Kaidon Cross, top-notch assassin of The Order of the Black Knights, had only one mission in his life, exact revenge for the death of his mother until he met the innocent Alice Reed, and his priorities changed to keeping her safe from the clutches of...
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"You have to do it, Lily!" A strange woman held my hands in hers and was referring to me by mom's name.
"I can't! It's- it's too cruel." I found words flowing out of my mouth even though I couldn't understand what was going on.
"I don't care! Do it now, or my death will be in vain!" The woman pressed my hand to her chest and then tightly gripped my wrist. I felt something burn inside of me as if something was being pulled in. I can't point my finger on it, but it's painful.
The next moment I was back to the living room of my house, and just like that day, several men in black have barged in the house, and they have their guns pointed at me. I brace myself for the bullets when my vision gets blocked by the broad back of a man, and he looks back at me and smiles, and I know that smile and those turquoise eyes because they have always comforted me in my times of grief. I smile back, but it freezes when a bullet passes through his head, blood splattering over my eyes, and I scream.
I jolted awake, screaming at the top of my lungs. The door flung open, and someone came running in and wrapped me into his arms. I was breathing hard, trying to come back to the present, my eyes drenched with tears. I registered that I was in Kai's home, in his guestroom, and it was him holding me. He was gently stroking my hair, keeping my head slammed against his chest.
My breath shortened. I clenched onto his body like a lifeline. It all felt so real that I could feel shivers run down my body even though I was awake. Somewhere in the room, the ticking of the clock resounded, and the horror of something called 'time' dawned upon me.
Time was ticking. It was flowing with every breath we took, every time we blinked, and every moment we wasted thinking about the future. I was scared as hell. More than my own, I feared for his life. The way he protected me always, standing before me like a shield, no, rather a sharpened sword. I feared that he would get himself killed. But what doesn't kill you in life? Should that fear prevent you from living your moments with the people you like?
If he is my sword, can I be his sheath? Can I protect him in return, or will I end up being just a burden?
As seconds turned to minutes, I felt myself calming and loosening up. He put his hands on both my cheeks, dabbing away my tears with his thumbs, which I didn't realise were still pouring out, and tilted my head up to lock my gaze with his.
"Bad dream?" He asked in a low voice.
I sniffled and nodded.
He placed a soft peck on my lips, then picked me up from the bed, and I clasped my arms around his neck, trying to push away the memories of the nightmare. Perhaps my fear for Kai's life before he left for the mission materialised into that nightmare. I didn't remember when I fell asleep, or when he returned. The last memory in my mind was that of playing Scrabbles with Sey after he lost to me in Chess.
