Exquisite Pain (Garmau)

Chapter 46 Finding Him

She's a mess of gorgeous and chaos, and you can see it in her eyes.
~Unknown
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(Aphmau's POV)

It was midnight.

I had gotten as many innocent families as I could to leave.

And then I heard an explosion.

My eyes darted towards the sound that had screams following it.

I saw shadow knights storming in, slaughtering people left and right. Those who weren't murdering were exploding things and setting buildings on fire.

"Go!" I shouted to the family I was ushering. I ran towards the fight and knew that they wouldn't recognise me because my head was completely covered besides my eyes. I elbowed one of them hard enough to knock him out, and I pushed through the masses. They were blocking the castle.

"Miss, you can't go i-" I pushed the guard out of the way and stormed inside.

"Do your job and don't let them in!" I shouted.

"Dark one? What are you doing here?!" Garte was speed running down the hallway in his battle armour. Zianna was rushing beside him.

"That is nothing of your concern, but you are in danger."

"I am going out and fighting for my kingdom-" I grabbed his chainmail and pulled him closer.

"You and I both know that you cannot win this, now I can save your sorry ass, or you can go out there and die in vain."

"What do you have planned?"

"I'm taking your family to my camp, and you will be put into a jail there. Now it's that, or die."

"I'd sooner die than turn over to the rebels," he growled and pushed passed me. I watched as he left. I let out a sigh, knowing he would die.

"Zianna....I can take you to a safe place, and you can live with your sons and things can be fine."

"Aphmau, I love you like you were my own, and I want you to have a happy life...but I have to fight. This is my kingdom and I'm dedicated to it."

She quietly left, and I watched her leave. I took a second and then bolted to find Garroth's cell.

"Where do you think you're going?" I felt someone grab my wrist and stop me in my tracks.

"Zane..." I growled.

"Look, I am very loyal to the Shadow Lord, and you've already screwed up his plans enough, so just imagine how happy he'll be with me when I bring the infamous daughter home."

"You knew that this was going to happen, and yet, you still went through with this?! You didn't try and stop the destruction of your own home?!"

"This place is dead to me like everyone in it."

I closed my eyes and let my wings come out. I lit my hands on fire, and Zane let go while hissing. I started to run away, but he started chasing after me. He lunged himself towards me, and managed to tackle me on the ground. I glared at him and started to use some smoke. It slowly made it's way around his neck and started to enter his mouth, filling his lungs. He grew limp as he coughed and tried to stop the smoke. I pushed him off and allowed the smoke to torture him while I got a head start.

I could sense him barely clinging onto life, so I released my grasp and found the faulty wall to Garroth's dungeon.

"SOMEONE! ANYONE!" I heard Garroth shouting, and I followed the sound of his voice. I got to his cell and sensed the magical aura disbanding around the cell.

"GARROTH!" I shouted, trying to be louder than the deafening sound of rocks trembling and explosions above us.

"APHMAU?!"

I ran over and grabbed the bars, focusing on what little of the spell there was left. I broke the bars, and Garroth rushed out, wrapping his arms around me.

"Aphmau...." I barely heard him whisper.

"Very clever..." I heard a chuckle. I groaned and pulled out of Garroth's grasp to turn and see Zane.

"I already beat you."

"And yet I'm still alive, no dear, you're going to have to finish me off in order to win."

He charged towards me, and I was about to fight, but I was pushed out of the way. I fell onto the ground and looked up to see Zane gripping the neck of Garroth.

"Oh you have no idea how long I have wanted to do this, dear brother," Zane sneered.

"Garroth!" I felt panic running through my veins.

"You see, I made you think that I was weaker than I really was. So I want to see you try your hardest to try and stop me, see how weak you are."

I shot my most powerful blasts of fire and wind, to which Zane simply waved off as if the attacks were pesky bugs.

I tried.

I tried so hard to try and defeat him, but eventually, I fell onto my knees and felt tears building. I heard an evil laugh, and wheezing.

I closed my eyes, breathing in and out slowly. I focused on my pain, and I felt the shadows coming to comfort me.

(Garroth's POV)

I looked over and saw her in sort of a meditative stance. I tried to use my own powers, but I hadn't used them in so long that I was rusty, and weak.

Shadows in the room began to swarm to her, and she lifted her head.

Her eyes glowed a ghostly white, bright tears streaming down her face, and she looked angry beyond belief. The wind whipped also as shadows began to circle around her in a frenzy of darkness.

"Let. Him. Go." Her voice was deadly, and I felt Zane's trembling heartbeat. He was terrified for his life. As she let out a scream, the shadows grabbed Zane and held him in the air, slowly wrapping around him and he let out blood curdling shrieks.

"Aphmau! Stop!" I yelled. Her raised hands fell limp to her side, her eyes no longer glowed, and Zane dropped to the ground. He was still breathing, but he was unconscious. I looked at Aphmau and rushed to her side as she looked like she was about to collapse. I caught her just before she dropped, and held her close to me. "You did good," I whispered, "everything's going to be okay."

I picked her up and made my way up the stairs. I froze in place when I realised that up on the surface wasn't nearly as safe as where we were. But when Zane woke, it would be just as dangerous anywhere.

I went through the different scenarios in my head.

They all ended in death.

A/N Ending here because if I keep going then this chapter would eventually be twice as long, and I like to try and keep all of the chapters roughly the same length. Also holy cow, I abandoned this book and kind of forgot about it....yikes, sorry. But I had this written and I don't know why I didn't post it. Here it is. I love you all.