Adrinna shushed Dmitri and said, "Let me go find out about it."

"No you better stay inside," ordered Dmitri. "I will go and see."

​​

Without waiting for her answer, Dmitri went out. As soon as he was out of the cave, he became drenched in a torrential rain that was falling so hard that it seemed as though the gods had become angry. The visibility was very poor and he couldn't make out anything. Just as he was about to go back inside, a bolt of lightning fell a few meters away from him, making him jump behind a boulder to take refuge. It was really strange.

The noise was so loud that it made Adrianna nervous. "Come back inside!" she reached out to him with urgency.

He communicated back to Adrianna, "I am fine. Don't come out. I will be there in a minute."

Somehow, Dmitri managed to get back inside the cave. He held Adrianna and said, "Let's wait for this downpour to slow down before we go out. She nodded and sat on the floor. She started looking outside. All of a sudden, the lightning came down again. A brilliant shock of white flashed across the grey sky as it forked with a bang on the unsuspecting ground accompanied by a thunderous boom right in front of their cave.

Adrianna covered her ears and ran further inside the cave with Dmitri.

Shocked, she looked outside once the lightning had passed. Why were the gods so angry with them? While she was thinking to herself, a loud menacing voice came from outside. "Adrianna, come out. Otherwise, I will burn you alive!"

Both Dmitri and Adrianna were stunned. They looked at each other. Outside the cave, it was so dark that she couldn't see anything except for the pouring rain. The night was falling fast. Adrianna had just adjusted her eyes to the darkening landscape when the steel grey clouds melted yet again to throw another brilliant flash of light fell onto the ground and charred the nearby trees.

"Who is there?" she shouted back. There was thick smoke outside of the cave. They couldn't see anything through it. "Reveal yourself."

From within the smoke, they saw a shadow. As it came near, Dmitri moved forwards and hid Adrianna behind him.

"I am Cy," he said as he emerged from the smoke. Dressed in metallic armor, Cy looked threatening. He moved forward and stood only a couple meters away from the couple. He looked at the two of them and laughed. "So young!" he snickered. "Adrianna!" he shouted, making his voice boomed throughout the cave. "Come out!"

Both of them were finding it strange. How did this man know about their secret place? And even more confusing was how he knew their names! Nothing added up!

Annoyed at his rude behavior, Dmitri shouted back, "How dare you talk to my luna like that? I will kill you."

Cy started laughing like a madman. He looked at the two who were standing in front of him. "Adrianna, I have nothing against Dmitri. I only want you. Come out," he said. Without warning, he threw a chain of lighting around Dmitri.

While Dmitri found himself helplessly gripped in the lightning, Adrianna emerged from behind him and looked at Cy, still shocked at the fact that this unknown man had somehow discovered where they had been hiding and was now demanding for her to come out.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am Cy, military general of the wizard kingdom," he answered as he threw another bolt of lighting at Adrianna. Adrianna deflected that with her hand easily. Then, she turned to Dmitri and untied him.

As soon as Dmitri was untied, he ran towards Cy in anger and shape shifted. He leapt as high he could and attacked Cy, pinning him to the ground. In the next moment, Dmitri was thrown back to the far end of the cave where he hit the wall and stumbled onto the ground.

Cy got up again and threw a bolt of blue light around Adrianna, which had enough energy to burn down the entire forest. The light that engulfed her was so hot that she shouted painfully. Dmitri couldn't come anywhere near her, so he communicated to her, "Adri, what should I do? I can't lose you. If we die, let us die together."

Adrianna closed her eyes and instead of letting the blue light burn her, she garnered its energy within her body. She threw her hands up towards the roof of the cave and in the next moment, the stones of the roof shattered as the light passed through her and out of the cave.

Cy stopped immediately as he looked at her with interest. "So you are the queen after all," he sniggered. "Who taught you your magic?" he asked her.

But Adrianna was in no mood to answer. She mentally communicated to Dmitri to stay in the cave and then ran towards Cy, throwing at him a huge bundle of lightning that could have ripped the ground into a thousand pieces. Cy deflected it with his quick defense skills as he ran out of the cave to protect himself.

This is what he had wanted. He wanted to lure her out of the cave so that his team could easily take her down. After all, there were ten of them while she was just an untrained half-witch who had the audacity to believe she could be their queen.