The Fury's Light

by Hailey Staker

  Aiden took a knife, stripping the bark from the thin branch. He twiddled it around until the tip of it was smooth and rounded at the edges. He placed the straw on top of the piece of bark and set the branch above the straw.

  “Now, start with the branch between your palms, and rub them together, spinning the branch. Do it quickly,” Aiden said, Lana taking the stick from him. She did as he said, seeing smoke rise from the base of it. “Bend down and blow on the straw.” Lana saw a flame flicker then die out. She repeated the steps until the flames settled. “Now go gather supplies and build your own.”

  Lana followed his directions, gathering straw from a nearby training dummy, tearing a piece of bark from a tree and finding a branch that was half an inch thick and about two feet long. She took his knife, picking off pieces of bark from the tip of the stick. She’d cut herself, wincing at the pain before returning to her task. Putting the bark on the ground and the straw on top of it, she held the stick between her palms, rubbing them together quickly from the top of the stick to the base in a downward motion. When smoke began to rise from the bark, she bent down and blew, causing the flame to spark to life.

  Four hours were spent practicing how to make a fire by hand. He didn’t speak, only focused on his breathing while she continued cutting herself, starting the fire, putting it out and starting over. By the time she’d cut her hand more than twenty times, Aiden spoke.

  “That’s enough for the day. Meet me back here tomorrow morning at eight,” Aiden said. He stood and walked away, leaving Lana alone in the woods.

  Elijah was waiting for her outside her room when she made it up the stairs.

  “How was your first day of training?” he asked.

  “My hands are sore and I know how to make a fire from straw, bark, and branch,” Lana said. “What did you learn today?”

  “I learned that Aiden needs to be careful when he speaks to you, otherwise he’s going to have a very angry vampire on his back,” Elijah smiled.

  “Trying to protect me, I see?” Lana asked.

  “I couldn’t protect you from Abigale, but I can make it up to you by…”

  “Never mentioning that name again?” Lana said, opening the door. “So why are you gracing me with your presence?”

  “I saw Kyle and wanted to check up on you,” Elijah said. “Why isn’t he dead?”

  Lana made herself busy with her duffle bag, packing the clothes back into it and digging for the charger to her phone. “Apparently that thing only killed the demon hunter, and now he’s back to being a warlock. By the way, I went back to the Bay.”

  “You what? How? Why? Lana, you know it’s not safe,” Elijah rattled off.

  “I didn’t have a choice. It was either get lost in the woods or go back to a place I was familiar with,” Lana said, turning to face him. “I couldn’t just walk out of the study when Dimitri and Aiden were arguing about me, could I? No. I went back to my house…and my brother was there.”

  “Donovan, right?” Elijah asked.

  “I was confused and told him to leave, and then I went to the school but the art room had been trashed. Professor Baldwin attacked me because she was possessed and so Kyle and I got it out of her but apparently it told her about him and that Donovan could be or really is involved with everything that’s been going on in the Bay,” Lana said.

  “Slow down, you ran into your brother who you haven’t seen in hundreds of years yet you told him to leave?” Elijah said. “Why would you do that?”

  “He broke into my house. I hadn’t seen him since my mother died. What else was I supposed to do?” Lana asked.

  “Listen to what he had to say! Maybe the school wouldn’t have been attacked,” Elijah said.

  “It wasn’t Donovan, it was other demons,” Lana confessed.

  “But it told her about him, did it not? He could have been there to warn you, you don’t know because you told him to leave,” Elijah said.

  “He wasn’t the Donovan I remember,” she said, avoiding his gaze. “He threatened me.”

  “What did he say?”

  “You’d think twice before speaking to me in that tone, it may do more harm than good.”

  “Have you told Dimitri? Aiden?” Elijah asked.

  She shook her head, gray eyes swelling with tears. He was there, pulling her to his chest. “You can’t tell them, not until we know for sure.”

  “I’m scared, Eli. What if he tries to hurt her to get to me?” she asked.

  “I know it sounds heartless, but it might be wise to separate yourself from her,” he said, pushing her away. “At least until everything is over.”

  “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her,” Lana said, wiping tears from her eyes.

  “Right now, you can’t afford to be distracted, and they know that. They will feed on your weaknesses, and right now Josephine is one of those weaknesses they’ve already touched. You need to focus on your training, do you understand?”

  “You’d think I’d know that by now considering how many times I’ve heard it in the last day or so,” Lana said. “Do you think Donovan is the leader?”

  She knew the answer, but remembered what he said. No one can know.

  “I hope not, for your sake,” Elijah said, kissing her cheeks.

  The image of her mother haunted her dreams. She saw Donovan heading out of their small home with a knife in hand, the smoke entering the building. The image of her lying on the floor of her living room looking up at him when she could not focus on his face followed, except this time he was in perfect focus. She saw a black skull instead of flesh, his dark brown eyes covered in a black film. She screamed, sitting up in bed.

  She rubbed at her eyes with her knuckles, wiping sweat from her forehead. The clock across from her on the wall told her it was four in the morning. Lana slid from beneath the sheets, heading into the bathroom. She washed the remnants of her nightmare from her body, dressing in warmer clothes and heading to the clearing.

  Chapter 26

  By the time Aiden made it to the clearing, the dummies were covered in vines or ripped from the ground and thrown against trees. The ground beneath her feet turned to mud, reaching mid-calf for both the Furies. He knew not to approach an angry Fury from behind, making his way around to face her. She was in a different world, mumbling words he could not comprehend and swinging her arms around like she was fighting an invisible enemy.

  He saw a target dummy begin to shake, coming lose from the ground and hurtling toward him. He ducked in time before it shot across the clearing and into a tree opposite of where it first existed. Aiden yelled at her but she failed to hear him.

  Rain began to fall from the sky, turning the once bright morning to night with dark clouds overhead.

  “Lana, you need to breathe,” Aiden yelled, keeping his head low. Thunder rumbled in the sky, lightning striking the ground four inches from his face. He jumped up, grabbing hold of her shoulders. “Snap out of it before you hurt somebody.” He shook her, watching the periwinkle iris fade to gray.

  “Breathe, in through your nose, hold it, and exhale,” he said. His grip began to burn her arms when she followed his instructions. He released her, stepping away. “Continue breathing, you need to calm down before we begin.”

  He picked up the dummies, placing them back in the holes they’d been in before her rampage, cleaning up the area. Debris littered the clearing and he had to pick his feet up to make it through the mud.

  “Have you calmed down?” Aiden asked, standing before her. When she nodded, they left the clearing, heading further into the forest until they reached dry ground. He told her to face him, put out her hand and keep it there. He held out his hand, a small flame dancing in his palm. “Take it.”

  “How can you trust me?” Lana asked.

  “Take the flame Lana,” he said again.

  “No. I just ruined your training area and you trust me enough to continue training me?”

  “I told you we won’t be speaking until y
our training is complete, now take the flame, Lana, before I make you,” Aiden demanded. Lana put her hand over the flame, curling her fingers around it. She drew her hand back, holding her wrist while her flesh burned and blistered. “You’re not calm. Sit down, breathe, and don’t stand up until you are.”

  He pushed her down, walking away until he’d put ten feet between them. He leaned against a tree, tossing the flame from hand to hand. Aiden hadn’t spoken about the basics of his craft since he was young, learning what he was after burning his father’s throne. At first, he thought he was a witch, but Dimitri’s father had already informed his family that he was not a normal creature. They sat him down, explaining that he had inherited the power of the Fury, and that he had to go away with Dimitri and the other children who’d experienced strange urges to learn their craft and how to control it.

  He was always the troubled one. Aiden could never sit still long enough to focus on his breathing, something each of them had to learn. EJ, who went by Erion at the time, and Wiley spent most of their time by a lake learning how to create storms and waves, breezes and puddles. Dimitri spent his time in the forest learning about soil and seed, flora and even how to speak to animals. Aiden was locked in a dungeon, the only place he could practice his skills and not harm anyone or burn anything down.

  Not only did they learn how to use their powers, they also learned how to fight. Each of them was given a weapon. Aiden had a copper sword with a gold and black hilt, and spent days sharpening it before every competition in which they fought each other, testing their abilities as well as their expertise in hand to hand combat.

  “Aiden?” Lana said, waking him from his reverie.

  “Take the flame,” he said, tossing it back and forth in his hands. She sat in front of him, concentrating on the heat. She closed her eyes, imagined the ball of fire in her hand, and reached out for it, feeling the heat in her palm, and curling her fingers around it. It didn’t burn her this time and when she opened her eyes, it was slithering in and out of her fingers. When it disappeared, she heard him say do it again.

  Each time she tried, he’d made it more difficult. At one point, she was chasing them through the forest, jumping up and down, weaving in and out of trees like will-o-the-wisps. When she caught the fireball, he conjured three more. Each ball had more and more power she was required to catch. When she would chase one ball, the other two would dart after her. She chased them like a dog chases a tennis ball, catching them, bringing them back to her owner and dashing after them again and again until exhaustion consumed her.

  Day after day he’d send her fetching fireballs, never once telling her how to make them herself. Lana ran until her feet hurt, dodging fire like a cop dodges bullets during a shootout. Scorched clothes, skin, and hair, scratches from sliding across the ground and bruises from when she’d slam into a tree or a rock reminded her each day of the battle she would one day have to fight when Darkness invaded her life.

  “That’s enough for today. Meet back here at normal time,” Aiden said, walking toward the clearing.

  “When am I going to learn how to make my own fire?” Lana asked.

  “You already know how to make a fire,” he said, hiding a smile.

  “I mean, when am I going to be able to throw fire like you do or create lava or…”

  “You will never learn that skill, do you understand me?” he said, whirling around to face her. She had been breathing hard, trying to catch her breath after having spent the day sprinting through the forest.

  “Why not? If I’m supposed to be what everyone expects me to, I have to learn what you do,” Lana said.

  “You will learn what I do when I think you’re ready,” Aiden said, glaring down at her. “Right now, you’re not strong enough, and you’re sure as hell not ready to face them.”

  “Then make me ready. You’re the only thing standing between me and the Light,” Lana said, putting her hands on her hips. “Why won’t you let me learn what you’re supposed to be teaching me?”

  “Because if I do,” I could lose you forever. “If you see the Light, the Darkness will destroy you.”

  Aiden transported from the clearing and into one of the practice rooms of the Academy. His cheeks filled with heat, his heart thumping like the hind paw of Thumper in Bambi. He tried to concentrate on his breathing but instead his fingers tingled with power, sparking to life. His arms were covered in flames when he swung them toward a glass target. Instead of shattering, it turned into water, making the fire fizz out. He threw fireball after fireball at the target until the flames died out, sinking to his knees with his head in his hands. For weeks, he’d sent Lana running in circles, trying to postpone the inevitable.

  He wished he could show her why he did not want her to know his skill, wanted to take her back to 1452, the day the Diviner Leressi betrayed him and the others, bringing the Darkness into their kingdom. But Aiden knew that with great power, comes great responsibility, responsibility and power she did not understand nor want to begin with. He saw the way she ran from his power, rather than confront it and embrace it, even though that is what he told her to do.

  Aiden knew if she saw the Light and reached for it, there was a chance she would not only kill the leader of the Darkness, but she would also kill herself. He and the others had never known what came of Arin after her light lit the sky. The Furies rushed through a portal created by the Headmaster, leaving Sumardana and their people behind. Someone had to survive, he told himself. Someone had to find the next Amethyst before the Darkness, and Dimitri had done just that. As much as Aiden hated him for keeping her a secret, he knew it was worth keeping it a secret.

  He met Dimitri and Wiley in the study, updating them on how Lana’s training was going.

  “Where is EJ?” Aiden asked.

  The other Furies were quiet. He’d focused on her training and forgotten about his friend’s dwindling health.

  “Can’t the Elder help him?” Aiden asked, raising his voice.

  “EJ has passed, Aiden,” Dimitri said softly, looking up into the Fire Fury’s face. “We will be holding a funeral tomorrow.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You needed to focus, and we knew telling you would ruin your focus,” Wiley said. “EJ would have wanted you to complete her training so we can destroy the Darkness once and for all.”

  “And what if they attack?”

  “We expected them to attack within days of our arrival yet they have refrained from doing so. I think we’re safe for one more day,” Wiley said.

  “Benedict has done well in keeping the wards secure, keeping everyone within the Academy grounds safe,” Dimitri said. “I imagine we should not push our luck any further and should expect an attack within the next few days. If anything, we need to monitor all creatures entering and leaving the premises.”

  “And if they don’t attack?” Aiden asked.

  “What is next on the agenda with Lana’s training?” Dimitri asked.

  Chapter 27

  Lana sat on the bench of the gazebo, staring out at the pastures. Donovan approached, taking a seat across from her.

  “I knew you’d find me again,” Lana said.

  “Why aren’t you somewhere safe?”

  “I had to see you again,” Lana turned to face him. “I still have so many questions to ask you.”

  “There’s no time for questions, Lana.” Donovan leaned forward. “They’re planning an attack, and I don’t know when. They’ve been keeping things from me ever since you left town.”

  “Who is ‘they’?” Lana asked.

  “The Elders, the ones who trained me and helped me build the Dark Army. Lana, they’re planning something big and I don’t know if you or your team can handle it.”

  “We’ve run out of time,” Lana said.

  “From what I’ve been told, you’ve also lost one of your teammates,” Donovan said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Matthew attacked one of the Fu
ries when you all left town, and he was badly injured. There is a rumor swirling in the Underworld that he has passed away.”

  “What? He can’t!”

  “That’s how we die, Lana. We kill each other… It had to happen, that is life.”

  “But, I still have so much to learn!”

  “Lana, calm down.”

  “No, I can’t calm down. He was my friend. Don…”

  “Lana, I need you to return to your safe house, do you understand?”

  “Will you stop asking me if I understand? I don’t! I never will!”

  “Go, now. The others will be waiting for you. They need you.”

  Lana didn’t wait for another order, she returned to the Academy right before Dimitri knocked on her bedroom door.

  “May I come in?” he asked. Lana nodded.

  They took a seat on the edge of her bed, Dimitri inhaling deeply before speaking.

  “Tomorrow, there will be a…” Dimitri choked. “The day you left the club house, a member of the Darkness attacked EJ. He was badly injured, and as we expected he has passed away.”

  Lana didn’t want what Donovan had told her to be true. “But I was harmed by the Darkness and I survived… How could he not?”

  “The Elder did all he could to prevent death, but EJ was not strong enough.”

  Dimitri stood, placing his hand on the wall to brace himself. “There will be a funeral tomorrow morning in the cemetery across from the training clearing. I understand if you prefer to focus on your training, but Era would appreciate it if you attended. We all would.”

  Lana nodded, Dimitri exiting the room. There was no telling what would happen at the funeral, if this is when the Darkness planned on attacking. She didn’t know, but what she did know was that she could no longer rely on Donovan for information as his own army was keeping him in the dark on their plans of attack.

  ~

  A white casket sat on rails meant to lower it into the ground in the center of a crowd. Closed per Era’s request, the casket held the remains of a great warrior, Dimitri said in his speech.