Queen Uni

CH17- Shadowed Fire

"We're all packed!" Leo called, walking back in the barn. "We can get going now."

"Alright then, I guess we're going then," Cory said, before he was stopped by Nick. "What is it?"

Nick was staring at one of the carvings, watching as it slowly charred over and then crumbled to ash. He walked from carving to carving, watching as they all crumbled to pieces. As the last bit of ash fell to the floor, a chill swept through the room.

Two figures dropped down from the ceiling. One of them had bright blue hair that hung over one eye, and the other had messy brown hair with a streak of red down one side. They both stood up and looked out at the group, who huddled together defensively.

"Who are you?" The girl said.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ashlie responded, narrowing her eyes.

"Who are you?" The blue haired girl repeated snarkily, as she sauntered over to the group. "A group of freaks, running from home?"

"I mean I guess you could say that's accurate," Tommy murmured to himself. Cory elbowed him, not breaking eye contact from the two people and snapping a few pictures when he could.

"I'm sorry we bothered you ma'am," Nick said. He had decided to become the voice of reason, which was probably a good idea considering that he was probably the most experienced in these types of situations. "We didn't mean to intrude, and we're on our way out now. We'll be out of your way."

"You saw the prophesy," the boy said walking up to the group and ignoring Nick. Nick huffed indignantly but kept his mouth shut.

"YES!" Ashlie shouted. "I told you guys it was important!" Cory elbowed Tommy, who made a face at him before elbowing Ashlie. She glared at them, and Nick put a hand on her shoulder.

"So you know why we're here," the girl continued for him.

"No," Jon responded. He scrunched his eyebrows together. "I don't get it."

The girl sighed. "We're some of the ones from the prophesy," she told them, voice filled with confidence. "He's the expert without experience, I'm the princess."

"You don't look like a princess," Ashlie returned.

"You obviously know nothing then," the girl smirked. "In our culture, a princess is a woman warrior. My brother and I were the strongest in our generation. He learned magic effortlessly, and I grew to be one of the most skilled warrioresses in the Unknown. So of course we're the ones."

"Okay, that's nice, but can we leave now? We're kind of on a mission and stuff," Cory said, trying to walk forwards.

"No," the guy responded. "You are threats to our land. And as the chosen saviors of the prophesy," he stopped and some weird symbols flew out of his mouth. Jon clutched his head again, but everyone else stared in terror as shadows flickered like flames around his ankles. "We're gonna have to take you out."

The girl was suddenly behind them, and she sent a mist over the area. All you could see was her hair, his streak, and Cory's camera light occasionally flickering on and off.

How does this give them an advantage? Cory thought, backing up and feeling the walls for where he left his bow. We can see them, but they can't see us.

In front of the boy some dark symbols suddenly burned through the fog. Balls of darkness started appearing and flying in random directions, seemingly consuming the mist around it. Cory looked through a patch of fog as a fireball nearly missed his face, and he could see the two looking around; The boy seemed to be smirking, while the girl had a giant, wild-looking smile. Cory shivered. They see this as a game. He backed into the wall and frantically felt around until he found his bow, and slung the quiver of arrows over his shoulder. But before he could do anything, he heard Ashlie yelling ferociously. He heard a grunt, and as the fog cleared up could see Ashlie attacking the girl, dodging the shadow projectiles that were more and more steadily being launched at her and advancing on her.

Without the mist, everyone was able to find their weapons and get to a good position pretty quickly. Leo and Nick seemed to have teamed up against the boy, Nick with his axes and Leo with a pair of daggers. The boy kept creating those weird symbols, each one creating more projectiles for them to dodge. If they tried to slice at the projectiles, they just went straight through the weapons. Tommy was running around the area, pulling random objects out of his pockets and throwing them, sometimes managing to slow down the two for long enough that the others could get a hit in. Jon seemed to be in a lot of pain, but regardless he pulled out a sword and charged at the girl, determined to help Ashlie regardless of whatever was happening with him and the symbols. Cory sound up into the rafters and pulled out an arrow, looking around at where to aim and pulling back the string.

The battle continued for a while- the group had strength in numbers, but it was hard to compete with whatever witchcraft the two were using. It was a constant push and pull. Tommy and Cory did barely any damage, being more like distractions. When one of the pair stopped to push away smoke from a smoke bomb or pull an arrow out of their arm, the group fighting them could get a few good, unguarded swings at them. But it wasn't long before everyone started to tire.

Soon, the two magic-users were back to back. They were whispering to each other, pausing every now and then to deflect blows.

"What's going on?" Cory yelled, watching another of his arrows get knocked out of the sky. "What are they planning?" He drew back another, and this time it hit, but the boy still seemed completely unbothered, only wincing a bit while tugging the arrow out of his skin.

"We have no idea!" Nick yelled back. "They're talking really quietly!"

"Then try harder!" Ashlie screamed, going in for another blow.

"Thanks," Cory muttered to himself under his breath, aiming around Ashlie to try to get a hit on the girl.

The two suddenly nodded, and then a large symbol appeared in front of the girl. The rest of the group was pushed back against the walls of the barn. Jon curled up in pain, and Nick and Ashlie crawled over to him. Cory was undisturbed in his spot on the rafters, and took aim and fired at the girl.

She clutched her shoulder and pulled out the arrow, glaring at Cory. Another word, and he was pushed down off the rafters. He fell face-first into the hay, right in front of the pair.

They were both looking down at him with smug smiles. "If all else fails," the boy taunted the girl, "Divide and conquer."

"Oh shut up. Just because you were right once, doesn't mean you're suddenly my overlord."

"You two are bickering like a married couple!" Tommy yelled, struggling to get off the wall.

The girl turned to look at him with complete shock. "Ew! No! He's my brother!" She turned back around. "Unfortunately."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Aqua. We've got a job to finish." He turned to Cory, summoning a wall of shadowy flames in front of him. "Now, let's have some fun."

With that, he shoved the wall forwards, and Cory braced himself for when it would consume him. He couldn't run, he couldn't move, he couldn't protect himself. He could only hope that the rest would be safe.

So Cory stared straight into the oncoming wall of flames, ready for his luck to finally run out. Ready to die.

Aaaaaand I'm back! Sorry for the cliffhanger, and sorry for how long it'll probably take for me to post the next chapter. The rest of my summer is pretty packed, and I'm gonna be away from home for weeks without internet. So that kinda sucks, but I'll be having fun.
This is where things start getting interesting. I swear, Dream, if you're reading this, I had the shadow idea before I read your book, I'm not copying off you. But yeah, I have some interesting stuff planned, I just have to find time to write it out.
Thanks for sticking with me!
-Helena!! :D

P.S.- Spoiler-
Someone dies next chapter.