Aurora

13

Arrabella.

fourteen

It was my fourteenth birthday today, and I most definitely wasn't celebrating it.

I grunted as I blocked a magical attack that was coming my way.

"Tell me again why you, Claire, and I were sent to the battlefront again!" Acira exclaimed as she ducked away from a sword, punching the wielder in the face and knocking them away. Her back was against mine and we were both struggling to hold our ground.

"Because we're the ones with the most magic. We're powerful, Acira. I thought you realized that." I breathed as I threw my sword at a group of people that advanced on us.

"This is kind of difficult to deal with though, and I've already exhausted all of my magic." She gasped as she got hit by an attack, knocking her far away from me.

"Acira!" I yelled as I slashed people out of my way. I grunted as a hit connected with my side, my breath leaving me. I swung a wide arc of magic forward, trying to hit anyone within reach.

"Arra! Where's Acira?" I heard Claire yell to me. I felt claws dig into my shoulder and I cried out, falling to my knees. Looking over my shoulder, I saw an unseelie faerie digging her long nails into me. Twisting my sword around, I jabbed it at her, managing to get one of her clawed hands out of me.

"S-she got knocked away from me." I called back, gasping for breath as I stood up straight. "She's run out of magic."

"Shit!" I heard her curse. "Darmarie is going to kill me!"

"Kill you? How about you don't actually die first!" I yelled at her.

"Gods I hate faeries! They won't. Stay. Down!" Claire screamed as she hit someone over and over again.
Suddenly my heart stopped, filling me with dread.

Oh no.

"Acira!" I screamed, slashing furiously at the enemies in front of me, trying to find her.

And then I saw her being lifted into the air by two fae men. They held her unconscious body like trash.

"ACIRA!" The scream ripped through my throat in the worst way possible as I took one of my swords and threw it at them. It connected with one of the men, slicing his wings clear off. I watched him fall all the way to the ground, angrier than ever. I created another sword from scratch before throwing it at them, missing by a hair.

I cursed, creating more of them and throwing it at them, but each one missed every time.

"Arra, stop!" Claire yelled at me. I completely ignored her as I threw another. And another.

"Stop! You'll hit Acira!" Claire screamed as she grabbed me by the shoulders, throwing me to the ground. She got on top of me, holding me down. I struggled to get free, watching Acira get smaller and smaller the farther she was taken away.

"Get off of me! I can see her right there! If you'd just let me-"

"Arra, stop! You can't do anything anymore!" She screamed into my face, picking me up and slamming me down onto the ground. "Just look around you, they're all gone. Acira was what they came for." She whispered as she let me go, getting off of me in the process.

I continued to lay there, defeated and angry.

"Are you going to get up?" Claire said, tapping my arm with her foot. I looked at her, almost ready to cry. "Suck it up you wimp, we've still got two days here. We can deal with Acira when we get home." She looked away, shrugging.