Flame Inside ✿ Damien and Matthew

Chapter 38

Emma quickly walked to her room, wanting to make it there before Mattew. As she turned the corner to the hall her room was in, however, a large number of shouts echoed. "Take him! Don't let him get away!" She heard a familiar voice order.

"LET GO OF ME!"

Emma stared wide-eyed as guards rushed into her bedroom and dragged Matthew out by his arms. She was even more surprised to see him battered and covered in blood. Through the blood, she noticed a hand shaped burn mark on his shoulder. She took a step forward to rush in and see what was going on, but a hand stopped her and pulled her back. Emma looked over and stared as Sam gripped her shoulder, glaring ahead at his brother.

"Sam? What is going on?!" She questioned him.

"Matthew did something really fucking stupid..."

Ripping Sam's hand from her shoulder, Emma turned around and glared, almost snarling in anger, "What do you mean?! What did he do?!"

"Emma, calm down." She turned to see a battered Thalia. She had a cut on both her cheek and her shoulder and the front of her body was covered in blood.

"What happened to you?" Emma asked her.

"I just had to fight your fiancé, that's what happened." Emma gasped and looked down at the ground, feeling her stomach drop, "You wouldn't happen to know why he just tried to kill me?"

When she didn't answer, Thalia growled in frustration and stormed off in the direction the group of soldiers and Matthew went, Sam following right behind her. Emma did the same, now desperate to know what was going on outside of what Thalia told her.

As they arrived at the great hall, Matthew was tossed into the center of the room, where Rabbit had constructed a large magic circle. As Matthew fell to his hands and knees on it, the circle activated and formed a large barrier around him. Frantic, Matthew rushed at the walls, slamming into them to hopefully be set free. He even formed multiple knives and tried to tear through the walls, only ending up with them ricocheting and landing on the floor.

"Matthew!" Emma rushed forward, trying to touch the barrier, but was forcefully pulled back by Irene and Iridessa. She flailed in their arms, struggling against their hold, but became still as Diana entered the room with a large, bloody handkerchief in her hand.

"You come into my castle... eat my food, rest in my rooms... and have the utter gall to kill one of my guards and try and steal war plans?"

Emma stared at Matthew as he locked eyes with Diana, sneering and pressing against the barrier. "Well~ Well~ Well~ If it isn't the queen of the rebellion? I gotta tell ya, you look like crap after all of these years~"

Diana's face remained stone cold as she passed the handkerchief to one of the nearby guards and stepped forward, pressing her hand to the barrier, "Lux."

On her word, the barrier suddenly began to brighten with lightning, shocking Matthew within it. Matthew lets out a pained scream and Emma whimpers at the sight. She struggles in the arms again, wanting this to stop. After a few moments she's released and a familiar pair of arms are wrapped around her. Emma allows Thalia to hug her, despite the fact that she is getting blood all over her.

Diana pulled her hand away from the barrier, causing the lightning to stop, and glared into it. Matthew, having been electrocuted, fell to his hands and knees, panting wildly. "I can smell you, Demon Lord..." Diana hisses.

Emma froze. She had thought that his mother was the one controlling him, but instead it was the Demon Lord. She looked up at Matthew, seeing him chuckle despite being in utter pain. "You figured me out, huh~? You may have locked me away in my castle, but my bond to my blood is unbreakable!" Matthew pounced off of the ground and slammed into the barrier wall, grinning from ear to ear at Diana, "And when you come, I will be ready~ I know all of your little plans and will make sure I completely destroy your precious army one pathetic soldier at a time. Once I do, I'll make Zecaeru my heir and finally take over the rest of this God-forsaken plain for good!"