Farther Away (An Avengers Omegaverse Fanfic)

The Devil & The Huntsman

A/N: Last chapter of the flashbacks to Cassia's past as far as I've written so far. Next chapters will be set in the present. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, fave'd, and followed, I really appreciate it and it is a really strong motivator like you wouldn't believe to continue a story. I have the next several chapters prewritten and though I wish they were longer (they're all just over a thousand words), I'm pretty happy with them. I have to get back to outlining this story soon though so I can write some more. If you've followed some of my other stories you'd know for prewritten stories I'll release chapters as soon as they the story gets two reviews after the most recent posting, but even if I don't, I will still post for this story every Sunday, or at least until I run out of chapters to post. I just wanted ya'll to be aware of that because I've done that for several other of my stories before and if you ever receive a notification of an update for this story before the regular Sunday- that's why. Anyway, (sorry for the long A/N) enjoy :)

(Year 1546 of the Swan. The Sunlit Kingdom, Roven. Ruled by King Thairn IV)

Seventeen year old Cassia clenched her hands into fists, her nails digging into her skin but not hard enough to break the skin- they were under attack and she had been locked in her room in the heart of the palace by Didyme until she could be safely retrieved.

It was the night of the Winter Solstice and Thairn was at the capital and she was with her mother and Didyme in the Winter Palace with only the palace's servants and the stationed guards.

They had decided to come spur of the moment and it made no sense that they would be attacked- how could anyone have known they'd be here?

The Winter Palace was their most unused estate and they hadn't been here since she was a small child- since before her gift had manifested anyway- so how could her grandmother have known they'd all be here? They had only been at the palace for two days and they'd not given more than three days warning to the caretakers that they would be arriving.

The attackers were a small band of talented males enshrouded in darkness, creeping through the halls and killing all they came across until the alarm had been sounded.

She had been in the Northern Spire then, and Ram had taken care to retrieve her immediately- they all knew her grandmother had sent the band of males for her- they'd expected her grandmother to make a move soon, sooner than this in all honesty, but they had thought themselves safe within the kingdom's borders.

If anything, they had thought that her grandmother would have attacked them on the roads, but staging an attack on one of the castles? It showed far more bravado and confidence than her mother had thought her grandmother to have had.

"She's never risk such an attack," Kiera had told her during the summer solstice of her sixteenth year.

"She's smarter than that, at least." Thairn had drawled then, from atop the dais where he passed judgement on the criminals of society from his throne.

Cassia had nodded- she had trusted in her parents' confidence, forgetting that even they were fallible.

Ram burst into her quarters and Cassia rose to follow him as he guided her out into the halls and down the stairwells into the gardens where they found her mother and her mother's right hand- Philomena, as well as Didyme.

Ram and Philomena were armed to the teeth in their leathers and Ram's mask looked especially fearsome as the shadows of the night cast down upon his mask's horns.

Philomena's own mask was that of a demented clown, though every few seconds it would shift it's expression- a trait that had brought her endless amusement as a child but failed to comfort her as they rushed through a dilapidated painting in the smallest library's archives and into a hidden tunnel that would lead them to the graveyard that lay to the east, just outside the palace's perimeter where hopefully they could escape.

Cassia cast out her senses to feel the dying thoughts of several of the guards and the chilled emotions of her grandmother's agents.

She was scared and she hated it- hated that she couldn't fight, had never been trained to- hated that she couldn't use her truest power to defend her family and her family's charges.

No, she had been taught well that what would come from that would be far worse than a handful of deaths- the Fair Queen would bring destruction and death to all if she was allowed even a breath to speak.

Something her grandmother well knew as one of the last remaining of the Fair Queen's allies.

Didyme squeezed her hand as they ran through the halls and Cassia squeezed back in turn, grateful for her maid's presence.

She didn't have time to worry- she had to run and she had to run far.

When they reached the mausoleum that the tunnel opened into they found themselves trapped in the stone tomb- her grandmother's men had created a small camp for themselves in the graveyard and the only exit to the yard led to the very entrance of their camp.

"Shit!" Philomena bit out.

"What is it?" Kiera growled and Philomena whispered her reply.

"Seraphine must have known about the exit. We have a mole."

For a moment she was confused, having only heard her grandmother's name but for a handful of times before she caught on.

She worried for her father- if they had a mole he could be in just as much danger as they were.

The door to the mausoleum was cracked only barely but even as Ram quickly pulled it shut yells began to come from the outside- they had caught their scent on the night's breeze.

Philomena and Ram rushed to barricade the door with three of the stone coffins that lay in the tomb, but they all knew that their efforts were pointless- even a single vampire male could break the stone doors down and blocking it up any further would just buy them time.

But they all knew it wouldn't be enough- her father's nearest forces were leagues away and they would be found long before then.

They could head back into the tunnels, but the only other branches of the tunnel system had collapsed centuries before and it would be impossible to know what had taken them over should they even make it past the collapse of one of them- wilder creatures could have taken them over for all they knew and it would be wiser to face her grandmother's forces than those beasts of old.

Kiera coated the barricaded doors in thick ice with her touch but it would do very little more to hold them off.

Minutes passed and banging began to come from behind the doors.

Fear gripped her tightly from where she stood at the tunnel exit with Didyme- she knew they wouldn't be getting out of this, or at least not all of them.

Cassia gripped her gown's skirts in her hands as the banging grew louder with each passing moment.

Her mother cast a glance her way full of darkness and deep with emotion before turning to Didyme who stood beside her daughter.

"You know what to do, Didyme."

Cassia gasped softly, choking on her breath as she realized what her mother meant.

Mama, no!

Didyme glanced down at Cassia, her pale brown eyes searching her charge before she glanced back at Kiera with a nod.

"Yes, Mistress."

Cassia cried out- the first sound she had made in years- as Didyme gripped her wrist tight, the maid's nails piercing her skin and drawing blood.

Didyme we can't leav-!

In a flash of light they disappeared and the doors to the tomb were broken down, leaving Kiera with her first and her daughter's guard to face her mother's forces- a mother who had vowed to kill her should she ever see her again.