The moment I woke up I knew today was going to be awful.

The loud sirens within the academy blared loudly in my ears, chaos erupted in the halls as I heard the other students shout in panic as I rose from my bed.

What the hell is going on?

I look to Rachel and see her covering her ears as she mouthed 'what's going on?' over the loudness of the emergency siren, which is still blasting loudly in the air, so loud that it hurt my ears.

Then suddenly, it stopped, and all I could hear was the panic of the voices of the other students outside my door.

Opening my front door, I look at everyone else who is wondering what the hell is going on right now, just as I was to ask my neighbor what's going on, a creak in the announcement speakers makes everyone wince as it rings through the air.

"Attention all students." 

"As of now, the academy is closed... you're all going home, stay in your rooms until further notice."

Rhy's voice rings in the air as we all freeze with what we had just heard, and when the line gets cut and the speakers grow silent, angry voices erupt within the halls.

"CLOSED?" An angry shaky voice huffs out. "What does he mean closed?"

"They can't just close the school... right?" A girl I recognize from my sparring class.

"Hayden, what does this mean?" Rachel asks as she puts her hand on my shoulder, worry in her eyes.

I close our bedroom door and rush over to my bedside table and get my phone from where I had hidden it, ignoring Rachels's look of surprise I dial my dad's phone and wait for him to pick up as the students grow louder in the corridor.

The line goes through after the sixth ring, and I then hear my dad's voice.

"Hayden?" 

"Dad, what's going on, we were just told the Academy-"

"Hayden? this fucking phone- wait one moment-" Then the line goes quiet as I stare at my phone.

The next thing I know, I hear my mother's voice.

"Hayden, protection is on the way, you need to come home this instant, we'll explain everything once you're here, don't leave your room, promise me." She said, her voice wavy but never faltering from her strong confident tone.

"Leave- what, what's going on, tell me now." I tried to ask, but the line goes dead just as the door to my room bangs open.

I end the call and stare at Nohr, breathing heavily with wild eyes, with a bloodied weapon held in his hands and blood stains on his armored shirt, looking like a man who had just fought his way out of hell.

"Nohr? What-"

He walked over to me and grabbed my hand, his eyes trained on the door as he stands protectively over me, he looked silently calm despite the fire in his eyes, like any moment something was going to pop out and attack us.

"Get your shoes on, we're under attack." That is all he said before he closed the door to mine and Rachels's room as he stood guard.

"Attack?" Rachel whines out. "Attack from who?"

Nohr looked at her before looking at me then back to the door, on guard. "Relations have failed, your families have been informed, until we get the situation under control... we are at war with Titus."

"War?" We both shriek out.

What the hell does he mean by war? I was told we were staying out of this war because of how badly it would impact the Vale and other realms' relations, my dad even swore he had no intention of going to war with King Titar.

"Will you have to leave, to go fight?" I ask, coming up to him and grabbing hold of his arm, making him flinch.

I can only see half of his face, as the lower half is covered in shadow league protective black armor, and his eyes were covered by a dark hood stained in blood, concealing his face.

Nohr didn't say anything as someone knocked on the door, startling me and Rachel, Nohr must've recognized the knock as he opened the door with his weapon lowered, when the door was open, I recognized the armor immediately.

"Princess, we've come to escort you to the palace." A royal guard says, coming forward to grab me.

"He- watch it that hurts!" I hiss out as the guard wrapped his metaled glove around my wrist.

Nohr grabbed the guard by the shoulder and ushered him to turn around, a deadly look on Nohr's face made me pale as the next thing he does makes me feel sick.

Without flinching, Nohr moved fast as he grabbed a knife from a concealed location in his suit and stabbed the knife in the chest, through the heart, without so much as a blink, he moved to the next guard and tackled him to the ground in the hallway and fought him until Nohr overpowered him and cut the guards throat with a knife.

It all happened so fast, one moment he was standing there, and the next, two bodies were laying lifeless on the ground, with blood all around them, and Nohr... without a scratch or a drop of blood on him.

"Nohr, what the hell..." I was shaking, afraid of the man in front of me, emotionless and cold as he came towards me, dressed in black, like the grim reaper himself.

"They weren't royal guards." 

Putting his knife back, his brows scrunch together annoyed. "We have to move, they know your location, there could be more on the way."

I and Rachel put our shoes on in record time as I helped keep Rachel up and stopped herself from passing out as she stared at the bodies in our bedroom.

"H-How do you know th-they weren't guards?" Rachel asked, her face turning pale.

"They didn't bow or use the proper greeting term." He said as if it was obvious. "These bastards are nothing more than assassins, and bad ones at that."

Screams could be heard in the halls, with the sounds of swords clashing violently against one another, the halls were covered in scratch marks, and blood, it made me sick to think someone came here and started killing innocent students for no reason.

I and Rachel followed silently behind Nohr, following his instructions with each and every turn until we made it outside the academy, luckily without encountering a single assassin but not so lucky that we didn't pass a dead body or two.

The bodies of the other students around us lay lifeless, torn apart, and disorientated as their eyed rested wide open, their blood still fresh, spilling out.

The students had fought, and lost... but for what? Why would someone attack the league academy? What cowards would do such a thing?

"Princess, this way, and keep low." Nohr whispered as he crouched down behind a bush outside of the academy that led into the forest surrounding the school.

"I will take you as far as I can, your dad's men will be waiting for you in the forest." Nohr whispered to me, as I nodded my head.

"How do you know?" I asked quietly as he kept low with me and Rachel following behind him.

"He'd suspected something like this would happen, he warned me just in time."

Dad did? What the hell is going on...  He knew this would happen and didn't tell me... Why would he-

Nohr stops and puts his hand up to command us to be quiet as we hear voices in the forest, with a thick deep accent as the voices spoke in another language, a language I didn't recognize, but from the look of Nohr's face, he did.

Once I saw the men, I couldn't believe my eyes, they were tall... tall like Nohr, and huge, covered in Titan sigil colors, despite their blended camouflage colors, it was obvious they came here for a purpose, and not just to slaughter helpless students.

They came here for me, the princess.

Nohr... he'd die if he went up against them, if they found us, Rachel will die because of me too, could I really live with myself if I got any of them hurt?

The students... because of me also, if only I had known, I could've done something, I could have left, then nobody would have to go through this.

As we hid behind a large tree, the four large Titan men walked a few feet past us, towards the academy, there was no sound in the forest other than the hardness of their step against the forest bed.

My heartbeat was beating so loud, I was so sure they'd hear it and find out, but they didn't, and once they were far away enough for us to move, Nohr took it and guided us through the pitch blackness of the forest.

We continued like that for the next thirty minutes, casually tripping over twigs and pausing whenever Nohr told us to until finally, I see a familiar face of the royal guards that worked within the palace.

Walking with Nohr to them, their faces became more relaxed once they saw me, and from noticing their faces, I only realize that one of them I had actually slept with, during my heat and Nohr knew exactly which one it was.

"Royal Princess Hayden, we're here to escort you home." The knight, known as Gabel says.

Nohr watched silently as I clasped my hand in Rachel's and pulled her with me, whilst my eyes stayed on Nohr, who was standing there, watching the exchange.

"What about you?" I ask Nohr, wanting nothing more than for him to come with us.

He slowly shook his head, his eyes drifting back to where we just came from, the same direction where the Academy was.

"I have to go back." He spoke roughly, his eyes solely on me. "You're safe now Princess."

For some reason, it felt like he was saying goodbye to me, but surely that's not what he was doing, right?

"Noh-"

"Come, Princess, we mustn't stay too long, the forest is swarming with enemies." Sir Gabel says, his trained eyes on the forest, on high alert with the rest of the royal knights.

Nohr stepped back into the forest, his eyes still on me with one hand on his hip, hovering over his weapon, and although we said nothing more, we both knew this wasn't goodbye, and that we'll find each other again.

I watched as he disappeared into the forest, the darkness concealing him completely as he went back to the academy, back into the danger that was surely waiting for him.

The look in his eyes said all I needed to know, even without saying anything, they spoke to me, as mine did to him, and they said;

'I'll find you, wherever you are, I'll see you again'

I took that as a promise, after all, I'd forbidden him to leave me again.