A/N: So, I think I've only received one review for the last chapter. This depresses me because it tells me that I'm a horrible writer and no one is really interested in helping me make this an awesome story. Character deaths may ensue from this point on. I'm just in a very depressed mood right now…and it's not all your fault so don't worry about me…On with the story!

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Brynn stared at a wall, listening to her daughter learn a song from Nuala two days after Kendra's attack. She couldn't bring a smile to her face. Not when so much death loomed over them like a horrible cloak. It wasn't the time for smiles anyway. There was a great evil among them, hidden in the place she had thought of as both a sanctuary and a prison. Apparently, this evil wanted her, but for what she wasn't exactly sure.

But it's not Julius…It's not him because if it was him, he would have come out of the shadows when Kendra was spouting out about the evil because he seemed like a gloater…Why is it always me though…why does everything bad lately happen because of me?

Brynn…

Brynn looked up at the spiral staircase that led up to the second level of the library. Something dark was lurking up there, she could feel it in her bones. Brynn stood up slowly, letting her wings stretch a little.

Brynn…

"Shining in the sun…spirits full of grace…dancing golden angels…flying through heavenly space…"

Brynn blocked out the singing and focused on the voice that was echoing in her head. She put her hand on the railing of the staircase and drew her hand back when she felt something cold and wet. A glance down at her hand, left her sad. There was blood on her hand, deep red blood that reminded her of the wings of the angel she had seen in the lower levels of the compound. It brought back the memory of Nuada running her through with his spear and the scene she had witnessed through Nuada's eye, but for once…those images didn't bother her.

She started up the stairs slowly, each movement feeling agonizingly heavy and slow, but slightly seductive. It puzzled her how that made any sense, but a heavy cloud of peace fell upon her as she walked up the stairs, blotting away her uncertainty.

Brynn…

Brynn ignored Nuada's voice, almost too easily. His voice was faint to her ears just like the little voice that warned her that this was not a good idea – that something was wrong about this picture. Brynn turned her head slightly, hearing Nuada running towards the library from the shadows in which he had taken to hiding from the others. (They knew he was there, they just didn't know where.) Her face was touched by a ghostly hand, gently turning her face to look back up the stairs. The ghostly hand was cold, draining the heat from her face before sliding away, gently encouraging her to climb the stairs.

Nuada had never been gentle with her or had rarely been. Brynn had only been treated gently by him when she was dead and could not remember his gentleness because she hadn't been aware of her body at that point. Not even the images that Nuala shared with her could make her aware of the gentleness Nuada had showed to her.

But here was this invisible force, gently urging her forward and making her uncertainty vanish. It had been there, waiting for her for a long time, she could feel that in her bones. That force needed her as much as she needed…

Little angel…Do not go any further!

Come…

Brynn took another step up the stairs. Then another. She didn't understand how this was taking so long, but maybe that was the point. Maybe she had to be patient to see this invisible force. To find the one who had been gentler than her dark elf lover. Brynn took another step and lifted her eyes to the second level of the library.

"Brynn McKae!" Nuala's concerned voice cried out from below.

"Mommy!" Noemi wailed and Brynn was vaguely aware of the sound of running feet below, but she didn't stop moving.

Brynn stepped across the landing and walked onto the second floor. Standing back in the shadows of a shelf was the angel she had seen earlier. His wings were tucked closely to his body, but could not hide their incredible size. His eyes, dark and luminous, looked at her from beneath hard brows and his hair was long and unkempt. Brynn tucked her wings close to her body and took a hesitant step towards him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

I am Legionnaire of the Fallen…

"You…you hurt my friend… and killed others…" Brynn ran a hand through her hair, nervously. "Everything you've done and everything you stand for calls for me to hate you, to fear you…but I don't…"

Legionnaire was silent. Brynn felt another powerful wave of energy course through the room, brushing away all of the cluttering thoughts of moments before. Brynn only knew that there was a darkly attractive sense to this wild creature before her.

"I…I can't," Brynn realized, taking another step towards him. "Legionnaire, why can't I hate or fear you?"

You can't hate yourself or fear what you have created…

Brynn watched as the patch of darkness surrounding Legionnaire, expanded and started coming towards her as he approached her with soundless footsteps. Brynn shivered at the cold that emanated from him. She heard the death cries that came with him, the sad stories of his life's misdeeds, and she felt sickened by it, but oddly energized.

"All those poor people…"

Were fated to die…

Brynn could see her breath coming out in a little cloud in front of her face. She was chilled, but felt all too warm. There was something she needed from this angel, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

By your hands, worlds will crumble and a new world will rise from the ashes…as it has always done for the angels of death who beget a fallen angel…

Brynn saw that he was offering his hand to her, but she did not know what it meant. To shake the hand of the Devil's child was something she had never asked about, never heard a reason to not do it. Legionnaire seemed so sure that it was the right thing to do, his hand outstretched towards her in a welcoming gesture.

"Little angel, no!" Nuada snarled, appearing by her side with his spear drawn.

Brynn snapped out of her train of thought in time to see Legionnaire pulsate with a red light and vanish when Nuada threw the spear at him. A sudden heavy feeling descended upon her shoulders as she stared at the back of her fated mate, knowing that something wrong.

"Little angel, do you realize how close you came to losing yourself once more?" Nuada demanded, pulling his spear out of the wall where it had struck it, but he did not turn around to face her.

"Nuada…I am…"

"Still a child, not yet ready to be without an overseer," Nuada muttered bitterly, turning a heated amber eye upon her. He pointed behind her. "Look. You have made your child weep in fear."

Brynn turned and saw that Noemi was hugging Nuala's leg, tears and snot running down her face in torrents. She started towards the child, but the child wailed louder and hid behind Nuala's skirt. Brynn stopped moving and looked at the floor, her wings sagging in her sadness.

"Nuada…I did nothing," Brynn whispered, turning to face him once more. "Nothing out of line…nothing to earn this hate and anger from you. Why are you so angry with me?"

"Nothing…" Nuada repeated as if he could not believe what he was hearing. "Has your human nature addled your brains, dear angel, that you do not know the seriousness of your actions?"

Brynn felt a flash of irritation. "I don't see why I can't talk to someone who needs help –"

"That creature does not need your help," Nuada declared, glaring at her. "All it wants is your soul to corrupt…That is the creature who has hurt your friends and tortured your soul…"

"Nuada…"

"Do you not remember the agony that you felt when your friends cast you into a sacred circle and spoke from ancient tomes, drawing out the evil that had been harbored in your soul?"

Brynn winced as the memories flashed before her eyes, creating a phantom ache in her body. She tried to force the thoughts aside, but Nuada kept them in place, showing her the horrors of her exorcism…

"Please Nuada…"

"That creature you showed care for came from the evil of your soul…It knows your every thought, everything that you've longed for…" His eyes burned into hers as he grew so close to her that she could feel his breath on her face. "It knows your fears, dear little angel, and it will exploit them. Your fear of heights…"

Brynn gasped as she realized that the floor was no longer at her feet. Nuada held her over the railing of the library, one hand holding onto her forearm. Brynn knew it was just a mental image, but it felt so real.

"Please…stop…"

Nuada grabbed her, his fingers gripping her arms so tightly that she could feel her muscles starting to bruise. "The fear of dying again…"

Brynn cried out when he showed her different, cruel images of her death. There was no peaceful moment of slipping away in her sleep as she had the first time she died. Just cruel, harsh images of painful deaths to be.

"Or being completely isolated, trapped in this gilded cage you call sanctuary," Nuada whispered, the images coming from him grew colder, sharper-edged. Brynn could feel them cutting into her, slicing away the layers of comfort she had felt when around Legionnaire.

"Please Nuada, no more…please…" Brynn begged, closing her eyes, but it did little to block out the images. She had forgotten how dark his mind had grown in the years of his exile. "Please, my love, no more please…"

Nuada's grip on her eased and Brynn felt him draw in a slow, cleansing breath. She trembled in his arms and mentally flinched as he lifted a hand to brush back a strand of hair that had fallen in her face. Brynn drew in a shaky breath and looked up at him, hesitantly.

"Nuada, how can your love for me be so cruel?" she asked before pulling herself out of his grasp and rushing down the stairs.

OOOOOOOO

Nuada stared after his mate as she rushed out of the library, not noticing his sister or his child for a moment. He could feel the same question echoed on Nuala's lips, for she had witnessed the same horrors as Brynn through his united connection with her. Her mind was washed with sadness as she looked at him and Nuada's eyes cast downward for a moment, eyeing the little girl who clutched at Nuala's skirts in fear.

"Sister, speak what is on your mind," Nuada said, his eyes returning to his sister's face.

"You know, dear brother, what is on my mind," Nuala whispered, her soft voice full of sadness. "Tonight you made the angels weep in terror and ever growing sadness. You should not worry of me, dear brother, but of your dear mate. You promised the Old One that you would protect Brynn McKae's heart, but you have broken it."

"In times of war, a mate must be cruel to be kind," Nuada commented, his eyes searching for Brynn's face, even though he knew he would not see it in the library as long as he was there.

"Perhaps you were cruel to be cruel…" Nuala's eyes turned to the child as she stooped to pick Noemi up. "Your fated mate's heart weeps now, searching for a love that will not hurt it. The angel you caught her with, spoke to her heart, Brother. It made her feel safe from all fears and concerns, but you – the one who is supposed to love her beyond all – have thrust upon her horrible images of her fears. Do you not know how it wounds her?"

Nuada nodded and looked at his sister once more. "It wounds me, Sister, to know that I have inflicted unwarranted harm to your heart and that of my fated mate's."

Noemi peered at him as if expecting him to say something to her. Nuada hardened his heart against that child, knowing that she was the reason of the distance between him and Brynn. She stuck her tongue out at him as Brynn once had and Nuada realized that he saw more of Brynn in that cursed child than he did of himself. Neither one of them had given her the dark eyes she wore in her face though, which made him wonder further about the stain of evil on her soul.

"What wounds you inflicted upon her heart may cause the divide between you and your fated mate to grow," Nuala said quietly. "And Brother, it will be by your own hand that this happens."

Nuala turned her back on him and walked down the stairs, soundlessly. Nuada saw Myers standing off to the side on the ground floor with what could be considered a triumphant gleam in his eye.

What evils lurk in the hearts of these wretched humans,now that a great force of evil has begun its vile deeds? Nuada wondered, slipping back into the shadows from which he had come.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Nuada approached the room where Brynn had found for herself in the compound. She sat on the bed, tears of pale crimson rolling down her face. It had been several hours since she had left him back in the library, but time did not seem to be the balm for the fresh wounds he had inflicted upon her heart and soul.

"Nuada…" She turned her face away from him, wiping bitterly at the tears that fell from her eyes like pale gemstones. "Why do you have to be so cruel to me? What have I done to deserve such cruelty from you, the man who claims my heart?"

Nuada was silent as he crossed the room, but his mind was in action. He reached out comforting tendrils of thought, brushing them lightly against the wounds that he had inflicted upon her earlier that day. Brynn recoiled from his touch and climbed off the bed, backing towards the far wall. Like a wild animal trapped in a corner, she stood waiting for him to come at her with angry words that would cut into her again, but Nuada had no more cruel words to say. None that he would voice to her by his lips or by his thoughts.

"Little angel, please do not run from me in fear," Nuada whispered, approaching her slowly so he wouldn't startle her. "Let me explain why I uttered those cruel words and cut you down with the cruel images of your terrors."

Brynn stared at him blankly, the crimson rivers not ceasing to fall. "You are a cruel man, hardened by war, hate, and death. That is all that needs to be known."
Nuada shook his head and held out a hand, silently asking her to take hold of it. "Little angel, I am hardened by war…the hate of humans and the deaths I have created with my hands have indeed hardened my heart. Yet, little angel, I have grown softer with each day that passes by since I have met you…It is something I fear will destroy all that I have ever known."

"Fear?" Brynn let out a strangled laugh. "What do you know of fear?"

Nuada brushed his finger tips against her face, her eyelids fluttering at the gentle touch, but not closing completely. "Fear…I know a great deal more of the hated emotion more than you do, dear angel. I have witnessed it in the times of the great battles between the Unseen Realm and the hollow-hearted humans…so many children lost their parents, turning their fearful gaze up to the warriors who had slaughtered their father, their mother…The ground stained red as many Fae shed their blood amongst the humans…" His eyes saddened. "I have seen the fear of human children as they stared up at me, huddling their bodies close together with the stain of blood on their dirty, frail bodies…they did not know if I would spare them or send them to their Creator…"

Did you…?

Brynn's thought bubbled to the surface for a brief moment before she submerged it back into the recesses of her mind. She lowered her gaze, staring at a spot on his chest as if she was unable to face the answer, no matter what it happened to be. Nuada sighed and looked up at the heavens like he wished God would show him mercy for his past deeds.

"I was like a wrathful spirit in those times," Nuada whispered, placing his hands on her arms just below her shoulders. "I knew that the human children would soon grow into human adults who would greedily take more from the Earth than they needed…They would soon forget their fear of our people and destroy Fae villages their fathers had laid waste to in their life…" His eyes lowered, seeking hers. "I did not kill the young…the children of the humans I had killed, I did not kill…I saw Fae children in their place, the fear in their eyes and I could not…I could not wet the Earth with the blood of its children…For what kind of man slaughters the young and unarmed?"

Brynn's eyes lifted, looking into his for a brief moment. Nuada saw that her sadness remained, felt his heart echo hers in its dull ache. Brynn held up her hand hesitantly, offering it to him to take though it trembled as if she still feared a cruel backlash of emotions from him. Nuada gently pressed his palm against hers and took hold of her hand, his eyes holding her gaze as he tried to express how he felt at that moment.

His little angel accepted his apology in the old language with only a moment's hesitancy. It surprised him at the relief he felt when she accepted the comfort he was offering for his earlier transgression. She didn't keep hold of her fear of his cruelty when he swore by the gods to never be that cruel to her again. She released it, asking for her Heavenly Father to take it away and keep it away from her.

"Nuada…" she breathed, her eyes briefly looking at his lips before meeting his gaze again.

The dark prince brushed away the tears on her face with a thumb, cupping her face with one hand. His lips brushed over hers softly and she stilled tasted as sweet as he remembered. It was hard for him not to demand more from her then after all the time he had spent without her. His body called for him to touch her, to take her as his own again, but he did not do more than kiss her because now was not the time for him to give into carnal pleasures.

"Nuada," she whispered when he rested his forehead against hers, breathing in his scent as he breathed in hers. "Get me out of this place…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: So this chapter may be a little shorter than others and I'm completely neglecting Noemi. Characters are all lined up in front of a firing squad, waiting to see who will be…well, fired from this story. Darker chapters await in the dark recesses of my mind.

Please review meThat is all I'm asking for right nowfrom you anyway.Thanks in advance. ~ Scarlet deprimido. :(