“Stupid bitch, do you know what you just did?” she spat ferociously.
She righted herself, than I felt a wash of –presence-in my mind. However as soon as she entered my consciousness she felt the unbearable excruciation that my body was in. She screamed shrilly, releasing her mental hold. She hadn’t expected that. She instantly leaped forwards, her hand bolting up to strike me hard across my face. The powerful blow sent me crashing to the ground. Sharp chips of gravel raked through my weakened fingers as I struggled to get up, scraping wiry red cuts. The pain was overwhelming. I collapsed into the dirt as her foot collided with my ribcage; knocking the air from my lungs.
The icy woman smirked once before lifting her pointed chin, closing her eyes in concentration. I was no longer a potential menace. The white skin above her eyes wrinkled into shallow lines; like cracks in concrete. I looked up; Kieran was caught between the remaining two Earthbirds. He kicked at one with his thick black talons, tearing its chest. Four more guards were coming. If he stopped fighting for even the briefest of moments he wouldn’t be able to get out of that. In the end I had no choice. My instincts took over.
I opened my lips, unleashing a voice so powerful it didn’t seem to belong to me. “Don’t touch him. Close your mind.”
My voice was beautiful, mesmerising, I held nothing back. It didn’t hurt, surprisingly, not anymore than it already did. I felt the same strange energy trickle down my spine that I had in the pub only a few days ago, it mingled with the throbbing pain already residing there, but this time it was intentional. I had no idea what I was doing, really, but I continued to repeat that last sentence; my heartbeat drumming rhythmically as I spoke. The tingling sensation pulsated, coiling up my spine and spurting into my head like a fountain. It was impossible to ignore; impossible to control.
I was losing it. My instincts were overwhelming. “Close your mind.”
The ice woman was clutching her ears desperately, her eyes wide and terrified as I drained her existence. Drawing out everything she had; her memories, her energy, her talents and numbing her mind to it all. I didn’t want to do this, but I couldn’t help myself. “Close your mind.” My voice was angry. I was shouting before I knew it. A dominating, almost scary feeling took over me; this wasn’t me. This was a dangerous thing I could do.
I had two choices now, either I stopped or I continued.
Glancing down at the pitiful woman, withering in an agony that maybe even matched mine; I stopped as my anger dimmed. She fell unconscious.
I glanced up at the sky, watching as Kieran tore and swiped at the warriors. He was phenomenal, furious. They were coming at him from different directions but he fought back with skill and confidence. Like everything with Kieran; he was brilliant at this. I waited only a few minutes until he landed beside me. I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t want to know what he was thinking as he stared down at the woman. I just didn’t want to know.
The power I had felt was gone. The pain was worse. It kept getting worse.
You’re bleeding, Kieran told me quietly.
I didn’t care; it hurt too much to lift my hand for confirmation.
The fire was all I could think of. I’d had enough. I just wanted to lie down and let the flames come and get me. I just wanted not to feel it. I felt so ashamed of myself I couldn’t bear to look at what I’d done to that woman. And I had enjoyed it; the power. It was sick. I was becoming a monster.
Finally looking at Kieran, I watched his beautiful feathers sway like grass in the wind. I watched as he stretched his strong wings; preparing to lift me. I watched those never-altering eyes as they blazed and bored into my soul. He knew I was giving up. I couldn’t stand the pain anymore.
Kill me, I begged him, please Kieran. Kill me quickly.
He could see what I was going through. He could see how much I wanted the pain to end. I wanted to sleep, forever, if that’s what it took.
He shook his head sadly. If I do that, then I’ll never see you again. Then he scooped me up carefully, spreading me across his back. Hold on, he ordered firmly. I didn’t. I couldn’t. My hands wouldn’t respond. Damn it Ruby! If you don’t hold on, all our efforts to save you would have been pointless. Do you not care about us? Do you realise what’ll happen to us now for leaving? Your father will have us all executed. We’ll need you. But first you need me to save you.
I knew he was right. It wasn’t fair. They’d done so much for me. Risking their future, their home, their lives, and I would not let them do it in vain. I cried out as I shifted my arms, wrapping them around Kieran’s large form. The fire burned viciously in my wrist and the tattoos on my arms were glowing in pulses. The agony was intensifying still. I screamed helplessly as I wound my fingers through his reluctant feathers, clamping on with all I had.
My breath came in short shallow gasps. I felt the floor lift beneath me. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my pathetic grip. I could tell we were moving fast. I will not die. Not after everything.
But still I wondered. Do you believe in heaven?
I believe, Kieran said firmly, that you don’t need to know what I believe, because you aren’t going to see it for a very long time.
All of a sudden I realised that we’d landed.
“Is this the girl?” said a business-like feminine voice. She spoke with calm authority.
My neck painfully shot up, startled. A woman sat on a roundish blanket woven with a complicated series of intertwining threads. We were in the centre of a small clearing, surrounded by ancient trees. The stars sparkled curiously above and millions of tiny black flowers grew around me.
Yes it is Mother, Kieran said respectfully, her name is Ruby.
The healer was his mother? Kieran’s mother cursed me? Wow small world.
She was beautiful; obviously related to Kieran. Their eyes were identical, emerald and onyx, but her skin was lighter. The only part of her features that showed her age was the few strands of silver in her inky black hair.
Kieran gently lay me down. I relinquished my desperate hold. The pain exploded again. From the corner of my eye I saw a flash of emerald light. The woman told me that her name was Garnha and not to worry. I could feel the tears streaming down my face, hot and sticky; though I managed not to make a noise. This seemed like a great accomplishment.
The flames blazed uncontrollably and I knew I didn’t have a lot of time.
Suddenly Kieran was there, human. He’d pulled his dark trousers on but hadn’t bothered with anything else; his exposed skin was beautiful.
“What can I do?” he asked his mother, his face serious and professional.
“Sit her upright for a start,” Garnha told him calmly. “Do you have the stone, Ruby?” she asked me, her voice kind and compassionate.
“What?” I wondered, confused.
Garnha seemed to notice something; the necklace around my neck. “Never mind,” she uttered, and reached for my mother’s necklace. I would have protested but I was too weak. She pulled off the small blood-red gemstone that had always hung from my chain though it never really matched. My eyes widened but she returned my chain and I put it on, watching her.
Another intense flare of pain ignited within me. I screamed uncontrollably, high-pitched agonised wails. I couldn’t think. I tried to stop, only managing to reduce it to pitiful whimpers as my blood boiled; literally. I gasped, frantic.
Opening my eyes, which I hadn’t realized I’d closed, I watched as Garnha put my jewel in a small wooden dish; quickly reciting something too complicated for me to understand. She held up a knife and slashed it across her palm; letting the blood drain onto the stone, then picked up my palm and did the same to me. The cut was clean and my blood fizzed and boiled as it filed the bowl. The crimson gem melted immediately. She picked up the bowl.
“Kieran you need to restrain her,” she said and my eyes widened in fear. “You are going to have to lie flat on your stomach, Ruby. I’m going to make a small incision into the back of your neck.”
I glanced at Kieran, terrified, but he nodded and I did as I was told.
I lay down, my body shaking. My arms were above my head and Kieran’s knuckles clenched white as he wrapped his hand over them, his other hand becoming an inescapable snare on my lower back. I panicked as Garnha came closer, holding the substance that had miraculously transformed into a thick yellowish liquid. I shuffled back but Kieran stopped me.
I had no way out.
“Just try and relax,” she cautioned.
Relax, I scoffed mentally. I closed my eyes tightly, preparing myself.
At least I couldn’t see the knife as it came towards me; but damn I soon felt it. My breath came faster and faster, I balled my hands into tight fists. The blade she used must have sliced deep, travelling what I estimated to be at least six inches. The pain exploded. I screamed, trying to squirm from Kieran’s grasp, but he held me tighter, pinning me to the floor.
“No more,” I cried, “Please.” I spluttered blood, my head going dizzy as my body starved of oxygen. I could feel the horrible metal instrument scrape down the bones of my neck, damaging my tissue all the way down. Then I felt something cold slop into my open wound, a squirming sludge that wriggled deep; wrapping around my vertebrae like a maggot. It hurt even more and I cringed, gritting my teeth so hard I bit my lip, drawing blood. I could also feel more hot liquid pouring down my neck, in hot sticky rivers. Carefully Garnha moved something over my neck. A cloth.
“It’s done now.” Garnha uttered softly.
I collapsed back into the ground. Kieran released me. Everything hurt.
No frigging difference there then. I lay on my back, glancing up at the dark sky, growing warmer with sunrise.
It was like gravity was rotating and now I had the pressure of the universe thrust against my insignificant being. All the sorrow of the dying stars, the strength of the planets, and the pain of the people was crashing down on me harder than Niagara Falls. It was too much. It was obliterating me. The force of the fire continued increasing. I had mere minutes. I was clutching a delicate leaf on a dying autumn branch, at any moment it would snap. At any moment it would be winter and I’d be lost to eternity.
Anything is better than the pain, I tried to convince myself.
I wondered if I was going to see Mum at Heaven’s gates. I imagined Max barking impatiently as I drifted closer to them. Would she be happy to see me, or upset that I’d hardly even lived yet? Was there even a Heaven? Was I just going to stop existing, lost to a vast nothingness for all time?
I turned my neck to look into Kieran’s beautiful, sad eyes.
He slowly reached up his hand, gently helping me sit up so that my back leaned against his body and I was in his comforting arms. I winced but the pain was dying now, I was dying now; numbness was taking over. Kieran unexpectedly trailed his fingers across my cheek; so lightly my heart stopped momentarily. He cupped his hand against my face; cooling my blazing skin as he rubbed his thumb across my tears, erasing them; tying to comfort me.
“Sungha,” he whispered softly, so low I knew only I could hear. Somehow that word had more significance than anything else in the world. It’s what I had said to Max though I had no idea what it really meant. It’s how Kieran knew what I was, even before I did.
It didn’t calm the fire, but it calmed my soul.
Kieran stroked my hair soothingly. I painfully touched his hand which lay around my waist. He let me intertwine my fingers in his, so small in comparison, like a heart in a ribcage. He knew I was scared. I realised my hand was shaking. I remembered the Wall, I knew even this was a risk. Even then, I knew where we were heading. He smiled sadly, a heartbreaking smile.
For the shortest, most meaningful moment of my life I forgot everything.
I forgot where we were, I forgot I was dying, I even forgot my pain. All I could feel was Kieran’s hand tenderly resting against mine. I felt him breathe unsteadily; I felt wetness against my cheek, I felt my skin tingle, I felt my heartbeat, I felt him shiver, I felt things too complicated for understanding.
There was nothing, nothing in the world except this moment.
Then flames rippled across my skin.
Kieran moved away from the fire and I was alone. I’d never been more alone in my entire life and without the comforting presence of my perfect stranger I finally gave in. Where I was going, I couldn’t take anyone with me.
Everything dies eventually.
Chapter Ten
Fire hums. How strange it was, knowing I never even realised.
I followed the music, surrounding myself in its captivating power. I let it fill me, rejuvenate me, I let it rebuild me. I could feel the earth’s warmth and incredible ability to make things grow. I could feel the water dripping intermittently through the rich soil, very slowing replenishing me and demolishing my thirst. I could feel the artistic fingers of wind moulding and sculpting; paying passionate attention to detail. It was bizarre, a tingling sensation, like pins and needles when your foot falls asleep.
I wondered if I had a foot yet.
Whoa, that was a really weird thought.
It was a slow process, you know, resurrecting and stuff.
Or maybe it just seemed a slow process.
No, it definitely was a slow process.
Gradually my new limbs started completing; one by one. First a heart, then other organs, then muscles, and then eventually I had skin and…hair?
I’ve definitely waited long enough, I thought impatiently, finally opening my eyes. My vision blurred, like the interrupted debris at the bottom of a lake. When it settled I felt a spark of amazement. Everything had changed, as I had.
I rose up from the earth, feeling strangely elongated and stretched; my body fantastically alive. Looking down, my eyes widened, seeing vibrant red feathers. As I stretched my arms, I realised they weren’t arms at all; they were wings. I had wings. Seriously; I had beautiful crimson wings that glowed iridescently. I watched in astonishment as the gold tips glistened brighter than burning embers. I also had claws as dark and dangerous as Kieran’s.
Thinking this, I wondered where he was, but as I glanced around to search for him I got slightly distracted. Everything shone in these eyes. The soil wasn’t just brown anymore; it was made up of immeasurable quantities of different coloured fragments, each grain so infinitesimal that even my new eyes had to concentrate. It was alive with colours I hadn’t even imagined existed.
Scanning around with my new vision, everything gleamed with its own unique energy. There was so much I could finally see.
I could see the individual bristles at the very tops of the pine trees, the ants marching in armies towards sheltering pinecones. I saw a mouse shuffle restlessly under mountains of dried leaves and wooden splinters, surrounded by purple berries, as it hibernated for winter. I could zoom in on a droplet of water hanging precariously from a blade of grass miles in the distance and I could calculate the temperatures of living organisms just by looking at them.
I heard and smelt everything. Like my vision, I could focus in on weaker fragrances and sounds that would have previously been overpowered, such as the clean sharp tang of citrus fruits carried on a southern breeze.
I was so busy appreciating my new advances that the slow steady rhythm of breathing lungs escaped my notice. I soon noticed several pairs of eyes staring coldly down at me from within the trees. There were six Phoenix bathed in shadow within the branches, metal armour complicatedly attached to their wings and bodies. I gulped nervously. Shocked, I nearly gasped aloud when I turned to find half a dozen men in armoured uniform watching me.
The men came forwards. I meant to ask them who they were but it came out as a panicked squawk. Where were the others? Surely Nik wouldn’t leave me alone? I didn’t know what to do on my own. Had they been captured?
“We won’t hurt you,” assured one man, his face unidentifiable beneath a heavy metal helmet. “If you don’t try anything, we won’t hurt you,” he promised, though a warning was in his part-co
ncealed eyes. “Come with us.”
I eyed him suspiciously. Where? I thought, only just remembering how to communicate when a bird; to use my mindvoice.
“To where your friends are,” he answered informatively.
Where, I thought again, more firmly, regarding him with sharp eyes.
“They’re with The High Council, of course,” he said, surreptitiously edging closer. I tried to stand as tall as possible, attempting to look intimidating. Then I remembered Phoenix in the trees and thought; okay, maybe not.
I thought quickly, calculating and weighing out my options. I could be walking straight into a trap. But then again, what other choice did I have? I couldn’t fight them. And I certainly couldn’t, like, fly away or something. I didn’t know how, and they’d only catch me anyway. I was lacking options.
Finally I surrendered, following them. They surrounded me, caging me above and around. God, these people really thought I was a threat if they wouldn’t risk less than twelve Phoenix to capture me. I almost laughed.
I smelt the spicy scent of fear on their chests.
We’d reached the perimeter of the forest, where the trees thinned to become some sort of park. Following a winding, convoluted path made from a pale gold stone, eventually we discovered another gate. We walked under it, passing the guards effortlessly. It led us directly into the city. What’s with all the gates? Then I remembered that the city was warded.
The city streets were eerily deserted, but I could feel inquisitive eyes watching me suspiciously, their sneaky gazes boring into my back. As we passed what looked like a school I noticed a group of small children playing outside. What struck me was that all their eyes were black; despite their different Tribes.
The guards wasted no time in ushering me towards the impressive gemstone building in the centre of the city. The guards seemed to knit their bodies closer. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. The doors at the front of the building were also guarded; however we were immediately gestured forward. Once inside, I was led up a spiral staircase. At the top were two opposing doors, I was forced towards the right. Looking inside, I shivered.
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