My (Not So) Charmed Life

Battle Begins

It was showtime. I'd had a few more sessions with Ryan, where he tried to get in my head and see how Sammy and I had interacted, but we hadn't made much headway. I'd met up with Tori every single day to continue my training, and I was beginning to become a little more confident in my skills. I was hopeful that if I was in a position to have to take someone down, I'd be able to do so without sustaining too much injury to myself.

Amicus called us down for our daily meeting. We'd been gathering in the conference room every day to see where we all were in terms of preparation and progress. Today was different though.

When we walked in and took our seats, Amicus wasn't in his usual position. Normally, he'd be sitting at the head of the table, poring over papers and information on his table-embedded computer screen. Today, however, he was standing by a window that looked into the ballroom. He stared intently, not even bothering to acknowledge that we were all there and waiting for him to address us.

We all looked at each other, trying to decide if we should clear our throats or cough to let him know that we were there, but decided against it, figuring that we should just give him time.

After a few moments of silence, Amicus turned to speak to us.

"The time that we have been awaiting is upon us," he said, his voice gravelly.

"We have indication that Petram's group will be attacking us tonight. They are using guerrilla warfare, and it is only by sheer luck that we were able to find out this early in order to prepare ourselves."

Everyone looked around at each other. Strangely enough, I noticed that Tori and Ryan both looked vaguely.... excited. It must have been nice to be able to use your training after practicing for so long, I guessed.

"Ryan, you will have a specific job." For a moment, Ryan's chest puffed out on pride before Amicus continued.

"You will be watching over Liza. She will be Petram's first target, and she is our most precious asset right now. We will lock you in her room and we will set up a special signal when it is all clear to come out. Until then, you will remain in there no matter what."

Ryan's pride-filled smile deflated slightly at Amicus' words.

"I won't be fighting?" He asked dejectedly. Amicus shook his head.

"Their priority will be finding and capturing Liza to force her to use her powers against us and fulfill the prophecy in their favor. We cannot allow that to happen."

As annoyed as Ryan was, I was ten times angrier. I hadn't done all of that training for nothing. I wasn't going to sit back in my cushy bedroom while people risked their lives around me!

"I'm going to fight! Ryan won't need to watch me because I'll be right out there with him fighting," I said as adamantly as I could.

"You will absolutely not," said Amicus, his tone firm. "You will not allow yourself to fall into their trap. They will not hesitate to kill you as soon as your purpose is filled for them."

So I wouldn't be allowed to risk my life, but everyone else here could? How was that fair?

The look of disappointment on Ryan's face hurt me deeply. He had done all of that training and working out, only to wind up having to babysit me like I was some little kid who would get in everyone's way. I understood that Petram's army would make it their top priority to kidnap me, but it didn't lessen the feeling that I wasn't good enough to fight. The idea of other people fighting to defend me made me feel so worthless and weak, and it was with a sinking heart that I realized that there was a very high chance that people would die while I stayed huddled up in my bedroom with my boyfriend.