there when there is painful tug on her sku

e, long pieces of her hair in his hand wh

ack up. "Perhaps we can talk this thro

ed face holds a leer that sets her heart pounding with fear. "I

crashing down on her jaw with battering force and she staggers back, tasting blood. She tries to throw a punch but he grips her fist and twists it to her back and she cries out. His other hand grabs the back o

ly behind her back and she is dragged up against him. Her hair is in her face but she throws her head b

her against him. Pain lances into her skull and she screams. He swings her into the

g open and a shocked ga

her!" She hears

here and she tries to wrench away from his grip but he holds her fast, one hand

see what is happening behind her but with dread, she reali

r closer, they sound like they will be here any second. Steylla normally excels in weighing and calculating her options before making a decision but this time around, she doe

om the scabbard, staggering a little from the unex

eyes and the sword in front of her, and he does the only thing he can to save himself. His hand wraps aroun

an do that, there is an uncomfortably wet sound and the sound of a horrified gasp and then hot intense pain blooms in her chest. Her hair flies out of her face and she spies Steylla in front of her, her mouth forming a l

e crashes to her knees, the sword hilt da

breast is on fire and the fire spreads to her arms and her belly and stops her brain. Her chest feels like somebody broke it open and scooped out its contents and the liquid fire races ev

blood gushes out eagerly through her fingers, warm and slippery. The moment feels surreal

s beside her and a hand is suddenly on her chest, pushing hard against the gash working full-

g the two of them in danger like this, to tell her that she had been right all along, that they she should have never tried to cheat fate, but her tongue fe

duke's. New footsteps pound into the room and

e hears Steylla scream. "Do s

s and the remnants of Maria's ruined heart stutters in her chest. "I want no evidence that either of them were e

inks. No.

.

but her mouth seems to be made of parch

ng in her mind but no

ificant. She is shouting, crying, and yet she is voiceless, half-dead. She watches like a ghost as her friend is beaten to death in front of he

nd tears are streaming down her face like an avalanche. When the

sudden with all of the horror and the shock and the pain sh

is not dead." One of them says, rushing forward

es are still glued to Steylla's body, the carpet of red expanding on the floor as her dead

but she does not even feel the pain. She is a doll, a used and broken one. She can

arely leaks out of the cut and when he drop

.

fferently, a thousand different scenarios which end with both her and Steylla still alive and well, probably meeting up now to get into some other type of mischief. So how did fate guide her into making a thousand little decisions that got her f