A Queen in Hiding

    I woke with a jolt to hear screaming and metal crashing together. Carefully I inched out of bed and towards the giant double oak doors that lead to the hallway, as I slowly opened one of the doors the metallic tang of blood hit my nose. I quickly closed the door and ran to my closet. Once I was hidden behind the fine dresses, I began to panic. Something bad was happening, there were blood and bodies everywhere. I curled into a ball and rocked back and forth, my mother or father would come soon, they would know what to do.     It felt as if hours had passed when I finally heard the floorboards creak outside my closet, I didn't dare move, what if it wasn't my parents? "Ali are you here?" I heard a quiet male voice whisper, "Ali, please, it's me, James." I quickly crawled out from my hiding place and threw my arms around James' neck and cried.  "What is going on James, where are my parents?" I managed to ask through my sobbing. "They're dead Ali, everyone is dead. We need to run." His words didn't make sense. How could my parents be dead? They were the most powerful Faerie King and Queen to live in over 10,000 years. James saw the confusion on my face and grabbed my hand and dragged me to the hidden passage at the back of my closet. "It was Prince Calen, your father denied his request to arrange a marriage with you when you gained your power. I don't know how he did it but he was more powerful than any Fae I have ever seen." James' voice was full of pain.     No.No.No.No. None of this made any sense. James has to push through the opening and down the corridor because I am frozen. I am broken. I am nothing. I am a fifteen-year-old orphan, with no power, no home, no family. All I have is my old friend, my old friend that has despised me for almost a year. All I have is James.