Tragedy Never Strikes Alone

---Indigo---

Rachel seized my arm. "We must not jump to conclusions," she hissed in my ear. But the look on her face told me that she was thinking what I was thinking.

"I don't know, Henry. We don't have any evidence to show Lord Victor, unlike the bombing. At least they came up with a burnt wand for that."

"Oh for crying out loud, Urian, do you want to climb down there and look for a body?" Henry snapped, obviously annoyed.

"No, but—"

"Hey boss, someone's coming!" A soldier called. "I think it's a messenger."

A person came running up to the forest, dressed in a light tunic and shorts. Henry and Urian stood up to greet him.

"Oh hey, it's Geoffrey. What's the news?" Henry invited the messenger to sit down with him in the shade.

"Lord Victor wants to know why you're taking so long and if you captured those chosen ones yet," Geoffrey answered, taking a swig from the water canteen that Urian passed to him. "But by looking around, I'm assuming you went for the second option…?"

"You are correct. They didn't want to surrender and put up quite a fight. I lost about a third of my men. Can you believe that? A third of my men, dead, all due to two kids." Henry made a sad face, as if he was pained at the thought of losing all those soldiers. "What were those kids' names again? Albert and Katrina?"

"Aaron and Katherine," Geoffrey corrected. "What happened, exactly? You don't even have their bodies to show Lord Victor."

"Well, so you see those hills behind me?" Henry pointed to the mountain they descended from. "We chased those two all the way up there and tried several times to surround them, but they broke free every time. That boy could control the wind, and he kept blowing my men off the mountain. It was quite annoying."

"That's definitely Aaron," I whispered. Rachel glanced at me with wide eyes.

"They kept running and running, even though they were wounded," Henry was saying. "The girl was bleeding all over, and the boy took a few arrows in the chest. But they kept limping on, supporting each other and fighting back. They were stupid, but stupidly brave."

"Why didn't you just capture them? I mean, if they were wounded and all, isn't it easier to capture them?" Geoffrey asked.

"That's what I suggested!" exclaimed Urian. "But Henry didn't listen."

"I didn't want to lose more men," Henry explained with a side glance at Urian. "I wanted to tire them out, so when they couldn't run anymore, I could overpower them more easily. But then there was a small complication…"

"What?" Geoffrey leaned forward. Lucian, Rachel, and I did too, our hearts in our throats.

"Well, we let the two of them run on ahead because at the speed they were going, they weren't going to get far anyway. Besides, my men were getting tired, and I didn't want to push them too hard." Henry snatched the water canteen from Urian and gulped down some water before continuing. "When we caught up with them, they were standing at the edge of a cliff. The trail had ended, and there was nowhere to run."

"Why didn't you capture them then?" Geoffrey asked.

"I yelled for them to surrender, but they just ignored me, looking at each other with googly, loving eyes and talking to each other softly. You know, all that icky young love stuff. I got impatient, so I ordered my troop forward. There was nowhere for them to run. I was sure we would capture them this time. But you know what those two kids did, Geoffrey?"

"What?"

"They held on to each other and jumped off the cliff. They jumped off a freaking cliff, Geoffrey!" Henry grabbed Geoffrey's shoulders and shook him for emphasis. "Those two lovebirds would rather commit suicide than be captured and brought back to Lord Victor!"

A loud buzz went off in my head. Rachel grabbed my arm and was saying something quietly and urgently, but I didn't see or hear her. All I could see was Aaron and Katherine, arms around each other, leaping off the side of a cliff. 'No. No, no, no. They can't die. Aaron can't die. He promised me he would return safely!'

"Get a grip on yourself!" Rachel shook me. "Indigo, control your emotions! We can't get discovered!"

I hadn't noticed that I was on the verge of bursting through the bushes. Breathing heavily, I shrank back into the safety of the bushes. I stared at Henry intently, trying to see if he was lying. I refused to believe what I just heard. I refused to accept the fact that Aaron was dead.

"Dang, who would've expected that?" Geoffrey commented. "Any sane person would just surrender. Who knows, maybe Lord Victor would have let them live."

"It was such a tragic sight," Urian sighed. "Ah, young love. They looked like they were only sixteen, maybe seventeen. They chose to die together than to be captured."

"What a hopeless romantic." Henry smacked Urian on the head. "I still can't get over the fact that they chose to jump off the cliff and fall to their deaths instead of being captured and brought back to Lord Victor."

"Honestly, though, Henry, just between us, I must say I feel pretty bad for those kids," Geoffrey said quietly. "They're just kids. I may be working for Lord Victor now, but a part of me still makes me feel guilty every time we go after innocent people."

"There's nothing we can do," Henry sighed. "We were all once good people, but look at us now. People can call us traitors, or whatever they want, but a fella's gotta live. Well, the last of the Rosewood Seven are dead, so Lord Victor can rest easy. Hopefully we won't have to kill anyone else now." He stood up and stretched, then yelled across the clearing. "Alright, enough resting, we have to get going now!"

The soldiers stood up reluctantly and made their way out of the forest. We watched them leave and didn't dare move until the last soldier had disappeared from our line of sight.