The Royal Brigade

Chapter 27: Left Alone

Avery's POV

The warmth exuding from Evanity's hand comforted me greatly as we trudged through the forest hand in hand. The stillness of the forest surrounded us as we made our way through the unending maze of trees and shrubs. The only sounds that I heard came from the animals all around us that were hidden from our view.

"Careful, Vann," I told Evanity noticing a low-lying branch right in front of us. We both ducked just in time and then continued walking deeper into the forest.

"Ave," Evanity said. "When we get to Airy I want you to heal Learnah Twyla since she's really injured from the battle when the Cabrians attacked the kingdom."

"Of course," I answered smiling at her. Then suddenly I saw her furrowed her eyebrows and I asked her in confusion, "What's wrong?"

She hesitated for a brief moment before replying, "It's just that the Learnah never had a child. At least none that I know of."

"Really?" I said frowning in bewilderment. "But that's not possible! The prophecy clearly states that the Daughter of Airan would represent the kingdom of Airy in the battle against the Cabrians and Altherea."

"Yeah, I know," Evanity said slowly. "But how will we find her?"

"Let's just think about that again when we get to Airy," I told her. "Right now our priority is to find Solaire."

She nodded her head and we lapsed into another round of comfortable silence. We walked a little bit further through the forest further without speaking to each other before I turned my head to stare at Evanity's face.

She noticed me staring and tilted her head to the side and asked looking puzzled, "What's wrong, Ave?"

Her clear emerald orbs stared back at me and instead of seeing myself reflected in her eyes I saw the scene of Haiden and I almost getting into a fight earlier this morning. Guilt rushed down on my chest and I took a deep breath before replying, "What Haiden said to you this morning, Vann..." My voice faltered and I averted my gaze from her unable to look in her eyes.

"Ave," Evanity said sighing heavily. "I'd rather not talk about it. Haiden didn't mean any of it."

"He meant every word that he said, Vann," I countered finally gathering enough courage to look at her again. "He likes you." When the words came out it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Evanity's gaze hardened as she stared back at me. "It doesn't matter. I don't like him."

I halted in my steps and let go of her hand. I turned to face her and asked, "What are we really, Vann?"

"What are you talking about, Ave?" She asked looking bemused.

"I mean..." I trailed off and then let out a deep breath. "I'm in love with you and I know that you feel the same way about me. But are we...?" I broke off the remaining words getting caught in my throat.

Evanity just smiled at me. "A couple? I guess so. But the Sacred Oath..." She bit her lip and lowered her gaze referring to the law which prohibited royalists and commoners from being together.

I took her hand gently and squeezed it. "No need to worry about that. Once all of this over and I will become the new Alleo of Enara, I will abolish that law so that we could be together."

Evanity smiled looking relieved and to my utmost surprise she planted a kiss on my lips. "I love you, Avery."

My heart skipped a beat because of her words and I returned her smile and rested my forehead against hers. "I love you too, Evanity."

I laid a soft kiss on her forehead before we started walking hand in hand through the forest once again. The heaviness that I've felt in my chest awhile ago had lifted and I couldn't help but feel relieved because Evanity reciprocated my feelings for her.

"I hope that we find Sol soon," I told Evanity when I noticed the late afternoon sun sinking on the horizon bathing the entire sky with orange and red streaks of light. "It's getting late already." No sooner had the words left my mouth that the ground beneath us began to tremble violently toppling both of us on the ground.

A loud explosion came out of nowhere breaking the tranquilness of the entire forest and sending out a dark cloud of smoke toward us. I coughed a few times and then realized a little bit too late that lethal fragments and debris were raining down on us from out of nowhere.

I quickly conjured a force field to protect both of us and waited for the smoke to clear up. After a few more seconds the ground had stopped shaking and the air became clear but my ears were still ringing because of the explosion.

I waved my hand in the air making the force field disappear and then rose to my feet. I turned around to make sure that Evanity was alright but then I saw that she wasn't there.

I scanned my surroundings and started looking for her but after a few minutes I still couldn't find her. Panic rush into my chest along with the sinking feeling in my heart when I realized that she wasn't here.

Evanity was gone.

~~~*~~~

Author's Notes:

This week has been really busy and hectic for me since we had a written exam in PE and oral defense for an ARP in our English subject. And this friday was also quite tiring but fun since we had our recollection. But at least I was able to finish writing this chapter and finally update. :D

This chapter clears up a lot of things regarding Evanity and Avery's relationship status. So what do you think about this chapter? And what do you think about Evanity's sudden disappearance?

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- Erin <3