Only You

Chp 15

For the next few days the gang would take shifts watching the guards, learning their shift swaps and keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, but nothing was out of the ordinary.
Damian's been a bit... distant.... Since we found Ember and even though he says he's fine, I know he's not. To be honest though, I wasn't much better.
My anxiety about the fight began to grow and I instinctively knew that it would take place soon. Everyone tried to keep busy and pretend we weren't about to do something very dangerous, but it almost never worked.

I sat at the table with the blueprints to the castle, our route being outlined with black marker, gently biting on my lower lip in thought.
"Astrid you've been staring at that map for hours, why don't you take a break?" Tsuki suggested, giving me a worried smile.
"I'll be fine, I just want to make sure everything's perfect before we go in." I replied, jotting down a few notes as I have been since I pulled the map out.

"No, you won't. Damian has something he wants to tell you and you need to leave the house before you get driven insane. Go on a walk and clear your head. Shoo!" She practically shoved me away from the map, pulled Damian off the couch and dragged us outside.
"Talk, walk and clear your heads. You need it." And with those final words she marched back inside and I'm almost positive I heard the door lock behind her.

Damian and I blinked at eachother for a moment before starting to walk down the path that lead through the woods.
"Will you tell me what it is you planned on telling me last week?" I mumbled, trying to strike up a conversation. He was silent for a moment before he turned to face me and pressed his lips to mine without warning.

My eyes went wide in shock and be pulled away, leaving me speechless and beat red.
"I like you Astrid. A lot. I'm pretty sure i always have. It's ok if you don't feel the same, but I wanted to tell you before the fight. Just in case." He gave me a sad smile.
"I..... don't know what to say....."
"Then don't say anything." He shrugged and pulled something from his hoodie pocket; a dark blue choker with golden designs that held royal blue gems and handing from the choker were a few gold chains attached to a beautiful, thin golden heart with a tiny gem set in the middle of it.
(^above^)

"Damian... you shouldn't have...." I mumbled, keeping my hands in front of me, fidgeting, instead of taking it from him.
"Well I wanted to, you mean a lot to me and in case something happens you'll have something to remember me by."
"Nothings going to happen, I'll have you to remember you by."
"Please just take it." He pleaded, giving me puppy dog eyes.

I groaned and turned around.
"Help me put it on?"
I felt him gently pushing my hair away from my neck before he slid the choker over my shoulder and clipped it on the back.
"There."
He turned me around and smiled before kissing my forehead and pulling me in for a hug.
"C'mon, let's keep walking." I suggested, pulling away to take his hand and lead him further down the path.

After walking for a while we heard voices and Damian practically threw me up a tree to hide, following soon after.
"Y'know if we're caught the king will have us killed right?" The first voice asked, sounding a bit out of breath.
"No one hangs out in these woods Derek, everyone thinks they're haunted." A second voice grumbled, clearly annoyed with 'Derek'.
"We're illegally taking humans from their city, if any of the citizens know we're building an army full of mind washed humans there'd be a rebellion." Derek argued.

Damian frowned and we shared a confused look before tuning into the conversation again.
"Technically it's not illegal if the kings telling us to do it. We're only doing what he told us to." The second voice shrugged.
"Whatever, let's get these humans to the farm and get home."
"Finally, something we can agree on." They glares at eachother momentarily before carrying on with whatever.

"Well, at least we know what he's up to now." I whispered, expertly sliding down the tree.
"We have to get home and tell the others." Damian whispered back, landing beside me.
I nodded and we rushed back to the house, barely pausing to take a breath so we could get back faster.

We burst through the door simultaneously and paused to take a couple deep breaths.
"Are you guys ok?" Ember asked, raising an eyebrow.
"King.... Human farm.... Brain washing....... Army....." Damian puffed out, bending over to catch his breath.
"Huh? Guys breathe and then speak." She grumbled, patting our backs in an attempt to help.
"Where's Tsuki?" I breathed, my eyes roaming the room.
"With Skye, feeding the pegasus."
"We'll wait for her."

Ember nodded and us both some cups of water while we waited for Tsuki to get back inside.
Luckily we didn't have to wait very long before she trotted back inside, grinning evilly, until she saw our faces.
"What happened?"
"Well...... while we were walking we heard some guys talking, naturally we hid, anywho they were saying stuff about taking humans and brain washing them for the king to have his own brainwashed army. We're not really sure on any of the other details because after that they walked away to go to whatever farm they have. If I had to guess they even had some people with them." I took a deep breath and watched everybody's faces.

"Dang.... We need to check this out. You know what direction they went right?" Tsuki asked strategically.
"Better yet, I can use a spell to track them down." I grinned, happy to have something to do.
"Then let's get moving, the faster we find this place the faster we can be done."
"inuestigandum homo." I whispered, following the faint trail my spell created to find the men.

A/N Ik the whole thing is kinda lame but I promise it's building towards the climax like I planned -kinda. Anywho, there's probably only going to be like 20 chapters and an epilogue. It's funny how I already have a plan for the epilogue and for chapter 17 or 18 but no idea what I'm doing rn.... Oof 😅