Chapter 37
This chapter has themes of prevented SA and death.
Problems arose immediately.
Scarlet combusted the moment they turned to leave; a violent, involuntary eruption of flame triggered by overwhelming fear.
The blast forced everyone to scatter. Short sprinted ahead with Ember and Briar, racing them back toward the squad while Rain and Rose stayed behind, desperately trying to calm Scarlet.
It didn’t work.
Rose nearly got herself barbecued three separate times, convinced her sister would never hurt her; despite knowing full well Scarlet could not control it. Each flare sent Rose stumbling back, curls singed at the ends, cheeks flushed with heat.
Eventually Scarlet burned herself out, collapsing into unconsciousness. Only then could Rain lift her safely into his arms.
But the moment they reunited with the squad, another crisis erupted.
Briar had awoken.
And she was screaming.
Not crying—screaming—a raw, feral sound that rattled the trees. She thrashed like a wild raimox, limbs flailing, teeth bared, her bound hands sparking with heat even through the fireproof cloth. Ember clung to her leg, wailing in terror.
“Calm down, Briar, unless you want me to put you to sleep again,” Rain warned, striding toward them with zero patience left.
Briar snapped her mouth shut instantly, glaring daggers at him. Her energy was a storm; fury, fear, protectiveness, all tangled into a single violent knot.
“Short,” Rain said, “fall back and accompany Rose. Keep her at this distance from the squad. I’ll join you shortly.”
He’d already advised Rose to keep her distance. She stood wide-eyed beneath a mango tree, staring up at the fruit like she’d discovered treasure. It was safer for everyone if she stayed far from the others; her power was too intoxicating, too destabilising.
“On it,” Short replied, jogging toward Rose with a protective urgency Rain trusted implicitly.
Renn quickly relayed their return plan. They would head east toward the Pink Kingdom.
It added hours; maybe half a day but it was the safest option.
Pink had no reason to fortify their border against Red.
And if they had fortified it, at least the squad would be on the correct side of the fence to find a weakness… or call for help.
It wasn’t ideal.
But nothing about this mission was.
Dense rainforest.
Open desert.
Four unstable, inexperienced Aetherial girls.
A squad already exhausted.
And Rain; the only one capable of keeping them all from killing each other.
They set off.
Renn and Hamish carried Ember, who fell asleep almost instantly in Renn’s arms.
Vass and Glass were assigned to Briar; who snarled over Vass’s shoulder like a furious cat, glaring back at Rain every few steps.
Rain carried Scarlet, limp and fever-warm against his chest.
He fell back to walk beside Short and Rose, keeping his channels wide open, scanning for predators, soldiers, or emotional spikes.
Two hours passed.
Two hours of trudging through thick undergrowth, humidity clinging to their skin, insects buzzing in clouds, the air heavy with the scent of wet soil and rotting leaves. Rain’s mind throbbed. His empathy was stretched thin; nine energy signatures constantly shifting, flaring, colliding.
He finally stopped.
“I need to close my eyes for thirty minutes,” he muttered to Short.
She took one look at him; pale, sweat-slicked, eyes dull with fatigue and nodded.
Rose and Short settled at their safe distance. The others set up a small camp. Rain joined them, Scarlet clinging to his arm as she walked beside him. Her energy was soft now; curious, trusting, safe.
He pulled a hammock from his pack, tying it between two trees with a flick of power. He lifted Scarlet into it, tucking her in like a child. She sighed, quickly drifting back into a deep sleep.
Rain lay down beneath her, head resting on his pack.
Sleep swallowed him whole.
Screams tore through the air.
Rain jolted upright, heart slamming into his throat. A vine of flame whipped past his face, inches from his eyes, glowing red and pulsing with lethal heat. His green irises reflected the fire, blazing like emerald embers.
He scrambled backward, breath catching as he took in the scene.
Chaos.
Flames and smoke billowed overhead; Scarlet’s handiwork. She hung limp in the hammock, unconscious again, her power having erupted upward in a vertical blast.
Briar stood in the centre of the clearing, teeth bared, panting like a cornered animal. Two flaming vines extended from her bound hands; one wrapped around Vass, who convulsed violently, the other around Glass, who gasped and clawed at the air.
Renn clutched Ember tightly, both of them wide-eyed with terror.
Hamish had a gun trained on Briar’s head.
Short had a knife pressed to Vass’s throat; ready to end him and his suffering.
Rose cowered behind her, trembling, her power flickering in panicked waves.
Rain rose to his feet, every muscle coiled, every sense sharpened.
Rain understood the situation instantly.
Hamish’s gun.
Briar’s vines.
Vass convulsing.
Glass choking.
Rose terrified.
Scarlet unconscious.
Ember shaking.
All of it, a powder keg seconds from detonation.
He reacted before thought could catch up.
With a violent flick of power, he ripped the gun from Hamish’s hand, sending it skidding across the dirt. At the same time, he yanked Briar into the air, her small body jerking upward with a startled cry. Her vines vanished instantly, severed by panic.
Rain slammed her wrists behind her back and pinned her to the nearest tree.
Then he flung Vass off his feet, hurling him into the trunk beside her. The impact rattled the bark. Vass gasped, pinned so tightly he couldn’t twitch a muscle.
Rain stalked toward them, thunder raging in his eyes.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Sergeant?”
His voice cracked like a whip, raw and furious.
He didn’t wait for an answer.
“And you!”
He snapped his head toward Hamish, who stood frozen, wide-eyed.
“Why did you have a gun pointed at a child’s head? A princess, no less?”
Hamish’s gaze dropped to the ground, shame radiating off him in thick waves. Rain’s anger pressed around them like a suffocating fog. The conscious princesses whimpered. The soldiers stayed silent; except for Vass and Glass, who groaned in agony from Briar’s lingering power.
“Your Highness,” Short said, stepping forward despite the tension slicing through the air. “It was Vass’s fault, Sir.”
“Well-a-fucking-ware,” Rain spat, closing the distance between him and Vass.
“What was your intention, Sergeant?”
Venom dripped from every word.
Vass; usually all swagger and bravado, paled. His breath hitched. Rain’s power held him immobile, pinned so tightly he couldn’t even flinch.
“ANSWER ME.”
“F-fuu—” Vass stuttered. “I just… I wanted to check on Princess Rose.”
“With your cock?” Rain snarled.
“No!” Vass choked, horror flooding his aura. “Not at first. I didn’t mean to—I didn’t realise her power would—I didn’t mean for that to happen. You have to believe me. Rain, please—”
“It is Your Highness to you.”
Vass nodded frantically, sweat dripping from his nose. Completely aware of the danger he had found himself in.
Above them, Scarlet’s earlier explosion roared through the treetops. Embers rained down like burning snow. The canopy glowed orange, flames licking upward, devouring leaves.
Rain’s attention snapped upward.
They needed to move.
Now.
“Everyone, grab your packs and move!” Rain barked. “Hamish; grab Scarlet. She’s unconscious. If she stirs, drop her to her feet immediately and point her away from your body. Understood, Corporal?”
“Yes, Sir!”
Hamish sprinted into action.
Glass tried to stand but collapsed, gasping as pain stabbed through her torso. Briar’s power seemed to hit mortals harder; the lingering agony would take hours to fade.
“Short, help Glass. Renn; move with Hamish. We don’t stop until we clear the forest.”
Renn nodded, Ember crying over his shoulder as he ran.
Rain turned to Rose.
She stood in a daze, arms wrapped around herself, mesmerised by the flames dancing above them.
“Rose,” Rain called.
She didn’t hear him.
“ROSE!” Briar screamed from the tree.
Rose snapped to attention.
“Come. Stay close to me,” Rain ordered.
She nodded and skipped to his side.
“Briar,” Rain said, “can I carry you without you hurting me?”
“Yes. I promise I won’t.”
Her voice trembled, but her eyes held fierce determination.
Rain reached for her, lifting her under the arms. She wrapped her bound hands around his neck and her legs around his torso, clinging like a terrified koala.
He leaned toward Vass, who flinched violently.
“When I release you, run,” Rain hissed in his ear. “Run like your life depends on it, like I’m about to put an end to your miserable existence because by the gods, I will.”
Vass swallowed hard. Rain poured the threat into him, letting the energy sink deep.
“Do not stop. I’ll be right behind you. If you look back, falter, or put any of us at risk, I will end your life where you stand.”
Rain stepped back, summoned his pack with a flick of power, and slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed Rose’s hand and released Vass.
Vass’s chest constricted as Rose’s power tugged at him; not toward her, but toward obedience. His energy shifted, reshaping itself into a desperate need to do what was best for her.
He ran.
Rain followed, dragging Rose with him. She stumbled repeatedly, her slippers catching on roots and vines. Rain used his power to keep her upright, but the flames chased them like a living beast.
Rose tripped again.
Rain didn’t hesitate. He scooped her up, tucking her under his arm in a rugby hold. She gasped but clung to him, limbs dangling.
They burst through the smoke.
Another scream came from up ahead.
A yell.
Crying.
Scarlet.
Briar tightened her grip around Rain’s neck, eyes wide with fear.
Voices shouted ahead, too distant to decipher but the roar of flames revealed their location.
Rain pushed harder, tracking their energy signatures.
Everyone was alive.
Renn was injured.
Ember was… using her power.
The flames ahead dimmed as they approached.