Chapter 5
Serafina
I settle beneath the bridge, clutching the bag my father packed to my chest. It’s worn and old. I think it used to be blue, but now it’s just a dull gray. In some places the threading is bare, and a hole threatens to form.
It’s the same tote my father has had since he was a child because on the rare occasions my family did have extra coin to spend, it never went toward purchasing a new bag.
It went toward books to help me and Telfi study for the second trial.
Or clothes, if ours had turned to rags, unsalvageable by a quick stitch.
It would’ve been nice to have a new tote, though. One I wasn’t worried about falling apart at the seams, causing the contents to spill to the ground.
But I don’t, so this will have to do.
I stretch my limbs, trying to get comfortable, but there’s not a lot of space beneath this bridge. Long ago, I’m sure water once flowed in the spot where I sit. Otherwise, what would be the point of the bridge?
But that water has long since dried up, leaving dry, cracked clay in its wake.
I’m thirsty. So thirsty. After all that running, my throat feels like sandpaper. But I cannot drink the water I have. I need to save it because soon I won’t have any. Unless I find a stream. Or a lake.
But it won’t be easy. It could take days. Hopefully, only days. No longer than a week. Otherwise, I will die, and not by the hands of Norin or the Enforcers.
But dehydration.
The silent killer.
The one that sweeps through the villages every few years when the drought worsens and the rain refuses to fall, and the little water we do have is even less.
I quiver at the thought.
I’ve never liked the feeling of thirst. The way it makes the back of my throat itch, my tongue swell, and my stomach ache. It’s a feeling I’ve felt many times, and I do not wish to feel it again.
Char will find water. He’s resourceful. He’ll know where to go, where to look.
I peek my head out from beneath the rickety old bridge, looking up at the moon.
Where is he?
It has to be past midnight. The moon is high up in the sky.
He’ll be here.
I know he will.
But I’m nervous.
And I’m scared.
But then I hear him. Footsteps stomping in my direction.
I nearly scurry from beneath the bridge to greet him, but I freeze because it isn’t only one pair of footsteps I hear.
It’s multiple.
No. No. No. This can’t be happening.
How did they find me?
I can’t control my breathing. I try to flatten myself as much as possible against the clay ground. Desperately wanting to become one with it, to disappear into the earth. But then the footsteps stop.
They’re close.
They know I’m here.
“Did you really think you could hide from us, sweetheart?” I know it’s Norin before I see his face, and seconds later a large hand is yanking on my arm, dragging me from beneath the bridge and out into the open.
I throw my bag at his head and run a few feet away, right into the arms of another who grabs me by the shoulders. He spins me around, hugging me to his front.
I thrash.
I lift my feet off the ground, but he holds me tighter, unfazed by my weight.
“Char!” I scream. “Char!” I yell again, hoping he’s close enough to hear. Hoping anyone is close enough to hear.
Help me!
I need help!
“Save your breath, Pyroflame. Lover boy ain’t coming,” Norin replies with a harsh laugh.
No. What have they done to him?
The only way they could have known my location is if they had found Char. If they had beaten it out of him. Tortured him.
“What did you do?” I bend my neck and bite the arm of the man holding onto me.
My teeth sink into his flesh, and he yelps before letting go.
I take a few steps away from them. “What did you do to Char?” I repeat, and I can feel the fire in my hands, see it out of the corners of my eyes growing and growing, but they don’t look scared.
None of them do.
There are dozens of them, and only one of me.
“Don’t worry, he’s alive. For now.” Norin laughs again, and my eyes catch on the man standing behind him.
He’s the boy I kissed after the second trial. Shame masks his features, and a sliver of hope surges in my chest, but then he averts his gaze, and I know he won’t help me.
None of them will.
They came here for one reason and one reason only…to see me dead.
“I’m sorry, Serafina,” he whispers right as a body lunges at me from the left.
I turn just in time, grabbing his outstretched limb.
His skin sizzles where my fingers grip, the scent of his burning flesh fills my nose, my lungs, and he screams, a guttural sound that makes my knees quake.
I release him, and he falls to the ground, clutching his arm and crying out for another man to attack me.
The muscles in my forearms burn in a way I’ve never felt before, and I know I can’t keep this up for much longer.
“I went back, you know,” Norin says, his voice low and dangerous, and my eyes snap to his. “Just to see, to check, if somehow Brant had survived your little knife wound.” He cocks his head.
Brant. The blond man from the alley. The one I…
“He’s dead.” There’s a smile in his voice, and his words hit me like a ton of bricks, knocking me off balance. I stagger to the left, the shadows from the night somehow feeling like they’re closing in.
He’s dead.
He’s dead.
I killed him.
Before I have a chance to refocus, to recenter myself, I’m struck by something from behind. A sharp pain explodes at the base of my skull, and my fire goes out.
I hit the ground hard, my knees slamming into the dirt, and my hand flies to the back of my head.
It’s wet.
Blood.
So much blood.
I feel dizzy, a sickening wave that makes the world tilt.
I reach for my thigh, my fingers fumbling for my blade, but all they grasp is air. It’s not there.
I curse.
But I’m not defenseless.
I’m an Essentari.
Despite the terrible ache in my arms, one that somehow reaches my temples, threatening to split my mind in two, my hands glow once again, and I force myself to my feet, swaying slightly as they surround me.
I spin to face the one who struck me. I flex my fingers, but nothing happens. I’m not strong enough to wield this new power of mine.
My hands glow brighter and brighter, but the fire doesn’t leave me. It doesn’t go where I need it to go. It can’t protect me.
And they all know it.
I’m going to die here. I’m going to die.
Will my parents ever know? Will they know their fourth daughter also did not survive?
I hope they never find out.
I hope that word never reaches them, and they spend the rest of their lives believing me to be free. Out there, somewhere, living and breathing.
Please, let that be the case.
They can never know what happens here tonight.
Suddenly, all of the men rush me at once, and I don’t know which direction to turn. I don’t know who will strike first.
A piece of wood slams into my side, and I hold in a groan at the pain that follows.
Then, something crashes against the back of my knees, forcing me to the ground once more. My head droops forward as I catch myself, and when a foot lands in the same spot the wood had hit, I can’t breathe.
It’s over. I won’t survive this. Fresh tears begin to form, and I suck in air through my teeth.
They don’t deserve your tears. That’s what Char had told me, and he was right. If only I was strong enough to not let them have them.
But I’m not. I never was.
“Just make it quick,” I whisper, and my fire disappears. The relief in my muscles is almost blinding, and I never want to call upon the flames again.
I am weak.
I am nothing.
I was never meant to be one of the few who get to live.
I sit back on my heels, staring up at the sky above. Ready and waiting.
I feel another blow to my head. The pain is immense, and I crumple to the ground.
I’m shivering.
I’m not cold, but I’m shivering.
“Fight.” A voice I’ve never heard before fills the empty spaces of my mind, so soft I can barely hear it, like the tiniest whisper of a breath.
But even so, it gives me courage, gives me hope, and I try to push myself up, but my muscles fail.
“Fight.” It’s louder now, distinctly feminine and pleasant and lovely, but even so, it sounds so far away. Too far.
The blood loss must be getting to me.
I don’t have much time.
My knees find my chest, and I wrap my arms around them, hugging them to me. My vision blurs, and I wait for death to come.
But then there’s a commotion. A loud voice and a white light. I hear screaming, and I have to cover my ears because their screams are so loud, but I can’t see what’s happening. Even with the light, my vision is darkening. The darkness is moving in, faster and faster.
More screams.
Char?
Has Char come to save me?
Before the darkness swallows me whole, I manage to look up.
The white light is gone. Only the moon and the stars allow me to see the figure hovering above.
Golden eyes stare down at me.
Not Char.
So who are you? And why did you save me?
But the darkness comes for me before I can ask.