Inner Darkness (Book 2 of Dragonfire series)

Chapter 8

"Yes, they told me exactly what I must do. After tonight, she will be out of the way. They said they will be here just in time to make tonights ceremony unforgettable."

I looked at Stella and tried to read her face, but she was just as confused as I was. We waited until the hallway was silent before exiting the room.

"Is it just me, or did you hear the same thing I did?" Stella looked at me while she processed her thoughts.

"Sounds like the witches are working with Amirah." I said slowly as if there was someone watching us. "We can't let them ruin this Stella. This event is really important to Cullen and all the royal families. Let's go find Amirah, and when I give the signal, let's stop her."

She nodded and followed me down the hallway. After a few lies and a little magic, we managed to get into the Royals' seating area. A large, velvet curtain was the only thing separating the royal families from the private hallway. A guard stood outside each curtain as protection. We decided to go into the bathroom and hide until the show started.

"How are we going to hear anything when someone is flushing a toilet every five minutes!?" Stella whispered loudly.

"Do you have any better ideas? We can't just stand outside her curtain. What would we tell the guard? It will also look suspicious if we're just standing in the hallway while the event starts!" Just as Stella was about to reply, we heard heals clicking outside the door to the bathroom. We ran into a stall and locked the door as someone walked in talking on the phone.

"Yes, I'm ready. Everyone is in place, just like we planned.....Oh you're almost here? Ok, I will wait for you in the hallway so we can make our grand entrance." The voice was definitely Amirah's, but we couldn't tell who she was talking to, other than the fact that it was a woman. I waited for Amirah to leave before opening the stall.

"I think we need to stop her now before whoever she was on the phone with shows up." I looked to Stella, who was looking down at her feet.

"I don't know about this Alena, what if we're taking this all wrong..."

"All wrong?! Did you not hear her say earlier that 'after tonight she will be out of the way'? That 'she' Amirah is referring to could be me or even one of the Queens at the event tonight!" Deciding I was sick of arguing, I stormed out of the bathroom and into the near empty hallway.

"Hey!" I yelled to Amirah who was standing with her back to me and her arms crossed. She spun around to face me with a distasteful look.

"What are you-"

"Listen, I don't know what you had planned or thought was going to happen tonight, but I'm putting an end to it right now." Before she had the chance to speak I transformed and flew into the air.

"What on Evacsa do you think you're doing!?" I shot a ball of energy at her, trying to avoid using my fire so I didn't catch the building on fire. She tried running, but the puffy ball gown she wore didn't allow it. She was thrown forward a few feet, and landed on the ground face first. She threw a small ball of energy at me, but I just caught in with my hands. I made a tisk tisk noise with my tongue as I juiced up the ball with some real power. Her eyes grew large as she kicked off her heals and tried to hide behind a brochure booth. Paper flew everywhere as the ball came in contact with what was left of the booth. She growled as her tiara rolled across the floor and her hair was in a knotted ball.

"That is it, I am done with you! I'll show you some real manners!" She transformed and readied herself with a fireball in each hand. Her wings increased with speed as she joined me in the air. A voice behind me caused me to lose focus and turn around. Stella's mouth was moving, but her words were muffled as something collided into my back. My lungs craved air as I was thrown to the ground, breathless. I sucked down air and quickly turned onto my back so I could see my attacker. I formed a large flaming ball between my hands and threw it at her, but she was too fast. I rejoined her in the air and used a little of the Dragonfire to form a fireball in each hand. She too formed fireballs, but hers were nowhere as powerful as mine.