Flames

Chapter Thirty

Nix stood still as Resha walked away from him, leaving him seemingly alone in the smoke that was rising all around them. With the path the current fire trails were on, they were going straight for the apple trees. There wasn't any telling how many explosives would be set off along their path. His heart began to race as he realized the dangerous situation they were now in.

He began to walk away from the fire, his mind building on the stress that already existed. The world wasn't moving fast enough for him. Nix had to get to Cassandra before the explosives went off. As the apple trees came back into view, he realized she was gone. His walk gradually turned into a jog as the panic spread down from his head into his chest, the jog turning into a sprint not long after that. "Cassandra!" He yelled out, wide eyes looking into the nearby woods. Catching the sight of her gown shuffling through smoke between the trees, Nix ran for her.

He thought that if he could somehow reach her, he could protect her from the blasts. He could keep her safe from the fire and smoke. Yet, as Nix looked near the area she was in, he could see that there was smoke riding from behind her too. They were entirely surrounded in a nearly perfect circle. Resha was going to light the entire area up, exploding every piece of it until nothing alive remained.

Nix kept running towards her, making eye contact with her for a split second before the first explosion went off directly between them. The force of the blast threw them both further apart from each other.

The blast had thrown him backwards, allowing him to flip through the air. As he neared the ground, Nix put his hands out and dug into the dirt to slow himself down. When he came to a stop, he noticed how shaky his vision was. The explosion had been bright, causing spots to appear in his gaze. Nix rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, trying to press forward again. The ground shook violently as each explosive went off.

All he could do was remain in place and wait for each one to go off, watching in a sense of helplessness as the forest around them began to burn and the dirt began to shoot straight into the air. The smoke filled the air and sky, swirling up and mixing with the clouds that had been unbothered before this. The flames jumped from tree to tree, only growing with each passing second.

After what felt like an eternity, the explosions began to slow down. Nix hoped that it was because all of them had been set off. Feeling as though it was safer to move around, he began to search for Cassandra. "Cassandra!" He called out her name, focusing on what he was hearing. There was the clicking of burning wood, the crackling of fire, and frantic bird calls, but no Cassandra. It was disorienting trying to peer through the smoke, leaving him thankful that inhaling it didn't mess with his lungs. It was one blessing in a mess of curses when it came to his abilities.

It was frustrating knowing that he had the power to bring all of this fire away from the forest in seconds if he knew how. If Nix had been trained, he could have prevented all of this. Knowing that regretting his past wouldn't change the present, he pressed on.

As animals of all kinds ran past him, Nix held a hand over his eyes and walked further into the fire in the direction Cassandra had been before the first blast. He walked past the burning apple trees, continuing to call her name out. "Cassandra!" A lump of fear was building in his throat that he couldn't swallow, his chest aching as though each rib was being broken slowly. He had to find Cassandra. Each step he took without seeing her became more painful than the last. He, as a highly trained general of war, was able to survive a blast due to his training, but could a princess? Though he hated to admit it, he knew it was unlikely.

Nix walked into the space she had been, narrowing his eyes through the smoke. He tried waving it away from his face as he peered all around the burning forest.