“Ron! I lost…them…” My blood froze in my veins. I was petrified by the sight before me. In the golden glade, where the fallen leaves had not fully shriveled and dried yet, the yellow leaves cushioned the floor. It had not rained at all the past week, so there was no moisture that should have been on the leaves. The glade was a grove of beeches, with great yellow leaves that made floppy, useless fans. Where did the maple leaves come from?

I don’t know when I began to scream. There, not a stone’s throw away, was Ron, Anna and Chryssie. Ron’s lifeless body lay eagle spread on the floor. His stomach had been split open, and evidently, whatever was inside had been turned out. The entrails lay next to him, oozing fluids and blood. Ron’s chest had also been cracked open. Like it was a ritual. I could see where the bone began to separate from the edges of his skin. And the empty yawning chasm that was his chest. There was more blood.

Anna had been split open in a similar way. Only…she lacked even the skin that covered Ron. There was nothing on her, her skin having been completely shredded off of her body. Her flesh was completely exposed, and her throat was slit, again, oozing blood. There was so much…SO MUCH BLOOD! SO MUCH…blood…it formed a literal pool in the middle of the glade, and small bits of things floated around in it. All I could see was the blood.

Something inside me broke. Again. I kept screaming. I didn’t care who heard me now.

Something grabbed the back of my head, and lifted me up by the head. I found myself staring into a pair of golden eyes tinged with red.

He said something. I didn’t hear him. I just went on screaming. And yelling. Something else was said. Finally, he took me by the head and slammed me as hard as he could into a tree trunk. How…pitiful. I just kept yelling.

I laugh at myself at everytime I think back. At how useless I was. At how powerless I was.

Then, something happened that made me shut up. Chryssie. I felt the familiar tug on my hair again, and was lifted into the air, to come face to face with…Chryssie. She was unconscious, and covered in so much blood. But…there were no visible wounds on her. Not one. That shut me up real good. The handsome face of the archer leered at me from behind her head again. And then the same boiling rage that I felt when I was betrayed began to bubble up within me.

“YOU BASTARDS! LET HER GO! FUCK YOU! LET HER GO YOU BASTARDS! I’LL KILL YOU…EVERY FUCKING LAST ONE OF YOU! I’LL KILL YOU!” A gloved hand slammed into the side of my jaw, and cut off my stream of abuse.

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My teeth clapped down my tongue, and cut it with a spray of blood in my mouth. My head was nearly snapped off of my neck by the force of the blow. I spat out a stream of saliva and blood to the side. I think a tooth followed it too. It didn’t matter. Chryssie!

My voice was hoarse from screaming. And the knock on my head had also affected my throat when my neck snapped to the side.

“Let…let her go. She’s no danger to you…just a Fae girl in Solarian territory.”

“Are you telling me what to do?” The voice was soft, and melodic, with a slight lilt. Tunelike even.

“Please…please let her go. Please. Let her go. Please let her go.”

“Boy, do you know…who I am?”

I moved my head to the side ever so slightly. The man took his hood off, and revealed in the light of the glade his pointed ears and pointed canines.

“I am the third son to the King Oberon of the Fae, Mitriell. And I am here to hunt down our traitor of a brother…Runast, the fifth son. I have a deal with the Solarians. On the surface, it’s going to be a group of Solarian royal soldiers catching Fae intruders. While underneath…this is simply…Fae business. Let me enlighten you on why we are doing this. My father, King Oberon, is dying. And we, the nine princes of Fae, are competing for the throne. My poor little ninth brother was the first to go…Mother was quite sad indeed, when she found out that her dearest Sylvire had died of a rare Fae disease…oh, how sad it was that he came to his end during his tenth year…”

Mitriell continued his dark story with sickening glee. Needless to say…he had killed his young ninth brother.

I could feel my consciousness slipping. Shock. Pain. it was all piling up.

“...and now we have come to my dear fifth brother. Oh what a dear he was, always going on about honor, and whatnot. He was such a cute child…but we have come for him…the throne can only go to one, you know, and there will always be those that dissent about the existence of another prince out there, so we have to kill him. And you…you cut my face…how adorable. How absolutely adorable…LET ME TORTURE YOU…I’LL SLOWLY, SLOWLY REMOVE THE SKIN FROM YOUR BODY, AND THEN SEND A BEAUTIFUL ARRAY OF ARROWS INOT YOUR HEART, AND OPEN UP YOUR HEAD AND YOUR CHEST…OH IT WILL BE BEAUTIFUL” Mitriell fell into a heavy spasm of cackling, his body shaking with sickening excitement and bloodlust.

I slipped a little further. Shit. This is it. Chryssie…