Summons

Chapter 42: No Time to Mourn

One night. One night was all it took for Crowe's whole reality of him being a summoner to be brought back into its all too dangerous perspective.

Brogen was dead. Just the thought of it sounded so foreign to Crowe, to Fiera, to everyone.

Annora was devastated whenever she regained consciousness. The screams and tears of emotion would never leave Crowe's memory. How much more could a single man take away from her?

None of them know how long they huddled together in the sanctuary, crying and holding each other. They only knew, as they now stood back on the grounds of the mansion at his funeral, that he was gone.

Crowe stood weakly and stared blankly. He had barely slept. Most of the night he mourned. The rest of it he spent traveling to the ranch and to Elyria. It was easy to explain to Hayato, although the devastation was still obvious on his normally stoic face.

The hard part... the part that had him shed more tears than he thought possible... was telling Alira.

When she found out she fell to her knees and bawled into Crowe's arms.

The entire night was draining for everyone and it was the first time in over a year that the darkness didn't bring Crowe comfort. It was the first time since becoming a summoner that he felt like he couldn't see in the night, like he was a normal person again.

Last night he passed out at Alira's castle. He didn't even remember falling asleep or being led to a bedroom. The short time he managed to finally sleep he was plagued by strange dreams and visions. Most of them were flashes of the event but some were a little more out of place, including feelings of paralysis and of being taken advantage of, as if his mind and his actions weren't his own anymore.

Crowe brought everyone to the mansion through the sanctuary that morning.

He shook his head, trying to remove the weight.

It didn't work.

He looked up to see who all was here for what felt like the hundredth time.

Alira, of course, Fiera, Hayato, Anna Belle and her father, Annora, Sarah and Saya, out of what he assumed was courtesy of Alira, a few people he had never seen before that he assumed were old gladiator competitors and a few more people that he could only guess to be former students, and of course The Pack came to support him as well.

Word travels fast, he thought.

He felt the tears coming back. He hurt, but he clenched his jaw and his fist and fought back the tears. He had to be strong, if only in appearance for those close to him.

One of the gladiator's was talking at the moment, but Crowe wasn't paying attention, his mind wouldn't stop moving from one thing to another.

He felt a hand wrap around his and he returned the embrace before realizing that it was Saya's.

With a scoff and a quick jerk he freed his hand.

"Aww, what's wrong?" Saya asked with pouted lips. "I was merely trying to give comfort..."

Crowe just glared at her from the corner of his eye, he didn't need to give a reason and fall for her trap, especially here.

"Suit yourself," she said as she turned to go back to her sister. She turned her head slightly, "But you didn't seem to mind more than that last night," she said as she kept walking.

Crowe turned to look at her, a look of confusion on his face.

She smiled before turning to face forward.