Mortal Flames_The Magical

by Averi Hope

  The unsettling clacking started again, but they remained motionless. Suddenly, she realized it wasn’t their movement that caused it. They were communicating, whether with each other or her, she didn’t know.

  Then it stopped, and their beady, mechanical eyes turned back to her. As one, they continued forward again.

  That decision wasn’t in our favor.

  Gritting her teeth, she knew what she had to do. Reaching out her hand, she called for her magic. Immediate coolness filled her being, flooding her veins like ice along the surface of a lake. When she breathed out, her air was a puff of white. Ice poured forth from her fingers. It spread around her, following her command, until a radius of fifteen feet in each direction around them was covered in hard ice.

  “There,” she ground out, trying not to show how much the effort had cost her. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if you come any closer, I will destroy you.”

  One the creatures stepped forward. Its legs slipped on the ice and it fell down, sprawling. Its body hit the ice. Hard.

  More clacking came, the noise grating on her ears. “See?”she questioned, her voice sounding braver than she felt. “Leave us. Now.”

  But they didn’t leave.

  She sensed the attack one second before it happened, her hands curling tightly around the branch as one of the Spyres leaped across the ice. Its huge body flew straight at Raiden.

  In an enormous burst of concentration, she called forth her ice once more, coating the branch just before she swung it.

  Crack! The branch split, sending wooden fragments flying as it knocked back the body. Its legs and frozen body splintered from the blow and it hit the ice where it lay unmoving.

  More clacking filled her ears as she tossed the useless branch on the ground and wiped more blood out of her eyes. What if they all decide to jump? I can’t fight them all at once, and I’m running out of power. I need time for it to replenish.

  As her gaze darted from one Spyre to the next, she reached behind her and shook Raiden. Hard. “Time to get up. Come on, Raiden. I need you.”

  Another Spyre jumped toward them. She reached out with her fingers, straining toward it, harnessing the last of her will. Ice encased it, and the creature hit the ice with a crunch.

  She clenched her teeth as a stab of pain struck her heart. I’m hurt. And my magic is struggling. If I keep using them, the cost might be more than I can pay. Then we’ll both die.

  “Raiden!” This time, she shouted his name.

  The legs of another of the Spyres bunched, and the creature was flying through the air a second later. Ice shot from her fingers, but too slowly. The Spyre hit the ice just inches from them. The sharp spike on its tail shot out. But even though it could’ve easily reached Saura, it wasn’t aiming for her. The spike split the ice just inches from Raiden’s leg, before her powers froze it.

  Where its tail struck, creeping blackness spread. Inching toward him.

  An acidic smell hit the air, and Saura instinctively drew back from it. No! No! It can’t be.

  But she recognized the signs.

  Puffery poison. And I don’t have the antidote. He’ll die in hours if it hits him.

  Her heart twisted as she looked at the creature before her. In between the metal that covered most of its flesh, tiny sprouts of pink curled out. “He used a real Puffery underneath all that metal, didn’t he?” She whispered the question, barely able to voice her grief and horror. “What did Kaemon do to you?”

  At her words, something changed in the creatures that surrounded them. One started toward her across the ice, but seemed to be fighting itself. It took a few jagged steps until its legs slipped out of it. The Spyre shook its huge metal head, stepping back, then forward again.

  They don’t want to do this.

  She stood up to her full height on legs that shook. “Pufferies are good. You’re smart. I’ve lived with you all my life back on Falaytious. My friends said you were all blindly loyal, but I knew better. I could see it. You can’t buy a Puffery’s loyalty. You earn it. Did Kaemon earn your loyalty? Was he so good to you? Or did he take it?”

  Their clacking started once more. Bodies twitching, the remaining three tried to creep across the ice. Two sliding steps forward, one back.

  “You don’t want to do this. So don’t. Listen to that voice inside you that says not to.”

  Pufferies are smart. As smart as three-year-old children. They know this is wrong, but their programming is probably telling them one thing and their brains something different.

  “Please,” she pleaded. “Turn around. Don’t look at us. You can ignore it.”

  The air seemed to stand still.

  And then, all three leaped at once. She turned her ice magic on one of them, heart racing. I can’t stop them all. They are going to—

  Fire exploded from behind them, and all three creatures went flying, crumbling onto the earth in smoldering masses. After a moment of horror at what had happened to them, she spun.

  Raiden’s eyes were open, his arm still outstretched, an expression of extreme pain written across his face. Then his head fell back, as his injured arm lay against his stomach and his pale face twisted.

  Her heart broke, for Raiden’s pain, and for the creatures that Kaemon had turned into monsters. All this suffering, all for power.

  She knelt down beside him, wincing as her body throbbed. “Raiden…”

  “More of those things will come. We need to get out of here.”

  Her eyes widened. “How do you–?”

  “Can you help me stand?”

  She nodded, sliding her arm behind his good side. It took some time and, she was sure, an incredible amount of pain, before she had him standing.

  His entire body shook. “Come on, then.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded, gritting his teeth. “We don’t have a choice.”

  The ice melted beneath his feet as they walked as they slowly made their way back to the truck.

  “You’ll have to drive,” he said weakly. A shiver wracked his body. “Right now, it’s taking everything in me not to pass out.”

  She helped him climb into her seat, then circled around to the other side. Finally, sitting in front of the steering wheel, she stared at the darkened dials in front of her.

  “Okay, uh, this isn’t voice activated so…”

  His eyes were closed. “Listen closely and I’ll walk you through it.” Then he opened them again. “Do you have any clue how to get back to your ship?”

  “I followed the homing signal from your craft. I landed about twenty feet from where your ship crashed, although I couldn’t see yours.”

  A slight smile that turned into a grimace lifted the corners of his mouth. “Good, then my camouflaging worked. And I know where to go.”

  All I have to do is drive this strange, archaic land vehicle created by an alien race to get there.

  She swallowed, hands trembling. “So, what do I do first?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  For such a big male, Raiden had shouted and cringed more on their drive to her ship than Saura thought possible. My piloting of this land vehicle isn’t really that bad, is it?

  When they finally reached their destination, she turned off the vehicle gratefully.

  “If I weren’t in so much pain, I’d drop to my knees and kiss the ground,” he muttered, his head in his good hand.

  Is he crying a little in gratitude or just shaking a lot?

  “Ungrateful wretch,” she shot back before thinking. Yes, she’d driven the rusty contraption, shaking and sputtering as it shook down the road. And she might have, occasionally, driven on the wrong side of the road. While she was getting the hang of the circular wheel. And yes, she’d hit the stop lever and go lever at the wrong times as they’d traveled. But all things considered, I did an excellent job. It’d actually been pretty fun! Twice she’d accidentally spun the car, which made her heart race in a nice way after all they’d been through.

 
He threw open the door with a wince and climbed out, swaying, his head still in his hand.

  She opened her door, which squealed in protest, and glared at him as she ran around the truck. “I did my best. It isn’t my fault you didn’t enjoy my driving.”

  He looked up. Many of the cuts on his face had already healed, but bruises still decorated his flesh. “Enjoy? Enjoy your driving? A race car driver would’ve pissed himself. A BASE jumper would’ve cried like a baby. Enjoy myself, you ask? No, I didn’t.”

  The empathy she’d started to feel for him vanished. “Weird. I saved you and got your ass back to your ship in one piece. And that didn’t sound like a thank-you.”

  “And I’m going to kill that bastard Kaemon for this, when I get my hands on him.” He grumbled softly.

  He tried to stop her, but she ducked under his arm and helped him walk slowly toward her ship, taking as much of his weight as possible.

  “Sorry,” he said, through gritted teeth. “Nearly peeing your pants has a way of putting someone in a bad mood.”

  She raised a brow at him, knowing it took a lot for him to apologize through the pain he must be in from the accident. “I’m going to pretend you stopped talking after ‘sorry’.”

  He barked a laugh, then his breath hitched.

  “You okay?” she asked, her annoyance vanishing.

  He nodded, but pain etched his expression. They continued in silence.

  At the door to her sleek metal ship, she pressed her palm against the metal. It opened silently. They took a few steps inside the cramped space, and she helped him turn and maneuver onto the small bed in the back. Cautiously, she helped ease him onto the pillows. “I’ll get the scanner.”

  His eyes were closed, his face drawn from pain. When he didn’t nod, her anxiety rose a few notches.

  But as she stepped away, he spoke. “Start the ship and set course. You can help me after takeoff.”

  “You sure?” she asked, frowning.

  “Definitely.” He paused. “I didn’t know what those things were, but after I crashed, I found about a dozen of them on the bottom of my ship. They didn’t move, so I haven’t worried too much about them all this time. But if they all activated, I’m guessing we won’t be safe much longer. We need to get off the ground.”

  Her stomach flipped. But before going to the controls, she went to the medical unit and typed in her request. A metal Saurange spit out into the opening. Not pausing to think about it, she padded back to his bed and pressed the Saurange into his arm.

  He gasped, eyes flying open.

  She met his dark gaze. “For the pain.”

  Reaching across him, she pressed the blue button beside the bed. Four belts slid over the bed across his waist and stomach. So he’ll be safe during takeoff.

  His expression gentled. “Thank you.”

  She nodded and went to the control board, belting herself in. “Computer, set course for Hope and run emergency countdown for takeoff.”

  “Course set for Hope,” the ship’s deep voice responded. “Emergency countdown at five. Four. Three. Two. One.”

  As they slowly rose above the trees and shot out into the dark night’s sky, Saura glimpsed the pale moon out of the corner of her eye. If we do everything right, I’ll never see this planet again. Neither will he. For some reason, the thought filled her with sadness.

  A soft shaking began as their speed grew faster and they met resistance from the atmosphere. It continued as they shot over a dark ocean and up higher, into the clouds. A few minutes ticked by before they left the planet’s atmosphere, and the ship grew quiet once more. She unbelted herself and went to where Raiden lay, his eyes wide and filled with emotion, but the pain gone from his expression.

  “Raiden…”

  “I’ll be back,” he said, softly, as if he could read her mind. “Earth has become a part of me.”

  She unbelted him from the bed, then reached up to touch the beginnings of a rough beard on his square jaw. “I don’t understand. Your people are a part of you. I’m part of you now. Two years on that human planet has made you forget everything.”

  His dark gaze met hers. “You don’t understand.”

  She looked away from him. But I do. Even a day on a planet–on Erth– reminds me of what our planet was like before we had to leave. To avoid certain death like those left behind. I can’t imagine how he must feel—leaving it after two years. But he must.

  His father is dead. He is the new Khar of his people, and I’m the new Khara. We owe it to them to put our own selfish needs aside. To travel with them in hopes of finding another planet to colonize. We can’t tell them they can’t live here, but choose to live here ourselves.

  But she also knew Raiden wasn’t ready to have this argument again, so she changed the subject. “What hurts the most? Your arm?” Her mind ran through the way he’d walked, the way he’d curled his back as he moved. “Your stomach or your leg?”

  He shrugged, his face a shade too pale, even for a human. “I’m fine.”

  “You really haven’t changed at all,” she said, her lips twisting up. “I’ll start with your stomach. I’m guessing you broke a rib or two in that fall.”

  “I really don’t—“

  She reached for the buttons on his shirt, slowly undoing each one as more and more of his flesh was revealed. Such hard muscles.

  “Well,” his tone was soft as he spoke, “who am I to argue with a beautiful woman undressing me.”

  His humor made her hope he wasn’t as badly injured as she suspected. But when she pulled back the sides of the shirt, she gasped. His stomach was covered in deep black-and-green bruises. Not good.

  He gritted his teeth and helped her strip his shirt off.

  But when she reached for the buttons on his pants, he covered her hand with his own.

  “Don’t,” he said.

  She looked up in surprise. “Does it hurt?”

  “Me, yes, but you being so close is… hard.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  One of his dark brows rose. “You’re still in your mating frenzy. Even with my body a battered mess, my desire is hard to contain.”

  Her cheeks heated, and she felt her own core heat and soften, waiting for him. “I’ll get the scanner.”

  His gaze lingered on her breasts. She looked down, noticing the two hard peaks of her nipples pressing shamelessly against the thin fabric of the black, human shirt.

  If he knew the human undergarments–bra—I’d chosen, he’d have an even harder time containing himself.

  “Excuse me,” she said, rising and moving to the med dispenser. Typing in her request, a scanner dropped into the waiting area. She pulled out the device, not much larger than her hand, then requested a healing kit, which also dropped into the space.

  Taking both back to the bed, she looked up and froze.

  Raiden was wearing nothing but a thin undergarment he’d told her was called a boxer. The scarlet red clothing did nothing to hide his obvious erection.

  I guess he changed his mind. She shuddered, heat curling through her veins. But I can’t give into my desire. I need to focus on healing him.

  Clenching the scanner more tightly in one hand, she marched over and sat down next to him. Turning it on, she moved it slowly over his arm. A holographic image appeared in the air above the scanner. A second later, a red circle came around one area and a warning bell sounded.

  “Hmm.” She tapped on the spot, making it larger. “It’s broken, but pretty cleanly.”

  Opening the small, white medical kit, she took out a bone fixer. The item, which looked like a large square of flexible metal made her cringe. She’d broken a few bones in her life and getting them fixed was always awful.

  But it was necessary. With how quickly they healed, if they didn’t realign the bones immediately, they could fuse together at the wrong angle. The medical device was ingenious, because after it pushed and pulled everything back into place, it drew their healing abilities to that particula
r spot. It usually fixed a break completely, leaving nothing behind but a little soreness.

  Taking a deep breath, she wrapped it around the broken area of his arm. “Focus on me,” she ordered him.

  He closed his eyes, the muscles along his jaw moving reflexively. “Talk to me.”

  An instant later, the bone fixer gave a soft hiss, and the air filled with an acidic stench. Raiden cried out as a soft crunch sounded.

  Her heart raced. “When we get back, we’ll have to meet with the council first. It’s been a few days since your father died, so while the people are still in mourning, they’re probably on to the business at hand…meaning, debating about whether or not to kill off the human population and…” The look on his face told her that maybe their strategy wasn’t working. “Should I talk about something else?”

  The bone fixer held his arm tightly in its iron grip, not nearly finished.

  “No,” he growled. “Keep distracting me.”

  Several minutes went by as Raiden pressed his hand against his face, his legs twisting. And all the while, she prattled on, not really hearing herself as she somehow started talking about their time together as children. Of how she’d always managed to get him into trouble, and how he loved every minute of it. And finally, she talked about the last time they’d been alone together. The night they’d shared their first kiss.

  At last, it beeped, and Raiden almost threw the medical device off his arm.

  Her gaze met his. “Ready for the next one? Or should we…”

  He groaned. “Let’s get this over with.”

  So she reached for the scanner, passing it over his stomach, cringing when five red circles came up.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It took several hours before Raiden felt like he wasn’t drowning in pain. Listening to the sound of Saura in the shower, he carefully practiced walking back and forth in the main area of the ship until his feet felt steadier. Then, he stretched the newly healed bones in his leg, ribs, and arm until they pulled but didn’t send flashes of pain through his nerves.

  When Saura stepped out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a fluffy white towel, he froze. She’d removed her earring, so she no longer looked human.