Our Sanctuary

Chapter 17

The three of us immediately jumped and spun around. I brought my knife up to face the tall Feymon, Avery, to which he smiled widely, showcasing the row of white teeth and sharp fangs.

He looked even taller in person, and the scar looked way more jagged than it had from afar. Avery ignored the knife pointed right at his chest and looked past Matteo, Willow, and I and stared straight at Achlys with amusement in his dark eyes.

"We need to seriously stop meeting like this, Achlys," he said with a laugh.

I glanced behind myself to look at Achlys for her response and could see her hand tightening around the handle of her sword and her teeth grinding themselves together. Her eyes showed daggers at Avery and she looked like she wanted to kill him. I mentally wondered what happened between the two, –because there was definitely something– before I quickly returned my attention back onto Avery to make sure he didn't get any ideas.

At Achlys' response, Avery grinned even wider. "I know what you're trying to do. It's not going to work."

Achlys took a step closer to us. "What exactly am I trying to do?"

I wanted to look back at her to see what she had planned, but I kept my eyes straight and intent on Avery. Worry then quickly flooded through me at the thought of the Feymon in the training room coming at us from behind and I took a hesitant step back in case of that outcome.

The amusement didn't leave Avery's eyes as he crossed his arms over his bare chest. "You're attempting to 'rescue' as many of the children as you can so you can create your own army to come after all of us."

I immediately turned away from Avery and stared at Achlys, my knife wavering slightly. Had she lied to us? Telling us we were you to go somewhere safe while in reality we were going to do the same thing all over again?

Achlys ignored the looks she got from the three of us and kept her head up as she glared at Avery's smug smile. "What if I told you that's not what I'm doing?"

"Then I would say you were lying."

They both took a step closer to each other and the tension in the hallway seemed to grow the longer the silence stretched out. Avery was now only a few inches away from the tip of my knife and he had dropped his arms back down by his sides, his hands hovering just over top of the daggers at his sides. Achlys on the other hand held the sword in her right hand and out a little bit while her other slowly inched toward the small needle like weapons at her thigh.

My heart thumped heavily against my chest as I stared at the two of them, ready to back up Achlys if Avery attacked, but it didn't come for quite some time. Then all at once, many things happened that seemed to go by in slow motion.

I could see Avery reaching for the daggers, ready to pull them out and attack, and I could see him start to take the last step toward us. Out of the corner of my eye, Achlys was about to take the same sort up step and then I could suddenly see the tip of a dagger protruding from Avery's right shoulder. Just as the sharp object pierced his shin, he cried out in pain and spun around to see who had thrown the knife. I followed his gaze and instantly felt a warm, relieved sort of feeling spreading through me.

Zack stood a few dozen meters away, two more knives in his hands. His blond hair was a mess on his head and stuck to his forehead and back of his neck with sweat. His eyes were wide and alert, but still looked very tired as they glared at Avery.

My eyes then trailed behind Zack and I could see Xian and Ezekiel both there holding their weapons up at Avery, with many other teens behind them. I looked back at Avery expecting him to surrender, put up his hands or maybe even a white flag, but all he did was smile the same large grin from before while his dark blood flowed down his arm from the wound on his shoulder.

"You won't win," he spoke out to all of them before bending his knees slightly and pushing off the ground, taking flight.

Over the ringing in my ears, I heard someone yell out to fire at the Feymon. I turned around to stare at Avery as he dodged each attempt and flew back down the hallway and disappeared around the corner. I lowered the weapon in my hand and looked back at the rest of the teens who had come to our aid and most importantly Zack.

His grey eyes landed on mine and I watched him walk over to me with speed. I didn't know what he was going to do and was quite surprised as I felt his strong arms wrap around me. The feeling of sadness, confusion, and anger, –from all the information that Xian had given me earlier– left at Zack's touch and I hugged him back.

"I'm so glad you're alright," he whispered into my ear.

In response, I squeezed him tighter, and mentally wished we weren't here anymore. I wished we were anywhere but here. Somewhere safe.

Zack kissed my forehead gently as he pulled away from the hug. I wanted it to last longer, but I knew we had to do something to get everyone out of here. We would have more time to hug and talk once we had made it to somewhere safe. Zack looked over at Achlys once he had straightened back up and I followed his gaze and could see that her eyes were on us.

"We need to get to the roof, right now," she said to Zack, whose eyebrows were furrowed.

"No," Zack shook his head and pointed to the way Avery had flown, "we need to attack them. Make sure that they don't leave."

Achlys took a few steps toward the end of the hallway where the staircase and our exit was. "There are way more of them coming. He went to go get back up and will come after us soon." She then noticed how weaponless Zack looked. "Not to mention you're pretty much unarmed."

A boy that I didn't know the name of and who was standing next to Alex, raised his weapon and took a step closer to Achlys with a raised eyebrow. "And why exactly would we take orders from one of you?"

"Because she saved our lives," Matteo said before Achlys could open her mouth to respond. "One of the Feymon were coming after us and she killed it. I don't know why she did. I still don't know why, but she's here to help all of us."

Murmurs went around the hallway and I looked all around at everyone before staring at Achlys again. She looked annoyed and especially impatient as she took another step forward and gestured to the exit.

"We need to go and I'm not joking whatsoever. They will come back with way more weapons than what you all have combined and tear each of you apart. I am trying to prevent that from happening, but you all are making it very difficult. Now please-"

Loud screeches echoed down the hallway and all of our eyes widened as we stared at where the source was coming from. The Feymon had yet to round the corner, but they were going to very soon.

Achlys looked back to us with urgency in her eyes and voice. "Go, run! Get to the roof."