Chapter Forty Seven

*Ariya*


*I stood there in front of the man I ran into. I was frozen in place. The fear hugged me so I couldn’t feel anything else. I stared up at the man in front of me. I didn’t recognize him. He wasn’t a part of our clan.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
My eyes went wide. This was it. This was when I was going to die. I just watched my Mom burn alive. I’ve watched all the people in our clan running away, screaming. On fire and still running. My mind went to Ivan. He was trying to fight back and get to me when I was taken. I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. I wanted to run. I wanted to kill everyone that went after us. But I couldn’t move. My feet felt like they were cemented to the ground. My body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
“Don’t worry, little one. I’ll make sure to make this hurt.” The man in front of me grinned wickedly.
The man drew a sword from his side and raised it above his head. I stared at him, frozen in place. This was it.
“ARI!” I heard a voice scream.
As the man brought the blade down I saw a white flash for a split second and was shoved back to the ground. Keo stood over me, protecting me, facing the man that invaded our little village. Everything was suddenly in slow motion. The sword was coming down. The fear that gripped me no longer held me frozen in place. I reached out to Keo grabbing his shirt. I tugged at it as the sword sliced through his left eye. I heard a growl as a wolf jumped at the man with the sword, shoving him backward. Ivan! The blade came back up as the man stumbled backward and nicked Keo on the way up. Keo fell back and Ivan charged for us immediately. I put Keo’s arm over my shoulder as Ivan dove under me. He picked us both up and ran.
“Hang on, Keo!” I shouted, readjusting us on Ivan’s back.
Keo was screaming in pain. His left eye was shut. I wasn’t sure if he would be able to see out of it again. I ripped the bottom of my shirt to try to wrap Keo’s eye. We heard a howl in the distance. Caleb.
“Ivan, we need to get to Caleb and find Drake.”
Ivan took off in the direction of the howl. He howled back to let them know we were coming. As Ivan continued running forward, another wolf showed up in front of us a little bit ahead. Ivan slowed down as we came up to the wolf. It was Derek. Derek’s wolf was a darker gray color but his eyes were similar to Caleb’s since they were more of a yellow color. Derek shifted back.
“What happened?” Derek asked, worried.
I hopped off of Ivan’s back and as I went to help Derek pull Keo down a Shadow popped up from the ground and lunged at Derek. The Shadow impaled Derek in the rib cage. Derek grabbed the blade in him and wrapped his other hand around the Shadow’s throat. More Shadows appeared, surrounding us. 2 of them picked Keo up off of Ivan’s back at the same time as 1 of them grabbed me trying to take me away. Ivan growled trying to fight back and protect us all but it was too late. There were too many of them. The man that I had run into was walking up to us. The fear took hold of me again. Derek managed to kill the Shadow that had impaled him but he fell to the ground. The Shadow had wounded Derek more.
“Ivan!” I shouted.
The Shadow was dragging me to the alley near us. The man that had hurt Keo already had his sword drawn. The Shadows that had held Keo held him in place upright. Fear wrapped its hands around my heart. I couldn’t take my eyes off of Keo. I knew so much more was happening around me but I couldn’t watch anything else. The man plunged his sword deep into Keo’s chest and twisted the blade. I screamed. The fear squeezed my heart, shattering it to pieces. Ivan lunged at the man, clamping his jaws down on the hand that held the sword in Keo’s chest. The man gasped as he let go of the sword. He turned and punched Ivan in the snout and Ivan released the man.
Derek used the last of his strength and killed one of the Shadows that held Keo. Ivan had the other one by the throat.
“Get that one to the compound. We’re leaving here now.” The man said.
The Shadow that had me tugged me down toward the alley. My heart was broken into pieces. I was frozen once again. I heard a sharp yelp from Ivan and snapped out of it. Regaining my senses. My eyes narrowed as I realized I wasn’t going to just be taken without a fight. I wasn’t going to let everyone that I loved die trying to protect me without fighting back. I wouldn’t let their deaths be in vain. I felt the anger rise inside of me. They came to OUR village. We didn’t do anything wrong. We just existed. We existed and they wanted to end that existence. They burned my Mom. They killed my brother. They killed Derek. They killed Ivan. One by one I was losing everyone that I loved. I watched them die. The anger boiled inside of me and my body began shaking. Everything inside of me was on fire. I felt like I was going to explode with rage.
I needed to let the rage out. I felt like if I didn’t let it out I was going to die. My heart felt like it was going to explode. My eyes burned. My body was shaking. I turned toward the Shadow that pulled me away from them all. The Shadow looked down at me and I released all of my anger at them. Everything inside of me I let out. I shut my eyes as I imagined everyone that invaded our village dying. I thought of the Shadow and how a spike would impale them. I thought of how the people of our village would be protected and healed of the wounds they had if they were still alive. That everyone else that had come in unwelcome would have a horrendous death. The fire would be smothered out.
When I opened my eyes, I gasped. The Shadow in front of me had been impaled. I turned to go to Keo, Ivan, and Derek. I felt drained. My strength and anger was gone. Sorrow taking its place. As I came out of the alley a man had Keo across his lap. He was holding the blade in Keo’s chest.
“Keo.” I breathed and fell to the ground.
The darkness enveloping me. I felt the rain come down. Like the sky was crying for me.
“Ari! Come back to me!” I heard a voice shout as it lifted me up. *
-
“Ariya! Wake up!” I heard a voice.
The voice was so familiar but I couldn’t place it.
“Ariya! Please! Come back to me!”
I slowly opened my eyes. Justin was on the ground shaking me awake. Concern filled his eyes.
“Ariya, you’re back. Are you ok? What happened?” Justin asked me.
“I remembered everything from that night.” I whispered, my heart breaking.
“Talk to me. What happened?” Justin asked, helping me sit up.
I ran through what happened. With Ivan, Derek and Keo.
“Boss was there but he took off. After everything happened I passed out. I think it was just from the stress, but I don’t know.”
“There’s more to it, Ariya.” Justin whispered, “You’re still missing some of what happened that night.”
“You were there that night, weren’t you?” I said, hot fresh tears burned my eyes, threatening to spill over. I remembered the guy that was holding Keo before I passed out. He held the blade in Keo’s chest. I glared at Justin.
“Ariya..”
“Tell me! Were you there?!” I shouted at him. My heart was breaking as I anticipated his answer.
“Yes.” Justin whispered.
My heart shattered, “You let everyone that I loved die! You! You were there! You helped to kill my family! You were part of the reason I was left alone! Then you made me fall for you?! After knowing what I was! After knowing what I’ve been through! How could you do that?!”
“Ariya! Stop! Listen to me! I didn’t let anyone die! I didn’t help kill your family!” Justin shouted back at me, his eyes glowing blue.
Realization hit me.
I gasped, “Ivan.”