Truth Within Lies, A Dark Romance (completed)

Ch. 5 Commander

Everything was changing drastically and quickly. None of us could really keep up with the chaos that was Destroyer, or even fathom what he was thinking. He was angry at Damien for hiding her, angry at Alexander for trying to take her, angry at me for letting her escape, and angry at himself for not going after her. He was just a giant ball of hate that sethed unable or unwilling to take out all his frustration on those directly responsible.

He knew exactly where she was, exactly how to find her, but he let her be. Instead he had pulled the strings of his puppets on the council, swaying the vote to allow him to inspect the academy. They weren't ready to give them up and he wasn't ready to break his toy to bring them down. It was like he knew she needed time, like he cared just enough to let her heal, to let her find her way back to him. I didn't understand this infatuation with the girl that wouldn't stay dead. I couldn't comprehend why. He wasn't just evil he was the darkness, the thing from which all that is evil and dark comes from he doesn't have connections.

The silent treatment was breaking me just as much as Damien's sick sense of humor was. Destroyer had all but abandoned us preferring to bide his time in the eclipse of darkness rather than on the ships. I thought at first it was a good thing. Every day of him not being here meant one more day that I wasn't dead. Though I couldn't say I didn't think everyday how much better death would be. 'No.' I shook off the thought. Aurora was still out there, everyday in torment from that immense loss. If she could hold on I could too. There was decent in the ranks amongst the men who seemed amused that Damien was definitely not Destroyer. They took advantage of this doing what they wanted, and it showed. First it was just a few troops lost, then an army, a battalion, a fleet until the dragons had crippled those Damien oversaw. I couldn't say I was surprised, not at the beginning and definitely not when the men came back cursing a witch that commanded the dragons gold fleet. (They were known by colors not name). I couldn't help but chuckle, I knew who it was. I was glad she found something to fight for, even if it meant she was ripping through our armies. It was amusing to me, this little girl killing men. I guess she wasn't little anymore, she had to be in her early to mid twenties.

Alas this had thoroughly brought Destroyer to the brink. He rewrote the dragon treaties himself. A seemingly desperate move to drive her out. To push her toward him. Yet it wasn't desperate, it was methodically calculated, something he had intended from the beginning. I don't know why the council ever agreed, they seemed to value themselves more than their own people. It made me hate them. This was what he wanted her to see. He wanted her to see that the greater good she served was more than willing to do to protect themselves. He wanted her to see that they were the monsters not him. In his defense it was quite brilliant. We both knew she would protect innocent lives no matter what. That she would sacrifice herself for them. He could use that to control her, to make her serve him.

Destroyer stalked his prey from the shadows watching her, observing her every action, every movement. This wasn't the first time he sought to size her up. It was like he was waiting for her to be ready. Hidden out of sight by the terrain and the shadows it was easy to go unnoticed amongst the chaos. This was the creature that was decimating his forces, Aurora, the broken child, the girl that wouldn't stay dead.

He watched her order her men off world. She was calm, sure of herself in every action, every movement. The most elite of the elite trying desperately to keep their mission going without support. Destroyer's lips folded in dismay, never having understood the point of protecting the so-called greater good. They were weak, pathetic creatures that were nothing more than an annoying noise dotted about the universe.

"Children." He scoffed to himself in disgust. They weren't important, he'd let them go.

They were indeed just children, drafted by the council to defend their worlds from the encroaching darkness. The oldest amongst them in their twenties the youngest no more than twelve or thirteen. They were all alone now. No support, no help, just Aurora and her commanders holding them together. Maybe that's why she still fought us with such ferocity, she couldn't bear to lose anyone else. To be helpless, to do nothing. I never did understand why he didn't just wipe them all out and take her. He had the ability to do so.