12. Inferno
My lungs burn as I race back inside the school. The little girl’s face is emblazoned on my brain, keeping me focused solely on finding more children to save. I manage to get through several halls, shouting every few seconds and listening for sounds of life.
“In here!”
Adrenaline rushes through my veins, and I move toward the voice. “Where are you?” I yell.
“In my classroom!”
I flatten my hands on the wall and use it as a guide, checking each doorknob I come across.
“Keep yelling so I can find you,” I shout.
And he does. It takes four doors, but I find one that opens, and a little boy spills out into my arms.
“What’s your name?” I ask as I lift him off his feet.
“Why are you doing this to yourself?”
My eyes shoot open at the familiar voice, and I see Eir standing at the end of my bed.
“What are you doing here?” I snap.
“Saving you, apparently,” she quips, folding her arms over her chest.
“Saving me from what?”
I swing my legs over the edge of the mattress and stand. Eir moves closer to me and rests a hand on my forearm.
“Yourself, Inferno,” she says. “I’m saving you from yourself.”
“I’m fine,” I insist, tugging away from her touch.
“If you were fine, you wouldn’t be reliving your last moments alive.”
“I’m not. As you well know, I can’t see my actual death without you showing me.”
“Close enough.”
“I need you to show me.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Yes, Eir, you will,” I snarl, stepping into her personal space.
Here’s the thing about Valkyries… they aren’t scared of shit. Especially not the warriors they recruit, the souls they save. I know this, yet it still pisses me off when she doesn’t budge.
“Dammit, Eir,” I grumble. “I need to see it again.”
“Why?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does to me.”
I heave a sigh. “Why?”
Eir arches a delicate brow. “Inferno, we can go round and round about this, but I’m not showing you anything until I know why you want to see it.”
I whirl around and stomp out of the room. The clubhouse is quiet, and I’m grateful because I don’t need my brothers on my ass in addition to her.
Before I make it across the common room, a small hand grabs my arm from behind, and the world shimmers. Once everything comes into focus, I realize I’m no longer at the clubhouse but rather, I’m in a large field in the middle of nowhere.
“If I’m going to show you, then we’re going to do this my way,” Eir says from behind me.
I slowly turn to face her. “And what’s your way?” I ask skeptically.
“Out here, there are no witnesses and nothing to stop you from your emotions.” She smiles sadly. “I’ll show you your death, Inferno, but then I want you to let yourself go and work through your shit.”
I smirk. “You want me to let myself burn?”
“Yes. Something tells me it’s the only way to bring an end to your self-torture.”
I don’t know that anything can do that, but I’m willing to agree if it means she’ll do what I want.
“Okay.”
Without warning, Eir projects into my mind. I’m back in that school, having saved two kids so far. I watch the scene unfold like a movie as I rush back into the building. But the school, its occupants… it’s all too far gone.
My body shakes, and my flesh ignites as fear claws at me. Rage intensifies the flames. I’m aware of Eir standing a few feet away, but for once, she doesn’t try to stop the blaze. She lets it incinerate me from the inside out until my emotions are nothing but charred remains.
“Stop!”
Water sloshes over my head, dousing the flames until my flesh is nothing but bright embers.
“What the fuck?” I snarl as I glare at Viking.
He’s standing several feet in front of me, his arms wet. Demo, Reaper, and Acid flank him, and all four of them are staring at me like I’ve lost my mind.
Maybe I have.
Viking slowly glances at Eir, and she squares her shoulders. “What is going on?” he demands of my Valkyrie.
“He needed to be able to let everything out,” she says, not backing down from him.
“And you thought letting him set fire to this field was a good way to do that?”
Eir turns in a circle to take in our surroundings. “I don’t see any fire. I had it under control.”
“Did you?”
“Viking, I made sure to bring him to a field close to a river,” she explains. “I knew you’d sense him and come running so I gave you the necessary tool to keep him safe.”
“And if I hadn’t come?”
“You did,” she retorts. “What ifs don’t matter.”
“She’s right,” I bark, annoyed that he’s going after her when I’m the one who insisted on her showing me my past. “Leave her out of this.”
Viking faces me and arches a brow. “This entire trip to the land of the living might be your dog and pony show, but don’t you dare forget who I am.”
“I haven’t.”
“Rather than argue,” Reaper interjects. “Why don’t we take advantage of this place and work through all of our frustrations at being stuck here?”
“Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?” Eir asks.
“If you think he’s suggesting that we purposely use our powers, then yes, he is,” Demo replies dryly.
“I don’t know if th?—”
“Go home, Eir,” Viking commands.
Normally, a Valkyrie doesn’t do a warrior’s bidding, but she must sense that he’s serious because she shimmers and disappears. As soon as she’s gone, my brothers all stare at me.
“Well, Inferno, you ready to do this?” Acid asks.
“What exactly are we doing?” I already know the answer, but I need to hear Viking spell it out so there aren’t consequences from him later.
“We’re going to spend a few hours unleashing hell on this field,” Viking says, a wicked grin on his face. “We’re going to use our powers and do our worst. And then we’re going to forget it ever happened.”
“Got it.”
And we do exactly that. For the next four hours, we go nuts. By the time we’re done, the field is destroyed, and I’m… exhausted.
I’m also invigorated in a way I haven’t been in a very long time.