His crown twists above his alluring eyes like tiny hurricanes, golden and shining like the sun as his still muscles bunches the furred clothing he wears. I felt that smile wedge itself past my rib cage and slide onto my face like dripping gold. His eyes are on mine in an instant, the chaos crescendoing around us, and I can feel his eyes penetrate the knots of my soul, trying to see through its thickness.

He stands from his chair, his strong jaw set as he clutches his glimmering staff in fear. I can see it in his stormy irises: the moment he's dreaded since his arrival in this world has come to life. I'm the other half of that puzzle.

I ease my way through the bloody battle surrounding me, growls and yelps lifting to the sky. One of the king's men crash into me, but my well-developed body heaves him away without trouble. Nothing can get in the way of destiny.

I'm knocked to my left, my torso turning as my body drops lower, ready to defend myself from this more intelligent attacker. His yellow teeth flash as it longs for the taste of flesh in honor of its providence, but it is awarded with nothing less than death as its secondary, animalistic form evaporates from his original bipedal human body, turning to black smoke and dissipating into the air as my hands turn his head a degree too far. I've been searching for too long for this moment to be ripped from me.

My eyes traveled back to the man for whom I'd arrived. He stands on a balcony high up, safe from the war level with my elevated feet. Cowering from my presence.

But it is time for him to decide.

I crouch low, my vision trained on the balcony, my body preparing to be thrusted from the ground.

I leap, soaring over the railing and landing before the man, one fist to the ground. I find his deep brown eyes once more and stand, keeping his focus on me. Two guards on either side of him stare me down from the other side of their swords, waiting for their king to bark a command. But he won't.

"Two and one-half decades, I've waited for this moment," I speak, my tongue letting the words glide over my tongue. "You know who I am, king. You can feel it in the marrow of your bones as the beats of your heart tremble beneath your flesh. And that means you know what it is I want."

The man says nothing, but I can feel the tether between us, struggling to pull us closer. He has a deeper bond with a choice what would favor me, I can feel it in the air. I take a deep breath in and stand upright, letting the power I'd been born with drip over my bones like thin paint. Gold liquid gushes from my pores and saturated my entire body, my clothing, my hair, making me look like an animated statue with silvery glowing eyes. The gold spills from me and onto the floor as I rise into the air, the world shuddering with obedience. The metallic color spreads up the walls and coats all that is around me except for the king, whose wide eyes follow me as I drift upward. He trembles beneath his fur coat as his guards are frozen, still as statues.

"It is time," I tell him, my voice louder and stranger than I remember. "You must choose, knowing the possible penalty for either option."

There's a slight shimmering around his body as it lets forth two momentarily intangible beings, two things that make him different and split him down the middle. He'd learned enough from both to choose one, now that we have all reached twenty-five years. He could not have both, for that was something only I could handle.

Or so I had been told.

At his left, a silvery-white wolf snarles, tendrils of black wafting off like smoke. This is the aggressive side, the impulsive, angry, passionate, ravenous side of the king. Its eyes are narrowed, not wanting to give in to the other option, always fighting it while inside the king. With the second being around, it always knew there is the possibility of its death to the physical world, constantly challenging the other side. It wouldn't give the king much time to deliberate.

It would attempt to kill him, should the wolf not be chosen.

At his right a glowing, bright yellow sphere pulses, silent and calm. It is almost the complete opposite of the animalistic form, golden and lighting up the king's face. It is the logical side, the calculating, the long-term thinker, the one with the ability to control emotions at the drop of a hat. The gentle side.

Its presence is strong, stronger than the wolf. He'd nurtured his gentle, logical side more than the aggressive one.

I can feel his heart pushing itself toward the glow, wanting to choose its wisdom over the animal's impulses. His body language tells me it's the side he'd like to choose...

But the war presses on him from the outside.

"I have people counting on me," he whispers, glancing over to the beast as it snarls. He appears as if he's a strong man who is always hungry to learn and interpret. I can see it in his eyes, the way they calculate his next move. I can see it in his body, the way he carries himself. He doesn't want the wolf, but the war... "I, King Venscio..."

Venscio struggles to keep upright as he cleared his throat, his brain slurring his desires. Before he can speak and possibly lose his life, I intervene, letting the gold that had saturated my body fall away, everything else wrapped like a present in the gleaming, glistening yellow. I drop to the floor and walk close to him, forcing him to keep his eyes trained on mine.

"Do not let others make this choice for you," I whispered, warning him as my heart swells inside me. These kings aren't just rejecting the special being running through their veins when they choose the wolf, and they are perfectly aware of the stipulations of either choice. The consequences. The gifts. And the role I play in each. "Sometimes winning a war means losing a few battles."

The king takes a step back, his eyes darting between the two forms. I can feel that he's frantic, unsure, but his composure remains, the strength inside him pouring out. I saw him, then. He was a good king, one who used his head. His kind nature and tendency to obey everything his people say, however, will be his downfall.

Please do not reject me.

"I must do what is best for my people," he says softly, turning his head to the snarling wolf. "I, King Venscio, choose the wolf."

I exhale slowly, disappointed in his choice. If the next two kings refuse their third form, there would be no use for me in this world and I will wither away. My bloodline will end.

My skin once again washes itself in gold, my feet lifting from the ground as motes moving like molten gold float around me, glowing like the sun in the darkness of midnight. I hide the golden drop of a tear from my eye as I nod my head.

"Very well, King Venscio," I say, my voice shaking the walls. "Let the beast devour your third form where your forever shall be spent alone."

The wolf leaps at my command and crashes into the ball of light, wrapping its jaws around it and swallowing it whole. I lower myself to the ground, the gold still enveloping everything touching the ground beneath my feet. As the wolf turns around ,eyes alight with fury, King Venscio tumbles over his own foot and lands on his back, the animal pinning him to the ground as black tendrils wrap around their two forms, joining them together.

He takes one last glance at me.

"I'm sorry," is all he says before the wolf collapses into him and he takes his first breath as a Powerking. The gold fell away and my heart sinks further in my chest. If the last two kings reject the third form, the golden sphere, I will be obsolete.

I cannot let that happen.

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