1 Prologue

I remember it all like it was yesterday. Me imagining my mother's screams as the men slaughter her, how terrified I was, and the pain that I felt. To this day, I still feel guilty about not being able to save my own mother, how I wasn't the one who died, but I guess fate decides who lives and who dies.

The ride back home was a little bumpy, considering that we were in a carriage. Mother was looking outside, smiling. I looked at her, curious as to why she was smiling.

"Mother?" I asked.

She looked at me, her bright green eyes sparkling. "Yes, dear?"

"What are you smiling at?"

"I'm simply smiling at the beautiful trees and flowers outside. They're surely wonderful, dear."

Innocently, I said, "May I see?" She picked me up and put me on her lap, so I could get a better look outside. I smiled. "Tulips! Irises! Oh Mother, they're so pretty!"  She smiled and hugged me tightly.

That's when everything took a turn.

We were still riding back to the castle, and it was dark outside. I woke up to see that my mother was asleep also. Suddenly, something crashed. I screamed, and my body flew to the other side of the carriage due to the wreckage. I was scared.

"Aki?" We heard voices shouting, and the sound of horses galloping towards us.

"Get the child with half-demon blood!" I looked at my mother.

"No, it can't be," she said as she looked in fear. She turned to me. "Aki, listen to me, I want you to run. Run as fast as you can, or fly, whatever you can to escape. Go home, and tell your father. Now!"

"B-but what about-"

She interrupted me and said, "Honey, there's no time for this. Go!" Confused and petrified, I got out of the carriage and ran. I saw the tree where we crashed into, I saw the men who were guiding the horses to the castle. They were dead.

"There they go! Get them!" I heard one man shout. I started to cry, but I kept running. I ran as fast as I could and I heard screaming in this distance. 

After what seemed to be hours, I took a break from running, huffing heavily. I didn't know if I was safe, I didn't know what happened to my mother, all I knew was that I needed to get home, where I'm safe, and where my father and baby sister are. Just when I thought I was safe, the men found me.

An arrow was shot through my shoulder. I screamed in pain, and tears started to swell from my eyes. I breathed heavily, and the men started to surround me.

"So, this is the child with demon blood? What a pretty little girl she is," one of the men said.

Another one chuckled. "She sure is. Looks just like her mother." He looked at my petrified face. He walked closer to me, and I started to tremble. The man put his hands on my face. "Shh, we're not going to hurt you, we promise."

I pushed his hand away from me. "Who are you, and where's my mother?"

"Your mother?" The man smirked and said, "Your mother, she's gone. You'll never see her ever again hon." I started to cry even more. "It's okay, sweetie, we'll protect you. Just com-"

"No! I'm not a stupid little girl!" I popped out my wings and began to fly as fast as I could.

"Get her!"

All I could think about was my mother. She was so kind and so sweet, how could she just disappear? It didn't make sense to me at all. Something wasn't adding up. I just knew it. Mother would never abandon me.

An arrow was shot at my leg. I cried out in pain and fell to the ground. I tried to hard not to cry. I tried to walk, but the pain was too much. 

The men caught up to me a minute after I came down. They looked down on me with hatred in their eyes. A man came up towards me.

"You know, things didn't have to be this way, Princess," he said. "You could've come with us peacefully, and none of this would've happened. Since you resisted us, you have to pay the price." Before he could hack me with the axe he had in his hand, I remember a spell my father taught me.

"Ignis ego sum infernum vivus ardebit qui fallere conatur translates to 'I am fire, I am hell, those who try to deceive me will burn alive," my father said. "Use this spell to protect yourself, okay Akira?"

A barrier blocked the man from striking me in the head. I looked down.

"What? How is this possible? She's only a little girl."

"Ignis ego sum infernum vivus ardebit qui fallere conatur!" I shouted.

"Wha-" the man screamed as his body all of a sudden set on fire. The men that were behind him looked horrified.

"Leave, or the same thing will be done to you," I said, trying to sound as scary as possible.

Petrified, the men ran without saying a single word. I suddenly became exhausted. I limped to the nearest tree, then I fainted.

I woke up to see my father staring at me.

"F-father?" I whispered.

"You're finally awake," he said. "I have some news to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Your mother, she's dead, Aki."

I looked with fear on my face. I was young, but I knew what the meaning of death meant.

"N-no", I murmured, "impossible."

"Are you okay, Akira?" my father asked. I wanted to cry so badly, but he would see me as weak if I did.

"Y-yes, I'm f-fine," I replied.

"Alright."

He left the room saying nothing else. I felt the heaviness of guilt and shame weighing down on my heart.

"Mother is dead", I said to myself, "and it's all of my fault," I remember what the men said to me. "Those men, t-they killed her."