Forbidden magic

chapter fifteen

One of the hardest lessons
In life is letting go.
Whether it's guilt, anger, love,loss or betrayal.
Change is never easy.
We have to fight to hold on and we have to fight to let go.
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Len stared at his face speechless, his bleeding head rested on the crook of her arm. Like her lips, Cyrus' eyelids were squeezed shut as the ability to use them scurried away.

Phoenix fell to his knees before the Javen twins as he ran a trembling hand through his hair. His fingers tugged at the strands as if to detach them from their roots, his reluctant eyes darted between them.

"He's still breathing," Phoenix assured her, his acute hearing detected the light breaths Cyrus took. He didn't even need to touch Cyrus to know that he was colder than ice. An unspoken sentence hung gingerly in the air, voiced by neither of the conscious pair. Cyrus was dying.

Len didn't even blink, she remained silent and still, somehow Phoenix cast away their petty rivalry and grew the balls to reach out to her. He had wanted to place his arms around her but instead his hands gripped her shoulders gently.

"I'll go find some qufers, there must be some growing nearby," he said, barely able to look down at her brother's fading life form.

He had used the same herbs to heal Raven's wounds, but that sort of thing strongly worked on people who didn't have healing factors like most of the Torrans. He wasn't quite sure if the medicine was enough to heal Cyrus. "Len, everything's going to be fine. I'm here."

No response. She had discerned the hindering bluff in his voice so easily, but she never broke her statue-like posture. The insipidity of emotion on her face commanded Phoenix to withdraw, which he slowly did. He felt a tad bit of hurt, Len had wordlessly rejected him. She needed no consolation.

Phoenix lumbered to his feet, a rush of heat daubed his cheeks as he turned away and began to sprint. He muttered incoherent vulgar words under his breath as his adroit feet swept across the woods.

His noise twitched once in a while as it picked up the smell of the qufer plant, the herbal odor had directed him to delve further into the forest. He clenched his fists tightly, ready to clobber anything that came in his way.

He couldn't quite fathom how heartless Len was. One minute she looked like she was going to cry oceans and the next her hardcore demeanor spills in. He felt embarrassed for acting like a sentimental fool, what was he thinking?

This was a Javen he was talking about, he had heard about the twins long ago back in his childhood. He had heard of their hearts of stone and strength of bears, even their powers earned a cartful of respect for them. He mentally swore to never let his guard down around Len, Phoenix felt something in his chest swelling but couldn't tell what exactly it was.

The ground beneath his feet slightly shook followed by a deadly roar, the type that made your ears bleed if close enough. Phoenix paused as he fumbled through his memory, trying hard to grasp the familiarity of the ungodly sound.

A flurry of movement from his right ensnared his attention, his eyes flitted to the direction as he scanned the area. Another blur passed from the corner of his eye, he turned again. His eyes cleaved through his surroundings but he cannot seem to catch full sight of whatever was stalking him.

He picked up a tiny stone that lay on the ground, he ran his thumb over its jagged surface. Phoenix held his breath as he stood perfectly still, so still that one would have thought that he was an imperative part of the sentinel forest.