Guardians: Dark Stars

Chapter 12: Northern Lights

He easily dodged her flurry of attacks. It was hard for him to believe she had been able to fight back the other Shadows so well. Then again, he realized she was probably exhausted by now. Also, he wasn't the average Shadow foot soldier-he was much stronger. As he noncommittally kept her at bay, he couldn't help but fill his soul up with what he had so desperately missed. In the few short weeks they had been apart, he could tell Emily was just barely keeping it together.

There were dark shadows patrolling her eyes in constant vigil as testament to how little sleep she had gotten since he was taken from her. Her long brown hair was so knotted, as if she had rolled around in mud, that he knew her only option each morning was to tie it into a ratty tail. Depressed cheeks, hollow eyes, Emily had even lost muscles mass since he last saw her. 

If she had been in a better mood, he would have joked passingly that her deteriorating state was because she couldn't live without him. After all, he could barely live without her. What wouldn't he do to hear her laugh one more time before he had to go back to the new darkness that was his new, horrible life. Avery loved her. More than he cared for his father, more than he had ever loved his dearly departed mother: he loved Emily for every one of her unique aspects. She had always brightened up his life with her brilliant smile. Her voice was refreshing to him, like a brisk morning gleaming with cool dew. 

Avery knew better. He knew she was probably doing just well on her own. In fact, she had probably been adamant on leaving the country and forgetting him when she returned to find a desolate camp. If he knew her as well as he knew he did, Emily had probably and quickly deduced Wyatt Scarlet had come back for her. Emily had never told him of the man who ruined her, he had only known someone had and it was always left at that. It was actually one of the first things he learned after waking up in the Shadow stronghold in Icewae. Still half incoherent because of the drugged cloud they had used to take them quietly, Avery learned from his recruiter that Emily had been left behind as a special request of one of their partners; named Wyatt Scarlet. 

As he, unenthusiastic, continued to keep Emily at bay with a lazy sword, he began to wonder what she was even doing here. The toll the miasma was taking on her was obvious in her slowing movements. He was sure she would have escaped at the first sign of trouble, just as she should had been half way across the world by now: because that was who he knew as Emily. The woman he loved always ran away first, she preferred running over fighting battles she thought she couldn't win. Not that he was complaining, he was happy to see her standing up for herself and getting over her cowardice for the moment. Yet it worried him to no end. It didn't escape him, as well, that he would be expected to do something about this human who could inexplicably stand up against the Shadows.

"This really is pointless," he stepped aside as she stumbled towards him with a shaky sword, "you're in no shape to be fighting me."

"What would you know, you left," she snarled bitterly. 

He cringed at the venom on her tongue. Without him, he wondered how she was coping with those heart stopping nightmares she used to get. Had they returned? God, he just wanted to scoop her up, kiss her, and assure her he would never leave her again. Avery wanted to fight away her nightmares just as he had for the past ten years. Not Cain, not anyone else in her life but him. He had been there for her all those years, loved her, cared for her tenderly. Now she somehow hated him.

"Who are you working for and what do you guys want with Marianne Wurzberg and her family," Emily questioned breathlessly.

His attention momentarily flickered to Cain and Marianne, both still watching the battle from afar, before he carefully retorted, "it's not like you to care about any other stranger, especially a rich girl. What do you want with Marianne Wurzberg?"