The fight had ended.

Both competitors had survived with minor injuries and were now being treated while the other fights took place. The young girl had been announced the victor when the boy had yielded after being seared by the flames.

Selene hadn't seen any more of the fight. Aiden had made sure of it. During the cheering and shouting in the aftermath, he helped her down off the roof and took her back to the treehouse. He was quiet, giving her space. Just when she thought she was healing, something like this happens to drag her back down into that dark place. She felt slow and sluggish, just wanting to sleep away this feeling of fear and sadness.

She could feel Aiden's eyes on her back; he watched her like a hawk. For reasons she didn't know, he treated her like family, something she didn't deserve. They hadn't known each other for very long at all, yet she felt a connection to him. Like she could trust him with her life. And he had proven it over and over again that she could.

She also knew he had gone through horrors of his own, one look at the brutal scar on his face proved it. Maybe he could help her with this feeling. Would he think different of her?

She hadn't told anyone of Lily, hadn't been able to. Maybe it was time to speak.

She didn't know when to talk, still not completely comfortable with opening up to anyone. So she was silent while he sat her down by the fireplace and quickly started a small fire to light the room. Then he dragged a blanket off her hammock and wrapped it around her before settling down beside her. He was warming his hands near the flames when she asked, "Who did you lose?"

Aiden's hands froze in mid-air for a moment before he brought them closer to pull his coat tighter around himself. He was silent for long enough that she believed he wouldn't answer. She had been foolish to ask.

But then he answered, "I lost a younger brother and sister. I was the oldest."

They were quiet for another minute. "Why are you so terrified of fire?" he asked.

This was it. He finally asked it after weeks of her acting like prey in the jaws of a mountain cat. She told herself earlier that she would finally speak about Lily, but now that the time had come, she wasn't sure she would be able to. He spoke before she could.

"My sister and I were incredibly close. We were closer in age than she was to my youngest brother, so of course, we were inseparable. Yet we were complete opposites. I was all rough edges and she was smooth hills. Every boy she met fawned over her like she was the greatest prize to be won. Of course, I would have chased them off if she hadn't gotten to them first and made sure they knew she was all business," he laughed, "In fact, you remind me of her."

"I remember once when we were much younger, she found an injured bird in our family's garden and decided to take it in. We had several hunting dogs though and the minute she brought it into the house, they went wild. I thought I was going to have to take them all outside to keep them from jumping all over her, but she just held up a hand and gave them this look. I can't even describe it to you. It was pure dominance and eyes that said 'Listen to me or else' and they just shut up and sat there as if they knew exactly what she had said. That's why when I saw you nod your head to that deer in the forest or the way you speak to Kadan sometimes, you remind me so much of her it shocks me. You're alike in more ways than that one. You were both also incredibly strong-hearted and could overcome anything," he paused, "Do you even know how brave you are Selene?"

Selene didn't look at him as he told his story nor as he finished it. She just watched their small fire dance.

Me? Brave?

She swallowed hard. "When I escaped into the forest, I went with a little girl."

She wasn't going to able to finish. It was too hard. Just then, Aiden reached out and grasped her hand, squeezing it gently. She didn't deserve a friend like him. She had only been able to get to this village because of the deaths of her friends. Yet here he was, holding her hand as he had held her that morning in the forest and that night at the duels. He deserved to know why she couldn't sit too close to the fire or why she sometimes woke up screaming in the night.

"She and I grew close in that forest, close enough that I considered her my little sister. She had given me the ability to love and care for something. We'd only been together for a week or so and yet I would've died to make sure she had everything she ever needed. One day, she wanted to show me something, a cavern filled with sprites. Time passed differently there and so once we left, it was late into the night. I guess they had been hunting us and the only reason we'd stayed out of reach was because we kept moving. We lost hours in that cavern. When we went back to our camp there was a demon there. One made of fire..."

Aiden's grip on her hand tightened slightly.

"'Run' I had told her 'just run'. I knew I couldn't beat it, but I had to give her a chance to live her life. Mine was useless, I had been nothing but the unwanted slave of a farmer and a blacksmith. She was just a child. I was so relieved when she fled. But the demon disappeared after her. And because of that broken ankle... I didn't get to her in time. I had to crawl and when I reached her, it was holding her."

Selene was crying, she could barely speak past the sobs that were rising.

"I watched as it burned her to nothing in front of me. And it was so hot as it did it, I thought it was going to kill me too but it left me there, covered in the ashes that used to be her body and a broken shell of who I used to be."

You and I are one and the same.

"I am not like your sister. I was never kind or brave. I was beaten bloodied so many times by the man who took me in and made me feel as if I owed him for that favor. I was almost sold off for money just so his wife could buy herself some fancy clothes. I tried my best not to break, knowing that one day I would build up the courage to run. But I never did. I spent twenty years on that farm, but I never ran. It took a massacre. I thought I could be a new person, one that didn't get hurt or hurt anyone else. It costed the lives of the people I had loved."

She was hysterical. She couldn't breathe as she cried and cried and cried. She had finally told someone and she couldn't bear to see how he would look at her.

It's your fault they died, he would say, those demons wanted you.

"It should have been me," she sobbed.

She buried her face in her blanket so he wouldn't have to see her. She was so alone in this cold world.

But then she felt his hands on her wrists as he pulled the blanket away. He lifted her face up to meet his eyes. He indeed looked different, he looked angry. Furious even. She braced herself for his harsh words.

"That man was the one who put those scars on your back?" he asked, his voice much softer than his face.

"Yes," she quietly answered.

"There's no shame in fear, Selene. None. The fact that you sit here now is not a punishment; it's not because you were selfish and weak. It's because you were the strongest. You survived all that and are still able to smile at times. Those scars on a back are not something to be ashamed of. They're proof that you are able to persist."

He wiped the tears off of her cheeks, his thumbs calloused. She blinked her vision clear and looked straight into those dark blue eyes. They still shocked her whenever she saw them because they were so beautiful and different. She could get lost in them.

"If I ever see that demon, I will slay it with my own hands. And I vow to you, Selene," he took a breath, "I will never leave you."

Lucius was kind to her when no one else was, but he had left. He never protected her from his father, only helped her afterward. She was grateful, but nonetheless, he abandoned her so many times. Jack was kind and had offered her a home and a sanctuary, but along with it was the price of her freedom and hopes of seeing what was beyond the borders of her home. And Lily was the first person she had ever let close to her, but she was fleeting. Someone she would never forget, but someone who was gone.

Aiden however, had made her a promise that no one else had before. She had always felt alone, she knew that. She'd said the words to herself many times. But now this man had offered her a way out of that dark abyss. He had offered it days ago when he first reached out his hand to her. He was the light that showed the way to safety.

Do you know how brave you are? he had said.

Bravery was not always standing up to an abuser or facing off against a demon. Sometimes, it was opening her heart up to the people around her despite the chance that they could be taken away.

She smiled through her tears, "Don't make a promise you can't keep, Aiden."

He gripped her hands tighter and looked her right in the eye and said, "I keep my word."

And he did not leave her, did not let go of her hand or look away. They stayed there on the floor for a long while, until Selene could bear to stand. And even as they laid in their hammocks, she felt his eyes on her, making sure she was okay. That night, she did not have any nightmares.