UNLEASH | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 6)

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"Aine!" Draco called out urgently when she materialised from the black smoke. They were all just right outside the Slumps of the Forsaken, at the edge of the forest where he had brought the two younger relatives of Maryse away from safety as Aine was fighting against Cal and Fenrir. The look on his face made Aine uneasy, especially when she heard that her 'comrades' had accomplished their mission.

Her heart dropped to her stomach when she spotted the Malfoy and the state of the children. The two little kids were all bruised and bloodied up and Aine was confident that they had a few broken bones in their tiny bodies. Their clothes were all tattered up with patches of holes here and there, faces ashen and filthy from dirt, lips dry and cracking, and hair dishevelled. They weren't even wearing proper coverings for their feet in such a freezing place.

The little boy was sobbing on the little girl who was wrapped in Draco's arms, his petite frame shivering as muffled cries escaped. He clutched onto her sullied dress, scarlet trickling down from her neck and dyeing the thin fabric.  The light in her olive-coloured eyes was burnt out and glossed over and her mouth gaped open slightly. She wasn't moving at all.

A sharp gasp left Aine as she staggered her way towards them, she dropped her bag and knelt next to the child. Her hands trembling, hesitant to touch Maryse's niece and nephew. In the end, she could only ball them into fists, digging her nails into her palms and creating crescent indents on them. The heartwrenching cries of the little boy weeping for his sister only made Aine and Draco feel even worse. 

They failed to protect them...

Draco bit onto his lips, tears welling in his eyes but he held them in. He gazed at Aine who shared the same look of remorse and with one hand, he reached to hold hers. Both of them find solace in the silent gesture before they trail to the boy.

It was only after when the young child had stopped crying that his breathing became ragged did Aine slowly moved a hand to his shoulders, causing him to jump. He whipped around in fright, identical olive pupils widening in terror as the rays of the Sun glistened on his tear-stained cheeks.

For a second she saw Aion shielding her and with another blink, it was Harry towering over Cedric's dead body and again, it was Draco grasping onto Leo. She flinched as she looked away, recoiling backwards. Her heart palpitated fast against her ribs, practically smashing into it. 

She took a minute to recompose herself before glancing back at the boy who was paralysed in fear. Fear that she was there to capture him back, fear that she was going to harm him and his sister like the adults he had ever known: Maryse and his accomplices, Cal and Fenrir.

"Pl... Please... Please s- stop hurting us... Please don't take us back there..." he begged with a timid voice, stuttering over his words as he sniffled.

"It's okay, I'm not going hurt you... I promise," Aine reassured with a gentle voice. She extended one hand over to him, showing him that she was friendly and not an enemy of his.

He looked over Aine's shoulders, then to Draco and then back to the young lady. There was still a bit of scepticism in him but as he touched Aine's hand and got pulled into her memory of earlier, he eased up. "They're gone now. No one's going to hurt you anymore. You're safe," she told him in a whisper.

"You're the one who saved us..." The boy's lips quivered, remembering the familiar set of odd-coloured eyes. He squinted a little, finding himself getting caught up in those gold and lilac orbs and getting drawn to her left eye which was the colour of topaz jewels. 

"What's your name?" Aine asked as she slowly lowered herself to match his eye level.

"K... Kieran Maryse..." he replied while rubbing his eyes.