Panic coursed through me. My heart pounded in my chest.

The man held me forcefully against him. He placed a hand over my mouth and the other around me, pinning my arms at my sides. I struggled but could barely move against his strength. I kicked out behind me, in front of me to no avail.

I tried to turn around to see the man who held me but it was useless.

"Stay still, little girl." His voice was like sandpaper. It was coarse like it hadn't been used in years.

I screamed against his hand making him laugh. I tried to bite him but he only laughed louder.

Someone emerged from the darkness of the balcony. It looked like she just finished running a marathon. Her taught green skin glistened with sweat in the moonlight and she placed her hands on her knees. Her dark hair stuck to the sweat on her hairline. She smiled at me as she caught her breath.

She wasn't from the party. She was dressed in clothes similar to what I would wear during training. She looked like she was ready for battle with gloves and boots.

"It took you long enough," the woman panted. "I was willing to wait for you to fall asleep but this will do."

She reached for her belt at her side and unsheathed a long dagger. It glinted in the light of the room that poured in from behind us. I stared in horror at the sight of it.

I went into a panic. I kicked, screamed, fought and sobbed against his hand as I watched her step towards me.

A sudden banging was heard from behind us and the woman cursed.

She coughed into the crook of her elbow as she approached. "They know we're here. We'll just have to do this the hard way." Her eyes darted to the man behind me. "Hold her still."

She gripped the dagger in her hand tightly and looked at me. I watched as she gathered her strength and began to drive it into the dagger in her hand, stepping forward toward me.

I shut my eyes tightly. When I opened them again I had spectered behind the woman - and saw the dagger that was meant for me cut through the air and hit the man the held me in place previously.

The woman cried out in disbelief as she dug the dagger into the man's ribs.

The man's eyes widened in fear as the woman clung to him. He slowly fell to the floor.

"No," she cried. "No, no, no."

The man's grey skin seemed to wane and fade to white as he watched her.

I couldn't shake the fear in his eyes as he watched the woman.

She turned to me, her black eyes wild. "Save him."

I stepped back until the railing of the balcony stopped me. I gripped the stone behind me and shook my head. "I don't even know how."

Another loud bang came from the doors in the room followed by voices screaming.

She moved to me again, this time the dagger she'd use before flew to her hand. The man's black blood dripped from it as she pointed at me with it. "Then I'll just take what I need to save him."

She lunged.

I placed a shaking hand out in front of me and threw up a barrier before she could reach me. She couldn't move past it despite the effort she was putting into trying to bring it down. She ran up against it, banged on it with her fists and open-palmed hands.

I could feel everything around me all at once.

Fury. Unbridled hot white fury from the woman seemed to suffocate me.

And fear. Stark dark fear so heavy that I could taste it in my mouth. And remorse. Remorse for a life not lived fully for love not experienced.

Something cut through me.

As if someone had taken a hot poker and ran it through my chest straight through to the other side. I felt my heart give slightly and my knees buckled at the sudden feeling.

The fear I had been feeling was abruptly cut. Gone. As if it wasn't even there in the first place.

I looked at the man crumpled on the floor behind the woman and froze.

He wasn't moving. He was dead.

And all it took was that one moment of weakness for the woman to take down my barrier and stab me in the shoulder.

I screamed as pain exploded from where she stabbed me.

She lifted it again and brought it down. This time it landed several inches below my shoulder and into my arm.

I pushed back, releasing a bolt of as much power as I could towards her.

But it wasn't enough.

She'd barely been pushed back several paces before she lunged again.

Before I realized what I was doing, my hand shot out again. This time she stopped, falling to her knees in front of me. Her knees made deafening popping sounds as they pounded on the stone in front of me.

And it wasn't because she wanted to - no.

I forced her to her knees with barely a thought.

My hand pulsed as I hovered it in front of my chest. The fury I felt before from her was gone it was replaced by complete and utter horror as she watched me hold her life literally in my hands.

I watched my hand. It glowed brightly and pulsed with a new light it was as if I were holding her beating heart. But it wasn't her heart - it was her life force, her soul, literally everything that made her who she was.

How peculiar.

It was darker, angrier than what I'd felt the previous night with Asmodeus.

But it was sick.

It was contaminated, the energy not fully flowing as I had felt before. I looked at her as she watched me and I realized that perhaps she wasn't panting or sweating from climbing the walls of the home to get to the balcony.

She was sick. Truly and completely poisoned from the inside. Her bloodshot eyes, her sweaty skin, her cough - everything seemed wrong.

I let it go slightly. She felt the sudden release on her and again she lunged.

I closed my fist in surprise.

Mel was a beauty as a youth, growing up in a beautiful glade near the ocean with loving, doting parents with emerald sparkling skin like her own. She met a much older man - her first lover who took her from her sheltered home at her request.

He introduced Mel to Dust and she loved it. She loved the thrill of it, the power it gave her as a lesser fae. She loved to have the magic coursing through her. She needed more. Always more. There was never enough. She went through the years at the mercy of donors - usually men who took advantage of her for just a glimpse of their power.

Just enough to keep her hungry and begging for more.

But there was a new one - more powerful than the rest. Inexperienced, easy to get control of.

The last of the Light.

She'd be easy to take, Mel knew - drain only when she needed that extra kick. Keep her for eternity just to taste the power.

She dropped dead in front of me.

I knew she was dead as soon as I closed my hand. I could no longer feel the energy from her.

I fell on my knees in front of the woman, completely filled with dread.

No. In front of Mel. Her name was Mel.

And I killed her.

I couldn't feel anything around me anymore. I was numb.

I didn't even notice the crowd of guards and men that suddenly filled the balcony until Asmodeus started shaking my shoulders.

Eventually, I could hear him. I heard him ask me how I was.

Asmodeus shook me once more and finally, I pulled my eyes away from her dark hair pooled around her face frozen in fear.

Asmodeus looked at me calmly. "Are you all right?"

Absently, I nodded.

"Is this your blood?"

I blinked and followed his eyes to my shoulder. There were tears on the shoulder and lace sleeve of the dress but no stab wound. I frowned. "She stabbed me. Two times, I think."

Asmodeus moved my arm closer to the light. "Where? Here?"

I nodded numbly again.

I saw him shake his head. "You're completely healed. You're okay."

I looked at the body in front of me. "I killed her." As the words left my lips a sob broke through me. "Oh, gods, I killed her."

I felt Asmodeus shake his head. "They attacked you. This was self-defense."

I still couldn't stop looking at her.

"Come on, get up." I felt Asmodeus grip my shoulders then lift me to a standing position. "We're leaving. We're going back to Blackdown Keep." He shouted to someone over his shoulder. "Where is Damien? Get your king here now!" He began to lead me through the crowd of guards that looked over the bodies of the lesser faeries on the ground. "And get me whoever was in charge of security."

As soon as we made it back to the room, Asmodeus grabbed a small blanket from the top of the bed and placed it over my shoulders. He turned me so I couldn't look back to where we previously stood.

I frowned as I watched him. There was actual concern in his eyes as he looked me over and rubbed my arms over the blanket to warm them. "Are you all right?"

I watched him perplexed. I could sense concern and fear from him. I let out a long breath and looked at my hand. It was still shaking. "I-I don't know."

A cacophony of voices made me turn to the open doors of the room. Fake Damien burst through.

I would have been relieved to see him - if it were really him. He was spewing anger and hate and ... smugness?

He reached for me as he crossed the room and captured me in a hug.

I was frozen in his embrace. If he meant to comfort me, it did absolutely nothing like that.

"Are you all right?" He asked me.

Asmodeus spoke up, answering for me. "She's all right. They attacked her and she defended herself. She's in shock." He cleared his throat. "You both should go to the Keep. Cancel the Tour. It is not safe."

A man spoke behind us. "Alteazor, we believe there are more involved. We're hunting them down now as we speak."

I felt his hold on me relax a bit. "Asmo, take her to the Keep, now. I'm going to help the Guard hunt these fae down."

Asmodeus shook his head. "No. Your safety is more important."

Damien let me go. "Asmo, I wasn't asking."

Asmodeus took my hand and a moment later, we were gone.