"No, don't do it, Aldric!"
Valerie woke with a startled gasp, jolting upwards at once. His breaths were uneven and quick, so he drew long ones in a bid to calm his racing heart and wiped his palm down his face.
For two nights in a row, he has been reliving that incident in his sleep and it left him feeling shaken anytime he woke. Valerie could not forget the look on the witch's face when Aldric slit her throat. She had trusted him, believed in him and expected that he would save her. Yet he failed. Like a fool, his feet were rooted at the spot and watched as Aldric murdered her.
The feeling of helplessness engulfed and tormented him; he did nothing. The witch wouldn't have died if he hadn't involved her in his crazy plan and now it was all on him. The anger built and built inside of Valerie till it reached the bottleneck and all he needed was one more push to explode. If he couldn't protect one witch, how could he protect the Faeries of Astaria?
