his flower queen (nikolai lantsov)

Reunited

Gunfire shattered the air around them. 

Though all Kaida wanted to do was lay down and sob, she limped to Harshaw and grabbed his flint. Meanwhile, Tamar and Tolya had charged into the fray, Stigg shot flames through the air and Zoya, Nadia and Adrik had their hands up, and leaves lifted in gusts from the forest floor. 

With Harshaw's flint in hand, she blasted fire onto one soldier to the next. Out of all of her alternatives, fire was her best choice. She didn't need to go near anybody yet it was vicious. A single flame didn't use as much energy than it did to stop somebody's heart and she didn't need things to get complicated by summoning light.

Beside Harshaw who was on the ground, she threw flames into the soldier's faces, burning them alive. A burble of laughter escaped her, feeling free after being suffocated underground. The giddy feeling accidentally gave her a push, the red flames turned icy hue, killing a man instantly. 

Harshaw looked at her incredulously. He had never been able to turn the flame to blue before. The Second Army often warned that turning the flame to that colour was dangerous for the grisha, but it was so beautiful in the air. The sharp laser-like beam, created out of thin air like magic. Though Harshaw knew from his grisha studies that it wasn't magic, it was just a small science where certain grisha can manipulate certain elements to their liking. 

"Look Oncat," he whispered to the tabby that was attempting to hide from all the chaos, scratching him all over.

As Kaida continued to burn the soldiers to ashes, she noticed there were more soldiers but they wore pale blue armbands and she knew from that shade that they were Nikolai's men. 

They started to move forward, driving the grisha and Kaida somewhere. Although she wasn't fit for it, she helped Harshaw up. Her leg cracked, pain shooting up, tears escaping without her consent. 

Without questioning where they were headed, she continued to fight, one arm lifting Harshaw, holding onto the flint and the other casting flames. But, they were moving too fast for her liking. Her leg wasn't going to keep up with them, and standing around fighting like this wasn't helping ease the pain, it was worsening. 

Out of nowhere, everybody started running. She tried to keep up, limping and hopping, putting in all the effort she could to avoid the stinging, burning and aching. Her vision was blurred as she aimed her next flame.

"Stigg!" Harshaw yelled, his voice breaking. 

Instead of Stigg though, Tolya turned and threw Harshaw over his shoulder. 

About time, Kaida thought, wanting to roll her eyes, but she was sore all over she couldn't even do that. 

She continued to run as best she could, looking at everyone fighting in front of her except for Sergei who wasn't around. Looking behind her, she saw him lagging behind, his expression dazed. 

"Sergei come on!" Kaida yelled. If she could, she would've gone back to him and dragged him along, but there was no way she was going to do that. 

Thankfully Tamar backtracked, dodging falling trees and fire, and forcibly pulled him along. Kaida couldn't hear what she was yelling, but it definitely wasn't gentle encouragement. 

As Kaida shot a blue flame at someone who was chasing her, she tumbled to the floor. She could see everybody disappearing into a barley field. Nobody looked back for her. 

Kaida growled to herself, she turned around and sent a horizontal flame towards the soldiers running towards her. It was as wide as an albatross' wingspan. She was proud of that summoning because it had been a while since she last summoned fire.