Scarlet Tempest, #1

by Juniper King

  He stood up, extending a hand to me. This time I took it. “A bit late, but you’re welcome,” he said with a subtle wink. A wink that sent a flutter through my chest. “If you want, I can walk you home.”

  “I would like that actually.”

  In a blink he was back in his human form, his aura invisible in the darkness. It was a little unnerving seeing a Super morph so easily into human skin.

  “Lead the way,” he said with a jovial sweep of his hand.

  As annoying as he could be at times, he seemed to have a good heart. And he did make me feel safe.

  He opened the back door of the inn and peeked inside. “Coast is clear.”

  “How do you know where I live?”

  “Ayre saw you yesterday morning coming downstairs, remember?”

  Right. I was too tired to even ask the question why such menial aspects of my life were coming up in their day-to-day conversations.

  He followed me up the backstairs, walking me to my room. I was probably safe inside, but I had to admit, I was more comfortable with Aksel here. But another wave of trepidation ran through me. Why didn’t I think of this before? Did he have some ulterior motive to walking me home? He might not be after the bounty but perhaps he’s expecting a ‘hero’s reward’.

  We stood outside my room, and I waited for the guillotine to drop.

  “Don’t worry too much about it. Just try to get some sleep,” was all he said as he turned to leave.

  “You’re leaving?” I was floored. That was it? Not even an attempt to get inside?

  “You’re sad?” The smile he gave me as he turned around could only be described as predatory.

  “No.” I snapped. More like a strange combination of confusion, dejection, and relief.

  “Oh, Selynna, I have time if you’d like me to join you tonight. After you bathe of course. Or we could bathe together.”

  It was easy to slam the door in his face after that, hero or not. “Jackass,” I mumbled to myself, the hero illusion thoroughly ruined.

  I heard a quiet, husky laugh through the door. I locked it for good measure before stomping away towards the bathroom.

  7

  I was trapped in a restless cycle of sleep and waking that night.

  A dull, incessant pressure in my head tormented me, like someone was squeezing my head in a vice, my hip still hurt from when Farras had dropped me, my throat ached and was a nauseating shade of purple, my lip had been split, and I was weary down to my bones from the rush and ebb of adrenaline.

  I would have a hell of a time explaining what happened when I went downstairs for my shift tomorrow afternoon.

  But it wasn’t just the physical pain keeping me awake. I stared at the ceiling, the large tree from across the street casting its branches in shadow. I still couldn’t believe that someone had put a bounty on me. What if someone else did come for me? Or what if Ilane came back? Who had set it in the first place? I’d lived in Woodburne my entire life and I hadn’t made any notable enemies. Unless Denise was in the business of placing bounties now.

  It’s not as though my magic was even that impressive. So I could move things with my brain, big deal.

  I suppose it had been useful in the fight, though. I had been able to help Aksel.

  Aksel…

  He said I was probably in the clear, but how much did I really trust him? It was true that he had no reason to lie to me about the bounty; there was nothing for him to gain. And if he were after it himself why would he tell me about it? He would have just been exposing his own plans.

  If I searched through my feelings, I found that I wanted to trust him.

  “I can’t believe Aksel is a deydre…” I mused into the darkness.

  For a deydre he hadn’t been all that scary. But would I have felt the same if tonight had been our first encounter? Probably not. I probably would have been petrified. Just like everyone else who sees a deydre…

  I tossed and turned for a few minutes, trying to fall back into whatever dream I’d been having before I woke. No good. Squinting through the darkness, the numbers on my bedside clock read just after three in the morning.

  I lifted myself from bed and trudged towards the kitchen. Maybe a glass of water or warm milk would make me feel better.

  Walking past the entrance to my home, I heard what sounded like a pair of footsteps marching through the hallway. It was only Branek and I on this floor, who could be up here at this hour?

  Muffled conversation permeated the wooden door. Something didn’t feel right; the tone of their voices sounded wrong—urgent.

  I slid up to the door and pressed my ear against it. “…or right?” a muffled male voice asked.

  “There’s only two. You take right, I’ll take left,” a female voice answered.

  I pulled my ear away from the door, heart threatening to burst through my ribcage. My brain was sending off too many signals at once; all I could do was take a shaky, tentative step backward.

  Something crashed against the door hard enough to send splinters of wood flying off. I shrieked from surprise, my hands flying up to cover my mouth.

  “Found her,” said the male voice in triumph.

  Bouncing back and forth on my feet in a panic, I looked around the room for somewhere to hide. I quickly crouched beside the short cabinet next to the door, praying I was hidden from his sight.

  One more loud crash and the door flew open and banged against the opposite wall, the sound reverberating through my bones. My hands were clasped so hard against my mouth I feared I would leave bruises.

  The darkness didn’t seem to bother the large man who stalked inside my room, nor did it affect the slender female figure trailing behind him. If they turned around now, I would be completely visible.

  The woman turned right, passing me by without a glance, and walked towards the kitchen, as the man made a beeline towards the open bedroom door. The blankets on my bed had been left askew, in the dark the many pillows could have been mistaken for a human lump.

  This was my only chance to get by them unseen. I pried my hands away from my mouth and slowly eased away from the wall just as he was throwing blankets and pillows aside. I flung my body around the cabinet and out the open door.

  Sprinting for the stairs, I heard a shout followed by heavy footsteps thundering behind me.

  I was in such a blinding panic my brain barely registered the tar-like smoke billowing up the stairs ahead of me. Air, stifling and thick with fumes, sawed through my lungs as I bolted forward. My eyes watered and stung, bare feet burning as they pounded across the wooden floors. I didn’t have time to fear the flames that were no doubt raging somewhere beneath me. The only thought in my mind was getting down the stairs and through the back door.

  I made it to the edge of the stairs when something snagged my hair. The force pulled me backwards, but my legs kept moving forward from the momentum. I slipped off the landing and gravity sent me plummeting down the flight of steps like a puppet whose strings had been cut. I tumbled down, hitting each step—all more painful than the last. My head smacked against the landing, even the carpeted floor wasn’t enough to muffle the loud thud my skull made, the pain overwhelming enough I thought I might vomit.

  I staggered up to my feet, my rattled brain begging and pleading for my aching muscles to move. I got a few steps before a hand wrapped around my arm and dragged me into an empty room. The world spun as a second hand slapped over my mouth just as I was about to scream. A metallic scent immediately overpowered the smoke and filled my nostrils, the hand warm and tacky against my face.

  I realized I had been pulled backwards into a large chest, my arms locked against my side. I thrashed as best as I could to escape, but my bruised muscles and joints screamed in protest.

  “Shh, Selynna, it’s me.” A familiar voice whispered in my ear.

  I stopped trying to escape his hold and Aksel pulled his hand away from my face. Even in the darkness, I could see it was covered in blood.

  I turned
around in his grip, only then realizing there was a wet patch on my back. My hands felt at his abdomen and my stomach sank. I pulled his shirt up to reveal his stomach. The metallic scent only grew. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  Aksel turned me around and pinned me to his chest again, hand covering my mouth. “Not now.”

  My eyes flicked back to the open door. At the edge of the doorway, under the smoke billowing into the room, I noticed a figure tight against the wall, peering out into the hall. Ayre. The side of his face was drenched in blood.

  “Where the hell did she go,” came a male voice from the hallway. “She was right there a second ago.”

  “You lost her?” asked the female.

  “I lost her because I can’t see a damn thing! You just had to start fire setting before we found her. You know fire kills humans, right?”

  “Fuck off, I took care of the deydre and the satyr, all you had to do was catch one little girl.”

  The man’s frame appeared in the doorway as he turned to peer inside. “Here she is,” he cooed. The flames in the hall cast a horrific light on his already malicious smile. “And look at that, the deydre is still alive, too. Give me the girl and I’ll make sure your death is qui—” The man stepped one foot into the room and Ayre lunged, thrusting a knife up through the hollow of the Super’s jaw. A quick and savage attack.

  The man hung for a moment on Ayre’s blade before it was ripped from his throat. He collapsed to the ground, boots tapping on the floor through convulsions. Ayre wiped the flat of the blade across his stomach as he stared at the body.

  Ayre, the flirtatious, laid-back satyr, had just viciously murdered someone like it was nothing.

  My nails dug into Aksel’s forearm, eyes bulging out of my skull. He removed his hand and I sucked in a breath like I had just emerged from under water.

  Aksel grabbed my wrist and pulled me alongside him towards the door. “Time to go.”

  Ayre led the way as we turned to leave through the back exit of the inn. The chaos had only grown since I’d been dragged into the room. Pillars of flame licked the walls around me, open doors belching plumes as if they were huge fire-breathing maws. I was relieved to see some of the doors open, hoping that whoever was staying in the rooms overnight had escaped.

  Aksel tugged me along, but my legs didn’t want to cooperate. Breathing was becoming difficult, each breath burning through my throat and searing my lungs. I was nauseous and dizzy.

  As we rounded the corner to the doorway, the fire beside me lashed out. I brought my arm up to shield my face and agony spread through my wrist as the fire seemed to grab hold.

  The flames didn’t let go.

  The fire was wrapped around my wrist, materializing into human looking skin and fingers. A face began to form out of the flames, grinning maliciously. The Super pulled me from Aksel’s grip and wrapped her arm around my throat, my back searing against her chest. I let out a wheezy cry of pain.

  “Guess I was too gentle with you two.” She squeezed me tighter. “Well, I won’t make the same mistake twice. My benefactor made it clear that if we wanted to get paid, you two were to die, and this girl was to be brought to him.”

  Aksel pulled the sword from his hip. “Let me guess, blond hair? Fairy? Suffocating ego? Ilane always was a sore loser.”

  Their voices began to blur together. My body throbbed in agony like one giant open wound, my throat blistering from her touch. Through the smoke, I could see Aksel keeping eye contact with me, though my vision was quickly becoming detached and vague. It was then my eyes played a terrible trick on me; he dematerialized with the smoke, vanishing into nothing.

  My head drooped forward under its own weight, my body finally reaching its limit.

  Seconds later I heard a horrible squelching sound behind me and felt a warm, thick liquid splash on my hair and down my neck. The arm around my throat went lax as another arm wrapped around my waist, keeping me from falling forward. The weight forcing me down was removed from my back and thrown carelessly on the floor with a wet thump.

  I was too dizzy to properly register what was happening, but I thought I saw something roll to the side. Something with long brown hair.

  “She’s going to suffocate if she stays in here much longer,” said a muffled, familiar voice.

  “Whatever happens, follow my lead, I’ll explain later.”

  My head was pounding, and the world was spinning, completely overwhelmed by smoke. Someone, probably Aksel, scooped me up and ran, my back screaming in pain. I heard crashing and roaring around me, but all I saw were blurs and smears of colour.

  Cool air blasted me as we burst from the exit just as another beam of wood came crashing down. I lifted my heavy head to glance over Aksel’s shoulder. Even though my eyes were blurry and exhausted, I couldn’t pull them away from the horrific scene.

  My home…

  It was little more than a pile of kindling.

  I looked around and couldn’t believe my eyes. The inn hadn’t been the only target of the arson; the entire town was going up in a giant blaze. The cloud of smoke billowing into the night sky blocked out the moon and stars above, leaving the town in a void as black as pitch. The only lights to keep us company were the flames fueled by homes and corpses.

  I was seeing the world from behind a pane of distorted glass, barely feeling or hearing the things around me. A faint screaming rang through my ears—the sound haggard and pitiful. It wasn’t until I felt hands firmly holding me in place that I realized the sound was coming from my own throat.

  I cried and bellowed and begged. I pulled and thrashed and kicked against the iron grip holding me, I didn’t care anymore about the pain shooting through every cell of my body.

  I screamed and screamed until the darkness consumed me as well.

  My brain slowly came to life while I lie half asleep in my bed. I could hear birds chirping around me and the wind blowing through the trees. A few hairs tickled across my face—I must have left the window open again last night.

  My bed seemed less comfortable than normal, harder, with lumps jabbing into my back. And my pillow was gone. I rolled over to try and get comfortable and felt a tickling sensation along my bare legs. Running my hand along the mattress I felt… grass?

  I opened my eyes and was met with a piercing light and a burning, scratchy sensation. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Pulling my hands away from my face I squinted at them, they were stained black. My arms were covered in scrapes and smudges of what appeared to be soot. I was unusually lethargic, my brain taking a few moments to catch up to the world around me.

  Then the night before came back to me like a punch in the stomach.

  I leapt to my feet but collapsed in a fit of coughs and gags. On my hands and knees, I began retching onto the grass. My throat felt raw, each convulsion like claws tearing through my esophagus.

  Through my spasms, someone gently pulled my hair aside, and a rubbing hand soothed my back, “Just let it all out.”

  I had just watched my entire world go up in flames. I had just watched as my home burned to the ground. The entire town, wiped out in one giant blaze. Did anyone survive? Branek, Jess, Leanne, the children—for all I knew, they’d burned alive in their beds, screaming and begging for someone to save them.

  With virtually nothing left in my stomach, the retching eventually subsided only to be replaced with an onslaught of dry heaving, mixed with tears and sobs.

  Ayre pulled me into his lap and cradled me as I bawled uncontrollably in his arms. He rocked back and forth as if calming a crying child. If my mind hadn’t been overwhelmed by grief, I’m sure I would have been mortified with the idea of Ayre holding me like a child, but at the moment I needed this. I needed someone to keep me tethered to this world for fear that I would float away, consumed by the anguish and guilt already gnawing away at my heart. The steady movement of Ayre’s hand stroking my hair kept me from losing my sanity entirely.

  My choking sobs eventually turned into silent tears. I
clung to Ayre’s filthy shirt with a desperation like it was my only lifeline in the middle of an ocean.

  He pulled my head against his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Selynna,” he whispered against my hair, sounding as devastated as I was.

  Ilane. This never would have happened if Ilane hadn’t come for me. “This is my fault.”

  “Of course not,” Ayre said with conviction.

  “I have to go back,” I whispered to no one in particular, I shifted in Ayre’s grip. “I have to see… have to make sure no one…” I couldn’t even form a complete sentence. I started to struggle against Ayre’s arms. It was like I was in a dream, the air itself suffocating, weighing me down, keeping me from moving.

  “Selynna. Selynna, stop,” his quiet voice rang of pity, his strong arms keeping me from getting up. He let out a sigh and left a long pause. “Aksel already checked,” he said flatly. “I’m so sorry,” he added, hugging me tighter.

  “T-that can’t be, someone must’ve… N-not everyone could’ve…” It seemed impossible to me that a fire had time to spread through the entire town with no one making it out. We made it out.

  “Flereous are extremely powerful elementals. Their fires spread faster than anything natural—burn hotter. They could have decimated a town of that size in under thirty minutes. The inn was the last place they hit.”

  Ayre’s words hit me like a punch in the stomach, I could barely process them.

  Woodburne had always been my home, regardless of how people had treated me.

  Leanne had always treated me well. She was the first person who cared about me—who treated me like a flesh and blood daughter.

  Branek had put a roof over my head after I’d moved on from Rosewood and treated me like a little sister.

  Jess had taught me how to respect myself even when few others did.

  I had my little brothers and sisters, played with them and helped take care of them. I’d tried my best to be a good role model and give them the love that they deserved.