Angel of Fire - the Breath of Immortality - Book One #Wattys2014

Play Time is Over

Chapter 37 - Play Time Is Over

I suddenly realized for the first time that I no longer felt insecure, or scared that the Dark Ones would be sending more zombies to hunt me down.

Bring it on corpses.

But, then again, Serenity wasn't finished with me yet. Not even close.

Curious, I had to ask. “So, now what?”

“With more practice, you will be able to expand your energy and wipe out an entire city.”

I gasped in surprise.

“Don't worry. I already think you've got the hang of it. Besides, no need to turn up the power to destroy Vycandor. Anything else would be overkill.”

I frowned. I didn't want to kill anyone. I just wanted to save my friends.

Something slid behind Serenity’s dark eyes, as a mischievous grin curled her luscious red lips again. “How would you like to do some sparing?”

I swallowed hard. “With you?” She was just full of surprises. “Not unless I have a death wish.”

Serenity stalked around me. “You need to work on some moves if you expect to be any match for Vycandor.”

“But I thought you said...” Without warning she attacked, lunging at me ferociously. I didn’t know what to do so I turned and ducked down, covering my head like a coward.

Her legs smashed into my back, sending me flying face first into the ground. I lifted my head, fighting to breathe through the intense pain as she tucked and rolled on the ground, landing gracefully on her feet.

“Get up!” she demanded. Her voice sounded all wrong.

Well, I would’ve gotten up if she hadn’t just knocked the wind clean out of me. I struggled to turn over on my side and sat up gingerly, feeling as though my nose was smashed into my face. I could already tell I was bleeding, but I reached up a hand to touch it anyway. When I looked down, my hand was covered in bright red blood and dirt.

“Ouch.”

“Don’t be such a baby,” Serenity spat, waving a hand impatiently.

I angrily wiped my nose with the back of my sleeve. “Is this how you inspire confidence?”

“Get up and fight me, or I'll make you bleed again.” There was an undercurrent of danger in her voice. The expression she wore like a mask was half-smile, half-snarl, and more than a little intimidating.

Burning energy coiled within, making me want to strike back. It was weird how easy I felt the power once I was already mad. The surge left me breathless.

I stood up as Serenity backed away – her dark eyes measuring mine. Had she felt it too, or was she just waiting to see what I would do next?

Probably both.

Dripping blood landed on my hands in warm, angry spurts. I was pretty sure I had a busted nose and, now, I had a busted temper to go along with it.

I raised the power churning inside and felt a shocking jolt of electricity pulsate through my entire body. This time when I released the energy, a blow torch like flame erupted out of my hands.

Serenity tried to jump out of the way. Red-hot flaming energy caught her in both legs, flipping her violently upside down and hurtling her back against a row of trees far off in the distance. The way she zigzagged, hitting every other branch on the way down as she fell, reminded me of a pin ball game.

I put out the flames by drawing the energy back inside and casually strolled down the hill in Serenity’s direction, walking to the most obvious spot where she would land. If she was mad at me, this would give her time to cool off.

I peered up into the maple trees. No movement. No sound. Nothing. I called her name and waited.

That’s when I heard it.

Movement high up in the branches. I squinted my eyes to look more closely and, sure enough, there she was. She looked like a parachute landing gone horribly wrong. Hanging upside down with her cape twisted tightly around her body, she appeared perfectly stuck. Even if she'd tried to untie it, she was so impossibly tangled that there's no way she could free herself.

Warning: Never, ever, ever where a cape to a battle. Or you just might get stuck up in a tree.

I only had one question. How was I supposed to get her down? The way I saw it, she had two options. I could let her down the easy way, or the hard way. The decision would be up to her. Either way, there was definitely going to be some begging involved.

On her part, that is.

I tried not to smile. Too bad it didn't work.

“Need some help?”

“What do you think?” she answered, sounding hostile.

“Are you going to be nice when I get you down?”

No answer.

“If you don’t promise to be nice, I’m not going to get help you,” I hollered.

“If you don't get me down, you'll be sorry!”

I laughed. “Only if you promise to be nice...”

No answer.

I heard a wrangling noise high up in the tree. As I watched, hundreds of colorful leaves started falling wistfully to the ground. She wasn’t giving up.

Goody. Neither was I.

“Well?” I hollered again.

“Well, what?”

“You know what!”

“Chaos, I swear if you do not get me down this instant…”

I smiled to myself, pretending not to hear her. This was fun.

“What did you say?”

No reply, just more wrangling in an attempt to free herself as more leaves rained down around me. I reached out a hand and grabbed one playfully.

I guess I was going to have to get her down the hard way. Standing right next to the tree trunk, I looked straight up in order to locate the branch she was most likely snarled in.

No luck.

Her cloak was tangled around several different limbs at once. I had to eliminate the offending limbs and hope I didn't accidentally zap her in the process.

Accidentally on purpose, that is.

“Are you ready?” I called.

No answer. She must be ready.

Thankfully, I didn’t need a lot of energy to break tree branches. It was just a matter of hitting them one by one until she fell.

“Here goes nothing.”

I shot enough power to disintegrate the most obvious branch, but it didn’t work. I moved and tried again. This time instead of aiming at the branch I zapped her cape.

Standing back, I watched the charred pieces of velvety black fabric flutter to the ground. A crack, followed by a scream made my neck snap up in alarm as Serenity fell out of the tree.

Running underneath the tree, I didn't end up catching her so much as I broke her fall with my body. We both landed on the ground with a heavy thud.

Serenity sat up watching me with a carefully controlled look of violence in her eyes. She had twigs, dirt and leaves snarled in her long hair, but other than that there wasn’t a single mark marring her delicate beauty.

“I think you're ready to go back to the castle now,” she admitted in a tight voice.

Right then, I wasn't sure who to be more afraid of. Vycandor, or her.

Turns out it was both.