The Rosewood Prophecy

Chapter 35

                                                                              Indigo

The fire burnt high on the makeshift funeral pyre, sending orange sparks up into the night sky. We stood around it, paying tribute and saying goodbye to our fallen friend. Ashley's shoulders shook as she cried an endless stream of tears. Rachel stood next to Ashley, an arm around her. Her eyes weren't dry either.

Beside them stood Lucian, his eyes hollow and staring deep into the flames. His best friend was dead. Never will they laugh together or compete to see who can eat the most. Never will they share a grin or lift the spirits of the team through their playful antics. It was as if a part of Lucian had died along with Jason.

I stood beside Aaron, who looked at the flames eating at Jason's clothes with the same expression as Lucian. There is something between boys that we girls cannot understand. They have their own language, their own "bro code", and inside jokes that seem so foreign to the rest of us. Their bonds are strong, forged through iron and smoke and a code of honor. In a matter of seconds, he had lost a dear friend. The amount of pain Aaron and Lucian are in must be unfathomable, for they witnessed the death of their friend and could not do anything about it.

It had seemed so unreal as we approached the clearing. Strangely, as soon as everyone reached Jason's body the Evils vanished into the trees, leaving us alone. Ashley sobbed over Jason's limp form, shaking his shoulders and screaming for him to wake up. There was a knife buried in his chest, stabbed right into his heart. There was no hope for Jason.

"Please, Rachel, bring him back. I'm begging you, Rachel. Please!" Ashley looked up at Rachel with teary eyes. "Please, Rachel!"

"I can't." Rachel whispered, her eyes filling with regretful tears. "I can only heal, not bring back the dead."

"Just try! Rachel, please, bring Jason back!"

Rachel knelt down and place her hand on Jason's still chest, willing the magic to flow. We waited, expecting the yellow magic to have some magical effect on Jason. There were sparks, yes, but they merely danced along Jason's wound before fading away. Rachel shook her head and forced herself to meet Ashley's eyes.

"I can't." The silence in the forest was too much. "I'm sorry, Ashley."

Ashley's heart shattered through her eyes. She held Rachel's gaze for a second longer, before dropping her gaze to the pale face of Jason. "Jason, oh, Jason," she murmured sadly. "I never got to tell you that I loved you."

The wails came then, as Ashley clutched Jason tightly to her and wept over his dead body. No one could keep their eyes dry. We all knelt down in a small circle around Ashley and Jason, and mourned the untimely death of a good friend.

It was also the first time I saw Ashley lose control. She began to quake uncontrollably as she was crying, and then a circular wave of purple magic emitted from her, knocking the rest of us a good fifteen feet backwards. Somewhere in the trampled weeds, Ashley's lost wand returned to her hand. She shot streak after streak of magic at everything she saw, knocking down trees and sending rocks flying. We were all so scared, trying to avoid Ashley's anger by cowering down in the bushes. Finally, the anger subsided. Ashley's wand rolled onto the ground as she crumpled, entirely spent, with Jason still held in her arms.

I don't remember how we got out of the Desederium Forest. With all our horses gone, we had to walk the rest of the way. Aaron and Lucian carried Jason's body between the two of them on a makeshift stretcher, covering Jason with his own jacket. Eventually we emerged into the outside world, with the afternoon sun shining upon us and the figure of Devil's Peak in the distance.