Page 57 of Fallen Thorns
Over the commotion, a glint of silver shone as a bloody arm raised up into the sky. Multiple gasps blended with the wet crunch that followed as a knife plunged down into someone’s chest.
ChapterFourteen
The room erupted into chaos. A few people screamed in horror but most simply stood frozen in shock. It was fairly obvious someone had just Manipulated someone else into killing — or at best, maiming — another. But regardless of the circumstances leading to that point, someone was bleeding out horribly on the cold, dead floor and someone else was armed.
Marianne came into swift focus, shoving her way through the crowd to reach the centre. Mars pushed themself past my shoulder; Marianne’s second-in-command knowing exactly what to do. They reached out in force for the attacker, who was now stood in shock, eyes glassy in a fresh state of realisation. Mars disarmed them and pulled the assailant’s arms behind them in a firm restraint. They didn’t resist.
I was close enough by that point to be able to watch as Marianne and two other Thorns tended to the victim, who as I noticed once I glanced down, was left lying in a sickening, bloody mess of their own body. Their entire chest cavity looked to have collapsed inwards; exposing shredded fabric and what could have easily been broken ribs. A steady flow of red pooled their body.
Marianne supported the head and didn’t even flinch even when the victim coughed up blood and it sprayed up into her face. She remained calm and collected as if this was a mess she had cleaned up countless times before. Another Thorn pressed a piece of cloth, torn from their shirt, at the victim’s throat to try and slow the arterial spray from the lacerations. Someone retched then began to vomit behind me. Ben.
Casper was instantly at his aid, supporting his boyfriend’s posture and I caught the soft assurances beneath his breath. “It’s okay, Ben. Marianne will save her. You know she always does.”
Ben appeared to be reliving something, and I paused as the words sank in. There was still so much I didn’t know about these people: their lives, their pasts. I perhaps should have been glad I did not understand why this had triggered him.
My gaze wandered back around to the horrific sight before me. I thought, rather morbidly, how peculiar it was that it was possible for that much blood to be given off without such thing as a beating heart.
I was undoubtedly in shock. My mind had a tendency to wander when that was the case. I felt separate from my body, like I was astral projecting and not physically present.
Mars had since dragged the danger away, to where I did not know, but my only focus was on the body before me.
Someone caused this.
WasIcapable of such a thing?
‘Your morals are intact.’
No, of course not.
But that night.
What would I have done if I had not been saved?
* * *
The victim’sname was Elise, a girl I learned had been turned not long before Ben and Casper. Another vaguely put result of ‘being saved by Marianne’. I had learned to never push for further details because my mind always filled in the blanks. This particular case was easy to deduce, merely from the whispers painting the room.
I was sitting in a side room with Ben and Casper, who had ushered me away from the scene once we knew Elise was going to survive. (How, I will never quite fathom, but it was a relief nonetheless.)
“You see, this was what I was afraid of,” Ben piped up, his voice pitched a little higher than I remembered it. “This fighting amongst us. How can we ever know who to trust?”
Casper sighed, seeming unsure of how to respond. “I guess we just don’t.” He brushed his hand over his shorn red curls.
“What was she trying to achieve anyway?” Ben snapped, raising his hands in frustration.
“She needs to know us.” Carmen’s voice slipped through the doorway and I was relieved to find an unharmed Rani loitering behind her. My friend sped up once she saw me and instantly joined my side, her eyes silently searching mine for a reassurance that I was okay. I believed I was, at least on the surface. I nodded.
“She needs to get to the very bottom of whois a Thorn bysoul,” Carmen continued as she entered the light, crouching to sit cross legged on the ground in front of us.
I couldn’t help but feel like she was directing that statement at me. A habit I appeared to have developed over the short time of knowing her. I tried not to make eye contact.
“By getting us to kill each other?” Ben’s voice rose. “I thought these lessons were to help us worktogether, you know, for the ‘greater good.’” He emphasised the last part with his fingers, while Casper’s hand stroked his leg in comfort. They looked at each other in mutual sadness.
“She’s trying to strengthen our minds to prevent another attack like Isiah’s.” I didn’t hold back, blurting my thoughts out into the open. “She thinks someone very powerful is behind this, and after what we saw…” I realised then that Mars wasn’t in the room with us and my voice and confidence dwindled. Everyone was looking straight at me in alarm. A thousand eyes. My chest stung.
“I think what he means is…” Rani broke the silence in my defence.God, I love her.“Marianne understands the power she’s seen over her lifetime and she’s worried now that we’re not prepared for what she thinks is coming. It was all a test to see what she has to work with.”
I looked up at her the same time that she looked at me. “Thank you,” I mouthed.
