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CHAPTER 13:
Incendio was flying too fast. Normally, you could barely get the little fairy to flutter faster than the pace of a frolicking butterfly, but now his wings were moving so quickly they were practically invisible. He was a hummingbird, racing toward his coveted flower before anyone could catch him.
I followed him blindly, barely registering as Cyan, Elijah, Michellie, and Bruftus decided to follow. All I knew was that Incendio was not the type of person we needed charging in head first. Odds are he wouldn’t be strong enough to fight anything or anyone off.
Still, he raced ahead. Incendio was in a different headspace, ignoring me as I called after him. If I were in my dragon form, keeping up with him would be a piece of cake. My dragon form was too big, however, and would quickly give us all away. So, I stuck to running after him on foot, trying to keep track of the blur of blond hair that would occasionally disappear amongst the trees.
“Incendio!” I hissed as he began to slow down and drift toward the forest floor. He was turning his head in every direction, frantically searching for something he couldn’t see. “Incendio?” I said again, a bit softer. His eyes were far away, not truly seeing where he was. I grabbed his arm, making sure he couldn’t rush off again.
“It shut off.” He mumbled, still spinning to look around us. “He…not here… but I saw… why can’t I…”
“What’s happening?” Cyan asked as he caught up to us. “Where are the kids?”
“I think the connection was shut off.” I told him when Incendio seemed unable to communicate. “He just keeps mumbling about them not being here.”
“Incendio, calm down.” Cyan ordered, pushing past me to grip the fairy himself. “I need you to calm down and tell me if we’re close.”
“Close… but not…. I thought…” Incendio kept his eyes downcast, searching the ground for something.
“What’s going on?” Michellie asked, approaching us. “Why did we stop?”
“Incendio lost the connection.” Cyan told her.
“What? How?” Michellie cried.
“What happened?” Elijah asked, Bruftus following close behind.
“Incendio lost the connection with Iris.” Michellie whimpered.
“What? Did Iris close it?” Elijah asked.
“We don’t know. Incendio won’t say anything.” Cyan told him.
“Incendio?” I asked, noticing the fairies slumped shoulders. His eyes were closed, his forehead scrunched up. “Incendio?”
“Incendio!” Cyan snapped.
The fairy covered his ears, his face screwing up even tighter. His legs began to tremble so I took hold of his waist, worried that he would fall over. I opened my mouth to call his name again, hoping he wasn’t taking losing the connection too hard. Before I could speak, however, Incendio began to thrash in my arms.
His nails dug into his scalp, pulling at his own hair until I was sure he had yanked something out. The worst part though was when he began to scream. Incendio’s screams were the most blood curdling shrieks I had ever heard. The pitch was high and shrill, making my ears ring . The scream was loud and terrified, but the reasoning behind it was nowhere to be seen.
“Incendio!” I tried to yell over the screaming, but it just got louder.
“What’s wrong with him?” Cyan cried.
The screaming was squeezing at my heart, making it hard to beat. My lungs wouldn’t breathe and my eyes started to burn. Then, suddenly, the screaming stopped. Incendio lay panting in my arms, his eyes still clenched shut. “Incendio?” I whispered softly, brushing some of his hair from his face.
His eyes snapped open, but the moss colored orbs had yet to return. They weren’t ocean blue either, nearly making me drop his to the floor. “My, my, my…” The gravelly voice chuckled, “the fairy put up quite a good fight.”
The deep brown eyes blinked up at me, fluttering Incendio’s eyelashes mockingly. “Who are you?” I asked. “How did you-“
“I’ll have to stop you there, lizard man. Unfortunately, your little fairy is tearing my mind apart. He doesn’t appreciate my intrusion, but it was necessary.” The words came from Incendio’s mouth, twisting the mouth into an unfamiliar grimace. “You see, I don’t appreciate the fish child trying to play double agent. I didn’t appreciate it last time and I don’t appreciate it now. Now he knows just how excruciatingly painful it is to have his mind invaded forcefully and so does the fairy. So, let’s keep this fight out of the mind, shall we?”
Incendio’s eyes shut and then opened, revealing watery, green orbs that blinked up at me. “Incendio?” I asked, a bit unsure.
“Kric.” He sobbed, the tears rushing down his cheeks. He clung to me tighter, burying his face in my chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I’m so-“
“Someone’s coming.” Elijah whispered, tapping my shoulder. I looked up, noticing the shifting off the trees up ahead.
“It’s a trap. He-he trapped us.” Incendio continued to cry. “He led me here, forced his way into Iris’s connection… he wanted us to-“
“Shh.” I pressed my lips to his forehead. “It’s not your fault. Just breathe. It’s going to be okay.”
“Shit!” Elijah collapsed to his knees. I carefully lowered Incendio to the ground and turned to my friend, seeing him clutching his chest.
“What’s wrong?’ I asked, dropping to my knees beside him.
“Something is wrong.” Elijah groaned. “It burns… it burns!”
“Elijah!” Cyan clung to him, trying to soothe him with an embrace. Elijah was shaking, the pain obviously getting worse.
“Surprise!” The voice echoed in the clearing. A man entered a moment later, tall and intimidating. He had a large body thrown over his shoulder and three leashes in his hand. The metal chain leashes were attached around the throats of the children, who made sure to keep up with his pace. The leashes looked like the type that would tighten and choke them if they strayed too far.
“Ciel! Kieran! Iris!” Cyan cried, reaching out his arms. The kids, overjoyed,attempted to rush toward Cyan, but were yanked back violently by the unnamed man. They coughed, grabbing at their little throats to make the chain looser. “What is wrong with you?”
Cyan stood, his eyes turning the darkest red I had ever seen. His wings unfurled, creating a wind that could have knocked me to the ground.His teeth and nails lengthened as he growled at the unknown man in front of us. “Oh no, your highness. I would control that temper if I were you.” The man tsked, dropping the body he was carrying at his feet. “I would hate to make you responsible for what I might do.”
I looked at the body lying lifelessly at his feet, recognizing the vacant face instantly. “It’s Elijah.” I told Cyan, who looked at me confused. “The body, it’s Elijah’s original body. His vampire body.”
“Oh.” Cyan looked at the foreign man on the ground, unrecognizable to him. He had never known Elijah in a body other than the human one he had been inhabiting. He stared at the blank, handsome face. His eyes held a million questions.
“You see, your royal highness, while King Elijah may have abandoned this body to the vampire storage, he could not leave everything behind with it.” The unnamed man pulled out a water bottle, unscrewing the cap without a word. “Now I know what a drop would do to this dead face, but what would it do to the king.”
“What do you mean?” Cyan looked down at Elijah, who had gone almost impossibly pale. “Elijah, I don’t understand.”
“Oh don’t fret, your highness. I’ll show you.” The foreign man stuck a finger in the bottle, pulling it out quickly and flicking the water down onto Elijah’s original face. The body convulsed, the face bubbling as if it had been burned. The current Elijah roared, clutching the side of his face. No damage appeared, but the pain was real. “Oh how boring, I was hoping for something a bit more theatrical.”
“Stop that!” Cyan demanded. “Release the children and that body, and perhaps you will live to see tomorrow.”
“There is no question about my living to see tomorrow.” The man responded, flicking another drop of water onto Elijah’s old face. Elijah hissed, grabbing at his own face as if he had been struck. “After all, that’s only a drop. What would an entire bottle do, I wonder?” The man let a trickle fall onto the lifeless body’s neck. The real Elijah cried out in agony.
“Daddy Elijah!” Ciel cried, his tears flowing down his face in two steady streams. He tried to step forward, but the unnamed man pulled him back harshly, making him choke.
Elijah growled, attempting to see threw the mind numbing pain. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on him!” Elijah growled, his voice raspy.
“What do you want?” Cyan cried, his fangs shortening. “Don’t hurt them anymore…just… just tell me what you want.”
“What I want?” The man chuckled, cocking his head to the side. “Hmm… it’s not so much what I want. It’s about what you’ve taken, what you’ve taken that isn’t yours.”
“What do you mean?” Cyan cried. “Land? Are you talking about land?”
“Screw the land!” The man screamed. “This is bigger than land! You posess what is going to make me far more powerful than you could possibly imagine! Land? Ha! With my power, i won’t need land! No, i’ll need something else from you. I’ll need your admittance.”
“What?” Cyan looked confused, as did the rest of us.
“Why don’t we start with something simple. How about you, King Cyan, ultimate ruler of the sun people, kneel before me?”
“No!” Elijah snapped.
“We musn’t speak out of turn.” The man chastised Elijah, dropping another small trickle onto Elijah’s neck. He cried out in agony. “Now, if we’re all aware that i’m serious, I suggest that you kneel before me your majesty.”
Cyan looked confused, unsure of what to do. I was sure every instinct in Cyan’s body fought against kneeling. Cyan knelt to no one, especially not some lowly witch who had gotten his hand on a long discarded body. However, Cyan only had two options: he either knelt, or Elijah would suffer. I knew his choice was already made even before I saw his knees begin to falter. Cyan sunk to the ground slowly, almost as if he wasn’t moving at all. He kneeled with an elegance I knew I would never master, that no one could ever master. He dropped to the ground slowly, his knees almost touching the grass.
“No!” Kieran hissed, sinking his teeth into the hand that held onto the children’s leashes. The man shrieked in shock, dropping the leashes and dropping the bottle of water into the grass to pry the child’s teeth from his skin. The man backhanded the small boy, sending him flying toward the grass. “Run away!” Kieran cried before he dug his teeth into the man’s leg.
“You filthy-” The man stopped short when he saw Iris and Ciel take off toward their parents as I rushed to collect the body in front of him. Elijah’s original form was in my arms just as Kieran cried out in pain.
The man had Kieran by the roots of his hair, hanging a few inches from the ground. “Let him go!” Ciel cried, running toward the pair.
“No Ciel, no!” Cyan screamed, just as the man caught Ciel in the same fashion.
“I’m sorry to cut our time so short, but i’ve got to restructure a bit. It was nice seeing you, your majesty. I’ll be back soon.” The man chuckled, putting each boy in a headlock. “I wouldn’t come after me if I were you. I might just get desperate and snap their little necks.”
“Please, please don’t take them!” Iris cried, trying to wriggle free of Michellie’s grasp. “Kieran! Ciel!”
“We’ll be okay!” Ciel cried back, his hand clutching Kieran’s from across the man’s body. “Don’t worry, we’ll be okay!”
“I’ll kill you!” Elijah spat. “I’ll rip you limb from limb!”
“You’ll have to find me first. Good luck with that, now that i’ve lost the little homing beacon.” The man nodded in iris’s direction. “Don’t worry. This won’t be the last you’ll see of me. The name is Allister. Don’t forget that.”
With a wink in Cyan’s direction, the man snapped his fingers and disappeared with two of the children in a puff of smoke.
———————-
Incendio’s p.o.v.
My mind felt sore. The clawing feeling of a person wrenching their way into a connection was one I would never forget. I closed my eyes, remembering how powerless I had felt. I could still feel my brain pounding, as if it no longer fit in my skull. It was excruciating, one of the worst pains I had ever known.
“Incendio?” Kric was still holding me, having carried me back from within the forest. We hadn’t spoken. I was still far too shaken from having been controlled against my will, and he was still too angry at me for leading him on. I could feel his hand brushing my cheek gently, trying to coax a response out of me. He was worried… so was I. “Incendio, are you hurt?”
Was I hurt? Yes. I was hurt in my soul, knowing that someone had forced their way into my sacred being. I was hurt in my heart knowing that Iris must have felt the same. I was hurt in my mind, wondering what horrible things might befall the two children that hadn’t been rescued. I was hurt everywhere else thinking about how much kric must hate me. “No.” I whispered as he sat me down on the mattress of a guest bedroom within the palace.
Although I had told him no, Kric still examined me. He inspected my arms and legs, pushing my hair aside to look at my neck and then brushed through my hair to look at my scalp. “You’re unusually quiet.” Kric pointed out as his thumb brushed against a tender part of my head where I was sure I had ripped a chunk of my hair out.
“What is there to say?” I wondered aloud. “I led us into a trap and the kings into danger.”
“You led us to the children. You led us to iris.” he countered.
“I tried to keep him out of my mind, but he was too strong.” I explained. “If I had just fought a bit harder.”
“You’re a fairy, not a fighter.” I gave him a blank look. “What? What’s wrong?”
“You think that your are stronger because your skin is made of leather, but even leather breaks.” I told him. “Your foolhardy ignorance and backwards compliments will eventually lose their charm, you know?”
“You’re one to criticize.” kric scoffed.
“You believe I have wronged you.” I stated. “Why?”
“You knew we weren’t mates. You didn’t say anything.” Kric hissed, his real feelings finally surfacing. “You knew how I felt! You knew!”
“Would your feelings have changed if I had told you what i knew?” I asked, choosing not to correct him. “Would telling you have changed anything?”
“Of course!” he snapped instantly. “I… I loved you. I saw a future with you, only you, only to find out that you never saw me in yours!”
“I love you.” I said simply, ignoring the shocked look he gave me. “I do not need a premonition to tell me how I feel. I love you. I have always loved you. I was under the impression that feelings mattered more than a hazy image of the future. I was wrong. If you feel I have wronged you, I am sorry. If you feel betrayed, I have only myself to blame. However, I truly love you. I love you with the entirety of my being. I love you in this lifetime and the next. I have loved you since the moment our eyes first met and I will love you until the day i die. That is not because I saw an image in a dream. It is because I saw you, Kric. I saw you and I fell in love. I am sorry if that was wrong.”
He stared at me, as if trying to make sense of my words. “Incendio-“
“I know it is not enough, my words.” I said so he would not have to. “I know that your love for me was not the same as my love for you. I know you were with the dragonesses. I know you have thoughts of fathering a child. I know that I am not enough.”
“Incendio-“
“I love you.” I said again, my voice shaking. “I love you so much… so much that I am happy for you. I am happy that you are commander again. I am happy that your future will lead you down a path I cannot follow. You see, Kric the dragon, I see glory and contentment in your future. I can see children and lovers. I can see so much for you. I am glad, really, even if there is no place for me. After all, we are too different. Opposites may attract, but that is only a meeting place as they travel toward different poles. We are moving in opposite directions. We are leaving one another behind.”
“Is that how you really feel?” He asked me.
“All feelings are real if you insist upon them.” I told him.
“So then you want me to go? To travel somewhere else, far away from you?” He questioned me.
“You must.” I told him. “I have wronged you. I hope one day you may forgive me.”
“Forgive you for what?” he countered, but his voice was angry. He pulled away from me, the chords between us seeming to snap the farther away he got. In a matter of seconds, the room door was slammed shut behind him.
“Forgive me for letting you go.” I answered, although he could not hear me anymore. “Forgive me for not being worthy of you.”
I closed my eyes, watching as Kric’s future flitted across my eyelids. He would father strong children, worthy of his name. He would lead armies into dangerous terrain and come back victorious. He would go from lover to lover, always searching for something that he would never find, something that i had denied him. Kric would live a long life… without me.
I felt the tears burn my cheeks as they slid from my eyes. It is okay, i told myself. It is okay that Kric and i will never be together. It is alright that we will never bond. Kric will live a better life without me. I love him enough to want that for him.
My heart broke anyway. No matter how happy i was for him, my soul still yearned for his. That feeling would never go away. The pain would never end, no matter how necessary it was.
Kric and I were not meant to be. Fate would not have it. I could accept that.
Still… it would have been nice to hear kric say he loved me… at least just once.
So theres a long awaited update with a bit of action! Hope I didn’t break anyone’s heart!
Remember, you’re guaranteed an update that same week if you comment on every paragraph of the most recent chapter! I’ll follow and dedicate the next chapter to you as well! (Reminder: Please make sure the comments are not ‘update please’ or anything along those lines. They must be related to the story to count.)
Anyway, feel free to leave me the feedback I so desperately crave:
-Do you think Incendio is doing the right thing by letting Kric go?
-Do you think Kieran and Iris will be okay?
-What are your opinions on Allister?
-what was your favorite part of the chapter? Least favorite part?
-How are you guys feeling about the story direction so far?
-What are you guys still waiting on? Any questions?
-Is there anything you don’t understand or need clarified?
Thanks so much for reading my darlings <3
Vote, comment, follow, etc. <3
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