Astrea's Ghosts (Ash Princess fanfiction)

Chapter ten: Houzzah/ Yana

A/N- This chapter moves between the POV's of Houzzah and Yana. They will be separated by *** so should be fairly easy to understand. 

Houzzah felt himself burning. It was like someone and cut open his chest and replaced his heart with a burning coal. It hurt, but at the same time, it felt good. He had crafted himself the perfect labyrinth of flame and blaze. The sand of course, wasn't flammable, so the fire dependent entirely on him, entirely within his control. He was powerful. And he knew it.

***

As Yana entered the centre ring, all noise of the blaze outside seemed to fall away. In here, it was deathly silent. A contrast to the deafening roar of the flames outside. When she entered, his back was too her, but before she could make her move, he turned to face her. Yana gasped.

***

He had been waiting for her. Standing in his ring of blue flame, waiting for her to arrive so that he could have some real fun. So what was the point if there was no one in pain? Perhaps that wasn't the original saying, but he preferred that one. It summed his new self up so neatly.

***

Yana choked on her own scream. Houzzah's hair was red flame, sticking up in jagged points. Other than that, his blazing blue eyes and alarming lack of shadow, Houzzah's physical body seemed relatively human. He was tall, with coffee coloured skin and long, delicate fingers. But when he smiled, his teeth were black. "So, this is what has come to try and stop me." Houzzah drawled, his speech like the crackle of flames. "A little disappointing if I'm honest but, that's' that." Yana stepped towards him. She met his gaze with equal intensity. "I have come to kill you," she said, evenly, "I presume you knew that already." Houzzah grinned, "Yes, darling, I do. It's a shame you're not going to." He threw out his hand a jet of fire emerging from it. But these flames were foreign to Yana, and when they brushed the skin of her arm, she screamed. Houzzah laughed, "Welcome to reality, love. We're all vulnerable here." Yana just gritted her teeth and answered with her own jet of flame that shot low towards his legs. Houzzah dodged out of the way and the fight commenced. The two guardians threw themselves into a dramatic battle, arcs of flame earning burns and spilling blood. And as Houzzah fought, he talked, screaming at Yana. "You just don't seem to get it, do you?" he yelled, raining blows down upon her, "Why should I have to die? Why should any of us have to die? And this stupid power, its causes more pain than its worth." he spat.

***

Ella. The thought of her stabbed through his heart like a knife. My Ella. The two of them had gone to the fire cave together, long before temples were built, to try and claim power from the gods. They had been young, naive. Thinking that the gods had mercy and were kind. Well the soon learned that no such mercy existed within the gods hearts. First, she had become powerful, much more so than he had been. But that had only lasted a little while.

She became paranoid, scared that someone was going to take Houzzah away from her, that they were going to take her power away from her. Then she got sicker and sicker, deathly pale, barely eating a ting. Until she went berserk. A tornado of fire, sparking wild-fires that lasted for weeks after ward. Killing everyone in a mile radius but Houzzah. Only he had survived. But not without his scars.

***

Yana's eyes were wide as a fire-ball shot over her head. She ducked and rolled, popping up two metres away with an arc of fire aimed at Houzzah's heart. Clearly, he didn't know he'd been talking aloud, telling the tale of his lost lover and her terrible fate. Her heart ached for him. She wanted him to be free, unburdened by the grief that had clouded his vision at his most dangerous moment. But there was only one way that she could do that. So, stealing herself against the heat of the flames, she darted forward, catching him off guard and plunging the knife deep into Houzzah's heart. He fell to his knees, fire sputtering out. She held his dying body against hers, cradling her the way her Mother hand when she had been the one to die. She pressed a kiss to Houzzah's forehead, and whispered in his ear, "You can be at peace now. Trust me."

And then he slipped away.