To Let Go

F I A

A door groaned open and closed. Stalking footsteps neared.

"How does it feel to lose your sanity slowly?"

I wished she could fold herself into the blackness around me. If I could hide, I would have done it.

Silence filled the room.

Then, a thin scraping. Along the top of the box. As if someone were running a dagger over her hiding place. It hurt my ears, but it was obvious from the face of the person in front of me that he was happy to see me struggling.

"I've been thinking about how to repay you when I let you out."

I blocked out his words. Did nothing but gaze into the dark.

I was so tired. So, so tired.

For pain, I had gladly done this to myself. All of it.

Because of my failure, I deserved to pay this price.

I tried to make it right. Had tried and failed.

And I was so, so tired.

A whisper in my mind that I couldn't figure out where it came from.

The woman's voice was soft, loving. My mother's voice.

I turned her face away. But that momentary movement was almost difficult for me to do.

I was trying to find where my mother was because I could hear her voice.

Fia, why do you cry?

I couldn't answer. I don't even know where else these tears are coming from.

The words were a gentle brush down my cheek.

Fia, why do you cry?

And from far away, deep within me, I whispered to that ray of light, "Because I am lost. And I don't know the way."

Krid was still talking. Still scraping his knife over my box, over my skin. But it got no reaction from me.

But now I seem to see my reflection.

I ran gentle fingers down my reflection, over my cheeks.

And it was as if I really felt the heat.

"You have been very brave," my mother said.

You have been very brave for so very long.

I couldn't stop the silent sob that worked its way up my throat.

But you must be brave a little while longer, my child.

I leaned into my mother's touch. I missed her for a few years, but now she's here. My mother is here.

You must be brave a little while longer, and remember... my mother placed a hand over my heart.

It is the strength of this that matters. No matter where you are, no matter how far, this will lead your home.

I managed to slide a hand up to my chest to cover my mother's fingers. But instead of holding his hand, I felt something different. Nothing but my thin clothes.

But my eyes on the reflection turned gold, and it held my gaze as if a different person was in front of me. It looked like me, but its golden eyes had a strange ability to give me courage.

It is the strength of your heart that matters, Fia. Your mate needs you.

Damon needs you.

My fingers dug into my chest as I mouthed,

The strength of this.

My mother nodded.

Does it agree with what I said?

Krid continues to wound my skin as if he is happy because the fragrant smell of my blood is exploding.

My face didn't falter. I didn't show any reaction.

You are my daughter. You were born of two mighty bloodlines. That strength flows through you.

Lives in you.

My face blazed with the fierceness of the women who had come before me,

I've been through a lot. I won't let them hurt me anymore.

I felt power surging inside my body.

You do not yield. You are not the one to bow down.

My teeth chattered.

You do not yield.

Krid scraped his dagger over my skin right above my arms. "When I cut you up this time, bitch, I'm going to-" I slammed my head into him.

Krid groaned in pain. It didn't expect the attack I made.

The power inside me pounded its fist as if wanting to release my power from the container in which it was confined.

Again.

You do not yield.

Again.

You do not yield.

Again. Again.

Until I was alive with it, until my body felt on fire, washing away the tears until my hatred resulted in a battle cry from my mouth.

With the force of my scream, it was as if my body was shaking.

I want war!

I want to see blood.

Suddenly, my vision went dark. I felt the need to hear someone scream in pain.

You do not yield.

You do not yield.

You do not yield.

It rose in me, burning and roaring, and I gave myself wholly to it. I finally let the strange energy rise and take over me.

I can barely see anything.

All I could hear was a scream.

The chains on my wrist melted as if the heat of my body had melted them, and now I felt different.

It feels good to have no more chains on my hands and feet.

I felt free

I hammered my fist into the metal cage; the song inside me was pulsing.

He's a coward! He didn't even let me in on my lack to hurt me face to face. Instead, he passes his dagger through the small openings of my lack to hurt me.

"Get me the poison!" it shouted to its staff, but I just grinned.

The words meant nothing. He was nothing.

It would always be nothing.

Over and over, my hatred pounded against my head.

Over and over, that song of fire and darkness flared through me, out of me, into the world.

You do not yield.

I walked towards the screaming rat in front of me; this was one of Krid's men. This is my first choice because it is the first one that comes to me with a sleeping pill.

I wanted more blood, more people to burn and kill.

I kept striking. Kept striking until the smell of blood choked me, until its sweet scent dragged me under and away.

I stared at the bodies.

Empty bodies, artfully mutilated, so cut up that the floor was almost black with blood. I killed all of Krid's men, but now, only this one stands before me.

"I can't kill you; I need to bring you to my father." He screamed, but I just laughed because he couldn't kill me.

I approached it and immediately sharpened my nails again.

I moved towards him, and without warning, I stabbed my nail into his thighs.

It knelt before me. But I just smiled.

When I pulled out my nails, he looked in shock at his thighs, which continued to bleed.

"I am not healing..." He said stupidly.

"The wound I create will stop you from healing. I am a healer! But I am also a monster." I lick the blood on my claws.

"That's why my father wants to get you. You are the only way for him to see me as his son, to accept me, and to make me his heir. Without Damon, I would be-" I can't do this anymore, I said because it screamed again when I buried my nail in its shoulder.

"I will never let you offer me to your father!"

"The moon will rise in a few minutes. You will grow weak." It was hinting at a promise, so I dug my nail in deeper.

I can see nothing but blood.

I don't want to hear anything else, but it's screaming.

People are coming.

I know I am desperate now. I know that when the moon comes out, I will literally crave for touch. And whoever I meet will cut my body.

That's the effect of the full moon on me.

I heard a loud bang from the door.

Someone murmured my name but didn't touch me.

I couldn't even raise my face because I didn't want to do anything else right now but kill the traitor.

But suddenly, someone pulled me away from the person I wanted to kill.

There was a gleam of blue eyes in front of me, blocking out my vision of the blood and the dismembered bodies on the floor.

Damon. My mate. Tears were running down his face. I reached out a hand to touch them. They were oddly warm against my freezing, distant fingers. My nails were dirty, bloody, cracked--so gruesome against the smooth white cheek of my mate.

Is he real?

I can feel my weakness slowly.

"I finally found you... You are safe now, my queen. I am here now..."

And then that voice from behind my mate said my name again. "Louisa."

My bloody fingers slid down Damon's face to his neck. He just stared at me, suddenly still.

"Luisa, you will never be happy. My father will surely know everything. He will make sure you have the end you deserve. He will come soon! He comes after you!" that familiar voice said, a traitor.

He had done this. They had betrayed me and betrayed Damon. He had taken me away. And he almost offered me to his father. My nails brushed Damon's exposed throat. No one could hurt him.

"Fia," the voice said. Voice of my mate

I slowly turned.

Krid stared at me, a hand on his sword. The sword that doesn't fit him, he's a traitor! Slowly and even faintly, it will rush forward.

I shattered completely and launched myself at him again.

I wasted no time; I clawed his face.

I slammed him into the wall, and I buried my nail in his cheek. It continues to struggle, but I won't let it go.

The royal guards shouted, rushing closer.

"Stay back," Damon ordered them while Krid was pinned beneath me,

I slammed a fist up beneath his jaw so hard his teeth sang. His two teeth fell out.

And then I was snarling, snarling like some wild animal.

"Stop," Damon said, pleading with me.

He grabbed my wrist again, crushing it in his hand, and immediately I seemed to tremble. The anger that just now enveloped my whole body disappeared.

I couldn't even imagine that the man in front of me was wounded.

"Fia, stop," Damon said again.

He made himself look into my eyes, look at the face so twisted with rage that he couldn't believe I could be like this.

"Fia," he said, squeezing my wrists.

"Please come back, my queen." Everything that controlled me seemed to have disappeared.

The image of the man in front of me spontaneously formed again.

"Y-You're real." I almost muttered a promise, and tears fell from my eyes.

"Yes, I am... I will bring you home, my queen.." At the same time, he said those words, a strange warmth enveloped my body.

"We only have a little time left. The full moon is about to come. We need to go back to the kingdom right away. I need my queen to be safe. Bring the traitor and chain him in our dungeon. Torture him."

I stared at him, panting through gritted teeth, my breath coming quicker and quicker before I roared, the sound filling the room.

"Mate!"

"Yes, my queen, I am your mate. Now, let's go home."