Rise Of The Serpent Queen (Forbidden Fae #1)

Zara's mind struggled with the sudden, magical turbulence as she found herself trapped in an abyss of unfathomable darkness. It was her very own father, King Ajax, who had decreed her confinement within this boundless pit, awaiting the judgment of both the council and fate itself.

The sensation of endless descent, the eerie pull of gravity dragging her further into the abyss, was a disconcerting experience. She couldn't help but contemplate the impossibility of ever reaching the bottom.

In a moment of respite, Zara shut her eyes and reflected upon her lineage. She was the firstborn child of the mighty fae monarch, King Ajax, who had ascended the throne and been the one if the most powerful kings in millennium. His dominion spanned across valleys, mountains, and seas, his name resonating with mystical authority throughout the seven kingdoms.

Yet, with all his power, lands, and riches, his previous wives and concubines had failed to provide him with an heir until he crossed paths with Zara's mysterious mother. Her mother's origins were shrouded in mystery, a secret only the king about and never revealed to any being, above or below the earth. Their encounter during a foreign war had brought Zara into existence, a blessing bestowed upon the kingdom.

The palace soon echoed with the laughter of princes and princesses, a joyous occasion for all but Zara. Her life was marked by isolation and neglect as her mother's favor waned. When the king's beloved concubine bore him a son, Zara and her mother were cast aside to the cold Palace in it chilling confines.

Surviving such an environment should have been impossible for her especially when she was still but a babe, but Zara endured, aided by her mother and two devoted maids who refused to abandon their mistress in her time of need.

Her upbringing in the frigid palace was not an easy one, but her mother had initiated her into rigorous training from infancy, a secret known to only a select few. By the age of three, she had outpaced her peers in growth and prowess. However, it wasn't her exceptional abilities that led her to this dire fate.

What had brought her to this abyss was the untimely demise of her brave mother. The woman who had once stood beside King Ajax in a war that forged both their names into legend, only to be forgotten within the icy walls of the Cold palace. Now, her mother was dead, and the question that haunted Zara was not who could have defeated her, but rather, who her mother had let her guard down for enough to get close.

The answer, painfully clear, was Zara herself. She had unwittingly become the instrument of her mother's demise, a dark secret that now condemned her to execution by the very hands of her own father, King Ajax.

Counting the endless weeks since her descent into the bottomless pit had become an exercise in futility. Time seemed to warp within the suffocating darkness, and the voice returned, this time beginning as a mere whisper.

Zara's mental fortitude was waning with each passing moment, and she could no longer hold the voice at bay. She berated herself for being cast into this unforgiving abyss. This was no place for a child, only the masterful practitioners of the arcane arts, those who survived without succumbing to madness or death before facing their final judgment didn't last past a century after coming out of the abyss. A mere blink compared to their extended lifespans.

Her childhood had been anything but normal; her mother's love had taken the form of relentless training, from the break of dawn until the setting of the sun, in an effort to harness the cursed powers that had been passed down to her. Although her physical appearance was human-like unlike a proper fae, she stood taller than most fae children though, a not entirely unheard of occurrence among those of mixed blood.

Most believed her mother to be of mixed heritage a fae and something else. She had taken a similar appearance to her mother, and thesame dark power she wielded which was of an unknown origin, but it had a deep link to forbidden magics of old.

Zara had dedicated thirteen years of her life to mastering this same dark magic, often practicing her elemental powers in secret, yearning for the day when her mother would reward her with a reassuring smile. But that smile had never come. Instead, she saw a mix of accomplishment and fear in her mother's eyes.

"I have taught you all I can," her mother had said, leaving Zara bewildered after showing her the few tricks she learnt on her own. "It is time I leave you to face your destiny. Now, stand your ground. Show me everything you've learned, girl."

Zara could feel her resolve slipping away as the whispers grew louder, echoing like tormented shrieks, clawing at her skin and invading her thoughts.

"I should never have listened to my mother's final orders," she thought, the voices in her head urging her towards madness. Her mother had always believed that only the strongest survived, and that day, her mother had initiated a brutal attack that had stretched from afternoon to the next dawn. Exhaustion had overtaken her small body, yet her mother showed no mercy. It was as though something had snapped within her.

"Only the strong will remain," her mother had whispered coldly. Her mother had ingrained in her the belief that only the strongest prevailed. But Zara knew her mother had deliberately allowed that fatal attack to strike her. She let the ice stake pass through her body, piercing her heart, shattering her bones, and ending her life.

Now, the relentless shrieking in her mind was incessant, and she couldn't discern which version of the past held the truth.

"Survive," her mother's voice echoed, merging with the cacophony in her head.

"Survive!" The voices grew harsher as her sanity slipped further.

"Vengeance!" A single word ignited a spark within her heart, and she gasped for breath. "You must survive. Vengeance."

Zara clung to those words like a lifeline, repeating them as a mantra, even as the darkness continued to envelop her, erasing everything in its path.