Sold

28.1: Done Running

**This chapter is in Saiea's Point of View**

I've walked for eternity across the forest, but Berea's words still haunt me, twisting like a knife in my chest.

Although I surrounded the dumb old woman's body in a massive blast of my magick, apparently I still can't escape her. My skin prickles with a buzz of irritation and the slight blue glow of magick.

How can she haunt me even after she was left lying still on the ground? Isn't she done with her irritating torment? Aren't her silly old lessons dried out like her wrinkled, decaying flesh?

Trekking across the forest, ducking under branches and stepping over roots, I struggle to keep her words pushed to the back of my brain. Still, they harass me with every step, no matter how quickly I walk, nudging me toward the edge of insanity.

You're so much like my daughter.

I scoff, kicking a fallen stump hard enough the bark splinters and puffs out a cloud of brown dust. Berea is not my mother. 

She is nothing like my mother. No one could ever be.

Berea was a stranger, while my mother was the only person who ever cared for me. She saw me for what I could be: Someone different. Someone who could choose her own path. Someone powerful, like I am now. She believed in me while Berea did everything she could to stifle me and hold me back.

And I am not her daughter, no matter how much she assumes she knows my life or whatever weird guilt she feels toward me. She can't predict me, and my outcome will not be the same as her weak daughter's.

This magick won't destroy me. I can control it, just like I already controlled it outside of her home when I sent it bursting from my fingertips.

A smirk teases my lips as I scorch a bundle of leaves sprawling from a low hanging branch, giggling as they fall to a crisp beside my feet. 

Oh, how that silly old woman's eyes widened when she saw I was able to control it.

You're alone, you're scared, you're angry, and you're hurting. Her words push back to the front of my brain and I jerk my head from side to side, forcing them back again.

She couldn't be more wrong. This magick brings meaning to my life. It twists beneath my skin, keeping me company when I feel lonesome and scorned by people like Synn and his family. It eats away my fear, anger, and pain. 

It isn't the worst thing to happen to me, it's the best thing. I had the power to end Berea and now I have the power to control my own life.

From this point forward, I will completely control my life. And I'll start by obliterating any Draconian who tries to chase after me. Past that, who knows? With this much power and control, I could do anything.

"If you let go of that need for more control and power the magick will not consume you. You just have to-"

A shriek tears from my lips and I slam my curled fist into the trunk of a tree beside me, splitting it in half. Blood drips from my skin and the magick simmers over it, sealing the wound like thick blue paste. Growling, I wipe the remaining blood on my hip.

Why can't that wicked woman leave me be?

Magick flickers off my skin, scorching the leaves and branches around me into piles of dust on the forest floor. It reminds me of the soot in the air outside the Draconian's cave: dark, dreary, and beautiful.

The forest looks much better burnt. It reminds me of what I'd like to do to my entire home village. And perhaps after I'm done with these Draconians, I will go back and singe it to nothingness.

I'd love to see the looks on their faces: My father's ugly face curling into a scowl, Meben doing his best - as the perfect little hunter he is - to stop me, and all of the villagers who ever made fun of me kneeling at my feet.

They will all smolder. 

That same maniac giggle lurches to my lips and fills the forest, scaring all the animals into scurrying away.

Stupid, pitiful things. There's not enough space on this continent for anything weak.

I bellow out a sigh and kick a fallen log into dust. I've been walking for ages, or at least it feels that way. Admittedly, I have little idea how to get out of this despicable undergrowth, where I am, or what plants are even edible now that I've scared all of the animals off. My stomach screeches for food, clawing at my insides, and I slow my pace.

This is stupid. I don't know how to navigate this forest. Wandering around without direction will do nothing for me. 

Tapping my finger against my chin, I turn in a circle, placing a calculating gaze on the surrounding trees.

But the Draconians are coming for me. They would do that, wouldn't they? I stole their precious little power, and they probably want to try to rip it away from me.

They'll certainly follow me out here into the forest. And while they expect me to have my tail tucked between my legs as I run away, why shouldn't I just wait for them? I can practice my magick more in the meantime, and I won't exhaust myself by retreating.

After all, I'm powerful enough to handle them. And, despite Berea's lies, I can control my magick well. So, why don't I let them chase me, tire themselves, and I'll fight them right here on my own terms?

I lay on my back atop the scratchy grass and let the waves of my anger ripple around me, shocking Neyenflies out of the air and incinerating any woodland animals that come too near. A grin twists my lips and I close my eyes.

Yes, this is perfect. Soon enough, the Draconians will come. And I'll be waiting.