9 of hearts and 2 of aces

Meilie stepped back and struck the beast with her whip, ready to yank his head off, but her whip never collided with its body.

Instead, it was caught by its hands, and now Meilie was yanked towards it with such force. The only way to save herself now was to let go of her whip. And she did, the force thrusting her towards the grounded so violently, sending fatal gashes on her knees.

The beast growled. This was not a normal beast. He could stand on two legs and had eyes—eyes! A beast had eyes. Wait until Meilie saw one with a tongue too. 

With a roar it lunged towards her, ready to pry her heart out from her body. Meilie sighed in frustration. So annoying. She ducked the lunging beast, and rolled on the ground towards her whip. The beast snapped his head 180° in a manner only a beast could mimick.

Uh-oh. He looked angry. It lunged again and Meilie jumped into the air to crank it with her whip, but the beast jumped side ways too, totally understanding the art of ducking.

"Shit." Meilie cursed under her breathe. She'd have to burn him with wards. But she didn't seem to have enough time to draw wards around her, since the beast kept attacking. It was so desperate for food. She needed to get out of this place. She'd need to leave this forest instantly. If more came, there was no way she was getting out of here.

As the beast, once again, pounced to gobble her up, she ducked and ran in the direction towards the wards. The night was heavy, and the forest was dark. She'd have to be quick. It was almost going to be midnight, any later and this forest would be crawling with beasts everywhere.

The beast who'd been attacking her earlier chased after her on all fours, drool lining his lower jaw as it growled.

He'd caught on her scent. Meilie ran as fast and as soundlessly as she could. The wards were right ahead. She make it.

And now she'd jinxed it. "FUCK!" the beast slashed at her back with his claws so deep, her shoulder blades almost ripped apart.

•••

"An ace?" Audrey questioned, her golden-blond hair hanging loose from her shoulders. Her violet eyes pierced into Devon's own, capable of leaving him sightless for the rest of his life but Devon held his ground even though he well knew that he would end up blind. Pride came without a price.

"Yes, Audrey. I am sure it was an ace who attacked us and I do not think repeating it over and over would change what I saw" Devon said firmly.

"Then you saw wrong! Aces don't fight each other, we are sworn not to break the oath, no ace would slay it's own!" Audrey yelled. She was going to wake up the whole of the kingdom if she turned any more aggressive.

"Audrey, I did not see wrong. If you doubt what I saw then how about you go and see it for yourself. And if it wasn't an ace of our kingdom, then it was surely from the other kingdom." Devon said.

Audrey was taken aback at his show of furiousity, she looked like she could kill a person while Devon looked like he could die. So now it was all water against the soil.

"Audrey" Devon heard Barran while he slumped on the floor with his head buried in his hands "He just saw Guilford almost die. Go easy on him" Barran whispered.

Audrey seemed to understand that a bit though not enough to remove that permanent frown on her forehead. Devon did not look up from where he sat as she came to stand right in front of him. With a sigh, she kneeled down "If those aces weren't from our kingdom then how did they cross the wards. Only the residents of our kingdom can cross the wards."

As if to answer her unanswered question, Foyer came into the medic's room where they were all sitting next to a passed out Guilford "Someone just crossed the wards" he said.

Devon arched his eyebrows at Audrey. Audrey sighed "Fine. You win. People can cross the wards now. So? one more ace to kill?" Audrey asked taking her long sword out.

Foyer's eyes widened as he looked at her long sword "No, no, no!" he said taking the sword away from her and hanging it on the hooks. "what I meant to say is that they need protection."

"Protection from what?" Devon stood up, his shoulder almost knocking into Audrey. She glared at him.

"It was self-defence crossing the wards. They seemed to be followed by a beast. The wards would have burned down their weapons anyway, but I don't think they had any. The beast was burned but I dont think it is safe even inside the kingdom anymore." he said looking at Devon as if he was the God.

"You mean there are more?" Devon questioned, his voice dipped into an angry note.

"There have to be more" Barren piped in "You already found three. I don't think that is the end. I suspect there are more. They might be in hiding for the time being"

"Or they could be silently preying over the by-passers," Audrey said slowly.

"but that would mean they can prey anyone. How would we even be able to save the people of our kingdom?" Foyer asked.

"Then we will have to spread out into the kingdom. One in each part." Devon said thoughtfully. It would be difficult but not impossible, they already had enough Aces.

Barren nodded. "sounds like a good idea. Foyer, you go and alert all the aces. I'll stay here with Guilford." Barren said.

Devon did not trust Barren to keep Guilford safe. A shadow crossed over his face that Devon couldn't quite catch on. Devon slowly moved towards Barren who seemed to be checking Guilford up and down. Devon was about to offer to stay with Guilford when Audrey took hold of his arm with a death grip. "I know you want to protect him" she said, the frown still on her face "But I believe one person is not worth the whole kingdom. It would be a wise choice to help the aces out there other than slumping on the corner of the room like a coward." Devon could think of a thousand things to say to Audrey but at that moment he was too exhausted to even be his snappy self. He pulled his arm away from her grip and after about two minutes of glaring at each other, they both finally decided to move ahead.

Devon walked ahead of Audrey towards the palace in the capital and walked into the throne room.

Devon met all the aces collected into the throne room, the royals were giving orders to them. "We need someone to check on the wards near the Darklands" the Queen was asking.

Devon volunteered "I will do it."

She nodded "Go spadille, save the one in need."

Devon ran outside the castle and towards the wards of Darklands where he was sure someone had escaped from. Now there was nobody there. The silence was filled in the air holding the power to crush one's bones. The breath of the deceased still lingered in the air. Devon was sure the person was from this kingdom. They had known what would have happened if they crossed the wards and it certainly hadn't been an ace. Then what was this person doing outside the kingdom?

Devon could see the ashes of the beast. It had been the most furious beast, the most dangerous of the kind. To escape from this kind of a creature was certainly the toughest job, even for an ace. Either this person had been escaped from a hairsbreadth distance from the beast or they were simply close enough to the border to jump out. Thats when he saw blood spread into the grass.

Devon touched the prints on the sand were he assumed their body had crashed. He was sucked into a vision as he felt purple flashes near his eye. He saw curly jet black hair wave as a familiar head rushed towards the ward, her hand stretched.

"Fuck!" She screamed as the beast's claw struck her back and she was thrust into the wards.

Devon cursed under his breath. He knew it was her.

•••

Meilie shivered as she ran in the cold night, aimless of where to go. She could hear her own breath, quick and restless. She was perplexed. Her back ached as if she'd been lifting the weight of the sky on her shoulders.

Her legs were aching, not only aching, they had been wounded so many times in the short while that the blood was now on the soil. And her back. Oh lord. She could imagine the bloody mess she was.

Meilie could have at least got her boots. She hugged her gown around her body. Her red coat was wet so she couldn't wear it, it wouldn't be of much help but Meilie needed something to carry the coat in. Her hands had become sweaty due to holding it so tight and very sticky because of the water seeping out from the cloth.

The medic's house was close by. Meilie only had to walk for a few kilometres more. A strong wind passed by her and Meilie shivered visibly. She wished the night would pass away quickly.

Meilie heard a rustle behind her. She turned around to only see a rabbit hop out of the bushes and vanish into the dark. All around her, the walls were lit by lamps hanging on them casting their yellow faint glow on the surroundings. The walls looked ancient. Meilie had looked at those walls a million times but she never got tired of them.

Meilie was still wearing her grey gown from the other day and the red coat that once had belonged to her father was in her hands.

Meilie suddenly stopped, and pain seared throughout both her knees. She hissed. She readied herself for battle as she looked at the figure in front of her, clutching her whip tightly in her palm. The man was wearing a robe with a hoodie pulled over his skull so his face wasn't visible, though Meilie guessed it was a man by the shape of his shoulders.

"Who are you" Meilie's voice came out hoarse and barely audible but the man didn't seem to be keen on listening to her. He raised his crossbow and aimed it at Meilie's heart. Meilie breathed a sigh.

She snapped the whip, ready to attack the man and halted abruptly, the pain in her shoulders freezing her entire body as they bleed a cup. In a flash, the crossbow arrow was released and Meilie found it buried into her foot. Meilie let out a pained sound while the man now with a knife in his hand came towards Meilie who had fallen to the ground. She tried to grab her whip as he ran towards her.

Her panting grew as she huffed on air. Her lunges were burning. She was vaguely aware of the yelling behing her as her body felt weird. It felt almost as if something had been cracked upon. An odd feeling spread throught her, almost like pleasure—satisfaction.

•••

Devon heard someone yelling. He hurried in the direction where he had heard the scream but before he could pinpoint where exactly, everything went eerily quiet. Devon had a sudden fear build inside his bones that he had failed again as he ran towards where he thought the noise came from.

He was at the Medic's house. He knocked twice knowing that Audrey would have come here to find something that worked well for Guilford and check on him. She opened the door with a jerk. It looked like she had hurried from whatever she was doing as soon as she had heard the scream.

"Yeah, I heard that too, come on!" Devon rolled his eye but followed her nevertheless.

Devon could smell the flames and magic from this far away. He wondered what had happened over there. He sniffed again. The flames were magic, he smelled it. "its magic, the flames" he said.

"magic? I've never known anyone except the lady of diamonds who could do magic...and, of course, us, I mean minor magic," she said making an odd face.

"That is called parelthon. 'To parelthon' means past in Greek, did you know that?" parelthon magic allowed the aces to look into the past of things that have already occurred.

"No and I don't care," Audrey said casually and moved ahead of Devon. Devon resisted the urge to roll his eyes for the second time this evening.

"Gods" Audrey had stopped next to the body of the man in robe lying motionlessly on the ground. With tender hand, she uncovered his face. It was burned, burned to the point where nobody could recognise it.

Devon did not stay there long enough to see her reaction. He moved towards the blood prints on the soil. The blood looked fresh. Devon was sure that the prey had been harmed but not harmed enough to die. But who was the prey and how had they done it?

He touched the blood on the soils and felt the familiar sensation of parelthon magic being acted. Devon was sucked into another vision for the second time this night. He saw the same girl. Her golden-brown hair plated into thin twin braids dangling from her shoulders. She was whimpering and panting all at once. Devon couldn't see her face once again but this time he did see a clue that gave him a lead to finding the girl. There was a wound created by a knife near her heel. The girl had to be a warrior, she had escaped from a beast by herself, then killed an ace who tried to kill her, and now she ran with a deep wound created by the knife in her leg.

Devon turned back to Audrey. He had to find this girl, only then would they know if she was on the good side or the bad side.

He picked the knife lying next to the burned body of the ace and kept it in his pocket.

"What do you think this is?" Audrey turned to him.

"I think one of the forces intervened" Devon lied. The forces like Lady diamond or the bedpost queen rarely ever intertwined with the mortal affairs, but that reason seemed to fit.

"but...What will you do with that knife?" Devon knew that she was about to ask something else but she had let the matter drop. Audrey knew Devon well. She knew when he was lying and she knew that he always had a nice reason to.

She reached behind her and threw him a crossbow arrow. "That knife was unused as I reckon. Use the arrow, maybe you'll find out something."

Devon flashed her an annoyed look. Just then they saw Foyer running towards them. He stopped in front of Devon and panted

"Barren's gone."