We all got off the vehicles and lined up in front of the closest part to the edge. There were only less than two hundred hunters, and I knew, if the war broke out, not many of them would survive.

I looked them all over, turned to the forest and rubbed my face in frustration. I was about to pray to a higher power to make it so that the bastard of a father was not there. But I held the urge back, there was no point in it. There was no one who could help in this kind of situation.

I looked back once more. Vince and Wann with the other members from the team were standing at the front, the two men hand in hand. The two family heads were standing from the sides, eyeing them both distastefully, still not able to support their children in whatever they chose to do with their lives. The rest of the students were eager as well as terrified of the outcome. They were all reluctantly waiting for me to do something.

“Wait for the signal,” I motioned to turn on the communicators. “Do not do anything before then. Do not go inside, if the war breaks out, let them come to you, to the light.” I gave them all a hard last stare. “Well, I’m off.”

With a sword I borrowed from the academy’s weaponry, I cut through the vines and made a path for myself. The vines only lasted about a meter or so into the woods, after that, there were only bushes and other shrubs getting in my way, not counting the densely grown out saplings.

The further I got into the woods, the darker it was getting. Despite it being winter and trees having no leaves, the overgrown branches had tangled with each other and with the help of vine made a dense cover to block out the sun. No wonder the trees were dying, but the hollowed out trunks refused to fall down with the help of the vines and other trees growing strong in their own fashion. The occasional stream of light helped me see a bit more than just the patch before my feet, which was a good thing, given not all of them could see in the dark. Though I still hoped they would not need to come into the thickness of the forest.

There were no sound in the woods. The same as at the convention back in the forest in Germany, this place had no animal life in it. All I could hear was the wind howling and the branches crackling under the weight of my feet. I wondered how long was the nest here, though it wouldn’t take a long time for animals to flee from the close vicinity of the nest, it would still take some time for them to abandon the entirety of the woods.

After around thirty minutes of wrestling my way in I stumbled on a narrow path leading to the heart of the woods. I knew for a fact Cold Walkers were in no need of paths to walk on since they were capable enough to just fly using the lower branches. The Creations, however, needed a clear way to walk on since they were so clumsy in the brainless manner of a modern zombie. By this logic I decided to follow the path while at the same time informing Vince of its whereabouts.

“We’ll look for the entrance to it later. Just be careful now.”

“Just don’t think of going in via the path. I mean it. Unless something big happens, do not step inside the dark,” I reminded him again, and continued on.

It wasn’t easy following the trail in the dim light, but it made it much better than stumbling through the thicket of the woods. After some more time walking I could hear some sounds coming on from all the sides of the forest, but it was hard to place whether it was the Creations or the animals, which was unlikely.

At the deepest parts of the wood I could hear whispers as if trying to sound loud but at the same time trying to conceal the sounds, I thought I was starting to hallucinate, when I stumbled out into a clearing void of trees. But it was not empty.

The clearing was around fifty meters in diameter of which the further side was occupied by a large ruinous house-like construction made from old red bricks. The walls were crumbling down in some places, but it had no gaps for windows, only one hole at the bottom, and the roof, from what I could see, was sturdy enough to not let the sunlight in. Though, even without the trees, the vines were thick and plentiful above the strange house. As if a naturally made cover from the sun.

I did not step out of the cover of the trees and took a long deep breath in, catching all the smells I could discern. Other than forest smells and mold there were no scent coming from the brick house. It was evidence enough I hit the nest.

I did not need to announce my presence; I was welcomed by a throwing knife flung at me with enough force to crack the tree trunk it hit right beside my head.

It didn’t take long for Rhain to appear in one of the openings in the wall. He looked furious, but despite the emotion, he did not leave the safety of the house.

“I just came to talk,” I called out. Vince heard me and murmured something to the others. “I just want to talk, is that alright?”

“What makes you think I want to talk with the likes of you?” he snarled and hurled another knife at my head, I avoided it.

“Maybe because I have an army of hunters waiting for my signal to attack, if you don’t play nice.”

His face betrayed nothing, but I saw his arms flinch. He wavered in his response, but managed to contain himself back to the carefree-upper-hand-not-bothered-at-all position.

I was about to walk out of the trees, when I felt a piercing pain go through my arms and legs. When I looked down there were hooks sticking out my limbs, bleeding, the flesh torn and gaping. The hooks tensed as the lines connected to them pulled me towards the clearing. I tried to hold in the scream; I thought they were going to tear my limbs off. But they didn’t, they merely tied the lines to the trees, leaving me exposed to the sun at that one wide spot the vines were not covering.

My face started itching right away and my eyes were burning with tears and, well, the heat. The feeling in my limbs was steadily dulling, overtaken by the cold coming in from the holes in my clothes.

“So we meet again,” the voice was so clear, like a song, but so full of hatred. A chill ran down my back. “I did not expect you to come to me so soon. And alone, to add.”

I couldn't answer, the sun was too strong to hold in the pain. I just grit my teeth and focused on breathing. I could barely see him, but it was inevitable, his existence was too strong – as fascinating as ever, but crueler than anything else in this world.

“I thought the silly humans would storm right into my trap, lose their lives, and then you, my dear little Fang, would come to fix it. But this is much more interesting,” he snickered to himself. “You say, an army, huh. Well, call them here. I would like to see them from up close.”

I whined, but did not say anything else. He stepped out from the corner of the wall, elegantly, barely touching the ground with his nimble feet, he approached me and stopped right at the brink of the light streaming down on me.

He scrunched up his flawless face, and rubbed his thumb and the pointer on his chin, as if appraising me. After a moment he smiled.

“Well, why don’t you call them? I just want to talk,” he laughed. When I didn’t move or say anything, he sighed. “I suppose, I wasn’t a very good parent, if you cannot listen to my request. Let me do it myself, then.”

He smiled and raised his voice enough for the communicators to catch it and relay everything to Vince without problem.

“I would like to invite all of you, my dears, to my humble abode, where we can talk about matters such as selling your comrades off for your own benefit, betraying said comrades for the said benefit, and also back-stabbing. I like this word, it’s so … human.” The smile he showed me while talking left nothing of that pretty beast, he revealed himself as a real monster of the night.

As he continued to taunt them, while I tried to deny it, to stop Vince from coming, my face began to bleed from the burns. I couldn’t hold it in much longer, so I screamed. I begged him to stop, I pleaded Vince not to come either. I was fine, I couldn’t die anyways.

“But you’re in pain, and I don’t care,” came his voice through the earpiece.

“I’m not worth it...”

But he did not listen to me anymore. I could clearly hear him giving orders of action, of going into the forest, of finding the trail I had mentioned before. The entirety of them were moving towards the nest, and it was all because of me.

I took a deep breath, willing the pain away. It has been a long time since I had burned alive. So the pain was intense. “I do not want a war,” I managed to squeeze out. “Why are you doing this?”

“Besides the obvious?” Frederic asked. “Well, maybe for my own amusement. Perhaps, I got tired of you playing nice with them. Perhaps, I just wanted to get to you, but my plan did not work out as well as I hoped it would, because, honestly, humans are horrible at keeping promises. I had made a deal with one of your humans, and it is not going according to plan, so I am not pleased right at this moment,” with each sentence his voice was rising, he got louder and louder until he was screaming into my face.

“I see, you look confused,” he smiled, after composing himself. Fixing his lavish clothes, he looked right into my eyes. “Let me explain. One night I got wind of a rumor about a woman who was attacked by one of us.” He began pacing. “But I clearly remember not giving any orders of any sort of hunting in the hunter city. So I sent Magna to investigate, and he never returned.

“Imagine my astonishment upon hearing the news – a Pure-blood was killed by some mere hunter. However, I did nothing, for Rhain informed me about some of his dearest Creations missing,” he looked thoughtful, concerned even. “So I sent him to look for his children. And while he was gone, I thought, why not pay a visit to the hunter city. So I did.

“I wandered about for a bit until I stumbled upon the institution for nurturing young hunters. Well, that was fascinating, I couldn’t not walk in.” He was pacing slightly slower, in front of me, expression pensive, almost serene. He smiled. “Silly humans never even knew I was there. Until, that is, I ran into a man. He smelled funny. Part of the blood smelled very much human, the other part reminded me of you, for some reason.

“We got to talking, you know how good I am at persuasion, so we talked a bit, and it so happened, he was a son of a man who had captured an incredible beast some while ago and had drained its blood and then with that blood, he, what was he said, he gained longevity. Ah, yes. The man’s father had filled his own body with its blood, isn’t that interesting?”

He stopped his pacing to gauge out my expression, but there was nothing to see more than melting skin and blood running down my neck and clothes.

“Do you, perhaps, know what I am talking about?” he inquired, mocking me. “Do you know a man named Adolf Albrecht? Or perhaps Marcus Franklin? Both?”

I roared at his face, spitting blood all over his white frilly shirt. He looked down at the crimson spots blooming on the white fabric and smirked.

“So I made a deal with him, with Franklin, that is. He agreed to send my way most of his students while you were away. Of course, I had to keep in mind, he gets out of it safe, untouched. I didn’t mind. No hunter can touch us. But you, oh you are a different matter entirely.

“After a day or so, Rhain ran back to me terrified and furious. Telling me he found our dearest Magna’s killer. I was overjoyed knowing you did come to the city. And I was waiting for you after I had my fun with these puny humans. But, alas, here you are. And here we stand.”

He tapped his lips with the pointer finger, in thought. The pursed lips gave off an illusion of a child pouting. My eyes kept wondering to his face, it was drawing me in, still, even after all those years. His face was affecting me to the point I couldn’t stop staring, instead of closing my eyes to save them from the sun.

“I don’t want a war,” I stammered out. “Just kill me. Leave the humans out of this.”

He stopped whatever he was doing with his finger, and turned back to me, face serious, lethal. He stepped closer, just barely out of the sunlight.

“I don’t want to,” he said like a stubborn child. “I realized, it is better to cause you pain, rather than just kill you before I find a way how to kill you properly and permanently.”

I had a thought of repeating my words again, when a huge brown wolf leaped out of the shadows of the trees and tackled the beautiful monster to the ground. He himself must have been humongously surprised when the beast sent him flying to the edge of the clearing the next moment.

The wolf gnarled to his direction, but did not go chasing, instead it looked at me and barked a short sound out. I couldn’t understand what was happening until I hit the ground, and the brown wolf dragged me out of the sun. It left me there and ran off to the side, only then deciding to give chase to the Pure-blood.

I couldn’t yet see or move properly, but I could hear a rush of large soft paws hitting the ground, crowding the clearing and surrounding the construction. In a distance I heard a howl which was answered in kind from over ten of other wolves standing in the near vicinity.

I concentrated on my eyes healing again so I could see what was happening. Right after, I wished I couldn’t.

The wolves were tearing and trashing the Creation army that had spurred out from the back of the building. There were hundreds of them, as I had expected. But the wolves were not in a lesser position, they were much stronger than a Creation was. The ones able to inflict serious damage were the Nobles and the Pure-bloods. There were at most five Nobles, a miscalculation on my part, and one other Pure-blood on the field, from what I could see. They were all occupied by the larger wolves from the pack.

“Fey,” I heard his concerned voice right by my ear, but it was not coming from the comms. “Are you good? You hurt?”

“I’ll heal,” I supplied, taking his hand to stand on my feet. “What did you do?”

I busied myself with removing the hooks from my limbs, while he answered in a confused tone, “Nothing. This wasn’t me.”

“They came out of nowhere,” added Wann, and chopped a head off a Creation. “I think we need to either go, or fight.”

“They’re coming from the forest,” shouted someone from the side.

We looked to the side the voice came and saw another hundred or so Creations bounding out of the trees. After them ran more wolves. Now there were around twenty to thirty wolves gnashing at around three hundred Creations. The number was quickly diminishing, but so were our side. The Nobles were not dawdling around, they were slaughtering anyone in sight. The hunters had no chance against them.

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As one of the Nobles threatened to tear off Dark’s arm, he suddenly fell back as if hit in the face. He started flailing his arms around his head as if trying to swat a bee off.

“Are-aren’t those… Pixies?” Vince’s voice cracked.

I looked closer and I saw it – the tiny red creature, flying about and slashing the Noble’s face with her clawed hands. They were attacking the other Nobles, too. They didn’t dare get close to the Pure-bloods, but it was help enough for us to prepare a counter attack.

I instructed regrouping, giving the wolves as much backup as possible, keeping the others at bay, concealing the retreat routes, even though no one was thinking of those at this moment of the battle.

With the distraction from the Pixies, the family heads were able to fight on equal grounds with the Nobles, which left the Pure-bloods to us. I couldn’t see Frederic anywhere, but I managed to catch a glimpse of Ardal, the second oldest Pure-blood after Frederic.

“Vince,” I whispered, “would it be bad, if I asked you to go wolf?”

He looked at me as if I was crazy, like I just kicked a puppy right before his eyes. “My father...”

“I realize that. But sorry to say, you’re no use to me as a human right now.”

“Hey-”

“You’re too weak, too vulnerable. And I need your bite force to take him out,” I pointed to Ardal, standing on the roof of the building in the middle of the clearing, as still as a statue overlooking the scene unfolding below him.

Wann looked around, hacking off another couple of heads, then turned back to Vince and me. He looked at Vince and told him to go for it.

“They’re distracted with the other leeches, they won’t know it’s you. Go,” he patted the boy on the back and went on slashing heads off.

“You sure?” he asked, reluctant, wringing his hands.

“I’ll distract him, you grab him by the neck. And I’ll finish it.”

There was conflict in his mind, but he cursed silently and took of his coat, kicked off his shoes and removed his pants. He asked me to give him some time, because he still had no hold over it. I understood and left him to his own devices, telling Wann to look out for him.

I needed to go and distract the Pure-blood while Frederic still kept away from the scene. Still, it wasn’t the best situation, because I would have loved to know where he was.

I heard Vince moaning in pain under the pressure of shifting out of his skin into a form his body was not used to. I had to force myself to not go to his side, and instead focused on Aldar still confidently unaware of my intentions. He was overseeing the battle, waiting for the time the situation shifted to our side. Cold Walkers were too prideful to fight the small fights.

On the way to the roof, I managed to take out at least sixteen Creations, and made sure that the rest of our people were safe enough not to require assistance.

Wann had joined his father in dealing with a Noble, while on the other side of the field, Vince’s father had another Noble occupied with his resilient blows. Though, it was easy to see he was trying hard not to go after the wolves who were there helping us weed out the Creations.

The Pixies were also actively getting in the way of the Nobles to make them distracted. It was strange having them here, fighting, but I was glad we had the help, since we needed it greatly.

I reached the roof and stood before the Pure-blood. He was wearing those old fashioned garbs, like Frederic, with frills and long tails on the coat. Having opted for duller colors like gray and black, rather than crimson and emerald, as the head of Knights clan was wearing. His face was a marble marvel, with sharp edges and straight lines. Though his eyes were sunken, the wear of time evident in the deeps of red. His dark hair was neatly tied into a braid, hanging low by his neck.

The elder was looking at me with a sneer, as if I had a stench of a dumpster. Well, I supposed, it was a given since I killed his son all those years ago. But in my defense, he was going to kill me, so it was purely self-defense.

He had his bony hands set in front of him, fingers intertwined. Despite the look he was giving me, he was calm, sure of himself.

“It has been a long while, Fang,” he croaked, trying to take me under his control.

“You know, Aldar, it doesn’t work on me,” I said, circling him slowly.

“No hurt in trying,” he answered, following me with his whole body, turning slightly to keep me in his sight.

“Always the optimist,” I smiled. I really had no grudge against him. “Any chance, you’d just leave with your minions?”

“As much as I would love that, the High Lord wishes to dispose of you, and I must follow.”

“He’s not the master of you, he shouldn’t be. Just because he’s a bit older than you...”

“Age is the law itself. He had more time in this world, thus he is more Noble in its vision. Why do you fight him? Just give in, and this will end.”

“You know I can’t give him what he wants,” I said exasperated. “He wants to fix his mistake, but it’s impossible. If it was, I wouldn’t be here now, would I?”

“Why do you despair?” he was sincere in his questions. “If you honored his pleas, the matter would have been solved long ago.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” I stopped, my back to the front, where Vince was still trying to get his wits about him. “I wanted the family he promised me, but then he himself betrayed me with death. I was afraid, I was scared. He gave me hope and then crushed it. I wanted love and all I got was hatred. After some time in wandering alone, running from him, I got tired, sick of this kind of existence. I wanted to disappear, but I couldn’t.”

“Why do you fight, then?”

“I found the family I always wanted,” I admitted. “They, as unlikely as it sounds, they accepted me. They fight for me, so I will fight for them,” I stepped aside as Vince in his wolf form flew at the Pure-blood, chomping at the juncture of his shoulder and neck.

“I’m sorry, Aldar, but I need them to stop.”

I could see remorse in the elder’s eyes, with a storm of acceptance and bliss. I choked down the sob threatening to come up as I grabbed onto his head, clenching his neat hair for a better grip. Vince bit down crunching Aldar’s bones, the elder let out a tortured scream as I twisted and took off his head clean of his shoulders.

The body and the head in my hands disintegrated and turned into dust, flowing away with the gust of wind. I felt blood running down my face. Vince licked my cheek, whining silently. The look in his pale blue eyes telling me he was sorry.

“It’s fine, big guy, he seemed to be at peace,” I tried a weak smile.

Out of nowhere came a loud scream. The next moment I had been blown off my feet and slammed into a tree after tree. Frederic was clutching my neck, squeezing it hard enough to snap all the bones. I lost all the air in my lungs as I was held up, dangling my feet above ground.

“How dare you!” he screamed and bashed me against another tree, which broke at the trunk and fell down.

“You cannot kill me,” I managed out as he pressed me to the ground, crunching the fallen branches.

“I am well aware of it,” he spat out, then flung me into some more trees. “But if I rip your head off, you will not only be unable to protect any of them, but also will slaughter the lot of them on your own, isn’t that how it works?” he seethed at me.

Before any of us reacted, Vince bounded at him and slammed him off of me. Deep loud growls were coming out his muzzle. He stood over me, covering me from the sight of the pissed Pure-blood.

“You should be trying to kill her, not protect her,” Frederic sneered. “She does not belong in this world, why are you defending that abomination?”

Vince howled at him, setting his body in a position ready to pounce, growl getting louder and stronger.

Frederic smiled a twisted smile and turned back to the clearing where the most of the fights were going on. Vince helped me to stand on my feet, trembling as they were.

He looked fine, but I could feel how worried he was. I urged us to go after, to try and stop the slaughter. After all, the Creations lose their mind as they lose their master. Most of them becoming dolls with no goal in mind, making them easy targets. But there were still the three Nobles left. I knew for a fact, Frederic did not like making Creations, he had no need for them. So if we managed to make him stop, the Nobles would have to stop too, making their Creations fall back too.

There were screams of pain, and fighting shouts. Most of the damages, however, went to the wolves, who were trying to protect the humans the best as they could. I had an idea why they were doing so, despite the fact there were Bloomers on the battlefield.

“We need to take out Frederic, or they won’t stop. Can I ask you for your help?”

The huge wolf’s head nodded, and I couldn’t help but smile, trying to encourage him, or myself, I couldn’t be sure at the moment.

We found Frederic running around the field, looking for someone. On his search he was flinging the hunters, as well as the occasional wolf around, in rage. For a second he stopped at the spot where Vince changed his form and looked at the discarded clothes. His eyes met mine as he leered at me and set his sights on the black wolf standing beside me.

It took me a second to register the way Frederic looked at Vince to realize what he was after. He launched himself at the beast standing to my right and slammed into him with full force. The whines of pain and surprise came loud and clear, driving me into rage.

I jumped at the ancient being, but he deflected my attempt as if I was a fly, and kept going after the wolf. Not long after Wann had joined us, but Frederic easily defended against us while still bounding at Vince, who was completely out of his wits.

He wasn’t used to fighting in that form, and he was finding it hard to move under the constant barrage of fists and kicks from an incredibly fast creature.

I knew I was not quite at the level he was, but the gap between our abilities was wider than I have imagined. He had no trouble fighting us off, while attacking his target. I was being desperate. I shouted for help. Whoever answered, I didn’t care who, just to please help.

A swarm of colorful Pixies swarmed around us, getting in Frederic’s face, slashing at him, but he didn’t relent. He kept at it, kicking Vince hard enough to break his ribs and elicit a loud whine. Vince was losing the unfair battle, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.

The same blue Pixie I had saved from the convention was trying to tell me something, repeating the words ‘not now’ and ‘not today’. But I couldn’t understand with all the sounds overwhelming my senses, and the rage boiling in my blood.

I had no time to be distracted by them, so I ignored them in favor of concentrating at trying to pry the Pure-blood off of my soulmate.

Frederic slammed Wann off and he crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes. He was still conscious, but hurt and not steady on his limbs. Frederic managed to swat away the rest of the Pixies swarming around him and went for the wolf, lying defensively on the ground near the base of the building. Just then I noticed it was becoming darker, so it was harder to see, but for the Cold Walkers it was the perfect conditions to fight us off.

The other wolves were bounding at the Pure-blood when the sound of tortured pain rented the air and everyone froze. Frederic had his hand wedged into the wolf’s rib-cage, deep in, blood gushing around the pure white hand. I saw his muscles shift in a squeezing motion, and Vince let out a howl full of pain and fear.

In rage I grabbed Wann’s sword and threw it at the monster managing to nick him in the side. He winced and stepped away from the suffering wolf, who was turning back to his human form.

Frederic leered at me and was about to bolt away, when another wolf grabbed him by the bloodied arm. The brown wolf tossed him toward me and I caught him by the head. With a flying motion, I turned our bodies so he hit the ground and I landed on top of him. I began bashing his face in with fists full of anger and madness. My hands were bleeding but I kept at it, making his face bend under the pressure of repeated hits. I managed to tear half of his face off, revealing his brain to the outside air. He lost half his head under the immensity of my hatred.

He wasn’t moving anymore, I should have stopped, I should have let go of him then, but I ignored the Pixies and the other voices in my head halting me, begging me to stop, to spare him. I did not listen. I dug my nails into his neck and pulled, hard. I tore his head off and the instant his head left his body he turned to dust, leaving only the crimson robes under my feet.

The battle around us was in full swing, the moment I lifted my eyes I saw a Creation bite down on Dark and tear her apart, Miller and Rodd were cornered by a dozen of Creations. The wolves were outnumbered and slowly succumbing to the sheer number of mindless beasts. Other hunters were scarce and barely standing, fending off hordes of enemy.

A beat later, just as the dusts of their lord had faded into the wind, it had ended, there was silence around us. All I could hear was the heartbeats of everyone present. And the hum of the Pixie wings. And their little voices telling me to let go.

The initial madness left me and I stumbled unto my feet. I looked around - the Creations were retreating, together with the surviving Nobles. Half the student body were dead or bleeding out in the mess of the battle. The wolves were standing by the edge of the clearing, snarling at anyone who tried to come closer, but at the same time protecting the hunters from the remaining Creations.

The air had the stench of blood and death, the sounds were filled with pain and sorrow.

My eyes finally focused on the naked form of a human with a gaping hole in his chest. Stumbling I ran to Vince. He was barely alive, but still holding on.

“Heal,” I insisted grabbing at him. “Come on, heal!” I screamed.

Wann was there pressing on the gaping wound with his clothes, tears streaming down his face. It was a shock to see him, of all people, crying. I kept telling Vince to heal, but the blood wouldn’t stop. He was dying and I couldn’t watch it happen again. Not right now, not to him. It was supposed to be different, this was not supposed to happen.

“No,” I insisted. “He lives. He has to. Do something,” I pleaded, looking at the blue Pixie. Face stained with blood. “Please.”

It was as if time had stopped for everyone, except me and the Pixies. Out of the depths of the woods there came a lull of a fluttering wings. After a moment I saw it. The winged creature with every color of the rainbow glistening all over their small body.

They had a large blood-red jewel atop their head indicating the Queen. The Mother of all Pixies. The same one who had ordered to put me in an iron box and hurl me into the ocean.

“You wish for the wolf to live,” they uttered, the sound like a song. “But it is not the time for you to go. No, not yet.”

“I don’t care. Save him,” I asked, blood running down my face. “Please.”

“You are the Eagle of new Dawn. I cannot let you perish.”

“Shove it, lady. Save him. I’ll give him my heart, if I have to, but you have to save him,” my voice cracked. I kept grasping at him, trying to hold him closer.

“There is a way. But I do not wish to proceed.”

“Do it,” I barked at the Queen. “If he dies,” I took a deep shaky breath, “I will come for you. For every single one of you. You cannot kill me, and my vengeance will not cease until all of you are gone.”

The Mother stared at me, studying my face, my body, the way I seethed at them, the way my hands kept pulling the boy closer.

“You are the bringer of peace, the new dawn is your mission, yet you wish to forfeit it for this insignificant being,” she sang out with no ill intention. I growled.

“He still has so much to live for,” I uttered. “If anyone has to die, it should be me. It has to be me...”

The Queen looked upon the boy in my hands, and conceded.

“Very well. You shall give your life for his. He shall take over your duty as the Eagle of Dawn and live his life instead of you. Do you agree?”

“As long as he lives, yes.”

“Then take your heart, and give it to him. One must die for the other to live. The bond of the soul will mend the rest.”

With those last words the Queen released the flow of time, and everyone began moving again. Vince had his eyes open, looking at me. Smiling.

“You’re safe,” he pushed out.

“You idiot, don’t talk,” I cried out. “It’s going to be fine now. Trust me.”

“What are you doing?” Wann was eyeing me suspiciously as I drew my hands to my chest and took off the coat. I flung off the sweater and tore the undershirt exposing my chest to the cold.

“I’m saving his life,” I smiled and pierced my own chest with my hand. “Help me put this in place.”

“What-”

“Argent,” I barked, “there is no time.”

“Fey...” Vince tried to lift his hand to my face.

“I have lived my share. You still have a lot to live for, Vince. I give my life for you,” I felt a tear fall off, “I love you.” I smiled through tears of pain.

Wann looked at me, but moved his hands. The Pixie Queen was there, their hands on Vince’s heart.

“I will remove the heart and exchange it with yours,” they hummed out, “I will heal it to place. The rest shall be in his hands.”

“Take care of him for me,” I told Wann and ripped my heart out.

I had enough time and strength to watch the Mother Queen work her magic by putting my heart into the boy’s chest and close the wound.

Wann was holding him close, keeping him from moving. Vince cried out for me, he screamed at me not to go, to stay. He told me to heal, he knew I could grow anther heart, I just had to try harder. He called me a bastard for leaving him. But all I did was smile at him, close my eyes and fall into a blissful darkness.

After more than three thousand years of roaming the world, I finally had it, the final release of death.

***

The feeling came crawling slowly, like sinking into the quicksand. First I could feel my fingertips, then my toes, the feeling rising from there to the core of my body. There was a low lulling sound around me, but there was still complete darkness. The breath of air hit me painfully in the chest. The beat of a numb heart loud in my ears. I opened my eyes.

“Shit.”

The end