Page 144 of Tales of a Monstrous Heart
He hadn’t. I wasn’t alone.
‘Kyslor.’ The word fell easily from my lips. Raw magic rose and flooded my palms. Bright blue and purple flames, wilder than before, drenching the dark dismal place with chaos.
The fiends recoiled, screeching and scattering for what little shadow was left. The wind they formed as a weapon became my own, catching the flames and building momentum. Melting the forsaken iron cuffs that remained at my wrists. My flames entwined as tightly as metal chain, a cyclone of fire that whipped about the chamber, reaching for the endless darkness above.
The room trembled under the roar, and I stood at the heart of it, allowing it to build in me. A storm of my own making fuelled that fire. A vast barrier between me and the dark.
The seal began to glow bright beneath me as fire poured from me, dragging every last ounce of strength from my bones as my knees began to buckle. The force of it pushed down on me, my control slipping with every moment that passed.
My hands trembled, weakness poisoning my limbs as doubt crept in, breaths harsh and shallow between my teeth.
The heat intensified, a scream pealed from my lips from the pain of my exertion. Tears fell from my eyes only to dry instantly on my cheeks. Skin so painfully tight I feared a mere breath would reduce me to ash. Yet it was waiting for something; the madness wanted a command. It sought order as I watched the metal bleed back together beneath me and I gathered the last of my courage to give it one.
‘Caevus.’Seal. I commanded over the ferocity of my magic.
The firestorm crashed down on top of me to hit the seal at my command. The energy encompassed me, pressing the air out of my lungs as it roared in my ears and filled the chamber. The screeching intensified, the creatures leaving their fight to scramble for the seal as if their determination to stop me would be enough.
The minute they crawled towards the flames, they were incinerated, sealed to the molten earth beneath my feet, their screeches horrific and wild as they tried to pull themselves free, slowly becoming the metal they wished to break. The ones that clawed at the dark earth were sucked into the fiery wind, dragged to their destruction upon my command.
The intensity pressed me down, harder and harder, until my knees gave out like those of a weak foal, hands pressed against the metal. My arms trembling as the last of my will was extinguished.
Torment coursed through my blood. Shapes moved before me, a mixture of black smoke and sharp white magic with flashes of pale flesh beyond the wall of flames that continued to whirl.
I collapsed forward, cheek pressed against that heat, arms numb at my sides, breaths too tight. I tried to focus on anything but the roaring in my ears. A space just beneath the mess, showing me the darkness of the room beyond. A dark veined hand reaching out towards me, that small crescent moon at the knuckle.
Emrys. Pressed flat against the bloody ashen earth, his arm reaching for me as his mouth moved, desperate and pleading. Roaring something over the firestorm.
I couldn’t hear him. There was nothing but the blistering pain of it all. My body was no longer my own, drained and fuelling something beyond me.
‘Tauria !’ he commanded, the name striking me like a blow, raising a will inside of me I thought the fire had incinerated.
Live, Tauria. My mother’s words came back to me, fierce and real. She knew this was my fate and she commanded me not to die. To not let this world have me too. Not yet.
Live.
Live.
Live.
I wouldn’t betray her, not now. My arm moved automatically, sliding across the hot ash to reach him, as I panted for breath. Every inch I managed his voice became clearer, his eyes wet. A mixture of fear and desperation.
Then the coolness of his fingers interlocked with my own and with one sharp tug, he pulled me out from under it. We tumbled and rolled until a pressure was on top of me, my arms curled weakly around the damp muscular expanse of his back, face hidden in the crook of his neck.
All I could smell was the strange woody scent of his skin, the bitterness of old spells and the chaotic smoke from my magic, tangling together between us as the ground shook, a roar filling my ears as he made a cage of his body around me just as the ceiling came down. Dirt and rubble threatened to bury us, but I held on to him. Tried to gulp down cool air as Emrys’ trembling hands ran over my burning face. Words of encouragement were soft in the silence as I looked up at him, concern marring his features.
‘I’ll burn you,’ I whispered weakly through dry lips, cautious of the intensity of the heat, but he only held me tighter, bringing me to his chest. I relished the chill of his exposed throat against my flushed skin.
A coldness seeped into my limbs, eyes too heavy, my thoughts too distant. Sunlight streamed from above, right over his shoulders, bathing him in that golden light. But still the darkness crept closer.
‘No,’ he commanded, shaking me gently, pulling my limp body further into his arms. ‘Stay awake, Kat.’
There was the sharp tear of fabric before something pressed harshly against the side of my throat. The pain of it made me recoil but he wouldn’t let me go. A wetness on my skin I didn’t understand, couldn’t open my eyes to see.
I didn’t want to go. My hands curled around his wrist, trying to hold on to the chaotic thrum of his magic. To find my way back to him. Trying to press his strength into my skin, trying to stop myself slipping away.
‘Fight, Kat.’ A stubbornness in his tone as my hand found his where it applied pressure to my throat as I dragged in unsteady breaths, feeling them weakening despite how hard I tried. Too tight and too slow.
Everything had left me. My magic. The strength in my blood. But not him.
