"Take them away." the man smirked, leaning back into his chair as though he were a king on his throne.
"You're a monster." Astrid growled, her eyes never straying from the traitor in front of us.
"That, I am." Said the red-haired man, his smirk never faltering, even as he looked at the four people in front of him. Even as he ignored the blood littering the walls, the piles upon piles of bodies strewn throughout the room. Each of us hazy as our blood seeped from our bodies.
My every nerve felt as though it had been cut from my body with a rusty knife. Salt was a present taste in my mouth as I tasted my falling tears. The coppery tang of my own blood invaded my every waking moment as my clothes grew more and more soaked every second. Every day. Every week.
My breath was labored. Every inhale felt like a knife was sinking into my lungs. For the first time in my life, I felt useless. Completely weak against the threat that was resenting itself.
Strong hands held me up forcefully as the man behind me gripped my shoulders just as they did for each of my friends.
My head drooped as my knees began to ache from kneeling on the harsh ground in the office.
"There is another way." The man suggested his voice like a sickening song. The minion's grip tightened on me and painfully dug into one of the deeper cuts I'd received. I whimpered. A miserable sound from a place of weakness.
I whispered breathily, "Never." I bit out. Each of my colleagues echoed the same.
"Join me." He said to the four of us as we kneeled before him, bloody and broken. "Forsake your former masters, and serve me instead."
"And if we don't?" Flynn seethed, purple-green bruises blooming on his jaw and under his eyes.
The red-haired man paused, "Then you die." he shrugged.
I snorted, using the last dregs of my strength pulling my head up to look at the master, "We die either way." I laughed. I was sure I was a sight. The blood the smile, I likely looked psychotic.
No matter if we chose to betray The Flame and align ourselves with his gild, we were dead either way. The Flame would hunt us all our lives till we were begging for mercy, and then they'd make our deaths last for years.
The death the red-haired man promised us was nothing compared to what would await us if we betrayed our makers.
The red-haired man leaned forward, "I could protect you." he said, his voice a wrathful caress.
I laughed in his face once more. "You're nothing. Your promises are empty."
Blank. His smug expression never faltered, as if he was certain we'd accept his offer eventually.
The man looked to his right, his head moving slowly until he had just barely looked over. "Come here." that was all he had to say.
A woman clad in black, came to his side, a mask covering the majority of her face. Her limbs were slender, and yet she moved with a grace that told me she was no stranger to battle.
I'd seen her before, always near him like a shadow in his corner. Or a weapon.
The master looked over the four us again, grinning. "How sad you look." the master said. His gaze stopped on me, his smile widening just a fraction. "Take them. Leave her."
"No." Kai began.
The red-haired man only scoffed in delight. Dismissing him as though she were a child. "Take them away. Now." he said, an edge now present in his voice.
His minions didn't need further instruction. They dragged my friends out of the room, kicking and screaming. Their protests echoed throughout the hallway until they were taken back to the rooms.
On a normal day, the three of them combined could have sent this entire gild to their knees in mere seconds.
But thirty-two days of torture had a tendency to affect a person.
At least I thought it was thirty-two days. There was no light where they kept us. No sense of time. All we knew was pain and the brief moments of relief when they left. But they always came back.
The master grinned. "I'm curious, 7827." he said. "Do they appreciate you where you come from? Do they acknowledge your talent?"
I didn't answer. I wouldn't yield.
"Here. We would make use of that talent. You could be a Queen."
The woman next to the master tensed, her head turning to him. The parts of her face that weren't hidden by a mask were wreathed in the shadow of her hood. But ever so slightly, I could see the confusion written on her features.
"You could be my heir." he finally said. He raised his hands, gesturing to the room around us. "All of this could be yours someday."
All this blood. All this torment. The mindless slaves around us. The bodies littering the floor.
"Why would I want that?" I questioned.
His eyes were hooded as his pearly white teeth flashed in a smile. "Because you want what we all want." he paused, "Power. I can give you that."
I narrowed my eyes. "I have power. I don't need anything from you." my mouth curved into a venomous grin. "You're a pretender. A wannabe who believes he has the upper hand. You know nothing."
I looked around the room, scrutinizing every single one of them with the most wrathful glare I could muster. I scoffed, "Pathetic."
The man's eyes narrowed, "I wanted to give you a chance." he tsked.
I shook my head. "No." I stated, "You wanted to use me."
"Is there a difference?" When I didn't reply, he spoke again, except this time to the woman next to him. "You know what to do."
She spared a brief nod, signaling to the man who held me up. With just a look, the man released me, and I fell to the floor. I hadn't realized he'd been the only thing keeping me upright.
I hissed as my wounds stretched with my slight fall. Everything hurt. My breath. My mind. Red-hot, aching pain in every inch of my body.
A slender hand grabbed my arm, pulling me up from the ground and successfully lifting me upright as I leaned the majority of my weight on her. I bit my lip hard enough to bleed as I forced back a cry.
She dragged me out of the room, her arm wrapping around my torso as I tried and failed at walking. "We have to move quickly." She finally spoke once we'd gotten to a more secluded section of the building.
Everything was hazy. Blurry. It felt like I was walking through a dreamscape where everything and nothing felt real.
"If you want to get out of here alive. You have to hurry."
Leave. Alive. What?
"You're helping me?" I asked breathily, trying to lift my head and look at the girl.
"Apparently." she practically hissed. "A have someone getting your friends. Hurry up." she commanded.
I could escape. I could leave with my friends.
I did as she said. Pulling from whatever strength I had left inside me and forcing my body to move. Every motion was agony. But I pushed. I kept going. If not for me, then for my family.
"We have to go. They'll notice I haven't gotten you back to the rooms yet." a slight panic had made its way into her voice.
Bright.
I hissed as light invaded my vision. It was day? I tried to get my eyes to focus, to look at whatever surrounded me, and yet it was all I could do to keep moving. I knew if I stopped, I wouldn't start again.
The shouts and screams began when the green came into view. Trees. I think. Warnings and yells that the prisoners had escaped. The woman cursed colorfully, her steps quickening until we were nearly running through what I hoped to be woods.
I felt tears spill over my eyes at the blinding pain that made me want to curl up on the ground and scream.
Keep going. I told myself.
Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.
"Come on." The woman chanted like a prayer. But the eager tone in her voice told me she was speaking more to herself than she was to me.
Our steps slowed just slightly. The blinding light evaporated almost completely, replaced with a cool grey.
The woman stopped completely.
I wanted to say no. That we couldn't stop or I wouldn't be able to go again. But words had escaped me.
The woman's arm slowly retreated from its place, holding me up. I almost collapsed. She slowed my fall, gently setting me down on the ground. Cool stone greeted me. A cave. We were in a cave.
Why? The word snaked through my mind like a whirling hurricane. Why was she helping me? Why was she helping my friends?
I hadn't realized I'd said the word aloud until she answered. "Because you're a threat."
Just barely, I forced the words out, "To what?" I couldn't see how my current condition could garner me as a threat.
"To me." she replied. "I'm his Heir." those three words gave me my answer.
The red-haired man had offered me a promise that he had already set with her.
"Who are you?" I asked breathily, "What is your name?" I couldn't see her face. A name would do.
She didn't reply for a moment. I heard a shuffling as she sat down against the wall parallel to mine.
Her words were nothing more than a whisper when she finally responded. "I have no name." She said, "I am whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be."
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
And there it was, rooted into my dreams. The key to everything.
─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
A/N: Remember this chapter guys. Remember it.
Also, once I finish the present books of this series, I'm thinking of doing a prequel of Danika when she was in the Flame with her friends. It would kinda have a Six of crows and Assassins blade-type vibe. Would you guys be interested?