Before

Andreas stood in the middle of a town brought to its knees. Fire consumed all of the cottages as people ran around screaming for their loved ones. Andreas closed his eyes, trying to block out the images. Children had been killed. Small, innocent children like Dylan.

For several moments Andreas was uncertain. Had he done this? Was the destruction of this village his fault? It couldn’t be, he would never hurt children, but that didn’t stop the nagging feeling in the back of his mind suggesting that he had. The adults he didn’t much care for. People were cruel and the world would be better off without them. But children were still pure.

He gazed around the wreck, some people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, flames engulfing them. It wasn’t the first time he had witnessed such an event; he had even started some himself on several occasions. His soul felt hollow, and even though he knew it was terrible, it never stopped him from lighting people on fire. He thought that it would help him feel something one day. He was hoping it would. But the only thing that touched him at all was the thought that children had died.

The last couple of hours were a blank. Andreas didn’t know where he was or what he had done. It wasn’t all that uncommon for him, blacking out and destroying people, but this time he wished that wasn’t what happened. All he remembered was pacing around in his study one moment and then standing in the middle of this destruction the next.

Andreas fought down the bile rising in his throat. He had no doubt the flames were caused by him during one of his fits of rage. Anger raged though him again, anger at his lack of self-control which started all of this. He really needed to get himself under control, or he might end up killing someone he loved again.

He fell to his knees when he saw a young man, just a couple of years younger than himself, walk out of a cottage carrying a limp figure in his arms. It was the body of a young boy. Tears streamed down the young man’s face and something within Andreas broke. The scene was too familiar. The pain, too familiar.

This is not my fault. It can’t be. Please let this not be my fault. Andreas chanted in his head. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if the death of that child had been his fault.

A child tapped his shoulder and his head immediately moved in the child’s direction. It was a small girl with the sweetest smile. Her grayish blue eyes sparkled like diamonds caught in the light of a fire. Her golden hair fell to her shoulders and she tucked a loose strand behind her ear before she spoke. “Don’t worry sir, everything will be okay. The bad man left after he lit the fires. He won’t hurt anyone here anymore,” she said as she patted his back.

“You saw who did this?” Andreas asked, his throat thick.

The girl nodded. “He had light hair, like mine, and a wicked smile. And hard eyes, very hard eyes. He didn’t look human,” she said softly.

Andreas’ expression was faraway, distant. “He doesn’t sound much different than me.”

The girl feverishly shook her head. “He is, he is,” she argued. “You have pain in your eyes, emotion you try to hide. There was nothing in his expression. His destruction was meaningless to him.”

“You seem too wise to be a child,” Andreas remarked.

The girl shrugged. “My father taught me how to read people before he died a couple of years ago. He always helped people and I want to honor his memory by doing the same.”

Andreas’ eyebrows furrowed at the strange child. “And you think I’m in need of help?”

“Everyone needs a little help, no matter how much they deny it. That’s something my mother says.”

“I don’t.”

She smiled. “You do, you just don’t realize it.”

***

Raphael paced around his room, fury bubbling in his veins. There had been another attack on a helpless village. It had been burned to the ground just like all the others. What was different about this one was that children were involved.

He grabbed his goblet and threw it across the room, the contents spilling as it cluttered to the floor. Tania and her daughter had been in that fire. Neither of them had made it. His best friend was dead.

Because of Andreas. The incident had Andreas’ name written all over it. The only exception was the fact that children were involved, but everything else had been done exactly the way that all other villages had been destroyed by him.

“Andreas Scott Grigoli, you will pay for this.”

Now

There was a thick silence hanging in the air of the carriage as Andreas, Raphael and Zane raced to the palace. There was nothing any of them could do but wait. Andreas was getting antsy. Lana could be dying and he couldn’t get to her in time because he was still exhausted. The wound Raphael had inflicted was more draining than he thought and Lana’s magic hadn’t been powerful enough to fully restore him. Lana was going to die because of a stupid feud between Raphael and him.

“Raphael, why do you hate me so much?” Andreas asked abruptly. Zane’s eyes danced nervously between the two powerful sorcerers, fear clearly written in them. Andreas smiled ever so slightly, his reputation must still be intact.

Raphael’s expression hardened and he reluctantly faced Andreas. “You are evil. You’ve killed too many innocent people. As the leader of the Followers of Light, I cannot allow you to commit acts of darkness any longer than it takes me to stop you.”

“Bullshit. How long did it take you to rehearse that little speech?” Andreas challenged.

Raphael stared at Andreas, his jaw clenched. “It’s the truth, not a rehearsal.”

“Drop the act. You know I can tell when people are lying.”

After a moment’s pause, Raphael answered. “Very well, I hate you because a few years ago you burned a village to the ground. My best friend and her daughter died in the flames.”

“I have never harmed a child.”

“Yes, you have harmed many.”

“I have never harmed a child, and I never will. Making assumptions is idiotic, Raphael. I did not burn that village. I would never hurt a child.”

“So that’s the line you draw then? Children?” Raphael snorted.

“You’d be surprised how many lines there are that I won’t cross. Yes, I do bad things. Yes, I’m as far away from light as you can get, but that doesn’t mean I have no morality whatsoever. Everyone has lines.”

“I find that very hard to believe.”

Zane decided to enter the conversation at that moment. “I don’t. He hasn’t harmed my sister. In fact, he’s actually about to help us save her. If that doesn’t prove some sense of morality, then what will?” he asked staring straight into Raphael’s eyes.

“You are still very naïve,” Raphael commented dryly, brushing off his statement.

Zane ignored him and turned to Andreas. “I heard her talk about you. No one believes that you saved her, nor that she has even met you. But, the way she talked about you… there was admiration in her voice. I know my sister; she only admires people that have proven themselves worthy. Somehow you have proven yourself to her, and I trust her judgment.”

Andreas nodded, a small smile on his lips. Raphael frowned. “So he has the approval of one girl, big deal. He still killed those children.”

“If you want to talk to someone who kills children, why don’t you go talk to your brother? He’s an expert on the subject!” Andreas snapped. Raphael started as the dark cloud began to form around Andreas.

“What are you talking about?”

Andreas had both men’s attention suddenly. “He killed my brother. A child. For the fun of it.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “A child who did not deserve to die. No child deserves to die.”