Golden Flames //Fourth Wing

Hello Darling.

Silence.
It feels like the world has stopped around us.
There is nothing but danger lingering in the air and it takes several moments before my body awakes into survival mode.
I lean towards Rhiannon carefully, wary of the calculating eyes of Augustin.

„Rhi, listen. You'll now gently excuse you, saying Sawyer is expecting you and then you'll move carefully past him till you are past the next corner and then you run okay?" I whisper into her ear, hoping my words are clear to hear.
When she does not respond I, lock my eyes with the ones of my uncle and say loudly.
„Rhi, I think Sawyer was expecting you by now, he'll come looking for us soon. Why don't you leave already and I'll join later?"
Rhiannon nods and then she finally moves.

When she left the Silence returned.

My uncle is still the same he was years back. The total opposite of my Mother.
Melgren was dark, rarely smiled and when he did there was always something wrong with it.
When I was young I never knew what it really was but now it was as clear as ever.
He didn't really smile. It was more a painful looking Grimace and it never reached his raven black eyes.
I feared him when I was younger, i still do.

I never understood how he cloud be the brother of my Mother.
My Mamà had been a angel. The purest of them all and the direct opposite of Augustine.
Her long blonde hair, tanned skin, sparkling brown eyes, female figure, her inviting laugh and her amazing personality what made everyone love her immediately, and her warm hugs which always felt like home.
Augustine however was only a shadow of her greatness. He was calculating and cold. Black hair, the same brown eyes but without sparkle, the grimace which was supposed to be a smile, his muscular build, which made him seem more scary then inviting and warm.

When I was younger, I always adored that I had inherited so much features from my mom but now, right in this moment I despised it.
The closer you looked the more similarities you could find between me and Melgren. The man who branded me and killed my family.

My mother had begged. I had watched it. She had begged for forgiveness infront of her own Brother and Husband, neither of them had done and then not being able to bare the pain of her people anymore he had sliced my fathers throat and as she tried to kill Augustine Codagh had burned her.

I had cried that day for hours, hoping she would've succeeded and taken me with her to flee and leave Navarre behind but she wad only ash.

Tears start to well in my eyes as I stare into the eyes of my uncle. The man I feared the most and suddenly wished for nothing more but for Xaden to be here. To hold me. To ensure me, I would live. To protect me from the Monster.
Then even though I should fear Xaden, he was nothing compared to him.
Then who ensured me now I would? Codagh almost killed me the same way he killed my mother at Treshing.

„Hello Darling"
His voice was calm and controlled but at the edges you could hear the power underlining every word.

„I was fairly sad when I saw you at Treshing my dear, At how you didn't even greeted me"
His smile is disgustingly sweet only that it looks more like a cut made straight through his face, taking all the warmth from it.

„And then I was even more surprised when you actually survived and didn't joined my dear Kora"
Her name sounds false out of his mouth. Like poison. A tear falls down my cheek.
It had been years since someone said her name.
She was a traitor. Not a hero like my dad and her brother. Her name was forbidden, erased from all books.

„Don't say her name"
I press out between pressed lips, shaking uncontrollably out of anger and pain at the memory.

„Well, well my dear, I almost feared you forgot the language we talk. „
He laughs, a hollow laugh that indicates that you should run. That indicates the danger you're in.
My body trembles under the urge to flee but I force myself to stand my ground.