Amber Erin Anderson

Ira was bleeding from his back.

Apart from him being shirtless and his constant bleeding, what surprised me and enchanted me the most was the pair of pure white high-speed wings attached to his back—from where blood was pouring out like fountain.

He has a beautiful renèi Possession.

After noticing his condition, I spoke, my voice shaky from the view in front of me. "This is gruesome," I managed to say, covering my mouth. Ira's back was at us so we couldn't see his face but I bet it hurt, considering how his face twitched everytime he tried to touch the feathers that were smeared in blood, some had even turned dark red.

"Why's he bleeding? Is there something wrong with his renèi Possession?" I asked desperately, wanting Ember to answer. Looking at Ember, who had a reaction that was more surprising than the view in front of me.

He was grinning. What was he thinking about?

"Ember!" I nudged him as I kept staring at Ira. He was trying his best to wipe the blood using something that looked like cotton but was failing because his hand was barely reaching the spot where his wings were attached.

"Why's he bleeding?" I asked again as I observed the scene in front of me.

Long feathers were on the floor—scattered and they were mostly smeared in blood. I looked at his back again. The feathers on his wings were fine, they were white. Only some feathers were hanging in an abnormal way and they were covered in blood—about to fall. This is it! I had figured out. But before I could voice out my thoughts, Ember did it.

"His feathers. . . . . they're falling off," his voice was quiet but I heard it and I could sense a hint of relief in his voice.

Ira's feathers were falling off one by one and because of it, he was bleeding. But why?

"He's bleeding too much. Shouldn't we help him?" I whispered as I watched another feather falling from his wings. I didn't know Ira very well but it was still painful to watch.

Ember scoffed a little. "He'd rather die in pain than get help from me. Besides, if we barge into his room like that, can you even imagine how much trouble we'll get in to?" he raised an eyebrow.

"But still, he's in pain and he's losing blood!" I protested.

"The moment he sees us, we're done and everything that Keith has done so far will be for nothing," he said softly but I wasn't convinced. Ira needed help. "He can manage,"

"Ember, he's your brother! How can you sa-"

"Brothers don't try to kill each other, Erin."

When he said that sentence, it shut me up and I was quiet until we reached the third floor. Ember had signaled Keith to use aeroportation and I'd held Ember's hand to reach the third floor.

Throughout our entire levitation to the third floor, what Ember told me was enough distraction for me and I couldn't help but just think about him and Ira. They hated each other so much that they tried to kill each other? Why? The only conflict between them was just that Ira was getting more love and affection than Ember. That was it. Wasn't it?

No, that's not it. There's more to it.

I remembered what Keith told me. The former Queen killed herself because she gave birth to an Ezèrian -- in other words, Ember.

Was it this? Or there were more? Did Ira hate him because he thinks he lost his mother because of Ember? What could've driven both brothers to take each other's  life?

When we landed on the balcony of third floor, thankfully, there wasn't anyone present so without further ado, Ember again signaled Keith to use aeroportation and we were levitating to second floor.

Whilst both were floating down and I was in my own reverie, Ember suddenly spoke, his voice quiet and I realized everything around was quiet, too. The tornado that Keith had created was gone, making everything serene again.

"I was seventeen when I tried to take Ira's life," he began, looking at the front. I tried to find contrition in his voice but found none. "I tried to strangle him to death," he said as I imagined everything.

"What happened?" I asked, turning my head and looking at him.

"I couldn't,"

"Because he fought back?" I guessed but I was surprised when I realized I was wrong.

"No, he didn't fight back. He let me do it. He let me strangle him until he was chocking for air."

"Why didn't you do it, then?"

"He said something that made me rethink about everything I was doing,"

What did Ira say? I wanted to ask but knew he wouldn't tell me as if he wanted to tell me, he'd have said it already.

"The next day," he started. "after our sword lesson, he came to my chamber with his sword and placed it under my chin. I told him to slit my throat, to rip it apart but he didn't,"

Before he could continue anymore, I said, "Let me guess: he didn't kill you because you also told him something that made him rethink about everything that he was doing, right?" I stated, raising an eyebrow and as he nodded.

"You brothers are really something else," I sighed, shaking my head.

"Even if we tried to help him back there—he'd have thought we were setting a trap for him instead—or I'd tell father everything about his condition,"

he looked over his shoulders, finally staring at me, his eyes darkening under the illumination of the moonlight. "He'll never take my help and neither will I."

Just then we landed on the second floor. Finally. Ember signaled Keith that we'd landed safely without grabbing anyone's attention and now it was his turn to land. We'd be using the rope to get down. Without wasting anymore time, he took the rope that he was carrying all the time and began tying it around the railing of the balcony.

I looked down. We'll be down soon. We'll be out of the palace. I'll see Elysia. I'll see their world.

"Do you want to go first?" Ember asked after making sure the rope was tied tightly.

I agreed instantly as I was excited. "What about the rope, then? What if someone sees it?"

"Keith will take it with him. He'll be here soon," he answered as I made an O shaped face. I climbed to railing, made sure I didn't slip and slowly clutched the rope. I was officially hanging right now. Don't look down, don't look down.

I looked down.

My eyes went wide as I was nearly about to shout but Ember warned me. "I can't do this," I abruptly announced. "It's too high. I'm getting up to the balcony," I started crawling to the balcony using the rope.

"We've come so far! We can't return now!" Ember hissed.

"It's too high!"

"It's not!"

"It is!"

He took a deep breath, running a had through his fake black hair. "Erin," he said, smilingly. "You'll be fine. Just close your eyes and keep going down—you won't even realize when your feet touches the ground." He said, trying to explain me.

"What if I leave the rope?"

"Why would you do th-" he inhaled and exhaled again, trying to calm down. "You won't do that. I know you won't,"

"What if I accidentally do it?" I raised an eyebrow.

He thought for a while and then suddenly spoke. "Keith will save you, then!" he ducked out his head and pointed to Keith who was now levitating to third floor. His words were convincing—but not convincing enough.

"What if he's too late and I fall by th-"

"Erin," he looked at me darkly, raising one of his eyebrows.

I sighed in defeat. "Fine, fine!" I began crawling down with my eyes closed. Just close your eyes and keep going down. You won't even know when your feet reaches the ground.

His words resonated in my head as I kept going down and just like that, in a few minutes, I finally felt my feet touching the ground. I opened my eyes and looked around—it seemed like we were at the backyard and looking more closely there were two royal guards, chatting amongst themselves, oblivious to the fact that someone was there.

I instantly hid myself behind the bushes that were there and waited for Ember and Keith. They both landed on the ground at the same time—Keith holding the rope and he looked like he'd doze off anytime. I felt bad for him.

"Ember, we're in trouble," Keith announced once three of us were together, his voice tired.

Ember sighed, already expecting this. "Did we get caught?"

"Not yet," Keith answered. "But Her Majesty has realized you aren't present in your room and the palace is in havoc right now," he explained. "Everyone is looking for you."

"I thought Ace was buying time for us!" I said in disbelief.

"He was doing it up until now. It's our fault. We wasted our time. Mother must've suspected something," Ember scratched his eyebrow, thinking something deeply.

"So all of this was for nothing? We're gonna get caught now?" I scoffed.

"No, not so fast. I didn't waste my energy for nothing," Keith smirked. "All we have to do is just pass those guards, right?"

"Are you sure you want to do this? You're already tired enough. I can bribe them or make them pass out," Ember suggested, shrugging a little as I gawked at them. They acted like as if sneaking out of a palace was child's play.

"Too much time consuming," Keith said. "By the time you go there, others will find you," then, he started moving his fingers again, focusing only on one of those two guards who still hadn't noticed our movement. Within a few seconds, the guard who was in the right flew and bumped hard with the left one, causing both of them to fall back.

Slowly and quietly, we walked towards the grand entrance, making sure we hid ourselves everytime we walked.

"What the hell was that for! You tryna pick a fight or something?" the guard who got bumped yelled as the poor guy stood and said,

"I. . . . it wasn't me! It wasn't!"

"You clearly bumped with me first!"

"It wasn't me. It was the wind that pushed me!" the guy with blond hair tried to defend himself.

Other guy laughed. "The wind pushed you?"

Just when he was about to answer, Keith again flicked his finger toward the blond guy and within an instant, he again landed on the other guy's body, this time the wind pushed him so far, both of them landed a few feet away from the entrance.

"Alright, man, you've done it!" the other guy stood up with a lot of effort and dragged the blond haired guy somewhere else. "I'm replacing you with another stable guard! You must be drunk!" he chided as they made their way to the other side while we sighed in relief.

For the next few moments, we didn't talk to each other and just made our way to the grand entrance of the Palace. All the guards that we had encountered had the same fate as the other two guards and soon, just like that, there were no more and all we had to do was just open the grand gate slowly while making sure it doesn't make any sound and we were out.

We were officially out of the Palace now and I couldn't be more happy about that.

"We made it," I exclaimed, feeling like crying. Then I swung my arms towards Ember and Keith's shoulders, hugging them tightly. "We made it out alive!" I could feel Ember cringing for my dramatic acts but still he hugged me back and Keith did, too.

"We did," they both said in unison as I pulled back, wiping my fake tears.

"So what now?" I asked as I noticed Ember looking at north.

"The real adventure starts now."

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thank you so much for reading!!

next chapter will be on ira's pov uwu he's one of the main characters here, so, i think he deserves a pov xD