My Sister's a Guardian (RotG Fanfiction)

Chapter 17: The King's Threat

(Content/trigger warnings for this chapter: anxiety)

**Isabelle**

The wings of the Fear Angel behind me erupted into black smoke as its skeletal body fell apart to a heap on the ground. Cathey was still running toward one of the living ones, holding a red textbook, and before I could scream at her to stop, and just before an ice spike zipped into it, the skeletal being shot its arm out and touched her. Her eyes closed, and she fluttered to the ground, the textbook skidding across the floor. No!

Two ice arrows shot into the remaining Fear Angels, and they also erupted. Jack passed through the window and landed in the center of the room, his bare feet splayed and his crooked staff aimed at the door.

Slowly, the smoke cleared. Screams still echoed through the building, but the Fear Angels near us were gone for now. My mind still analyzed each sight and sound, though. Were the Fear Angels getting closer? My heart continued to pound hard.

"We need to leave!" I cried from the window.

Jack glanced at Cathey. "This is why we want you to become a Guardian, Isabelle. To protect people like her."

It tugged at my chest. This was another way I was going to be a burden, wasn't it? Because I couldn't protect people when I needed to? Dad, Ranya, and Janice said my anxiety wasn't my fault, but when it caused things like this...

"We need to leave!" I still said.

"Just think about it."

I tried to convince myself to consider becoming a Guardian, but my terror pushed back, and I wasn't strong enough to cast it away.

Jack sighed. "Okay. Not now, then. Let's get out of here."

"All the doors and windows that go outside are locked."

"I'll bust this one open for you."

I stepped away from the glass. Skeletal rattling from elsewhere in the building drew nearer. "Hurry!" I said.

Jack turned and blasted the window with a crackling ice spike from his staff. The glass shattered into glittering fragments. Freezing wind gusted inside. Duct tape hung from the edges of the window frame.

"Be careful of the glass," he said. He blasted wind, scattering the shards to the side.

That was when the first Fear Angel appeared in the doorway.

The younger children screamed again while Warden made a beeline for the window. The third graders overpassed him, and I tried to shoot to the front.

"Isabelle!" Zo held Cathey's paralyzed body in their arms. Though I wanted to help, and I tried to push against the terror, it forced me to shake my head.

"She'll be fine here." I tried to squeeze through the crowd to the front.

"Isabelle, I know you're scared—"

"I can't make myself. I'm sorry."

Zo looked down and struggled to stand under Cathey's weight.

Jack blasted the Fear Angels with ice arrows as they tried to get through the door. They erupted into smoke and bones, and soon the doorway was cloaked in a hazy shroud. I struggled to make it to the window, but pushed ahead of Warden and managed to climb through the shattered hole. A shard of glass stuck in the frame cut into my arm; I didn't feel it. When I hit the ground and little glass splinters stuck into my shoes, I raced into the thick fog. Everyone else was close behind.

When I looked over my shoulder at the school, Jack backed up to the window and leaped out over the glass. The Fear Angels had used the leverage of the doorway to tear away the wall, and were coming too quickly.

Everyone screamed now, except for Warden and Zo. But Zo was sluggish carrying Cathey's body. The Fear Angels burst around Jack, making the window hole wider, and he wasn't quick enough to destroy them all before some dashed and flew toward us in their towering full heights. More climbed out through other nearby windows.

The tightly-packed pine forest formed through the fog ahead of me. Their needles rose into the sky. I raced as fast as I could into the trees. I tried to look away from the Fear Angels so I could desperately pretend I was safer, but I kept glancing back, making sure they were far away. One nearly reached Zo before Jack destroyed it. Zo was far behind the rest of us, still twenty feet from the trees.

Loud wingbeats sounded overhead. I looked up and screamed, my ears ringing. I didn't have time to run before the Fear Angel landed in front of me.

Freeze it in time, I thought desperately. Chains and hourglasses. Blue. Please.

Azure filigree chains finally bloomed from my hand and entwined its bones and wings. But as little hourglasses sprouted along the chinks, all sounds slipped away, and my vision went black. The world faded.

My feet hit stone. The air was cold and damp and musky.

Light split down from above to reveal twisting iron cages hung from chains; the jutting rock formations of the surrounding cavern; and winding stairs and pathways made of stone and brick leading to crumbling structures in precarious locations. I could see all their little cracks, dents, and crevices. But the light only created more shadows that cloaked and spread. I suddenly realized where I was. My heart pounded even harder, and if I could've trembled, I would've.

Fear Angels crouched around Pitch's lair, their bones rattling. Some had their arms around others. But they all gazed at Pitch on a slanted center platform with their large, hollow eyes. My vision flickered in and out. Was this one unstable?

But I had to see the source of my powers! I concentrated hard. Where had they come from? Why was I the one with them, and not one of my siblings? Had someone gifted me with my powers? Was there anyone else who had them?

Pitch surveyed the crowd of his creations, their bones slightly rough and uneven in texture with my enhanced vision. He clasped his hands behind his back, and his eyes narrowed.

"None... you... fail," he said, his voice fading in and out with the flickers. Each little echo of his voice bounced around the cavern, nearly cluttering the meaning. "...Attack... schools... will succeed. ...You understand?" He narrowed his eyes darker, and the Fear Angels nodded, many of them shrinking back in what looked like fear.

Then the vision faded away, the sounds, the sights, the feelings.

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