Chapter Nine

Aryan

I didn’t stop running until we reached cover behind the largest and nearest tree. To my surprise, Samara did not fight me as I tugged her along.

“Is something the matter?” she asked as I glanced carefully around the tree.

“I’m not sure yet.” I muttered, and then leered at the small army of soldiers Soren had sent to find me. “Dammit. That Soren is relentless.”

Samara took a peek behind me, eyes wide. But she stood silent, seeming to take note of what they were doing. I did the same.

There were about ten of them. Each nearly equal in height, but all of them a variety of colors you might find in the ground. Four of them were holding lit torches, needing them now to see since the sun had set. Three of the ten went inside the cottage, and even from this distance, I could see and hear everything. The stone men were tearing apart the inside of Samara’s home—the undeniable sound of shattering dishes and furniture, giving it away.

The three thugs came out. One of them looked at the chief soldier and shook his head. “They are not here. It appears they’ve fled.”

The leader announced coldly, “Make it so they have nothing to come back to.”

And just like that, the four soldiers holding the torches threw the flames both inside and around Samara’s cottage. The house sparked quickly, the flames just slightly green—Fairy fire.

“Evil bastards…” I grumbled.

“No…” Samara whispered, shaking her head. It was then that I looked at her, remembering she was beside me. “Why?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Samara was already trying to walk around me. Before she could take even a centimeter forward, I grabbed her arm.

*****

Samara

Flames consumed my home rapidly.

“No…” I shook my head, my sight beginning to blur. “Why?”

I can stop them. I can stop the fire.

It would be easy by comparison to what I had to do to get Aryan out. I began to walk towards my home, away from the safety and cover of the tree. I can stop the fire, and then, I’ll regrow the plants, and give the place a good wash. It’ll be…

Before I could take a step further, Aryan grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me in front of him.

“You can’t go over there.” He had a sympathetic look about him. “They’ll kill you if you do.”

Kill me? The thought didn’t even occur to me as a possibility. I was certain I could take them, but… I couldn’t get myself to move, and suddenly, I couldn’t see clearly anymore. All I could feel were the hot tears that dripped down my face, and before I knew it, Aryan had wrapped his arms around me—my face cradled by his shoulder as I cried big sopping tears.

I muffled my whimpering in my hand, not wanting to give away our location.

“I’m sorry.” Aryan told me, giving me a squeeze I didn’t anticipate.

I pulled away a little, looking past him to my home. The soldiers were still there, and the flames still strong. “That was all I had.” I murmured. “I’ve never had much of a home—it wasn’t very big, and there was nothing of true value within its walls, but… it was my own little niche in a world that has forsaken me. I thought…” I couldn’t finish my thoughts. I looked up at Aryan. “What am I supposed to do?”

It didn’t feel strange at all to ask a man a barely knew about the next step in my life. Especially not this one. Not after all I went through to retrieve him.

He stared down at me, his expression hard to read. “We gotta go.” Was all he said, and because it seemed I had nothing left for me in Curio, I followed.