Flashback intercut with battle 💌 Bea's POV
She couldn't hear anything but the ringing.
The world was smoke and blood and shouting voices drowned by the roar of chaos. Fire danced along the ruined barricades. Screams pierced through the cracks. She tasted metal, dust, fury.
And somewhere, far off — Hugo's voice, yelling her name.
"BEA!"
But she couldn't get up.
Her knees hit the ground, hard. Her chest burned. Her bow was gone, ripped from her in the blast. Her quiver lay shattered behind a wall of flame. The sharp edge of pain curled around her side, where something had sliced through her jacket.
She was losing. She was done.
She blinked against the smoke, vision blurring — and that's when it hit her.
Not a sound. Not a face.
But a memory.
Lanterns.
Music.
Her bare feet on the stone floor of the Iron Lion's hall.
His hand in hers.
Nico's voice, low, teasing, reverent. "You look beautiful."
The ghost of that night swirled around her, unreal and golden. The way the candlelight flickered against stone. The warmth in her chest when she laughed. The way he had stared at her like she was the only real thing in the whole world.
'Now it's not a dream. It's war. And I'm terrified.'
'Good. Means we're still human.'
She closed her eyes for one second — just one — and felt his hand on her waist again. The whisper of fabric as he spun her clumsily through the hall. The way she didn't feel broken in his arms. The way she felt like Bea again.
Not a warrior. Not a weapon. Just... a girl dancing.
And then, she opened her eyes.
Amber burned.
She rolled onto her side, ignoring the scream in her ribs, dragging herself through the gravel until her hand closed around something metal — a jagged arrowhead, still smoking.
No bow? Fine. She'd throw it if she had to.
She had to.
Not for the war. Not even for the cause.
But because someone had once held her hand and reminded her she still had a soul.
And if she had to fight her way back to that moment, to that boy, a hundred times over?
She would.
YOU ARE READING
𝐖𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐘, 𝖺 𝗀𝗅𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋𝗌 𝖺𝗅𝖻𝗎𝗆
General Fiction𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦; 𝗚𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 got me falling apart 𝗕𝗘𝗔, 𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗛𝗢, 𝗙𝗥𝗬𝗣𝗔𝗡, 𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗦 stealing my heart 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗧, 𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗬 you make me howl at the moon 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗔, 𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗞𝗬 you're the finest fish in this lag...
