Page 187 of Anathema

I kicked and struggled, the air in my lungs crackling with each gasp through my nose. A silvery glow in my periphery cast a haze over my eyes, the room closing in on the fringes.

“Stop!” My head screamed in agony, the words trapped behind fire. “Please stop!” Shackles bit into my wrists as I shook and wriggled for freedom.

A searing burn marked the flame’s path, as it crawled down my throat into my chest, and I arched my back, a scream tearing out of me while the fire scorched my insides. Tremors shook my muscles, the darkness on the edge of my vision pulling me deeper.

It’s all right, Maevyth. Come to me. Do not let them see your fear, the comforting voice said.

The room shrank smaller. Smaller, still. Until I stood in complete blackness.

A radiant light shone from behind, and I turned to face it. Squinting against the painful luminosity, I found the willowy figure I’d seen before. Morsana.

“He searches for me.” She lifted her gaze, as if something hovered above us, but when I looked, there was only the fading rays of light and blackness beyond them. “He wants to destroy you.”

“What do I do?”

“You command the flame. Remember that.”

A searing heat danced over my skin, but when I looked down at myself, I saw nothing. No evidence of pain, or flame.

“Let the flame do your bidding. Now, go. Go before it’s too late.”

The darkness faded, fizzling away to that silvery glow from before, and I stared up at the mage who’d removed his mask, his face twisted in fear and confusion.

“Who are you?” he asked on the cusp of a whimper.

Something dark and scaly moved through me, stirring inside my chest. A white haze slipped across my eyes, as a cold and numb sensation burrowed into my skin and bones. I pursed my lips and blew a torrent of black flame at the Magelord’s face.

The mages at my back let out a collective scream that reverberated through the room. As the Magelord raised his hands to shield himself, another searing flame burst from my lips, and the scent of cooked meat wafted through the air.

He stumbled backward. The skin on the back of his hands slid away to leave only raw glistening flesh, and when he lowered them from his face, I watched as two milky white masses slid from his eye sockets, plopping onto the floor with a splat. The mage dropped to his knees, then fell backward, convulsing.

Screams heightened to a pitch of terror from the crowd, and when I turned toward them, one of the masked figures raised his palm, his glyph glowing bright. Shocks of blinding pain curled through me, and I cried out, my body arched against the slab. Another mage raised his hand, and an invisible force garroted my throat, the pressure springing tears to my eyes. I shook against my binds, desperate to make it stop. The light waned, the view darkening, shrinking smaller and smaller.

Let the flame do your bidding, the voice chimed inside my head.

Overhead, I watched the black move across the ceiling, like shadows swallowing me. Tears streaked down my temples. The pain in my body tore at my muscles with hooked claws, while the pressure at my throat siphoned the air from my lungs.

Everything turned to darkness.

In the quiet of my mind, I saw a vision of myself dancing in a meadow of white mist and asphodels, my long, dark locks bouncing around my shoulders. How peculiar and unsettling to see myself, as if I were looking through the eyes of someone else. The distant echo of my twin’s laughter brought a smile to my face. She twirled amongst the tall, white flowers, before she paused to look back at me, the mirth on her face sobering to fear. “What did you do?” The horror in her expression darkened, and a cold, branching dread crawled over my spine. “What did you do!”

I snapped my eyes open to screams. Loud, throaty screams of intense fear. Turning my head to the side, I watched bodies running into one another, a commotion of alarm. The mages gathered near the exit, but something kept them from leaving. A wall of black flame. I clocked the way it entirely circled the room, as if it’d caught on a path of kindling and formed a barricade around us, corralling us.

I stared down at myself to the metallic cuffs that’d melted away from my wrists and ankles, setting me free. As I lifted my hands, I examined the red bands across my skin, burn marks left there. The mages huddled into a tight group, their eyes brimming with horror as they stared my way. Afraid of me?

On the stone floor lay two piles of ash, where the two mages had stood before, the ones who’d inflicted pain. Confused, I raised my hand to my throat, the phantom sensation of pressure still lingering. What had happened?

Behind me and across the room stood multiple stone arches, and beyond them, dark corridors blocked by the black flame. No way out.

A bleak panic settled over me.

What did you do?

The black flame refused to die, as it burned with fervor in a circle around us, trapping us in the room. Shallow breaths sawed in and out of me, and I slid off the altar and looked around for a means of escape.

There was nothing. The relentless fire blocked every possible passage out of the room and the unbearable heat had me feeling dizzy, in spite of the hollow cold in my chest.

One of the mages darted for the flame, the gasps and screams from the other mages failing to mask the revolting sound of sizzling meat, the moment he made contact with the fire. Something thudded against the floor and rolled toward me, coming to a stop at my feet. A crimson-colored stone. Bloodstone.

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