Fire

Chapter Thirty Four

"Your what?!?!" he shrieks.

"My fiancé, Fen."

Once seeing me, the dragons begin to shift into their human forms. I know I am going to hate Emil once he changes because he is bound to be pissed. Reaching the dragons, a woman, who I assume is Wren, is looking around the field trying to find Conny. Once she spots her, she drags the healer along with her to her daughter. I then approach the king, Emil, Aurora and a variety of others who I assume are the warriors of the King. All of which have decided to come make sure we are okay.

"Fenrir, I would like you to meet the King of Dragons," I say and Fenrir looks at me like I've grown another head. He nods his head respectfully to the king who smiles back at him.

"Phoenix! Is this someone from your village? I had no idea you had set this up! If I had known, I would have had meet in a more comfortable accommodation in the castle," the king says with a jolly look on his face.

"Sire, this was rather unplanned and unexpected since I have not been permitted to speak to my family since my arrival," I say as respectfully as I can.

"Ah of course! Son why didn't you let your bride go home to see her family? Or at least plan a meeting? She is not a prisoner."

"And this," I say gesturing to Emil, "Is my fiancé, Emil."

"It's Samael, dear. I'm surprised you didn't recognize me from your first few days in the caves," he says with a twisted smile on his face. My eyes go wide and I can feel my face draining of color. I begin to slowly back away, not wanting to be near him in this state, not that I ever want to be near him.

"So is this not your fiancé Sparks?" Fen asks, still looking at Emil or Samael as he is now. "Sparks?" he asks before turning and looking at me. I know he sees a look of horror and fear on my face. And the king has already left to go check on Conny so now there is no one that can really stop him.

"Sparks, what's wrong. Why are you clawing at your chest? Sparks!?"

I can't handle it. I keep backing away from him, until I trip over something and fall flat on my back. I faintly hear Fenrir call for warriors to hold me down. They pin my arms and legs down and I begin to thrash. I am not fully there anymore. I no longer see my best friend kneeling over me in concern, but Samael torturing me as he tries replace my tattoo with his brand. The cold, concerned hands of Fenrir are replaced by Samael's threatening one in my mind. I continue thrashing and can eventually feel myself crying. I faintly hear Conny tell the healer to give me a sedative because I am having flashbacks and don't know where I am. Eventually I feel a pinch and everything begins to go black.

"You broke me. Are you happy now?" I whisper before letting the darkness consume me.

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Third POV

Sebastian catches Conny before she falls from the crippling effect of looking into Ember's mind. He has no idea what she saw, but he has a feeling it was about his brother and he really doesn't want to know. One of his warriors gently takes Conny from him and carries her over to the healer where he is directed to strap her into a contraption on the stomach of her mother's dragon form to be taken home. Sebastian walks over to his father, determined to give him a piece of his mind.

"Father, why would you bring Emil here? You know how he is when he is angry on a normal level. Telling him that Ember's friends from her village have come to see her and possibly take her away would make him livid. She is already cautious around him and meeting Samael right now is not a good idea. She saved Conny's life and she gets repaid with officially meeting the person that tortured her for days. How is that a good idea?" He says with his voice filled with anger.

"I am king! You are not! You renounced that title years ago when you first were given the chance. I could not just take off to come fix this mess without informing him. She is his bride and you do well to remember that. Don't think that you are getting off from us having a discussion about you following them just because the girls will be in the medical wing. Ember needed to meet all aspects of his personality anyways so it was bound to happen. The sooner the better because then she can move past this faster."

Father and son continue to debate the topic as Fenrir leans over his knocked out best friend who he hasn't seen for a year. He studies her hair, her face, and her as a whole. Her hair has gotten much darker; it looks almost a reddish-brown instead of the light colored red curls. Her hair is also a lot shorter, barely reaching her shoulders. Remembering seeing her clawing at her chest, he gently pulls down the top of her tunic to look at her chest to see if she injured herself. The first thing he sees is a multitude of bright red marks from her clawing at her chest. It takes a few minutes before he realizes that she no longer has the tattoo he gave her over a year ago as a birthday present. In its place is an ice blue brand. The surrounding skin doesn't quite match her skin tone; he goes to gently poke at it when Samael comes up behind him.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he says seriously. Fenrir looks up at him and rolls his eyes.

"I am assuming it is her fiancé's mark, and seeing as how he is not here, he won't mind me investigating why my best friend's skin looks different. Thank you very much," he says before turning back to Ember.

"How do you know her fiancé isn't here?" Samael asks.

"Well she thought you were her fiancé but apparently not since his name is Emil and yours is Samael."

"I'll let you in on a little secret. Emil and Samael are the same person. Broadly speaking, of course," he says with a smirk.

"You're the bastard that almost killed her in the woods," Fenrir says, looking up at Samael.

"Guilty."

"How on earth did you get her to agree to marry you? You almost killed her!"

"And I may try to accidentally kill you if you try to remove my mark."