traidora

Chapter 6

Raelyn

I open my eyes and expect to see the gold stars that I stuck to the roof of my bedroom above the fighting ring like I do every morning. Except now I only see a clean white roof, no peeling paint like mine.

I don't move, fighting my survival instinct of jumping up and fighting whoever is in the room.

Instead I quickly close my eyes again.

The room smells of rubbing alcohol and a faint scent of bandages. There's a faint beeping sound coming from my left and I can hear people muttering.

"I can't believe you knocked her out!" A male voice says and I recognise the husky sound from the man that stopped me from killing the two men that tried to drug me.

"It didn't really look like you had it under control, Axis." A girl says, sounding exasperated, "Zaid, I thought you said you calmed him down!"

"I lied." A new voice says and there's a frustrated sigh.

"She's going to think I did it." The guy – Axis – says, sounding grumpy, "I would have talked her out of killing them."

"Oh, did you think she was going to have mercy on the men that tried to drug her and do Gods knows what to?" The girl says, "Did you think if you said, 'pretty please' that she'd drop to her knees and apologise for even laying a finger on them when you wanted them kept alive?"

"Well obviously not," Axis scoffs, "I would never have said 'pretty please'. I would have told her that I needed them alive."

"Right. And when she asked 'why' would you have told her it was because of the-"

"Good morning sleepy head." The new boy – Zaid – says right beside my bed and my chest heaves, the only sign of shock I show.

I open one of my eyes and look at the man towering over my body. He has dark brown hair, the curls falling down to just above his shoulders. He's got dark blue eyes that are studying me.

Axis

My body relaxes when Zaid says she's awake and I didn't realise how tense I was. There was a period of time when the doctor didn't know if she'd make it because of the blood she'd lost from her leg and I felt horrible.

She did look like she had it covered and with the power she wielded in that fight, I had no concerns that she would have been able to heal herself. But in the time that we had secured the two men and helped the two girls in the van, she'd already lost a lot of blood.

And Zaid said not to, but I couldn't help but blame myself for the amount of blood she had lost in the time we cleaned up the mess.

I've killed a lot of people, but I didn't want to add an innocent red head to my list of names. Of course, she wasn't innocent. Even though she used magic on me and not her fists, the way she'd punched the man that spiked her, I knew I'd seen her before.

I just couldn't remember when.

But the moment the doctor placed an oxygen mask over her face, I knew who she was. Who would have thought that I'd see the little fighter, Rave, twice in one night. Wasn't I just the luckiest man.

I walk to her side and she sits up, glaring at me. She doesn't say anything and I almost wish she'd start yelling at me. She just leans against the three pillows on the bed and stares at the three of us. Waiting.

"I'm Axis." I say, putting my hand toward her and breaking the silence.

She looks down at my hand and seems to think it over for a moment before she lifts her hand up to shake mine. Just as her fingers go to brush against mine she freezes. Well, jerks back.