Chapter 25 (T) - The Struggle Concludes

  I wake to the ear-splitting sound of glass shattering. My head feels like it’s splitting in two, but I open my eyes. There’s two people in the room with me. One seems to be recoiling from the broken window in pain, but they quickly recover and pull out another spike. The other stumbles back and falls onto the floor, blood dripping from their wings. They try to defend themselves, and the first person’s spike goes straight through their arm. The attacker pulls another spike from somewhere, as I realize they’re going to kill Xander.

  I scramble to my feet, grabbing the nearest grabbable object I can. It’s something long and tall. “GET AWAY FROM HIM!” I scream. They turn to look at me, but can’t react before I swing it at the person’s head. A flash of light fills the room. A loud CRACK rings out, nearly drowning out the person’s cry. They stumble back, clutching their head as something clatters to the floor. I put myself between them and Xander, holding my burning weapon out at them. I don’t care what it takes, they are NOT hurting him. Not while I’m here.

  They pull another pair of spikes out and turn to look at me again. Their hood must’ve come off, since I can see their big pointed ears silhouetted by the starlight pouring in from outside. I can’t make out much else about them but their eyes. They’re glowing a pale blue, almost like mine do in the dark. Their eyes and ears turn towards the door, just as I hear footsteps from outside the room. Someone’s running up the stairs. Maybe a bunch of people.

  They’re looking at the door, not me. I rush forward and swing at them. They try to block, but their spikes shatter on impact. They stumble back out of reach, so my swing misses, but they slip on some broken glass, falling backwards out the window, and slicing their arm on some shards of glass still in the frame. I can’t see them anymore, but I hear the rustling of leaves in a tree, then footsteps on the ground below. Looking out the window, I just barely catch a glimpse of them darting into an alleyway and out of sight.

  Just then, the door bursts open, and light pours into the room. I spin around, raising my weapon to fight whoever they are.

  “Xander! Xander, are you okay?!” Zach runs from the door over to his little brother. A wave of relief washes over me, and I lower my weapon. A giant man in red armor runs in after him, a massive sword in one hand, and a fireball in the other. From the light of the fire, I recognize him as King Silvath. He notices me immediately.

  “You! You’re Aranae’s daughter! What- What happened here?!”

  “I- I don’t know! I came to see Dad, but all the lights were off, and no one was around. I heard someone in here, and when I came in to check things out, they tried to kill me! I fought them and got knocked out. When I came to, they were trying to kill Xander, so I grabbed this thing and hit them with it.” I hold my weapon up for him to see.

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  “Where are they?!”

  “They fell out the window. I saw them run off into an alley.”

  “We need to alert the knights. Get out of the way.” I step away from the window. He leans out, over the broken glass, and shoots a stream of fire into the sky. “There. That should get their attention.” With that, he turns away from me, looking around the room.

  I look around for a second too, before seeing Xander sitting up in the middle of the floor. Zach's finished talking to him, so I run over. “Xander! Are you okay?!”

  He looks up at me, eyes full of tears, but he does his best to force a smile. “I- I’m fine…!”

  “But--”

  “I- I’m fine! Really! They- they didn’t hit anything important… J-just need a healer to treat my wings, and I’ll be fine…!”

  “But- Your arm!”

  He smiles weakly, and raises his metal arm. A hole was punched straight through it, but I guess all they hit was machinery. In my relief, I barely even notice the weapon he was hit with.

  “S-see? Nothing Zach can’t fix…”

  “B-but- What’re you even doing here?”

  “Well, after you left me at your house, I tried to follow you! You’re way faster than me… So by the time I got there, you’d already gone in. I saw some lights flashing in the window of a dark room, so I flew up to check things out… But then I saw you fighting someone with the lights off! I ran in and tried to fight them, but it’s not easy with these big wings, especially in the dark… Everything kind of became a blur after that… I swung a chair at them at some point, but I think I missed and hit the window, and they kicked me in the chest… They- They tried to stab me again, and it went through my arm… They pulled another out…” His voice is shaking, and more tears are forming in his eyes. “But- But then you came out of nowhere! And you hit them! I- I-”

  Suddenly, Xander sucker punches me in the face. I stumble back. “Ow! What the hell?!”

  His face goes completely white. “I- I’m sorry!” Even more tears well up. “My- My arm locked up! I didn’t mean to- I just wanted to- You- You saved me, and-“ His voice trails off, and he starts visibly trembling. “P-please don’t hate me…” I think I get what he wanted. I wrap my arms around him and pull him into a hug.

  “I don’t hate you, Xander.” He hesitates for a moment, his heart racing even faster, before returning the hug as best he can with his good arm. “Just don’t punch me again, okay?”

  “O-okay…! And, um… Th-thanks…” He pulls me in tighter. “I- I really thought… I thought they were gonna…” He’s still shaking.

  “It’s okay, Xander… We’re still here. They couldn’t beat both of us.”