Standoff

I stood up and walked over to stand beside Aaron. I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Aaron, don't push her too far. She will hurt you."

"I'd like to see her try!" Aaron turned to face me, his eyes blazing. "Kath, how can you still speak up for her when she betrayed all of us? She betrayed you, her best friend. She left you to die, and you're still on her side?"

"Aaron, I'm only trying to protect you. She's a spellmaster. Her spells can be fatal, Aaron. You know that." I said calmly, slowly tugging Aaron back. He shook my hand off.

"Listen to Katherine." Ashley's voice was cracked and broken. Her trembling hand held her wand and pointed it at Aaron's chest. "I will say the spell, Aaron. I will. Don't make me hurt you more than I've already have."

"Go on. I dare you. I want to see just how deep your allegiance with Lord Victor goes!" Aaron squared his shoulders and faced Ashley, completely defenseless.

I pulled Aaron back and stepped in front of him to face Ashley. Her wand was now trained on me. "Ashley, don't do this. Please."

My eyes suddenly burned with tears of betrayal as I looked at the girl who was once my best friend, who I thought would always have my back. "In our ten years of friendship, I've never asked anything of you. But now, if you ever considered me your friend, I ask you to not hurt Aaron."

Ashley's watery gaze focused on me. I continued softly, holding her gaze and trying to not let my own tears fall. "If our friendship meant anything to you in the past, show me. If you even once valued me as your best friend, don't do this. Don't make more mistakes than you've already did."

Ashley never replied, but her wand remained pointed at me. Then, slowly, slowly, she lowered her hand. We stood there, facing each another in silence, for what seemed like an eternity.

"I'm sorry, Katherine," Ashley whispered, her voice cracking on my name. "I'm sorry…"

Just then, Lord Victor came strolling back. Taking one look at the intense scene, he wrapped an arm around Ashley's shoulders and began guiding her away. "Come on now, enough visiting time," he urged. "They're not nice to you anymore, are they?" Then as soft as a feather's touch, he whispered in Ashley's ear: "The dead can't truly become alive anyways." With a sweep of his long black cape, Lord Victor led Ashley away from our line of sight and back down the hall.

Aaron finally slumped and withdrew to the back of the cell, where he placed his back against the cold stone wall and slid down slowly. "I still can't believe it," he murmured. "I still can't believe that Ashley would be the one to betray us."

"I can't either," I whispered, looking down the corridor in the direction that Ashley and Lord Victor had disappeared to. "She was my best friend. Never would I have thought…I didn't think she…"

The full truth crashed down on me, hard. I trudged back to where Aaron was and sat down. Leaning against the wall, I sat adjacent to Aaron and twisted a piece of straw idly in my hands. Never in a million years would I have thought that Ashley would be the one to betray us. If I had to rank the seven of us in order from the most likely to betray us to the least, Ashley would be on the bottom. It was hard to accept the fact that years of friendship meant nothing to her, and all the promises were empty ones. I snapped the straw in half.

"She seemed so sad after Jason died," Aaron said, almost to himself. "Indigo told me she was afraid that Ashley would be vulnerable to Lord Victor's temptations. I vouched for Ashley. I reassured Indigo that Ashley was strong enough to resist, and that she was loyal enough to not betray us. I was so wrong. I was dead wrong."

"I guess what they say is true," I said bitterly. "The people who betray you are the ones whom you trust the most."

Aaron let out a long sigh and kicked at the scattered straw halfheartedly. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his head on them. "First Jason, and now Ashley. We're both captured by Lord Victor, with no way out. The team is falling apart, and Lord Victor might be going after Indigo and them this very moment. What are we supposed to do?"

"The Elders warned us of betrayal," I said to myself. "They knew something would happen. But we were too naïve and innocent to even think that a friend would betray us."

"We're stuck in this prison. There are guards posted everywhere. How will we ever escape?" Aaron sounded like he was despairing. His depressed tone snapped me back to reality.

"There has to be a way out. We'll just have to wait for our chance and seize it when it comes. In the mean time, why don't you fill me in on all that's happened since I was captured?" I asked. A question surfaced in my mind, and I blurted out the question that's been tormenting me all this time: "Is Jason really dead? Did he…did he really die?"

Aaron raised his head and met my eyes with his sad gaze. A circle of red ringed his chocolate-colored eyes. I knew the answer before he said it, but I still wanted to hear it from his lips.

"Yes. Jason died the day you were captured."