Celestial Heart (A Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 19: C'est la Vie

Winter's POV

The world came back into focus gradually, the same way it went out of focus what felt like just a few minutes ago. Groggy, uncertain of what had happened, of where I was, I tried to press a hand to my throbbing temple, hissing a moan from between clenched teeth. Only, my hands were bound behind my back, so the effort was useless.

The sharp memory of Candor's scream tore through my consciousness, then, and I bolted upright, my breathing erratic, chest heaving, wide eyes searching for a flash of bright green hair, of cold, calculating eyes. 

He wasn't here. 

Actually, I didn't know where here was, so there was that to consider.

I shifted, drawing my legs up beneath me, trying to ignore the pounding thrumming through my skull. I hadn't hit my head, so I guess this is what the after-effects of basically drowning were like. Great. I probably had internal bleeding or something.

I started sorting through my memories, wanting to know the last I'd experienced. There was Juvia and Sol, Lucy kidnapped, me getting kidnapped, and... Candor, being turned into stone.

Oh God. Candor, turned into stone. Did I imagine that? Oh God, please tell that was just some hallucination brought on by the fact that I literally had no oxygen getting to my brain. Please. That kid cannot... I refuse to believe that he's...

I didn't cry, because Badass Winter didn't cry. But mostly because I didn't have a free hand to wipe away my frustrated tears and that would be a hassle for me.

Oh, and on top of that, my chest ached like a bitch, more so than my head, and I was just mentally cursing out Juvia and Sol and the whole goddamn guild of Phantom Lord before I figured out that I wasn't alone in my apparent cell.

Luce was here, too. Lucky me. My sister got kidnapped, and when I attempted to save her, I got locked up with her instead. I should've gotten one hell of a medal for my stupidity.

"Yo, Luce," I mumbled, scooting closer to her so that I could gently nudge her side with my foot. She remained unresponsive. I sighed. She made me evil sometimes, she really did. Mumbling under my breath, I rammed my heel into her spine, to which she promptly shot up, a yowl ripping from her lips.

While I sat back, wriggling my wrists, trying to undo the fancy knot holding them together, I watched as Lucy collapsed back to her knees, morosely rubbing at her now-bruised back, shooting quite the death look at me. I shrugged, unapologetic, and asked, "Any idea where we are? Or why we were captured? Cause I'm at a loss."

She forgot about her back. "Phantom Lord!" she gasped, looking around the cell with new eyes. 

"I gathered that," I sighed. This was bad. I couldn't even keep myself focused on the situation at hand. My thoughts kept drifting to Candor. I'd left him in the streets, by himself, possibly transformed into a garden sculpture. He may not have liked me much, but he probably trusted me to make sure he wouldn't be shoved off to a topiary garden. "So you're about as useful as I am then."

"Hey!"

"Oh, you're awake, after all, Miss Lucy Heartfilia. And Miss Lucy Heartfilia Number Two."

Lucy and I jerked back as the door slammed open and in walked... a clown. No, literally, my first reaction was that we'd really been kidnapped by circus performers. The guy was reasonably tall and decked out in a pair of bat wings and a pointed hat. So, not circus. More like a cult nabbed us.

"I'm Phantom Lord's guildmaster, Jose," he said, by way of an introduction. Or an explanation. It more or less worked as both.

Hearing his name, though, my blood ran cold again. Jose... I'd known he was the head of Phantom Lord; it's all anyone had been talking about since the attack on the guild. But I'd thought the name sounded familiar even before that, and it wasn't the fact that Lucy and I had briedly considerd joining Phantom Lord before we ran into Natsu.