Prologue:
"Get away from me!" tears slid from their hiding places and streaked my cheeks as I pushed at his chest with all the force I had and still it wasn't enough.
"I'll be here for you, Temperance, don't push me away." Keizer eyes were warm and honest but there was no way I wanted any help from him. I ripped away from him; I ran into the ruin house, foreboding so strong in the pit of my stomach I felt like I was going to throw up.
The living room was decimated. Chairs were overturned; the pictures of our once beautiful life were strewn around. I bypassed all of the damage and ran to my little brother's room. Empty.
I ran to my older sister's room. Empty. Older brother. Empty. Anguish filled me but I trialed to the last room on this floor. My feet felt like lead but I knew what I would find, my gut feeling never lied. Tears fell harder as I stepped in front of the door and turned it left. The smell hit me before anything. The door swung open and there was my mother, lying on torn sheets; blood matting the once beautiful locks of Melissa Earhart, her natural blood red curls standing stark against actual blood. Her once shining green eyes stared unseeing, face frozen in horror, up at the ceiling. My chest constricted at the sign of apparent rape.
Her legs were tangled in the bright blue covers. Her arms were forced, by the bruises, above her in a one knotted doubled-wristed rope. Blood was between her legs, bite marks on her neck and lips. Clearly he had his fun, wanted her to struggle, to know that she was helpless to save her children, to save herself. With this much evidence, he had to be here for a while, enjoying his victim.
Fire raged beneath my fingers but I tried my best to clench down my gift. Anger boiled past the grief and anguish and rose to a new level of fury. I felt my eyes transform, felt the ridge in my back stiffen, no matter how hard I tried to prevent the change. I fought with myself; my last remaining control to keep from burning this place to the ground was beginning to slip.
And Keizer was right there, grabbing me forcefully and holding me to him. I didn't have the desire to stop him and a scream tore through me, lighting up the night with is pained filled timbres.
"They will pay, Temperance, you have my sworn word." Keizer pronounced, his own sense of loss eating at his control. But he knew had to be here for Temperance, to lose control would not help her ease through this situation. She was like his sister, and as much as he wanted more, she wouldn't allow it. Just like her mother was for his father; so instead he decided to mentor her, protect her. To see her in so much agony threaten his existed and so he would find her mother's murderer.
We stood in each other embrace for a while before she uttered a barely audible whisper.
"What about Zale, Bucks, and Liza?" My chest constricted at the thought of them. Her older brother Ezale, the prince of Araine, her older sister Elizabeth, the princess of Araine, and her baby brother, and young lord of the throne, Ezekiel or "Bucks" were all missing. No traces or any hint of them were present.
I held the sides of her face and looked her in her blue-honey colored eyes. She looked into mine on set of honey colored ones with despair, knowing I had not the answers but knowing I'd do everything in my power to get them. I kissed her forehead and she signed. she understood the message.