Set the Sky on Fire (Fire Trilogy Book 1)

by L K Walker

  Ari hadn't expected him to be that fast.

  Trying to ignore the pain in her arm, Ari straightened her body, pushing her legs out in front of her. They were still functional. She managed to drag herself up into a seated position. She gripped her arm, trying to staunch the bleeding, while she surveyed the rest of the room.

  The two chairs, holding Nevaeh and Michelle, had been thrown aside, scattered like dice. The girls struggled to free themselves from their restraints, both trying to rock their way into an upright position. Nevaeh managed to flick her chair over, so she was on her knees. From there, she scrambled to her feet, the effort leaving her breathless. Her nostrils flared in an effort to take in more air. She appeared relieved when she plonked herself back on the seat’s legs without any finesse. Michelle, who had stopped to watch Nevaeh’s manoeuvres, now did the same. Ari's empty chair lay on its side in front of her, still intact. She had been knocked clean off it.

  Nevaeh and Michelle sat eerily silent and still.

  Ari followed their eyes. The seether sat balanced on the edge of the side board, looking down at her with derision. She had lost.

  Her vision distorted. When she refocused, the malignant eyes of the seether were mere centimetres from her own. He’d jumped down over her, straddling her legs, giving her nowhere else to look. His warm breath was rancid on her face. He grabbed Ari's shoulders, shoving her back against the wall, hard. Her body, already aching, felt shards of pain rip through.

  “Nice try, but I need you alive.” He spoke the words through a clenched jaw.

  “I guess we have to do this the hard way then.” He snatched at her uncut arm and yanked her up, her feet flying. Then, picking up her stray chair, he slammed it down in front of her. It quivered under his strength, splintering where his hand had held it. He threw Ari onto it.

  “I swear, if you do anything so stupid again, I will kill the lot of you.” Unblinking eyes bulged in his head and his body quaked with rage. Ari’s worst fear had been realised. The fury was in him, and Ari waited for him to lash out. She looked for the knife but couldn’t see it, nor anything else she could use as a substitute. Ari focussed back on the seether. He bared his teeth.

  “Don’t even bloody move.” Spittle flicked in her face as he spoke. He gathered up the debris strewn around the room. Ari's eyes followed him, but the rest of her kept still. She didn’t even lift a hand to wipe her face.

  Something stroked Ari's subconscious, making her fear slip out of its way. It became more intense as it moved in, blanketing her with a firm sense of security. Nate hurtled towards them. His direction unmistakable. Ari waited, dreading his arrival. The seether lay his collection of tools back on the table. His hand stopped mid-air. His body tensed, his spinal cord erect and locked in place.

  The seether rushed forward, arming himself for his unseen adversary. He lunged at Ari, to claim her, but he was too late. With an almighty crash, Nate burst through the door showering those closest to him with door fragments. Ari covered her face, closing her eyes. When she reopened them, the seether was no longer in front of her. Nate's momentum had carried him and the seether into the far wall with the destructive force of a hurtling train.

  The adversaries both stood up and plaster rained down on them. Ari glimpsed an imprint of their bodies in the wall. Nate bent his knees, leaned forward and lunged again, striking the seether in the stomach with a muscular shoulder. The impact sent them both flying through the open entranceway into the lounge. The seether landed on his back against the edge of the couch. He grabbed hold of Nate and threw him over the couch. One of Nate's feet slammed into the television, throwing it from its stand, and its screen shattered as it smashed onto the ground. Back and forth they went, striking each other with such force that the rules of gravity seemed not to apply in the tight confines. The room became mutilated around them. The last piece of large furniture untouched was the wall cabinet, cluttered with Ari's family photos.

  Ari watched them hurtle into it, destroying the cabinet and sending the pictures flying in all directions. A gold-framed photo of Ari and her parents on her sixteenth birthday lay only a couple of metres from where she stood, the glass cover shattered. Everything was broken. Pieces of her life rained down to cover the floor.

  Ari watched on as the violence escalated.

  Nate began to tire. He landed fewer punches than the constant barrage the seether inflicted. The match was turning in favour of the seether. And he knew it. A smile crept onto his loathsome face.

  “It's about time you started to flag,” the seether jeered. “All that flying around searching for her. You should have known better.”

  With a crack, the seether slammed Nate into the floor. Nate's back hit squarely and the ground shuddered to absorb the shockwave. The seether pinned him down, laying blow after blow across his face. Nate struggled to get free but couldn't release himself from his captor. He’d stopped fighting. Instead, he raised his arms to defend himself from the savagery. Blood slowly trickled from the wounds marking his face.

  Among the chaos, he found Ari. She looked into his eyes, pleading with him to get up, to force the seether aside and rise to his feet. But his face only softened, and he gave her a sorrow-filled smile. His tenderness filled Ari with desperation. He appeared accepting of his fate. Accepting that he could not win. Nate had conceded defeat and with that, his life. His final act had been to save her. Through slightly parted lips, he made his last request.

  “Run.” He said it so quietly, Ari nearly missed it. His eyes implored her, but she couldn't, not again. The seether placed his hands round Nate's neck and squeezed tight. Nate clawed at the fingers that choked him. His mouth opened as if gasping for breath, but his chest didn’t rise. Ari watched Nate’s face redden and sweat bead on his forehead as he struggled for air.

  The seether was literally squeezing the life out of him.

  Ari looked at the man she loved, and realised he had known, even before he’d shattered the front door, he would die saving her. His back arched off the ground, pain marring his beautiful face.

  Losing Nate was unbearable, her love for him felt like a crushing pain in her chest. It continued to increase in pressure until the weight was too much to bare. She cried out for the seether to stop, her arms outstretched towards the two of them. But he didn’t. It was all too much. She screamed. The burden that had built up in her chest finally released. Her emotions surged out, streaming in the direction of her arms. With the effort, her body exhausted itself, and she fell to her knees.

  The surging mass of her emotions struck the seether, knocking him off Nate. Free of the seether’s grip, Ari could hear the sound of air rushing in to Nate’s lungs, watched as it inflated his chest, but he didn't move. They lay next to one another, both deadly still.

  Ari slowly advanced on them, tiptoeing her way through the wreckage. She knelt down next to Nate and put a hand on his chest. The rise and fall was steady. He was alive.

  Ari moved her hand to his cheek, hoping to get a response, but he didn’t flinch. His eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the ceiling. Ari shook his shoulders, but he stayed unresponsive. A single tear welled in the corner of his eye until it was too big to remain there. It slipped out and trickled down his cheek, finding a resting place on the carpet beneath his head.

  Ari had been so focussed on Nate, everything else had dissolved into nothing. Only now did she become aware of muffled calls behind her. She turned to find Nevaeh and Michelle still firmly attached to their chairs. Ari didn’t want to leave Nate, but Nevaeh’s eyes pleaded with her. Ari tenderly kissed Nate’s warm cheek, jumped to her feet and ran to help her friend. Picking up one of the kitchen knives on her way, she used it to saw through the tape binding Nevaeh’s arms. Unrestrained, Nevaeh tore off the tape covering her mouth and let out a howl. Ari handed over the knife, leaving her to cut the remainder of her own restraints.

  She headed back to the two prone figures, walking between them before kneeling next to the seether. Cautiously,
she checked for a pulse. He too was alive.

  Nate had said they would fall unconscious if someone died, that a pulse on death would knock them out. But no one was dead. None of this made sense. How could she have caused them to black out? There would be time for questions later. At some stage soon, they would revive. What if the seether woke first? Ari needed to arm herself. This was her chance to finish him off. It was time for this to be over. Ari felt repulsion at the mere idea of it. But it had to be done.

  Rising to her feet, she stepped back, too scared to turn around. Miscalculating her step, her foot came down on the seether’s limp hand. Horrified she might wake him, she scrabbled to get off. Losing her balance, she fell back to her knees.

  The seether opened his eyes.

  Ari recoiled, scrambling to get away. He grabbed her wrist before she had time to get out of reach. She waited for the pain. It never came. His grasp was soft. Before she had a chance to fight her way free, he released her.

  Ari watched as his head turned, his eyes shifting to find Ari's face. There was something different in that look. A smile appeared. A genuine smile. If Ari didn't know better, she’d have thought his face contained compassion. The sharp edges in his eyes had all but disappeared. He was—Ari foraged through her instincts but found no other answer—he was happy.

  The seether sat up and swivelled, so he was kneeling before her. Once again he was only centimetres from her face. This time, however, Ari didn't feel scared. There was no threat in his gaze. His face carried contentment, as his pupils darted from her eyes to her lips and back again.

  From the corner of her eye, Ari saw Nevaeh edge towards the seether with the kitchen knife in hand. The seether's expression brought her up short.

  He ran his palms over Ari's hair, smoothing it down before running them down the back of her neck and caressing her shoulder. His eyes trailed over her wound.

  “Thank you,” he said, tearing off a piece of his shirt and wrapping it tightly around the cut on her arm.

  Ari couldn't understand why he was thanking her. Why his eyes, that only minutes ago had gripped her with fear, now seemed to be kind. He seemed to understand Ari’s bewilderment.

  “Just for a moment, I felt what you feel; I saw this world through your eyes. I don't know how you survive with all those emotions competing inside you. But somehow, it was beautiful. I guess you can't have great happiness without extraordinary pain.”

  He was quiet for a moment but never moved his eyes from Ari's.

  “I'm sorry,” he said again.

  Ari could sense the seether had changed, no, he was no longer one of them, not a sentinel either, something new. Dominic had transformed. She could see it in his face. His thumb gently stroked her cheek, his handsome features no longer masked by anger, and Ari could see how lovely he was. His eyes moved to her lips and his head followed. Soft lips pressed against hers. The tenderness of his touch took Ari by surprise.

  A scream shattered the moment.

  Dominic's eyes were wide with horror and his mouth gaped open. A gulp of air caught in his throat, making him choke. He looked down at his chest. Ari followed his gaze, but there was nothing there. Behind him, there was a lazy movement, the creeping edge of an expanding blood pool forming. Ari moved around him to see where it was coming from. In the middle of his back was a dark slit, blood draining from it.

  Behind Dominic stood Nate, the knife in his hand still dripping blood. Dominic's body crashed to the ground in a heap.

  “What have you done?” Ari cried.

  She groped at the wound, trying to slow the bleeding. It was useless. She could do nothing but hold his hand and weep. Dominic died in her arms, his fingers still knotted in hers.

  Nate fell to the ground with a loud thump.

  "Is Nate alright,” Ari screamed.

  Nevaeh felt for his pulse. “He’s alive. Just out to it again.” She slapped his cheek but he didn’t stir.

  Ari softly lowered Dominic's lifeless head to the ground. His eyes once again stared blankly at the ceiling, this time without hope of ever seeing again.

  Ari stood and stepped away from the body. Nevaeh joined her, giving her a fierce hug. Over Nevaeh’s shoulder, Ari could see Michelle standing in the doorway watching, not moving, not making a sound. Ari broke from the hug so she wouldn’t need to look at her and went to sit next to Nate.

  For a long time, she sat and wept, stroking Nate’s hair.

  Finally, Nate roused and pulled himself up to sitting.

  “I—I thought he was going to hurt you,” he stammered. His voice was weak and his shoulders slumped with remorse.

  “What happened? What stopped you both?” Nevaeh asked.

  The question seemed to give him purpose and he stood up offering Ari a hand.

  “Somehow, Ari pushed her humanity on to us.” He turned back to gaze at Ari with gratitude. “If you hadn't, it would have been all over for me.” He pulled Ari in closer.

  “While our brains were processing it, I think we went into some sort of shock. The seether...”

  “Dominic,” Ari corrected him.

  “Right, yeah.” Nate didn't sound comfortable with the familiarity. “After years of following him around, watching him turn unknowing people into hateful beings, it’s hard to think of him as anything but a seether. Can a singular moment of remorse really make up for that?”

  Ari didn't have an answer.

  “Dominic was in a better state of health, so I guess that’s why he woke first.”

  “But you went down when he died? I thought you said that only happened when we died?”

  “Whatever you did to us must have changed the rules.” He held Ari’s chin, leaning it back, so she was looking into his eyes.

  “Whatever it was—thank you for saving me.”

  “You came into the house knowing that you couldn't beat him, that you would fade first.” He offered up a small shrug in response. “You knew you weren't leaving here alive. I don't think it is you who should be saying thanks.”

  “When it comes to you, I only ever had one choice. I'm not sure I would think this world was worth saving if you weren't in it.”

  Ari wrapped her arms around his neck and locked her mouth onto his. All the feelings that had built inside her over the ordeal culminated in the kiss. Nate wrapped his arms around Ari's waist and lifted her off the ground.

  They finally broke apart.

  “What do we do now?” She surveyed the damage around her.

  “We get you to a hospital, and then we call the police and let them deal with it. They’re looking for someone who drugged Nevaeh’s parents, took Nevaeh and burnt your father, and destroying your lounge will be added to the list.”

  Ari took a fleeting look for Michelle. But she had already disappeared.

  “Where’s Michelle?” Ari asked.

  “She took off when Nate woke up the second time. Does she get away scot-free?” Nevaeh asked.

  “After what she’s done? Not a chance. The police will come for her soon enough,” Nate replied.

  thirty-five

  Neveah watched as Ari made her way out the shattered front door. She turned to Nate and raised her hand, barring his exit from the room. Nate looked down at Nevaeh, a look of nervousness flashed across his face.

  Nevaeh glanced back at the door. “You could see what the seether was doing before you took the knife off me and shoved it into his back,” Nevaeh whispered.

  “I don't know what you're talking about. If I’d done nothing he would have hurt Ari,” Nate replied, his voice lacked conviction.

  “You don't have to lie to me. I don't blame you, but I was standing right behind you. I could see what you could see. I know when you came to. You lay there a while. You would’ve been able to hear enough of the conversation to know he wasn’t intending to hurt her.”

  Nate stared past Nevaeh for a long moment, his face flickering with conflicting emotions. “I don't know what happened,” he confessed. “When Ari hit us with that
wave I felt so much anger, hate, jealousy. It consumed me. Before I even realised, I had stabbed him. The irony is—I have always wanted to feel what you feel. The moment I get my wish I practically turn into a seether,” he paused, “Please don't tell Ari. She can't know.”

  “After what he did to us—to our families? I'm glad he isn't around anymore. I won’t say a word. But if I so much as suspect you might hurt Ari, I will tell her everything.”

  “If there is the slightest chance I might be turning out like him.” He looked down at the seether. “I would want you to do the same to me.” Nate patted Nevaeh’s shoulder and followed after Ari.

  epilogue

  The four weeks since the seether died in Ari's lounge had been long and tiresome. The endless questions seemed to keep the events alive in her memory, and not let the scar fade. Ari prised her eyes open, and the sadness dissipated. Her focus moved to the chest she was using as a pillow, and the warmth of the body underneath it registered in her mind.

  “Good morning, beautiful.” Nate's hand caressed her cheek.

  Nate and Ari lay in a large round bed with only a white sheet covering their bodies. The air was humid and, from where they lay, they could hear the continual crashing of waves lapping at the golden beach. Ari had finally made it to Thailand to have the holiday she deserved.