Dark and Light | J.JK *COMPLETED*

Flower in the Fire

"Kill him."

At the firmness of her voice, my hands instinctively lift themselves, drawing the bow that I'd aimed at a million different things.

But never a human. Never a living, breathing life that I have no right to take.

"I can't."

The boy curls into a tight ball of blood and pain, whimpering in fear and the dull ache of his wounds. He couldn't be any more than six years old. No child deserved this, not even if they were from Gens Dark.

"I said, Lyrewen, kill him."

Blaire says my name like it's a piece of food that's stuck between her pearly white teeth. Her expression is already twisted violently from anger and frustration, and I swallow my anxiety down my throat. Blaire is an unpredictable one when she gets mad.

"And I said I can't."

We've been through this routine for the thousandth time now, her saying to skewer his tiny little form with an arrow and me saying I can't. I'm actually quite surprised she has still somehow refrained herself from ripping the poor boy's head off herself, along with mine for good measure.

"Fine. We'll try tomorrow again, you disgusting weakling. With a heart like that, you're bound to die soon with a sword shoved up your throat. But remember, that boy will die tomorrow, whether you chicken out or not."

With that, she gracefully spins on her heel, slamming the door loudly behind her. The moment the echo of her annoyed footsteps disappear down the hallway, I drop my bow and rush over to the shivering boy. He's dressed in nothing but torn, bloodstained rags— of course he'd be shaking. It was the heart of winter outside, and the room didn't have much insulation.

My hands are quick as I unclasp my thick winter cloak from my neck and secure it around his instead. His dazed eyes become wide as I lift his frail body up, which is weak from malnutrition and beatings. Actually, he's so light that even my short, small self can hold him up without any extra force.

"Don't worry. I'll get you out of here, alright? Back to your Gens. Your family. Do you remember them?"

My voice is a flurry of soothing words as I quickly weave through the twisting maze of corridors and hallways in the Gens Palace. I've planned this well— all the others were busy attending the Winter Gathering, and I was the only one left here. If there was a time to break this boy out, now was perfect.

Besides, no one ever noticed if I was gone for a few hours, because nobody ever cared. I was an orphan who couldn't even kill a person without killing myself first. And the people here didn't make friends with a person like that.

"Why are you helping me?"

I flash a reassuring smile at him as my feet continue to crunch in the snow, towards the Iliad Forests. No sane person would follow me there— it was a place where you just couldn't be followed, even if the person was an expert tracker.

"I just feel bad seeing something like this happen. Don't wander off from your family again, okay?" I keep running as I tuck his small body closer to my chest. Even if he had the cloak around him, he still must be cold. "What's your name?"

He hesitates a bit, and I can still see some of that fire left in his eyes. Then that fire melts into exhaustion, and a faint flicker of trust and relief.

"Shadow."

Trying to be friendly, I roll my eyes a little. "Of course. I should have known."

The tension melts from his body at my attempt to make the boy more comfortable in my presence. To my delight, he even smiles a bit, then continues to clutch the soft material of the cloak tighter to his chest.

"Do you want something to eat as we go?" I offer helpfully when I hear his stomach grumble. At the embarrassing noise, his face flushes a bit and he nods.

By the time I hand him a sandwich and some water, he's completely given his trust over to me. All this time, he'd been missing a person that he could rely and depend on. He was only six— what would anyone expect?

"We're almost there."

My quick footfalls slow a bit as I see the  Dark Palace. I was glad I memorized the route leading here— or I would have gotten hopelessly lost among these unforgiving woods with the boy, and that would've been absolutely terrible.

"Do you recognize where your palace is? Is it one of the big ones, or the ones on the side?"

His face brightens significantly as he points at a tall, magnificently built palace, adorned with elegant designs and a gorgeous finish. It makes my palace look shabby in comparison, and I had a pretty good palace back home myself.

"Do you think you can get to where you need to go if I drop you off near the palace? More importantly, can you walk?"

When he nods, I smile encouragingly at him and give myself a little pat on the back. Everything was going so well. I could only hope it would continue its smooth flow.

It turns out I was wrong.

Dead wrong.

All within a second, I have five Dark surrounding me at swordpoint. My original plan had been to drop the boy off and leave, but that had clearly not gone accordingly. They snatch the boy from my arms and wrestle me down onto the snow before I can retaliate.

"Wait," I can hear the boy squeak desperately. "Let her go!"

But nobody listens to him as they pull me up to my feet, and with a single motion, strikes the vulnerable part of my head with the butt of a gun.

Everything can go wrong so quickly, and you won't even notice. Turns out that getting captured in Dark territory wasn't even the beginning of the hell I was going to experience.