The scent of smoke curled up Arja's nose as a wave of heat struck her face. She cringed, drawing her focus away from the Fae woman currently beating the life out of the man with the gun. Three men in long robes had lit large torches and were striding towards the Fae,  Grim expressions on their faces. She realized they were part of the rebellion, an army pitted against the throne, the very same throne she happened to have a pledge of loyalty towards.

And they were standing right below her.

Shit.

The rebellion was only an enemy of the throne, therefore neutral to other parties, but they had never been overly... Warm towards the faerie court. The fae woman had already given the man I quickly blackening eye and a bleeding nose. His arm was hanging at a strange angle and he held his forehead with his other hand, blood trickling slowly down his face. The fae was about to land another punch to his jaw when her head snapped up, her eyes locking onto the rebels. 

Her black eyes widened as she backed towards the window she had broken before, glancing back at it as if planning to sneak through it. She almost appeared to shrink as she pressed herself up against the wall. Why wasn't she using magic? 

An unfortunate realization spread across Arja's face when she looked down again. The woman was a woodland faerie, and the rebel had fire. The fae's powers were being smothered completely by the torches' heat. Anger riled up inside Arja. It was so horribly cruel to cut off a faerie's magic in her time of need. This fae was clearly well-trained in combat, her stance was certainly giving off the impression she wasn't going down without a fight.

Arja knew the fae woman would stand no chance against the fire and three men, especially because she was wounded, cornered, and Arja could already see the fire in such close proximity doing its damage.

This woman was going to die solely because of unnecessary hatred for her people, her only assets cut off. 

Arja had to help her.

Arja swung her leg over the bar she had been straddling and waited in the rafters for the men to be in the right spot. As they walked further underneath her, she dropped from the rafters, wrapping her legs around the first rebel's neck. She threw her head back, flipping both her and the rebel backward. She rolled out from underneath him and kicked at the back of the second rebel's knees, causing him to buckle and fall to the ground. She slugged him right in the jaw, knocking him out. 

The third rebel was advancing quickly on the fae woman, oblivious to his two now knocked out accomplices. She grabbed the fae woman's dagger that had been knocked across the ground and walked up behind the third rebel. Before he could react, she wrapped one arm around his torso, brought her hand to the front of his neck, closed her eyes,

And slit his throat.