Fractured Soul

Chapter 49: Stolen Away

Mella and Wesley ran from the dance floor back to the tree house. The music had started again, but the happiness that had filled the air was gone, replaced with anxiety and fear. And they had caused it.

Their things were already downstairs. Mella grabbed one of her bags of clothes and went off to one of the other rooms to change. Her Berna clothes were right on top, so she changed into them. Fitting, I always leave some place wearing this. By the time she had come back, Wesley was ready. She grabbed the rest of her things and walked out the door, the prince right behind her.

Drake ran up to them, out of breath. "Mella, Highness, don't go. Please."

"Drake, I told you, I have to leave. I can't take anyone else dying, or let this place burn."

"But, what did they mean? 'Fragment?' How are you a fragment? You're you."

"Drake, we seriously have to leave. Let us go. We're running out of time." Wesley said impatiently.

Mella stepped closer to Drake. "We're not actually giving in to them. It's our fight, and a fight is what we're going to give them. And when all is said and done, I will tell you what's happened. Please, Drake, trust me."

Drake blinked away tears. "Of course I trust you, Liz. I've always trusted you."

Mella was taken aback. "Liz?"

Drake nodded. "Mella was my girlfriend's last name. I always called her Mella because--"

"It bugged me." Mella finished. She remembered this.

"Your full name is, or was, whatever, Lizbeth Mella. That's the name of the elementalist after Bri." Drake grabbed her in a hug. "Go. Don't do anything stupid. You have a lot of explaining to do later."

Mella nodded, blinking away tears of her own. Drake released her, and Wesley took her hand.

"We don't have time to walk. Hold on." Wesley muttered a spell and flames engulfed them. The last thing Mella saw was Drake, tears falling slowly down his face, and the crowds of people behind him.

The plains were empty, the moon lighting the ground and the stars watching blindly down on them. Larein and Rin were nowhere to be seen. Mella's heart was beating out of her chest.

"You okay?" Wesley asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think so…I just hope I've done enough. How long were we in Koa?"

Wesley thought for a moment. "Three months." he sighed. "It would be so easy to just run." He looked wistfully towards Ivadona. So close, but so far away it seemed.

"If we did that, people would die. I'm tired of death." Mella had thought about running too, but the idea of Drake, or Gareth, or Hal, or anybody in Koa getting hurt shot down that thought instantly.

"Death is probably tired of you mistakes as well, fragment." Mella knew that voice. Rin. There was a ring of metal as Wesley drew his sword, flames wreathing the edges. His hair was red, but his eyes were blue. He winked at her. It was a trick. The spells had worked, Mella made sure of that.

They turned to face Larein and Rin. Rin's hair had turned red as well. I recognize this…no, this can't be happening!

"Will you come quietly or not?" Larein asked. Her voice was quiet, but in the silence it carried clearly to them.

"You're the forgetful one now, Larein. What's quiet about a fight?"

The woman's eyes narrowed. "So be it. Rin!"

Rin's brow furrowed. Wesley stepped in front of Mella. "Something wrong, sister?" Rin was physically shaking, trying to get Wesley to bend to the curse. Wesley showed her his wrist. The mark had completely vanished. "Can't control what doesn't exist."