"Who took her?" I asked, enraged. The one who dare take my wife and child were going to pay. Brutally. When nobody at the table answered, I slammed my fists down as hard as I can. This certainly got their attention.

"I will say it again!" I roared, letting my heated gaze rake cruelly over each one of them. "Who. Fûcking. Took her?"

Tom Foreigner stood up, walking up beside me and looking down at the councilmen with an expression I learned to note as contained rage. This man knew how to control his anger, but he was having much trouble doing so.

"Mr. Hades-" Johan Clarke, senior councilmen started, but I snarled.

"Don't get fûcking formal with me, I am not in a good mood," I spat, my knuckles turning white as I dug them harshly into the top of the table. "Stop giving all of us your bullshitting excuses and tell me where my wife and unborn child are!"

He cleared his throat, taken aback by my outrage. These men and women around the table, for weeks, have come to recognize me as usually calm and collected. They were not accustomed to this side of me. Good.

"They are .. They are with Livius."

--
Countdown : 24 Hours Earlier
--

I haven't seen Jackson much ever since that night we saw each other. He held me as we slept in bed, but once again he left early in the morning. He kissed my head goodbye and then slipped out silently, thinking I was fast asleep. I wasn't.

Over the past two days, my nightmares became more and more intense. They startled me from my sleep every hour, and for the most part I slept overall thirty minutes peacefully.

"Dude. You look absolutely terrible." My body jolted, my knees slamming roughly against the underside of the kitchen table and my spoon splashing against the milk of my cereal. The milk splashes on my face and I turn my gaze to Lucy.

I was shocked with her appearance. Her eyes, usually full of rebellious fire were now dull and exhausted. She was already quite pale, but now she looked like a ghost, and worst of all she's lost weight.

"I look terrible?" I retorted shakily, looking her up and down again with a sickness in the pit of my stomach. "Lucy.. What the hell happened to you?"

"Quince broke up with me."

I dropped my spoon again, my eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. "What?" I breathed, taking a moment to soak the news in. Why would Quince do that? She loves Lucy, I always saw it in her eyes.  "Lucy.."

Lucy swallowed and made her way over, shakily sitting down in the chair next to me and closing her eyes, burying her face in her hands. "She broke up with me, Faye," she repeated, sounding absolutely shattered.

My heart throbbed for my best friend. I was never expecting to see her heartbroken, for she usually was the one breaking hearts and knew how to hold her own .. But I also knew that she would hold up the whole world for Quince. And she did, and when Quince walked away she lost all the strength to keep the world on her shoulders.

My dear Lucy was broken.

I felt sympathy for her, secretly, and making sure to keep it a secret. I know she didn't want sympathy, or pity reassurances. She just needed her best friend.

"Did she say why?" I asked softly, being gentle and testing the waters cautiously. I scooted my chair over to her slowly, afraid of startling her away, and wrapping my arms around her.

She broke down against me and broke into loud, built up sobs. "S-she told me she didn't want to get my hopes up. That we had to keep our focus on the war and staying alive."

And that's when the guilt hit me, like a punch in the gut. "Oh, God," I managed to whisper out, curling my arm around her and holding her close. "Oh, Lucy, I.."

"I will punch you in the face if you say that it's your fault," Lucy sobbed, clutching onto my shirt as she sobbed harder. "Goddamn it.." Her sobs became worse and worse by the second.

I swallowed a lump in my throat, holding the hurting girl in my arms and closing my eyes. "I'm so sorry," I whispered. "Lucy."

She whimpered, indicating she heard me. I said quietly, "You know Quince makes decisions based on what she feels will be the best for everyone else. One day, somehow, somewhere, she'll come back to you. And one day, you'll hold her in your arms again."

"Promise?" Lucy choked out quietly, lifting her head up and looking at me. She looked so exposed, so innocent and wounded. I've never seen her in a state like this, it made me want to protect her despite not being able to protect myself to well.

"I promise." I cupped her cheeks and leaned forward, pecking her cheek. This may seem like an action that would be weird, but this is how we comforted each other when we were little. A peck on the cheek and a Disney marathon with endless candy. We hadn't done that since we were twelve, but a small smile found its way to her face.

"Thank you." Lucy leaned into my hand and nestled closer to me, and I held her close and listened to the never ending rain continue on outside.

--

I don't know when or how they managed to break into Dragon's Cove .. But they did. Swarms of them. They ignored the village completely, and had come straight to my house.

That's where I was, after all.

We weren't aware of it until there was a large screech from herds of dragons above. The people came rushing out of the meeting office and darted outside, I along with them.

It was chaos. Left and right people were falling, as were dragons. Flames spread around us in a barrier to protect us from the intruders but it was of no use. A large white flash darted across the sky, shooting a jet of ice down and freezing the fire.

For a split second, I thought it was Leto. But then the dragon came down closer and landed on the ice, shattering our protection. The dragoness was beautiful, but it was a sculpted and cold beauty. She had many scars on her face, and hatred burned in the ice blue orbs as they turned to gaze at me.

A chill courses up my spine, and I stood there frozen in place. The man on top of the dragon laughed at the chaos, his eyes holding a pleased glint as he stared at me. "Enough pillaging! Don't kill these people .. That will wait for later." His smile grew cold.

"Get the girl!" He pointed his ax at me, and his warriors drew their weapons out of dying men, women, and dragons.

"Faye get inside now!" My mother orders sharply, but as my loved ones stepped forward, the warriors with guns pointed them to my head or theirs.

"Damn." Livius put his axe in its hold and looked the scene over with amusement, and everyone stopped frozen. Not even the dragons dare try to help us, they risked to much lives with a pull of a trigger. "This is awkward."

"You're going to pay for your crimes." One of the council members glared at Livius. "When the Hades' family returns with their army-"

"What will they do, old man?" Livius sneered, running his fingers down the Crystal white scales of his dragon. Where was Leto?

"Faye. Hold on .. I can see you, but I can't get close enough without you getting shot-"

"Don't come down!" I yelled back at her. "I mean it, Leto! Stay hidden!"

"I hate predicaments, really I do." Livius removed his gloves from his hands and placed them on the saddle between his legs. "Come on. All I want is the girl. No need to cause a fuss." His eyes locked with mine. "Just give me Faye and everything will be fine."

"Will you leave?" I demanded. "If I go with you? You'll leave all them alone?"

"Yes." He nodded and put a hand on his heart. "I swear on my dragon."

The white dragon curled a lip and snarled, but Livius merely gave a cold smile.

I walked toward him and took his hand. "Okay."

--

Double freaking update. YAS.

- Grace xx