Guardian

xii. manipulation

Ally looks at everyone in disbelief before holding a determined face. "My sister will be here shortly. She can feel my pain."

"Good thing you're not hurt, princess," the woman, the same woman from the ambush when Lian made an appearance, says, stepping forward while an arrow was drawn back on her bow, pointing directly at Ally. "They're not paying too much attention to you right now."

"Don't you feel the love tonight?" Another woman steps forward, a smirk on her face as her fingertips twinkle with pink sparkles. A small projection comes to her fingertips, showing a faded scene of what she believes is her sister's bedroom and the sheets moving in a certain movement. Then, there's another scene of Zay and Hope kicking their feet in some sparkling waters; soon, Hope just leans over and kisses him softly on the lips, in which he responds to.

Finally, there's a scene of Ally and Austin. In the moment, Ally sees why Austin suddenly stopped to kiss her. There was a sparkling twinkle in his eye before he did so.

Ally glares and gently sets Austin's upper body on the floor as she stands. "And what makes you think I can't defeat you all?"

Annel aims her drawn bow at Ally before smirking. "Try."

In an instant, Ally grabs the drawn bow and kicks the woman in her stomach. Of course, it makes the others release their weapons, but Ally builds a shield around her and Austin. She pushes the fallen weapons away from the scene before dropping the shield.

"I don't know if I should kill you all or turn you in."

"That's something I will decide," a voice says. Ally turns her head to see it's Marie, her face hard with a glare that not even Satan himself can sustain. "I can't kill you without a testimony but I've got something."

With her hands in front of her, Marie's palm release a white flare of wind. Ally watches as all of their bodies release a final scream before their bones stiffen and they're stuck in place.

Once Marie drops her hands, she glares and looks to her sister. "Did you set this up?"

Ally looks at her in shock. "No, I did not."

"You can radiant what the hell they're feeling Ally, and you expect to believe you didn't know about this shit?" Marie growls, walking closer to her sister, not caring that she was only in her undergarments. "First, my daughter's life was in danger and now my village's was faced with the same danger! This is why I keep our villages separate!"

Ally's about to argue back before Austin grunts again. She remembers he was shot with an arrow and drops to his side. "Can't we discuss this later? He needs medical aid."

"Just heal him. You have a healing ability."

"I-I'd rather she not..." Austin grunts, squeezing his eyes in pain. "That hurts worse than the arrow."

Marie deadpans. "So you'd rather bleed out, because all of the workers of the pharmacy are, or were, tending to the people of your village and no one's alerted me about this, so something tells me they're not conscious."

Austin groans and squeezes his eyes shut. "Let's go."

Marie elevates Austin, freaking him out the fullest, and the three of them walk back to their room.

Ally fishes the key she was given from out of her gown's pocket and opens the door. She gives the room a look over before saying to Marie, "Place him on the bed."

Marie does as she's instructed and places him softly on the bed. She then crawls herself into the half circled bed and goes to look at his wound. "I'm gonna just rip this out of you. So it's going to hurt." She rips his shirt open close to where the arrow is.