In The Shadow of Our Choices

Chapter 67 - All Good Things in Time

A/N: I could spent two weeks editing this chapter and still not be happy with it. Apologies in advance.

Elizabeth

Lizzie didn't see the purple flames until they were practically on top of her, too focused on finishing the Ashwinders before her her. She didn't have enough time to dodge, but she knew that if she was hit, she would be dead.

"Protego!"

She gasped it out as she twisted her body, trying to avoid the spell. The charm barely gave the flames pause, and they slammed into her. Lizzie staggered as pain ripped through her, instant and excruciating. It felt as if an invisible force were tearing through her body with relentless ferocity. She only had time to gasp in a breath of hot air before the world around her flickered to black.

That purple glow lingered in the back of her eyes, gnawing at her insides. The pain grew beyond the intense knot in her gut, spreading out through her arteries, running down her limbs before it sank deeper, into her bones, into her soul, the purple fading into crackling red.

Lizzie walked through the Ashwinder camp, which was burning merrily, purple flames licking up the sides of the tents. Broken stones sliced at her feet, but she paid the pain little mind. Her gaze flickered over a well-dressed figure leaning against a tree, arms folded as he watched, a mask obscuring his face. There was but one body on the ground - Sebastian's. He stirred feebly as she approached, sitting up slowly. His eyes were green, rather than their usual brown, like the forest surrounding them. She extended a hand to help him up, but he shook his head adamantly, flinching away from her. Lizzie frowned.

"Haven't I done well?" She asked, looking around at the burning clearing.

Flames had started to spread to the trees around them, the wood popping, cracking, and hissing as steam escaped. When she looked back at him, she saw his irises were red, fading rapidly back to purple - reflections of the flames around them. Pain rolled through her once more, burning her insides as her surroundings blazed up, fire scraping against the sky as invisible claws raked her ribs.

Lizzie opened her eyes, gasping against the pain, blinking away a red haze to find Sebastian's concerned eyes - brown - gazing into hers.

"Mr. Sallow," A sharp female voice snapped. "For the last time, please return to your own bed."

Sebastian ignored this, eyes flicking between her own.

"Elizabeth?" He asked softly, "How are you feeling?"

Lizzie tried to pull in air to speak, but the movement made her insides scream and she choked weakly on the half breath. Panic lit in Sebastian's eyes, but he was shooed away, Nurse Blainey taking over Lizzie's vision.

"Miss Smith," she said, "Don't try to move just yet - you were hit with the Rupturing curse and sustained extensive internal damage."

"You're in the hospital wing," Sebastian added, hovering in the periphery. "And I'm here with you... I'm... I'm so sorry."

His voice broke on the words, and Lizzie rolled her eyes. As if it wasn't blazingly obvious where she was. Blainey didn't see this, as she had looked at Sebastian when he spoke.

"Mr. Sallow," she said tartly, "If you do not return to bed, I shall make you." Then she turned back to Lizzie with a kind smile. "Now, I have given you a number of potions already..."

Ominis

Ominis was worried, of course, for Elizabeth and Sebastian, but he found himself rather... unsurprised. He could have guessed that that was where they had been disappearing off to - Ashwinder camps. Perhaps he should have done something, but when had he ever been able to stop them? He had had a small hope that his conversation with Elizabeth that night had swayed her, but obviously not.