Clandestine

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I reach as far as I could. Clawing through the air, willing myself to just reach a little bit farther.

Gravity fights against me. But I refuse to let it win. Her claw is right there. Just stretch farther!

Octavia rises higher, and when I should've grabbed her claw- my hand reaches nothing and I'm falling back towards the ground... Well, towards the stairs.

No, I won't fall! 

I shove more air under me but it doesn't bring me higher, if anything it just slows my fall. 

"I'm sorry princess." Xander's voice fills my head, but I couldn't answer him. Not when I'm focused on not slamming into the stone stairs.

My body doesn't hit the air cloud I have waiting for me on the ground though. Instead I land in a pair of arms.

"I'm sorry." Cyrus whispers, bringing us back up the stairs.

I don't say anything, when we reach the top of the stairs and he places me on my feet I shove him away.

He steps away with no comment. I turn away from him only see Xander and Octavia farther up in the sky, making it hard to see Xander at all.

"Please." I beg, even though they were clearly already gone. "Please."

"I'm sorry princess." He says again, but adds, "I love you." 

A sob escapes my lips but I couldn't answer him. Couldn't accept that he was truly leaving. 

My legs give out and I drop to my knees on the hard stone. Tears ran down my cheeks but I couldn't stop them. Couldn't stop the fear running through my body. Couldn't stop the shaking.

Nothing feels right. None of this. That aching in my chest says so. Something bad is going to happen. I can't shake it.

And there's nothing I can do about it.

Xander

"You should rest. We have a days flight ahead of us." Octavia tells me as softly as she could. Ever since we left, my mind has just been on one thing. My princess.

She never answered me when we left, or after for the little bit of time that we would've been able to communicate. She didn't say it back to me the second time. The last thing I told her was 'I love you' before she crumbled in the ground in defeat.

I know leaving her behind was the right thing to do. Even if it meant leaving her with Cyrus. But to see her break down like that... I've never felt so guilty, so horrible for just trying to keep her safe. The second she broke, a little piece in me did too. Because I'm the reason she's hurting. 

I left her behind.

Ever since this afternoon she's had a bad feeling eating at her that something bad was going to happen. I kept brushing it off as her nerves for the ball but I'm starting to think this was the something bad. An attack on our border. 

I know what was going through her head. She thinks I'm not going to make it back. She thinks I'm going to die. 

She may be right. Although I refuse to believe that. Nothing and no one will be able to keep me from going home to my princess.

We have no idea what were flying into right now. Octaiva seems to think it's going to be chaos, according to the feedback she's getting from the other dragons. But we won't know for sure until were in range of them to communicate more.