The Last One Standing: The Queen’s 'Cruel' Lesson

the old taxtile mill on the edge of town was a skeleton of brick and broken glass.

Twelve-year-old Samel stepped over a rusted pipe, the floorboards groaning under his sneakers.

It was supposed to be a quick dare.

Just a walk through the basement and back out.

But as Salem reached the center of the boiler room, the air changed.

It didn't just get cold, it turned sub-zero.

At the exact same time, a wave of blistering, desert-like heat slammed into his back.

The smell of ozone and pine needles replaced the scent of wet dust.

"What in the-"

The floor didn't just groan, it vanished.

Salem tumbled through the shimmering air, falling not onto concrete, but into a drift of snow that felt like powdered diamonds.

The air was a dizzying swirl of blue frost and embers that didn't burn.

"The heartbeat of the Reach is much louder now that the forest has died."

Salem coughed, sitting up and shaking blue-tinted snow from his hair.

He definitely wasn't in the mill anymore.

Above him were crystal-white trees, their branches heavy with silver leaves.

"River, look."

Salem froze.

Standing a few feet away were two teenagers.

The older one, River, had a hand on the hilt of a throwing knife at his hip.

He stood with his head slightly tilted, as if he were catching a note of music no one else could hear.

He short brown hair was messy, shot through with streaks of artificial red highlights that stood out like warning flares.

He was clad entirely in green leather, a color that nearly matched the sharp intensity of his green eyes.

Beside River stood Adam.

Adam stood with a guarded posture.

He had short, dark brown hair that looked like it had been ruffled by the wind, revealing a jagged scar across the side of his head.his brown eyes were fixed on Salem with a mixture of caution and curiosity.

He wore a simple black sweater, though it seemed a bit small and had a snag on the left shoulder.

He looked remarkably grounded, a stark contrast to the shimmering, surreal forest surrounding them.

"Identify yourself." Adam whispered, his voice cracking.

"I... I was in the basement," Salem stammered, shivering.

"Where am I? Who are you?"

"Basement?" River repeated the word as if it were a dead language.

"There are no basements in the woods, Stranger.

Only the roots, and nobody comes up from the roots...

at least not wearing...

whatever that is."

He gestured vaguely to Salem’s modern clothes.

"Enough, River." Adam said, though his voice still trembled.

He reached out, not to grab Salem, but to steady himself against a crystal-white tree.

As soon as his palm touched the bark, the silver leaves let out a low, dissonant hum.

Like a piano string snapping.

A crack spider-webbed cross the trunk. a chunk of wood fell away, turning into grey ash before it even hit the ground.

Salem gasped, scrambling backward.

"The tree! It just-"

"It's happening again, River." Adam whispered, his face going pale.

The silence that followed the tree’s collapse was worse then the hum.

It was a heavy, hollow silence that seemed to eat the air.

River didn't wait.

He reached into a leather satchel at his hip and pulled out a pair of scuffed headphones.

He slid them over his ears, his expression tightening as he adjusted a dial on his handheld field recorder.

He swept a long, thin microphone through the air like a dowser looking for water.

Adam leaned his forehead against the back of his hand, still trembling.

"It's my fault.

I should know what to do."

"It's okay, Adam," River said, not unkindly, though he didn't take his eyes off his screen.

"Queen Melody told you for a reason.

She knew she might... go away."

"I was thirteen!" Adam's voice cracked, sounding more like a scared kid then a royal.

"It was at the Shadow Gate.

I was half conscious, Melody was talking to... to Emily.

But the more I try to grab the memory, the more it feels like passing smoke."

Salem looked between them, his own fear momentarily eclipsed by confusion.

"Wait, so the entire kingdom is falling apart because you forgot a sentence?"

Adam looked at Salem, his brown eyes full of heavy, exhausted guilt.

"It's not just a sentence.

It's the key to the kingdom.

My mother is the Heart of Frostfire Glade. If she isn't here to hold the Secret, the land looks to the next in line.

it's looking to me.

And if I don't know what the key is... the Glade will wither."

Salam looked at the snag on Adam’s sweater and the way he was still subconsciously trying to shield the dying tree.

"You'll remember," Salem said, surprised by his own voice.

"People don't forget important things forever. They just get buried under the scary stuff."

River paused, his thumb hovering over his field recorder.

He looked at Salem, then at Adam, and finally gave a sharp, singular nod.

"The stranger’s right.

Come... Prince Adam. We should get moving."