Marianna had a neutral expression, but her fingernails were digging into the heart she was still holding that it seemed it was on the verge of bursting.

"I—owe you a—an explanation," he mumbled adjusting carefully the branches of his glasses.

'You owe me nothing," she thought fighting the urge to raise her eyes.

"I can u—use it, b—b—but..."

"B—But...but...What?!" she yelled in front of his persistent stutter.

"Only if my father commands me to. But please don't kill me. I—It's useless, the one who a—attacked you are from the s—same guild as you. Y—You had the s—same weapon."

"It doesn't change a thing!" she yelled.

'No need to twist the knife you little b******"

But she had to admit he was perspicacious.

A long silence passed following his declaration. Marianna eyed the young man in front of her, forcing her to take deep breaths. After all, she still managed to capture him without risking her life more than three times.

'Breathe in.'

It was a trap after all. It wasn't a real mission.

'Breathe out.'

He wasn't too damaged and couldn't cause her any harm.

'Breathe in.'

He was extremely valuable.

'Breathe out.'

No one knew about his secret.

'Breathe in.'

Except that she couldn't find the courage to doom such innocent boy.

"D**N IT!" she cried when the heart exploded in her grip.

She paced back and forth pulling her hair with her dirty hand, quickly the sand and the dry leaves.

"Everything would be so much more simple if you were an a*****e!"

"I—I am sorry," he whined.

"Shut the f*** up!"

She raised her hands to the sky.

"Why!? Just why!?"

Her furious plea lost itself in the emptiness of the landscape. In front of her, Frederick was crouching and shaking. She gritted her teeth in front of this sight.

"Get up."

He quickly obeyed but his legs, but his strength abandoned him as he stumbled. She caught him by his arm. He made a movement of surprise, his eyes full of fright before looking away.

"I am not going to kill you."

He turned his gaze back to her with an understandable shock and a glimmer of hope.

'This is a bad idea.'

"I am going to train you and your power. So when they will come back after you. You will earn your freedom." she continued before changing her mind. "But before, we have to free you from your father."

"R—Really?" He asked slowly.

"Yes, and I know the right person to help us."

"He would be w—willing to join us?"

Her lips stretched into a long devious smile.

"I don't care about his will. He owes me."

⚔️⚔️⚔️

Gray life has always been predictable and flowed in a perfect way.

Let me correct it.

Gray life has always been predictable and flowed in a perfect way until he woke up.

But this time, it wasn't because he forgot to close the curtains or because a grudge-full assassin broke into his kitchen seeking revenge for his dead comrades.

It was because he was being sequestered by a pissed-off Marianna.

"Damn I don't remember doing something to deserve being tied up like that," he mumbled looking at his bounded members.

He raised his chin and finally noticed a weak-looking boy hiding behind the mercenary. His fingers were toying with the branches of his glasses.

"Wait who is this guy? I don't remember seeing him at the guild," he asked tilting his body on the side as far as the armchair permitted him to.

Marianna raised her cloak to hide him like a curtain. Gray's eyes widened.

"Stop, wait a minute! Is he your lover?"

Marianna dropped her cloak and revealed a red-faced young man.

'We can't even see his freckles anymore,' he noted containing his chuckle.

But soon enough disappointment filled him.

"Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were best friends."

"Since when?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Damn Marianna you just broke my heart."

"Marianna?"

'Oh, so he speaks!' he thought joyfully.

"Your name is Marianna?" he continued.

"Wait? So he isn't your lover?"

"Of course not!" she exclaimed. "Seriously why would I choose him."

Behind her, the young man flinched

Gray began to feel quite lost. It was way too early for this complicated discussion. He would need three coffee mugs to wake up properly and an additional three to survive the rest of the morning.

"How about you untie me and tell me what happened? 'Cause I think I missed some chapters.

🗡️🗡️🗡️

"Woah, that's messed up," commented Gray sipping his seventh coffee mug. "I understand now why felt the need to tie me up—even if I am hurt to see your level of trust."

"I didn't know if you were part of their scheme," she shrugged.

"Marianna said that you would be able to help us."

Grey's attention shifted towards the Lux heir. A few hours ago he was stuttering and shaking but he was slowly taking his ease.

"It's true," he agreed. "There is one way for you to break free."

"You can trust Gray," interrupts Marianna. "A few years ago he was in the same situation as you."

"Really?"

"It's true," he confirmed. "My powers were linked by a gemstone. Anyone who wore it could control them."

"What is your power?"

"I don't have any anymore," he responded stretching lazily.

"Why?"

Gray smirked, "Has anyone ever told you it is impolite to ask indiscreet questions?"

"Oh!" his face was reddish. "I am sorry."

"Don't be," scoffed Marianna, "the only thing he could do was light up a candle."

"You are just jealous, I could make a dragon wanna retire."

"Yeah, before."

They exchanged an amused look before laughing together. For a moment Frederick's face twitched. It only lasted a second but it was enough for Gray to notice it.

'Interesting.'

That young man seemed to have taken quite a liking to his friend. It might be good for her, especially after what happened eight years ago...

His jaw tightened remembering his old days.

"But since your power is directly linked to your father the only way for you to be free is to kill him. Even freed from your father you will have a hard time using your powers since your body is not used to it. The after math will be rough."

"It cannot be worse than leaving it to my father!" he jumped. "But still I don't want to kill him! He didn't do anything to deserve this fate."

Marianna squinted her eyes as a clear sign of annoyance.

"Are you kidding me?! Apart from the fact that he killed countless people—because I also do that—he is a manipulative b*****d who abused you and your family."

The young heir flinched, his gaze suddenly escaping from hers.

"No one deserves to be betrayed by its blood."

Marianna felt a sudden urge to shake some good sense in his more than naive head, but she didn't want to cause a scene in public. Before she had the chance to think about an alternative Gray cleared his throat.

"I may have found a compromise."

"You have ideas?" she said with a scoff.

But her eyes were glinting with malice.

"Yes, but it won't be easy."

Her lips stretched into a smile with a fierce expression giving a gloomy aspect to her scar.

"Has anything in our life been easy?"

({~*Author Note~})

Hi Sunflowers 🌻 🌻 🌻 ! (Hi @AprilJester;))

Am I already at the halfway point of the story? It seems so! Things are going to get pretty interesting in the next chapters! What do you think about this new character? What is his relationship with our lovely and kind Marianna?

Random fact, I created Gray and Marianna for a previous story that I didn't get the chance to publish. The story takes place in an orphanage where only children with a talent for magic or killing are kept.

Since this book was created for the TEGSA contest I had to use something from the song 🎵 Uptown Funk 🎶 by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson

This song is my entire childhood.

I used:
🤍 the lyrics "Stop, wait a minute" and "make a dragon wanna retire"

See ya next chapter 😉