Arieon Flare

Forgive me if I ever called Ashton a headless chicken. She is clearly a headless dinosaur rampaging around the world. I have only seen sketches of such creatures but watching Ashton pace in front of our bed makes them seem real.

“What are we going to do Ari? What if they get to Axel? We can't lose him too. They are planning to attack next weekend. That just leaves us nine days.” she hisses. The room buzzes with people but none care about to children bickering in the corner.

I notice Leona among the chaos in the room talking to a few teenagers. Her skin glows in the sunlight seeping in through the window. How did I not notice how beautiful she was?

“Yeah, and we need to abduct Leona later.” Ashton continues but I am too distracted.

Leona scoffs at something one of the teens says. Her blonde hair is tucked behind her ears showing off the scar that run along her neck with pride. “Yes...” I reply absentmindedly. "Wait what?" I blink up at Ashton who is carrying the same grin she uses when she teases me about anything.

"Don't look at me like that." I say and glare at Ashton.

"Like what?" she asks her grinning even wider.

I roll my eyes at her and turn away hoping to hide the blush creeping onto my cheeks. We are both glad for the distraction, but we know that the war in the future can not be avoided. Not while the Shadow or Ashton, Axel and I still live and breathe. All we can do it protect our own.

My smile falters. Ashton's does too, she must be thinking the same thing. "We can not lose our brother." she whispers. I nod along. I do not know what I would do if we lose Axel too. In the last five weeks we have lost almost half of our family, I can not afford to lose more.

Before a plan can from in my mind to save our brother from these wretched pests staining our life, the opportunity presents itself to us. Leona walks towards us with three of the teens tailing behind her. Ashton puts up a mask of a smile as she notices them coming.

"Not tired of losing Rory?" Ashton winks at one of the teens. Why am I not surprised that my sister picked a fight within the first twenty-four hours of us being here?

"You wish. You know I let you win Ashton." Rory replies but her face flushes indicating otherwise. The other two snicker behind her, and she blushes furthermore.

"So she is the one you told me about?" Leona cuts in. The three steal their eyes and straighten their spines. She pretends not to notice me, so I do the same. Ashton does not need to know what happened between us yesterday. Stop it Flare. Nothing happened between you two.

"Yes ma'am." Rory replies. Ash does not squirm like most others, we are used to being inspected like a piece of art by now. I presume staying at court all this while has it's perks.

"Alright you are in. Pack your stuff, Katrin will show you to your new room. Meet me at the sparring ground two hours later." Leona replies and strides away towards the door.

"What does she mean new room?" I ask finding my voice.

"Soldiers stay in separate rooms than civilians." the third teenager replies. He is a little shorter than me, but he stands tall looking directly into my eyes. That unsettles me, but I do not show it.

"Soldier? What is going on Luca?" Ashton replies as confused as I am.

"We talked to Leona and got you into the army. Our squad by the way, you are coming to the North Castle with us. You are welcome." Rory replies instead of him and shrugs.

I knew Leona could have been a higher officer because of her pin and official clothes, but I did not know she could be controlling the army itself. This is crucial information, but my eyes don't seem to think so as they follow her till she is out of sight.

"What about my brother?" Ash asks faking a smile.

"What about him?" Rory shrugs.

"We stick together Rory, I am not going anywhere without him." she replies.

"Cute but we have to leave." Rory says.

Luca sighs and nods along, "She's right Ashton, we need all the practice we can get before reaching the North Castle. It would probably be heavily guarded and-"

"-and we don't need to share details with a civilian." Rory snaps looking at me. She turns to Luca and Katrin and continues, "Speaking of, meet me at the garden in ten."

She heads towards the door leaving Luca to scamper off behind her. But Katrin stands her ground, torn between following an order and following her friends.

"Can you give us a minute?" Ashton asks. Katrin leaves a relieved sigh and catches up to the rest of them.

"What was all that about?" I ask.

"After coming to know about their plan about the North Castle, Katrin and Luca egged me on to spar with Rory. You know I can't resist a good fight. But I know nothing about the squad until now, I swear." Ash whines looking apologetic.

"You have to go." I murmur.

"What? No. Flare finds Flare, remember?"

"Exactly, Axel needs you. We can not let him die. We can not try to stay together either, not when we have as little time as nine days." As much as I want her to stay, our brother is more important now. I can find a way to survive till after Ashton and Axel are safe, somehow.

We have not been apart since we were seven, and even then we threatened to burn the castle down with infernos created out of our own hands.

She takes a deep breath, "You're right."