A Storm of Chaos (The Hunter Legacy #1)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Kaya sprinted down the side of the manor, skirting the walls to help her stay orientated in the dark. She reached the sprawling gardens at the rear of the manor, the flailing trees and shuddering hedges just silhouettes to her eyes. She remembered what the gardens looked like during the day though, all vibrant greens with dashes of white and blue hydrangeas in bloom, from the moments she had looked down at them in awe while standing at the parlour's balcony.

It was those memories which guided her through the gardens, then beneath an archway that led to the interior garden of the manor. She recognised the shape of the Eretz where it loomed in the centre of the dark pond, its surface rippling beneath the constant patter of the rain.

Chaos' light emanating from her body helped Kaya find the stepping-stones in the pond, before reflecting off the walls of the Eretz when she made it to the small mound the Eretz was built upon. Her hands pressed to the Eretz's cold surface, and although she knew it was chilled due to the weather she couldn't help but feel as if it's cold surface was like a lifelessness, the way a body turned cold after its soul had passed on.

Slipping carefully around the Eretz, Kaya let her hands feel the groves and indentations of the symbols that decorated the steel, but in the dark felt like nothing more than scars and bruises. Kaya circled the Eretz twice, frustration slowly welling inside her when she couldn't find an entrance, and then she moved around the Eretz a third time – but to no avail.

Her frustration erupted suddenly and Kaya slammed both hands into the Eretz, a tinny, hollow bang resounding in response. The rain continued to pour around her, and with the manor being so far from the rest of the town she could hear no screams, no sounds of the chaos that Devenese had descended into. She could have been the only person in the entire town in that moment, with nothing but the rain and Chaos' light keeping her company.

Kaya dropped her head, pressing her palms into the Eretz again. How pointless, she thought. How could she possibly have thought that she could use Chaos to restore the Eretz? How did she think it was even an option when Chaos wouldn't let her wield its true form? All Chaos was good for was burning Reapers on its own volition, and burning... burning...

Kaya's jaw clenched, remembering her words to Felix.

Chaos is a force of destruction. It doesn't save people, no matter how powerful it is.

And the same could have been said for her; she was destruction, death, fear. She wasn't made to save people.

She couldn't save anyone.

A chill went up Kaya's spine, one that had nothing to do with the wind or rain, and at the same time she felt Chaos tighten around her heart in warning. Slowly, she turned to look over her shoulder – and then looked up.

Climbing over the roof was a Reaper, shaped like a long, slender, multi-legged insect. The oil-like darkness that covered it dripped off the Reaper's body and slid down the roof, gathering in the gutters, and for a moment the Reaper simply watched her, it's red eyes curious and... careful.

Kaya drew in a deep breath, and she was about to turn completely and face the Reaper, unleash Chaos on it, when a flicker of light caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She turned back to the Eretz, finding a glowing silver imprint in the Eretz' surface where her hand had just been. She raised that same hand instinctively, pressing it over the light which seemed to crawl up and over her hand to envelope it.

Then it pulled.

Kaya expected to slam straight into the steel, but instead she went through it and the only collision came from the Reaper as it threw itself against the Eretz behind her, which had once again become solid at her back. She stumbled in surprise, but in the darkness that surrounded her she didn't see the stone steps – nor had she expected there to be steps – at her feet and she slipped, a breathless shout leaving her lips before she tumbled down the steps, and crashed to the floor below.