✔𝚨 𝚸𝛐𝐞𝐭'𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞 ➳ 𝚩𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐲 𝚩𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐬

Chapter 16

The small team that Steve had assembled became known as the Howling Commandos, and in truth, teamwork like it had never been seen before. The small unit, with the combined force and strength of everyone on the team, was able to take down various Hydra facilities.

With the brute force of Steve, Melora had found another use of her powers, and after much debate with herself, and feeling like her ground support to Steve was not doing enough, she had chosen to take on the full power of her forms. Finally, after years, changing into the dark form.

She had told Bucky what she was going to do, of course, this time preparing him instead of throwing it on him as she had with her powers, and now, she was wandering around her room, setting everything on the floor.

Her nerves were overtaking her as she placed the various candles on the ground in the correct position, having already drawn the symbol.

The chalk was drawn in a perfect square with a line of Asgardian letters inside of it, and further in, the cross-like shape along with a three-bladed dagger. Two half-moons rested against the sides of the square, and eight candles were placed in the various corners.

The window in the room was wide open, and she had undressed as much as she could without being fully naked. Her breath fog in the air as she sat down with the three-bladed dagger pointing out from her, cross-legged.

Melora calmly put her hands on her knees, heavy breaths to get used to the cold, and she shut out whatever sounds might be around her – those mostly being the rest of the Commandos drinking. And slowly, she started her prayer.

"In the shadow voice
I speak your name...
through the darkness of the humid night,
it resonates
in cathedral carillions,
tolling, like some great, deep bell
heard for miles afar,
lulled on the swell of the wind,
this symphony,
mighty in sorrow
carried on huge, dark and silent wings,
obliterating all light,
extinguishing every flame."

In the cold, where she would normally be a flame – the furnace and the fuel, she could feel herself slowly diminishing as the shadows of the room began creeping closer, bringing with it the true cold.

The cold moved in, only to be met with her warm blood, crawling across her skin, only to be met with the beating of her heart, the centre of her flame. The heartbeat was fighting the cold, but she let out another heavy breath, calming herself and embracing the freezing feeling.

"To thee, I surrender, my heart, my soul, my trust.
It is with Faith that I fall into your mighty wings.
It is with love that I offer up the chalice of my heart,
Drink deep of my life that I might know the depths
of the river of Forgetfulness and Memory.
It is without fear and with true desire
that I kiss your still, cold lips
knowing that this memory shall be my last."

She could feel a sting at the base of her head, the top of her neck, a sharpened icicle piercing her skin, and going deeper and deeper into her body as she felt her body slowly change, and beneath her, a purple airy smoke rose.

Melora cracked her neck, a shiver coursing through her body as she completed the change, but she quickly went back, not wanting to stay in the form and have the opinions that came with it.

The cold quickly faded, but she would be able to change back within a second now, and as she looked herself in the mirror, she ran her hand across her face. Her cheekbones were pointier, face thinner, eyes a deep orange with green specks of light in them, and her hair had taken on the deepest shade of black.

Seeing your appearance change was always... difficult, but at least she still felt like herself, and the rest of her facial structure was still the same. Melora put up the candles and slowly wrapped her hand around the doorknob, carefully opening the door.