People were gathered all around as Elijah harshly grabbed onto his sister’s wrist. Her eyes were huge with fright as she tried to pull away. He was yelling at her, about what I wasn’t sure. I tuned out his words as a fit of blind rage overwhelmed me. It was one thing that he tried to attack me, it was a whole other thing to hurt his younger sister. Especially if she’s someone as sweet as Izzy who seemed to admire her brother.

Kalen’s hand wrapped around mine. “Calm down, Lana. I’ll handle this. You cannot expose yourself; you aren’t ready.” I relaxed slightly, but my whole body was strung, ready to strike at any moment. Kalen moved away from me and pushed through the crowd who was just watching the commotion without doing anything about it.

Elijah didn’t even notice Kalen walking up to him, he was too busy hurting Izzy. Kalen peeled Elijah’s hand from Izzy’s wrist effortlessly and dragged him away from her. “Rule number one, you do not hurt girls. That’s is a big no. I don’t care what she did or how disorderly she is, you do not hurt her. Rule number two, if you are going to break rule number one, do not do it where people can see you. In other words, use common sense.” Kalen twisted Elijah’s hand with every word coming from his mouth. Elijah was yelping in pain. There was a darkness to Kalen’s eyes as Elijah cried out for him to stop. A darkness that I had seen in Andreas when he was dealing with the very same guy. I had gotten so caught up in Kalen’s easy going personality, I forgot he was a dark sorcerer as well. Both he and Andreas had made it clear that they were almost evenly matched. This was the first time I could see that.

Izzy, who was staring wide-eyed at the two men, finally looked away. She spotted me and ran to my side. I held open my arms and she stepped into them without hesitation. She buried her head in my chest and I hugged her closer, trying to protect her as best I could. I continued to watch Kalen.

Elijah was now on his knees, his hand bent in an awkward angle. Kalen wasn’t moving. His grip only grew tighter. Elijah was begging for relief, but Kalen pretended not to hear. There was a snap, and Kalen finally let go. “Let this be a lesson to all of you. A young girl will not be harmed in this town. If she is, those who hurt her, or just stood idly by and watched without helping, will answer to me. Understand?” Kalen addressed the crowd, completely ignoring Elijah. There was anger and pure hatred in Elijah’s eyes. He was burning to take on Kalen.

He measured his moves carefully and struck when he thought Kalen wasn’t paying attention. Elijah dove at Kalen, a malicious smile on his face. He made contact, but was unable to even faze the sorcerer. Kalen smiled sadly, knowing he would have to hurt the poor man more than he already had. “Some people just don’t learn,” he commented, shaking his head. In one swift movement, Kalen had Elijah pinned to the ground, his knee on Elijah’s windpipe. “Common sense. You seem to be lacking that. Really? You are going attack the guy that just crushed your hand without breaking a sweat? Are you dimwitted?”

Elijah was making strange noises, Kalen didn’t seem to care. I moved closer, Izzy still clinging to me for dear life. Elijah’s eyes were popping and his good hand was clawing at his throat as he tried to breathe. Kalen shook his head in disapproval, but made no move to lighten his hold. I had a feeling he was planning on killing Elijah. For a moment, I thought he should. One of the main reasons I stopped Andreas from killing Elijah was because I thought Izzy needed him. I now saw that wasn’t the case. The world would be better off without him.

But that wasn’t me. I didn’t want people dying. Not like this. Everyone deserved a chance to redeem themselves. It wasn’t our jobs to decide who got to live and who had to die. “Kalen! You’re killing him!”

Kalen’s eyes flashed to me and the frightened girl in my arms. He nodded and got to his feet, allowing Elijah oxygen again. “Touch that girl again and you will not live to see another day.”

Elijah was choking, unable to show any signs of acknowledgement. Kalen walked over to me and Izzy and with a hand on my back started leading the two of us away from the commotion. Once we were a good distance out of sight, Kalen stopped. “I’m sorry, I didn’t plan for our day to go like this,” Kalen commented. I waved him off.

“It’s not your fault and Izzy needed our help.” At the sound of her name, she finally unlatched herself from me.

“You know each other?” Kalen asked.

“I had an unfortunate encounter with her brother before.” Kalen’s eyes narrowed and I could see a trace of the darkness that always surrounded Andreas caress his legs. “It was handled, don’t worry.”

Kalen relaxed a little and turned his attention to Izzy. “Are you okay, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice surprisingly gentle. She faced him, her expression brave.

“I’ll be okay. He just had a little much to drink, that’s all.” Kalen and I locked gazes. He had done this before.

Kalen walked over to Izzy and took her arm into his hands. She started, but didn’t shy away. I admired the bravery she had. She was stronger than me.

Her arm began to glow and her eyes widened in shock. “You’re… you’re… a sorcerer?” Izzy gasped.

Kalen nodded. “Yes, I am. And you are coming with us. I can’t allow you to go back and see your brother again. He’s not going to stop hurting you. I know men like that. Even when someone scares them and they promise never to do it again, the minute the doors are closed, they go on as if nothing happened.”

His words ignited a memory. The second dream he had showed me. No wonder he was so against hurting those who couldn’t defend themselves. I felt a twinge of pain from thinking what he must have endured. I couldn’t imagine the pain he had gone through.

Izzy ducked her head. “Where do I go? He is all I have right now. My mother is away on business.”

Kalen smiled reassuringly at her. It was so sweet how kindly he acted to her. It only made me like him more. “You can come with us until your mother returns.” I wasn’t sure what Andreas would say to that, but he didn’t seem to have a problem with letting people stay with him.

Izzy nodded, a tear threatening to spill from her eyes. I wondered why she wasn’t afraid of him. He had told her he was a sorcerer and she wasn’t fazed. She took it all in stride. There had to be something I was missing.

I linked my hand with Kalen’s, a gesture to indicate I now trusted him. And I did. None of my dates had ever gone smoothly, but this one was one I would always remember. I genuinely liked Kalen. Although he was a dark sorcerer, he wasn’t evil. Neither was Andreas. They were just misunderstood.

More and more I was realizing that the world wasn’t only black and white, nothing was that pure. In order for the universe to have balance, there had to be a bit of good and bad within every person. As much as both Kalen and Andreas believed they were evil, they weren’t. They had light inside them. The light was really small sometimes, but I knew it was there. And nothing that contained light could be evil. I realized, that there were no wholly evil people in our world. Neither were there any wholly good. We were all just human. Perfectly flawed with varying degrees of light and darkness inside us.