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“I seen a caravan up Seetin way,” Tif said, his voice low, Lant shoving the chicken in the now boiling water. “Haps you could meet up wit dem.”
“Haps,” I nodded, still looking at him. I had no reason to tell him I would rather travel alone. Wave Walkers did nothing alone and even wanting to go to the wedding was too much of an oddity. Besides, I didn’t like the way that man near the edge was looking at me, like he knew what I was already.
“Do ya know if’n they be the Lighters?” I asked, trying to pull the conversation, and that man’s focus.
I leaned in close, expecting the response to the question, sure enough a few of them men chuckled. Wave Walkers didn’t tend to be the religious types. Not that any were religious enough to travel with the Lighters.
The Lighters were the most devoted of the followers of the sister. In fact, only the priestesses that live at the Temple of the Sister were more devout. But seeing as most of the Lighters, or the Children of Light as they called themselves, were the children and descendants of the priestesses and many of the virgins in their ranks would spend their years giving service and worship at the Temple, it made sense.
The Children of Light were nomads, traveling from city to town to share the word of the Goddess and the sister. It was a religion that most in Okivo followed, but the Lighters demanded precision in their adherence. Every rule was followed, all the way down to the laying of brides and blessing of babes. Most avoided them, if only because they had developed a reputation for entrapping men that come across them. New seed is always valuable in a nomadic community.
“Why you be wanton’ to go to weddin’ anyhow?” That man near the edge of the fire asked, his voice twisting oddly. I stiffened, fighting the urge to reach for my knives and them all.
“To see the Queen.” I answered, all of their eyes going wide. Damn. I had let the accent slip, but the more looks of horror stared back at me I realized that wasn’t it at all.
My magic had shifted from heaviness to heat.
“Da be a gud- Hey… Your eyes…” Tif stuttered from across the fire, his gaze as horrified and angry as the rest of them. All of that horror of before returned as they stared at the eyes that I was sure had returned to the dual shade of blue.
Well, if this wasn’t terrible timing.
“What about my eyes?” I asked, not even bothering with their way of talking now. “What color are they?”
“Blue,” Lant said. I didn’t miss the stutter, a trill sparking at the horror and panic that was seeping from him so strong I could taste it. Fear. I loved the fear. It pricked at my skin and pulled that dark and dangerous part of me right to the surface. My twisted grin spread as I brought up that heavy power until it was it alone that rumbled underneath my skin.
“How about now?”
“Br-brown,” Lant stuttered, he and a few others shifting away from me.
“Well, that answers that question,” I mused, my cloak uncoiling behind me as I stood, the men on either side shifting away. The one on my left, however, shrieked and moved back, but not away to escape me. He moved away to take aim.
I should have grabbed my blades.
The thought was only half formed when I heard the click of the harpoon gun and saw the long barbed weapon hurl through the short distance between us.
I attempted to step back, but he was too close. I wasn’t fast enough. I had no time saved and even the magic that was rumbling through me wasn’t enough to stop the sharp pain of flesh and bone being ripped apart as the harpoon went through me. I didn’t scream, not that I could with the blood that was flooding my mouth. The taste of it swelled, the agony exploding as the line of the harpoon was pulled back, that barbed cone ripping through me the other way.
Still, I didn’t scream. My vision blurred as my magic roared to life.
“I knew it be you,” that same man roared, grabbing his own weapon as he shot up from his perch. “We be makin’ you pay fer what you done to doze kids.”
He reached for his bag as though he would attack me, but I pulled out one of my blades, even though every inch of my body was screaming. The warmth of my own blood was a hot fountain down my legs, my already stained and worn trousers soaking it up. I didn’t dare touch the wound, I didn’t dare look at it, it would only give them more reason to claim victory. I stood, staring at each of them as they waited for me to fall to my knees, waiting for their victory to come. I would give them no such thing. My knees were buckling with the pain, my chest gasping at breath. But I stood, letting my magic course through me. If it had to be what held me up, so be it.
“I don’t see that happening.” Each word was a trial to say, my breath catching as I tried to speak through the blood that was gurgling up my throat in an attempt to drown me.
They all stared in horror as I held out my blade, the metal gleaming, the smudges of scarlet against the edge blending with the red that I was sure was covering me and making everything more horrifying.
I couldn’t help it; I smiled, sure that my teeth were red, the color looking more haunting against the fire that was casting everything in that flickering glow that I was so familiar with in the moments before I killed. I suppose this was no different.
“None of you will leave this place.” They didn’t believe me.
The darkness was screaming inside of me, the feeling mixing with the agony that was spreading through every inch of me. The smell of blood was everywhere, my blood still dripping from me as I took one agonizing step backward.
I shouldn't be standing, I shouldn't be able to walk, but I forced each movement, blades still held high as I pulled at all of that turmoil that I had spent my entire life shoving away. It wasn’t only the pain of the hole that had been ripped through me that rose to the surface. It was the rumbling agony from Jayse, and Jack, and most of all Lily. It was from losing everything again and again. Pain, agony, and loss all swirled together, coiling end over end like a blood soaked ribbon. A rope of despair, made of the fragments of a life meant only for death. The magic twisted alongside it like tendrils of thick mud, all of it blending and screaming before it ripped from me.
Each tendril scuttled across the ground, slithering through dirt and over rocks before I slammed it into the ground right underneath their fire, slicing through dirt.
The ground shook as I finally released that scream, the sound of my pain and anger rattling the world as rocks cracked and popped, the ground cleaving open beneath the men. It wasn’t that same gaping hole that I created before, this hole was precise, perfect. The ground split as though someone had slid a knife through to cut it, the fire and then the dirt falling away as the world swallowed whatever was in its path. The men screamed and tried to escape, but everything was sliding into the fissure, the men’s screams falling to nothing as the black pit that had opened up beneath them consumed them whole.
