Flame (Fireborn) (43 page)

All I can think is that
this is the end.

Remember.

I shiver.

Do you remember the
stars, Kenna?
the voice whispers. It sounds like Rhys, and
Kaiden, and Nymphora and even Chloris. It sounds like every voice
I've ever heard.
Do you remember how you burned brighter than
every single sun?

In my mind I can see
it: an inferno. Giant waves of fire are building. Abruptly, I'm hot,
so very hot. In my head the blaze is growing, becoming combustion of
reds and blues that devour every shadow attempting to escape. I feel
dizzy, and everything hurts. I want to lie down forever.

Listen, Kenna.
A
new voice is speaking. It's soft and comforting. The sounds of the
fire abruptly dim in my mind, and the images I see move in slow
motion. She continues to speak over them, like a distant echo.

Or a far more distant
memory.

I love you, Kenna,
but I will never be there for you. I know you can hear me. I know
you're listening. I've done something very bad. It's the only way to
protect you. I've made you weak. I hope you are weak forever, my
love.

I can hear her
heartbeat like I'm inside her body. Her voice becomes muffled because
I can hear her other organs, too.

If there is ever a
time when you need to be strong, I want you to rise, and I want you
to fight. I want you to become everything we hoped you wouldn't be.
And when you are at your last breath, promise me you'll burn…
you'll burn until every part of you is on fire.

Quietly her voice
fades, calling for a blaze. It stays in my head, and echoes in my
body. In my mind I can see a fireball forming. It's gathering flames,
encircling the colors into an inferno. I can feel it in my soul,
rushing and pulsing trying to reach an outlet.

When I can breathe no
more, I burst into flames.

I hear the snapping
sounds first.

Repetitive and fast,
they're an undercurrent to the screams. Immediately, the taut grip on
my throat loosens, and the invisible hand burns. I hear a low growl
of pain, and something heavy drops.

When I open my eyes, I
see Mia's pale body, lying completely still on the ground. Bruised
skin and muscle hang out. Gagging, I cover my mouth to stop the vomit
from rising. Damien hisses, clutching his hands. They're smoking, and
a slight sizzling sound is heard.

"Fire," he
says with awe, staring at the smoke on his hand. Abruptly he looks at
me with glee, making his handsome face crazed. "Do it again!"
he urges in a low fanatical voice. He tries to move closer.

Quickly, I put my hand
up. "Don't!" I shout. "I'll- I'll burn you!"

"That's the idea."

My hand remains up,
warning him to stay back.

Damien's eyes
concentrate on my palm with rising intensity. Thin curls of smoke
rise from it. I want to press my hand against the cool ground
underneath me, but I'm too afraid to try. His glowing eyes suddenly
widen with shock. "The mark," he whispers. "That's
where the fire crystal was first placed on you, burned into your
body." His eyes rake down the length of me, devious and hungry.

It's enough to make me
snap. I picture an orange blaze shooting from my hand, and with a
burst of force, I unleash it. He yells, jumping back, but it's too
late. My fire scorches part of his left side.

I'm stunned.

"Oh yeah," he
says as if he's in ecstasy. "Here. We.
Go!
"

He jumps, soaring up.

Something ancient comes
over me. My mind is numb from fear and shock, but my body is
flawless, sprouting something fierce from my body. Somehow I aim for
him, shooting an array of fire. It's coming out like a flood of
stars. Waves of energy pour through me, and despite my injuries I
feel more powerful than ever. I think about every person lost to the
crystal, and the desperation of the other prisoners, and a rage
greater than anything I've ever felt consumes me.

He comes at me fast,
and when I blink his fist connects with my jaw. I see black spots
when my face hits the hard earth. His hands grab my hair, and he
twists the strands into his fist, creating a tight ball. He jerks me
up, and I fly ahead, landing in a heap on the ground.

I touch my head,
feeling as if it's been sliced open. My fingers stroke a thick
wetness that can only be blood. I feel a few bald spots, and even
from the distance I can see strands of brown intertwined in his
fingers, flailing in the wind.

"The first crystal
we took was over a century ago," he tells me, drawing nearer.
"The water crystal. The carrier was a girl like you. She was a
dwarf and she hid here on earth, thinking this place would keep her
safe from us. But it didn't. Our prince found and annihilated her."
He pauses, watching me struggle as I try to get up. "The second
crystal, air was found ten years after from a healer. He begged us to
spare his family. He tried to hide them, but we found every single
person that mattered to him, and we let him watch as they died.
Slowly. We thought that would show the universe no one can hide from
us."

He's almost to me now,
and I crawl back. My hand is hot, like I've been electrocuted and my
whole palm is black.

"Thirty years ago
we found the third crystal, tierra. A shape shifter had it. A
plant
shape shifter." He laughs. "Needless, to say we took
that
one with ease. We proved there is nothing and no one stronger than
us." He stops. Abruptly an angry look comes over his face.
"Imagine our surprise when we were told someone had been keeping
a secret from us. Someone had hid the fire crystal."

Damien is next to me
now, and his hand lashes out, gripping my neck. I think of fire, and
both my hands clutch his arm, fiercely trying to burn him. The metal
is sizzling, melting in my hands, but his grip stays firm. He's
looking into my eyes, and abruptly his go black. He's searching my
mind, and Chloris' warning comes back to me.
He digs into your
mind, and pulls out your darkest fears, then he makes it come to
life. Your heart, your mind, your body, your soul, dies. Every part
of you dies.
Unable to move, I stare at him, hypnotized. Dark
blue mists form, and I glimpse the sheer sapphire fog from the corner
of my eye. Pungent, it smells like a sweet poison. Almost in slow
motion, it drifts into my nostrils, teasing softly before floating.
When it touches me, I'm blinded by azure colors, surrounded by smells
I can't place. He's searching in my memories, and the first pull from
his mind makes me dizzy. Many pictures flicker in the fog like
flashing lights. It's as if I'm watching multiple cameras at once,
and my whole life is literally passing before my eyes. The iridescent
images are moving so fast my stomach feels like I'm on a roller
coaster ride. It heaves with each new picture, but I'm motionless,
suspended in Damien's grip. He finds what he's looking for because
all the other picture screens suddenly disappear until a single one
is left. It sprints to the front.

Murky water flickers on
and off. Flying above the ocean, I suddenly remember this memory.
Unable to control myself I scream, but it's quickly cut off when I'm
brutally pulled into the image. Flying head first, I plunge into the
cold water. Before I can move, a dark weight lands on me, pressing me
down. Drowning me. Suffocating me.

Even though I'm dying
in my mind, Damien's breath is hot on my cheek. Unable to move, I
whimper helplessly in terror. "A little fire doesn't scare me,
girl," he whispers.

"Maybe this will,"
a masculine voice retorts.

I hear something
vibrating, and the weight on me freezes. Suddenly, the darkness
disappears, and my body jerks out, pushing through water and blue
mists, back into my own mind.

When I open my eyes
Damien is frozen on top of me. His pupils are no longer black. He's
still, completely motionless. For a moment I feel a second of deep
relief and bottomless terror as I gaze into his manic face. Someone
pushes him off me. I'm so relieved I start crying.

Kaiden gathers me in
his arms, clutching my body tightly. " It's all right, Kenna,"
he tells me softly, his face in my hair. He embraces me for many
seconds. He pulls back, holding my face in his hands. "This only
freezes him for a few minutes. We have to go
now!
" He
notices the way my body is twisted, and maneuvers around it, pulling
me up. Half carrying and half dragging me, Kaiden pushes through
thorn and trees, and into a forest.

"Chloris!" I
manage to yell out, narrowly avoiding a low hanging branch. I grit
through the pain of attempting to run with a broken ankle.

"Nymphora's taking
care of her," he replies, not breaking his speed. I'm trying to
follow him, but everything feels so excruciating that I cry out,
falling to the ground. Something sharp slits my cheek.

"My ankle's
broken," I confess tearfully.

Without breaking his
stride, he hauls me over his shoulders, breaking leaves and branches
to do it.
No,
I try to tell him,
you can't carry me
and
run.
But I'm so relieved to be putting pressure off my leg that
all I can do is grasp him tighter.

Within minutes I hear a
terrifying sound behind us. Looking up from Kaiden's neck, I brush
past thick leaves. One moment I feel the rough texture against my
forehead, and the next it's gone, fading into brown ashes. Blinking,
my arms reach out for the trunk of a squatting tree. The barest touch
from my fingertips releases its death, and the tree crumbles,
breaking into a hundred pieces.

"Shit!"
Kaiden yells, seeing what just happened. "What the hell
is
this place?"

"Escape is an
illusion," I whisper more to myself than him. "He will find
us." The Saguinox warning passes through my lips like a poison.
"He uses our fears against us," I inform Kaiden, recalling
what Chloris confided. "Chloris told me he sucks our life and
our soul."

He doesn't say
anything, but his body shivers.

I feel a bubble of
sadness burst, wetting me with the inevitable.

"Kaiden," I
say his name, depressed and resolute. "We can't run. We have to
face him." My voice breaks. "Kaiden!" I shout louder,
when he begins to move faster. "Stop. Just stop." He
doesn't, but maybe he hears something in my voice because he slows
down.

My heart is hammering,
and I hear it in my ears when I spot Damien. He's in the distance,
jumping and soaring like a magical predator. Soon he will be next to
us. I look around, frantic for a plan.

"What's your
power?" I shout to Kaiden as the wind starts to pick up.

"Don't have any."

"You're
human?
"

"Sort of," he
replies. "Mostly."

I shake my head, too
anxious to sort out what he means. "I have fire."

"What?"

"I can shoot out
fire with my body. Something about a crystal…" Unexpectedly,
he stops, nearly dropping me.

"What did you
say?" His voice is quiet, and I'm not sure if he's happy about
my power or if he's upset. Just thinking the word
power
brings
shivers down my spine. It still feels so unreal I almost want to use
it again, just to prove it to Kaiden and myself. He sets me down on
my feet, gazing at me with a look I can't decipher.

"What did you
say?"

Impulsively, I show him
my birthmark, remembering what Damien had said. He touches my palm,
holding it like a piece of china. "Is this where it entered
you?"

I'm assuming by "it"
he means the fire crystal. "I don't know. Damien thought so."

"How long have you
known?" he demands, angry.

"Maybe fifteen
minutes."

His face tightens.
"Crap, Kenna! I can't teach you how to use your powers now! It
takes a lifetime to master it!"

I glare at him, almost
regretting I told him. Before I can make a smartass retort, every
single plant around us shatters like glass. Within seconds Kaiden and
I are out in the open as vulnerable prey. He curses, grabbing me.

"Let's go!"
He tries to carry me, but I resist, pushing his hands away.

"No! We can't
outrun him, not with me injured. We have to face him, Kaiden."

He looks unhappy.

I can see him thinking
in his head. I almost wish he would say "no", and think of
something brilliant. His eyes are darting around, searching for an
escape route. When his eyes go back to Damien's sprinting form, I see
his lips tighten in resolution. Every ounce of hope disintegrates,
and I try to stand taller, even though I feel small inside.

Kaiden pushes me behind
him. "Do exactly as I say. I might not have a power the way that
you do, but I know a lot about magic."

Damien is plowing
through, destroying everything in his path.

Fear overwhelms me.

"From what I know
about Saguinox warriors, they all have a killing power. If Chloris is
right, he will need to get into our minds and take our fears out. We
need to keep moving so he doesn't get a chance to do that."
Kaiden is talking fast, trying to explain everything as rapidly as he
can. "He will probably try to take me down first, and take the
crystal from you last. I'll distract him, and you use your powers to
kill him."

Kill.
An
apprehensive shiver goes down my spine. "Yes," I agree, but
I'm trembling so hard Kaiden looks back at me, worried.

His face softens. "Hey,
you're the only one in this universe with a crystal. Your magic knows
no bounds. You can and you
will
defeat him." I really
don't understand what he's saying, yet, something in his eyes
captivates me. Kaiden looks at me like he believes every word. His
confidence gives me a desperate surge of strength, but it also makes
me want to puke.

"All right, here
he comes, Kenna," Kaiden warns, completely hiding me with his
body. For a split second I'm safe, and then everything around me
erupts.