Just want to say thx to anyone whos made it this far.
By Samantha Cook
Chapter Nine Unravelling
"You know what?" Kelsey growled sarcastically while slamming the door.
"What?" Feya smiled innocently, turning friend's sneer into a reluctant smile; it was good to see Feya smile again.
"No, I'm not happy. You threw me off completely with all that Nikkitah talk so I couldn't concentrate. I literally sat there for an hour in deep thought while Kiyo told me to breathe - I think he believes I forget to be human sometimes, although how can I forget with my memory? I'm practically a security camera and that's all, because I was too distracted to throw flames!"
"Anyway," Feya beamed, waiting for an answer.
"Yes, but it's more for my piece of mind that for you. And, you know I'm coming with you tonight, when you next cross paths with the lunatic." Feya rolled her eyes.
"I guess you can hold your own, Kelsey, or at least better than me."
"Aw Fey, that's the nicest thing you've ever said."
Feya hopped to her feat, and switched the lights off. The candle's were already lit and arranged into a pentagon so that Kelsey could sit in the centre, the channelling technique they learnt in their ancient witchcraft class. "Now, breathe," Feya mocked when Kelsey became comfortable; her reply was to throw a pillow at Feya's face. Then she took a deep breath, and rewound her mind back two years. Back to when they first entered the bunker, back to when they met Nikkitah...
Her parents flashed up and Kelsey flinched. It took a couple of deep breaths before she could focus on something nonsensical, and then move onto the important detail. Ones that her memory had to stretch to reach.
"You don't know what you've done! They're feeding you lies if I could only show you," Kelsey muttered, mirroring Nikkitah's words. Feya leaned in, afraid to break the channelling circuit but curious, very, very curious... Kelsey pushed further.
"There's something wrong with that, I know, I can feel it..." Kelsey's voice was distant as she recalled the events, although they could not stand on their own; her mind needed to fall back just another few seconds.
"And here's Tristan, he has been placed on the human course as it seemed a more suitable placement." There was a slight pause, and then her voice returned stronger yet still verging on inaudible. "Oliana told her that wasn't her gift. If she knew what Nikkitah could really sense, she was pretending not to."
The memory jogged in Feya's mind as ideas began to hook together. She began muttering under her breath, thinking out loud. "Nikkitah never liked Oliana and vice versa. Oliana made her a scapegoat for a reason... Her gift was to sense motives, which would make sense - if she was telling the truth. That could mean Nikkitah sensed that Oliana's motives were impure..." Her voice trailed off so that it was just her thoughts speaking.
The only problem with the whole situation was who to trust. Nikkitah clearly could pull more from what people said than if it was simply the truth or not. What if Oliana was hiding something? If Nikkitah and Oliana saw through each other's plans or façades then it would be one person's word against the other - Oliana's authority would certainly mean Oliana would be trusted, especially with the rumours of dark magic in play. Nikkitah had no chance, even if she was strong willed and honest.
Then again, she tried to kill Tristan - not half kill, but murder in front of a whole room full of people. Clearly Nikkitah was hiding more than she had shared. She seemed like a clever person, but there was no IQ restriction on insanity, or evil...
The candles flickered out simultaneously. "No, that's everything we know about her, nothings one way or the other."
"Maybe we're looking at the wrong person, what about...Oliana." Feya stuttered over the name, finding it hard to even mention something that felt like betrayal.
"Just because the woman's an incisive control freak, that doesn't make her evil, just easy to hate." Kelsey flicked the lights back on and started to herd the candles back into their closet.
Feya stumbled over her own thoughts. "Probably an easy target for us to turn against, right?" Kelsey frowned back at her. She nodded but there was nothing to stop the strongest of her thoughts seeping through her confused eyes.
"Nikkitah tried to turn you against Oliana didn't she?"
The good thing about a psychic connection was that ignoring worked. For most of the time, anyway. However Feya could not help but let her thoughts form a reply, despite her efforts to think elsewhere. "She may have made some ambiguous comments."
***
Outside the bunker, just as promised, Nikkitah emerged dressed in the same black outfit that camouflaged into the night. If anyone spent little more than a second looking out the window, they would have noticed her. This made Feya shiver - if someone like Nikkitah could stand so close to the bunker without being detected, then how could Oliana possibly tell them they were safe? Then again, Nikkitah had already proved that she wasn't evil, or that she had means of hiding it...
Without putting off the meeting any further, Feya and Kelsey stepped out from the bunker and dragged Nikkitah into one of the dark spots near the edge of the boundary line. When their eyes adjusted, they realised a man was behind the hedge closest to Nikkitah, his hands tucked into his long trench jacket and his head pointing down at the ground. When he looked up, he revealed two green slits for eyes and thin wide lips that stretched out into a perfect line. Kelsey took a step back in recognition, and Feya followed from common sense.
"Who's the man?" Feya asked.
"Alastor." The voice surprisingly came from Kelsey, whose weary eyes were scrutinising every move that he made. "He's a Demon." Her voice was factual, clearly detached so that she could not display any weak emotions such as the fear that pinned Feya's lips together. "No, he's the right hand man of Derribus - he's the Demon."
"Like I said," Nikkitah began to reiterate, "If your skin is too thin for this, then you're not strong enough to do what needs to be done."She seemed to have no problem with Kelsey's presence.
"How did he get passed the boarder?" Kelsey asked the Demon before raising a suspicious eyebrow at the ex-Ember. "How did you get past the boarder?"
The Demon folded his arms, pursing his thin lips. He did not speak, but gave Nikkitah a meaningful look.
"He's not over the border, and as for me; I am neither good nor evil. I'm a Revellette." Unlike Feya, Kelsey could remember the brief conversations when the word had turned up, and she knew enough to trust they were no immediate danger. Not yet, or at least not from Nikkitah.
"So why are you talking to us? Get it over with." Nikkitah returned a quick half smile that fell into a deep glare.
"There are many prophecies, such as the birth of magic, which although there is not much legacy on, the ancient prophecies have usually been more accurate than anything we can predict today. So much so, that Oliana has trained as a midwife just in case it even touches this generation, and so have I."
"You want us to train as midwifes?" Kelsey asked confused.
Nikkitah laughed. It was short and rusty.
"No. I'm easing you in. The prophecy that will affect you is the one that states when good fights evil, all it will bring is the sorrow from which evil strives upon. Variations predict you will either die, or become the very thing you are fighting against." Feya swallowed as Nikkitah paused to sigh. "It means that-"
"We get it, all right," Kelsey snapped.
"Do I sense intelligence from you, or is it just fear?"
"If Demons will win, does it even matter?"
They all turned to face Alastor, but there was no smile across his olive face.
"Why is he so grumpy then?" Kelsey continued. She held her ground with a strong stance, and when the Demon's cold eyes met that of hers she simply added, "No, forget that - why is he even here?"
A smooth voice flowed from Alastor's thin lips. "Evils wins, not Demons. The world ends in a placid shadow where there is no power to gain nor love to destroy the world for. Derribus must die."
"You might be forgetting that our kind has been literally dying to kill that king of evil for years now. His dark magic makes it impossible," Kelsey hissed. Feya placed an arm on her shoulder to pull Kelsey towards her protectively. "Demon," she telepathically reminded her friend.
"You take us for fools," the smooth voice jettisoned back. His long wispy hair rose gently as the wind stroked across their cheeks. "There is one more secret we have to share, but for now, here is the plan that we are offering. There is a spell that when heightened by dark magic could descend a thick cloud over all humanity whether magical or not." He paused to sigh, "And with it, all magic will be taken from the world."
Feya's mouth dropped open into a big, "No," in unison with Kelsey, before Feya broke into a flustered babble. "You want us to use dark magic - it will turn our souls evil just like the prophecy predicts, even if there was no magic in the world - which there is no way we could remove. We can't take these gifts away with all the good they do-"
"It does none while Embers are consumed with the war, and Demons live and breathe with the dark turns that power can take," Nikkitah enlightened them. Alastor smiled at the words 'dark turns', causing Kelsey to stall and Feya to fall feebly back on an excuse.
"We're still learning-"
"How many times has Oliana directed your magical training on saving humans?" When both Kelsey and Feya silently pursed their lips, they knew Nikkitah could feel them succumbing to these ideas.
"We are not asking you to become corrupt. A group of Demons cast the spell, yet it only stripped them of their power, leaving them soulless yet human. There is another spell, albeit weaker from the use of good magic, to the extent it may not work. In that scenario, you would be free to be murdered as and when you wish to follow Oliana's biddings."
Before Feya could launch into another flustered babble, Nikkitah continued. "The spell needs five willing beings, at least two good and two evil. Alastor would bring his partner Melaina for the side of evil, and you two would represent good. Being an impartial Revellette I cannot fulfil this requirement of the spell, but there is someone in one of the Revelette accommodations who will make the fifth side of the pentagon."
"I don't even want to know who," Kelsey muttered rubbing her forehead.
"Convenient," Nikkitah whipped up an innocent look before returning to serious. "My impartial blood will be the life source of the spell, magic will sent to the earth, and so Derribus would then be defenceless - as easy as stabbing a human. The world would return to how it was before magic was discovered by the Ashes, and no one would have to die. Although, for the same reasons that the spell may not work, the spell may not work well. We may only have minutes to kill Derribus before magic returns, but it's a risk that needs to be taken."
"No," Kelsey told them. "You can't be serious." Nikkitah and Alastor glared at Kelsey, severity exuberating from every pore of their beings. It was still too surreal to believe in.
"Before we launch into ripping magic from the world, there is a gift some would be willing to give you Feya, a moment with someone who you should have been with forever."
Feya stopped breathing, and then clutched her throat to try and silence the cries that stretched out inside of her. It was an instant reaction, almost as if her heart knew the words were coming before Nikkitah parted her sly lips.
"You mean, a dark magic Summoning spell," Kelsey spoke for her, after skimming her thoughts with scrutiny. "With a harmless human sacrifice first, or will she have to pledge her soul?" However, if she looked deeper into Feya's mind, she would have been able to see the thread of desperate hope that tugged at Feya's heart from the thought of it. Alastor was a powerful Demon, one who could possess lots of dark magic before it consumed him. There was no doubt that he could bring back more that Tristan's soul for a few measly minutes of goodbyes. His death was still fairly new - she could have maybe even a whole hour of Tristan being alive with her once more. If not, just a few seconds longer where both knew how they felt for each other - that would change her life forever. Just to tell him that she loved him, and then her heart would find it easier to move on.
"Not a Summoning spell," Nikkitah told her. "I'll reiterate. Come with us and we will bring him back. It makes the grieving all the more bearable."
"Just the one moment?"
"Magic is unpredictable, but I would say you should be grateful for what you can get."
Before Feya could fall into the trap, Kelsey grabbed a tight hold of her arm and began to step back. "No," she hissed turning away from them. She could feel Feya's heart breaking all over again as she led her reluctant friend back towards the bunker. Neither the Demon nor the Revellette left, but simply watched as they took the steps back into the safety of the bunker walls.
It was when they stood in the doorway they realised that they had no excuse for being outside the bunker this late at night. There was a tense second where someone stormed around the corner, causing Feya to jolt, but Kelsey saved the moment by easing into an invented moment. "Feya, are you coming?" She asked, hoping that whoever was creating the nearby footsteps would not be suspicious.
When they looked up, they noticed it was Isadora, too consumed by the stack of papers to notice anything other than her tasks at hand. Dark circles encased her bloodshot ice-like eyes, making her look like glass that was about to crack. She was muttering down into the documents, deep in thought and trapped under so much work they doubted she was sleeping much lately. For their only chance left at defeating Derribus, she did not look healthy. "What does he want, what does he want," she muttered as she passed Feya and Kelsey, too busy doing Oliana's job to be a hall monitor as well. When she was completely out of sight, they quickly scuttled into their dorm.
Without another word between themselves, Feya and Kelsey autonomously got ready for bed. Before Feya put her head on the pillow, she noticed a piece of ripped paper on the cushion. It read an address on Mulberry Road, and a signature that could easily have been Nikkitah's.
Her mind was far from indifferent. She was going to go to the house tomorrow with or without Kelsey, and this time, she was not going to dwell on possible outcomes.
***
A crash shook Feya and Kelsey awake. Stuck in the haze of sleep, it took time to realise that a chunk of the ceiling had collapsed to the floor between their beds. They groaned and rose to their feet, flinging on their Ember outfits and rushing out the door. Feya wrapped her shield around both of them as smoke flooded the room. More fire burned on the fallen debris as the bunker's magic-encased walls reformed the structure.
As they rushed into the corridor, chaos caught them amongst the flames. Children were screaming as they put their lives in Tia's hands. They followed her down an exit path, tripping over their feet as they went. The ceiling crumbled on top of them, but before Feya could stop it, Tia was already in control, turning the falling chunks of the building into petals of dust. She didn't need any help, but someone else might. They scanned the corridors, eventually edging left to follow the coughs.
Spotting the long braid of hair through the thick black smoke, they sprinted towards Isadora. Her eyes were tight shut with her palms outstretched before her calming the fire with a troubled frown.
"It's the whole building again, I can't stop something this big - starting is so much easier than stopping."
"It's okay, we'll just get everyone outside," Feya reassured her.
"No," Isadora gasped, her eyes still tight shut as her body and mind battled with the flames. "There are many of them here; go outside and set up your shield as a safe spot for our Embers to run to."
"We can help," Kelsey argued.
Isadora opened her eyes. The ice like cracks in her iris were flowing with lava as she ordered, "Go!" Her roar exuded obedience, not like Oliana, but someone of natural strength.
Despite Feya's urgency to be obedient and leave, Kelsey hung back. "What about me, I don't have a shield I can get people out."
"You have a psychic connection; you can be her second pair of eyes. Work together." Without further hesitation, Feya dragged Kelsey away. They ran through the flames and debris, breaking through the bunker's doors in a cloud of smoke. Already outside fighting for survival was Tia with a bundle of her young Embers. They cowered behind her tiny body as she summoned sheets of vines and brambles to keep back the Demons that threatened them. One of the vans used to bring new Embers into the bunker was burning on its side, providing light to the battlefield.
Two of the Demons hacked at the thin wall of protection Tia had provided, one with fire, the other with thin slices of black smoke that killed the vines it touched. The third hung back to watch his men at work, not even flinching while the fight between fire, smoke and Tia's spiked vines commenced. Unlike the other two Demons, his look was peculiar. Beside his eyes sat vague lines hinting the first touch of aging, and his tiny round features were shoved together in a way that did not mark him as beautiful, but human.
Feya hesitated when she noticed him. One of the most enticing consequences of dark magic was that physical attractiveness could be so easily gained, yet his features had not conformed to the conventional beauty. This felt odd. His features were frighteningly familiar, distinct and unique. "That's Derribus, isn't it?" Feya shivered, and Kelsey confirmed her worry telepathically. They fumbled at the door, struggling to get a firm grip over their dread as they propped it open with a chunk of ceiling, and then cautiously headed towards Tia and the young children, hoping to close the gap before her defences were broken.
Tia turned to whisper instructions to the young Embers, and they scattered to hide behind the hedges. Torn between watching the children run to safety and concentrating on channelling the earth, the Demons chose this moment to increase their power. Tia's barrier began to flake.
The wind carried over the smoke and ash, stinging Feya and Kelsey's eyes and abstracting their vision. When the gust began to settle, it revealed the Demons taking aim on their next victim; Tia.
Before the strike could touch her, Feya threw her shield over Tia in an immense effort that rendered her muscles useless. She knelt onto the ground, focusing all her energy on the malignant power that fired from the Demons hands.
Kelsey stood beside her, paralysed from helping anyone with her useless gift of memory. Frustration took over her mind as she fought to stay rooted to the spot, checking the area for danger whilst trying hard not to run into the battle. She could not just stand there any longer. Being powerless was too tedious for her to tolerate.
Leaving no time to think, Kelsey sprinted towards Tia. Her eyes flickered from Demon to Demon and hoped that they were somehow weaker than her friends. When she looked up, Derribus had place himself before her. His smile was menacing.
Her feet slid to a stop and she tried to scramble back. With Kelsey unable to retreat, he reached out for her neck. She ducked away from the Demon, but his moves were smoother. Suddenly he was clenching her throat, raising her from the ground and twisting his head so that it clicked. His hands grew tighter into a vice-like grip that pressed into her neck; air struggled to pass into her lungs as her head felt tight. Like a fish, she floundered, gasping and kicking, her hands clawing at his to let go but he just squeezed harder. Feya's scream could be heard through her muffled ears, but her eyes were dissolving into a darker place...
With a final smile, Derribus prepared to chuck her lifeless body to one side to make way for the next murder. The dark spots before Kelsey's eyes were growing as her panic turned to tiredness until; a thought sparked in Kelsey's mind. She clasped her hands against the rough skin of his arms and focused on the warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. Kiyo's years of telling her to breathe had finally been made redundant as she grasped the churning warmth from the pit of her stomach and pulled it through her veins. Her world fell into darkness but she kept the spark of magic alive. It burned through her hands and fingertips, only just creating a sensation of hot metal. It had to be enough.
Derribus flinched; Kelsey smacked her foot into his chest. His grip loosened and she wriggled free. He caught her arm as she fell to the ground, but she tore away from him with all her strength, her arm making a sickly snap as he twisted it around her back. Then he was nowhere to be seen. It was hard for Kelsey to know for sure as her brain seemed to spin around inside her light head, her neck aching, her knees shaking...
As the blood and air rushed through her throat, Kelsey stumbled through the blurry darkness to where she remembered Feya to be standing, and collapsed beside her. Her eyes were still open, but she only vaguely understood her surroundings. The excruciating pain that tore through her arm kept her rooted to reality.
"Kelsey?" Feya exclaimed, strengthening her shield that encased them.
"I'm fine, just focus," her friend replied, unable to speak, resembling unconscious.
Feya struggled as the nearest Demon sent a hurricane of flames in her direction. The flames grew stronger and stronger until all Feya could see was bright, orange light while smoke filled her lungs. She could feel the heat on her skin, pressing into her so that the tingle became a sting. Soon it would be too difficult to protect both her end of the shield and Tia's, but she couldn't let go, not until she knew Tia was safe.
The flames circled the dome, burning their way through her exerted magic. Breathing became too difficult - the slightest change in air would cause her to lose all of her shield. The smoke tickled her chest until she fell to the ground coughing. Her shield shot back into her; in a snap decision she released Tia's side to save her own, cursing at her weakness.
There was nothing left for her to do. Holding the fire out of her own area was increasingly less draining until she was able to tend to the broken Kelsey. Kelsey on the other hand was dosing to and from consciousness in her battered state; red bruises where he held her, her arm mangled into a position it should not be able to sit in. Before she could help, the fire pressed harder against her shield once more until the only motion Feya could handle again was holding her hands out before her and concentrating on her dome.
It pressed further into her core, heating the dome inside out, until the air was dangerously too thick. Sweat was building on her forehead. The surge in power could not have been good news for Tia, yet again Feya had too much pressure to worry about anything other than her magic - and then, as swift as flicking a switch, the dome cooled to reveal a sight as uncomfortable as the one that brought them here.
Her small body hung like her skin had been placed on a hanger. Chocolate curls covered her kind features, only leaving the disgruntled hands that wielded her vines to be distinctly seen. Derribus was controlling Tia, and he had turned her kind spirit into dirty venom of which to do his bidding. It all was too easy for him.
Thrusting her hands forward, her vines followed Tia's indirect commands. They stabbed at Feya's shield while Derribus stabbed at her heart. "Stop," she whimpered, unable to control her emotions. This was what he wanted and it was being handed to him before her better senses could prevent it.
The fire returned in a blazing gust that missed her dome completely. It shot through the air as if fired from an arrow, before tearing through the heart of the Demon who summoning the black smoke. He collapsed onto the ground choking, but this insignificant Demon meant nothing to the pack. They had the ultimate weapon now - a kind hearted friend. Derribus pushed her to let out an eerie giggle.
More arrows fired from the bunker before the Calvary revealed itself. Tia's vines wound themselves around Feya's shield, blocking her view once more and crushing into her spirit, but not before she caught a glimpse of hope in the form of Isadora. Even Kelsey began to stir, lifting her head up to catch one last glimpse before the vine left them in a pitch black prison.
The sounds that came from outside Feya's dome fed her imagination an epic battle. Not once did Isadora moan in pain as fire crackled across the field, but the wail that came from one Demon hinted that Isadora had a direct hit. More fighting commenced beyond the vines until Tia screamed. Suddenly the plant that surrounded Feya's shield turned to ice.
"I'll get her to help," Odin's voice echoed. There was a resonating crack as the solid vines chattered into a blizzard of snow and ice chunks.
"Wait, can you take Kelsey!" Feya screamed through the mist of ice as Odin's face began to emerge into her view.
"Don't worry, I'll come back for her, I promise." Odin smiled reassuringly. "Keep your shield up, the other's are coming," and then in a blur of colour, Odin raced Tia away from the battle site.
All Feya could do was watch. The fight was no longer in her territory - her job was now to protect. Most of her energy had been used up so that now she crossed her arms and yawned, trying not to let her magic falter. People were now emerging from the burning bunker and heading for Feya's shield as Finn and Isadora fought relentlessly against the Demons. Despite Odin being absent, the speed of the fight was almost too fast to see. For every stream of fire shot from the Demons hands, Isadora mastered it before it could touch Finn or herself, time after time.
Vicious and lethal, Isadora struck the Demon of fire at his neck with a shard of ice from the swift flick of her nails. It sliced through his shoulder, just missing his skin from his attempt to dodge. Again he threw the stream of fire, which Isadora directed at the dying Demon who had controlled the black smoke. The heap of flames drowned him before he could move away.
The last Demon lunged towards Finn: Isadora froze the strip of ground beneath him so that he skidded uncontrollably, his throat slotting into Finn's clutch. The Ember threw him to the frosty floor, his head smashing into the ice with a sound like brick hitting cement.
Centring herself in a reflective peaceful way, Isadora summoned her ice to freeze the blood that ran through the Demons veins. The ice broke through the ground and built itself around his body. The slants in the lattice structure concealed his contorted features from the group of Ember's who had gathered inside Feya's shield. Cracks formed where the Demon desperately summoned his flames to thaw the ice. His body began to move within the iceberg but Isadora had still not reached full power. She scrunched her face up tight and held her breath. She finally relaxed once content that he was no longer alive, but not happy with success. There was a torturous guilt that came with the slow, merciless kill. Then again, this guilt made her an Ember and not a Demon. Finn tried to catch her eye, but she just stared down at the Demon with sorrow.
It all happened so quickly after that. Before Isadora could take a fresh breath, Derribus unfolded from the darkness of the night. His hand swiped forward, bearing no sword or dagger, just a black sharp point of his fingers that pierced into Isadora's stomach; she jumped back, but it was already too late...