Emblems

Chapter 38: Trust

Chapter 38: Trust

BLOODLUST ROSE LIKE A TIDALWAVE, consuming her, tainting her thoughts red and violent. Somehow, lost in the chaos as she was, she knew that if this kept up, Demons would come, and they wouldn’t be as tame as the ones that rescued her from the Athenaeum. And unlike her, they had no choice – it was their nature to feel the bloodlust if no one was controlling it.

She strained upwards, towards the surface and the forefront of her mind. Faintly, she felt her body struggling against the ropes, wild snarls a response to being restrained. All of a sudden, her movement spiked, thrashing about in the ropes made of elements. She couldn’t use her Metal powers like this – but she was close to running out anyway. Her Demon sensed something coming closer, and somehow there was a faint sense of trepidation. Heat seared her skin—fur, actually, scalding at first, then a burning that stabbed deep, to her bones.

Fire Adepts. They were roasting her alive, like a witch in the middle ages. Daniel was screaming somewhere in the background – the sounds barely distinguishable over her own yowls, and she tried to barrel upwards, break the bonds that held her down, escape the horrible, horrible burning that sizzled down her body, over every nerve, set every muscle spasming uncontrollably.

Locked in her own mind, Amber screamed.

Her Demon snarled, faltered, whimpered, drawing back. She floated up like a bloated corpse in a river, and came back to herself, back to her Human body, lying in a puddle of shadow, her skin numb. Prying her eyes open, she made out the blurry form of Leone’s warm smile. “Welcome back,” she said. “Just in time for your sacrifice.” The woman’s figure loomed over her, and in her hand was something long and coloured a clear blue like water. It looked sharp.

She closed her eyes, reached for her magic. Air had run out, and Metal was gone and she couldn’t feel her limbs. The water spear thing began to come down, closer, aimed at her chest. Her fingers twitched, stretched, reached and pulled and a miniscule flick of her wrist wrapped the stingray tail around Leone’s ankle. Forcing energy from somewhere into her arm, she yanked sideways and the leader of Vortex fell with a grunt. The water spear thing fell from her grasp, but didn’t lose its shape, leaving her with shallow but long cut across her abdomen. She hissed, at the pain, at the enemies surrounding her, at the fact that she was still tied down.

The other Adepts came forward, powers at the ready. At least I won’t die by her hand.

 

A crack sounded, and she thought maybe someone had broken her bones without her noticing, but there was a rumble after that. All the Adepts sunk into the earth till their chests were at ground level. Their concentration disturbed, the restraints holding her down disappeared or lost their shape or just crumbled into dirt. The Adepts shouted and yelled and struggled, but the ground seemed to harden around their bodies. Most of them had their hands free, and they looked like they’d go on the offensive soon. She was so tired she didn’t know if she even cared. But as if that wasn’t enough, their hands started to mutate, turning rigid, with different shades of brown replacing skin colour. Their fingers became twigs, and some had little green leaves growing out of them.

Prone on the ground, she managed a grin at their faces, and remembered Calida’s when her hair had gone through that trauma. Footsteps approached and Daniel sat down heavily at her side. Calida leant back on her hands and stared at the sky, and when Nicholas limped over he put her dagger on the ground near her hand, before laying down. Looking over at Leone, who was trapped with one side of her body in the ground, he gave his trademark smirk. “Don’t worry, I’ll turn you guys back.” He yawned and closed his eyes and his next words were a tired murmur. “But that’s later, after I wake up.”