Fire

by Helen Scott

  "He might. I honestly don't know. I'd only ever heard of him in passing before this."

  "The queen doesn't though, does she?" Dres shook his head. "Okay so use that, she's a known quantity, whereas Vayne could go either way. Listen, we know that the queen doesn't want Tessa to leave until she has whatever it is she's supposed to find in Atlantis, right? But if she finds it while she's down in that weird hallway with Finn and Griff, then we might not even have to justify leaving to the queen. Let's just hold out hope that our little minx finds it and we won't have to worry about it." I sighed, hoping that speaking the words would manifest it into being. I ran my hand through my hair as I looked at the ground just in front of my feet. What a shit storm this was all turning out to be.

  "Our little minx?" Dres asked.

  When I looked up he was smirking and had a single raised eyebrow. The rage that I was so used to immediately flared within me. I stabbed my finger toward him in the air. "Listen, zephyr, I didn't mean it like that, and you know it.”

  "Oh, I think you did, little flower," he said with a shit-eating grin.

  "Get back in the ring and say that," I snarled.

  "You know I'd win, even if you weren't mooning over Tessa, so there's not much point in fighting again, is there?"

  I growled at him. I didn't know what it was about Tessa, even just thinking about her, that brought my animal so close to the surface, but she did. The only thing I was more positive of was that I was going to kick Dres' ass in or out of the ring if he kept giving me shit. Neither of us wanted that, so as I pushed to my feet I stalked away.

  "Going to go dream about your little rose?" Dres' voice called from behind me.

  I flipped him the bird and continued out of the training area toward my room. The fact that I'd be thinking about Tessa whether I liked it or not wasn't lost on me. She'd weaseled her way under my skin, that much I was sure of, but that didn't mean I had to be happy about it.

  13

  Tessa

  The beast was running toward us again, its ugly rocky hide looking like shadows as it moved between the glowing spots on the ceiling. We hadn't had the chance to regroup since the gate slid shut behind us, but we were all looking equally terrified. That was about the only thing I was sure of at that moment. It was somewhat reassuring that they were both as confused and scared as I was.

  "Does anyone know what that is?" I gasped as we hid behind one of the pillars for a moment.

  "Not a clue, but I think it's rather hungry," Finn panted.

  "Time to move," Griff chimed in. I peeked around the corner only to find that the beast was getting to close once again.

  We sprinted to the next pillar, and in a small moment of pause I was able to see to the back of the room. A weapons rack lay propped up against the wall, although who knew how old they were. "Look," I said as I pointed to it.

  "Finn, you run with Tessa, I'll run and grab some weapons."

  The floor shook as the monster came closer. We didn't have any time for debate, so we followed Griff's orders. Finn and I ran to the next pillar, but when we turned we saw that instead of following us as we'd hoped, the beast had gone after Griff, who was now stuck hiding in a crevice between the weapon rack and the wall. If everything hadn't been carved out of stone then we could have had a problem, but as it was there was no way for it to remove the weapons rack and get to Griff. It was a waiting game, or at least that's what I thought.

  It turned out that Finn had other ideas.

  With a roar unlike any other sound I'd heard him make, the Atlantean took off toward the monster making me yelp in surprise. I couldn't tell what he was going to do until I saw the rock in his hand. As soon as he was close enough, he hurled it at the beast's head. It bounced off the thing's skin and landed somewhere off to the side. It was enough to distract it though, as it began to run toward Finn. As I watched and felt helpless, Griff grabbed a couple weapons before he took off in my direction.

  I ran toward him and was beyond thankful when I thought he was going to hand me a weapon. When he tossed a whip in my direction, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or actually be offended. Fortunately, I didn't have time to be either as the ground started shaking once again. Finn was running toward us, and I knew the few minutes rest I'd had were over. As soon as he was within reach, Griff tossed a sword his way and the three of us took off once more.

  The beast was following us all again, and as we rounded the pillar close to the weapons rack once more, I made an executive decision. I split off from Griff and Finn and ran toward the weapons. The problem was that the thing was faster than me. Its long legs were eating up the space between us faster than I had hoped, and as I slid into home base, aka the crevice behind the weapons rack, I felt its claw slice through my shoulder. A hiss of pain escaped me, and I lay as flat on the ground as I could while its claws dug into the space above my head. The crevice was smaller than I had anticipated, and I was surprised that Griff had fit.

  I watched the claws that seemed to be destined for me connect with the rock again and again, and I was beyond relieved that it wasn't falling apart given how old this thing was. The large scythe-shaped claws were terrifying in their own right without the rest of the monster that they were attached to. If I weren’t so scared, I would have screamed as they came within inches of my face again.

  Yells reached my ears from the other side of the stone, and the beast reared back and went after Griff and Finn. Did I feel guilty that they had to save me? Yes. Was I going to let that stop me from grabbing a weapon I could actually use? Hell, no.

  As soon as I felt the ground shake with the weight of the thing as it moved away, I jumped out from behind and grabbed what looked like a pair of daggers, while I looped the whip around my chest like a purse strap. I wasn't about to drop something that might come in handy when fighting for my life. I only hoped that I didn't regret the decision later.

  Without pausing to make sure the guys were okay I sprinted to the closest pillar and peeked around the side. For a moment I watched the monster move. It looked like a big troll or a giant or something. Its head was very domed but small as it sat on overly wide shoulders. Its arms were more like a gorilla's in proportion to the rest of its body, while its legs were relatively short making it very top heavy but not easily tripped given how close to the ground its hands were.

  As it lunged around the pillar to try and reach the guys before they ran off, I saw that its skin flexed in an interesting way. It looked like scales separating, almost as though he was part reptile or fish, except the scales were made of stone and covered in ice. Or maybe they were just made of ice. I wasn't sure, and it wasn't like I could ask it. Either way, I knew that the only way we could hurt it was getting out blades between those scales.

  The guys looped around to me and all of a sudden the three of us were running again.

  "What the hell was that, Dove?" Griff asked as we rounded another pillar. I suddenly felt like we were in a big game of cat’s cradle where the pillars were the fingers and we were the tiny bit of string trying to escape a pair of scissors. Okay, so my analogy isn't that great, but my mind didn't exactly have a lot of power to divert to anything other than running for my life.

  "I needed a weapon I could use, and a whip wasn't going to cut it," I yelled over my shoulder at him.

  "Like we're going to let that thing get close enough to you that you need a weapon," Finn said.

  We were all getting tired, and whether or not they wanted to admit it we were running out of energy. It wasn't like we'd come to this event fresh. I'd freakin' died earlier. Finn had been Mr. Merman for way too long, and Griff, well, let's just say I didn't think Atlantis was his favorite place anymore.

  "I'm going to be bait, and you two are going to get your swords between his scales and stabby, stab, stab." I emphasized the words by making a stabbing motion with my daggers.

  "Stabby, stab, stab?" Finn grinned over at me.

  "Too many life-threatening situations. My brain is done wording fo
r the day." I shrugged. "Ready?"

  "Wait, we're not actually going to do that!" Griff yelled as I ran out into the middle of the arena.

  I could have sworn my heart was going to stop in my chest as I whistled and got its attention. It had eyes like a fish. That weird, almost goat-like pupil staring out at me from a shiny silver iris. It was enough to send a shiver down my spine, but I held my ground and readied my daggers, trying to make it think that I was done running. Looking at the size of its head, the thing's brain was probably as big as my head at least, but that didn't mean it was smart. Sure, it looked animalistic, predatory even, but my money was on the creature being a few cards short of a deck.

  When it started to lumber toward me, holding my ground became a lot harder. The fight or flight instinct had kicked in and I felt like I was about to turn into a goose or something. If I gave in though, then it would be another few rounds of it chasing us and hunting us through the pillars. Part of me was worried what would happen if it ran into one of them. Would it be enough to bring the whole place down on our heads? I hoped not, but I also knew that logically if one of those pillars went then we were all done for.

  I roared at it, or at least tried to, and felt magic twitch through the room. As far as I could tell nothing had happened except the creature getting thoroughly pissed off with me, but my instincts told me that something else was going on. Each time its giant foot landed on the ground bringing it closer and closer to me, I had to stomp my own foot to keep myself from turning and running too soon.

  Finally, when I thought that I was about to end up with a matching gash from its claws on my front I jumped to the side and rolled, thankful for the few gymnastics classes I had taken as a teen that taught me how to roll effectively and without hurting myself. I flung myself as far away as possible from the beast and spun when I stopped moving, only to find it turning and roaring at Finn and Griff.

  The two of them were standing there with their swords impaled in the thing’s back and trying to withdraw them before it shook them around too much. Its scales had worked almost like clamps though, and although I knew they were each tugging as hard as they could there was no way those swords were moving any time soon, at least not until the creature released the tension on its scales.

  I sprinted forward and dove at its feet, slashing with my daggers. As my hand gripped the hilt of each blade tightly, I felt some kind of mechanism give way and what was one blade was suddenly three as the metal sliced through its ankle ligaments, which were one of the few places that it didn't have scales just leathery blue skin. Silver blood poured forth from the wounds and it reached down trying to claw me again as it fell forward. It was only at the last second that the beast decided that I wasn't worth the pain of falling flat on its face and caught itself with its hands, or paws, or whatever they were.

  I scooted out of the danger zone as quickly as possible and watched as it tried to crawl toward Griff and Finn, who both seemed to be looking for the best way to get their swords out of its back. They couldn't get close enough to reach the hilts of their weapons though, at least not both of them. I watched as they tried different tactics to get past it, but none of them worked. Each time they tried something it would only enrage the creature more.

  As it swung its weirdly large arms around trying to get to them or crawl, I wasn't sure which, I realized that it had forgotten about me because it was so focused on them. There was a spot on the back of its head, behind what I thought were its ears where it was just leathery skin again. I knew if I could get my daggers there, I could probably kill it.

  I wanted to scream as I launched myself at it like they do on the movies, but the part of myself that recognized this for what it was, a battle to the death, knew that doing something so stupid would only attract its attention and destroy the tiny plan I had hatched in my mind. With two deep breaths, I pushed off on my feet into a full out sprint and didn't stop until I was running up the thing’s back. Two more steps and I was plunging my daggers into its neck.

  14

  Tessa

  The silver blood rushed over my hands like a tap suddenly being turned on. The creature reared back and roared. It was furious and in pain, and the sheer volume of the sound shook my brain around inside my skull, as well as the walls of the cave. Even through my blurry vision I saw the dust and rocks falling from the ceiling that was still so far above us.

  Blood was seeping under my hands, loosening my grip on the daggers. In a last-ditch effort, I released the whip from around my chest and launched, wrapping it around the thing's neck. The thick woven leather slid against the icy, rocky hide of the creature, and I was barely able to catch it as I whipped the end toward my free hand, passing it in front of the creature's neck.

  Griff and Finn had evidently been able to get their swords out while I was working because all of a sudden the beast reared back, and I felt like I was riding a bucking bronco as they stabbed it once more. I felt a fleeting moment of guilt for the thing but reminded myself that it had tried to kill us.

  As I crossed the ends of the whip over one another I cinched it tight around the creature's neck. I would be happy with just knocking it out. We didn't have to kill it. Seeing the injuries we had inflicted on it, I had no doubt that its death was near no matter what I did with the whip. Nothing could lose that much blood and survive.

  I pulled tighter and tighter, hoping that it would just give up, but it didn't. The beast fought till the very end. When it slumped and fell to the floor my heart broke a little. I'd never killed anything like that before. Mosquitos, spiders, ants, sure, but this was a sentient being, maybe the last one of its kind, and I'd just taken its life. Nausea rolled in my gut as I tumbled from where I'd been holding the whip and fell off the beast's back.

  "Tessa!" One of the guys called my name, but I couldn't move.

  My body was unresponsive as I lay there the numbness spreading all over me. Griff appeared above me and so did Finn a second later. "Numb," I muttered before I completely lost control of my mouth.

  "What?" Finn asked, his brows pinched in concern.

  "My body is numb," I said, or at least tried to. My words were starting to sound slurred.

  "What the fuck is this?" Griff asked as he looked over at Finn.

  "I don't know! I didn't even know this place existed, or what the hell that was!" He gestured to the creature. "Look, we need to sit her up, so she doesn't choke on her own tongue or something, don't we?"

  "Sounds like something we should do," Griff agreed, and the two of them scooted me over to a pillar and propped me up so my back was resting against it.

  The two of them were beyond awkward at that moment as they both just stood there and looked around as though they were waiting for the other shoe to drop. Meanwhile, I was wondering how many damn shoes there were because it felt like I'd been through more than one pair in one day. After a moment they both cleaned off their swords and went off in separate directions in search of something, but I wasn't sure what.

  When Finn returned with a basketball-sized orb of water floating above his hand I wanted to be impressed, but I wasn't sure what the point of it was. I couldn't ask anymore because my mouth had gone completely numb, and it was only when he let it fall over me that I realized he was trying to clean me up, albeit in a weird way. The silvery blood from the creature formed little rivulets as it ran down my exposed skin. My leaves that had given me a small amount of protection were long gone, and I was stuck in my undies once more, and now they were soaked. Again.

  While the liquid ran off me I could slowly feel sensation returning. "How did you know to do that?" I asked once my mouth was working again.

  "I didn't. It was just a guess," Finn said with a shrug.

  My gaze slid back to the beast on the floor. Its glassy, dead eyes stared sightlessly ahead of him, and I had to swallow the need to vomit. I blinked slowly and moved my line of sight to Finn and Griff.

  "Let's find a way out of here. What do you say, Dove?" Griff asked as
he leaned down to pick me up.

  "We should wait until she can walk by herself. The numbness is clearly wearing off, and we don't know what else we might run into," Finn said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

  "Are you saying I can't fight and protect Tessa?" Griff spoke slowly, his voice as deadly as the sword in his hand.

  "No, I just think she would appreciate being able to move on her own. Wouldn't you?" Finn turned to me expectantly.

  "Not that I appreciate being pulled into whatever spat you two are having, but of course I want to move myself. I also want to get the hell out of here. We have no idea how long my numbness will last and if we wait it could get dark or something and we could get stuck. I vote we go, and you guys can play rock paper scissors to find out who gets to carry me if that's what you're worried about because I certainly don't have a preference."

  Griff extended his fist with one hand cupping the bottom, clearly ready to play.

  Finn sighed and shook his head. "If you want to leave so badly then you can carry her," he muttered before walking away.

  The strong, warm hands that I'd come to associate with my fire warrior scooped me up as he held me close to his chest. The warmth that I was used to coming from him was muted over most of my body, leaving me feeling cold and hating this weird numbness.

  "If you're a vampire, how come you're not cold?"

  He chuckled, and the sound rumbled through my chest like an engine starting. "Because humans twist stories. A few of my kind were caught, and having been away from El Dorado for so long, they were having trouble regulating their body temperatures, something that's common when we used to travel with complete freedom to the origin world. No one expected the different temperatures or the differences between worlds. It was only after Kai's people worked some of their engineering magic that we were able to wear something to help us with that."