I only had one nightmare that night. I was running through the house. Flames were licking the walls and ceiling of the house and I knew it was only a matter of time before the roof would crumble and crush everything beneath it. I've forgotten who I was looking for, but soon enough my dress had caught alight and my skin was burning and as I crawled through the house inhaling smoke with my organs melting like candle wax, I found whoever it was.

They were nothing but a charcoal black corpse, eyes oozing out of their face with a red-hot knife held in an unrecognisable hand.

Someone was behind me. I took the knife and stabbed them. And stabbed. And stabbed.

I had killed my father. His blood was all over my hands.

I woke up screaming.

As promised, Blake was there. He didn't say anything, just held me and pieced me back together until I fell asleep again. I've never been comforted in that way before. Not ever in my life. So, for once, I let myself dissolve into it, feeling more comfortable than I've ever felt with anyone.

The fire was out when we woke up again, the sunlight peering through the gaps of the curtains. Blake looked dishevelled, his dark hair spiking up and complaining of pins and needles in his arm, but his smile was bright and his husky morning voice sent bolts of electricity through every nerve in my body.

We eventually got up and trekked back to our own bedrooms to shower and change. I ended up staying under the cloud of torrential rain for longer than I had expected to, washing and rewashing my body and again two more times to make sure there wasn't a drop of blood left on my skin. Then I left the shower with a towel covering my body, changed into a simple outfit of a white top tucked into jeans, and I'm now towel-drying my hair as much as possible.

I scream when I see blood on my top and rip it off, chucking it across the room. I hold onto one bed post, willing my body to not fail me and topple me over the edge of the universe. I breathe. I breathe again. I wait for ten, twenty, maybe even thirty minutes, until the room stops twisting and the floor and ceiling are where they should be; below and above me, respectively.

I sway over to the t-shirt on the ground. I lift it up to see the red liquid again. I breathe. I breathe again.

It's just red hair dye.

Maybe I should dye it purple instead?

Shaking my head, I use an elastic to tie my hair into a bun so the dye wont drip and cause me another breakdown. I pick out another t-shirt, black this time, and change into it just as there's a knock at the door. I walk over and open it slightly to see Enoch.

"Are you okay?" he asks after a few seconds. I didn't even realise I was staring at him.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I chuckle, but it sounds strained. All I can see is him standing on the wrong side of the gun, looking at me as if I'm a stranger.

"Aurora," he says softly. "I'm fine."

"I'm sorry."

"I just said I'm fine," he laughs, stepping closer and opening his arms. "Give me a hug and we'll be cool."

I narrow my eyes jokingly. "Do you have a knife on you or something?"

"Bitch, of course not." We laugh and hug, and I hold onto him for probably longer than necessary. He might be quick to forgive me for what happened but forgiving myself is out of the question. I can't believe I almost shot one of my best friends.

We pull away and Enoch ruffles his bright blond hair. "Anyway, I came to tell you that Danielle has called for a meeting. We have... a lot to talk about. In case you didn't realise, shit has been going down."

I shake my head and press my lips together. "I can't say I've noticed."

He offers his arm out to me, smiling as always. "Well, Miss Redwood, do you care to join me?"

"Why, Mr Larsson, I never thought you'd ask."

We walk down to the meeting room, a room I've barely been inside of, which is just exactly that. It's a room with large windows and a table in the center with enough seats for everyone. It's decorated like any other room in the house, with random ornaments sitting atop expensive looking furniture and a chandelier dangling over the table, and Enoch and I hurry in, the last ones to make it.

I take a seat in between Colby and Blake, who looks a lot more awake than he did this morning, and I will myself not to blush like a lovestruck school girl as we share a small smile. Any remaining anxiety from this morning dissipates.

"Well, I guess we should get started," Danielle says, standing to her feet at the head of the table. I chew on my bottom lip as all eyes turn to her, soon seeing the blueish painting of a bruise along the side of her jaw. Come to think of it, everyone looks a little beaten up; Colby with an angry black eye, Jayden with busted knuckles, Maeve wincing as she shifts in her seat. We've all been hurt, just not as badly as those red uniforms.

"I can only apologise for how I didn't see this attack coming sooner than I did," Danielle sighs. "I didn't think about to possibility of us being threatened until Blake brought it to my attention."

Blake and I share a discreet smile. I'm proud of him.

"It is clear now that members of the Drakan Thieves have been coming to watch us in shifts. Every few days they've been travelling down, one by one, to know exactly what we've been doing in order to both prepare for their attack and to threaten us. The Thieves have been coming since before Aurora's arrival, but it's only since her attack in the garden that they had been caught in the act."

There's a chorus of sighs and small mumbles, and the idea of being watched this entire time sends a feather touch brushing down my spine.

"Now, I'm thankful that all of us are alive," Danielle continues. "Yesterday could've been the end of everything and everyone. But although we all made it out safely today, there's always a tomorrow that we may not be as lucky. So, we've made the decision to send Sara safely back to her thieves in an attempt to form a sort of truce. It may not work, as we all know by now that these thieves are willing to put their own in danger to conquer our money and power, but it's a step in the right direction.

"However, we're not sure why this attack happened in the first place. Sure, the Drakan's have been our biggest rivals for generations and we did take Sara, but what possessed Simon to to send Sara and the rest of his thieves into our territory in the first place, I'm not sure."

I remember Blake telling me that Simon is the leader of these Thieves. I can't help but picture this huge, monster of a man with scars and tattoos even when I've seen a picture of him and he looked unsettlingly normal.

"But you must have an idea?" Jayden speaks up. "They must've given you some sort of clue as to why they'd send their cadets over to kill us."

Danielle shrugs. "There are a multitude of reasons. As I said, they're hungry for money and power and don't care who gets hurt in the process. Maybe Simon decided that now would be the time to... I guess take over."

"There is one possible reason," Zavier says, giving a pointed look to Danielle.

She grows annoyed. "There is a possible reason," she confirms. "Just not one I'm going to share with everyone until I know for sure."

People start to protest, but Danielle quickly shuts them up. "One day I will tell you, but for now it's just something I must keep private."

I glance at Blake once again only to see that he's not looking at me, his thoughtful eyes on Danielle. Regardless of the night we shared last night I still don't know what to do around him. My hand longs to reach out and hold his atop the table, but I fear he'd pull his away. He's beautifully unpredictable.

"So, what now?" Enoch asks.

"Yeah," Colby says, perking up. "Are we going to fight back?"

"No," Danielle says simply. "We've already killed plenty of their cadets and I don't wish to have any unnecessary blood on our hands. I also want to keep you all away from danger, at least until we know we're in the clear."

"Bullshit."

Everyone's head snaps over to Maeve, whose eyes widen as if she never meant to let that slip.

"Is there a problem, Maeve?" Zavier asks. I start to fear for my friend.

She hesitates, picking at her chipped nail polish, before she leans forward. "I think that we should fight back," she cautiously says. "They came in here and could've taken everything. They could've killed all of us. I think they deserve a taste of their own medicine."

"We're not going to spark a war against them for nothing."

"You think that breaking in and shooting up the place is nothing?" Chelsea says, eyes narrowed. I don't think I've seen anyone stand up to Danielle like this. The tension makes my heart stutter.

"That's not what I meant," Danielle mutters. I feel like I'm the only one who notices Blake stand to his feet out of nowhere. I watch, full of confusion, as he picks up random ornaments from shelves and atop cabinets, inspecting them like a palaeontologist inspecting a fossil.

Danielle continues, barely acknowledging him. "I think we should quit while we're ahead. We got out on top this time, but if we go in and fight then we wont be any longer. I care about you all too much to take that kind of risk."

"Zavier, what do you think?" Blake says. He's leaning against the wall, fiddling a rose from a crystal vase between his tattooed fingers.

Zavier looks a little startled, but Danielle cuts him off from saying anything. "Are you questioning my authority, Blake?" she asks, staring him down. "Because last time I checked, I'm the boss here."

"You know I've always respected that," Blake shrugs. "I can just tell that he has something to say."

All eyes turn to Zavier.

"I'm just confused," he says directly to Danielle. "These mother fuckers sent their cadets into our home and threatened everything we, and every other thief before us, have risked our lives for. We could've lost everything, yet you, of all people, don't want to watch the world burn?"

"Not our world, no."

"What if our world doesn't burn though?" Colby says, a thoughtful grin on his face. "What if we're the ones who make it unscathed?"

"You mean bomb them?" Danielle asks incredulously. Colby wiggles his eyebrows.

Blake chuckles from a different place to where he was before. "Mutually assured destruction sounds like a great idea."

"Absolutely not," Danielle says, just as I hear Colby lean closer to me to ask me what mutually assured destruction means. I shake my head in amusement. "Look, I get that some of you want to fight back and get revenge, but please, I'd rather we all stayed alive. I've seen too many of the people I love die in the most brutal ways."

We all look at each other. All of us know what she's been through and what she's seen. Again, my eyes flicker over to Blake, who looks down sadly at the rose in his hand. My heart feels heavy with the burden of the pain all these people have been greeted with.

But then again, there's a sinister part of me that wants to fight back, that wants to kill every person responsible for putting us through that hell. I killed nine people yesterday. What's a few more?

"Danielle, I don't think 'some of us' want to fight back," I say, the first words I've said since the meeting began. I glance around the table. "I think we all do."

Danielle eyes me for a long moment, before looking at each person individually. Not one voice speaks up to protest against my point. "You're really willing to sacrifice yourself to kill the enemy?"

I shrug my shoulders. "I don't think you're giving us enough credit," I say. "You're so sure that we're going to be killed yet not one of us died yesterday even with all of those cadets running around. And like Zavier said, I'm surprised you're not wanting to get some revenge. They're assholes, right? Not just to us, but to thousands of people all over the place because they don't care who they ruin. Maybe it's about time they were scared shitless."

Everyone is quiet, either mulling over what I said or sat in shock that I even opened my mouth in the first place. Danielle's features turn confused. "How do you know about that?"

"I-" I sneak a look at Blake, who discreetly shakes his head.

"Do you know the whole story?" Danielle presses.

I shake my head. "I don't think-"

"Do you know that the Drakan thieves killed my mother?"

I sigh. Shit. "No." Then a thought crosses my mind. "But doesn't that give us more of a reason to make them pay?"

Everyone starts to laugh, smiling amongst themselves as if I'm missing out on some sort of inside joke. Blake sits back down in the seat beside me, swinging an arm across my shoulders. "She's got the bug," he smirks.

"We've made her into a little psycho," Maeve teases.

I chuckle along with everyone else, wondering when I lost myself.