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“You knew that? Okay then, where were you going?”

“I…I don’t know exactly, the caves under the mountains,” I force out. We didn’t have a plan, only to get away from the Dragon Kings, and those frightened jumped at the idea.

Dragus scoffs, making me look at him. “The mountains really, you would have been walking straight into their den. I can’t believe you did this. And what about us? Were you just going to leave and never return?” he asks.

“I didn’t want to make you choose,” I yell at him.

“Choose what? you belong here with us,” Dragus retorts. My eyes dart to Silas, then go to the roof.

“You thought we wouldn’t choose you?” Matitus asks.

“No, I just didn’t want to put you in a position to choose”

“We wouldn’t have had to because you wouldn’t have been allowed to leave!” Matitus yells, his eyes flickering dangerously. I can feel his rage through the bond. Matitus was never angry like this, not at me. I can feel his hurt like I betrayed him by leaving, and Dragus is the same. The one that seems almost calm is Silas. Probably because he has already scolded me.

“Argh!” Matitus screams his fist clenching like he wants to punch something.

“Get her out of my sight I can’t fucking deal with her right now.”

“You can’t deal with me?” I scoff.

“No Elora, because I now have to notify the fucking families of the people you just got killed,” he bellows. I don’t see why he is acting like this when they have killed hundreds of people.

“You’re pissed off because two people died by my hands, yet how many have died by yours?” I ask.

“You wanted us to fix the city, wanted us to change things and we did. You are in charge for not even twenty-four hours, and you kill two people, you broke your own fucking rule.” Dragus says.

I am done arguing, we are never getting anywhere. I fucked up, but how many times have they fucked up and I am the one that copped the consequences then forgave them?

“So, it’s okay for you to fuck up, but not me huh,” I ask. Matitus growls but I don’t wait to hear their answers instead, walking to the door. I pull on the handle but it’s locked, remembering that Silas locked it.

“Don’t walk away Elora,” Silas says, but I am done listening to them. “Elora,” Silas warns when I don’t turn around to face him, two seconds ago Matitus wants me gone, now I try to leave, and I’m being told to stay. Enraged, I smacked the door with my palms in frustration not expecting to blow the door to smithereens. The wood splintering as they ripped off the hinges.

“Elora!” Silas bellows.

“Woops,” I mutter, ignoring them and walking out of the room. I hear things being broken behind me but don’t even bother looking back instead heading for our room. Walking up the stairs I walk in and shut the door. Now I am doubting everything including myself. I know I fucked up, knew the moment I first laid eyes on the Broken One which turned out to be Matitus’s brother.

But I can’t help but feel we learned a lot by my mistake, that without me messing up, we wouldn’t have known the Broken Ones could be fixed. That they actually aren’t broken, that beneath the beast is still a man or woman trapped in the confines of themselves, just a little warped and twisted, but not truly broken.

I remain in the room; I don’t want to argue, hasn’t this day been bad enough without us at each other’s throat trying to shift the blame. I can’t face them, not if I am just going to be ridiculed over one mistake. They made their fair share of mistakes and yet I make one and they give up on me. I am not sure how long I am in the room, but I eventually fall asleep, everything becoming too much. I feel mentally drained, I had enough. It is late in the night when I wake to the door creaking open. Light from outside creeping into the room makes my eyes flutter open before feeling the bed dip beside me.

Warmth envelopes me as his arms wrap around me, pulling me flush against him. I hear him sigh and he presses his face into my shoulder. “I know you’re awake.” His voice is rough next to my ear.

“Yeah, because you woke me,” I mumble.

“Why are you hiding here away from us?” Silas questioned. I don’t bother answering. He knows exactly why I am in here.

“Where is Matitus?” I ask.

“Talking to his brother, trying to figure out a plan.”

“Plan?”

“Yes Elora, figure out how to bring them back, we always thought they were dead, that their human counterpart was gone once they became what they are.”

“How come they are like that?” I ask, curious as to why they are different, how they managed to keep themselves from turning out the way the rest did.

“Because we didn’t lose our mates. Dakari lost his first mate and left; we never saw him again after that. Slowly one by one we lost all of them, well we thought we did”