The Sixth Child

Prologue

Eliana stared at her friend in shock.

"You want to do what?!" She hissed, keeping her voice low lest anyone hear them.

"I want to get you the Hell out of here." He hissed back.

"Navaoru. You'll get us both killed. To be completely honest, I don't care if I die but I do care if you die. Besides, how would you get me out of these?" She said raising her arm to better display the chains that kept her shackled to the icy stone wall.

"I'll freeze them off." He said as if that were the most obvious thing in the Abyssal Plains.

"Oh yeah? And risk freezing my wrists along with them? You haven't learnt to control it properly and I don't have my fire to protect me anymore."

It was true, her Master -his older brother- had taken away all her energy. Though he had to do the ritual again every 6 months or else her powers would start to come back, albeit very slowly. Eliana thought for a moment then realised: it had been 6 months. Six months to the exact day since he had last taken her energy. Was that why he was doing this now?

Navaoru sighed. "I'll be as careful as I can be."

"Somehow that's not very reassuring. I trust you with my life Ruru, I really do. But I'd rather not risk this, especially considering how likely it is that we'll get caught. And if we get caught he'll kill you. You know he'd kill you. And he'd keep me alive and use me just because he can. Because he knows that's a worse punishment for me than death. So, please. Don't. I want to get out but not if it means you'll get hurt or worse." Tears began to stream down her cheeks, the mere thought of anything happening to him was worse than anything she'd experienced with her Master.

Navaoru sighed and slowly reached forwards then, when she didn't flinch away from his outstretched hand, began to gently wipe away her tears.

"I'll be Ok El. We just need to get you out." He smiled softly at her, trying to be as reassuring as possible despite being very aware of the risks.

She had always loved that smile, even before she had been sold off by her Father to be a sex slave for his brother. Now that smile was infinitely more precious to her, especially considering it was fairly likely that her Master would hurt or kill his brother solely to hurt her and she would never be able to see that smile again.

She sighed and shook her head, trying to rid herself of the thoughts that plagued her.

"El? Are you Ok?" He asked, quickly moving his hand away.

She looked up to see Navaoru staring at her, crystal blue eyes filled with worry.

She smiled weakly, "I'm not sure you'd like the answer to that question."

He frowned. "What's wrong El? Besides... This." He gestured to the cell they were in.

"Well 'this' is exactly what's wrong. And you shouldn't still be in here. A guard could come in any second and if they saw you here..." She trailed off, not wanting to voice the horrors that would await them if they were caught together.

The whole castle knew they were close, they had been since they were children, but they still expected the two to remain apart. Or rather, they assumed that the two wouldn't be stupid enough to risk the consequences of talking. Of course, they were wrong.

Navaoru simply couldn't stay away. He'd tried at first but had found the thought of his beloved being completely alone with her thoughts after the horrors he knew she'd be experiencing to be... Less than pleasant.

Eliana had been terrified when he'd first visited, half because she was worried he was an illusion created by her Master and half because if he wasn't then they could get caught and he would be killed or tortured beyond repair. It didn't matter that he was second in line to inherit his father's land. If anything that just made him more expendable. He wasn't the heir so he didn't matter. Or at least, not to his father. He'd always matter to her. Though she wasn't sure he should, not in the way that he did anyway. Some demons thought that the species was incapable of experiencing love, Eliana thought -knew- they were wrong.