My body is shaken, a faint voice growing louder, my body aching as I begin to move my fingers around. The voice is right beside me, calling out my name as my eyes slowly peel open, the light of the sun blinding me as I shut my eyes immediately. The pain comes back to me, spreading like a wildfire throughout my body, the voice calling out different things now, trying to pull me back to reality as I just want to lay here longer on this stone surface, every breath I take a sharp pain. 

"Wake the hell up! Do you want to burn to death?!" 

My eyes open back up to meet the familiar eyes of Nile, the warrior standing over my body as I can smell the smoke in the air. Grabbing my arm, he tries to help me up, only for me to cry out in pain. Looking down to the bandage I made around my waist, Nile takes off his jacket, using his knife to tear at the fabric. The torn fabric is wrapped around my torso, Nile applying pressure to my wound as he is careful with the area, watching my facial expressions as I hiss in pain. 

"We need to get out of here," he comments, motioning behind me as I see flames beginning to break from the windows, consuming the palace as I watch in horror. This place is where I fell in love with Zion the first time, where we married, where so many things happened. This has to be because of the fire I started to kill Fiona, the flames having consumed her body as the threat of her existence became no more. I cannot believe I will be the one in the end to have caused the fire...something which will stay with me forever in guilt. 

Nile helps me to my feet, my body weak as I whimper in pain. Pulling my arm over his shoulder, Nile helps me walk, informing me to be careful, my head already becoming dizzy. "Zion?" I ask, my voice a mere whisper. "Where is Zion? He was with you in that room." 

No reply. 

We walk through the garden, the rose bushes on either side of our path as we head back for the palace interior, right into the ballroom where Zion danced with me that night of our engagement. I had never felt more beautiful than that night, decorated in a dress custom made for me, expensive jewelry around my neck, and all eyes on me in envy and admiration. 

I repeat my question as we enter the ballroom, the marble floor before us untouched by the flames yet as Nile helps me sit down, my back against a column as he looks around the room. "Very ostentatious. Zion's ancestors knew how to decorate a palace," Nile comments, looking back to my pale face as he pushes back a strand of my loose hair. "Can you walk?" He wants to get us moving again, but my body is weak, my wolf afraid of what could happen as she is in shock due to the pain. 

"I want Zion," I cry, Nile helping to clean off some of the dried blood upon my face. 

"I know."

"Where is he?" I ask, my voice stern as Nile shakes his head. 

"He wanted to do this on his own. He wanted me to get you out of here."

The events are being repeated. Zion walked alone into a confrontation with Nixon. Zion was going to die if I had never been there. I was the right one to die that day, for if Zion had died...I would never have been able to bring him back, unaware of all the resources I could have used, unwilling to go against an ethical code of my own. 

"I need to be there for him." 

"Lily Maxwell is a human, Zion will be fine," Nile corrects, helping me back up to my feet. I try and release myself from Nile's grip, only for him to hold tighter as I begin to stumble. 

Shaking my head, I try and refute Nile, telling me I need to be there for Zion one more time. I know Nile is leading me down to one of the courtyards in the palace, right behind the throne room. This hallway leads there directly, right to a courtyard with a perfect diving point into the lake below. Nile does not expect for us to find any other way out due to the fire except to jump into the lake below. 

My mind is flooded with questions of what could happen to Zion if I do not go to him...and what could happen if I do go to him. I would have to find him, to search through a burning palace as I risk my own life for someone who could already have been killed by Lily or the fire...or still alive. I may be able to find him, but we are werewolves, not witches. We cannot control the flames, we cannot control the elements of the earth. 

Nile takes me further down the hallway, statues of past Queens carved out of marble lining the hallway as I can recognize a few from my history classes as a child. Some of these women faced gruesome deaths, others died of old age. Centuries ago, it was not common for Queens to die in old age. I spot my own statue right after Zion's mother, the statue capturing my long locks which flow, as if blown in the wind. My face is mirrored in the stone, a crown placed at the top of my head, a necklace carved to look like pearls strung around my neck, and a beautiful and flowing dress adorning my body, flowing with the wind the artist wanted to capture. This was made after my death, yet here I am, the only Queen to look at her memorial statue. 

The opening to the courtyard lays before us, the stone walkway surrounded by boxwood bushes, red rose bushes, and a fountain in the center with the Moon Goddess holding up the moon in her hands, water falling from the tip of the moon as it falls back to the fountain below. The throne room lies at the other end of this wall the courtyard is placed before, a stained glass window stretching stories high, capturing the eternal beauty of the Moon Goddess as it details the creation of the first werewolf. Looking closer to the stained glass, I remember Zion sitting on his throne as the sunlight shined through, decorating the throne room in pastel colors. 

"Sybil, we need to leave now. This palace does not have much longer." 

I cannot leave Zion alone. I never wanted to go on life without him, but I know my story does not end with his death. He thought his story ended with my death, ready to throw away his own death to lie with me in eternal slumber forever. I know he is not the sun which I revolve around, I know my life should not revolve around him, but around me, to protect myself. Zion told me if he was to perish that I should still try and go to Keva, to make it out of here. But I know he is not dead yet, I know this because lovers and mates know when another has been killed. 

I can hear words being shouted from the other side, drawing me closer to the window as my wolf beings to resurface and stir within me. 

Nile grabs onto my arm, only for me to push him off, finding a sudden strength I thought I had forgotten. I can feel the hairs on my arms begin to rise and grow longer and thicker. My teeth begin to prick my lips as I turn back to the window, hearing a familiar voice as I look over my shoulder to Nile. 

"Go and take the jump. I'll try and join you down there."

"You don't know if Zion is even in there!" Nile exclaims, reaching out for my arm again as I let out a menacing grown, the warrior backing away from me as I turn back to the window. I push off my feet, feeling my bones snap and mutate into my wolf, my fur growing thick on my back as I break through the glass window. 

Heat immediately greets my flesh, burning my paws as I land at the edge of the flames and look ahead to see Zion screaming as his face is pushed into the fire by Lily. Growing, I know what I have to do as a wall of fire lies as a barrier between Zion and I. My wolf gets ready, pushing off her paws as we charge and jump through the fire, claws ready to grab onto Lily as we fly through the air. 

My left claw digs into the flesh of the human, ripping into her torso deeply as I land on my paws, looking to Zion as he scrambles to his feet and looks to me. Shifting back into my human form, I rush over to Zion, his hand grabbing my arm as he pushes me back a little, taking a protective stance as we look to the Alpha at our feet, crying out in pain. "I'm going to kill this-"

"She is already injured. She cannot harm you anymore," I interrupt Zion as I pull his gaze away from Lily and to me. I begin to plead with my eyes. "She has a daughter. A daughter needs her mother," I comment, feeling mercy run through my body, wanting to give Lily the chance to raise her daughter. I would want to be able to raise my child if I could, I would beg whoever I could to be able to raise my child. 

"Nixon didn't give us that choice. He killed you and our unborn child."

"You tried to take away Nixon's own wife and unborn child as well. Do you not see the parallels in our stories?" I argue, raising a valid question. 

"She cannot survive the way back." 

We look to Lily, seeing her hunched over as her hands become covered in her own crimson blood, small pools of it beginning to run to the floor. He's right, I injured her badly, I dug my claws deeply into her torso. 

"Leave," Lily whispers, her voice broken as I look back to Zion. 

"She has a chance of surviving the way back. Better than burning alive in here." The flames grow closer to us, the smoke in the air rising as the palace begins to creak more. 

"Get out of here and just leave me." Lily's eyes meet mine, the eyes of a woman nearing death as she pleads with them. "Just go. Do not bring my daughter into any of this." Blood begins to come from her mouth, running down her chin as I know her time here is limited. 

"Respect the wishes of a dying woman, Sybil," Zion whispers just as I am to talk back to Lily, watching as she begins to cough, blood splattered onto the floor as Lily grows weaker by the second. "Sybil, only trying to get her out of here will cause her more pain." Zion is right. I should not try and be the good guy here, I need to be realistic. I need to respect the wishes of a dying woman. 

Taking my hand, Zion leads me away from Lily, the two of us looking to the window I jumped through. We jump through, Zion holding me close as we collide with the stone path of the courtyard. Crying out in pain, I grab my side and apply pressure, groaning as I see my blood has leaked through the bandage Nile made. Zion helps me up, the two of us walking towards the side of the courtyard as we overlook the lake below. 

Flames erupt from the throne room and through the window, the fire spreading throughout the palace as Zion takes one last close look at the palace. "We can make a new home for ourselves," he comments, taking my hand in his as we step onto the railing of the balcony. "We can create a home anywhere we go, as long as we are together." 

Leaning my forehead against his, I take in a deep breath as I know that hitting the water will hurt. "Let's start that next phase of our life." 

We take the jump, plunging down below to the cold water of the lake. My body aches as I swim up to the surface of the water, taking in a deep breath of air as I feel the air against my wet skin, looking around as I call out for Zion. He swims over to me from my right, taking hold of my hand as we look up to the palace, watching it become consumed by bright red and orange flames. 

At least we made it out of there together, alive, and are going on our way. Lily has perished in the palace, just like her husband, the one person she did not want to live without. She had potential to become a great Alpha, to lead Crimson Lock on a path of resurrection from the opinions others had on her back because of Nixon. Yet her anger and hate overcame her, driving her insane to start this war...and the war is not over yet. The battle may have dwindled out on the battlefield as others count their dead, but I know the war does not start here. Lily started an uprising, one which could tear apart the kingdom as greedy Alphas and packs now begin to take part in this war. This is the legacy Lily leaves begin, one her daughter will have to live with, knowing her mother and father were hated by the werewolf kingdom. 

I can only hope my legacy is opposite of hers.