Familiar Fire

Chapter Twenty-Two

"A-Aurora, how did you do that? Why did you do that?" Elizabeth asked. Aurora quickly checked Ban to find his heart still beating and him still breathing. It was like he was just put to sleep.

"I don't know. I just wanted him to let me go and..." She gulped, standing up from the love of her life, hoping she would see him again, and walked to the mage. "Send me there now." When she opened her eyes again, she was in the field, watching Meliodas's soul be sucked from him by Melascula. Emotions filled Aurora. Rage, fear, pain, all of it. She gave into these emotions, just for a split second. With the rage coursing through her veins while seeing the possibility of losing Meliodas, she wanted to kill Melascula. She wanted her to die before she could steal away the person she cared about. And that split second of rage was enough.

All seven of Melascula's hearts burst. There was no blade and no stab wound. They simply exploded at the same exact time. The demon crumpled to the ground, dead. All eyes were on her, even Meliodas's despite the state he was in. All was still for a moment. All was quiet. At last, Estarossa burst out laughing.

"That's it? You just had to watch a demon try and eat Meliodas's soul to unleash your full potential?" Aurora's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Don't tell me my older brother here didn't tell you?" She looked at the blonde on the ground, wondering what she was missing. She wanted to know if the demon was telling the truth. The guilt on Meliodas's face told her that she was. "Did you really think all of the races wanted you because you could grow flowers with your magic? Like that would be of any use. We didn't want you so we could turn you into a killing machine, little Aurora. You already are one. You just needed to unleash it. Didn't you ever wonder why the humans made your kidnapping as traumatic as possible? They were trying to trigger your abilities. I guess you just didn't care about your family enough to protect them." And that blinding rage filled the redhead again. She flew forward, ready to strangle the demon, but someone stopped her. Zeldris prevented her from hurting Estarossa by stabbing a needle into her neck. Nothing happened. She looked at Estarossa, trying to crush all of his hearts, but nothing happened.

"Don't bother trying. That injection prevents you from using any magic. Impressive really, it was built especially for you." Aurora closed her eyes, trying to channel her demon powers, but it didn't work. "I wouldn't try that either. It inhibits all of your magic." Fear and rage bubbled up in her stomach yet again and she focused on trying to kill Zeldris. He had caused so much of her pain through the years and she wanted him to at least feel some of it. "Oh, come on Aurora, you're supposed to be smart. What don't you understand about 'it inhibits all of your magic'? Oh, but by the way, Aurora. This new magical power you possess, don't think it will help you in this war. Every time you use it, it will consume more and more of that light in your eyes, your emotions. It will eat away at you until there's nothing left. I'm sure you already feel it growing inside of you. Second by second it will only grow. Wanting you to use it again. Wanting you to give in to it." Aurora watched as Estarossa stood over Meliodas, planning his next move. Aurora freed herself from Zeldris's grasp, not wondering why he let her. She offered the blonde a hand up which he took.

"You're going to be okay, I'm not going to let you die." Tears were starting to well up in the girl's eyes. "I can't lose you, Mel."

"You'll be okay, Aurora." He offered a small smile. "And you know you'll see me soon." He spoke quietly so the others couldn't hear.

"But you won't be you. What if you try to kill me because you lost your emotions. I wouldn't be able to fight you. And then you would never let yourself get your emotions back because you killed me." Tears were running down her face now.

"That won't happen, Aurora, you know that. Even back at the first fighting festival when I wasn't myself because I gave in to my demon side, I still knew it was you. I still knew I had to protect you, even if I didn't know why."