Shadowfire & The Nymph

Chapter Fifteen

Hazel had never felt such pain.

It rippled through her like lightning on water, sharp and jolting. After the initial burst of skittering shock, it felt as though hoarfrost had seeped through her skin and chilled her blood. She didn't know how far the soldier had thrown her, or whether Lana and Jessie were alive. She hoped so.

The dust hadn't settled. The world before her was a cloud of falling dirt and mist – though it seemed to linger, that dust. It never seemed to reach the ground, not fully.

The dark, thunderous, granite sky had turned near obsidian black. Not that of the night sky, not one of twinkling yellow stars, of the comforting ethereal light of the moon... but something darker. Something that had never known sunshine or warmth. Something so used to the cold and the damp – it changed the world around it.

She had groaned into the darkness, forcing herself to sit upright, despite the fear seeping in with every second of returning consciousness. A clank sounded from behind her, just as she connected with something cold and rigid. The fence.

The soldier had struck her so hard that she had hit the fence, unconscious. But, the fence was near a league from where they had stood. How was that possible?

Holy Gods. It wasn't human. It couldn't be.

Though neither is Lana, she thought.

Her friend had never shown any capabilities; beyond getting on her last nerve and being a damned good thief. The wispy black shadows that pulsed and radiated ancient power begged to differ. It was different to the soldier's power, whatever that was. Lana's did not feel good nor bad. Perhaps a little wicked, slightly cruel. Hazel considered whether it was because Lana herself was neither entirely good nor bad. She didn't know.

Though, Hazel had seen something deep in Lana before the soldier had thrown her into oblivion. Something that wasn't Lana - like something sinister was lurking beneath the safety of her skin, the protection of her black flame.

A blinding red light glowing through the dust and dirt broke Hazel away from her thoughts.

The red shredded through all the mist and dirt hung in the air to reveal Lana, levitating a foot from the ground, rocks, and blood formed like beads, slowly circling in the air around her. Though Hazel did not gape at the young woman's red eyes, nor how her blazing red hair drifted up past her head as though submerged in water. No, her eyes dropped to the lifeless corpse below her feet.

Jessie.

With a sword cut straight through her torso, blood pooling around her, the red light deepening its colour to look near black. Oh, Gods. Hazel winced when she put pressure on her leg. It wasn't broken, thankfully. Just sore.

The soldier was stood at a standstill, just staring at Lana, as though they hadn't expected this power to show itself. Lana levelled a stare at them with such hatred and fury misting her expression that for the first time, Hazel was truly terrified of her friend.

The little girl who chased after bugs with her during summer months as children, the girl who cared for her when she was sick or upset, and made sure she always had money and food – for both her and Marcus. There was none of that person left in the shell levitating in the near distance. Nothing.

She had lost her entire family. In one day.

Hazel, a pang of guilt shooting through her, glanced towards the poor district and saw the light red tiles of the Red Brick between the towering buildings situated on the rolling hill and heaved a breath. The building stood strong. No smoke or fire.