• I walked down the streets of Calvier, shivering despite the fact my blood was boiling. Shaking my head, I pulled the tattered ends of my shawl tighter around my shoulders.

    Tonight was a bad night to be out. The normally shining moon was covered up by curtains of gray clouds, stringy and thinned out across the dark-blue canvas of the sky. The under-current winds blew up, causing the mid-July night to, in all honesty, be as frosty as a December day.

    “Is Ally home already?” I pondered out loud to myself, shaking my head so my chocolate-brown curls bounced out of my eyes. It was, of course, past midnight. Could you expect more? Ally was a day-time fighter; I was a cold-blooded nocturnal murderer.

    Suddenly, my earpiece vibrated, indicating someone was trying to contact me. “Speak of the devil.” I mused, grinning. Pressing the button, I said, “Hello?”

    “Oh, hey Seri. Coming home anytime soon?” Ally’s voice pierced my eardrums, but in a soothing way.

    “Uh, I think I’m making my final rounds right now. Should be home in like an hour or so.” I told her, my eyes scanning the perimeters. It was quiet tonight...a little too quiet...

    I felt the hairs no my arms stand up in protest to the silence; no, something wasn't right.

    "Ally, did you find anything today? During the daytime?" I asked her, starting to pick up my pace.

    "No, I didn't actually, come to think of it...are you getting a bad feeling, Seri?"

    "Yeah, I am." I answered, eyes narrowed in concentration. Rounding a corner, I sprinted forward a couple meters and turned into the alleyway; one I was extremely familiar with.

    "Do you need help?" Ally asked, her voice serious. She knew I was onto something; my instincts were always in tune.

    "Check the monitors for me." I instructed, wrapping my hands around the piping that ran down the length of the building, hoisting myself onto the hinge-like clips securing the pipe to the wall.

    "You going aerial?" she asked, and I heard shuffling in the background. Then a groggy voice asking what was the matter; damn it, she'd woken up Alec.

    "Uh, yeah, I am. Climbing the piping as we speak." Huffing, I started crawling up against the metal piping. I'd done this a countless amount of times, but so much recently...what was going on?

    "Okay, uh...I see nothing, Seri." Ally's voice cut through my ears again, interrupting the nerve-wrecking silence of the dead of night.

    "I know, I don't hear anything either. Silent workers, you think?" I gritted my teeth, finally at the top of the piping. As stealthy as a cat, I hopped onto the roof of the old diner. I knew that nobody inside would hear the soft 'thump' of my feet hitting the roofing.

    They never did.

    "Seri, you going left or right?" Alec's groggy voice cut in. "I'm coming."

    "Damn it, Alec." I cursed, frustrated. "You were supposed to get some sleep."

    "Too bad." I could literally hear his smirk. "I'm coming anyways. Froin's roof?"

    I sighed, sprinting down the roof in pursuit of the next. When Alec had his mind set on something, there was no way to change it. "Nah, meet me at the intersection. It's closer to you."

    "Stupid Seri."

    "Shut it, Awkward Alec." I couldn't help but smile a little at the use of our childhood nicknames. Speeding up at the sight of the edge of the roof, I pounced, soaring through the night sky and landing gracefully on the next. Again and again and again, repeating the process as I flew across the row of buildings, the overbearing silence wrapping around me. Suffocating me.

    "I'm here. Where are you, princess?"

    I jumped off the last building, smirking to myself, and somersaulting through the air, landing on my feet just a meter or two behind him. "Right here. Dull senses tonight, prince?"

    He turned, a somewhat surprised (yet proud) expression 'gracing' his features. "Oh, I knew you were coming..."

    I scoffed, flipping my hair over my shoulder. "Sure."

    After a minute or two of suppressed laughter, we got sober. "Alright." I began, talking more so to Ally than Alec. "See anything, Al?"

    "Er...give me just a sec-oh!" Ally suddenly cried. "201 meters to your right! Now now now, they're moving!"

    Nodding, Alec and I raced through the ribbon-like, cracked lanes between the run-down buildings, forcing lasting bits of debris to fly out of our way.

    "What can they be up to?" Alec muttered under his breath, cursing.

    "No idea." I muttered back as we rounded a corner sharply. "I do know, however, it can't be good."

    "No, really?"

    "Just saying."

    "Um, Ally? Are we here yet?" Alec asked the now silent girl. No doubt she was working hard to get us visuals of some sort.

    "A couple more m-" She broke off with a small gasp of either fright or shock, I couldn't tell, because at that same moment we were swamped by Dericals.

    Silent killers that had nails of poison.

    "Damn it." I cursed, pulling out Artemis and Apollo. "How could we not see this coming?"

    "Easy, dear." I heard a voice purr. "We didn't want you to see this coming."

    Silver.


    He hadn't changed; he still had the same, golden locks of hair that spiked upwards, ending near his ears. His eyes were still a violent shade of bright red, stark against his pale skin. Dressed in a black, flowing cape that surrounded his shoulders.

    I snarled, tightening my grip on my swords, their blades curling around each other in a deadly fashion. The clean silver shone dully, aided by the dirty yellow of the street lights. The snarling paused for a moment, just a moment, in which it was dead silent, not even the midnight winds making a noise.

    "What are you doing here?" Alec asked, his voice dangerously calm. Damn, Alec was scary when he was mad...

    "Oh, m'boy. Is it not clear?" Silver smirked, a dangerous notion. "We were, ah...distracting you."

    A horrible, burning sensation started bubbling in the pits of my stomach. It was not a good feeling. "What are you saying, Silver?"

    "Sir Alexander Castiel." Silver sneered. "Is now, officially, dead."

    Ally's grandfather. Our guardian, mentor, and the man who raised us all.

    I felt myself losing my grip on my last remaining shreds of reality. Snarling inhumanely and not waiting for Alec's call of approved voicing, I lashed forward, Artemis and Apollo held out, my arms wide. Silver, his eyes dilated, prepared himself, baring his fangs and crouching low.

    Then we danced.

    I gripped his arm, shoving Artemis' hilt into the flimsy grasp of my long fingers, wrapping the palm of the same hand around his upper arm. I felt his claws digging into my back, shredding my clothes, but I was immune to the pain at this point. Nothing hurt more than the pain of loss I was feeling in my heart. In my soul.

    "Die, little princess. Die." I heard him whisper. "You are not deserving of the throne."

    For a moment, my lethal concentration faltered. Throne? Princess? What was he talking about?

    "What do you-" I began, but was cut off by Silver throwing me into a nearby lamppost. Hitting it dead on, I crumpled to the ground, dazed. Somewhere, I heard Silver cackling madly.

    "Come on, little Seri," he crowed. "Is that all you have to offer?"

    Snarling again, I staggered to my feet, my eyes hardening. I tried to walk, to move my feet, but...I couldn't. It was as if I was glued to the floor. So, I stood there, shaking and swaying to Silver's cackles and taunts.

    Then I felt it coming.

    From the deep chasms of my very soul, my essence, I felt something cracking and coming forward. I cried out in shock, in pain, as a white-hot fire raced across the plains of my skin, burning every inch of me.

    "Seri!" I heard Alec cry, if in panic, shock or fear I wasn't clear; I was still hung on the pain of the heated flames burning me. Slowly, it became painstakingly obvious the flames were spilling off my body, golden liquid fire spreading across the cobblestones of the abandoned street, burning everything it touched. Midst the pain and dazed confusion, I heard Silver screaming and Alec begging me to calm down.

    For what seemed like ages, I floated in the deep abyss of the various hues of reds, yellows, and oranges, lost and hurting. Hurting for my losses. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was still encased by flames, and that Silver was now, with no doubt, dead. As were, probably, his army of Dericals.

    Slowly, I felt the immerse amount of energy drain away from my body, leaving a tired, broken mess of a girl in its wake. As the last licks of fire faded away, I found my legs giving away and myself falling forward. Only, before I could hit the ground, I felt Alec wrap his arms around my torso, supporting my weight.

    "It's alright, Seri," he whispered in my ear, cradling my body as I shuddered in post-trauma. "It's all over."

    That was the day I stopped feeling.