Anya

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

   Anya still had not moved from the spot, she was barely holding it together but she had not moved. She was scared to move. What if another demon came out of nowhere? What if it attacked her while she was not with Dimitri? She would never be able to defend herself if Dimitri was not there.

   Those demons would slice – quite literally – through any amount of the King’s guards, only Dimitri was capable enough to save her.

      Another stricken thought attacked her. What has happened to those seventy-five people her grandfather sent to Anceps? Would they all be dead? Her knees buckled and she felt like the ground was turning in circles. If this is what two of them could do, what about hundreds? The guilt hit her like a heavy tree to the stomach. She had condemned seventy-five people to death. How could she live with that?

   “Hey, careful,” Dimitri muttered as he managed to catch her before she fell. He kept hold of her as she buried her face in his chest. She just wanted to escape from the world but she knew that she couldn’t. She did not know what to think.

   “Where is Darya?” Anya asked although her words were muffled by Dimitri’s chest. She knew that something had happened to Darya but she hoped it was not anything too serious. When Dimitri shouted at her to run she was too stunned to respond to his command unlike her friend.

   He had just come out of nowhere and it took her by surprise so she did not see anything that was behind her and she did not dare face it. Although because she had not heard Darya, she hoped that it meant that she had just carried on running and they would catch up to her soon.

   Darya was not even twenty years old yet, she should not be out in the open like this with such dangerous threats around. Only last week they were scared of being attacked by the King’s Guards and now they did not even seem important to Anya.

   Despite all of that, Darya had a good head on her shoulders so if she does see any threat she will hopefully be able to dodge them pretty quickly.

      Dimitri gulped. He was holding Anya up but he was not looking at her. He was staring at Darya on the ground whilst trying to work out how to tell Anya that her best friend had died – because of him as well.

   The only silver lining in the whole miserable affair was that Anya was too shocked to run as well. He was fast but he would never have got to Anya before the demon did. Knowing that Anya was still physically okay was more than enough for him to be grateful. Sure, he did not want Anya to suffer in any way but he knows what it feels like to lose someone you are close to and so he may be able to help her through this.

   It was going to be a long, enduring battle but she was strong, he knew she would get through this.

   “Anya,” he whispered into her ear. He took a moment’s pause, not wanting to ruin her life but knowing that nobody else could do it. “Anya, Darya was killed.”

   Anya took a few wobbly steps away from him, shaking her head at the same time. She could not believe it. She did not want to listen to him. She was only speaking to her moments ago, how could she have died? It wasn’t possible, she kept repeating it in her head but it was not convincing enough.

   She saw that Dimitri was watching something behind her and she knew deep down that it would be the one thing she never wanted to see. She closed her eyes and with slow, shaky steps began to turn around to face what Dimitri had been staring at.

   When she opened them, the loudest, most instinctive cry left Anya’s lips as she ran towards her best friend. Collapsing at her body, she did not know what to do.