Silent But Deadly

Chapter Four ~Jewel~

  Something was shaking me. I wanted to lean up and punch it away. I wanted to be safe, to stay in my wonderful dream. But, I knew it was only K trying to wake me up. I could tell by the way she shook me. She made me wake up every day at home. Ah, sweet home.

"What?" I asked. My voice seemed loud in the quiet morning.

"Shh. Someone's coming!" K whispered. I guess she noticed my voice too.

"Get ready?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"Yes. I think it might be the THOTBT." How did she know that? I've only dreamt about them once. They told me who they were, that's how I knew. The Hunters of the Black Table.

"Where did you learn that?" I asked.

"From a book," she answered too simply for my liking.

  She stood up to go outside and quench the fire. I shook my head and tried to comb through my mangled curly hair. It was a pretty blond hue and so was K's. I got it smooth enough and started to take down the tent and place parts of it into our packs. I grabbed the leftover nuts and nine birds and packed them carefully in a cloth that Sue had found for me from who-knows-where. I looked back at our camp one more time before turning my back on it and following my older-by-one-minute sister.

  I took out my knife and K took out her sword. We stood poised for action. We heard more rustling. We turned toward the noise to see the THOTBT. I gasped and my eyes widened. The leader turned his head toward us and smiled. My brain and my conscience and all of the little voices went berserk.

  What do I do? Run? Fight? Surrender? Sacrifice?

  They started plotting escape routes: what the best way would be. All of this happened in a course of thirty seconds.

"Hey there, girls. I knew that godmother of yours would want you to go to the palace when you became this old. We know what you have, and you know what we want. Now... What do we want?" There it was. The cat and mouse game. I smirked.

"These?" I asked, pulling out my fire necklace. His eyes widened. Oh, crap. Bad mistake. I thought he knew. I peeked at Katy, who was furious. I swallowed.

  He made a hand motion and we were instantly surrounded by the rest of the knights. They put my hands behind my back and held them there.

"That's not exactly what I wanted, but I'll take that too," he said. I felt sick. Then I remembered that I had powers. I smirked.

"What is it you really want?" I asked. Cocky... and dangerous. He smirked back.

"You really don't know, do you?" I saw K squirm around and they knocked her upside the head. K! She fell unconscious and fell to the ground. I didn't squirm, but a tear fell out of my eye. At least she didn't have to watch. I hung my head.

"Sorry about your sister, we don't deal with misbehavior." I looked up at him, right in the eyes. I wanted to let him know that he couldn't do this. Not to my sister. Not to anyone. Not ever.

"You think you can do this to us? To my sister? You're wrong," I growled. The birds stopped singing and the knights were no longer smirking, not even the idiot in front of me. "I am stronger than all of you combined." He came up to me and stared me straight in the eyes.

I saw my reflection for the first time. There were flames in my eyes and my face was starting to turn a reddish color. I was becoming a flame. A flame that wold kill all of these idiots. Hopefully.

"You listen to me! You will not underestimate me or you will surely regret it!" he said, and slapped me. That was the last straw.

  I felt my hands catch fire and the knights behind me screamed in terror. I clawed the leader's face and he fell to the ground, screaming in agony. I ran over to the knights holding my sister and touched their arms, almost burning their sleeves to shreds. I grabbed one guy's arm and threw him to the ground. Then, my hope disappeared completely. The fire wouldn't go away. I couldn't grab my sister and run.

  She came to her senses and her eyelids fluttered open. I sighed and quickly rushed to tell her.

"Get up! Run! I'll hold them off! Ru-"

  I was thrown on the ground by one of the knights that I forgot about. He pinned me to the ground. He pulled my knife out of my belt and held it to my throat. My fire stopped completely.

"I got her!" he yelled to the leader. The leader walked over to me and I could see the full effect of my scratch. His eye was swollen shut and he was holding a shirt to his cheek. The whole side of his face was burnt.

"Just cut an artery and leave her there to die," he said simply. There was no emotion on his face.

"NO!" I heard K scream.

  Let me die quickly, I prayed. I closed my eyes and a tear ran down my face.

"NO! NO!" she kept screaming.

  Just shut up before they hurt you! Please...

"Shut up, girl! Before I knock you out again," one of the knights said.

  Just do it already! I wanted to scream.

  I closed my eyes and waited for the cut. The knife left my throat and I felt it cut across my wrist. I screamed out in agony. I wanted to hold it in for Katy. But I couldn't. I hoped she would stay strong.

  The world started to blackout. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't get any oxygen in my lungs. I could feel my blood just washing out of my wrist. Then, all went black.

"Is she okay?"

"She looks okay... Oh, she's coming."

"There she is."

  I opened my eyes to see two girls standing over me. One looked like a witch, the other looked like a peasant. Where was I?

"Hey there," the peasant greeted me. I blinked a couple times.

"Hi," I said.

  I looked down at my wrist. It was now bandaged. Where was I? It was the only thing that was on my mind. I looked around the room. It was like it was from a book. The picture was vivid in my mind. This was a witch's room. I was in the palace.