I felt the wind get knocked out of me as Ulric and I landed in a clump on the damp grass. I rolled off of him and lay staring up at the stars and the aurora. I grinned at the sight; it had worked. I did it.

"Amberleigh, what the hell was that? You could have gotten yourself killed." Ulric growled as he looked down at me.

"Ulric, we're both fine. You don't have to be the hero all the time. I can take care of myself."

"You might wanna listen to her, she threw you through the portal like a scolded child." One of the rebels snickered, and Ulric's face stormed over in annoyance.

"Enough of the chit chat," Soren said. "We don't have much time before the palace grounds are swarming with soldiers and men. Right now, it's still too chaotic in the palace, they will be working to organize all the civilians."

"Come now, your majesty, we best get your belongings and head on our way." Another rebel held out his hands to me. He looked younger than me by a few years and had black curling hair that flopped over his eyes.

I accepted his hand, and he helped haul me to my feet. The second I was standing, I felt myself sway as my head spun. Black spots filled my vision, and I nearly crumpled back to the ground if Ulric hadn't caught me.

"You used a lot of energy, making such a large portal. You need to rest," Ulric spoke gently in my ear.

"Yes, I thought this might happen. We will have to find our way back into the palace without magic," Soren spoke. "Good thing, I know exactly where to go."

A rebel I came to know as Sven scouted out our path back into the palace and came back, informing us that it was clear. My portal had spit us right outside near the garden maze. There were boats in the water that we planned on taking to escape.

Even with Sven's information, our progress was still slow to remain as stealthy as possible. We all held our weapons ready for any battle. Luckily for us, the commotion at the front of the palace was still drawing the majority of the guards and soldiers away from our path. Once inside the palace itself, there were only a handful of moments where we had to stop and hide to prevent being seen from guards.

Soren was leading us, and at first, I was confused at the direction we were heading, because it most definitely wasn't the way to my room, but the second he opened a small door revealing an old stone hallway that was completely black I understood. This was the passageway that Soren had taken every time he delivered notes to my room.

It was almost entirely pitch-black inside, but Soren seemed very familiar with the path. The air was cold and damp against my skin, and I could feel the hem of my dress growing heavy as it was saturated with foul water. Whatever these passageways were, they were absolutely ancient. The ceilings were low, and I had to duck my head to prevent knocking the crown off. Everyone else was crouched even lower save for Gerard.

The passageway was silent except for the echoing drip of water that seeped from the stones and the clopping of Gerard's hooves. Finally, the ceiling of the passageway began to slope up, allowing everyone within the party to stand freely.

Soren began running his hands along the stone wall, and the rebel, Ogen, held up a small stone emitting light. It was the magical equivalent of a flashlight, and I briefly wondered how it was made.

A soft click could be heard throughout the stale air of the passageway, and the door silently began to open. Soren pressed his body against the door, forcing it open wider. Ulric and Sven went in first, they held their weapons in front of them, ready for any threat.

There were no sounds of a struggle, and everything seemed safe, so the rest of us followed through. As I stepped over the border to enter my room, I felt the slithering feeling that I was doing something wrong. It was hard to justify the feeling that I was breaking into this room as it was my own bedroom, but the sentiment still followed me as somehow the room felt as foreign as it did on my first day.

Blue hour was upon us, painting everything in various hues of the color. The bright, full moon shone through the windows causing long shadows to stretch out across the room. Around Ulric's body, I could see a shaft of the moon's light illuminating the floor in a perfect silhouette of the window it passed through. The bright patch of the floor shifted colors ever so gently from the aurora, but it was soon overtaken by the color red.

My eyes flashed to the window, wondering what could cause the color to shift to such a vibrant ruby. The aurora was full of pastels, I had never once seen a pure red form in the sky.

When the aurora gave no clues to the red color, I looked back to the ground, hoping to see the cause, but Ulric was now blocking my vision completely. He was walking towards me now; his face showed a faint grimace, and concern was in his eyes. Concern for me, I realized.

"Amberleigh, I think you should go back to the tunnel. I'll collect your things."

"What? Why?"

"It is better this way, there are things you don't need to see."

A sinking feeling blossomed in my gut. "Ulric, what don't I need to see?"

I could see the gears in his mind turning behind the eyes that were looking at me with pity. He was trying to figure out what to say. In his pause, I charged forward and decided to move around him, but his strong arms wrapped around my waist, and he pulled me close to him, preventing me from seeing anything.

"Ulric, let me go! I need to see what it is." I struggled in his grip.

"Amberleigh, no. I don't think you should. You shouldn't have to see that."

"See what?" I bit out and tried to push away from him.

"Ulric, son, let her see. She deserves to know. She can handle it," Soren's gentle voice spoke. His hand gripped onto Ulric's shoulder, and I felt Ulric's grip loosen around me. Pushing away, I moved quickly around his side.

Weaving between the rest of the rebels standing before me and that slice of the red floor, an image began to take shape. A hand, cold and pale in the moonlight. Blood that formed a halo around a body. Blonde hair sticky and matted in the blood that once kept her alive.

"No, no, no, Leda," I whispered. Tears immediately welled in my eyes as I crashed down to my knees before her.

Her blood immediately began to soak into the skirt of my dress. I reached out, shaking hands, wanting to hold her to me, to try and help her, but they paused inches above her body. She was still as a statue. Her chest no longer moved with breaths of air, and her eyes stared unseeingly up at the ceiling. Leda was dead.

A red blossom was located over her left breast, where her heart once beat steady and true. Her pale blue dress and white apron were stained red. There was so much blood. More than I ever realized, a body could hold.

An ugly sob erupted from my chest as my tears slipped down my face to mingle with the blood surrounding us. Leda's hand lay on the floor next to me, and I gently grabbed onto it. Holding her close to me.

Only hours ago, we were laughing and talking. Only hours ago she was alive and well and she was right before me. Leda would always be the sister I had always wanted. From my first day in the palace, she treated me with kindness and took me under her wing to give me advice and encourage me.

I remembered all of the times we sat together in this very room. How she would tell me stories of the Syreni and her family and true love. I sobbed even harder, wondering who would say to her parents that she had passed. They may never know their daughter is dead.

My heart was breaking, slowly but surely and then all at once. A wave of emotion moved through me like a burning fire, and all I could do was cry. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that she was gone. My friend was gone.

The only solace I could manage was the thought that Leda would finally be able to see her lover again. Wherever their souls ended up, they would be together once more. I knew that it was something she always wanted to see him again.

"Amberleigh, we must hurry," someone spoke. I didn't know who.

The thought of leaving Leda's body here in the hands of those that killed her made me sick. But I also knew that it would be impossible for us to take her with us. The only thing I could do was pray.

I had never been religious growing up, never went to church, or read the bible or any other religious texts. But Erivale was different; I had met the gods. I had spoken to Khozotl before, and I would do it again.

Hugging Leda's still warm arm to my body, I closed my eyes. Tears continued to leak down my cheeks in hot waves as I began to pray. I prayed to Khozotl that she may guide Leda safely to the afterlife and rejoin her with her soul mate. Leda's soul had always been a ray of sunshine within the palace, and I hoped that she would continue to shine in the afterlife.

Opening my eyes, I once again took in the sight of Leda's dead body. Her death must have been painful, a sword to the heart. With a shaking hand, I reached out to gently close her eyes. With careful movements, I positioned her arms over her chest and tucked her hair behind her ears.

I didn't know why I was trying to make her look neater now that she was dead. Maybe just to give her a moment of care and honor after being murdered. Leda didn't deserve this, and I didn't deserve Leda.

A bitter seed was beginning to grow inside of me as I realized that Leda had died because of me. The palace guards and soldiers likely came to her asking of my whereabouts, and instead of giving up my secrets, she was killed. She was too good for the dark web I was being entrapped in.

Leaving her body, I collected my bag from the closet feeling hollow and empty in a way I never thought possible. Everyone else in the party was silent as we went back into the tunnel. I was the last to leave the room, and as I reached the threshold to enter the passageway, I looked back over to Leda.

This was the end of us. I would never see her again; I would never hear her voice or her laugh again. She would never scold me for getting paint on dresses again. She wouldn't be around to braid my hair and talk to me about the palace gossip. Just like that, everything that Leda once was and everything our relationship used to be were gone.

Our conversation from before the coronation wormed itself into the forefront of my mind. "This is a goodbye for now," Leda had said. I guess we were both wrong because our goodbye for now turned into a goodbye forever.

Tears continued to fall in a never-ending stream as we made our way back outside of the palace. With every step away from my room and away from Leda, the urge to run back to her grew. I couldn't leave her, but I had to.

We boarded the boats that had been hidden by the docks at the back of the palace. We began our journey. The palace was growing smaller as we sliced through the mirror-like water to reach the tunnels under the city. I had hoped that this moment would have come easier. Joining the rebels felt like a relief, a way to finally make a difference and exact change, but now I wondered if this was even the right idea. Joining this cause was putting everyone I loved at risk.