Episode Six, Part 3:
Through the Eyes of a Child

Kodiak wandered over towards the fire where Sol, Dreea and Wynn were waiting for him, anxiously hoping to hear an update on Izzy.

"How is she holding up?" Wynn asked, frowning sorely into his words, not sure if he was going to like Kodiak's answer.

The Sovereign shrugged, sitting down in between Sol and Dreea with a heavy exhale, trying to unload the weight that was on his chest, but it wasn't going anywhere. "She's beyond terrified," he said. "I can see it's taking it's toll on Elara, too."

"Do we know what happened to her?" Dreea asked, still feeling a little shaken as she recalled how desperately Izzy had clung onto her; as if she felt her life had depended on her.

"Please don't tell me someone hurt her..." Sol dropped her head into her hands, queasy as she tried to predict Kodiak's answer.

"No," he shook his head. "She fell down on her own which is how she got hurt," he explained. "But Calvin found her out there. He made her follow him back to his camp and Izzy told Elara that he seemed to like making her upset... I don't think she even knew there were people like him in the world until today. It's pretty obvious that he's the reason she's so scared for us to go near her."

"It might take some time," Dreea said, reaching her hand out to hold onto Kodiak's. "But she'll come around. She's a tough, little kid. And kids are resilient."

"I hope so," Kodiak sighed, grateful to have their support whilst he couldn't be with Elara. "But that's not all..."

"...What is it?" Wynn asked, sensing something bad was coming.

"Calvin was planning on... He was going to..." He could barely process the words in his head let alone find a way to say them out loud.

"Take your time. It's okay," Sol assured him, being able to understand the fear that had his heart captured in the palm of it's hand; it was the exact same fear she felt when she remembered finding Jonas' lifeless body in the rubble of the Sovereigns' Quarters, or setting alight to his body in the very same burning ceremony that saw three members of Wynn's family also perished.

"I think he was going to kill her," he choked, subconsciously squeezing onto Dreea's hand and only managing to feel a fraction of peace when she wrapped an arm around him, hugging herself onto his shoulder. "He thought she was from Exile Allegiance so he was going to kill her to initiate the start of the war against Tobias."

Everyone let out a deep breath, suddenly realising how close they had come to losing Izzy for good; how more of their family was almost torn apart that day.

"We can't just let him get away with this," Wynn muttered, noticeably battling his anger. "We have to make sure we kill him in that war. And there's no way he's coming anywhere near-"

"Wynn, it's okay. Izzy's home; she's going to be okay," Sol cut him off, reaching over and clasping his hand in between hers, knowing that his fear was getting the better of him.

"He can't just take her away from her family!" He argued. "He can't dictate what happens to her or-"

"Hey, everything is fine!" Sol cut him off, seeming to get through to him with her somewhat elevated voice. Wynn's eyes found hers - watered over in emotion - begging for her to set his heart right. "It's bringing back bad memories of when this kind of thing was happening to Elara. I know," she said, knowing him well enough to know where his thoughts were wandering off too. "They are both safe."

Wynn nodded, focusing on Sol's hands around his own and letting the constant contact of her skin bring him to a sense of ease.

"Wynn is right, though," Kodiak said from Sol's other side. "Calvin is going to pay for this."

"And he will," Sol worked on assuring him as well. "Because there's no doubt that there's going to be tension between us and him when the war starts. He knows that we know that he had Izzy... Everything we've been planning on might have already changed."

"I'm not entirely confident that we still have an alliance with Terra Firma, anymore," Dreea confessed. "He'd obviously hurt Ivy; that much was noticeable when Wynn and I were there to pick up Izzy. He'll be expecting us to have second thoughts."

"What had happened to her?" Sol asked, sharing a nervous look with Wynn as she recalled their conversation about fearing Ivy was a hostage.

"She'd been choked, I'm pretty sure, and there were bruises on her neck. I was so focused on Izzy, but... She looked afraid, too."

"Wynn and I were talking about it earlier," Sol said. "It really does seem like Stockholm syndrome."

"That would imply that Ivy has a connection with Calvin; that she doesn't want to see him be hurt. I don't think that's true at all," Dreea said.

"We should try and get her out of Terra Firma," Wynn suggested. "Make sure she's out of reach from Calvin. I'm not saying make her a Basilisk but, she did save Izzy's life. We owe her for that."

"We should talk to Tobias before we do anything," Kodiak interrupted. "The last thing we need is to accidentally put Ivy in danger and risk Tobias dropping out of the alliance."

"Good idea," Dreea nodded. "This is only going to work out if we have Exile Allegiance on our side."

/////////

Calvin trialed through the common rooms, leading Ivy to the privacy on their bedroom, knowing that everyone's eyes had been on them as they passed by.

He kept the door open, needing Ivy to step in first so he knew she wasn't going to trap him inside, and quickly followed her in.

He half expected her to say something; to immediately beginning screaming at him the minute the door was shut, but she was tremendously quiet and still as she faced him, standing in the middle of the room with only a slight shiver of her shoulders to let Calvin know that she wasn't a ghost.

"Ivy..." He automatically paused, so used to her cutting him off to get her words out, but she didn't have anything to say to him. "There's no excuse for what I did. No one hates me for hurting you more than I hate myself."

"So why did you do it?"

"Because I was scared you were going to leave," he said. "And I can't live without you."

"You can't tell yourself, Calvin-"

"Why? So it'll give you a clear conscious to be able to leave?"

"I'm not leaving," she said nonchalantly, saying the words more to herself than anyone else; trying to spark some kind of fear in herself; something that would make her realise how terrifying her statement really was.

"But you want to, right?"

"I want to not be afraid of the man I've spent the past however-many-years of my life, with. I want to be able to stand in the same room as you and not try and figure out my quickest escape route. I want to know you really mean it when you say you don't want to hurt me, and that it's not something you're saying just to get me to stay."

"Of course I mean it, Ivy. I love you."

"What does that mean?" She asked. "'You love me'?"

Calvin frowned, not knowing what to say; not sure what she was asking. "Ivy-"

"Because it doesn't mean what either of us think it does. Or maybe I just don't want it."

"Well, too bad," Calvin managed a smile, softening his voice as he took a step closer to her. "Because I love you, anyway."

"I know," Ivy sighed, dropping her head tiredly as Calvin reached her, barely waiting seconds before he pressed his lips into her warm, bruised skin.

"You don't have to be afraid of me anymore," he murmured against her, his breath hot as it fanned out onto her neck. His long fingers ran over her dark, purple markings, pushing her fine, blonde hair behind her ears so there was more of her for his lips to attach to. "We're going to start this war and I'm gonna kill Tobias. I'm going to kill him for you. Does that sound good?"

Ivy kept her face turned away, lucky that she couldn't see the manic glimmer in Calvin's eyes as he tried to figure out if his words were enough to break Ivy; if he could push her to confessing the truth about how she really felt.

"Then it'll be you and I forever, until the day we die. Forever, Ivy... Forever."

Feeling tears begin to well up in her eyes and a lump rise in her throat, Ivy did the only thing she could think of to conceal her terror from Calvin and distract him the only way she knew how: she grabbed onto the sides of his face, forcing his lips down onto hers and refusing to let him pull too far away in case he caught a glance of the dread that has consumed her.

"Forever, Calvin," she said, unable to imagine anything more terrifying than never being able to escape his claim on her. Still, as she kissed him until her lips went numb, Ivy finally made the decision her heart had been waiting on for years: she was going to leave him. 

Six // Part Three
What does that mean? 'You love me'?

Sorry it's been a little over a week since the last update! I've been very busy celebrating my 21st and I got to explore LA + Hollywood with my best friend!

You might have seen from the messages on my profile, but I've finally finished the plan for this book! I had to plan this chapter until the last one and you wouldn't believe how challenging it has been! But I'm super exciting for the ending and for what it leads up to for Season 10!!! I literally cannot believe we are almost on Season 10! That many books in under 2 years is kinda crazy, ha!

I didn't particularly like this one, but there's exciting things coming up!

31/03/21.