It's Not Magic

Twenty-Three

Braelyn stood across from me, her blue eyes shooting daggers. They hadn't left me since she got here, and her point of visiting was clearly known. She was here to test me, to see if I was stable, if I was any use to her.

"What happened today?" Was the first thing she'd screamed at Kane when she'd walked through the door.

"I don't know what you mean," Kane had replied back calmly, grabbing plates from a cupboard.

"What I mean?" She scoffed, furious. "What happened in Castel?"

Kane acted as if gears clicked in his head. "Oh, Castel. That. Hm, well, there was a bit of a mishap." Standing by the door, I smiled.

"'A mishap?' That was a mishap? How did a mishap end with several of my men in the infirmary with blistering headaches? Half of them can't even talk straight." If she wasn't pissed before, she was certainly pissed now. Her hands had become fists, and her eyebrows were furrowing.

Kane simply shrugged. "It was a pretty awful mishap."

I smiled, trying to hold in the laugh that was threatening to escape.

Braelyn spun towards me, icy daggers shooting from her eyes. "And what's so funny about this?" She growled at me.

My smile instantly disappeared, and I felt myself shrinking back some. "N-nothing," I replied, my voice shaking.

Letting out a slow, ominous breath, Braelyn took a step towards me. "Do you realize what you did today?"

I took a step back, but was only greeted by a hard wall, preventing me from going back any farther. I blinked, the memory of those people flashing behind my eyes. Of course I knew what I did.

"How much damage you caused?" She continued, going on to list other things I knew I had caused. Pain, lots of it. Suffering, plenty enough to make me queasy. Death, enough to make me sick.

"Hain," Kane growled behind her. As Braelyn turned back around, I noticed Kane had come around the counter, and had pulled his gun from the holster, his finger wrapping around the trigger. "That's enough. She gets it."

On either side of him, but closer to Braelyn, Wally and Max looked like they were ready to reach out and strangle the life out of her. I couldn't help but feel my chest swell a little with emotion.

Hain scoffed. "Obviously you've grown an attachment to her. Maybe too much of one, at that," she noted, a drawl in her voice that hinted at something else.

All three of them rose their hands, Kane's holding his gun. "We're her friends," Max informed Braelyn. "And friends defend each other."

From my little corner, I watched as the three men seemed ready to attack at a moment's notice.

Braelyn just chuckled. "All of you have clouded judgement. This is ridiculous."

Wally laughed. "I guess it is a bit ridiculous to someone who doesn't have any friends."

I saw Braelyn's head twist so it was facing Wally. "Ridiculous? Increasingly. Because, Wallace Bray, I understand what it takes to lead an extinct people. It takes power. Can you tell me what your 'friendship' will bring besides hurt and betrayal? Because it will not bring us to a better life. No, if anything she's grown more dangerous because of what you've done to her."

"Dangerous? What the hell? Lilia's not an animal you can tame! And what we've done to her? Do you wanna know what we've done to her, you bitch? We've made her human, or at least showed her that she wasn't alone! If it were up to you, she'd be rotting in high society with all you deadbeats who have no idea what life is really like!" Max fumed, and if it was possible, his fists clenched even tighter.