Demon Heart

Chapter 19.1~Cut the Cord

EVABELLE

It was the sound of Aza's scream that terrified Evabelle more than anything that night. At first it was just a petrified, anguished wail that built into a guttural broken screech that cut out over all the thunder and cries from the never-ending waves of Annihilators. As is continued to rise, Evabelle realized she was howling a name into the night. 

"DEEEEEEEEEEL!" Her feet were hitting the hard ground, and as Evabelle turned she saw her friend reach the edge of the building ready to leap into the abyss after the falling angel.

Evabelle couldn't reach her in time. Earlier she'd watched Calandra be knocked unconscious, Faux gasping as his old injury had have been reopened, and she had been aware of Kai being attacked as some point, but the utterly horrified panic in Aza's cry as she bolted for the sky, shut Evabelle down as she saw that her best friend was about to die as another friend very well might already be gone.

For a moment Evabelle's world completely froze as the realization of this entire disaster blossomed before her.

She had done this.

It was her fault.

A silvery-gray blur streaked by Evabelle in a single blink and suddenly Kai was there, wrapping his arms around Aza and yanking her back. "Calandra!" Kai called over the squealing wind and hysterical girl that flailed wildly in his arms. "We need to get out of here now!"

Evabelle's eyes, now that her friend was safe, locked onto the sinking shadow man. If he wasn't dead...Evabelle thrust that from her mind. He was about to get trapped with the rest of the Annihilators in the oblivion pocket. Faux had just been rammed by another monster, moments before. She had no idea if he was alright. The last time she'd seen Lucis, he'd been far off, battling his own army by himself.

There was no time to think anymore. Her own feet propelled her forward, barely touching the ground. She thought she could hear Kai saying her name, but her focus was on one thing.

It was time. Now.

Aza couldn't do this, but Evabelle could. She leapt up onto the edge of the building, about to spring forward. She raised her arms up thinking of her parents encouraging her as she had so determinedly jumped over the side without a single moment of hesitation and flew. As natural and as free as a bird Evabelle clung to that single moment as a low burning began to spread down her spine, diffusing through the breadth of her shoulders.

A vivid flash of white that was not lightning sliced through Evabelle's mind like knife to her brain. The buzzing along her back turned into scalding pain that reminisced back to her sixteenth birthday, where she had experienced the worst agony she ever had. But that had only been her head, now it rushed throughout her entire body, too much for her to make a sound, as fire boiled her blood, and iced metal tore at her skin, raking down her back, raging alarm bells blaring in her mind. It was all shrieking something inside her. Words she'd heard before. Words she'd said before. Words that brought a bone-chilling, heart-rending fear warping though her nerves. But it was all too much for her to remotely process anything as it felt as though her spine was being snapped over and over again, while dull graters scraped down her shoulder blades. She was burning up. She was drowning. She was falling.

Evabelle's butt landed in a puddle of water back on the sopping building, releasing her body from whatever hell that had just happened. Her eyes opened and was suddenly. Or she'd never left, but for whatever time had passed, she took in the hell that was on the outside.

The storm still clashed through the battle that was being fought among her friends that she had lead there. Everyone was fighting within inches of their lives as her best friend sobbed as one of those very friends that was moments from truly being gone forever.