Mare Barrow
I reach the bunker, small and compact. Lucas waves a hand to open the doors, shifting the bars off the edges as I stumble in. The King paces back and forth as Elara holds Maven's hand tightly.
"Are you alright?" Maven asks me.
"Just a bit shaken up." I respond as the King turns to us all.
"What happened to my childern?" He asked as I turn.
I expected them to already be in the room, Eliza and Cal both. But they are nowhere to be seen. The bombing thoughts warms my thoughts as I shiver. What could've happened to them? Are they not Gods?
"I... I don't know." I respond, and sink back into my seat like the little Red girl I am when the Queen, for once, looks frightened. No, scratch that. She looks completely terrified.
"What happened to my daughter?" She snarls and turns to me, as fi she knows that I'm the one to blame. "Tell me right now, Mare Barrow before I make you spit the truth out!" She's screaming, out of control. Maven's words flicker into my mind.
Always the favourite... Maven looks paler than normal at the thought of his sister. I think of when she literally took a bullet for me, if a bullet could be Evangeline, before I shake my head.
She interfered with our perfect plot. She wouldn't have gotten hurt if she just didn't do anything. Or would she? After all, the bombing would've still happened. And how did she even know what we were doing. I saw her watching us, but what could've ticked her off. And what happened to Kilorn? He must've gotten captured.
My thoughts get interupted when the door litterally gets kicked down. And when it flinches over, I can easily see a dent in it, as Cal runs through, Eliza unconscious within his arms. His face only shows grief as a small army of healers come after him.
"Is she-" The King says, his voice laced with this deep pain as Cal shakes his head. He can't speak, his lip is trembling.
Everyone is crowding Eliza that I don't even see what she looks like until I have to literally jump over them when I finally get a glimspe of her.
Her face seems to be burnt, a rough, green bruise emitting from her left cheekbone. Her silver blood splashed on a deep wound on her left arm, her flesh shown to the world. Silver blood trinkles down her lips as the King and Queen fall over themselves to make sure that her heart is still beating. A deep slash is over her stomach, as I remember her taunting Evangeline. Such a skilled fighter... She was never meant to be hurt. She was never even meant to lay a finger over.
The healers easily fix her up, and soon enough, there was no evidence whatsoever of any damage done to the princess. She seemed the same as always, except her eyes were closed, Cal's eyes. Even though she's healed, I feel like more scars, the mental scars, will linger.
*E*
Eliza Calore
I wake up with a scream blazing my face.
Sweat buries over my forehead as tears drip down my face. Nothing hurts, but the memory of the bomb, the flames that I control retaliating on me... It makes me cry.
Within seconds, people burst into the room as I lean forward and take in deep, heavy breaths of air. I can still feel the flames, the flames that should be mine and mine alone, whispering against my skin and me not being able to do a thing against the fire. My hands clutch my arms as I rock back and forth, but my body is trembling. My heart pounds within my chest as tears streak down my face, dripping down my nose.
I feel something, a hot, flaming touch. It touches my back as I flinch and pull away instantly. The flames of fire are back, the kind that I have no control over are here to haunt me.
My breathing is harsh and heavy as my eyes adjust to the imagery in front of me. The fire that touched me was my father's hand, and now, he looks rather sad and rejected. But I take no notice and let out another sob.
My skin doesn't feel... pure anymore. It feels burnt and stabbed at all over, yet its still as smooth as a pearl. My chest heaves as I touch face and let out another agonizing sob. Life and death, I was on the edge. I was the edge and I almost fell when someone pushed me the other way.
"Eliza." I hear, but I barely notice it. The flames that used to be my ally turns into my worst enemy. "Eliza, its okay. You're okay now, Liz. You're alright." Cal. I hear his voice that pulls me down as I bury my face within my legs. I never felt so weak before in my life.
"The bomb." I whisper, my voice soft. "The bomb, it touched me. It burned me." I turn to look at my family, who stares at me. "Is that even possible?"
"It wasn't just fire, Eliza." Maven says reassuringly. "You're okay." I take in a deep breath and exhale. The fire that licked my skin is just a faint, soft memory as I inhale and rest my head on the backboard. I feel a crisp, cool hand over my shoulder, rubbing gently. Mother. But nobody else dares touch my heat ridden skin.
*E*
I'm free to go after one afternoon. I'm perfectly healthy, the memory of the fire is gone. The fire I had no control over is a thing of the past.
"How many?" I ask as Cal shrugs.
"One dead by the bombing. Seven injured." He replied as I turn to stare at him. HE can see the question in my eyes. "Belicos Lerolan." HE whispered as this fight to the gut pulls onto me.
"He was a father, a friend." I whisper, my voice soft. "And they murdered him in cold blood." I mumbled and then I feel eyes on me. I turn to see Mare and for a moment, I can only see the red blood that stains her cheeks. She is one of them, a Red.
But I don't say anything. Instead I just shake my head and walk away.
*E*
"-There was a puncture in the gas line, and when Cal's fire hit it-" Maven explains to Mare. I watch from the shadows, like I do everything in my life when I take a step forward.
"Why are you lying, Maven?" I ask, and he flinches as well as Mare.
"Liz, what are you doing here?" He asked, as I narrow my eyes at my brother.
"Maven, I'm not stupid. I saw the bomb. I saw it, and Cal didn't even use his fire. I saw the bomb stuck onto the pillar and I saw it explode in front of my eyes." I say and take a step forward. "Now I'll ask you again, why are you lying?"
Maven doesn't have a response to that. He just looks at the floor as I walk away. My feet move with easy grace as I slip into his mind. I've been doing that lately, slipping into people's minds. They don't even recongize me. They don't even know what I'm doing.
She's always watching. Always bursting in-
But before I pass them both, I say one last thing. Its carefully thought out, very, very carefully thought out. I've been thinking of what to say for a few hours now, and I think I finally got it right.
"You know what I find curious?" I ask as I feel their eyes burning into my skull. "The power went out, and there's no real reason why. Even the back up generators didn't work. There's some bright scars on the metal that held the prisoners. Lightening scars. And then, I see guards with gaps into their otherwise perfect memories, and cameras stilling right as Mare walks through them."
I turn around and shrug, as if this is no big deal. As if Mare didn't just betray her kingdom. But I don't dare speak a word, in case it wasn't her. By some insane miracle.
"I'm not a blind rat in a maze," I say my voice gentle. "And if a dumb old princess can see the signs, Mare, then trust me, everyone will too."
*E*
Everything will soon make sense... I think.
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Laughs and Giggles,
Emily
