She kneeled on the rooftop, her body obscured in shadows, her hair neatly secured behind her ears. Her fingers thrumming on her knee, as her heartbeat grew steadier, her breaths calmer. Her small-upturned eyes were narrowed as she analyzed the grounds before her. As she watched the young girl scramble to her feet, her hands shaking as she wiped the blood from her mouth.

Behind her, a group of tall girls battled against armed men in the square adorned in yellow flowers. Metal clanging against metal, its vibrations filled with power and such intensity, that she could feel it in her bare toes. Their foreheads glistening with sweat as they jumped over bodies, knelt as their daggers and swords cut into skin, their bodies quick and precise with every move, every slash. They were goddesses amongst morals. They were glorious.

We're winning, she thought. Although, she had not once doubted her pupils, and their capabilities. From the moment the Grandmaster marched into her home, red-faced with anger, slamming the scroll with the Royal's insignia plastered proudly in the center, she had known that whatever the mission was, that they would emerge victorious. She had trained them to be victorious. Even before she opened the scroll, she knew that. Because she trusted them with her life.

She hadn't counted on the liability, however.

The young girl had been standing outside the house, her auburn hair tied in a tight bun above her head, her sword and a whip strapped on the side of her belt. She wore all black and smelled of rosemary and sunshine. With her lightness and bright smile, it was clear she didn't know what was going to happen. The importance of the mission, or what it was.

But the girls hadn't said anything. They couldn't have anyways. Not when the King demanded her to go along.

So, she perched herself on the rooftop, her raven hair neatly hidden behind her ear, waiting for the young girl to fail.

And slowly, one by one the girls began scouting for her, climbing ladders and walls to get to the rooftop. And one by one, they tried to jump to help the little girl. But the girl didn't need their help, she was holding her own. Or at least, she was trying to. Pretending that she couldn't see the five tall girls standing with their arms crossed over their chest, at the ready to jump in. The young girl didn't want to seem weak under their eyes, not when she was so desperately hoping to be their sister in the future. Not when her future would be in their hands. She wasn't going to be weak. So, she fought through the pain that cursed through her body, wiped the blood from her lips and ran towards the beast of a man that stood in front of her.

The girls flinched as they watched her body flow across the square, her body thumping to the ground as the man picked the sword up, laughing as his yellow teeth filled with white foam. His eyes turning red as his veins jumped out of his skin.

She really tried to not pity the young girl. But there it was in her heart. As her eyes scanned over the girl's blood, watching as she tried to get up but miserably failed to the ground in heaps. And she hated it. She shouldn't pity her, that's the last thing she should be doing.

Sighing deeply, she pushed herself off the ground and leaped from the roof in a way that frightened the other girls. She looked like she was lightless. Like she was one with the air and no one would bring her down. She was a work of art, leaving everyone with loud thunder in their chests and unable to breath. It was as if time itself had stopped. They watched with mouths gaping open, thundering hearts, as her body curled mid-air, as her hands reached for her weapons strapped to her back, and as her eyes closed before executing her move. Time had stopped, everything had quieted. And before they could catch their breath, the man's body laid on the ground, heaving as his hands wrapped around his neck, trying to stop the bleeding. Trying to stop himself from dying.

They quickly ran to the girl, lifting her from the ground. As their leader, Rix, stared with narrowed eyes at the roof they had just taken off from. Her ears pricked and groomed eyebrows pulled together. They didn't bother asking her what she had sensed, for they knew that she wasn't going to tell them anything anyways.

Rix had seen something. The moment she had looked up, she had seen him. She was sure of it. Her heart beat quickly in her chest as her hands curled around her daggers. Her jaw clenching as the memories flooded her vision. She didn't want it to be him. It couldn't be him. But she could feel his eyes on her. When she had dug the edge of her daggers into the mans' neck, she had sensed him watching her. Everything about her body had immediately frozen and looked up, something pulling her to the spot where his shadow had just been.

But just as her girls tumbled down the roof, as they surrounded the young girl, cooing her with calming voices, she watched his shadow reappear. His back facing her, his hands tightly wrapped around his cloak. His head slightly tilted to the side.

Beckoning her.

And before she could think of what she was doing, she kicked the ground beneath her and began to run. Ignoring the voices from behind her. She ran after the shadow of the man she once used to know. Unsure of what she would do when she finally saw him. Unsure of how she would feel once she touched him. But she knew she had to get to him.

The pain in her heart slowly shifting into anger. His face plastered all over her mind, making her heart sink into her stomach.

He was quick. Jumping from roof to roof, as precise as he could. Hands in front of him touching almost everything, his cloak fluttering in the wind as he held in place.

That infuriated her. The way he managed to slip through her grasp. The way he jumped from the ground onto roofs, touching everything with his fingertips.

She grunted, her shoulder hit the edge of a wall, making her tumble from the rooftop onto the ground below. Screaming, she lunched forward, her eyes looking up at the roof where the boy gleefully sauntered only to realize he had disappeared. Her eyes widened; she quickened her pace.

Come on! She screamed internally as she jumped on the wall, her legs aching with the impact, her fingers reaching for the wire that hung from balcony to balcony until she was flying in the air. Come on!

She rolled onto the roof, her daggers clattering together in a deafening sound, but there he was. The tail of his cloak scraping the edge of a wall. Her eyebrows pulled together as she pushed herself off the ground and bolted after him.

He was here, just inches away from her. She wasn't imagining it. She wasn't going insane.

Her eyes widened when she reached the edge of the house, almost falling to the ground again. But it was that moment of hesitation, before jumping onto the next roof, that caused her to lose him.

All she could hear was the chirping of birds overhead, the sound of water in the distant, and her ragged breathing.

No, she thought to herself as she searched her surroundings, not seeing his cloak anywhere. Before running back and making the jump. Grunting when she barely managed to get onto the roof. Her legs dangling painfully. Come on! She was close, she knew that. But the more she ran, the more she felt herself breaking. He was leaving her. He was disappearing and she couldn't find him. Even when she reached the highest roof, and looked inward, she couldn't see him.

Tears threatened her eyes. She couldn't lose him again. Not when he was this close to her.

So she scanned once more, her ears pricked as she halted her breathing for a moment, her eyes sharpened.

The roofs were empty, balconies fluttering with clothes that had been hung days prior to her arrival, birds resting on their nests in between cloth hangs. But no sign of the man. No sign of—

Her fists curled, her chest ached, as she saw him perched on a balcony, his chest rising quickly. But the relief that flooded through her body at seeing him was quickly replaced with anger. Hot boiling anger that threatened to escape her body.

All around her, the roofs groaned as her feet hit them harshly, birds flew away as she neared the lines that connected each house. Ignoring the pain, the clothing pins gave her as they dug on her bare skin.

Her eyes were trained on him, and he wasn't going to get away. Not again.

She was going to teach him what he had done to her. She was going to make him face her and—

The thoughts in her head were no good to her, she knew that. But it was hard pushing them away, when her heart reached for its owner up ahead. Those thoughts pressed themselves firmly in her mind, causing her to falter in her steps. Cursing, she pulled herself up from the ground and jumped onto the clothing line that would take them up to the higher parts of the town.

He was fast, she had to acknowledge that. But she was faster. And the higher they went on the line, the more ground she gained. She could make out the markings on his cloak, see the way the sun hit his hair, and sense him.

And just as she was preparing herself to reach forward, he jumped onto the ground. His body disappearing behind trees.

With a grunt, she let go of the line and prepared to land on a branch. Her fingers gripping tightly around her daggers. He was not going to get away.

The forest was quiet, too quiet as her feet made contact with the dark wood, her hair falling all around her as a blanket. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, trying to see the end of his cloak anywhere, but the forest had overgrown with no one to take care of it. Where branches would have been cleared for safe passage, leaves took its place. Everything that should've made it easier for her to spot him, was completely gone. It was like the forest was trying to prevent her from being near him.

Please, she begged the sky, as she closed her eyes. Her ears pricking to hear the sounds all around her. Dissociating her mind to that of the ground below. At first, all there was, were birds chirping. She could picture them sitting on their nests, some feeding their littles, others calling their mates. Then there was the sound of hooves pressing against ground. A deer's tail flicking away the flies before munching on the overgrown grass. And in the distance, the faintest sound of a breath being exhaled.

That was enough for her to bolt into the next branch, and the next one, until she landed on a clearing where purple tiny flowers shined. Tiny little bugs dancing up and down, branches intertwining to create a canopy over it as vines grew along the edge. And in the centre of it all, was the man she thought she would never see again. The man who broke her heart.

And as she stared at his hunched body, she couldn't think. Her breath caught in her throat.

Her fingers tightened around her daggers, making her knuckles white.

He was here, with her.

She scoffed as the memories filled her mind. Memories so precious that it seemed like they were from a lifetime ago. They belonged to someone else. The girl she was a year before, isn't the girl she is now. And the boy that stood before her, was not the man she fell in love with. The man that made her feel safe to sleep in a field of purple flowers under the stars. He wasn't the man that would write her poems. He wasn't that person at all.

That, she had to remind herself.

The man that stood before her, was a killer. A traitor.

He was her enemy. And she needed to kill him.

And just as she thought of that, he turned around. His eyes wide as he searched her face. His lips twitching at the edge, as if trying to form a smile.

That infuriated her. And she dashed for him with all her strength.

Her knees touched his chest as he fell onto the ground, a grunt escaping his lips as he pushed her off. His eyes instantly hardening as he watched her raise her daggers in front of her. He moved to run again, but she wasn't going to let him do that.

As quickly as he stood, she swept under him, pushing him by the hem of his cloak onto the ground, her body pressing against his chest. He stared into her, his eyes hard and distant, before pushing her off once more with his whole strength, sending her rolling on the ground until she kneeled heaving, her daggers scattered.

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered as he stood, his hands in front of him as if he were taming a wild animal. "Please Rix, I just want to talk."

But before he could finish his sentence, she launched at him with a fury that he had never seen before. Her fingers finding the dagger strapped to his hip.

Together, they rolled on the ground, pushing and pulling one another, their breaths ragged and heavy as their skin scratched with the rocks and branches under them. Until finally, with a brute scream, she pushed herself on top of him, her hand pushing on his neck, her knee pressed against his chest. And a dagger pointed at him with her right hand.

His hands were on her hips, his eyes hard as he stared straight at hers. She was death incarnated at that moment. Her mouthed was curled in a sneer, showing her fangs as she pushed onto his neck, cutting his breath away.

"Please," he begged as his eyes softened and looked at her.

Her heart was breaking. As she felt his hands drop on the ground, as she watched him go limp under her. Her fingers were shaking as she held the dagger. Her hair falling all around her in a curtain.

And for that second, as she looked at him, the anger she felt, disappeared.

He was in front of her.

How many nights did she spend yearning for this exact moment? The moment she got to see his beautiful face again. From the way his lips curled, to the slope of his nose, and the way his eyes searched hers. He was here in her arms, and yet all she could think about was the dagger in her hands.

With one simple move, she could just kill him.

No one would ever know it was her.

Her breath caught on her throat, as she closed her eyes tightly. Remembering the last time he was under her. In a whole different world. He had been hers then. And she had been his.

When she opened her eyes, he was looking at them the way he used to. His hands moved up, pushing her hair behind her ears.

And that simple touch made her whole body react. She was close to moving into him, to letting him know how much she had wanted him.

Don't, she thought to herself, before hardening her features once more, pushing back. The dagger in her hand finally feeling like the weapon it was.

His eyes widened for a flicker of a moment, before sighing and closing them entirely.

He was accepting his fate, she realized. He wasn't going to fight her. Not after everything he had done to her. He was wide open for her, and just one single stab, right in the heart...

"You should've never come back." She whispered the words as she plunged the dagger on the ground. Pushing herself away from him.

She wanted to say more, but everything about her felt like it was crumbling.

Even after everything she had endured. The countless of nights she had longed for the moment she could plunge a sword into his heart and kill him for what he did to her. After countless of months where she planned his death. She couldn't go through with it. For her body ached, and her heart reached for him. She was crumbling and he had no right to make her feel that way.

"You should've never come back," she voiced before leaving him on the ground, heart broken and in pain.