(Book 6) Hayden Mackay and The Third-Eye of the Pancharatna

36.3. The Fire of Great Vengeance

Another scream grabbed my attention. I turned around, only to find Shourya standing pressed against the door, eyes wide and panic-stricken like those of a deer against the headlights.

"Get out!" I hollered at him, feeling an explosion in my lungs, eyes burning so extensively that tears came.

He shuddered and ran out like a squirrel and closed the door behind him. Good. There was no way out now. No way to escape. It was Shashi and I trying to make a deal with the deity, right here, right now.

His screams suddenly died. He fell silent. Only the fire raged, with the furniture in the room crackling and snapping. I made my Formation vanish. The natural fire stayed behind, still burning the stack of sheets and curtains. I squinted and there lay on the floor a charred body, clothes completely burnt, arms and legs stuck out awkwardly. He turned his head toward me, his chest moving up and down quickly from the rapid, breathless exertion. Then he gasped for one last breath of air, his eyes widening, body shaking, then he remained still, motionless.

I slowly walked up front to check on him. I knew he wasn't going to die already. I wasn't an idiot to forget that. Shashi lying there was just an act, that much for sure. I kicked him with my leg. Still unmoving. Kicked him twice. Stillness. I crouched down, raised my hands lit with fire, and slapped hard on his burnt cheeks.

Shashi rolled over on a whim, at once opened his eyes, and smack! He balled a fist and threw a punch square into my jaw. I felt a crack, my head flopped aside but I remained balanced in the crouched position.

What seemed like a cough erupted from his mouth, turning into a peal of loud and menacing laughter. I adjusted the bone of my jaw, feeling it entirely sore and bruised.

Anger flooded back into me and flames shot out of my palms. I held his burnt hair, letting my flames lick his scorched hair, holding tight just like he did King Aghasthya and I rammed his head against the elevated stone floor. "Die!" I yelled, all defiance. And I envisioned my parent's cold pale bodies in the mortuary. "Die!" I yelled again, smashing his head the second time, my fire raging and I felt the chill of the coldness seeping from Doctor's lifeless body. "Die, you bastard! Die!" Tell Leena I'm sorry, King Aghasthya's low shrill stuttering voice rang in my mind, and my breath turned scalding steam.

I rammed his head again and again, his head smoldered, skull bone crushed and a dark blotchy patch appeared on the floor that got darker and darker and stickier with blood shooting out in fat long spatters. His eyes enlarged, wet, and staring upwards, pupils dilated and swollen to two black hollow abysses. But I wouldn't stop. I kept ramming, as though I had forgotten how to pull back and take a break. My fire raged with blinding white light making the pool of blood glitter. Sparks fizzed and crackled, and a flamed-up log toppled from somewhere and fell off beside my leg.

"Hayden! Enough! Stop!"

Two strong hands wrapped around my torso, and applied pressure, pulling and dragging me away from Shashi's near-dead body. "Cut it out! He won't die that way!"

My muscles strained as I drove away from Shashi, despite not wanting to. The loud squeaky but well-known voice jarred me to reality. The person shoved me away with a positive intent and taking hard breaths helped me relax. I looked sideways through my angry tears and blinked twice. It was Pruthvi's boyish face that I saw. He smiled at me, that superior smile of victory that I wanted to see on someone's, anyone's face since I became a Samagraha. He pressed his hand against my shoulder and gave me a friendly nudge. "Relax!" he whispered. "He's unconscious and not in a condition to fight anymore. You did it, Hayden! It's over!"

It's over? Really? My shoulders slumped down. I took a hard step forward with anticipation running wildly in my veins as if one pushing against a great wind. I gazed at Shashi fully in his sprawled position, lying at a distance, still like a corpse, dark blood leaking from the back of his head. Yodhin, being a great brute of a man seemed tiny, weak, and brittle, with a skull pounded to mush. I wheezed in half a breath. Apart from stabbing me with a spear, Shashi had not really fought an honest battle with me, not even like he had in the Panchayat. I thought he would take his time. Make it last. Teach me all a lesson I'll never forget. None of it happened. Now that was odd.