Fated Souls (The Fated Saga Book 1)

by Sariah Skye

  I found myself flying nearer to them, my feet kicked out behind me and I was horizontal with the ground. One of the boys caught my eye and just waved.

  "We’re doing magic!" he called excitedly, conjuring up a ball of water from seemingly nowhere and throwing it at his companion, just as the red-headed boy (I was guessing they were brothers but I had no idea, actually) was speaking under his breath, some kind of rhythmical incantation. Suddenly, spires of fire began shooting up around them in a circle. I gasped as the boys screamed, and clutching one another.

  The other boy—a cute little brunette—pleaded at me through wide brown eyes. "Help!"

  The spires of fire were growing higher, taller and edging in towards the boys. I looked back at my boys—Gabriel and company—and realized that they didn’t see what was going on. They were intently discussing something. They wouldn’t be able to see anything, anyhow, the fire concealed by the shrubs and trees alongside the edge of town.

  One of the boys shrieked as one of the fire spires roared and began shooting ash and sparks around, the boys had to duck to barely avoid them.

  I summoned up my courage and flapped my wings harder. I didn’t even think to exhale my dust—not that much would come out (not enough to fly faster, anyhow—not like in dragon form) but it didn’t matter, I gained altitude and speed anyways.

  I heard one of the boys shout my name, suddenly realizing what was happening and the three of them began running towards us, but they wouldn’t arrive in time, the fire was inching in towards the boys quickly.

  I shot my fist out, demanding that I fly upward and my wings and body responded correctly darting up over the flames and down in the center of the creeping flames.

  "Are you okay?" I asked, landing deftly in the center like I had been flying as a winged human my entire life.

  The two boys in tears just threw themselves at me, and I wrapped my arms around them, and shielded them with my body. My wings spread out and over them as well acting as another barrier from the heat of the fire that was all too close. I wasn’t sure if I could grab them and fly out. I clutched them close, one under each arm and began beating my wings again and willed myself to fly upwards. My feet began to hover off the ground, but I could only get as far as my tiptoes before realizing my wings couldn’t handle the weight of the three of us.

  "I can’t fly out!" I shouted, at no one, nearly into a panic. The heat was beginning to prick at my skin, causing beads of sweat to drip down my forehead. My blood pressure started to raise and my heart beat about a mile a minute as my eyes darted back and forth in between the boys and the fire.

  I heard a hiss and I peered around one boy that had buried his face into my side, sobbing uncontrollably. The other boy was coughing uncontrollably. I covered his nose and mouth with my palm, and he grabbed it, pushing it tighter against his face. I caught a glimpse of Gabriel between the flickers of flames, rapidly shooting water balls at the flames, to no avail. It just wasn’t enough.

  "If I could…." I thought to myself. I wasn’t sure if I could grasp his magic through the fire.

  "Leo!" I watched as Maxxus shifted into his dragon form, and began to barrel into the towers of fire.

  Without thinking about it, I held up my hand as if to push him away. My wing came up with my outstretched palm and somehow, even though Maxxus was currently trying to barrel through the fire, he stopped dead in his tracks. He kept trying to run against the invisible force but wasn’t getting anywhere.

  I glanced momentarily at my hand. Somehow, I was preventing him from entering.

  One of the little boys screamed, as a spark flew at his leg, scalding a hole in his pants. He cried out in pain.

  "No!" I breathed out, trying to blow out the flame. The dust danced around the fire momentarily before squelching it out. The boy breathed a short-lived sigh of relief.

  Since Maxxus couldn’t get in, I watched him from the other side, breathe out with a loud growl a huge flame of green "fire" at the ground, causing a mound of earth to jut upwards. Gabriel saw this, and summoned a large water ball and tossed it at the earth, causing a large splatter of mud that momentarily dissipated one of the fire spires before it shot up again this time a little smaller. The two of them joined forces and began shooting their own magics at it, not having much success. The fire was too strong, nearly out of control.

  Clearly, it was up to me.

  "Stay close. If something happens to me, those two on the other side are trying to get you out. There will be a small window of time when the fire is low enough to jump out, but you’ll have to be quick!" I shouted at the boys. One nodded, the other one just wrapped his arms around my leg.

  It’s like the tornado, Leo. The storm. You just…will it gone. Imagine it getting smaller. Picture a cloud of rain pouring over us, putting it out.

  I bit my lip and inhaled deeply, ignoring the smoke entering my lungs. I sputtered briefly but breathed in again, fighting against the burning. I looked up towards the sky, at the cloudless blue above and imagined a rain storm suddenly overhead, dropping a monsoon of water, all around us. I closed my eyes and exhaled, throwing my sparkled mist at the sky.

  I felt my wings outstretch wide, and a cool breeze floated in from above us. I pretended to grab it with both hands and pull it down and over the flames. They hissed and roared in protest, the wings I hadn’t wanted cooperating, beating quickly, helping to push the air outside and all around us.

  I heard a crack of thunder. I looked up at the sky and out of nowhere, a gray cloud was swirling. I fought back a joyous and relieved laugh. I shut my eyes again, picturing the cloud dumping a deluge of water all over us.

  At first, it was only a trickle. I breathed out again, feeling the spatters of rain touch my wings. In response, the wings outstretched as far as they could, I felt the pull on my shoulders.

  I felt the tension in the sky, the cloud was ready to release its storm but it needed coaxing. I opened my eyes, and willed it to release its water.

  As if responded, the sky opened up directly over us, and poured rain all over us.

  The fire sizzled and hissed in response, and was lessening but it wasn’t nearly fast enough it was still inching way too close, nearly touching the feet of the little boy on my right.

  I gasped. My wings folded over the two boys as a shield and I looked up at the sky, feeling desperation and anger. "More!" I called out to no one in particular, but it responded by releasing a torrent of water. I closed my eyes once more, imaging the rain pouring over us, over the fire and stomping it out furiously. I threw my hands up and slammed them down, and the wings followed suit as if commanding the water to shoot out and at the flames. More hissing, more popping as the flames were reduced to steam. I opened my eyes the flames a mere circle around us now.

  Gabriel summoned a wall of water from the rain pouring down, and threw it at the base of the fire in front of him. The fire sputtered and fizzled out completely.

  "Now, Leo!" I wasn’t sure which of the men shouted this at me—Maxxus I believe, as I could barely hear Gabriel’s human voice over the roar of the flames. I released my hold on the rain and bent over the boys, wings reaching out on other side again and down, wrapping around the boys clutched to my side, protecting them from the heat of the flames that remained and ran them through the opening in the circle.

  Daniel was immediately ready, pulling the boys away from me and lifting them effortlessly and holding them against his body. I nodded a thank you to him.

  "Leo!" Gabriel pointed at the ring of fire, which was starting to grow again.

  I swallowed nervously, relieved that once the boys were out of immediate danger, but this fire needed to be contained or else it was going to engulf the entire town.

  I ran in between both Gabriel and Maxxus, who were still trying to throw their own magics at the base of the fire and having nominal success combining the summoned earth and water as mud.

  "We just need more!" Maxxus hollered, not taking his eyes off the spire of fire that
he was trying to contain. It had been only a couple inches high just a few moments ago, but now that I wasn’t concentrating on the rain above me, it was beginning to dissipate.

  "Leo, can you shoot this at the sky with your magic? Everything you got!" Gabriel called to me, spinning his hands around each other, causing a large ball of elemental magic to combine with each other—a ball of water and wind and electricity—a plasma ball. "To strengthen the cloud over us!" he explained, as I was about to open my mouth and ask why.

  I nodded.

  "On three…" Gabriel aimed the ball of energy above him, pushing it delicately, slowly. "One…two…" I inhaled and summoned my will to shove it at the sky with everything I had.

  "Three!" Gabriel shouted, pushing it towards the sky.

  I exhaled, pushing my magical dust at the sky. It was struggling to reach the cloud overhead and the ball of energy Gabriel had summoned was beginning to disperse.

  "It’s not enough!" he yelled.

  Feeling a sudden urge of determination, I beat my wings rapidly and jumped into the air, gaining altitude quickly. I didn’t even have the time to look under me as I shot up into the air, nearing Gabriel’s energy ball. My wings beat steady as I got close enough to nearly wrap my arms around it, and they slowed for a moment, allowing me to hover with it.

  I felt the energy from the magic tingle at my skin, waking up my nerves, causing every hair on my body to stand on end. I placed a hand on either side of it and it responded by resting in my grasp. It felt…powerful. Strong. I fought back the urge to smile at the surge of power welling up inside me. Focus! I yelled at myself in my mind.

  I glanced up at the sky, the cloud above me was beginning to separate. I pulled the energy ball close to me for a moment and, exhaling my dust into it, shoved it with a push into the sky.

  The cloud seemed to explode then, in a burst of wind and water. Thunder crackled, a bolt of lightning darted out and touched the ground nearby momentarily, shaking the earth like a volcano eruption and the sky opened up and dumped buckets and buckets full of rain and hail rapidly.

  I leaned forward slightly, allowing my wingspan to cover me shielding me from the oncoming pea size hail. A crack of thunder boasted from the sky, almost as if speaking to me, announcing its arrival. I glanced down momentarily at the fire below, it was rapidly going out as the rain and hail pelted the earth below me. A gust of wind blew from the cloud, threatening to knock me from my flight. It would be a hard landing if I fell.

  "No!" I told it with determination, pushing my hands out in front of me as if to stop the gust of wind from hitting me. It stopped and pushed against my hands. I felt the energy of the air, frustrated it was contained. I smiled, feeling triumphant that I had conquered it.

  "Down there!" I demanded, like it was a person with an identity. I pushed it down towards the ground, and combined with the rain it swirled downwards like a brief tornado, stifling any flame left behind on the ground, spinning the flame into submission. I looked down at it from above, my wings keeping me comfortably aloft in the air. I watched the wind pull the flame up into its funnel and suffocate it (which seemed odd, like the opposite of what should have happened). I just watched it, entertained and mesmerized by the wind and rain dancing around each other, attacking the ash and spark on the ground.

  "Enough, Leo!" a voice boomed from the ground. I glanced briefly to see Maxxus had been tossed about twenty feet from where he had been, struggling to get up from the ground. Gabriel was nearby, face down into the ground, making his body smaller as if trying to hide from the storm. I let out a cry of surprise, and glanced back down at the storm.

  "Enough!" I told it, and spread my hands apart, inhaling and exhaling the dust again, willing it to dissipate into the atmosphere above.

  And suddenly, it stopped. The winds calmed, the rain lessened to drizzle and eventually just ended, and the cloud above me parted and dispersed around me in a puff of steam.

  I stood motionless for a moment, afraid to move and jinx the magic. I stared, wide-eyed at each of the boys in turn, all of them staring at me, mouths agape until one of the little boys whimpered. It was the one who had cast the spell went awry, who’d had a hole scalded into his pants. He bent over clutching the area with his hands. I dashed over to him and knelt in front of him, on my knees.

  "It hurts!" he cried, tears of fear and pain trickling down his dirty, soot-stained face.

  I gave him a sympathetic look. "Sit down. Let me see if I can fix that."

  He nodded, carefully plopping his butt down on the ground and stretching out his injured leg in front of him.

  I carefully pulled away the scalded fabric from the burn, and he cried out. Some of it had actually fused with his skin. I bit my lip. I motioned behind me, and called for Gabriel who was by my side in a second. He flinched, when I pointed at the burn.

  "Some cool water should help." Gabriel summoned a ball of water between his hands. I poked out a finger and touched it, testing the temperature. "Can you make it colder?"

  "I will try." He waved his hands around the water ball, eyes concentrating as he did. "Best I can do."

  I touched it again, it was a little colder, but not much.

  "Hmm…" I closed my eyes, picturing a snowball in Gabriel’s hands, and held a palm out from my lips and blew gently, I heard the noise of a crisp winter breeze as I did.

  I heard the tell-tale crackle of ice as the outside of the ball crystallized into ice. I tried not to grin at the awesomeness of it, since the boy was still whimpering but fixated on the cold ice ball in front of Gabriel.

  "Can I?" I asked, putting my hands on the open sides of the ball, and Gabriel nodded. I grasped the water magic in my hand, gently and lifted it out of Gabriel’s grasp and slowly moved it to the little boy’s leg and exhaled, blowing the dusted water gingerly at the wound on his leg. I closed my eyes, imagining the water soothing the pain and cooling the skin and blew out again.

  The little boy let out a sigh of relief, as the water had turned to snow and trickled over his skin. "That feels better."

  I smiled at him warmly. "That was some crazy magic you did there. What were you thinking?"

  He bit his lip, clearly embarrassed. "I’m sorry. My mother is a sorceress. My brother too," he said, nodding towards his companion, still cowering into Daniel who had picked up the little boy and was hugging him against his chest, patting his back. "I didn’t get any powers, but my mom said I’d be a good witch if I practiced. I might even learn some magic, too, like them. It was a spell in a book of my mom’s." He looked down at the ground, crestfallen. "I’m sorry."

  "It’s a good thing Leorah was here to save the day," Gabriel said, patting me on the shoulder. I rolled my eyes at him.

  "Well…for what it’s worth, it did work. A little…too well." I said, motioning towards the spot where they were playing, scorch marks in a circle on the ground, soot painted on the nearby trees.

  He managed a half-smile. "I think…I think I’ll wait and have my mom help me."

  I grinned. "Now, that’s a good idea." The snow had melted and trickled off his leg onto the ground below, leaving behind a severely reddened area, but it was obviously less painful, and the ice had hardened the fabric and it had fallen off easily. "Going to try one more thing." I placed my hands around the burn, splaying my fingers, and closed my eyes. I imagined the burn turning from red, to pink to white and fading away, his normal skin growing over it. I breathed out, my wings were shrouding over me, over my arms as if channeling the magic down my arms.

  When I opened my eyes, no wound remained. Not a mark, not any redness…not even a scar. I raised a brow and exchanged a look with Gabriel.

  "That tingled!" the boy said with a giggle. He peered over at his leg, pulling his pants up to his knee and exposing the area of skin that I had healed. He marveled at the fact that nothing was there. "It’s gone! You healed me!" He grinned gleefully at me, standing up and throwing himself into my arms, nearly knocking me in a thankful bear hug.

>   "What happened here?" Kiarra piped up from behind us. We turned to see her, looking expectant, arms crossed over her chest.

  "They had a little accident," I replied, the little boy avoiding Kiarra’s stern gaze.

  Kiarra frowned, but the boy piped up. "She fixed everything!" he said, pointing at me.

  She glanced at the other little boy with Daniel, and he nodded, who gently set the boy on his feet. Kiarra outstretched her hands, motioning for the boys to come with her. "Well…Jackson, Davis…I’m going to walk you to your house and you’re going to tell me exactly what happened, okay?" The boys—the one I’d healed appearing to be Jackson—turned back to us and waved, and placed their hands in hers. Over her shoulder she said she’d be right back.

  I stood up, placing my hands on my hips, feeling self-satisfied. I beamed, but Gabriel, Maxxus and Daniel just stood there, staring at me, dumbfounded. Maxxus, robes still tied around his neck, shifted back into human form and wore the same human expression of shock and awe pointed at me.

  It was Daniel who spoke first. "Shit, Leo!"

  Gabriel stammered, apparently trying to find the right word. When none came, his brother spoke for him.

  "You realize, that you conjured an entire storm, right?"

  "I had Gabriel's plasma ball too, remember?" I retorted.

  "Yeah but…it wouldn’t cause that amount of magic. That was…insane!"

  I shrugged. "It was just a little rain."

  "Rain? Just a little rain!?!?" Gabriel exclaimed, thunderstruck. He slapped his palms against his face, making unintelligible noises.

  "Leorah, it was an entire storm, not just a little rain," Maxxus offered, a little rattled.

  "And you conjured it out of nowhere!" Gabriel finished, slapping the sides of his face and shaking his head. "Are you sure you’ve never done this magic stuff before I found you? I mean…there is no way you can be that powerful, just in a couple weeks’ time!"