Countless cries of panic and worry could be heard throughout the streets of Valiko, each one focusing on a single thing: the funeral pyre of the Silvermire Castle. However, help would not soon arrive.
"What do you mean you won't let us in?" someone in the crowd cried. "The queen and her family are in there!"
"They won't be for much longer," the lieutenant said calmly, seemingly addressing the entire crowd.
"Thank Imkaris. I thought they'd die in there," an elderly woman said.
"And who says they won't?" A sudden voice called out from the bottom of the hill, and a ripple of whispers went through the gathering crowd as it parted to make way for two paint horses and their riders.
"Princess Karina?!? I thought you were exiled years ago!" A young man cried out, stepping towards the horses.
"That would be Queen Morrowraven to you, citizen," Karina spat, making deadly eye contact with the man.
"Morrowraven?" A woman asked. "But that would mean... King Gabriel..."
"Yes, yes, I'm afraid Corimar's gone and lent its allegiance to my darling's cause," the man beside Karina said, dismounting his horse.
"I believe it's high time to do what we came here for, don't you think, Your Majesty?" the lieutenant called, turning to unlock the gates.
"Yes, Francis, I think it is," Gabriel replied, helping Karina dismount as well.
The two royals quickly slipped inside the gates just before the panicked crowd surged forward, causing the guards to slam the gate shut once more.
"Let's get this over with," Karina sighed. "The sooner we get out of this pitiful excuse for a capital, the better."
No sooner had she said those words than more guards came rushing around the corner, fronted by a clearly disheveled high-ranking couple. They were forced to their knees in front of the waiting Corimarins, both giving the latter couple clear looks of rage.
"Long time no see, Sakura," Karina chuckled, a sick sense of delight illuminating her terracotta eyes. "How are Taeko and those street rats you rescued?"
Sakura said nothing out of pure spite, but her husband took up the answer himself.
"I'll see you both hang for this, you miserable little us-" he snarled, his sentence abruptly ended by Gabriel's boot to his face.
"I do believe that that question was directed towards your beloved wife, was it not?" Gabriel asked, cocking his head and bending down to his brother-in-law's level. "Besides, you're not really in the position to be making threats now, are you, Alastor?"
Ignoring her husband's interaction, Karina kept her steel gaze on her sister, silently daring her to say something, a dare that the latter obliged.
"Why are you doing this?" Sakura protested, her teary-eyed gaze turning towards the burning castle. Karina smirked, placing a hand under her sister's chin and forcing her to look her in the eye.
"Oh, Sakura. Always so naĂŻve. You were the reason. You always were and always will be," she muttered coldly.
"What does she have to do with your psychopathic way of thinking?" Alastor growled, blood dripping from his nose due to the earlier blow.
"She, an adopted little wretch who lived as nothing thousands of miles across another continent, came into this family and usurped the crown I was born with the right to have."
"Do you honestly think I chose that myself, Karina? Mother and Father-"
"My mother and father were idiots. They favored a second-rate orphan over their own blood-related daughter."
"Then for Kaltora's sake, kill me already! Leave him out of this!" Sakura cried, glancing over at her husband.
"I don't think you quite realize my goal, Sakura," Karina said. "I was denied a crown and a kingdom. By killing you, I'll have achieved that. However, Xyren still has heirs to the throne that could take it in your stead. Namely, your husband and children."
Gabriel glanced at his wife, stunned, and Alastor would have attacked Karina then and there were it not for the guard restraining him, but Sakura silently looked over at him with an indescribable look in her eyes, and at that moment, he understood her meaning: accept their fate and pray that their children didn't meet the same one.
Noting their silent agreement, Karina turned to Gabriel, who, having snapped out of his stupor, quickly unsheathed his sword and handed it to her. The crowd outside the gates stood in silence, knowing exactly what was to happen. The guard restraining Sakura forced her further down, and she made no move to resist. Her sister held the sword just above her throat, then raised and brought it down in one swift motion, soon repeating the action a second time.
"Citizens of Valiko," Gabriel shakily called out, remounting his horse alongside Karina. "As of tonight, this capital and this kingdom are now under Lykan subjugation. May Narida have mercy on your souls." He barely whispered the last few words, watching in horror as a massive white dragon descended through the clouds, its pale eyes fixed upon the new queen of Lykos.