Shadowfire & The Nymph

Chapter Twenty

"Why did you not come to me immediately after the first abruption?!" Madam Jadia snapped as Kali and Sage burst through the beige tent flaps, people flitting past outside.

Kali huffed a breath. They had run nearly the entire way, slipping and sliding down the side of the rocky mountain so much that Kali's heart thumped in her throat.

"We were at home saying goodbye to Ivy." Kali breathed.

"What's happening out there?" Sage asked, using his finger to lift the bellowing tent flap and peer outside. Kali caught sight of the terrified faces, the crying children and the medicines and food smeared along the sandstones beneath sandaled feet.

"It's Hadyn," she muttered, darting across the tent, a large leather bag in hand. She picked something up, pulled it away from her eyes and squinted at it before throwing it into the bag and carrying on, the jangling of her bracelets filling the space.

"The human queens' son?" Kali asked in disbelief. They gawked after her as she kept piling more and more items into the seemingly never-full bag. Books, in the bag. Medicine, in the bag. Blankets, in the bag.

She nodded, sucking on the pipe she paused to place between her lips. She sighed as the jasmine scented smoke flurried from her mouth before she put it down and began racing around again. Kali felt dizzy watching her.

Another eruption sounded. It was so loud that her very bones shook beneath skin and muscle. Sage cursed, holding onto the tent's supporting wooden beam, the ground trembling. People screamed and cried in horror mere streets away.

"Yes. He's come back for you. I had my suspicions, and now they're confirmed." She whipped her head to Sage, and Kali watched as he flinched back a step at the wild eyes staring at him.

"He was the one that attacked you, boy. He is a shifter. A damn powerful one at that." A croak made its way from Sage's throat. Neither of them knew what to make of it.

Hearing another blood curdling shriek echo through the city, Kali grasped Madam Jadia's wrists and levelled her stare. She felt how fast her pulse was and held her firm when she tried wriggling out of her grip.

"Why is he coming for us now?" Kali said hoarsely while maintaining Madam Jadia's stare. Her hands trembled. This old, by Kali's means, wise Fae was frightened of what stormed through the city. What hope did they have?

"Because the shadow heir has escaped her fenced city." She muttered. Kali stiffened and didn't dare look at Sage. She knew what he was thinking. He would think this a sign to carry out his insane sacrificial plan to free everyone from the gauntlets. She didn't like it.

"Why should that mean he comes after us?" Sage countered.

"Because, boy," a pointed stare, "Kharne is scared of what would happen if the Sevens' children came together. She does not want you escaping and meeting the shadowfire heir and becoming allies." She thrust the bag into Sage's arms and stood with her hands on her hips, staring at her brother.

"Allyship is not what I had in mind." Sage said grimly. Madam Jadia narrowed her eyes and flinched when noticing Sage's stare dropping to the gauntlets on her forearms.

"You cannot mean-" she began sharply, just before a wail sounded in the street they stood.

"He's going to kill us all before we have the chance to even plan an escape." Said Sage.

She stood glaring at Sage for several seconds, as though debating what to say before continuing, a little firmer than before. "Not necessarily."

Madam Jadia pushed the fabric of her dress up to her shoulders and Kali nearly cringed at the long, red scars embedded in her deeply tanned skin. She tried not to stare, to gawk. She must have shown some sort of sympathy in her eyes, as Madam Jadia gave her an understanding nod accompanied by a smile that didn't reach her eyes.