Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
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Helia dropped her head into her hands at her father's desk and sank her fingers back into her hair. How had this all happened? Pyre hadn't said anything about him being detained by the Alliance when he'd left, and from what Horus had told her, this had all been a set up by their own people to unseat her father. Where did that put her? Even if Pyre was absolved of wrongdoing, there was already dissent in the ranks and this would push any stranglers to support Blaze's lead. That left no place for Helia or Horus within the Cinders. Blaze would stop at nothing with this power grab. They'd have to go into hiding even if Rodney managed to save her father from this issue.
Thinking about Rodney brought tears to her eyes, and she shook them away. Rodney had walked to his death for her family, and Helia'd had to sort out that meaning while Horus went to the lower training room and demolished anything in sight. If the vampire-mage alliance had a death decree out on Rodney, than he was from one of the fallen houses. Horus had known, but she'd been oblivious, which made Rodney a lot stronger than she'd assumed. The man certainly wasn't a bum from society mooching off her brother.
"Helia."
Helia near jumped out of her chair to her father's voice. They had so few scouts left that no one had informed her of his return, and she jumped into his arms like a child. That lasted only a second before she leaned back to inspect her father. Rips and blood marred his mage attire, and she poked and prodded him to find him uninjured. The mages must have healed him when they'd detained him, but that didn't do much for his long, disheveled red hair that stuck to his stained garb in places. Pyre needed to clean up and get fresh clothes before the generals saw this, if they hadn't already.
Pyre couldn't look weak.
"Helia," Pyre said her name when she didn't meet his eyes, too busy crumbling under a poorly placed mask of strength. Fighting vampires, she could do without flinching, clashing with magic that tore her flesh, sure why not, but watching her family fall apart from the inside out wasn't something they'd trained her for.
"I can't," Helia said, biting her lip as she stared at the anti-magic tiles below his desk. "Can you just put yourself together and let me try and compartmentalize."
Pyre's sigh seemed sad rather than disappointed in her lack of poise, which almost had her tipping to tears. Not now. Not now.
"All right. Where is your brother?" Pyre asked, tugging again at her heartstrings.
"You don't want to bother him now," was all Heia could manage to say to his feet.
"I know. I saw Rodney at the complex. Where is he?"
"The training rooms." Helia gave Horus up just so that she herself could escape. Pyre seemed to understand and shuffled around her to sit in his desk. Drawers opened, papers fluttered, and Helia knew her father was getting his affairs in order before the rest of their house asked him to step down. With any foresight, they'd be gone before then. "I need some time to myself." It seemed wrong to just walk off and leave him there when she knew what sort of night he'd suffered.
