Thirteen Rings

Chapter Fourteen

"What in the name of the Gods took you so long?" Sylvia threw her arms around Darius, choking the air out of his lungs.

"I missed you too." He coughed, returning her embrace. "And it's a long story, we were in a dungeon for about a week."

"Idiots." She sighed, releasing him from her grasp and turning to Lyria. "How did you two end up there?"

"The city was closed off." Lyria began, pulling her close. "A man helped us find our way inside but betrayed us to the guards, we got arrested, met these two," motioning towards Zoelle and Morsho, "killed Ael and now we're back with the Ring."

"Ael?"

"My sister." Zoelle answered, offering her hand to the confused woman. "She had me imprisoned and claimed the Ring for herself."

"So you're-"

"Zoelle, yes." Smiling, she shook her hand enthusiastically. "Great to meet you, these two seem to hold you in such a high regard."

"Shut up." Darius sighed, rolling his eyes. "We still haven't decided if we should keep you around us or not."

"You're still treating me like I don't have a choice in the matter." She pouted.

"Do you want to stay with us?"

"Yes."

"Then you have to let us decide if we want you to stay."

"You didn't have this debate about Morsho." She glared angrily at them, her brows furrowing in frustration. "Why am I any different?"

"Because you're an asshole." Darius chuckled to himself, relishing in her discomfort. "But mainly because you used to be a Bearer."

"You're a Bearer now too." She argued, smiling lightly at the shocked expression on Sylvia's face.

"I'm sorry, what did she just say?" She chimed in, removing herself from Lyria's arms.

"He used the Ring, dear." Zoelle clarified, a sly grin spreading across her face.

"Bitch." Darius breathed into the awkward silence as his sibling attempted to wrap her mind around the new information.

"What the fuck do you think you're playing at?" She spat at him, striding up to her brother. "That wasn't part of the plan!"

"Incase you didn't realise, nothing went according to plan."

"I thought we all agreed that none of us would use the Rings once we had them?"

"If you had been there you'd have seen for yourself there was no other option." Lyria chimed in, attempting to soothe her rage.

"No." She scoffed. "If I was there, things would have gone a hell of alot smoother."

"You can't know that." Darius argued, his confidence wavering beneath her furious glare.

"Yes I can. Everytime I helped with something like this it always ended up going pretty well, but no, you had to push me to the side to 'keep me safe' when I could have been helping you from the very start!"

"We agreed it would have been better for you to stay here."

"Not that you gave me much choice in the matter."

"Sylvia." Lyria whispered, attempting to pull her towards her. "We did what we thought was right."

"Well, I'm telling you that what you thought was right, was wrong." Turning from them, she stormed off into the house, slamming the door behind her.