Can you love me

first assignment

Never in my life have I been this popular. Ever the 'prince' himself talked to me, I was the talk of the town. Jayden has been ignoring me and it was starting to bother me, Armour was already the silent type so I was left to overthink and stress myself out.

Only thing that made me happy was the upcoming Silver Knight assignment. Our first task as Luca revealed will be guarding a treasured old artefact being transferred from some city to our academy. We have to travel with the object to keep it safe. After begging more than I ever did, Luca told me that the artefact is a globe of some old dead seer and one can actually see the future in it.

As much as I tried to sound cool and nonchalant about it, I was damn curious to know about my future.

For the assignment, we were in packs and there were cars filled with four students each. But in my case there were three students as one place was occupied by my Armour.

But Jayden Wallace who had been ignoring me for past few days was willing in my group now. And the third one was Laura, the only other person in our class whom I could tolerate.

"Did the seer died of age or someone killed her?" Laura asked breaking the awkward silence among us.

"Died of age probably since she could see the future and all. She would have known if she was about to be killed." Jayden answered quite calmly.

"Or maybe she was tired of her life and fear of seeing the future that she wanted to die," I said in a tone harsher than usual.

Armour gave me a look of warning.

"Who would want to die with such amazing power?" Jayden held challenge in his eyes.

"I know a few," I answered looking back in his eyes.

"I understand, power is not always fun. It is also a burden." Laura said.

And after that no one spoke.

***

The village was nothing like a village, it was more like a barren island. Few people lived there and that too in a bad condition. Walking around in shreds of clothes, humans looked shrivelled and lifeless. Their eyes held curiosity as they looked at us but no energy to react.

"The Barca Plague." Brendon came from behind us walking with his group.

"These are the actual survivors?" I asked remembering this story too well.

How in the previous war when Serpent King attacked , his one poison breathe affected the whole continent in one go and these few humans are what was left of the attack.

"How did these survive?" Laura asked curious about this.

"There is said to be a healer at that time." Armour answered surprising us all.

"A healer skilled enough to cure the poison breath?" I was impressed already.

He nodded and we all just looked at these people living in such conditions.

"Follow me." A man in a gray tunic and brown sandals came to us.

And we did, to finally reach a small house made of bamboo. He gestured for us to stop outside. His eyes rose to observe us and then he pointed out Jayden and said, "You shall take the globe."

Jayden entered the house while we all waited for about half an hour. A little girl came up to Armour , a little healthier than the older people and gestured him to sit down and listen to her. Armour obliged, "Is she your girlfriend?" She whispered loud enough for me to hear.

Armour just looked at girl with utter surprise. It was kind of funny to watch.

"Can I be your girlfriend then?" The girl of no more than ten-year-old said.

"Sure. He would love that." I answered for Armour and stifled a laugh.

The small girl gave a coy smile Armour who just looked highly uncomfortable.

Suddenly bamboo house door opened and out stepped Jayden , followed by a girl extremely beautiful with a green globe in her hands. She was wearing flowing white robes, had long white blonde hair and a set of sparkling green eyes. She wore a flower headband and a light piece of jewellery.

Everything about her was regal. I looked at guys around me for a reaction and had to snort out loud when I saw a dumbstruck Armour. Rest of the guys were...guys so they were shamelessly staring at her. She was even pretty even to a girl so I can imagine how boys could feel.

Jayden respectfully gave her his hand to hold and something sharp hit my gut. Again, not jealous it was a feeling of despair. My hands have never been held this way before. I don't know if bodyguards could judge mood or despair, a hand rested just on the corner of my waist in an attempt to calm me down.

I was amazed how my curse never bothered him.

Jayden's eyes lifted and he gave Armour a dry look. He walked holding the beautiful girl's hand. Everyone followed in silence as the girl sat in our car , followed by Jayden, Armour and then me. But before I could sit inside the car, a pull on my t-shirt made me jump in surprise. I was jumpy when it came to touches.

My hands retracted back like a habit and I saw the little girl from before giving me a frown.

"I forgive you." She said with a pout and I raised my eyebrows in a question.

"For him liking you." I bit my lips from grinning as she was ready to sacrifice the Armour for me.

"I will take care him for you." I offered and she nodded giving a solemn look.

I sat back in the car smiling to myself when I noticed then everyone inside was staring at me.

After an awkward moment, the beautiful girl spoke up, "Hi, my name is Celine."

"Annalise," I answered as curtly as possible.

"Umm, Can I sit next to you?" Her questioned surprised me but I nodded a yes since she looked uncomfortable.

And now I was facing both Armour and Jayden as I sat in between Laura and Celine. I avoided looking up pretty sure that it will be awkward but when I did I saw both the guys staring at me intently. I felt a tremble in my body and I looked away immediately.

"I have heard a lot about you." Celine spoke up and I looked at her to see she was talking to me and not Jayden or Armour.

"Good things I hope," I mumbled out a reply.

"Brave things." Even her voice was nice.

And then I noticed her hands trembled on the globe and she was just keeping her s**t together.

"Don't worry. We will keep you safe. You are sitting with the best possible team." I tried comforting her which surprised me.

"Well, my brother told me the same thing." She answered with a wide smile.

"Your brother?" I asked.

"She is Princess Celine, sister to Prince you defeated a few days ago," Jayden said in a cold tone.

I am pretty sure the guy has multiple personalities.

She was Blade's sister. How come I never saw her when I was young or maybe I don't remember her. It was a relief in itself that I didn't kill Blade somehow by accident by then. I am pretty sure my parents would have suffered if I killed a royal.

Suddenly the van came to a sudden stop with a jerk almost making us all lose balance. Before anyone could say I knew we were under attack. My eyes caught Armour who confirmed my fear as well. We heard the slashing and fighting from outside.

"Celine stay here, we will take care of this." Jayden said and nodded in my direction.

Celine seemed to be pale with fear.

We all stepped out leaving Laura next to Celine, just in case.

The sight that greeted me made me feel energetic again. I armed myself with a dagger in each hand. There was an army of black ninjas attacking us with few djinns as well. Armour stepped in front of me in a protective gesture.

"Stay behind, I will handle this."

"Armour, I am a freaking Silver Knightship trainee. I should atleast finish my assignment." He nodded in understanding and we started attacking as well.

Thing about Ninjas are they are hard to spot but once you do, you have to take the shot at killing them else it is your last day. Right now I was surrounded with around five ninjas and there were moving like black smog around me. I was good with ninjas, I have trained enough to kill these. My eyes analysed the pattern of the smog as it moved and jumped over each of them.

As they turned to surround me again, I cart wheeled back and hit two in the leg. As they crumpled down, I plunged the daggers in their hearts. I stood up and was hit with another voice attack from Jayden.

Use magic to defend yourself, there are too many.

I still had no idea how he did that but that reminded me to infuse magic in my fighting as I created an air shield around me. And it was amazing to see how well it deflected all the attacks from ninjas. I slashed and ripped through many of them not caring about the few injuries on my body.

I was out of breath and yet i know I could do more. Few of our Knights lay heavily injured, two dead as we tackled on the with the last of ninjas. I noticed Jayden still in front of our van, guarding Celine, while Armour was like a wind now. He killed whatever was coming my way.

And then I noticed the leader of ninjas walking towards Jayden as he was busy battling a djinn. I blasted the air with force making the djinn loose balance.

I yelled out for Jayden to pay attention to the leader behind him, but the leader was a whole different thing, he was terribly strong. It is known that a ninja leader carries a sword of death. If the sword touches your body, there is nothing that can heal you.

Jayden was too busy handling the djinn and Armour noticed direction of my eyes. He stepped ahead to attack the Ninja leader but I know what would happen now. I knew somehow as the sword of death was raised and before I could think, I threw my dagger at him and missed. But this got his attention and I lunged on nothing but a mere form of human in black smog.

My hands touched the body and next thing I heard the sword fall on the ground with a loud clang as I crumbled down too. Fear gripped my body as I saw Jayden , Armour and few others around look at me. Armour came next to me and sat down on one knee.

I just killed a ninja leader with bare hands, combusted into thin air. And like Armour's grandmother said, I felt darkness swirl through my veins. I didn't let the tears fall or let myself show the tremble. I got up on my feet not sure if I could walk because I felt nauseous in that moment.

I didn't dare look at Jayden , I was scared to see the look of disgust. But as I knees buckled , all the energy being sucked away two set of arms caught my either arm and held me in place. Confusion circled me as I saw Jayden and Armour help me in the car.

"Annalise, you are hurt? Jayden, Armour, you okay?" Laura sounded worried.

While Celine was still speechless as her lips moved in silent prayers.

And then I noticed, among all the injuries on my body one was the s***h from sword of death, as leader of ninjas hit his final stroke. It shouldn't feel like that but a relief hit me as I knew my breaths were number now.