Ashes to Ashes | ✓

23 || Where Loyalties Lie

"Well then, now that we've all quieted down." Dinah turned to Nova with a flurry of her shimmering midnight blue gown. "Get them to their feet and head down to the Core. It's time to begin."

Felix barely registered the hand clamped around his shoulder, hauling him to his feet. His vision darkened and the room spun, but even through the haze, he could make out Aiko's form. Someone helped her to her feet—Ameris he assumed from the look of his unscarred hands on her arms. She gasped, leaning awkwardly against him to take the weight off her wounded leg. Dinah swept past her with a wicked grin on her lips, trailed closely behind by Nova, who stepped over Mae's tiny, broken body. When they had passed, Aiko met Felix's gaze with a sorrowful look. His heart fluttered and he quickly looked away.

"If the right person makes a request of you in the right way, you are unable to refuse." The words echoed loudly in his mind and numbness settled over his body down to the very tips of his fingers. He let himself be dragged away. I can't trust Dinah, but I can't dismiss the possibility. It was true that there wasn't a single request Aiko had made of him that he had refused. Originally, he thought it was because he cared about her. He thought it was how things were supposed to be. After all, he couldn't recall a time he had ever found himself so intimately attached to another. Even his master was distant and cold, and he didn't have enough memories of his parents to latch onto fondly.

But maybe Aiko had always been toying with him. The notion pushed a thorn deep into his side and his head throbbed painfully. Even if it was true, hesitation still lingered at the back of his mind. Jumping to conclusions would only tear him apart from her, which she didn't need. It would drive them both into a corner, separated from the help the other could provide. Shaky as it was, he clung to the glimmer of hope.

There was no pride in the way she looked at him now, no satisfaction at the painful looks he shot her way. Without her blank in place, she was an open book, and her pages read only of regret. If she had used him in the beginning, he couldn't blame her. He planned to do the same.

He shook his head and focused on taking one step at a time. The red carpets were a monotonous walkway that led him deeper into the castle's halls, drowning him in a sea of red and gold. He had only seen glimpses of the castle, and this section of it was nearly the exact same. Biting his cheek, he steeled himself. We'll sort this weak flame business out later. For now, I need to find some way to get us out of here.

To distract himself from the buzzing chaos of his uncertainty, he stole a quick glance at the party making the journey down to the Core. Two guards trailed at the back of the group, their chests crossed by the golden sash of Ameris's faction and their expressions grim. Niveus guards, at least. Behind Felix, the Furvus guard prodded him forward with a grunt. He obeyed, though he was painfully aware of how sluggish his steps were. Each one he took was like pushing through a thick bog. His legs were heavy and his body ached. It didn't help that he had done nothing but walk for as long as he could remember. It was becoming quite sickening.

Aiko walked across from Felix, leaning heavily on Ameris and wincing with each step that forced her wounded leg to the ground. The arrow stuck out awkwardly from her thigh, but it didn't seem to have dug too deep into her flesh. Though that brought some semblance of relief, it was quickly dashed to pieces as his gaze landed on the cracks that splintered through her skin. Her eyes were glowing with the brilliance of her flame, and her breath fogged with smoke with each slow, pained exhale. His fingers curled tightly into fists. Her short break from the Core's suffocating call seemed to have ended, thrusting her deep into her connection with it.

He gritted his teeth and glanced ahead, where Dinah walked proudly between Nova and the second Furvus guard. Her skirt trailed behind her, a perfect reflection of the night sky beyond the window-lined wall. For someone with so much blood on her hands, she was too beautiful. Too perfect. It was almost as though she was a doll, crafted to be as alluring as possible despite the malice in her eyes and the venom on her tongue. She spoke of murder as though it was nothing more than the usual gossip of court ladies. Even the murder of her husband had only been something for her to scoff at. It turned eyes her way and she basked in the attention with pride.