Page 115 of He Who Ignites The Flame
“I shouldn’t have even told you,” I grumbled. “Just being seen with me could put you in danger if I ever fucked up.”
“Sadly, I’m too stupid, and you’re stuck with me,” he said, lifting his glass briefly in a mock toast. “Just don’t fuck up.”
I rolled my eyes.
Vincent leaned back against the bar, draping his arms over the edge. “Why do you keep talking to them if it hurts this much?”
“Every time I try, I just...can’t.” Perhaps I was a glutton for misery. Perhaps I was punishing myself for all my shortcomings, all my failures.
Semele slid a glass toward me, and I swiped it up before downing the contents. I flashed her two fingers, and she nodded, getting to work on more drinks for me.
“It’s self-destructive,” Vincent said, tilting his head.
“No shit.” I grimaced as I set the empty tumbler.
Glass shattered somewhere in the bar behind us.
“Hey! Knock it off!” Semele shouted, and I followed her gaze to a group of males getting a bit too rough.
“Come put your hands on me and make me!” one of them shouted with a taunting laugh before turning his back to her. “Annoying cunt.”
I rose from my stool.
“Barrett,” Vincent warned.
I stalked through the crowd, some quickly scattering from my path, some stumbling out of my way as I shoved past them. The fuckers stood in a group, their backs turned to me as they focused on their game of pool, completely unaware of the blistering destruction they had just riled up. I laid a hand on the shoulder of the largest male, the flames within me swelling with a savage desire to taste blood.
The male turned toward me. “Fuck of?—"
My fingers dug into his shoulder, and I slammed my forehead into his face, busting his nose and sending him crashing to the ground. Blood dotted my skin as the bar fell silent, voices falling away like a receding tide.
The others launched themselves at me.
Laughter echoed through the hazy meadow, and the faint ripple of rushing creek water reached my ears. I lifted my eyes from the poorly constructed floral crown in my hands, the flowers falling out, leaving only scraggly vines and grass.
Calliope sang the rhymes our nursemaid recited to us about a foolish god who had fallen in love with a mortal only to be separated by the veil, lest they destroy both realms to be together. The girl with cornsilk hairdancing with her didn’t join in on her sing-song, but the hoarse laughter she managed to get past her sore throat was like fractured sunshine.
Barrett.
I lifted my eyes to her, but she wasn’t looking at me. “What, Cali?”
Barrett.
I frowned as her voice filled my ears, but her mouth didn’t move as they continued to dance in the meadow along the creek. The laughter—Cali’s singing— fell silent, a rush of wind cutting through it all like a creature devouring our joy as the sky darkened.
Barrett!
My heart sank, and I dropped the crown as I jumped to my feet. I rushed for them, grabbing Calliope’s hand, but before I could reach the girl, blackened clouds swept in around us, tree branches bending in the wind as the sun was swallowed whole by the torrential storm.
“Barrett!”
My eyes shot open, pain echoing in the back of my eyes, an even sharper pain throbbing in the back of my skull. Damien stood over me, arms crossed, brow arched. Vincent knelt on my other side, looking down at me with a relieved grin.
“Fuck,” I groaned.
“Almost got them all before one pulled a bat on you,” Vincent said.
“Where the fuck is he?” I growled, pushing myself up.
