Steel Soul (working title, WIP)

Excerpt 1- Meridian

Not safe.

The space between Meridian and her room was widening at a remarkable pace. No matter how fast she walked, how long her strides, she could not get any closer. She felt herself walking down the same corridors several times over; her steps were rhythmic, loud in her ear, each more troubling than the last. She was as alert as if in a hunt, each of her senses screaming there was something amiss. If she could only get closer to her room—

Not safe. Not safe. Not safe.

But when she was finally in sight of the door, her dread did not lift. Instead it rose into a panic high in her throat. Her footsteps still squeaked the words to the same song. Not safe. The reason for her urgency continued to escape her, all she knew was that something was wrong; it was all she could think about. She began to run, dropping the white envelope from her hand. Her interest in the mission—and in appeasing Orian—drained from her as if she were a cloth wrung out over a sink. Everything had been replaced with this urgency, this fear. She did not think of anything but the door, all she was certain of was this fiery desperation to return to her room, but the door still would not come any nearer. Waves of panic washed over her; she needed to get to her room more than anything. She didn't know the reason, she just knew the need. It consumed her. Something was wrong, but if she could just get inside—

Mera was breathing hard, her heartbeat ringing loud in her ears. Her body grew stiff against her will, and in the time it took her to blink, she was suddenly face to face with the door. Yet her muscles would not ease. Her body felt heavy, and she barely managed to loosen her fingers from the fist they had tightly formed.

The knob was startlingly hot—she felt her hand burn as she turned it. Not safe. Her eyes met with Xera, and she was paralyzed with shock, unable to let out the gasp that grew in throat.

The room was burning.

Flames had enraptured everything around them. She tried to go to Xera, to take her hand, but she was too far out of reach. There was a burning Mera's throat, not just from the smoke, but from the desperation that welled inside her. Every instinct screamed for her to protect her sister from what was in the room, and yet there was nothing she could do.

When she blinked again, a dragon had appeared at Xera's side, white as snow, with scales that gleamed in the light of the fire around them. Quickly, acting entirely on reflex, Meridian grabbed a knife from her belt and moved toward the dragon, but like all else, she simply could not reach it. Her sister reacted quickly too. A knife appeared in Xera's hand, as if from nowhere, and she had placed it at the dragon's throat moments later.

Xera moved her knife, cutting the dragon's throat swiftly and deeply. Without even realizing it, Meridian's hands went to her own throat. The urgent fear that had gripped her before was nothing compared to this terror. Her young sister was unrecognizable; she looked cold, like a block of ice among the surrounding flames. Mera could not breathe. The burning feeling grew, welling behind her eyes. As tears finally began to fall down Mera's cheeks, Xera let out a scream. Mera saw the dragon had mirrored her, a tear falling from its own eyes and onto Xera's arm, burning through. Meridian's voice was gone as she tried to scream for her sister, but it was too late. The dragon disappeared, and Xera fell to the floor with horrifying thud. Meridian was finally able to run to her, hearing her own scream ringing in her ears.

It was her own scream that woke her.