"I'll head in first," Larc announced, bringing his wing to his chest to tuck it in. It would be a tight squeeze for someone with his stature to fit through the gap. "Then I'll let you two know if the immediate area is safe."

Haera frowned, as if she wanted to be the first to enter, but she made no objections.

"Be careful," I replied with a nod, watching as he slowly edged his remaining wing through the gap.

After a moment of silence that neither I nor my sister breathed for, we got an echoing response from the Dragon-born. "It's safe! You can come on through!"

Haera took the lead and pushed her way through the cave entrance first and signalled her hand for me to follow her. When we both made it to the other side, it took a moment for our eyes to adjust.

Darkness swallowed the cave, fighting to consume everything in its path. It managed to capture any light as a hostage in its grip, all of it except the blue sparks that floated up from somewhere below us. The fragments of power provided just enough light to see, but we would have to move slowly to avoid tripping over or running into something we didn't mean to. As I squinted to get my eyes to focus, I noticed that the cave sloped downwards in a spiral, as if it led towards the centre of the mountain.

This had to be it.

In the distance, a faint squeaking sound could be heard, making a shiver run down my spine. "What was that?" I asked, stepping closer to Larc and Haera who had started making their way down the slope.

"Hopefully, it should only be bats," my sister assured. "They probably love an environment like this."

"Bats?" Larc questioned, his hand never leaving the hilt of his winged sword. "What are those?"

We both turned to the Dragon-born in disbelief. "You haven't heard of a bat before?"

He shook his head, slowing his pace as we reached a turn in the cave's path. "No, I haven't"

"They're small, flying animals that live in caves," I began to explain. "They're blind so they use squeaking as echolocation to move around. I'm surprised you haven't heard of one before, bats kind of have similar-looking wings to Dragon-borns."

"They're part Dragon too?" Larc's brows raised in surprise, the glow of the blue sparks reflecting in his eyes.

"No," I chuckled as Haera stifled her laughter too. "They're just regular animals. Though, I wonder if-"

My words stopped as Larc grunted and quickly moved to the side, dodging something that had headed his way. "Is that one of the bats you speak of?"

The sound of a dagger being unsheathed to my left made my breathing hitch in my chest. "It's not," Haera confirmed as she stepped towards whatever had soared past Larc. "Bats don't have eyes like that."

"Like what?" I squinted into the darkness, trying to find out what the others had seen. It was difficult to make out amongst the blue sparks that floated through the air, but near the roof of the cave was another set of blue glowing lights. However, these ones didn't flicker in and out of existence.

My hand reached for the dagger underneath my shirt. What were they? Were they another kind of shadowed creature we had seen in the forest? Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't good.

When the flying creature squeaked again, it was poised ready to attack Larc again. The Dragon-born raised his sword in anticipation of the attack and when it flew towards him, it met the blade with a piercing shriek. Just like the last time Larc had attempted to skewer the shadowed beast with his sword, his weapon clashed against more metal.

"Run!" Haera yelled as she sprinted towards the exit. Larc joined her without thinking, running back towards the gap in the mountain we had squeezed through.

I wanted to follow them, but my legs refused to move towards the light still creeping through the opening in the rocks. The Goddess's power tugged me away from it, calling out to me to bring me towards the Lyre. Tendrils of magic stroked my cheeks, promising safety within its clutches. The Goddess wouldn't try to hurt me, her only intentions were to keep me alive.

I ran down into the cave.

"Zofia!" Haera and Larc called out as they watched me turn the other way. I heard the monster continue to shriek, but I kept moving. The Lyre would keep me safe.

If they managed to get through the cave entrance again, they would be safe too — a small gap had to be an easy point to defend — but when I heard their footsteps chasing after me, I knew they had decided to follow me.

As we got deeper and deeper into the cave system, more screeches and squeals emerged from the darkness around us, the shadowed creatures increasing in number. How far down was the Lyre? More blue sparks began to form in the air too, coating the floor like a thick sheet of snow. I had to be close now.

The shadows lurking around me faded the further I got, a bright light forming at the end of the tunnel and the tug on my magic growing stronger and stronger with each step. There was a barrier at the end of the tunnels, just like the one that had surrounded the tower. It would protect us. We would be safe.

The first thing that consumed me when I stepped through the barrier was the overwhelming strength of the power that weaved into my body and mind. It tugged at my arms and legs as if it wanted to pull me apart, the sensation nearly bringing me to my knees. I had never felt so much raw power before. The sight of the Lyre in front of me was the only thing that kept me from falling to the cavern floor.

Sitting atop a pristine marble pedestal was the artefact we had endlessly searched for. I knew the musical instrument would be grand — to belong to someone as powerful as the Goddess, it had to be — but I hadn't expected what sat before me now. Pure gold formed the arms of the Lyre, each individual marking on it radiating with a blue glow. The strings tied tightly to the crossbar were formed only from the magic that coursed through me.

This was it. We were finally here. The Lyre was within reach.

I extended my hand to touch the Lyre, to gently graze the surface of gold with my fingertips, but Haera snatched it away before I could, breathing heavily through her mouth.

"Look!" My sister turned my body so I could see behind the artefact, the object that made my power scream out to let it touch it.

Chained to the cave wall with decaying vines all around her was a woman. Unruly crimson hair covered her face and the top half of her body, as if it hadn't been cut for centuries. Against her sallow skin, her glowing azure veins were a stark contrast. As I took in her appearance and my magic called out in song, I knew who this woman was.

The Goddess.

This woman was the Goddess that had blessed me with her power, the woman who had saved the Kingdom of Aerla countlessly from an encroaching darkness. The woman whose legs were now as rife with shadow as the creatures we had run away from.

What had happened to her? How was she even still alive? The Goddess had been alive centuries ago, but the faint rise and fall of her chest whispered the promises of life. I stepped closer, eager to discover more about her and yet cautious of the darkness eating away at her at the same time. In time with her shallow breaths, the Lyre's strings pulsed in power, as if the Goddess was still fuelling the artefact.

"Someone is coming down the cave," Larc warned, drawing his blade and stepping closer to the Lyre. "Something that isn't these flying creatures." His golden eyes darted between the barrier and the instrument, torn between running over to break it and waiting to see who was about to arrive. Before he could make a decision, the distant flapping of wings echoed from the spiralling cave we had travelled down.

We needed to break the Lyre now while the Dragon-borns couldn't get their hands on it.

Larc lunged for the Lyre while red-winged Dragon-borns emerged from the shadows. The two we had seen terrorising a girl from our village led their group, smirks brandished like weapons as if they had already obtained certain victory. Two more royal guards followed behind them and, while they didn't smile as though every part of their plans had fallen perfectly into place, confidence still radiated from them.

In the centre of their group was a woman with grand golden wings that stretched far beyond the normal span, matching the shade of her eyes that glimmered with determination. She wore a dark set of fighting leathers that reflected the glow of the blue sparks floating around her, giving her the appearance of a mythical sprite floating through an enchanted forest. The Dragon-born's long, blue hair was tightly plaited so it remained out of her face, but it was still clear to see the jewels woven through the strands.

Every fibre of my being froze at the sight before me, about the golden wings we had been warned about.

The Dragon-born Queen was here.