Artemis could only stare at Oseely, her lips parted as she tried to make sense of his words. Her family was… in the Lantern?
Pain pulled her eyebrows together as her jaw clenched. Charring vines sprouted from the ground, beginning to twine up around her legs. She marched forward and they crumbled.
"No," she whispered, shaking her head. Tears burned wet tracks down her cheeks. "No, that's a lie!" Artemis reached forward with a clawed hand, grabbing his shirt. "My family is gone!" Her voice broke over the last word, the tightness curling around her throat choking her voice. "I would've known if they were there! I wouldn't have –"
Abandoned them. Again.
Artemis had run from the Lantern as soon as she'd felt responsibility weigh against her chest, threatening to suffocate her.
Her grip around his shirt loosened. She was barely even aware of Oseely anymore. Shaking hands clasped over her mouth as she tried to gasp for breath. Her eyes squeezed shut, hot tears falling heavy to the ground. Her shoulders shook with the force of strained sobs.
Artemis remembered when se'd first woken up in the forest, beneath the Lantern's warm light. She thought of how its eerie glow pulled her, even as she'd run.
For years, Artemis' one consolation was that her family was no longer alive to see her now – that she could disappoint them no more. But if Oseely was telling the truth –
Her brother's heartbroken face flashed in her mind. He'd be so ashamed of her.
Artemis crumbled to the ground her hands grasping at her chest. Her mouth opened and her chest heaved with gasping breaths. Finally, a shattered cry pierced the night. Artemis' wailed, ragged and broken. A circle of fire erupted from the ground around her, fierce and fleeting. The last embers were still drifting through the air when another cry escaped her.
She wanted them back. Her parents. Her brother. Her valley. Everything she'd run from. Everything that'd been taken from her.
It was all because of the Dragon.
Artemis forced another cry down. A hand slapped over her mouth again, shaking breaths heaving her shoulders up and down. She squeezed her eyes shut with the force of trying to quiet herself.
The Dragon had stolen everything from her. Her family. Her life. If it hadn't spread its plague to her valley… Would she be this person?
A bitter part of herself told her that she'd always been this person – selfish and cowardly. Unwilling to try and live up to anyone's expectations because she was too afraid she'd fail. She'd just been able to pretend she was better when Idris had been alive. When nothing had been at stake. It was too late now to believe she was ever more than this.
Another strangled cry escaped through her fingers. Her other hand was wrapped around her torso, gripping her side like she was gutted and bleeding and had to hold herself together.
Another quaking breath.
It was all because of the Dragon.
Grief and self-hatred mixed with something new – anger. Rage pierced her like a needle, poisoning her blood. This was the Dragon's fault. Had it not been for the Dragon, her family would be alive and she'd still be at home, toying with dignitaries and frustrating her parents. Her brother would be groomed for the throne, as they tried to groom her for a husband.
She'd probably already be married now, to some uptight, boring noble. She was old enough for it, she realized with a start. It seemed so petty – some far off worry of another life. She would've hated it. But if her brother was alive, then what did it matter? Artemis would give anything for that life now.
Artemis forced open her burning eyes and turned her head over her shoulder to look at the Dragon on the mountain, grotesque and alive. If the Dragon lived, it could die. It would die. Her mind worked to spin around her emotions, trying to find a plan. Slowly, she fought to stand, forcing her unsteady legs to straighten. She looked to Oseely again.
"If I brought the Lantern," she said in a hoarse voice, as shaky as her legs. But there was a new steal there to match the flickering fire in her eyes."Could you show me how to unlock it?"
Artemis was getting her family back. And then she was going to kill the Dragon.
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