Beyond the Between

by Anna Webb

  Unlike honeybees, wasps weren’t known to swarm. To this day, Allyra still didn’t know what made them swarm that day twelve years ago. But the why of it didn’t really matter; what mattered was that the wasps did swarm. They descended on her like a cloud of red and black and filled her ears with the sound of a thousand fluttering wings.

  She’d frozen with fear and held her breath, and for a moment, it had seemed as if the wasps might just drift away like the last vestiges of a poorly remembered nightmare. But then the first sting had come. She’d run then, but there was no outrunning them. The wasps seemed to feed upon her fear, their aggression multiplying exponentially with each sting. Soon, she’d lost consciousness.

  Emma and Jamie had found her, but she didn’t remember it. Her father arrived at the sound of Emma’s shouts for help, and Allyra remembered brief flashes of his drawn and anxious face as he’d carried her away. She remembered his desperate calls for her to hold on, for her to live.

  The pain had been overwhelming, like red-hot iron spikes being driven deep into her flesh, sending lava searing through her veins. She’d drifted in and out of consciousness as she’d struggled to catch her breath. It had been choking, not breathing, like trying to suck air through a rapidly narrowing straw.

  And later, she remembered a woman with russet-brown skin and dark curly hair, whose gentle, callused hands had soothed the swelling away. Allyra hadn’t known it at the time, but she now believed that Death had been kept at bay only through the woman’s Gifted ability.

  That was the day she’d developed spheksophobia, or more simply, a lasting fear of wasps.

  That was then, and this was now. The First Final was a test of mental survival. Allyra knew she’d have to face her fears within this redwood forest.

  Hydrogen. Helium. Lithium. Beryllium. Boron…

  The fluttering wings drew closer.

  Carbon. Nitrogen. Oxygen…

  “I suppose I have you to thank for this,” Jason drawled.

  Allyra ignored him. It was taking every shred of her concentration and willpower just to keep breathing. The need to run was overwhelming, and she was having a hard time trying to string two thoughts together.

  “Are you going to do something about this?” Jason asked, his voice level and calm.

  They were so close now. Soon, they would swarm her.

  She couldn’t think.

  Jason shook his head and heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Christ, even your fears are so tame.” A flame appeared in Jason’s hand. He formed it into a sphere, and it grew bigger and bigger until he was holding it in both hands. He flung up his arms, and the sphere of fire exploded outward, searing through the swarm of wasps.

  In the resulting silence, she gasped, gulping in deep, wonderful, cool breaths.

  “They’re going to come back, you know,” Jason said coolly. “And I’m not going to wear myself out burning them away. So, you need to figure out how to get rid of them.”

  Allyra struggled to remember Alex’s warning to her.

  “To survive the First Final, you need to understand what it is that makes you afraid.”

  It didn’t seem to be particularly helpful at this point.

  Wasps.

  It was as simple as that. She was terrified of wasps; she understood that much. In the distance, she could hear the fluttering of wings again. Her heartbeat quickened, and she struggled to catch her breath. Jason grabbed her hand. He twisted his fingers around her wrist and dug into her flesh. He forced her to look up at him.

  “Think!” he demanded. “Why are you afraid of them? Their stings? The pain? What?”

  Allyra fought to reign in her fear, but the wings were drawing closer again. She needed time. She mustered her strength and closed her eyes, and the world was filled with threads of green, yellow, red, and blue, all twisted together, representing each of the four Elements. She called on the Air Element, gathering the yellow threads and binding them together tightly, creating a barrier protecting her and Jason from the coming swarm of wasps.

  The swarm of wasps crashed into the invisible barrier, banging on it relentlessly. She wavered, but for the moment, her Gift was strong enough to withstand the storm. She was strong enough. She’d bought some time.

  What was it about wasps that made her so afraid? Was it the stings or the pain, as Jason suggested?

  No.

  The pain had been awful, but she’d survived so much worse since. No. She could survive the stings and the pain. That wasn’t why she was terrified of wasps.

  She had to dive deeper.

  Pushing through the sound, the pain, and the choked breaths, she pushed deeper into the darkness of the phobia. It wasn’t the wasps, no, the thing that came most clearly to her mind was her father’s desperate fear. He’d believed she was going to die.

  It had been the first time she’d seen her father afraid. Her father, who had always been a pillar of strength. He was her rock, but he’d nearly shattered when confronted with the possibility of her death.

  Her eight-year-old self had been terrified by the concept of her father being afraid. She hadn’t ever wanted to see him afraid again. Because, if he was afraid, then logically, she should be terrified.

  Allyra realized that it really wasn’t wasps that she was afraid of.

  As soon as she came to the realization, the wasps faded away.

  “Can we get going now?” Jason asked sarcastically.

  Allyra shot him a glare but was only met with his back as he strode briskly away.

  * * *

  Death and loss—that was her next fear. First, she saw Emma’s body lying in a clearing through the trees, and Allyra couldn’t help but run toward it even though the logical part of her mind told her it couldn’t be real. Emma’s eyes were opaque and sightless, and her long, blonde hair was matted down with dried blood. As Allyra looked up in the clearing, she saw Rob’s body hanging from a tree.

  She knew what was coming next. Jamie and then Alex. It was the same sequence the Revenant had tortured her with.

  The fear was horrible and terrifying, but ultimately easier to confront. This fear she understood well enough—there was no secret about the fear of losing the ones she loved most. She stopped the sequence before it could be completed.

  Her second fear had set them on a slight detour but had cost them less time than the first.

  She followed Jason deeper into the forest.

  * * *

  “Aren’t you afraid of anything?” Allyra demanded.

  Now that she’d managed to confront and move on from two of her worst fears, Allyra couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed that Jason had seen her almost collapse in terror, but she hadn’t seen even the slightest flicker of fear from him. It didn’t seem fair that he hadn’t been tested.

  “Everyone is afraid of something,” he replied without breaking stride or turning to look at her.

  “If that’s the case—what are you afraid of?”

  “Something a little darker than your boring little fears. Did you actually grow up in the little house on the prairie?” Jason asked sarcastically. “But don’t worry, it’s nothing I can’t control.”

  Even as the words left his mouth, the forest around them suddenly burst into flame. Thick black smoke snaked its way down her throat, and Allyra choked on the fetid air and ducked low, bringing her sleeve to cover her nose and mouth.

  This was not one of her fears. Sure, the idea of burning to death certainly wasn’t particularly appealing, but it didn’t terrify her.

  “Can you take care of this?” she spluttered, trying to cough the smoke from her lungs.

  “It won’t answer my call.”

  Allyra looked up abruptly at the sound of Jason’s voice—it was hoarse and had lost all of its usual swagger. Her eyes burned with the thick smoke, but she could still see Jason standing stock-still, apparently frozen by fear.

  She tried to reach for the Fire Element but found that Jason was right. This was like fire in the Between. Real
enough to burn but not real enough to answer her call.

  “Are you really such a control freak that your greatest fear is loss of control?” she shouted, having to raise her voice over the crackling and popping of the forest on fire around them.

  Jason shook his head, horror in his dark indigo eyes.

  “That isn’t it at all,” he whispered, more to himself than her.

  The fire was burning hotter and closer now, the flames licking at her skin, threatening to consume her.

  “Well, what is it?” she screamed over the crackling and spitting fury of the fire.

  “I have to accept that this is all my doing,” Jason said, his eyes staring unseeingly into the distance.

  “What is all your doing?” Allyra asked desperately, shrinking away from the fire, trying once more to reach for the Fire Element and take control of the raging wildfire. At this point, she didn’t care if she was revealed as an Elemental; if she didn’t do something, the fire would soon burn them to a crisp. But it refused to answer her call. Desperate, she reached for the Air Element, wishing to gather some of the smoke and blow it away, but even that didn’t answer her call anymore. It was as if she’d reentered the Between.

  “The end of the world,” Jason whispered.

  At the sound of his words, the fire receded, and the cool, moist air flooded back through the forest. Rain started to drizzle through the trees.

  Allyra gulped at the clear air, coughing out the smoke still lingering in her lungs. A burn ran along the back of her left hand, which she’d thrown up to protect her face from the heat of the fire.

  “The end of the world?” Allyra asked incredulously. “Surely, even you aren’t so egotistical as to think that you could cause the end of the world?”

  He was still staring into the distance, horror written into his elegant features.

  Allyra moved to stand beside him and saw the fire had burned through the light jacket he was wearing and had melted the black fabric into his flesh in a horrific burn running the entire length of his left arm.

  “Damn,” she hissed out.

  Allyra glanced up at Jason, but he didn’t seem to feel the pain of his burn; in fact, he seemed to be a million worlds away. He flinched as she reached to gently touch his hand, but it seemed to jolt him from his reverie, and he turned to look at her. Surprise dawned over his indigo eyes, as if he’d forgotten her presence.

  “We need to cool this burn,” she said quietly.

  “I’m fine,” Jason replied shortly, but a slight tremor ran up his fingers. He had to be in extreme pain but was far too proud to admit it.

  “Fine, but I’m not,” Allyra said, holding up her burned left hand for him to see. “If I remember correctly, the map said that there’s a stream about a kilometer or so northeast of us.”

  “We don’t have time to waste,” Jason said stubbornly. “I want to get out of this godforsaken forest.”

  “As do I, but we’re heading north anyway, and I’d prefer my flesh to stop cooking.”

  It was probably testament to just how much pain he was in that he gave in and nodded reluctantly, gesturing for her to lead the way.

  The stream was shallow, and the water was crystal clear, running over slick, moss-covered rocks. Allyra dunked her throbbing hand into the stream and let out a low hiss as the cold water soothed and cooled the burn.

  Jason had followed her through the forest like a zombie, his mind still consumed by whatever horror he’d seen in the wildfire. She sighed in exasperation and pulled him to the stream, scooping up the water with her hands and allowing it to run over his burned arm. He tensed and clenched his jaw but otherwise made no sign of the pain he was suffering. It was a little disconcerting to see him be so cooperative and pliant, but Allyra used the opportunity to assess his burn more closely.

  It was a mess.

  The black material of what used to be his jacket had melted into his flesh forming little islands of black against the blistered red flesh.

  Her mind fumbled for first aid knowledge. First, cool the burn to make sure that it doesn’t continue to burn out of sight below the skin.

  Check. Allyra poured a few more handfuls of water over his arm for good measure.

  Second, bandage with sterile bandages.

  This posed a bit of a problem—she didn’t have any bandages, sterile or otherwise. But his arm had to be protected. She judged that they still had ten or so kilometers to go until they were back at the Arena of the Terra College, giving him ample opportunity to get his arm even more mangled.

  Allyra unzipped her jacket and peeled it off, careful not to catch the burn on her own hand. Then she hesitated, shooting a glance at Jason, but he watched her evenly, as if daring her to continue. She pulled the T-shirt over the top of her head.

  Jason raised his eyebrows.

  “As much as I appreciate the show, I’m not sure that this is either the time or place for it,” he said sarcastically.

  Allyra didn’t dignify his comment with a reply, but it was reassuring to hear a return of his snarky remarks—she’d started to worry that whatever the fire was it had affected him far more deeply than he cared to admit.

  She slipped her jacket back over her bra and zipped it up tightly. Next, she started to tear her T-shirt into long strips of cloth. Soaking her makeshift bandages in the stream, she bandaged up Jason’s arm.

  “Thanks,” he said shortly when she was done.

  Allyra nodded and got to her feet.

  “Wait,” Jason said, “your turn.”

  He picked up the remaining scraps of her T-shirt, soaked it in the stream, and held out his hand for hers. He bandaged it neatly with quick, deft fingers though she couldn’t help but notice that his hands were still uncharacteristically shaky.

  Their eyes met when he was finished, and for a moment, they stared at each other. There was no mistaking the raw pain in his eyes, and briefly she caught a glimpse of a memory—at least a memory of an emotion. It was beyond her to put a word to it—it was old and so very dark. Bitter and terrible, it was like a strange mixture of vengeance, fury, and regret. She flinched under the weight of it, and he turned away, more vulnerable than she’d ever seen.

  An apology died on her lips as she searched for the right words. Perhaps there wasn’t anything that could be said to wash away so terrible an emotion.

  Chapter 12 – Allyra

  Allyra collapsed into the seat next to Chi and groaned. “Please tell me it gets easier from here.”

  She and Jason had managed to get out of the forest without much more trouble, but with the time they’d wasted trying to confront their fears, as well as the detour to the stream, they’d emerged as the fourteenth pair through. Only one other pair stood between them and the dubious honor of being last.

  Chi shot her an amused look. “That bad, huh?”

  She gave him a sidelong glance. “It was terrible. How are you so unaffected?”

  “Mind over matter,” he said with a smug smile, or at least what Allyra assumed to be Chi’s version of a smug smile. Smugness was not a sentiment that came naturally to Chi. “I just told myself that none of it was real.”

  Allyra held up her bandaged left hand though the bandage was now a sterile white one, professionally applied by a nurse. “The fire raging through the forest felt pretty real to me.”

  “Yeah, we got chased through the forest by a pack of wolves that Jeong managed to dream up.”

  “Jeong?”

  “Jeong Lee. Haven’t I told you that he was my partner?”

  Allyra shook her head. She was a poor friend—preoccupied with dealing with Jason, she’d managed to allow a whole month to go by without finding out just who Chi’s partner was. But now it all made perfect sense. Jeong was the Mr. Lee that had joked on the first day that his partner was a complete idiot. And Chi always went out of his way to avoid his partner.

  “Really? The class clown?” she asked incredulously. Allyra couldn’t imagine two more ill-suited people than Chi and
Jeong, and that included her own partnership with Jason.

  Chi nodded. “Yes, that’s the one,” he said resignedly. “We hate each other, but we’ve learnt to work together.”

  He brightened and lifted a champagne glass. “At least we made it, right? Let’s enjoy the party!”

  A small party was being thrown in the Great Hall of the Terra College to celebrate the completion of the First Final. While the Great Hall at the Elemental College might have been mistaken as the hall of any old and prestigious school, the one at the Terra College could not have been mistaken for anything other than something completely magical.

  They were surrounded by the redwood trees, and glimpses of the night sky could be seen overhead, dotted with a rare star as clouds floated by. Old magic rather than stones and mortar kept the rain and wind away. And at the center of it all was a single massive redwood that towered above all the others—the Gate of the Terra College.

  As had been her experience with Gifted parties, there was an overabundance of champagne and elegant food, yet the atmosphere seemed subdued. It was obvious that most of the remaining Five Finals competitors were too frazzled by the First Final to enjoy themselves. The only people who appeared to be having a good time were the Masters of the Terra College and a few selected guests who had been invited purely based on their wealth or position within the Gifted community.

  Master Akerman stopped at their table. “Miss Warden,” he said in greeting.

  “Sir,” Allyra replied politely.

  He raised his glass and gave her one of his ironic smiles. “Congratulations,” he said. His tone was dry, but it lacked its normal mocking edge. “You surprised me, and believe me, I’m not often surprised.”

  He drained his glass and walked away without another word.

  Chi grinned at her. “From what I know about Master Akerman, that was high praise indeed.”