Lavender (2) : Sons of the Deveaux

Chapter One

LILLITH

Dead.  Duck. Move.  Dead. Duck. Parry.  Dead. 

Over and over, it repeated in Lilly's head, unable to silence the thought. The mental image Mirabell had painted wouldn't leave her. 

To see her sister sprawled on the hard tile flooring of the throne room. To see her sightless eyes staring out and blood congealing around her in a pool. Her ravaged back, her destroyed body. 

The only thing to pull the fairy from her morbid inner thoughts was the flash of golden hair in front of her, a wooden blade slashing down towards her neck. With a gasp, Lilly stepped back, losing her footing and falling on her ass with a clatter. 

The jolt ran up her spine, making her hiss at the sting. 

"Again." 

How many times have they done this now? 

Wincing, she picked herself up from the ground. Lilly had to drag air into her lungs before hefting to her feet with a smothered groan. Her limbs ached. Her muscles ached. 

They had been at it for three hours now, Orian finally caving to her want of training to put a weapon in her hand. 

Shame it weighed nearly half of her already. Lilly could just about lift the sword without her arms trembling from the heaviness of it, the grip wrong in her hands, but she tried. 

Shaking off the pains and bruises she knew would be forming, the fairy squared her shoulders and focused on Lennox across the hall from her. 

Nobody else was allowed inside as she worked off the frustration growing inside her. The anger that was bubbling like a keg just waiting to explode. She couldn't smother it this time. She couldn't pretend there was nothing wrong and suffer in silence. 

Before, anytime they had gotten hurt, Genevieve had been the one to turn to. Evie had been the one to seek out and look for comfort with. Her oldest sister was nothing but compassionate and gentle, even inside the violent home they had been subjected to. 

"Come on, pretty girl. You wanted to do this, right? You wanted to learn. So learn." 

Again, Lennox came at her, calculated, fixated as he swung the sword, and she tried her best to avoid it. At least she was learning some things in the short time they'd been at it. How to use her size to her advantage. 

As a tiny target, she had to use her size against the opponent to learn how to bend and twist her slight frame against others who would think she was less than a glimpse of a threat. 

"C'mon girly. You want to be a killer, right? You want revenge, right? Hit me." 

Panting for air against the fatigue trying to set into her hands and arms, Lilly was staring at Lennox as small vines sprouted from the grip she held on her own. It was locking her fingers around the hilt tightly. 

Don't let go. 

Let go, and you are dead. 

Never let go of your weapon. 

"Hit me." Lennox clacked his sword against hers confidently. "Hit me." Clack. "C'mon. Do it." 

"Do it, starlight." Orian was at the corner watching them. He'd been against the entire thing, demanding she rests and dealt with her emotions. Lilly didn't want that right now. "Hit him." 

He'd clearly be satisfied if she landed a smack on his brother. Maybe a little too pleased, given the little smirk on his scarred face. 

"You want to be strong, right? Cmon." 

He was goading her, pushing her buttons to get a reaction. Anger coiled, thorns twisted into the blunt wood turning it vicious. Tiny mushrooms grew at the corners of the walls and doors, their spores spitting the air. A black pollen cloud of malicious intent. 

Gritting her teeth, Lilly pushed energy through her tired body and forced herself to move, duck, swing, move, duck, stab. One way or another, she would land a hit this time. 

The longer she lasted, the more her confidence grew. 

Until Lennox knocked her little sword from her hands with one strong swing, the thin vines letting go of the blade to merge together into a spike that reached for him instead. Her anger drove the little plants, caught up in the attack, caught up in her focus to be good at this. 

Be good at something. Be more than a pretty princess on the arm of some males. 

In her haste to touch him, Lillith couldn't reign in her growth; she couldn't force the small plants to retract themselves, reaching for the rest-headed male. 

She had opened her mouth to quickly warn him when Lennox simply caught the thorny spike a mere inch from his throat, a cocky grin on his stupidly handsome face, eyes shining at her full of mischief. In his grip, the vines withered, reduced to ash and dust against his fire. 

While he might be having fun trying to amp up her violent side, it was obvious to her that he had been doing nothing more than playing with her. 

"You're just placating me. Look how fah-fast you cauh-c-caught that." Her arm sank away from him, frustration thick in her like sludge. 

Her sister had died while she was down here playing happy families. 

Her sister had died while she was getting distracted in this new place.

She was learning her husbands to be, and Evie would never know what that was like anymore. 

"Listen to me, fairy, and listen well. You can't do shit for dead people. That's just how it is. Revenge is your own thing, your own problem to handle. You're doing this for yourself, not for your sister." 

"Alright, we don't need a whole emotional speech about it yet. Ease off." 

Lilly felt Orian's presence at her back, his hand reaching around to brush off the remaining fauna from her skin, sending little zinging awareness through her fingertips instead. 

Drawing in a deep breath, Lillith closed her eyes. Delated by her emotions and thoughts. "I know thah-that. Evie wou-wouldn't want more bl-lood spilt in pl... p-place of her, but I can't s-sit back as nothing hah-happens to him. I just ... I f-f-feel it in my bones, Lennox. This-s urgency I can't sheh-shake off." 

"It'll ease, stardust. You'll improve as you practise, and we'll make the moves to know how to manage what's happened. A father murdering his daughter is one thing. Your father murdering your sister is another." Orian's hand stroked over the heavy braid her hair was set in. 

"A slight to you is a slight to us. And a slight to us is an insult to the demon realm itself." Lennox was stretching his arms over his head, the movement pulling his shirt taught and showing off sculpted muscles beneath, the V that disappeared into his leathers.

"Like the butterfly effect. You stamp on a flower and endure the wrath of a realm." 

"We can be your weapons. You can use us to dictate what you want to happen and what you want to plan. Let us do what we have been doing all our adult lives while you understand your capabilities." Orian stepped in tighter against her back, her wing fluttering at the feel of his clothes brushing the sensitive surface. 

"Like this, fairy." Taking her hand, a smokey tendril ran down his hand, snaking out from beneath the long-sleeve top he wore to form a foggy weapon. A large, serrated knife that moved like smoke when she tried to wave it back and forth. 

It was fascinating how Orian's power worked. To see how much he could do with even just a little bit of it, the kind of control he exerted over the mist that seeped from him. 

With a hand covering hers, he moved her slowly, showing Lilly how to slash and parry in the way he preferred to fight. Lennox mimicked the opposing strikes to counter and brush off in slow motion. 

"Like this? See? And slowly, we work up. Like a dance, see?" 

"Should we play music?" Lennox's face was split again into a sharp-toothed grin as he called over his shoulder. "Cerberus. Play Lennox Training Playlist." 

"Playing. I Prevail - Gasoline." 

Thunderous music came through the speakers of the training centre, nothing like what she'd been used to hearing before. There were no violins or pianos from what she could tell. It was intense, the vibrations worming through her entire body. 

Not that she had much time to appreciate it as the pair of them fell into step, forcing her to follow.

Compared to before, this was far rougher; she could see how Lennox's eyes would watch Orian, careful of every move his brother made. Every shift in muscle, every twitch in reaction. 
Lennox lunged his arm forward as Lillith stared at the wooden sword coming towards her face before Orian spun her with his body to face the wall, a clash of weapons behind her instead. 

Tilting her head back against Orian's chest, Lilly's eyebrows rose in question.

Wasn't this supposed to be her training session? 

Not a little fun time for boys to be boys. 

Not that she got a chance to voice that sour thought as Orian let go of her in a rush against his red-headed twin. Little sparks broke out over Lennox's shoulders and hair as he began to ooze power and graze, the pair locked in a much deadlier battle than her beginner lesson. 

It couldn't have been more apparent the sheer difference between where Lillith was now and where the twins stood. The difference in strength and ability. The pair had experienced fights she would never be part of, battles she would never win. 

But this was more about letting off steam than anything. To push the emotions that were corroding her control. It wasn't like before. The fairy couldn't reach out into the void and grab that power she had felt when the ghoul had attacked, nor the rush that had come when the twins had put their hands on her. 

Crossing her arms over her middle, the fairy breathed a sigh, deflating in the swamp of her own emotions. 

Fear and anger. Outrage and despair. They were mixing, crossbreeding into a mess that had nowhere to go, even in training. 

The mushrooms popped to life, clustering along the edges of the walls more, varying in shape and colour. All toxic. All brought to the surface without conscious thought. She had to do this. She had to. She could never go back to being a victim after what her sister had suffered.


The sound of the metal door knocking before it opened brought her attention. A blonde head poked its way through the gap as Mirabell peered inside. Lilly couldn't fault her for that. Her younger sister had been following her like a puppy the last few days. This was a new place, and after experiencing the horror she had suffered, Mirabell no doubt needed an anchor to keep her steady. 

Lillith tried her best to relax tense shoulders, to wipe the anxiety off her face as her sister came forward, wide-eyed at the sceptical in front of her. Being trapped in that house so much, it was no surprise she was enamoured with so much to explore, with the twins battling; they had never been privy to it before. 

"Are you busy? I didn't mean to intrude. I just... I wanted to see if you were okay." 

Lilly could read between those lines. Her sister wanted to make sure Lillith hadn't done anything reckless in the aftermath of the bomb that had been dropped. The fairy couldn't fault her Mirabell for the worry. Often days when they were still living under the Fae monarchy's roof, she had found Lillith teetering on the thought of jumping from the window of the tower. With two wings, you had a slim possibility of flying. With one, it was significantly lower. Though thoughts like that had been rampant when the pain was too much and the panic too strong to calm herself. 

"I'm okay. Really. These two are keeping me preoccupied." Coming over to stand beside one another, Lillith reached for a bottle of water from the small cooling box they kept in the training room, cracking the top open with a rough twist that Lennox had shown her to do. Water spilt over her hands at the overly zealous movement, but it still did the job of opening. Taking a much-needed drink, the fairy offered her sister, who shook her head in return. 

"It's so very strange here. So much is different from home and what we have." 

"I suppose so. But you'll l-ll-learn to naveh-navigate it quickly enough, don't wu-worry." 

"I didn't expect the trees," Mirabell noted, her hands twisting together in front of the dress she wore. The Queen had gifted Lilly with trousers, dark brown leathers similar to what the males wore but shapelier. They had earned her plenty of stares from her soon-to-be husbands, although Lennox made a complaint about the 'easy access' her dresses gave.

Lilly wasn't sure what exactly he was talking about with that comment. 

"Why do you want to do this? Its very violent. Wouldn't you rather be inside with the others? The Queen is embroidering, why don't you sit with her instead of doing this?"

A frown scrunched Lilly's eyebrows together as she inhaled slowly to calm her rapid heartbeat. Because I can't be a pretty decoration. Because I won't be like our mother. Because I can't be a victim again. "I s-sus-suppose I want mm.. More from life-fe."

Mirabell couldn't fault her for that. Her sister was the youngest after all, the golden child. She hadn't experienced the same abuse, something Lilly would forever be grateful for, being able to protect somebody.

Like Genevieve had done for them.

Even thinking of her older sister had tears burning the back of the fairies eyes and a lump tightening in her throat. A sizzle of miserable anxiety coursed through her in a wave, churning her stomach.

They'd have to go back soon. They'd have to go and face their father and make him regret all he had done and as much as Lillith wanted so badly to wail and scream and wield a sword bravely in the face of a monster – she was also terrified.

"Do y-you want to learn-n?"

"This? Oh no, not me, no. I wouldn't be good at this. Look how intimidating they are. And to think, those two are the youngest. Can you imagine what the likes of Brimstone can do? Or the King even?"

Lillith hadn't particularly taken that into consideration. Her fiance's were in a class of their own. But then again, she also had nothing else to go by from how they were raised before. 

Like a blank piece of paper, Lilly wanted her life to be a book of rich memories and adventure, not a one liner and full stop.