Chapter 29 of Balverine Child. Finished writing my last chapter now and it's a pretty long story considering. Though I know some chapters are fillers to basically add a bit more info and things like that, so yeah. Hope you enjoy :)


She'd stayed at the bottom of the ladders all night, curling up with her knees pressed against her chest. She'd fallen asleep at one point, and it one only when she heard the faint clunking of someone stepping on metal did she wake up, and it was the crunch of someone stepping on the gravel next to her that made her open her eyes a look up.

Ben looked tired and slightly irritated, but he also had the decency to look slightly ashamed of himself.

"I'm sorry about… ya know," he started, but she smiled slightly and waved it off, almost surprised he could remember. He hadn't been himself last night.

"Don't be…" she said quietly, but each of them stood a little awkwardly, and Danny took to rocking back and forth on her heels.

"I didn't mean any of what I said the other day," he said suddenly, and quickly. "I mean, we were both being stupid and arrogant and... you were damn dangerous… but it was uncalled for."

"It's okay," Danny smiled slightly, feeling just as awkward as Ben did. The apologies weren't necessary, they were just formality. "I'm sorry too."

A brief smile played along his lips, and though he hesitated at first he pulled her into a hug.

She felt tense at first, not sure if he was going to act the same way as last night when he had been drunk, but instead he let go of her, and then nodded his way to the main street.

"We should get going and sort something out… I haven't been back since last night and they're obviously going to be worried about me," he said, winking at her as he joked about, but Danny felt her stomach sink and she hung back.

"I can't go back, Page said she'd kill me."

"Oh, she didn't mean it!"

"She did… I'll wait here, just come and tell me what's happening so I can help."

Ben paused, looking reluctant to leave her on her own, but shrugged and nodded up to his loft.

"Stay up there then, out of sight."

Danny nodded and waiting until Ben was gone to climb up.


"Come on!" Ben roared, shooting an oncoming so called 'elite guard' between the eyes before leaping over his body and into the mess of guards in purple uniforms that were intent on killing him.

These men were easy to bat off, and the only thing that made them special compared to the other people in the downtrodden society was the fact that they were thugs that barely had two brain cells between the lot of them to rub together; yet they still somehow knew which way to point a gun.

He watched in slight awe as Damien charged up a ball of lightening in his hands and shot it at an oncoming guard, knocking him clear off his feet and sending him reeling into the lapping waters of the nearby docks.

"Nice one!" Ben laughed, then cried out in pain as a bullet wedged itself in his shoulder, and another one narrowly missed his head. Rule one of fighting: never get distracted.

He turned to the attacker, shooting him in the chest so he was dead before he could hit the ground. He could feel the dull throb in his arm, and tried to ignore it as he plunged onwards into another hoard of guards with only Damien by his side. Walter and Page had gone ahead to secure a ship while they cause a distraction, and they'd be damned by Skorm if they didn't have one after all of this.

All for the sake of going to bloody Aurora, wherever it was.

He pulled out his cutlass and slashed at two men, cutting one across the chest in the downwards stroke, then when he flicked it back he slit the others throat and jumped away to avoid the gushing blood. Seven men surrounded him, and though outnumbered he stood firm, judging which would be easiest to pop off real quick then look about escaping.

A gun was pointed at his temple before he could formulate the plan fully, and the owner of the gun smirked cruelly.

"Say your prayers, scum," he sneered.

He didn't have to, because in that instant Danny appeared and barrelled into him, sending them both flying before wrenching the gun from his hands and shooting the man at point blank in the knee, leaving him screaming on the ground. She turned and went to shoot another, but to their horror her gun locked. She panicked for a second, then did the next best thing she could and threw the gun at the man instead, breaking his nose with a satisfying crunch as it hit him dead on in the face.

Ben shot two attackers near her, while Damien sliced through another.

Danny had the honour of finishing up the last guard, diving through his legs so she was behind him, twisting and jumping up so she had her legs wrapped around his neck – almost as if she were doing a handstand against him, and she pulled backwards with all her might to break his neck, but instead dislocated his head from his neck and tearing the arteries inside his neck, leaving him gurgling in his own blood before he died.

"Thank you, Danny!" Damien laughed, pulling her into a brisk hug before letting her go again, smiling broadly at her. Ben could have swore, though, that his eyes flickered to look at him for a second, as if measuring his reaction, and he felt his expression sour slightly and jealousy burned in the pit of his stomach. She turned to Ben, her mouth in a small pout and she huffed at him;

"You didn't come back for me."

He looked at her in disbelief, but burst out laughing before he composed himself enough to say, "I didn't really have time did I?"

They all rounded the corned and Walter and Page were on the docks, waiting. Page saw Danny and she scowled, her hand resting on the hilt of her own blade, as if in warning. Danny didn't so much as look at her, but turned to Ben.

"Let me come too," she asked, her voice quiet. "Don't leave me here alone."

He took her in his arms, pulling her flush against his body in a tight embrace, remembering the foggy memories of the night before when he'd been kissing her, the way she tasted was simply intoxicating.

"You can't come," he said quietly in her ear. "I need you to stay here and take care of yourself. Promise me?"

"I promise," she muttered miserably.

"Good," he smiled, pulling away slightly so he was barely an inch from her face. "Can I have one for the road?"

She looked confused, and he chuckled as he remembered she would have never heard the term before. He smiled as he edged closer, and she seemed to get the idea, but he felt the need to word it for her.

"It's when I'm-" he started, but she rolled her eyes and smirked.

"Shut up, Ben," she started, but grabbed his collar.

They crushed their lips together almost fiercely, and it was like they were the only two people in the whole of Albion. If he could have pulled her closer, he would have, but they were flush against one another like they had been the night prior, and he had his hand pressed into her lower back, the other tangled in her messy hair, while both of her hands were crushed between them, clinging to his shirt.

He pulled away slightly, leaving them to gulp down air as he trailed kisses down her jaw line, giving her one last fleeting kiss on the lips as Walter coughed in annoyance.

"Sorry Walter! Don't know when I'll get to do that again, though," he laughed, though his heart was hammering some strange rhythm. Quickly he turned back to Danny, giving her a sweeping look to try and remember those vivid eyes, the small smile tugging at her lips and the way she looked so invitingly scruffy.

"Take care."

"You too."