Chapter 150: An innocent

AYLA

I pulled against the ropes again. The ropes bit into my wrists, burning my skin, but I did not stop.

I had been fighting them since Soren left the room, sweat had plastered my hair to my temples.

My shoulders burned and the gag had gone sour in my mouth.

"Stop all that movement." Lucius snapped at me, his eyes angry.

I ignored him and worked the ropes harder, the chair creaking beneath me.

"You cannot get out." he shook his head. "You are just working your wrists sore."

I did not care if I had to break my own wrists, I would get out of these ropes.

"If only you had just... you had just not remembered. This would not be happening."

I turned to glare at him, mumbling something through the cloth tied tightly around my mouth.

Lucius sighed, crossing the room to where I sat. Then he reached for the bind around my mouth and the cloth came loose.

I sucked in a breath and looked straight at him.

"Why are you doing this?" I demanded.

Lucius raised an eyebrow.

He looked down at me. "Why am I doing this? You tell me. Since you remember it all."

"I am not going to help you destroy the world, Lucius." I said. "Let me go."

"It is not destruction if that is how it has been destined to be. Don’t you see, Ayla?"

"You want to use my powers and make Omegas rulers again."

"Yes, that is exactly what I want to do." He responded as if he was surprised I understood now. "This should make you happy, Ayla. You will be Queen. You have been known as a lowly bastard for so long and now you will be worshipped by every one including those you shamed you."

I stared at him.

"You know" he continued. "One would think that you would be happy about that."

"Happy?" I scoffed. "You are talking about enslaving the world. Bringing about a second purge."

"You are making it sound like doom and gloom, Ayla when it is far from that."

"Is it?" I said. "Tell me, Lucius... where will you be in all of this? What would be your role as the man who helped bring about the second purge."

Lucius did not speak.

"You are just like them. You are seeking to make me your weapon... your own personal slave. You want to be the man that controls the OmegaDualis."

"You don’t know what you are saying."

He picked up the cloth and I immediately jerked my head away knowing what he was about to do again.

He caught my jaw.

"Stop." I tried to bite him.

He moved his hand away just in time.

"Fucking hell."

He grabbed the cloth and shoved it back into my mouth.

I glared at him as he tied it again.

"There," he said. "That is better. Enough from you"

The door opened just then and a guard walked in.

Lucius turned around.

"Well?" Lucius said. "Was I right?"

The guard nodded. "Yes. Soren indeed went to Kieran."

"Motherfucker." Lucius cursed.

He ran a hand through his hair, panic flashing in his eyes.

Hope surged through me at the news.

"We need to get out of here now. It is only a matter of time before they come." Lucius said, turning to Amara. "You need to do something. If we are caught here, you will never get what you want."

What did she want? I thought.

Because it was obvious that Amara did not respect Lucius neither was she one of his subjects so what did she want from the rogue king that she would do his dirty deeds.

Amara’s eyes moved toward him. She had been standing near the door the entire time and she looked almost bored.

"There is something I can do," Amara said at last.

"I may not be strong, but I can hide us. Distort reality, so to speak. We will use the front gates instead. No one will know until we are out of here."

Lucius nodded. "That should work. We get into the village, get some horses, and ride back to the boundary before anyone is the wiser."

My stomach twisted. I could not let them take me with them... not again.

Lucius walked toward me and his fingers immediately went to the ropes around my wrists, pulling them loose.

"I would knock you unconcious but you will slow us down. You better not try anything stupid."

I said nothing, my mind racing with thoughts of escape as he dragged me from the chair and bound my wrists in front of me, shoving me forward.

"Let’s go" He said.

As soon as we stepped out, Amara began her spell.

"Walk." Lucius pushed me forward.

Her fingers moved slightly as she walked and the air around us changed. The corridor became strangely quiet.

We passed two guards and neither of them looked at us. One of them was standing so close that I could have reached out and touched him.

I took in a deep breath and began screaming through the cloth but the guard did not react.

My heart began pounding with the dawning realization that they could neither see nor hear me.

I pulled against Lucius, screaming again and again for help.

"Shut up." he snarled.

We came out to the courtyard and approach the gate with no one seeing us. The guards stood around, about four of them... right there in front of us.

Amara’s magic was working, I thought in dismay.

I had to do something.

I closed my eyes and reached for my powers.

Please, I begged. Please do not fail me now.

I began to feel a pulse, a pressure against my skull. My breathing became shallow and I stopped walking.

Lucius halted too.

"Move." he hissed.

I did not.

He pulled my arm but I planted my feet into the ground, my eyes sliding open.

Amara turned to us.

"What is it?" she asked.

"She would not fucking move."

Amara looked at me, her eyes narrowing. I saw the realization flash in her eyes at what was happening with me.

"Lucius, watch ou..." her warning came too late.

Light burst out of me, slamming her to the ground, effectively cutting off her spell.

The world snapped back into sound and I heard a guard shout no doubt at the sight of five people appearing out of thin air.

They immediately drew their weapons and so did Lucius and the other two men with him.

The rope around my wrists came apart in a hiss and I stood free in the middle of the arch with the light pouring off me.

I could not control it or direct it as I wanted.

"Ring the alarm bells" I heard one of the guard shout to another.

Lucius moved before he reached it, slicing the man’s throat open.

Everywhere erupted into chaos. I watched Lucius and his men effectively cut down three guards.

He turned to them and pointed at me.

"Get her" he snarled.

The two guards drew near but as they reached to touch me, blood began spilling from their mouths, their ears and their eyes.

"Do something!" Lucius shouted at Amara who was still on the ground, stunned.

"I can’t. She is too powerful. I am weak."

"Ayla." Lucius called out.

I turned to him.

He had one of the guards with a knife against his throat.

"Ayla" the man called out. "It is me, Silas."

He raised both hands as Lucius backed away toward the gate with him.

My stomach dropped. I knew who he was... I remembered him.

He had helped me one day when Willow and her friends had tossed me in mud and forced me to remain there.

I could remember him scaring them off and helping me to my feet.

He had told me he had a daughter just my age and he would do anything to protect her too.

"I will kill him if you do not stop right now," Lucius said.

He was an innocent man and Lucius was about to kill him

The guard looked at me. His eyes were wide, and the knife had already bitten into his skin and I could see the blood running down his neck and darkening his collar

He was afraid and I could not let his daughter lose her father because of me.

"Let him go" I murmured.

"Stop what you are doing now."

I felt my powers ebb until I was standing there, weak and spent.

"Please let him go" I begged.

Lucius smirked and I watched in horror as he slid the knife along the man’s throat.

"No!" I screamed.

I felt my powers surge again in my veins but as I raised my hand toward Lucius intent to kill him, something in slammed into the back of my head and pain exploded through my skull.

My vision turned white as I stumbled.

The last thing I saw was the ground rushing toward me.