Heretics

Chapter 31: Zoya pt.2

     As we made our way around the little palace arm in arm as we walked together, we talked about little things and laughed at the dumb stuff. When we made our way around the first time I caught sight of where the tree had once stood and found myself frozen to the ground.

     Not even a hundred feet away someone had burned murderer into the ground below my window not even twenty four hours ago. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath grasping Zoya's hand hard. I didn't want her to leave right now. No matter what she had or needed to do. I couldn't be alone.

     I felt her hands on my arms and she pulled me into a hug. She didn't make me speak. She didn't ask questions. She was there. She knew what had happened. She had asked me to preform the cut that killed that little boy. She knew all to well what it felt like to be blaming yourself for that horrible incident.

     "I want to bring flowers to him." I said pulling my head off of her shoulder. She gave me a pondering look and sighed. She nodded and ran into the little palace to find some flowers for us to lay down on his grave.

     I stood in the grass my eyes wandering to anything but the tree or the burn marks ahead of me. I watched as drops from the grass fell onto my boots creating wet spots all over. I was marveled by how they shown against the sun. Like little specks of glitter falling from a tree.

I heard someone walking towards me in the wet grass and ignored them hoping they would know it's me and just walk by. Of course they didn't just walk by and of course it was Alina of all people who was walking around the grounds this morning.

"Yelna?" Her voice was soft and careful like I was a cracked piece of crystal going to break at any moment from a missed word or wrong phrase.

"What?" I solemnly ask her. There was an edge to my voice but I was to caught up in everything that had happened to really care about fighting with her. I just wanted her to go away.

I didn't want to see the face that had been lying to me my whole life. The face I used to love as my cousin and not my sister. The face that used to stop my crying when I would wake with nightmares at the orphanage. The face that would always stand up for Mal and I when we were bullied. The face that I watched cower when she was bullied and I would stand up for her. The face that I could once upon a time, trust with something as important as the secret of this baby.

But now that trust had been thrown out the window. All those lies crept their way into my head and buried themselves between each happy memory we once shared together. Between the memory of my first kiss being Mal and her gagging me laughing and Mal being so red in the face that he could have been a tomato. The memory of Mal also being her first kiss and practically melting in it. The memories of the times we would run through the fields without a care in the world or the times when Ana let us play in the lake and we would swim with the other kids all day and Ana would let us drink cold tea for dinner.

That face turned into a monster and those memories withered and died within me and now all I saw was betrayal in her eyes. "Are you alright? I saw what happened."

"I'm just perfect." I snapped back letting out a long and defiantly needed sigh. She put a hand on my shoulder and the shadows moved before I did. "Don't."

That simple word caused a wall of shadows between us to escape me. It engulfed us and I could see a tiny bit of light Alina had created showing the fear in her eyes. The fear for me. The fear of me and at this moment I knew what I was to do.

I knew I had to go to the fold. No matter what Aleksander would say. I knew I needed her to suffer the same way I had. I knew, I just knew that this baby would never know her or what she had done. They would not grow up hearing the name Sankta Alina.

"Yelna," her voice was far away now. I hadn't realized I had begun to walk away and she followed. "I'm sorry! I thought you knew. I thought Ana told you!"

"You thoughts wrong Alina! You definitely thought so fucking wrong and all this time you knew!" I stomped my foot in anger and the shadows stopped moving. They weren't breathing anymore. I turned towards Alina and heard her gasp.

THIRD POV

      Zoya left the little palace. Flowers in hand and went to find Yelna. She wasn't where she had been when she had went in but who could blame her. She had been in there awhile. She stopped to talk to the general who had asked how she was. It also took a few moments to find the flowers to Yelna to put on the grave.

      She wondered and played with the flowers for a moment before she saw the shadows radiating and moving slowly in a dome shape around the only person she knew who could be inside. Yelna was causing the form of shadows to smudge the world around her.

      She heard voices as she wakes closer. Alina was in there with her and Zoya smirked. Serves her right. She thought as she followed the now moving shadow dome until it was over the Scott bed marks in the grass.  There was yelling then nothing. Just silence the shadows stopped moving. Everything came to am warily pause around her.

     The shadow done hiding Alina and Yelna folded in on itself. The two being seen for the first time in ten minutes. YELNA'S body was flowing with shadows. They were coming out her nose and her ears. Her eyes were the scariest part. They were completely black shadows radiated from them like fog rolling over a hill.

     Yelna held her hands out by her sides almost begging for Alina to try something. To try anything against her and her baby. Little balls of light formed in Alina's hands as her whole body glowed. Zoya gasped at the sight and ran to the grand palace to get Aleksander.