First chapter
Previous: Chapter 13
Chapter 14 (A
monster wrapped in fire)
Dizzy, I
pushed myself to my feet with my one good arm then picked up Barges, stomach
groaning for food.
The ground
trembled, and the smell of sulfur and rotten garlic followed the shockwave. An
eerie silence came next, and the woods were illuminated as if it were day. To
my left, Yalrein lay crumpled next to a tree, blood rolling down his face.
“The One be
damned.” I trudged over to Yalrein and unslung the backpack. “Are you alive?”
Yalrein
groaned in response.
“I’m going
to do something about your head wound. Ekanli would kill me if I didn’t.” I
pulled out a pair of bandages and a jar of ointment. “Don’t attack me when you
come to.”
Yalrein
groaned again.
I took that
to mean yes then applied the ointment to the gash in his scalp, wrapping his
head up after. The ointment, forged with all four elements, had sealed the cut
and brought lucidity back to Yalrein’s eyes before I could tape the wrap on.
Honestly though, I never understood why I had to wrap cuts. Something about
keeping it clean and keeping the ointment on the area, but it didn’t really
make sense to me.
Eyes
narrowed, Yalrein’s lips quivered. “Why?”
“Did you
not hear me?” I rubbed some of the ointment on the gash in my arm and replaced
the stopper. “Ekanli still loves you even though you’re a dick. Doing this one
handed is a pain, so can you help me?” I slipped the remaining ointment into
the backpack and offered him the bandages. “Please?”
“I still
don’t like you.”
“Feeling is
mutual.”
Yalrein
grabbed my arm, tighter than was comfortable. “Why is it suddenly so bright?”
“I’m not
sure, but I’m worried.”
“About?”
“How hard
did you hit your head?” I jerked my arm free. “Can’t you tell where that light
is coming from?”
Yalrein
blinked then his eyes grew wide, and he stumbled to his feet. “The village!”
“You’re a
smart one.”
“Shut it.”
As I stood,
I put the backpack on and started off back towards the village.
Yalrein
grabbed my injured arm and pulled me to a stop, forcing me to grimace. “Where
are you going.”
“Aisa and
Mother are still in the village. My uncles, too.”
“But the
mayor and a lot of Regime Hunters are there.”
“I don’t
care. My friends are safe, and I thought Mother would be able to get everyone else
out of there, but after that explosion …”
Yalrein
swallowed before hurrying to catch up with me. His gladius trembled in his
hand. “What’s the plan?”
Yes, he was
right. I needed to think things through. “Well, I just want to know what that explosion
and light are. If I—we can, I’d like to get close enough to see if we can find
out anything about Mother and Aisa. Maybe we can overhear that they escaped or
something. Or if this light is some sort of searchlight, that would be enough
to say that they escaped, but that explosion …” Something caught in my throat,
and my chest heaved. Despite the light, everything dimmed around me, and I
stumbled.
Yalrein
caught me by the shoulder and stopped me from face planting into a
prickly-looking bush. “I’m sure they’re okay. My family was in that shelter the
mayor set up the other day after Aisa visited him.”
“Let’s
hurry.”
Together,
we moved as fast as we could for as hungry as we were. Coming out of the woods
felt like staring directly into the sun. Even from this distance, the heat
licked my face and soaked my clothes through with sweat. Twenty feet high and
as engulfing the entire village, as well as the area around it, a white-hot
fire blazed and crackled.
My jaw
dropped, and I shambled forward. This couldn’t be real. None of it. I had to
have lost my shit.
“Impossible,”
Yalrein said, sounding as stupefied as I felt.
I shook my
head. “This—”
A figure,
bathed in red fire and about ten feet tall, turned in our direction. Inside the
white light, each deliberate step was easy to see as the figure moved towards
us. Like the One had earlier, this monster exuded an aura of death and
destruction, though not quite on the One’s level. But still …
“We have to
go,” I said despite how I felt.
“But … my
family …” Yalrein took a step towards the figure, each of its steps seeming to
close the distance between us.
Yalrein was
right, but there was nothing we could do right now.
I gritted
my teeth. “We’ll have our revenge. But as we are now, there’s nothing we can do
against that thing but die.” I turned Yalrein around and cocked Barges back.
“Don’t make me carry you.” Since the figure was less than fifty feet away now,
gaining on us quickly, I doubted I could outrun it if I had to run with Yalrein
on my shoulders. Plus, my stomach was groaning up a storm.
Yalrein
nodded like the fool he was.
And
together, we turned back into the woods and ran.
Next: Chapter 15
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