The Sky is Falling

The air in the museum lab was thick with the scent of ozone. Sera reached for the glowing relic—a golden compass she had spent weeks cleaning—but as her fingers brushed the cold metal, the world tilted. A roar like a jet engine filled her ears, and the floor beneath her sneakers simply vanished. She fell through a kaleidoscope of blue light, the wind whipping her lab coat around her like broken wings.

In the Kingdom of Oakhaven, five hundred years in the past, King Alaric sat alone in his darkened bedchamber. To his subjects, he was the "Iron King," a man of stone. But in the privacy of the night, he was a man crumbling. He leaned over a golden basin, a violent cough racking his frame. When he pulled his silk handkerchief away, it was stained crimson.

"Not tonight," he hissed, his voice a ragged shadow of its usual authority. "I have not cleared the court of snakes yet. I cannot die."

Suddenly, the vaulted stone ceiling above him erupted in a flash of blinding light. CRASH! The heavy canopy of his bed shattered. Dust, splinters, and silk feathers exploded into the air. Alaric threw himself backward, reaching for the dagger beneath his pillow. As the dust settled, he didn't see an assassin. He saw a girl.

She was dressed in strange, translucent white robes and blue trousers. She lay sprawled across his furs, gasping for breath.

"Who sent you?" Alaric lunged, pinning her down. The cold steel of his dagger pressed against the soft skin of her throat. "Speak! Are you a witch from the North?"

Sera’s head spun. She looked up into the most terrifyingly beautiful face she had ever seen—golden eyes burning with a mix of fury and exhaustion. But as a medical student, she noticed the tremble in his hand and the fresh blood on his lip.

"I'm... I'm an intern," she managed to choke out. "And you... you're in respiratory failure. If you don't put that knife down and let me check your airway, you won't live to see the sunrise."

Alaric froze. How could this girl, fallen from the sky, know the secret he had hidden from everyone?

Thud. Thud. Thud. Heavy boots echoed in the hallway.

"Your Majesty!" the Captain of the Guard shouted through the doors. "We heard a collapse! Open the doors at once!"

Alaric looked at the girl. If the guards saw her, she would be burned for sorcery. If she told them he was dying, his enemies would strike before dawn.

"One sound," he whispered, his face inches from hers, "and I will ensure you never speak again." He motioned toward the deep shadows of the stone alcove. "Hide."

Sera scrambled into the darkness just as the doors groaned open. Alaric stood in the center of the wreckage, his posture rigid. "A structural failure," Alaric replied coldly to the guards. "The wood gave way. Leave me."

The guards retreated, and the heavy doors thudded shut. Alaric turned slowly toward the alcove, leaning heavily on the bedpost.

"You," he said, looking toward Sera’s hiding place. "You spoke of my condition. If you are not a witch, then prove your worth. If I do not see the sunrise, neither shall you."

Sera stepped out of the shadows, her eyes falling on her medical bag. "Then we have work to do," she said. "Move toward the light. I need to see how much time we actually have."

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***