Ulterior Motives

Remarkability

Don't worry guys. I got you.

Love y'all
Happy Reading

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oliver fell to his knees. The gate was aflame and all he could see was dancing fire and black smoke. The entire alter was consumed by flame and Reagan was still inside.

            James and Travis had taken Peter into their custody, gagged and bound he could do no more harm, his powers blocked so he couldn't use them. Oliver didn't move, and the others didn't try to make him. They all just stood on the roof of the Library. Sealey was talking with the clan of Witches. Sophia came to stand by Oliver, tears rolling silently down her cheek as she watched the column of ash billow towards the sky

            It took nearly an hour for the fire to put itself out. There was now only settling smoke and glowing embers. The gate was transparent and incomplete when Oliver slowly got to his feet. The air was stifling but he could endure it. He had no more tears to cry but the trails of them left marks in the soot that covered his face. Combined with the salty tears it was the consistency of mud.

            Marcus and James shared a look. James understood, he turned to Travis and they both put a hand on each of Peter's shoulders and were gone from the rooftop. Marcus, Sealey and the others stepped behind Oliver providing him support and single file walked back through the gate.         

The burned bodies of their comrades were still resting on their funeral biers, smoldering. The pentagram could no longer be seen. Everything had a thick layer of black soot covering it like skin. Here and there the larger logs were still burning, glowing embers scattered from the explosion that hadn't burned out. Oliver walked towards the room that Peter had created and stopped at the boundary.

There was still piles of wood, large pieces of the pyre that hadn't caught fire enough to burn. He figured the blast had sent most of the fire into the alter and blown out large parts of the fire in this room. The air would have been sucked from here to feed the fire in the next room. He gathered up his will power and stepped over the threshold, walking mindlessly to where the pyre had been built.

            He wanted to bury her. He didn't even know if she had any family, friends. She was gone and none of the people she knew or cared about had even known she was here. He looked around not wanting to find her body but not knowing what else to do. He knew he couldn't leave her like this and he knew he had to be the one to do it. Any of the others would if he asked but he couldn't make himself give the responsibility to someone else.

            A shape drew his attention, limp and motionless reaching out was unmistakable a hand, Reagan's hand. It was badly burned and barely visible under a stack of charred timber. Her fingers were solid black burned nearly to the bone. Her palm wasn't as bad, there was still some skin left protected from the fire. She must have been clinching her fist before... He couldn't finish the thought. Rushing to pull debris and wood off her body, in his hast he removed them all fairly quickly. She lay there, what was left of her skin was red and black. Her hair singed and melted into clumps. He knelt down next to her and stared. He could see the blisters on her arms; smell the burnt flesh. A lock of hair shrunken by the heat draped over her face. He reached up to push it to the side and as the back of his hand brushed along her cheek her eyelids flickered ever so softly.

            He froze. She couldn't be. His eyes opened as far as they could as he watched for any other sign of movement, searching her face. Then he saw her eye shift below her eyelid barely visible under the thin layer of skin but he saw it.