Child of Night and Fire

03- Aelin

Ae. i like it. I am sitting between Mor and Cass at the dinner table. My head down.

"Hey Ae" says Cassian "wanna say hi to everyone?"

I look up and see two other males and one female who I don't know at the table. The female grins at me and i try not to laugh. She has blood on her teeth.

"Um miss" i say "there is some blood on your teeth"

She just chuckles. She is so cool. I bite my tongue and let it bleed onto my teeth. I rub it around with my lips and smile at her. She coughs and spits blood everywhere. I laugh and everyone looks horrified. When i look down at my hands i see they are red with blood. I stop hearing everything. I stumble back out of my chair. Memories come back to me. My parents. Dead in their beds. Marion dead to save me. No. no. no.

"Ae!" calls a voice.

"Aelin!" says another.

I engulf myself in fire. They are all dead. My family is all dead. They are all gone i am all alone. I look up and see everyone fighting against my fire. I try and stop it. I can't.

"YOU CAN AELIN" yells the Violet eyed male.

I nod and imagine my well. I imagine all the magic pouring out and then it coming back in. slowly my magic comes back and the fire stops. Cass runs over to me and hugs me close. When he puts me down i can see all the damage i did. I look at the Violet eyed male who seems to be in charge.

"Sorry" i say with my head hung.

He chuckles "im rhys and this is Az and Amren" he says and points to everyone.

Amren is really short.

"Yeah don't say that aloud" says rhys.

I gape at him. Can he read my mind? He winks at me. I gape larger. Amren strides towards me but I don't cower.

"I like you" she says "you may call me Am"

I look around at the others who look like fish. Am looks like she is about to murder everyone. But she looks at rhys.

"You should take her memories of her past life" she says, before anyone can say anything she explains "she is only a child., cant be over ten. She has obviously seen horrible things. You can replace the memories for something like she never knew her mother and she spent her young childhood with us. You could implant memoires in all of us so she never finds out. But make sure there is a trigger that will return the memories"

"What?!" i scream "no. don't take them from me" Cass reaches from me but i scramble away "don't take them" i whimper

Cass nods at rhys. He looks around the room. Everyone nods in agreement.

"NO" i screech. Cass wraps me in his arms and i thrash.

I feel a presence in my mind and i try and get it out. I see my life flash before my eyes.

"Please" i whimper

He holds me tighter and my vision swims. The last thing i see is my magic make an engraving of a stag in the wall. Darkness claims me and i slump in Cass's arms.