Immortali

Chapter 15-A Night to Remember

Raina waited outside. The butterflies still fluttered around inside her stomach, as though her ribcage was one of those butterfly houses. The chilly night air brushed against her, but, strangely, after a few moments of shivering, she no longer felt it. She supposed it would make sense for an Immortali to be impervious to the cold. After all, Immortals couldn't die of hypothermia.

But they could be cryogenically frozen, Raina thought, remembering the cryo-stasis spell. She wasn't quite sure how that worked. Maybe she'd ask Arriana...

"Nice night, isn't it?"

Raina whipped around to see Alrick, leaning against the tree. He flashed a charming grin at her, then moved towards her.

"What are you doing here?" Raina asked, before clapping a hand over her mouth. She'd only just realised how rude that had sounded. Instead of reprimanding her though, Alrick merely laughed.

"You do have a fierce tongue on, eh? I'd heard as much from Arriana. She thinks you mutter smart little comments under her breath, which, by the way, she can hear perfectly well."

Raina blushed at that. She made a mental note to only say those things in her head next time.

"And as to what I'm doing here," he continued. "I'm here to help and assess your magical combat. Ari told me you have a rather... unusual technique. Am I right?"

"I'm not sure it's what you'd call unusual. It is what it is," was all Raina said in reply. Alrick nodded in agreement, and didn't say another word. Finally, a third figure joined them. Arriana gave Alrick nothing more than a glance before she trudged up to Raina.

"Ready?" she asked.

Raina heaved in a deep breath and looked at her feet. She was about to go and face a hoard of lower demons. Emphasis on the word demons. Real life demons. For a moment, she wondered when her life had gotten so crazy. When had she gone from Raina Mads, average fourteen-year-old dreamer, to Raina Mads: demon fighting, lie detecting, memory seeing, immortal? Originally, she'd thought it had all started after she'd fallen from the tree, but now... now she realised that it had been much more gradual than that. Slowly, ever so slowly, she'd become more Immortali than she was human.

The thought scared her. After all, being human was all she'd ever known. And now she was something else.

"I think... I think so."

"Don't worry, you'll be great!" Alrick said encouragingly.

"Yeah... sure," Raina muttered. She saw Arriana cock her head to one side and look at her.

"Are you alright, Raina?"

"I'm fine, Ari. Let's just go." And with that she walked away, before remembering that Arriana and Alrick were the only ones who could get her where she needed to go. Surprisingly, the older Immortali followed her, Alrick in tow, and began tracing the rune gate in the air.

"Take my hand," Arriana instructed. Raina did so, taking deep breaths in and out. Mixed emotions stirred within her gut, as though someone had decided to make several soups within the one pot. She was scared, not just of the demons, but of her future. What would she become? Would she even recognise herself in 20 years time? And, if that wasn't enough, she was angry. Why me? She kept thinking. Why was I made this way? Why couldn't it have been someone braver, or smarter? And she knew, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, that her life was going to keep changing, until, one day, her family would become complete strangers to her, and she them.

Arriana took a step towards the glowing circle of light that had dissolved into existence from the rune gate tracings. Finally, she put a step inside the glowing light. She turned to Raina. "Whatever happens, do not under any circumstances let go of my hand. Ok?" Raina nodded, knowing that she would be too scared to let go of Arriana's hand anyway. "Good," was all her mentor said, right before she plunged them both through the gate.