BEYOND THE STARS [2]

SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

QUEST OBJECTIVE: Stop hanging out with older-than-Medivh's-mother night elves.

Azeroth's forces had already swarmed ahead, cutting through Kil'jaeden's finest. A familiar horned spec led the assault.

"I hope you can keep up, with the cane and all." Illidan angled his head over at the Prophet and Khadgar. Eona couldn't tell who the insult was meant for. Probably both.

Eona's blades met a growling wrathguard's. Her arms shook. Fighting in another body was...uncomfortable. She was weaker.

The fel-infused swords pushed her back. Eona stumbled into Prophet Velen; he caught her with one hand, and incinerated the demon's face with the other.

The demon's ashes fluttered into the air, black flower petals that Eona wanted to gag on. Velen pointed at the red figure on the high platform. "Almost there."

Steel shrieked. The tang of sickly-sweet mana mixed with the brimstone of fel. Eona almost wished it took longer to cut down the demons. Instead, she clambered up the black metal ramp with her stomach left behind on Azeroth.

When her feet hit the metal floor of the platform, she stared at her blood father's "savior."

Kil'jaeden towered over everyone, even Illidan. Flames danced in the eredar's eyes as he stared. Eona's blood sang in her ears.

The Deceiver's voice boomed with the unsettling closeness of internal thoughts. "None of your faces surprise me..."

Kil'jaeden drifted from Illidan, to the Prophet, to Khadgar, to Maiev —

Eona's heart spluttered as Kil'jaeden's fel-fire gaze paused on her. She hoped he would look away, to the person next to her. To anyone else.

He didn't. His lip curled. "I stand corrected."

It happened so quickly, Eona hadn't realized what happened until seconds later. Illidan launched himself at Kil'jaeden. Flashes of light seared Eona's eyelids as magic hissed in the air. Kayn threw himself in front of Eona, but went sprawling across the floor by some unseen force.

She was on fire. There was no other explanation for the pain. Her skin itched and boiled with heat. The world was a blurry mix of onyx and red.

Tendrils of an old memory haunted the depths of Eona's mind beneath the layers of agony. It was a shard of her soul she pushed down, hidden beneath a black lake of icy numbness. Now it resurfaced as fel flooded her veins, moving through her limbs, licking at her insides like flames feasting on flesh, burning a long lost color Eona couldn't recall from her eyes —

The black splotches shriveled. Eona lifted her hand before her face, and saw pink skin dusted with freckles. Her hands.

Eona looked up from the ground. She met a familiar blue-gray pair of eyes across the platform. It would've hurt less if someone had yanked out her heart.

Khadgar's eyes were glassy as a gut-wrenching agony twisted his face. Like he watched one of his loved ones die before him.

Kil'jaeden hadn't mentioned Kael'thas, unless more had transpired while Eona...she didn't dare to think back on it. The Deceiver didn't cast a look in her direction as Eona pulled her shaking limbs off the floor.

Velen and Illidan were a blur of heat and searing color. Maiev darted between them, throwing her crescent blades hard enough to leave slashes in the metal flooring.

Eona ignored the urge to glance at Kil'jaeden's face, picking vulnerable points (if they even existed) instead. A heavy weight dragged down her muscles as she threw herself forward.