Celestial Heart (A Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 15: A Cliche Heroine is Always a Nice Touch at Times Like This

This chapter is dedicated to Cryptic_Eyes, the NaLu writer, and one of the most brilliant Fairy Tail fanfic writers on Wattpad, because I adore their work and their awe-inspiring originality!

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Winter's POV

Trusting Levy to keep an eye on Loke, I lunged for Candor the first moment he turned away from the scene, absently flicking a hand behind him like a signal for his zombies.

My fingers scraped his cloak before two arms locked up around my waist, dragging me back roughly with brute force. I kicked madly, writhing like a goddamn bucking horse, until my foot connected to my attacker's kneecap with a sickening snap.

I landed gracefully on the ground, poised to lunge again after Candor's retreating form, which I could only identify by the swishing tail of his cloak at this point, he was so immersed in his crowd of puppets. "Get back here, you ass!" I growled vehemently to his back.

Explosions of light erupted all around the street; the work of Levy's LIGHTs no doubt, trying to momentarily stun the citizens. We weren't in to causing needless broken limbs, so she was doing the best she could. I had to force her and Loke to the back of my mind so that I could focus on the task at hand: Whooping Candor's baby ass.

A sea of hands reached for me as I tried to dive after Candor, snagging fistfuls of my clothes or hair; one even successfully twisted into my goggles' strap, nearly choking me before I managed to wrench my head away and push deeper into the seemingly endless crowd of bodies.

Neon-green cat eyes popped up everywhere; the same marks Levy told me I'd been wearing until only just recently. Some bore them on their arms, others their necks, and even fewer had them pressed to the center of their foreheads. Levy had said they'd return to normal if someone only "magically" brushed the mark away; I didn't know what she meant by that, but I knew that an average citizen wouldn't be able to remove it by themselves.

Which explained why practically the entire sleep town of Somnia was trying to kill me at this moment in time.

"Gah! Dammit!" Another pair of arms caught me round the waist again. Before I could kick myself free again, an arm slid around my neck like a noose, tightening the pressure of their forearm at my throat until little black specks invaded my red-veiled vision, which slowly bled into a gray, colorless landscape as I continually failed to unhook their arm from myself. The tension pooled in my muscles eased, my body melting into involuntary relaxation.

For the love of God, I was losing consciousness entirely too much lately. During this job especially, but there were too many times before now too. Something really needed to be done about that.

I'd resorted to clawing feebly at the restricting arm when only shallow breaths passed through my nose, barely swelling my chest with enough oxygen to keep going. Damn. Goddammit. I still had a bastardy lawn-head to catch!

Then, all at once, the weight against my back disappeared; all arms dropped away from me and I tumbled to my hands and knees, sucking in sweet, sweet air like the commodity was going out of style.

Lost in my own euphoria, I didn't immediately take note of the gale-force winds shrieking through the streets. That is, until one flattened me onto my stomach, making my chin connect painfully with the coarse stone beneath me. I tasted metal.

Lovely. I'd bitten my tongue.

Wait. Wind. That was important.

I flipped around onto my back, letting out a sort of soundless gasp at the sight of Loke, disheveled and looking just a little worse-for-wear, standing just in front of Levy, who I guessed he'd shoved behind him, like he'd done to me on our last big job. His chest heaved with each strangled breath he took; the hand placed over his ring trembled, as did his knees. A blue-purple bruise on his cheek (that I winced at the vague memory of inflicting) was starting to swell, puffing up the skin around his eye and all but forcing it closed.