Page 8 of Beneath the Flames
“Not so fast,” the kidnapper’s voice growled, grabbing holdof my bruised wrist, and I couldn’t hold back a cry of pain.He pulled me back to his chest, wrapping his forearm beneath my chin, the knife in his other hand pricking at my neck.
“I don’t know what fancy trick that was, but she’s coming with me.”
Gold-Eyes gave a dark chuckle, raising his hands before him, the center of his palms radiating golden light.He didn’t even bother to respond before he drew his hands into his chest and thrust them forward.I closed my eyes, shutting out the brightness, and heat burned against my ear before the man’s chokehold was suddenly gone along with the prick of the knife at my neck.
I blinked against the summer sunlight sneaking into the alley as I pried my eyelids open.The first thing I noticed was the grocery store guy’s chest heaving like he had exerted a ton of effort.When I no longer felt like my legs were going to give out beneath me, I looked over to find the kidnapper sprawled on the concrete, mouth gaping, skin ghostly pale.
“Is…?”
“He’s dead.”The words were cold, unfeeling.
Dead?
“W-what—” I stuttered before a large hand swallowed my wrist, though this grip wasn’t nearly as crushing as I was used to.
“Come with me,” Gold-Eyes commanded, leading me back out of the alley, into the bright sunlight.
My tongue was glued to the roof of my mouth, and I couldn’t speak—couldn’t ask where he was taking me or what had just happened to the kidnapper.My feet moved forward of their own accord, my brain entirely shutting down before I could so much asthinkof fighting back.
Before we turned the corner out of the alley, I glanced overmy shoulder just once.
The blood drained from my face, and a wave of dizziness made the world spin.
The man that had tried so hard to kidnap me…
He was gone.
Ihad absolutely no idea what I was thinking.
I just acted.
When I first saw the girl in that store, I thought,Maybe her.
Maybe she would finally be the one to fix everything.
And when that song played from what humans called a phone, I had a valid excuse to talk to her.Of course, I had no idea what it was, but she didn’t need to know that.I was a master at blending in, at faking it.
But then she ran from me the second she saw my eyes.My gold-ringed eyes that had no place in this world.I came here so infrequently that I forgot what they did to the humans.And then she was gone so fast that I thought my chance was over.Oh well,I had thought.She wasn’t my usual target anyway.That had just been wishful thinking on my part.
I’d searched for so long now, I’d learned to accept that it was hopeless.
At least until I saw her again on the street, saw the panic in her eyes.And when I saw the man roughly pulling her along, keeping his face covered, I knew something was wrong.
Before I could register what I was doing, I reacted.I moved.
And now a human was dead.
And she had seen my magic.
You’re a fool, Rhydian.
The kidnapper’s emotions were like an open book, easily distinguished and his thoughts easily inferred—every evil and pitiful one.She might have been a stranger to me, but I couldn’t let him take the girl.So I attacked.
What I hadn’t counted on was my magic being so quick to kill.I had intended on just knocking him out so I could get her to safety, explaining away the use of my magic somehow, and then leave her in her car.But my magic sought his heart out, silencing it before he could even utter a scream, before I could stop it.
What was the point in spending endless years mastering the pitiful remains of my magic if it still did what it wanted, if I couldn’t control it?
It doesn’t matter, I kept telling myself.I had long ago lost the ability to regret killing.
