The Rider's Truth.

Sorry

Unedited. 

Chapter Eighteen -  Sorry. 

Orange burst forth as scorching fire caught onto dry hedges, an instant reaction of crackling wood and a whoosh as the fire devoured the carefully crafted walls of green. The air from Nethore's wings pushed the fire further and the flames leapt, scattering in all directions so quickly that I barely had time to react. Smoke rolled in just as quick, clogging the air and making it hard to see Nethore amongst its shield.

The blaze snapped at me, biting at my thin shirt as I forced Jamie behind me. Acheron was hidden from me among the rolling smoke, but I could sense the demons like a cold blade in my jut. I was afraid to move – to turn my back and face Nethore encase Amon or his master emerged suddenly to attack me from behind. That was Amon – a coward.

Embers spit out from beneath splayed claws, crushing the hedges as he landed haphazardly. Another roar burst from his gaping maw, but his throat didn't light with fire. Shadows twisted around us, choking panic crawling up my throat like a vine.

"Human!"

"Get Jamie first!" I screamed it at him too, wheezing as I sucked in a lung-ful of toxic smoke. I seized her wrist- because we couldn't see, but I could sense where Nethore was. I pushed her towards him urgently, giving her no time to argue about who should go first. "Get up!"

She scrambled towards his side, her body twisting as she hacked out a cough. I couldn't believe how quickly the fire had come and how thunderous it's roar was. It surrounded us, bright and consuming, before the smoke smarted our eyes. I barely caught the gleam of Nethore's eyes, before he nudged Jamie to where she could climb onto his back.

A branch cracked suddenly overhead and Nethore turned his head, seizing the fire addled branch in his jaws. He made a sound, a pulse of pain soaring through the bond before he tossed it away.

Then I spotted Amon; as I turned in shock at the falling branch. Dagger in hand, and eyes fixed on Nethore. Horror barely touched me before I was launching myself at him, my shoulder colliding with his mid-drift. It shouldn't have brought him to the ground, but I felt like the shadows were pulsing around us, helping to cool some of the fire's touch and it gave my tackle an extra strength that I knew my body didn't possess.

We rolled, bodies knocking off the other and the wind was driven from my lungs as his weight knocked the air from me. His knees pressed into the ground on either side of my hips, a clawed hand rising to press down on my throat. "Well, hello dove."

I bared my teeth at him. Hooking my ankles around his, I bucked with all my strength to roll us once more so that Amon was pinned beneath me. Clawed hands grasped at my hips, and I saw his leer as he secured me. Smoke smarted my vision, tears rising against its poisonous touch.

"Let go of me!" I snarled.

Down, like meteors streaming down to destroy the earth, my knuckles rained down onto his face. It wasn't the smartest move given that we had no time, but the fear shuddering through me was uncontrollable. My mind had gone wild – faced with one of the terrors of my eight months in hell. There were shadows humming in my mind, ancient rage that pulsed through me even as the skin of my knuckles split on the breaking face.

"Human!"

I barely heard him call me, before I felt jaws snick so carefully through my t-shirt and he hauled me back as the hedge fell in, vines and wood crumbling, screaming under the heat of the fire.