46. Chapter 46
Chapter forty-six
I stepped tentatively out onto the sands, the suns' light a warm encouraging caress on my skin. I half expected cries of outrage and challenge, but it seemed Sin's magic had fooled everyone.
A nervous Kinyx arrived shortly after and took his place on the other side of the flaming barrel beside me.
Focusing my attention on the brazier stirred my own fire inside, and it strained against the leash of my will like a hound scenting blood. Images of Ram’s destroyed body filled my mind, and my anger hungered for vengeance. It didn’t want to lay down and concede. It wanted to be unleashed.
Soon , I told it, briefly forgetting my promise to Sin.
The horn blasted, and I was torn from my violent thoughts. Before I could even register the positions of the other fighters, the Gold Court caster, Direff, spun toward Kinyx with viper speed. Swinging his hands back and forth, Direff sent dozens of flaming bats flying from the brazier between them to divebomb the younger male.
Kinyx dropped into a low crouch, and the bats slammed into the wall behind him. Long whips of flame began cracking around my Diamond partner as he weaved his arms in an intricate pattern, cleaving the second wave of bats Direff sent in his direction.
While Kinyx and Direff locked horns, Jacksyn idly twirled his hand, and a blazing bear-like monstrosity burst out of a flaming barrel to go loping off toward Sarla.
The female didn't even bat an eye at the rushing wave of fury. Streams of fire flowed from her own brazier, forming a pair of massive floating arms, each as thick as a barrel and three feet long. She threw jabs and chops with her hands, and the flaming fists followed suit, tearing into the ursine construct with ease.
My fire screamed underneath my skin, begging me to stop standing around and do something. I found Sin watching me from near the tunnel, waiting for me to take a dive, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn't lay down and surrender after all I'd seen.
I needed to burn.
Scanning the arena, I searched for Harlix.
Across the field, she sank onto her haunches beside a brazier, and to my shock, dipped her hand straight inside. She brought her curled fist out of the flames as if they were no more threatening than a bucket of water and laid a fist-sized ball of fire on the ground. She repeated the action and each time her hand came out scorched and smoking, but her healing powers repaired the damage faster than she was burning. Soon she had a dozen flaming balls spread about her.
She wiggled her fingers in a shooing motion, and they began scurrying forward like demonic rats.
The horrific yet mesmerizing display was promptly forgotten when Sarla came dashing out of my periphery. The fire raging inside me howled its joyous challenge, drowning out the fearful little voice in the recesses of my mind that begged me to reconsider.
You have no training.
You’ve never even thrown a punch.
You have no control.
My flames exploded to life along my arms, sheathing them in blazing gauntlets with wickedly sharp talons.
Sarla’s hands flew out as she ran toward me, her fiery fists rocketing ahead of her.
Moving purely on reflex, I flung out my hands and struggled to block strike after strike. Though I felt no burn from the flames, the unrelenting force of her blasts drove my feet skidding through the sand.
Then the glowing hellrats ran underfoot. The craftings swelled and exploded like a half dozen grenades, sending Sarla and me tumbling through the air.
Before either of us even hit the ground, another swarm of hellrats bounded past on their way toward the male combatants.
I cried out a warning to Kinyx as the hellrats closed in, not even caring if Sin’s illusion could mask my feminine voice. The young male snapped his head toward me, registered the incoming balls of fire, then slammed his flame whips to the ground, jettisoning himself backward twenty paces.
Diref was slower to react, though, and the hellrats swept him up in a wave of explosions. He crashed to the ground, struggling to regain his breath.
Sarla screamed and the unholy sound chilled me to the bone. I didn’t know if it was fear for her father, or pain from her scorched limbs as she gathered herself to strike back.
Before either Gold caster could move, Jacksyn swooped down to scoop up a fresh hellrat and slammed it into Direff’s open mouth.
I couldn't look away, and for an agonizing moment it felt like time stood still and every sound faded away save for that one tiny explosion.
When time resumed, bile surged into my throat and blood flecks spattered against my face. Locked in place by the horror before me, I could do nothing but stare at the remains of Sarla’s father.
I blinked at Direff, pleading for things to make sense. One minute he was alive and fighting. The next there was only a wide smear of blood and gore where his head should have been.
I succumbed to the nausea and lost my lunch all over the sands, praying Sin’s illusion would hide it.
A few yards away, Jacksyn allowed Sarla no time to grieve as he closed the distance between them and began raining fire balls the size of pumpkins down on her.
Sarla’s pain didn’t trap her as I expected it to, though.
It fueled her.
Her flaming limbs reformed, blocking and deflecting the incoming missiles. Throwing out a fiery whip that wrapped around Jacksyn's ankle, she pulled him off his feet so her flaming hands could pin his arms to the ground.
A smile tugged at my lips when Jacksyn screamed, his flesh sizzling, but my attention was quickly pulled away to face down an incoming Harlix.
Direff's death fed my rage to the point I could no longer hold back, and flames ripped from my fingertips. I charged her, forcing her to bend fully backward to dodge my claws swiping at her face.
Straightening back up, she flung a fistful of sand into my face, and I shrieked as the dirt blinded me. Stumbling backward, I hit the ground hard.
Watery sweat swirled from my brow to run across my eyes, rinsing the sand out and leaving only a slight sting.
I glanced over to Sin as he dropped his hand and mouthed, “End it.”
I wanted to, but I couldn’t. My anger only flared brighter at the dirty trick Harlix had pulled.
She was no longer interested in me, though. Instead, she raced toward her injured lover.
Sarla continued to burn Jacksyn’s unmoving body, so lost in her fury she didn't even notice the flaming python Harlix sent flying her way. Sarla screamed as her hair and clothing started to singe and sear away.
Harlix cackled maniacally, showing no signs of mercy as she twisted her hands, wrapping the flaming snake tighter around Sarla.
My rage hit a tipping point, and something inside me snapped. I would not watch Sarla suffer the same fate as her father.
I pounced on Harlix, grabbed her around the throat, and set my flames free. They rolled greedily over her body, and she screamed, her skin sizzling and blackening. Harlix's python instantly dissolved, dropping Sarla’s still burning body to the sand as my flames shredded her concentration.
I wanted to help the Gold Court female, but my rage demanded that I hold tight on Harlix, that I continue to burn her until she was nothing more than a pile of charred bones and ash.
Just like Direff.
It was the glimpse of Sin out of the corner of my eye that saved me from doing something I would have later regretted. The second I saw his face, the fear and concern he bore for me, I knew I was better than her.
My fingers loosened and Harlix scrambled away, her healing magic sluggishly mending her burns.
Sagging beneath the weight of my own exhaustion, I glanced over to see Kinyx hunched over Sarla, patting out the flames.
Too late, I realized that I should have known better than to turn my back on Harlix.
Daggers of flame crashed into me from behind, and I was knocked to the ground. A wave of fire poured over my skin, warming me like a summer breeze, and I stayed down, letting her think she had the best of me.
Raising my hands up, I pretended to fight off the might of her blast. Harlix’s flames licked at my arms and without thinking, I sucked them inside of me.
The stolen power coursed through my veins, an almost deliciously cold crackling energy that danced and twined with the heat of my own magic.
Harlix maintained the flaming deluge for nearly half a minute before realizing something had changed. When she let her hands drop limply to her sides, a twisted grin split my lips.
“My turn.”
I threw my arms wide and unleashed every ounce of fire inside me.
All the stress and fear over the past few days, all the horrors of what I had witnessed, all the pain of watching my friends suffer. Every raw emotion reinforced the casting as a ring of fire swelled from my chest and exploded out around me.
The flame raced across the field in a rapidly expanding explosion, sending braziers flying and sweeping Harlix from her feet.
Her body whipped end over end before slamming into the arena wall. She attempted to struggle to her feet, but her limbs gave out, and she collapsed to the hard-packed sand.
The only thing that moved was her hand as she formed the cedo sign.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, my energy expended and my legs threatening to crumple beneath me.
To my left, boots scraped on the sand as Kinyx shuffled toward me.
The sickened look on his face had me glancing down. I never should have doubted Sin. His illusion was flawless. Blood streamed from Ram’s charred and blackened skin, fighting leathers clinging to the wounds in burned tatters.
In the stands, my father leaned forward, steepling his hands under his chin. I couldn’t tell if he was hoping we would fight for the claim of victory, or if he was worried he might lose his strongest general if we did.
With all the intimidating presence of a fluffy kitten, Kinyx lifted shaky fists, prepared to fight, and likely die, all for his court.
It made me sick. These people, this world, deserved more than they had been given.
They needed to see that there was a better way.
I eased myself down to the sands as if too tired to continue. My head drooped, chin to chest, and I held my left hand high, fingers curling into the yield symbol.
Kinyx stood gob smacked as the arena burst into applause and cheers.