The blow never comes.

Uncurling myself gingerly from the defensive position I was in, I try to make sense of the situation.

Alain is slowly standing up from the opposite side of the room where I assume she was flung, and before me stands the mysterious man from the opening ceremony though he looks a bit hazy.

I shake my head in a bid to make my eyes focus and sharp pain assaults my head forcing a whimper from my lips.

The man crouches, cradling my head and the next moment, a delicious warmth engulfs me and I could already feel the pain ebbing away.

My eyes drift behind him and before I can call out a warning, Alain strikes, shoving those twin blades deep into the man’s back.

Groaning out loud the man lets go of my face and slowly stands up once again, I stare up at him to see his eyes flash a deep red before going completely black; freaky.

“Close your eyes little one, you don’t want to see this.”

I oblige; maybe it’s the crooning voice that coaxes submission out of me or it’s the wrath and death I glimpsed in those eyes before they turned dark, either way, my eyes close…tightly and I move one of my hands up to cover my ear, the other ear pressed against the wall as the other hand cradles my gut.

“good girl.”

Shivers...again, did I have a praise kink?

“I’m going to have fun finding out.”

I almost open my eyes in disbelief, we were doing this here? right now? was he serious?

A soft weight lands at my feet, Nyx, oh thank fates he was still alive.

The next few minutes are the longest of my life as I sing all the songs I could think of in my head, in a bid to keep the sounds in the room from getting to me.

The thunk of flesh against steel, the terrified screams from Alain, and multi-layered voices pleading for mercy, I tried to keep most of them out.

I already knew I was going to have nightmares for years to come.

A pain assaults my feet like my skin and flesh was being scraped off by talons, they disappear in the next minute; the talons, and before I can react, a splash of warm liquid splashes my face, I could feel it soaking my hair.

I fight a gag because after the day I have had, I knew that was blood, fresh blood at that, all over my face and hair, soaking into where I was seated.

The voice comes in the deathly silence that ensued.

“you can let go of your stomach now, it’s completely healed, and open your eyes, she’s gone.”

Oh, I know she’s gone man, ‘she’s’ currently soaking into my clothes and trickling down my face.

I slowly opened my eyes bracing for the gruesome sight that would be before me, there was none the room was completely dark.

“Wha…where did the light go.”

“I needed darkness to hunt, and I cannot let you see me like this.”

“but…”

“Listen to me carefully, they’ll come back, with the intention of taking you to the trial, but what they’ll find would force them to perform an execution, don’t be here when the time comes.”

Great, I’m supposed to somehow magically disappear from this stone cell and this kingdom so as not to get executed, does he have any idea how ridiculous that sounds?

“take me with you then, you somehow managed to get here even after we were locked inside, get us out,” I say cradling Nyx, who was somehow unconscious again, judging by the dead weight.

“I didn’t get here I was here,”

“So, you let that crazy bitch go ape shit on my ass before you thought to interfere? The fuck!”

“you have a very unrefined manner of speech, we shall work on that, and I couldn’t interfere until your life was greatly threatened.”

Before I could retort the door, slammed open again, bringing with it the bright light from the outside.

I turn back to my saviour to catch a glimpse of him, but he has disappeared, and so has Nyx, I could feel him but he was no longer in my arms.

Did he go invisible? But I could see him before, maybe he…

“she’s in here.”

“fuck!”

“what the hell did you do now you evil woman?”

The Bright princes rush inside, the king is also with them, even Ryder and a couple of unfamiliar faces.

“This should never have happened,” mutters the king.

“yeah, no shit Darian.” I think it, but I don’t say it, the man just lost his daughter and in a gruesome way too. I was many things but tactless wasn't one of them.

“This, is your fault father, if she had gotten a trial, Alain wouldn’t have come looking for her, she would be the one dead!” this comes from Jain.

The raw emotion forces me to finally look at Alain and it takes all of me to swallow my scream, she was staring at me, or at least her head was, I didn’t even want to know where the rest of her was.

Her head had been chopped off cleanly, too cleanly in fact if not for the staggering amounts of blood around us I would think he seared it off, or maybe lasered it.

“do I scare you now?”

I know the question was meant to come off threatening and mocking but the underlying vulnerability had me turning away from the princesses’ head and thinking.

“no, I know you’ll never hurt me, you wanted to protect me.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“no, but it’s all I got since my head is still firmly in place.”

I feel more than hear the exasperated huff from my mysterious saviour.

Sudden movement jolts me from the internal conversation.

“where are we going,” I ask Ryder and Cain who are now holding me up and walking outside the cell.

They remained quiet but I could feel the tension emanating from both of them, especially Cain since he had been deathly quiet since he went in.

We walk resolutely with the rest of the entourage behind us to an intricately designed building towards the farthest end of the library judging from how far we had walked.

I’m ushered in and secured to a chair that has in-built stirrups both for my feet and hands. After ensuring I couldn’t move a muscle they leave me in the room, but Cain hags behind a feral glint in his eyes.

“no one is going to stop me from killing you now, all your redeeming factors are lying soaked in my sister’s blood.”

“I’ll make it slow and memorable you can trust me on that,” is his parting shot as he stalks out leaving me staring after him chills curving down my spine.