The fact that there were more people on the streets then one would expect at such an ungodly early hour of the morning should have been comforting, but Millina felt unnerved by it. It was still a good three hours till sunrise. There was no reason for it to be so crowded. And was it her imagination, or were people staring at her as she walked at a brisk pace down the street?
The light spells that powered the streetlamps were fading, making it difficult for Millina to see just how many people were out and about and what they were doing. But the closer she got to the boundary of town, the more apparent it became that she was being followed. And rather sloppily too. Whoever it was wasn't even bothering to mask the sound of their footfalls, meaning they were either incredibly reckless, incredibly competent, or desperate to catch up to her.
It had to have been Luke.
Millina spun around to give him hell for following her, and then but found herself stuttering in confusion when she saw Gavroche and Cosette running down the street with abandon.
"What are you two doing here?" Millina asked as they caught up to her, "I told you to sleep somewhere safe tonight."
"The red haired man scared me." Cosette said, "I wanted to make sure that you were alive."
Millina relaxed a little as she resisted the urge to hold the girl close. "I'm fine. I told you I can take care of myself. Now go on back to sleep."
"Where are you going?" Gavroche asked, his eyebrow raised in suspicion.
Millina inhaled. The road they were on led straight out of town, and they were only a thousand feet from the border. There was no use denying the obvious, "I guess I'm busted. I wasn't wanting to make a big fuss, and I still don't. I'm leaving and getting as far away from here as possible."
Millina was expecting them to beg her to stay and steeled herself against it. Both of them grabbed her by the arm as they started begging and pleading with her, and Millina shook her head, "I can't stay here!"
They continued to plead as Millina tried to pull away, "Let go, I can't stay here!"
"We don't want you to stay!" Gavroche yelled over his sister and forcing Millina to listen, "We want to leave with you! Please take us with you!"
"Huh?" Millina said and she shook her head in disbelief, "I can't take you with me!"
"Please Miss Millina!" Cosette begged as Gavroche said, "We need to get out of here!"
"We hate it here!" Cosette stated as she tugged on Millina's hand with such strength that she feared she would never let go.
Millina fumbled as she thought of something to say. She couldn't take them with her! She simply couldn't! She wasn't sure had enough to support all three of them until she could find more work. Work that would likely be dangerous. And while they were street rats and used to surviving on their own, taking them with her would mean assuming responsibility for their welfare. Millina was not ready for that.
But the thought of abandoning them in the very place she herself was so desperate to flee was unfathomable, especially now that they were pleading for help.
"Why didn't you tell me you were skipping town?" a masculine voice demanded to know, and Millina felt the warmth leave her body as she turned to face Rufus, "Forget to turn in your notice?"
"It's none of your business." She stated flatly as she realized that while she was focused on the children she had been surrounded.
"You're our best bodyguard, so it is our business." Rufus said as he drew his sword. "So if you want out, it's going to cost you twice what you made on the Hermitage case."
Millina could feel the charge of magic that permeated the air, warning her of an incoming spell. So far as she knew, Rufus had only one other sorcerer under his employ, and while Yolen was not as skilled as her he had the advantage at the moment. Millina moved to cover the children from the south as she cast, "Balus Wall!"
Her muscles tightened between her shoulders as she realized that the rest of Rufus's gang were coming to attack her from the north while she held Yolen off. Her spell deflected the attack from Yolen and she drew her sword as she pivoted as she charged at Rufus by running between Cosette and Gavroche as she started to chant a spell. Four men with swords were coming at her, and Millina was well aware that Yolen was chanting his next spell. Millina had to incapacitate the swordsmen, and fast!
It would have been simple if they'd charged one at a time. But Rufus knew better than to give her any advantage. The four men pressed her relentlessly, and she felt the sting of a cut on her shoulder as one broke through, but it was not enough to stop her from completing her spell, "Demona Crystal!"
Icy fog rose from the ground and the men cried out as they tried to swing their swords at it, only to have their momentum stopped as their swords became stuck like a fly in a web as the ice hardened and coalesced around them. "Damn you Millina!" Rufus spat as he struggled against uselessly against his frigid prison, but Millina didn't have time for him.
She spun around to face Yolen just as he finished chanting, "Hell Blast!"
Fear surged through Millina as she wasn't sure she could move fast enough, but she threw herself to the ground as she heard Gavroche cry, "Miss Millina, look out!"
Time slowed down to a horrifyingly surreal crawl, ensuring that every moment would be branded into Millina's mind as Gavroche jumped in between her and the spear of darkness and took the spell full on. "No!" Millina screamed, "Gavroche, no!"
Gavroche fell to the ground, limp and lifeless as Cosette ran to him. Millina wasn't the only one screaming. Her hand went to her mouth in horror as she collapsed to her knees and dragged herself to where Cosette was shaking her brother and begging him to wake up. Hell Blast. It would suck his life force right out of him. There was nothing she could do, nothing!
"You evil bastard!" someone yelled, and as Millina reached Gavroche she looked up to see Yolen standing rather rigid as blood poured from his mouth. For a moment Millina could not understand why or what was happening as she put an arm around Cosette. But then she realized that someone had speared Yolen through from behind with a sword, which was currently poking out through his neck and hard to see in the dim light. The swordsman abruptly pulled the sword out, and as Yolen fell to the ground Millina saw Luke standing there with hatred coursing through his eyes as he brought his sword down upon Yolen again and again as he shouted. "That was a child! You evil bastard, he was just a kid! I hate humans!"
Cosette grabbed onto her in fear as Millina pulled Gavroche's lifeless body to her. Luke had just helped them. She should have felt relieved. But between the look in his eyes and the vicious way he was attacking a now dead body, Millina didn't feel she could relax yet.
"I hate humans!" Luke yelled once more as he charged forward to Rufus and the gang that Millina had encased in ice, who were now sitting ducks for the slaughter as they started begging for their lives.
"Luke, no, please!" Millina gasped, but if he heard her he showed no sign of it as he speared one of them through the heart and then slit the throat of the next.
"Millina, please stop him!" Rufus begged as Luke charged at him next, slashing his stomach so that his guts spilled out onto the ice as the final attacker screamed in sheer terror as Luke put one hand around his throat and squeezed the life out of him. Once he stopped screaming Luke flicked the blood off his sword and sheathed it casually, and then he, backed by the bodies of the helpless men he had butchered, he turned and faced Millina directly and she could see the soul of the being he harbored in his eyes…
The face of a demon…the king of all demons…
"I hate humans!" he yelled once again at the top of his lungs as Millina started to shake as she wondered if, in his rage, he would turn on them as Cosette buried her head in her shoulder. Millina struggled to find her voice, struggled to say the chant she thought she'd known like the back of her own hand…
"R-r-ray Wing!" Millina managed, and a bubble of air encased the child and her, and Millina raced ahead forward to get as far from Luke as she could.