Wake of Darkness [1]

Chapter Fifteen

 ♕ Sparks of Sunlight ♕

Vereena almost flew off the staircase and out of the door. Aubrette and Izabella hurrying after her. The three of them walked out into the street and followed Nova into one of the alleyways. Minutes felt like hours as they ran the next couple of blocks, before Hazel and who she guessed was Raven came into view. The light of their tattoos clearer in the distance. When her eyes fell on them Aubrette felt a knot form on her throat, and a sudden overpowering urge to throw up.

Nailed to the wall were five perfectly aligned corpses. Two women and three men. Aubrette could barely move at all as Izabella and Vereena walked closer to them. Even from where she stood Aubrette could see the cuts on their throats. The look of their eyes.

"Do you recognize any of them?" Vereena asked. Carefully closing their eyes. Aubrette had to look away as she pictured herself watching the drained eyes of the grey lady. How helpless she'd felt as she'd done the same exact motion a few nights ago.

"No" Izabella said. "We should take them down Vee" Vereena nodded, placing a hand on one of the girl's shoulder, were a metal bar held them onto the brick wall.

"How did no one see this?" Hazel asked, covering her face with her hands.

Aubrette took a deep breath before saying, "This must have happened tonight" Their only response was silence, and she knew what they were thinking. Knew they felt the guilt that had also now settled in her chest.

"We need something to cut this off" Vereena whispered, her hands slightly shaking.

"I'll go back to Layla's room, she must have something that could help laying around" Raven said, squeezing her shoulder and running away.

Not until that moment, Aubrette felt the weight of just how helpless she felt without the ice on her veins. Not being able to do more than just stare. If she'd been able to portal, she could've catch whoever had done this the day before. She could've put an end to this. Instead, five more people had died. And she couldn't do anything but stare.

"There's no time" Vereena said and grabbed the metal with her hands pulling it forward, screaming as it refused to move.

"You're just gonna hurt yourself" Nova said and grabbed her hands.

Aubrette shifted her attention to men and stepped closer to them, their eyes were open and staring down at her. A chill went down her spine as she realized they'd been closed moments before.

"Didn't you..." she said walking back a few steps when thick black smoke started surrounding them. Shadow burst out the corpses skin, the dim light that glowed from the Aureums tattoos flashing before vanishing amidst the darkness. Aubrette watched the death's eyes turning wholly and completely black before all light disappeared.

"Your back on mine" Izabella said, and pushed against her, handing her one of her swords. Aubrette grabbed it and waited.

She did not know what happened first. There was a scream. Then there was nothing but coldness, sinking into their skin. It felt hard to breath, the light of The Aureums flashed repeatedly, and she knew whatever was happening to them was out of their control.

Shadow lashed onto her, pushing her onto the floor with more force than she could take. Aubrette cover her head as she slammed to the ground, screaming as a sharp pain ran from her toes all the way up to her head.

She could hear them trying to fight their way in the dark. Aubrette tried to push herself off the ground but felt the pressure of air holding her against it, there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nothing but endless darkness.

Then, like a lightning bolt, Aubrette saw a golden arrow fly above her eyes, and then a dozen more followed. Each of them buried themselves on the chest on the death, Aubrette did not need to see to know they'd never missed their mark.

Slowly, air disappeared and Aubrette could see again, the world becoming clearer, the pressure of air lifting away from them.

"What the hell was that?" Raven said, throwing her bow to the ground and rushing to help Vereena stand from the ground.

"It came from them" Aubrette said, while standing up from the ground.

"What?" Nova said.

"I saw them too" Vereena said.

All of them remained silent, waiting. Aubrette had never seen something like that before. Even as blessed it should've been impossible to conjure magic after death, specially when there seemed to not be even a drop of blood left in their bodies.

"Maybe we should move on to Prayer's shore" Hazel said and started walking out of the alley, not waiting for a response. Izabella nodded, and walked after her.

Aubrette could not blame them for wanting to leave. If the image of the grey lady had not been haunting her for days, she wouldn't have been able to bare the sight of them too.

"Go ahead., we still need to take them down" Veerena said to Raven, who hesitated to leave her side.

"You sure you can handle it alone?" she asked.

Aubrette approached the bodies, keeping her attention on the metal. Watching how Raven's arrows had pierced through their skin.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Vereena said and walked towards her. Placing her hand on Aubrette shoulder.

"Okay" Raven said and started walking away.

"Let's get this done" Vereena said placing her hand above the golden arrow.

Aubrette took a step back, feeling wind softly blowing around them, but there hadn't been wind before. Aubrette turned to watch Vereena yanking the arrow away from the corpse's skin, his eyes opened, black still in them.

"No!" Aubrette yelled. Vereena turned around her with a frown on her face, but there was no time.

Aubrette moved, grabbing both of Vereena's arms and pushing her out of the way before smoke poured out of him and slammed directly into her, the force of the shadow throwing her into the wall, her back cracking as she fell to the ground. Aubrette lost perception of anything that surround her.

Everything around her burn. Not the familiar burn from the heat that she'd started to get used to in the past day. Her skin burned like a million layers of ice had been placed upon her, preventing her to move, to breathe.

The force of wind holding her tightly, and Aubrette thought it might have as well been holding her together. In seconds, Vereena was on top of her. She could feel the warmth from Vereena's hands on her skin as a ripple of light made its way in the dark, or maybe it was just Vereena's light shining over her, she didn't know.

Aubrette used all of her strength to point to the arrow that laid on the ground and heard as Vereena slammed it back into the guy's chest, the darkness around them evaporating into nothing.

"Are you okay?" Vereena asked, her voice shaking.

Aubrette could hardly hear her, all she could see was the night sky, a brief flashing of stars coming closer into her eyes the longer she forced her eyes to stay open.

She felt the soft touch of Vereena's finger across the skin of her stomach and could not stopped the scream that left her mouth. The touch sending her whole body into a wave of agonizing pain. Vereena lifted her hands and the stars glowed brighter. Aubrette wondered if the stars she saw flashing were not stars at all.

Aubrette lifted her head, opening her mouth to let the air fill her lungs.

"It's okay" Vereena said, trying to hold her back to the ground. "It's okay Bree. I've got you. You'll be okay" Aubrette couldn't concentrate on her voice, all she could see was the image of smoke lashing onto her, the cracking of her bones in her ears, all shined in front of her in overwhelmingly deep red before her eyes. Vereena lifted her from the ground, and Aubrette let out a gasp as pain twirl up her spine and then nothing shined at all.