I never thought I'd watch all the good things in my world disappear right before my eyes in an instant.

Not just my loved ones, my Castle, or pretty gowns. Not just the woods, the flowers, and the waterfalls.

No.

Even the stars in the sky are vanishing. The hair on my neck and arms stands on end. I can barely keep my feet; earthquake after earthquake drags on and on.

Rubble rains down from above, slamming into buildings and roads, craters jutting up around them. A horrifying crescendo of cars squealing and crashing into the rubble surrounds me.

People scramble from their cars, pouring out into the streets despite the danger falling from above, desperate to escape the city. Other cars plummet into cracks growing in the earth.

A cavernous divide overflowing with red-hot lava splits the land on the horizon. It cracks in a perfect circle, trapping my Castle on an island in a molten ocean. Skyscrapers topple. As the towers collapse in on themselves, the smoke and ash are suffocating, and the ground is white as though covered with snow.

"My Queen!" Vardish, my Druid advisor, comes running.

Blood sops through his shirt. He collapses, clutching an arrow protruding from his chest.

"Vardish!" I shout, catching him before he hits the floor.

Ripping open his shirt, I pry the arrow from his chest. My heart sinks into my stomach. A still-red metal brand leaves a charred, oozing rune written in Fairy-tongue on his chest.

Evil, it reads.

Ripping the sleeve off my dress, I press the cloth against the wound. My fists are shaking, and my jaw aches from clenching my teeth so hard.

Another poor soul branded simply for being different. For being unwanted. It's unforgivable!

"Maedra!" someone calls.

Seir, my Sworn, kneels at my side. His long, black hair flows down past his waist, loose despite being in battle. His armor is gone, his shirt torn. His own brand from several battles ago glows red.

"What happened?" I ask. "Where's your armor?"

Taking my hand in his long, slender fingers, Seir pulls me aside. Oriel, an imp medic, scurries over to care for Vardish.

"With a child who needed it," he says, tugging me to the observatory window.

"We're out of time," he whispers, glancing back at the others to make sure they don't hear. "Valera's troops are going to wipe us off the face of the earth. If you're going to end this, you have to do it now."

A bright-red ring edges into my eyesight. My head is foggy, floaty.

This? Not again!

I rub my eyes, trying to focus. Below me, people are fleeing for the divide, but there's no way across. My imps try to help them, but the Humans they would protect only greet them with fear. The White Queen Valera's armies loose volleys of brand-bearing arrows into the ranks of my imp allies, downing wave after wave of them.

"You know the world will never accept us as their rulers, Seir." I turn to him, my hearing fading in and out. "Even if we win, you and I will always lose. Our people will never be treated equally."

Taking my face in his hands, he leans toward me. His lips are soft on my forehead. He places my hand against the rune on his chest, then pulls me into a hug.

"If standing for you brands me eternally as evil," he whispers, "I will follow you into the darkness."

Chains wrap around my wrists, but when I blink, they vanish. I blink again, and Seir's face is gone, replaced by a pair of ravenous, red eyes in a face of horrendous black smoke.

"It's time," I hear myself say, though the words are not my own. "Bring me the White Queen."

Seir’s face reappears, and he gives me a brief kiss before bowing and hurrying away. Watching him go is like watching him walk into a dark, ever-stretching tunnel. I feel myself falling, and darkness overtakes me. Darkness with bright-red eyes.