The Inevitable

Chapter 17

We awkwardly stumble out of Head Mater Ren's office, Blaze half carrying me down the stairs. We find a corner and Blaze puts me down, then kneels down to see how I'm doing. Ever since that bus accident, it's as though someone put a curse on my life. Nothing has been working in my favor, the world's out to get me by taking the people I love most away from me. First my dad, and now Debs, what am I supposed to do now?

"Lexi, you have to listen to me. They're going to kill you if they see you. I'm going to take you to the panic rooms where they hide the underage students whom aren't ready to fight. Think you can walk?" Blaze says, his voice urgent, yet confident and deadly.

I give him a small nod, and start to speed walk, Blaze being more in a hurry than I am. "Who are they?" I finally manage to ask, my voice low and raspy. We turn a few corners, and I start to pant from my recent emotional meltdown and from our current jogging.

Blaze takes a deep breath, "They're Codd's minions. They're harmless creatures, unless you force them into battle."

It takes me a few seconds to register his strange words, "I thought you killed Lord Codd back in his palace." I say, shocked.

Blaze shakes his head, "If it were that easy to kill the bastard, I would've killed him a long time ago." He hisses, his anger rising within him.

We finally reach a strange looking door and Blaze enters a code at the corner, a second later, the door opens only to reveal another door.

"Get in, and once this door closes, enter this code 387692, inside, you'll be safe." He says, he gives me a slight nudge on my shoulder urging me to get to safety as quickly as possible.

"You're not coming with me?" I ask, not wanting to be parted from him.

"I have to fight them off, I'm the best fighter this school has." He says, all matter-of-factly.

"I thought it was the Protector's job to fight in behalf of the Euraz, so you should be in there instead of me." I'm not sure why I decide to confront him now, I probably have the world's worst timing. Blaze stares at me, slightly shocked that I knew he's one of the Charmed Ones.

"I never agreed to that. All I know is that there are innocent students in danger, and it's my job to make sure they don't die." He says, not breaking my eye contact.

"Fine, then I'm coming with you." I say, pushing my way past him, but he blocks me with his hand and gives me the death stare.

"There's no way in hell that's happening. You're not trained and we already know that Codd is searching for you. You'll just be getting in the way." His eyes don't lose any of their determination, as he quickly takes a step backwards and locks the door, disappearing behind it. I start to bang my fists onto the doors, screaming at him to let me out, without avail. I turn around and try to remember the code he told me to punch in once those doors closed. I try four different combinations, the numbers all jumbled up in my head, until the fifth try finally lets me in. The second set of doors opens and inside I find fifty, perhaps even more, young students sitting side by side in a massive room. I look around studying my surroundings. There are many bunk-beds, and several food storages scattered all around the room. Seems like they've prepared themselves to stay in here for weeks, maybe even longer, if need be. I find a little boy on his own sitting in the corner, his face drenched with tears, and march towards.

"Open those doors," I say, my voice angry and frantic. Everyone stares at me, shocked at my request. And I'm pretty sure I look like a rabid animal. The boy looks up, his eyes open wide in fear.