and those we’ll lose.
Erin, I’m so sorry you lost your ever more, but he’ll always be with you. Even if only in your heart. Tyler was lucky to have such a beautiful soul to look down on from his lofty perch. Heaven only takes the good ones early.
Chapter One
Aria
Once upon a time, I’d desired nothing more than to walk within the Nine Realms. To stand on the imposing cliffs that had acted as sentries for the far-reaching Dragonaries Ocean. An ocean which epitomized the color of Knox’s eyes, perfectly. I wanted to climb a giant tree in the Carnivora Forest before exploring the remaining Kingdom of Fire. I’d been in love with the history of the realms, seeking the knowledge they held. It had been an addiction to learn everything about the deadly, unforgiving, merciless lands that had once called to me inside the Tenth Realm.
The girl who’d once gobbled up every morsel of information on the Nine Realms, had died. The sweet, na?ve, gullible girl had succumbed to the betrayal of those she had idiotically followed, those who had beaten and broken her down. That Aria hadn’t known she was born to die. She hadn’t known the woman she’d doted on, the woman who she’d believed saved her from the monsters, was actually her mother. Nor had she known that those she’d called sisters, who weren’t even her sisters after all.
I no longer trusted people blindly. Instead, I looked for the motives behind why they’d want me close at hand. My loyalty was no longer freely given. It had to be earned because, since I’d come to the Nine Realms, those I’d once considered my closest allies had put me through hell. They couldn’t seem to comprehend that I didn’t crave power as they did, nor did I covet crowns. I’d watched and read enough Game of Thrones to understand I wasn’t up for that role. The poor child who’d been tossed from a window had become the king, and the guy who pushed him had betrayed the badass with dragons. Moral of the story? Nothing but calamity came with being a ruler. Hard pass.
Knox had changed, too. He no longer hunted me—for the most part. Nevertheless, he had allowed me to escape from Aurora, who’d entered the chamber to come here, to the Kingdom of Fire. A place that shouldn’t exist. I’d wager that the library had learned what happened by forging another realm, when Griffon had constructed this one.
The Kingdom of Fire was vibrant with life flourishing inside the township. The reality was a replica of my dream. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but it hadn’t been this. As the crowd’s excitement grew, I turned my attention to the spectators, who were watching me closely. The path was crowded with people in vibrant attire as we walked toward the palace. I smelled freshly baked goods mixed with earthy scents from nearby shops. Griffon chuckled at a small boy who followed us through town.
The sound of wailing forced my eyes toward the cliffs, where smaller dragons were flying over the edge. My head tilted to follow the smallest dragon’s flight down the face of the sheer cliff, until he vanished. Parting my lips in amazement, I watched the waterfalls sloshing over the edges of the high cliffs that surrounded the palace. Several waterfalls lined the edge of the towering cliff before shooting over it. The water dropped hundreds of feet to the river it created below, causing a mist to form at the base, before joining the flow that surrounded the village and palace. It also passed through them. Inside the canal through the village, ferries loaded full of denizens passed beneath the small bridge as we walked across.
Wooden bridges crisscrossed along the edge of town, but they all led to various entrances of the palace. That structure was a sight to behold, and when my gaze eventually tracked to the glowing archway in front of me, my breath faltered. Stones glowing with a welcoming pulse beckoned me closer, drowning out the chatter of those we walked by as the hum grew louder.
Lofty, wide perches hung over the edge of the cliff, as if created for the dragons and phoenixes to observe the township and palace below them. Behind a curtain of water created by a soothing waterfall, light flickered from torches. Beyond the torches, an intricate web of pathways leading to various entrances were visible. Lights flickered from the openings throughout the extensive network of passageways within. At least that’s what I assumed the light came from behind the sheet of the translucent screen of water.
I’d never expected to see the Kingdom of Fire. Logically, I knew this wasn’t the original kingdom. The recreated Kingdom of Fire brought to life one question: had Hecate truly decimated it and she falsely manufactured the stories. Using it as a warning to others who might rise up against her? What it had once been was now lost in history books written by the victor, which of course were never correct. Of course, it had been by design, not that I’d known it then.
“My mother, Scylla, named it the Palace of Fire for the shimmering rainbow prisms that are cast around the valley when the sun hit the towers,” Griffon stated, which meant I’d been staring at the palace long enough to draw his attention. “My mother’s people built it soon after the land hardened enough to build on it. The outside walls of the courtyard are translucent quartz, and buried beneath them is selenite to charge their power throughout the monthly cycle until the full moon can charge them again.”
“It is so cool,” I whispered with nervousness, crawling up my chest to strangle my words. The castle itself was unreal, but outside of those crystal gates that Griffon spoke of were lofty, malicious-looking wrought-iron gates with spikes dissuading anyone from seeking to climb over them.
“Cool?” he parroted.
“It means it’s magnificent,” Eva supplied. The girl’s side-eye was strong when it slid toward me.
“I fear I’m not adept in the colloquialisms of your land, Aria.” My lips jerked up at his admission of not knowing something. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected him to be like, since I hadn’t allowed myself to think much about him. Sure, I held hope of him being a good guy, and that he’d accept me as I was, but hope was often a worthless emotion within the realms. “I’m sure you know that what I showed you in the dreamscape I brought you to, was real.”
“I figured it was at least similar,” I admitted. “The thing I don’t quite understand about that is how you could construct a dreamscape? They taught me that crafting a dreamscape, or entering one, was something achievable only by witches.”