The Princess of Terrasen

Ch. 23

Aiyra left after that. She couldn't stand the immediate expression of concern on his face, nor could she stand the whispers. So she left as calmly as she could, without a second glance at Ilias, who asked her something she didn't hear.

She went back to her room, crying by the time she got there, and ripped off the jewellery, collapsing onto her bed. 

Mate, mate, mate. 

Some sane part of her tried to reason with her-'lots of people have mates, it's not that important'

But it was. She screamed back at it. It is. It is. It is.

Something rears up in her, opening a lazy eye, sitting up and roaring. Her vision is impeded by black flames, she smells something burning.

She doesn't really care enough to fight it. She succumbs to the exhaustion, eyes rolling back into her head and closing.

------

Ilias watched Aiyra leave, back stiff and footsteps silent.

"What happened?" Cerin appears, frowning in Aiyra's direction.

"I don't know. I introduced myself and she dropped the glass and panicked."

"Panicked?" Cerin frowns, turning his attention back to Ilias.

Ilias shrugs 

"She was hyperventilating and her pupils were all dilated." he bites his lip "I'm going to check if she's okay."

Cerin looks less than enthusiastic. 

"What?" Ilias scowls

"Nothing. Be careful."

"She's not a wild animal, Cerin." 

"She might as well be." he replies, 

Ilias kisses him quickly and leaves.

He knows where Aiyra's room is, and he knocks on the door, no one answers, but there's a flare of light. 

"Aiyra?" he knocks loudly. No answer. 

He pushes the door open and finds Aiyra sprawled on the bed. Some type of massive wolf dog whines as he nudges her, there's a black amphiptere circling the room in agitation. It hisses viciously as he approaches but makes no move to hurt him, neither does the wolf. Her hair is fanned around her, her eyes closed and leaking thin, winding trails of blackest flame. It pours from her mouth, her ears, circles her lovingly as it burns hotter and hotter. He swears viciously, and allows his panic to travel down the bond towards Cerin. 

Not five seconds later, the door is thrown open and Cerin runs in.

"What's wrong?" he asks, but the question dies on his tongue as he sees Aiyra. 

"Shit." he touches her arm lightly and the flames flare higher, hissing viciously. Ilias shields his eyes as Cerin's flames flare up too, gold flashing against black. Cerin drums his finger against his thigh as he casts a glance around the room frantically, his own magic pouring out of him in waves of the hottest flame.

"She'll take the entire bloody castle out if this keeps going. We need to get her out."     

"How?"  

Cerin touched her once again, his hand wreathed in golden flames, but the black ones flared so violently that he stumbled back a few steps. 

Ilias bit his lip, channeling his own magic, earth. He doesn't really know what he did, he let his magic handle it, but when he tentatively touches her arm, he finds that nothing happened.

"Go," Cerin says immediately and Ilias nods, kicking his shoes off before he picks her up and leaps out the window. A few branches align themselves to catch him and he lands smoothly on them, racing from tree to tree, no fixed destination in mind. 

She's really light, so it's rather simple to get her as far away as possible, although the black fire coming out of her eyes is incredibly unsettling. She grows hotter in his hands and he increases his speed, practically flying over the branches.   

And then she keeps getting hotter, and when he reaches the edge of the entire bloody continent and she isn't calming down, he leaps over the sea, rocks rising from the blue waves to help him. 

He heads east, towards the sunrise. The sun always helped Cerin control his magic and it should help Aiyra. Right? Ilias really hopes it does because he really doesn't want to try into a pile of ash. Aiyra has gotten so hot he can smell his clothes burning and he quickens his pace once more until after what seems like hours, a vague landform grows on the horizon and Ilias thanks his stars. 

He sets her down in a clearing and then when she bursts into flames. 

A tall, thin pillar of black fire shots upwards, disappearing into the sky. 

Ilias hesitates, wondering what to do, but he doesn't know and he's not that eager to try anything, so he just sits down a few feet away and waits for it to be over. 

When what seems like roughly thirty minutes have passed, he gets a little antsy. It's dangerous to just sit here, anything could be coming for them, attracted by the fire. 

He hears the dull thud of multiple footsteps and forces himself to remain calm. He can't use a weapon to save his life, and carrying Aiyra across an entire ocean has practically depleted his magic. 

Hello, sorry for the late (and crappy) update, but my Wattpad was down and my board exams are coming up so they're going to be pretty irregular although I'll try to make the next one less crappy.