Fire Scarred *Un-Edited Version*

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sorrel's hand cupped itself and he turned it towards me. With one swift motion, the acid pooled together under my feet and nailed me against the far side wall of the cave. "Where is the stone?"

My arms and legs squirmed against the burning hold on my wrists and ancles. The stone was jagged and cold against my back, and prodded into my skin in undesirable ways. My skull ached at the crown. Sticky blood clotted my hair together and zig zagged down the back of my neck. I arched my back away from the wall struggling as a chained prisoner. Within less than a moment, my face contacted the floor with a loud crack that echoed through the room.

Pain reverberated through my forehead, a saphire pool forming beneath me. I squeezed my eyes shut. The world spun. A migraine pierced into me; my body turned a solid, numb lump that I couldn't move or feel. Slowly, my senses came back to me like awareness after a dream. The rock moved out from under my body. I hung suspended in the air before meeting the bottom of the pit in the same sprawled possition as before. I felt more than saw Sorrel tower over me.

"Where is it?"

I glared up at him with my jaw set in defiance. I'm not telling you anything.

"Is this the way it's going to be?" He lifted his hand again towards me, crushing his fingers into his palm. The air became thick and tangible. It squeezed me like a snake would its prey. All the oxygen exited my lungs much in the fashion as it leaves a balloon. My eyes snapped open. My ability to breath was diminishing by the moment.

Black formed over my vision, and my head felt very heavy. All I could think of was all the lives I'd be putting in danger if I failed. My mom and dad, my friends, Leo, and every other nature spirit out there. And where the heck was Ciris, everything inside me screamed. He'd left me alone, my parent had abandoned me to me die. I wanted him, and I wanted Leo, to make me feel safe. The want and desire pooled over me so much that it filled me and overflowed from me. Rivulets of tears and sweat crawled down my face, and a whimpered scream left my lips.

Something in me made a shift, clicking into place and it made me ache. I didn't want to die. Not now, not any time soon, not here with Sorrel. If I died, I wanted to be with Noah and my parents and Leo, the people I cared most about in the world. I didn't want to spend my last moments thinking about how screwed I'd be leaving everyone and how big of a mess I had made. Something about the air being squished out of my lungs made me realize just how lucky I was. I wanted to fight for life, I wanted to live. I needed to live. I didn't understand why God put me in this position, why I had to go through this mess, but I did know that He would get me out of it. I had faith.

I could only see the surface of the floor through the spots commanding my vision. It wavered unfocused. My palms pressed on the floor as hard as my weakened body could manage, and I prayed that this would work. Sorrel jumped into the pit with me, a wicked expression on his perfect face. His fist loosed a tiny bit allowing me one last breath before crushing it even harder than before. Faintly, I heard something in my crack, but my body was too numb to feel the pain.

"This is your last chance to tell me. Where is it?" His words came to me from through a tunnel. My mouth gaped open but I couldn't manage an answer even if I wanted to. He kicked my face, beat my back, arms, and legs, and pulled relentlessly at my hair. "Tell me!" He roared.

With my last bit of power, I dug my palms into the uneven ground. My head was too fuzzy to be sure what I was going for, but instinct was being my guide. The earth quaked and the shock of its tremors flowed through my body.

Something like a dream, Ciris appeared by the outer edge of the pit. He was shaking his head and yelling, but I couldn't comprehend a word he said.