Fireborn

1 ¦ The Vision

{PLEASE NOTE: YOU CAN NOW ENJOY THIS ENTIRE STORY 100% FREE!}

"They say people are born to be military leaders, but warriors are forged by pain, trial, or circumstance. As a teenage girl, I wanted to be a healer, not a killer."

--Captain Alaria von Tollen, Fireborn Division

  ❄️🔥❄️🔥  

I always knew when my mind slipped out of time, but that never made the ordeal any easier. A part of me wanted to punch anyone who envied my clairvoyance. They all praised my so-called gift, but it weighed upon me like a curse. I could fall to my death and never realize it.

Those people never felt my terror during the visions either, that dread crawling under my skin like a hundred scarab beetles. Their hearts never thudded against their ribs like a prisoner throwing himself at the metal bars, desperate to break free.

Like my heart right now.

Not again.

Ice slithered down my spine as my body stiffened against the vertical metal slab holding me upright. Rearing my head, I grimaced at the crick in my neck, every stab of pain as sharp as reality.

"Liselle, you're in control." My voice echoed in the empty stone chamber. "This isn't real."

With a desperate yank, I tugged at the iron chains. I didn't even know what crime I'd committed.

"Release."

A faint yellow glow emanated from my palms. But the handcuffs refused to shift no matter how much I struggled.

"What do you want?" I yelled into the empty room.

The only answer came from machines whirring to life with a cacophony of mechanical sound. Various switches cast an array of colored lights on the granite walls of what seemed like an underground lab.

A hiss came from metal spigots on the ceiling, and my eyes widened in terror. "No, please," I whispered as I tugged in vain against the restraints.

The rank smell of disinfectant clashed with the stale air in the dank dungeon. When the fumes burned in my lungs, I began to gag.

To my utter relief, the hissing stopped. The air cleared, and I could breathe again.

I was still alive.

Stay calm. The rational part of my psyche echoed in the caverns of my mind. Just observe.

"Avian sight," I muttered with a flick of my wrist.

A part of my psyche broke away from my body and floated to the ceiling, watching the scene below me from a bird's eye view. The light-blue astral tether tugged at my spirit, forcing me not to stray any further from my physical form.

Thank the gods! The spell finally worked!

My stomach churned when I gazed down at my physical shell. The woman's bruised body was covered in grit and ash, welts dotting her pale flesh as though an acid was burning through it.

Her captors had shaven her locks. Not a single strand was left on her head, which glowed like a white skull under the unnatural fluorescent light. But that wasn't what struck horror into my heart.

Despite her disfigurement, I recognized her. How could I not?

It was a future version of me.

Only this Liselle looked like a ghost or an evil wraith, not a Risan healer.

The woman's hazel eyes flashed with a fiery hatred I'd never known. Thanks to the tether, every wave of her anger crested and crashed upon my soul like an ocean of fire.