77. Loveleena
LOVELEENA
Ears ringing, Loveleena felt her heart thump in her chest as she looked around at the chaos. More Firebringers had arrived, charring everything and everyone in their wake. Bodies were splayed across the ground, some so badly burnt you couldn’t recognize them.
She couldn’t focus on the dead now, because a Firebringer crouched ahead, sending waves of fire past her. She analyzed its movements as it circled around her, prowling. Deep purple, almost black scales, raging sage eyes—this thing wanted her dead.
She’d managed to dodge its great fire blasts so far, but she was pressing her luck; the last attempt singed off a patch of skin on her right shoulder.
She had one advantage: she was smaller, quicker.
In a moment of opportunity, she snuck under the creature’s wings.
She jabbed her arm upward into the Firebringer’s torso with all the force she could muster, twisting her sword when she met its flesh.
The Firebringer seized and cried out with a roar that shook the walls.
Then she was on the ground.
Someone had flung themselves over her body, knocking the wind out of her. It was Ren, she realized, once her eyes focused again.
“What are you doing, you idiot!” she screamed at him. She could barely hear her own voice over the Firebringer’s cries. Ren gritted his teeth, forcing her arm down once, twice, thrice until her sword flew from her hand. She cursed as she watched it slide across the marble stone floor.
“Run,” he growled.
“I’m fighting.” She squirmed under his grasp. “Let go.”
“Lay your hand on that creature again and you’ll force me to do things to you that I don’t want to do, Alva.”
He released her, and she scrambled away from him and the Firebringer. Another student lunged at the creature, and again, Ren knocked them down, stealing their weapon.
He was protecting the Firebringer.
“People are dying!” She grabbed him by the collar, their faces inches apart. “What’s wrong with you!?”
“Get out of the way,” he growled.
“No!”
“I said, Get. Out!” He pushed her so hard, she flew to the ground, her elbow cracking as it met stone.
She didn’t need anyone to fight her battles for her, but there was Kumani, taking on both Ren and the Firebringer.
It didn’t last long though, not with Ren in full force.
Power dripped off him as he easily tackled Kumani, grazing the delicate underside of her jaw with his dagger as they met the ground.
“Get off her!” Loveleena shouted standing up. She pulled at him so hard she almost dislocated her shoulder. They tumbled just as a great blast of fire landed beside them.
It was as if time slowed, and she watched in horror as the Firebringer scorched the ground where Kumani lay.
She screamed, her eyes bleary. She crawled toward Kumani, but all that remained of her friend was charred flesh. Ren pulled at her from behind, and she fought him off relentlessly.
“NO!” she wailed as hot tears streamed down her face. Her words were swallowed into nothing as the Firebringer let out a wail and then took off into the sky in desperate, uneven strokes, knocking an entire tower off the castle in its wake.
But it was too late.
She was too late.
Kumani was dead, her body and bones nothing but charred ash on the ground.