The second Lager drops the bomb everything explodes.

It's not a huge, loud explosion, but a quick, deadly one. One that has you acting like everything is normal and you take a deep breath in, only to realize that you're dead before you get the chance to breathe out.

Becky's a Darkling. Becky's a Darkling.

The words keep ringing in my head but they don't make any sense.

How can she be a Darkling? I saw the light come out of her hands with my own eyes. It was light that came out, not illusions or darkness, that I'm sure about. So then why would Lager lie?

A few seconds of stunned silence have passed, in which all these thoughts have raced through my head.

The next thing I know, Becky is disconnecting the murderous and betrayed glare she was giving Lager before storming out the doors, almost running. Almost. But she's Becky. She never runs from anything.

Except, I think, looking back up at Lager, who's staring at the doors where Becky dissapeared through with some sadness, maybe him.

I take a step to run after Becky, but something stops me.

I glance back to see Zero, who's also staring at the doors, shaking his head, before nodding to my right. I look the way he's nodding only to see a flash of bright light, before a blue leopard sprints down the aisle, nearly a blur, chasing after her.

I relax slightly, sending a prayer to anyone who'll listen that Max manages to cheer her up.

There's a cough behind me, and I turn around, aware of Zero's hand still locked around my bicep. Lager's eyes flash to Zero's hand, before his golden eyes meet mine. I take this chance to glare at him.

"Did you have to do that?" I ask, keeping my gaze steady on his.

"Do what?" He feigns innocence.

"That," I say, gesturing to the door. "That was Becky's own secret to keep. I may not fully understand what her being a Lightling and Darkling entails, but I know enough to know you shouldn't have done that."

"You know nothing." He says softly, also keeping his eyes locked on mine, like we're in some internal battle.

"Then tell me." I say gently. His narrowed eyes soften, but then harden again. Like melted gold turning back into solid.

"First, have that Lynched take his ugly hand off you."

My eyes widen at the name Lyncher, but then I realize he's just referring to Zero. So Lyncher is an insulting term here. I can see why.

Zero growls in response, his hand tightening which makes me wince. When he sees my wince he immediately lets go, frowning. I nod at him to show him I'm okay, and a soft rumble comes from his chest. I turn back to Lager.

"While your explaining things, you'll also tell me what happened between Zero and you." I demand, watching from the corner of my eye as Zero goes ram rod straight.

Lager smirks happily, seeming all too pleased. "As you wish."

After a long pause of silence, in which Lager and Zero are having another battle of gold and silver, I start to tap my foot.

"Well get on with it." I snap, and Lager nods, turning to Sylvia, who immediately straightens.

"Back to your post."

She's gone with those simple words from Lager, disappearing nearly ad fast as Max did in leopard form.

"Yes, well, to start, you know for a fact that Becky's a Lightling." Lager begins, taking on the tone of a professor.

"Yes." I agree, gesturing for him to continue.

"But what you didn't know is she's also a Darkling. Half of one, in fact. The other half is Lightling. We call these very rare people, Inae, or their other easily used common name, Halfling."

My brain processes the new information, storing it away for future use. Suddenly, a memory comes up, of us in the cave, and me asking Becky to shift. I thought her downright refusal was suspicious, but thought nothing else of it. What if she refused because she can't shift? What if shifting is a Lightling ability Halfings can't do?

My urge to see Becky grows, but I still have a few more questions left.

"You said Becky knows her way around here. Why? Did she used to live in Highclere?"

Lager sighs, his eyes drifting off as if recalling a memory.

"Yes. Becky did use to live here, up until a few weeks ago when she ran. Even though I know the rest of the details, I think it would be best if she tells you herself."

I nod, agreeing. Besides, who knows what Becky would do if she finds out he gave away her past and secrets? Probably bury us all six feet underground.

"Now." I say, looking at both Zero and Lager. "I'm going after Becky, but I expect you two won't rip each other's throats out while I'm gone. When I come back, were figuring the rest of all this out."

"Or," Lager says, while Zero frowns, neither of them seeming to like the idea of me leaving. "You could stay here and charm me with more of your company."

Zero snarls, turning on his heel to impale Lager with his glare.

"Stop it." I snap, making both of them flinch. "I'm going now, and so help me if either of you are injured when I get back you'll have worse to deal with than Becky "

With that final threat hanging in the air, I storm down the aisle and out into the hall only to almost collide with a tiny figure.

"Kay!" I exclaim, placing my hands gently on her shoulders to steady both her and I. "What are you doing here?"

She starts to use sign language, which I had unfortunately never bothered to learn, something I was regretting now as I watch her hands move through the air in complicated signals. She sees the confusion on my face and sighs, waving her hands as if to say 'forget about it'.

"Do you know where Becky is? The girl with black hair?"

Kay thinks for a moment, before her eyes light up in memory. She nods.

"Great! Can you lead me there?"

She nods again before taking off down the hall on her quick agile feet. Even though she's only walking, she moves quickly and gracefully and I find it hard to keep up. Grace was a skill I never really mastered fully.

She leads me down the hall Sylvia and I walked down until we come to a staircase. She leads me up the spiralling stairs until we're greeted by glass doors that lead to a huge balcony overlooking the jungle and the setting sun on the horizon, tainting the sky Orange.

The balcony is littered with potted plants and tables and chairs, a relaxing area, yet it's completely vacated, except for two figures which stand at the railing.

My mouth falls open because Becky stands looking at Sunset, hands on the railing, and Max stands so close to her they're nearly hip and hip.

That's not what shocks me though.

The thing that shocks me the most is Max's left hand, resting on Becky's right one, his long fingers cupping her tiny ones. I step closer to the glass door, trying to see better.

Becky is allowing Max to touch her.

Becky....who looks at Max most of the time and everyone else like we are a living disease.

I must have made a shocked sound in the back of my throat, because Max jerks his head around to see me, and Becky instantly tanks her hand away like it was on fire. They both stand there, Max looking disappointed and Becky looking more embarrassed than angry.

I slide the door open, knowing Max must have had some really good heading to have heard me through the glass.

"Hey, guys." I say awkwardly. I look over my shoulder for backup, but Kay has dissapeared.

I clear my throat. "I need to talk to Becky."

Max glances at Becky, before hesitantly taking a step forward.

"That's fine, I was just leaving." He says, looking at Becky one last time, but she won't meet his eyes, so instead he turns and strides past me. Poor Max, I almost feel sorry for the guy.

The door slides closed behind me, and Becky turns around again to face the sunset. I slowly walk up to the railing, standing two feet away incase she lashes out at me. But that doesn't happen, instead she just keeps watching the sunset with her huge brown eyes which almost look sad.

"So.....you're a Halfling." I start off, and wince. I've always hated starting conversations. I can never do it smoothly.

She exhaled, glancing at me from the corner of her eyes.

"I'm assuming Lager told you?" For once her words aren't laced with fire, and I almost miss feeling the burn and sting from her usually sharp words.

"He told me a few things, like how you used to live here, but not everything." I say softly, looking out at the jungle which is colored orange by the sun.

"So let me guess, you're here to get the whole story huh?"

I flinch, even though she said exactly what I came here for. She didn't have to make it sound like such a bad thing though.

"Only if you want to tell me." I finally respond.

"There's not much to tell." Her shoulders slump.

A few moments pass in silence, when she breaks it.

"My dad was a Darkling solider." She begins. "My mother was a Lightling healer. They met when my father was on patrol and got separated from his squadron. A Lyncher from the Lightling territory found him and nearly killed him, but luckily my mother was looking for some medicinal plants found only in these jungles, and he stumbled upon her when running. She made the Lyncher back down, and then tended to him, and like any other sappy story, fell in love. Before you know it, the birds are flying, the bee's are buzzing, and I was born."

She takes a deep breath and I could tell that what seemed like a great story was probably about to take a turn for the worse.

"My father had to leave once healed, because a clan of Kinlings were starting to be really disruptive, and he was called back incase a battle broke out. The Kinling clan only grew more furious when Darkling guards were sent to monitor them, and one night even staged an attack on them. The Kinlings outnumbered the group of soldiers there, and easily took over and killed them. My father......was one of those unlucky souls. The Kinlings paid though." She says with a sort of viciousness that sent shivers down my spine. Her hands curling into fists against the rail. "Reinforcments were sent and justice was taken as well as those Kinlings lives."

She stops speaking for a moment, breathing in deeply and then let's out a short laugh. One filled with dark amusement.

"My father died and didn't even know my mother was pregnant. Once my mother heard of what happened to my father, she refused to care for me, and instead walked a great distance just to reach Darkling territory. She left me as a infant, swaddled in blankets, in a nest of roots of a huge jungle tree. That's where Lager found me."

Her hand slowly reaches up and takes the necklace out of her shirt, her fingers fiddling with the piece of wood.

"Lager took me in, raised me, and when old enough, told me that whole story of my parents. He always said I looked exactly like my father. Lager knew my father personally.....He knows everyone who serves him personally, and when he found out I was one of his best soldiers daughters and a Halfing he searched for my mother, but it was too late."

She takes a deep breath, swallowing. She glances at me again and I try to smile encouragingly but it probably came out as a grimace.

"My mother had died. Apparently only a few weeks after leaving me at the tree. She had caught a deadly sickness, and how ironic is that? A healer who heals the sick gets sick herself and dies." Becky again does that low laughter, filled with no joy at all but pain and sorrow.

"I grew up here." She whispers, and I take a tiny step closer to hear better. "And it wasn't all that bad. Sure there was people who gave me the cold shoulder for being a Halfling, but there was also really kind people. The most kindest one of all, was Granny Philips. I lived with her, since Lager couldn't keep an eye on me all the time, and when I would come home crying because kids were being especially rude that day she would make me lemonade and we would read some classics."

"I grew up alongside Sylvia, and she was the meanest one of all. I don't blame her, because her parents were horrid people, and raised her to think of Halflings like they were the Devil. She would torment me non-stop, taking bullying to the next level. Even as a child she was a master of illusion, which is probably the only reason Lager is keeping her in his court. She would use these illusions against me all the time. Making me walk into the boys restroom thinking it was the girls, whenever I raised my hand in class she would make me invisible to the teacher, but those were only some of her minor pranks. They worsened as we got older."

"I might have run away a long time ago now that I think about it. Lager and Granny Philips were what seemed like my only allies. Lager was at first like a father figure to me, but he wasn't around as much as I would've liked him to be thanks to being the Darkling High Commander. There came a point when I kept growing until I was almost Lager's age, for he had stopped aging, or more like his aging process slowed significantly, and he became more of a friend in my eyes than a father.

"He's the one who gifted me this necklace." She says, looking down at it with a small smile. "He carved the piece of wood from the tree where I was left as a baby. It's a painful, but also sweet reminder of how I came to be."

She stops talking, and there's silence as we soak it all in. The sun is nearly fully set, the last light dying. I struggle to find words, my mind blown by Becky's dark painful past.

"Why did you run?" I finally ask, my throat cracking because it's dry. I want to cry for Becky, but the tears won't spill over.

Pain flashes across her features as she clutched the railing even tighter.

"We don't have to talk about it if you want." I say gently.

"No." She exhaled. "You deserve to know, after everything I've put you through. A week before I ran, Granny Philips died. It was just so hard, so very hard, living here without her. She has been my rock my whole life, the only one I could turn to who I could rely on to always be there. Lager was supportive, but his presence was never as steady and reassuring as hers was. Nothing, no soul or living being on this Earth, could replace Granny Philips."

I look away as a tear exits her eye, making its way down her cheek.

I don't know what to do. I can't relate. I never knew my grandparents, and I sure haven't been through anything like Becky has her whole life. The closest I've come to relating to Becky is dealing with Sylvia, but I only dealt with her a few weeks where Becky has dealt with her her whole life.

I open my mouth to say something, anything to try and make her feel better, but am interrupted by Zero, who is sliding the glass door open, his grey eyes stormy.

Becky quickly wipes her eyes, her usual scowl making an appearance. Seeing her glare makes me exhale tremendously in relief.

"I'm going to my room. See you guys later." She says and is gone, storming past Zero, who looks at her in confusion.

The door slides closed behind her, and Zero turns back to look at me, only to be met with my glare.

"You interrupted at the most important part." I exclaim, running my hands through my hair. "And I thought I told you to stay with Lager."

Zero growls at the name, but takes a step closer. "I know, but I needed to talk to you."

"Did it have to be now?" I sighed.

"Yes." He says roughly, his features bunching up in urgency. "Lager's not far behind . He would've told you something I need you to hear from me."

It dawns on me then that Zero's next words might just be very important.

"What would Lager have told me?" I ask hesitantly.

Zero takes a deep breath, his eyes meeting mine.

"It has to do with why you're dying." Zero clears his throat, leaning in really close, his breathing becoming harder.

"Ashley, Lager would have told you......"

Dear readers,

(Looks at manager)

Do i have to write this?

Manager gives a glare, annoyed that this is the thirty seventh time she has stopped writing to ask.

Dangeroustoken raises hands in a surrender motion.

Alright, alright.

(Goes back to typing.)

I'm so so sooooooo sorry for the really late update....and the cliffhanger. The reason I was so scared to post this and fought with my manager over it was the cliffhanger. I have the feeling you guys are out for my blood now, and I keep looking over my shoulder. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!! I have a dog! I tried to make this chapter extra long as a peace offering. Down to business, school has started so updates should come more slowly. :( Also, I have a manager! She's the one and only friend who got me to post my last chapter. Basically she critiques my book and at me to update. So vote, comment, and get a manager cause they're awesome. Lots of love, Dangeroustoken