A/N: Media is Lumina and her purple eyes...they're important for later! Enjoy...this is such a big chapter for me. I'm nervous to hear your thoughts!
The prison guards were under my control, but already problems were arising.
For one, I couldn't control daemons, and therefore they continued to fight. They were tough to battle, and the freed prisoners simply weren't equipped. Rather than risk their lives, I had Trina and Guthrie escort them to where we'd intended for them to hide-- among the many shanty houses of the Ruby city. Frederick and his friends had done a great job in finding out places were these prisoners could seek asylum, but apparently it had been an easy task. Angels in the Ruby city were used to neglect and poverty, but they were also a close community, ready to hide evidence and close ranks when needed.
And in a population of hundreds to thousands, unregulated by the King, it was an open invitation for a rebellion to hide.
Second was that the red guards were harder to keep control of than I'd thought. Clae's power required the user to keep firm concentration, particularly the greater the numbers under her control. I could barely stand, let alone fight. I knelt on the barracks outside the prison, overlooking the scene, protective in kindling the power I had over those with red wings.
And it took all of my control to stop them from attacking, not making them fight for me. As a result, Fabian, Scarlett, Sakura, Kirsten and Roan, plus Frederick and his men, were now facing a group of three daemons, surrounding them.
Fabian was pushing them back, wind roaring and encircling the group. His hair looked blond in the darkness, and in combination with his angry glare and set jaw, plus wings that poured from his back like molten mercury, I thought he looked like an assassin.
Scarlett was small beside him, staring up to where I was watching above them. Her short, black hair had grown longer; it had only been a curtain around her face, square at her lips, when I'd last seen her. Now it blew in the hurricane around her head, a halo of darkness.
Kirsten looked afraid, but set. She was armed with a bow, as was Sakura, who was at her side. Kirsten's gaze kept wandering towards the castle; when she had asked me about Clae, I'd lied.
'She's with Kaelan. He got hurt.'
Swallowing that lump of guilt, I flickered my gaze to Roan. Like Sakura, he seemed steady and immoveable, dual swords unsheathed at the ready.
Systematically, Fabian kept up the wind barrier whilst allowing one daemon to enter into the circle. Scarlett protected him, as he was vulnerable whilst doing so. The daemons weren't smart, and staggering their attack was our only advantage.
For the first, Sakura's aim was true. Her arrow went straight through the daemon's throat as it roared towards Roan, catching it unawares. As it tried to take off to retreat, Kirsten's arrows ploughed through its wing, causing it to stumble. Its claws slashed out, catching one of Frederick's group-- I'd forgotten the name-- and the man yelled out, stumbling.
Roan saved his life as the monster reared around to crush him, and the surly warrior pierced through the fleshy armpit of the daemon. Black blood rained across the circle, and the monster's roar became a splitting shriek, thudding towards the ground.
The second daemon's attack came after the group were recovering from the first. It was smaller but quicker than the first, and protected itself from arrows, which lodged within the creature's muscular sides, but without causing much damage. Suspiciously more aware than the last, the creature made its way towards Fabian, causing Scarlett to leap to his aid. She slashed and whirled with her knives, unable to move freely without leaving Fabian open to get hurt.
My heart hammered. Fabian was concentrating on maintaining the circle of wind, and I saw how much energy he poured into deflecting the daemon outside it. Like a mother, the daemon outside had become more ferocious since the second had disappeared, and began to cry in a most disconcerting manner.
I watched as the second daemon listened, before howling back.
Frederick had managed to make some deep cuts in the creature's hide, and Roan had sliced along its wings so that it couldn't fly. But the creature seemed unconcerned about the superficial damage being done to it, and focused on Scarlett. The arrows fired by Sakura and Kirsten were doing frighteningly little.
The monster's claws swiped, and caught Scarlett's legs, pulling them out from beneath her. She let out a frustrated scream, but her face smashed against the rocks beneath her feet. My own mouth was opening, screaming-- Fabian! -- as the claws flew towards his back.
I was wrong. These creatures might not be intelligent, but they adapt!
The wind faltered, and Fabian stumbled, caught between two daemons. Two very, very angry daemons. His back had been cut open, but thankfully as the daemon's claws had reached for him, Sakura had timed a brilliant arrow to crash into the base of the daemon's skull.
The creature was still alive, but where she had hit was doing damage. The daemon struggled to co-ordinate, couldn't seem to attack where it aimed. The monster staggered.
But still, Fabian was alone against two daemons. He drew his sword, deflecting the sudden lunge of one, but whilst he did stop it, he was also propelled backwards off his feet. The daemon that had been hit in the back of the neck was trampling and howling in a depressingly human scream, smashing into Sakura, and she lost her bow. Frederick tried to finish it off, but its movements were so erratic that he too was hit.
Scarlett lifted herself from her stunned position on the floor, and looked around immediately to find Fabian. He was darting around the stronger daemon, the one who seemed to burn with hatred for the one that had kept up the barrier. Kirsten was running towards them, bow drawn, but the arrows bounced off the creature and only seemed to annoy it more.
Around the group, the guards of the prison began to mutter. Focusing my control, I pushed them to step forwards. Help them. Help them! I commanded.
Their steps were slow.
Too slow.
Roan was climbing the back of the daemon, raising his sword to plunge it into the daemon's neck, beside the arrow Sakura had placed there. Half of Frederick's group were amassing on the stronger daemon by this point, but were blown off their feet by the creature flapping its wings forcefully. Scarlett hung onto Fabian to avoid being blown backwards, but he was the only one unaffected. He raised a hand, and the wind stopped hitting his friends, and instead curled backwards towards the monster.
Continuing the attack, Fabian flew into the air in one huge jump, flying high over the creature's head. Following him, the beast opened its mouth and snapped towards the angel hovering around it. Fabian's sword slashed as he neared the daemon, hitting teeth and bone but never slowing it down.
On the ground, Scarlett released a knife, sending it whizzing towards the daemon's throat. It lodged there, on the underside of its jaw, causing it to scream in pain. Her second knife flew between the daemon's eyes, missing the vital shot by an inch.
Seeing Scarlett in danger and unarmed, Fabian dived. He dropped like a stone to the ground, gaining speed faster than the creature's sharp claws, which were opening into a swing. Before he hit the ground, the wind caught him and sped him along, whisking Scarlett into his arms and out of harm's way.
Until the claws caught up, and his scream joined the air. Instead of killing Scarlett, they had hit him in the back. Blood errupted from his torn clothes, and the silver angel fell, my sister and him rolling along the ground in pain.
'Fabian! FABIAN!'
Later someone would tell me how I roared his name, over and over, distracting even the daemons away from their battles. Only Sakura could calm me down; she vaulted up the wall, climbing each nook in the wall, until she reached me surveying the scene, still holding onto the soldiers but with tears streaming down my nose.
I hadn't helped, I'd let him get hurt, I'd nearly let Scarlett get killed, what if he was seriously hurt?
'Lumina, Lumina, it's me. It's okay. The battle is nearly over.'
No it's not, I can see from here, Fabian is lying on the floor and Scarlett is trying to help him and that creature is coming for him to finish the job. Frederick can't get there fast enough. He's trying, but it's not fast enough. Roan is busy with the other daemon, Kirsten's useless...
And I'm up here.
Sakura touched my shoulder.
A warmth infused my body; not physically, but like waking from a refreshing slumber. Working its way along my limbs and my spine, I breathed out slow and deep.
Go and help him, I ordered the soldiers. I command you.
Automatically, their feet began to move. In unison, the red army marched forward, drawing weapons against their own monsters. Within minutes, the remaining two daemons had been swarmed by red uniforms and flying red wings, slashing and slaying and killing.
I stayed lucid in time to see help arrive to Fabian, and to see him move, startled at the army's help. He glanced towards me, watching from above, where I stretched out a hand to him.
Then Sakura was supporting me, heaving me down stairs, my mind drawn into oblivion by the effort of the controlling spell. We emerged to a cheer from our small rebellion, and even the accommodating help of horses, given to us by the brainwashed soldiers. Sakura placed me atop one of the wagons, and Fabian was brought beside me, swathed in impromptu bandages.
Before she left, I grabbed Sakura's shoulder, gasping, 'Clae...Kaelan...Val...'
She nodded, and I remember her smiling, albeit fuzzily. 'I'll take care of it, princess,' she said.
I opened my mouth to speak, to tell her don't call me princess, but found I couldn't speak. Exhausted, my fingers closed around Fabian's beside me. His hands were cold. Focusing on warming his hands, I stopped thinking of anything else. I blew on them absent-mindedly, enclosing them in both of my own warm hands. My wings drooped, no longer having the strength to hold themselves up.
All the while, the army helped, and the army drained me.
'Lumina...' I heard a croak. My head turned. Fabian was awake. Fabian was alive.
'Don't leave me,' my voice sounded foreign, and it took me moments to realise that it was my own, that I could speak. 'Don't you dare leave me.'
Why was my face so wet? It wasn't raining. Was it? No. I didn't think so. Fabian's face wasn't wet.
Was that Fabian's hands shaking, or my own? He seemed peaceful, lying on the top of the wooden cart, his beautiful face angled towards mine, wings unfurled like open arms. His hair spilled from his parting on the side, long enough to form a fringe, but short at the back.
'I love your hair like that,' I said, using one of my hands to sweep it from his face. What was I saying? I was surprising even myself. I saw his eyes dilate as he stared at my hand, caressing his warm skin. He was alive, thank the heavens. I couldn't lose anyone else.
Who else--?
My mind couldn't think that much. Just look at Fabian, and his wonderful hair. For once, do what you never let yourself do.
I blinked, my lashes wet. A serene smile was across his face, and his brilliant silvery eyes were fixed only on me. Our hands, which had seemed so mismatched before, now burned like fire.
My body slumped, unable to sit upright. I lay next to him on the cart, hand in hand, staring at one another, me at him, him at me. As if, without one, the other would drift away. As if we were holding each other together, by our hands.
'I love your hair like that,' he countered.
I dimly felt my own hair, spilled out across the wooden beams, freed from the painstakingly neat plait Sakura had braided.
'That's cheating,' I whispered. 'I said that first.'
'It's not cheating. It's the truth.'
His hand gripped mine tighter as he brought it to his chest, a brief flicker of pain crossing his face. I leaned my head in towards him, my body too heavy to move. Resting my forehead on his shoulder, I breathed in his scent. Despite the blood, gore, mud and dust, he still smelled like petrichor, the lovely scent of first rain after a long, warm day.
At some point, the cart began to move, but all I felt was the rocking of my bones, each a sharp jab.
'Still cheating...' I murmured.
Everything felt as in a dream-- but not in a pleasant way. I was scared, and Fabian and I held each other as we went into darkness.
'I love your eyes,' he said. 'They're purple. Like lavender.'
I stared at him, watching his eyes form the words. Love. Eyes. Lavender.
Love.
'I love your wings,' I said. Despite being covered in blood, his beautiful silver feathers were curled protectively around him, even extending towards me to bring me into his embrace. My body lurched as the cart went over a bump, and I felt myself rolling-- scooped up by his powerful wings and brought into him. I rested on his chest, my heart too tired to race, but feeling content resting against Fabian's.
I could go to sleep here...
Our bodies were so comfy. Instead of feeling like two separate beings, I forgot where his body began and mine ended. We'd had this once before-- the night my wings had split my back open, rendering me powerless. Now, his hand was draped across my back, and my body was on his. Our legs were entwined.
Fabian sighed. A happy sigh, I hoped, but something did seem conflicted within him.
But then he said something ineffable, something so powerful that I would forever remember that moment. One small sentence that would make my stomach fizz whenever I heard his name, or his voice. And, frankly, it was a sentence he would probably never had said whilst we were both ourselves, not while we were struggling for life, with death hovering over us. And who knew if we would both live to see the end of this mission?
If not now, when? Perhaps there was such a thing as fate, and this was our chance.
For it was a sentence that would change everything.
He said, 'I love all of you.'
And then I blacked out.
----
A/N:
Need I say more?
Firstly, did you like the battle scene? It was odd not having Lumina in it, but I thought she did a good job of narrating what was going on. What do you think Sakura did to help her?
I know this story isn't primarily a romance, but I love romances incorporated into plots. I never planned on Fabian confessing in this way, but the timing seemed right, and both seemed vulnerable enough to admit these things to each other.
What did you think?
please vote and comment, and share with others if you liked! :)
lots of love
Larissa
xxx