After the other students had followed Professor Petrescu to the portal, Peter pulled me aside. My face flushed crimson when his receptors met mine, sending a stinging shot of energy through both of us.
"Listen to me very carefully," he said in a solemn tone. "I know that we've had a little fight, but we have to put that aside during the battle. I want you to stay beside me at all times and follow my orders."
"I have to do what the Professor asks," I insisted.
"Petrescu has made me her second-in-command." His eyes flashed like metallic steel in the blistering sun. "And she agreed you should stay with me."
"May I ask why?"
"You may ask," he replied in a harsh tone, "but you already know the answer. And now is not the time to discuss what we both know."
He can morph into a more powerful creature to keep me safe.
"What about the others?" I asked.
"Blunt truth?"
I nodded.
"I don't give a shit about them," he said. "They're mere pawns."
"The Rogue shows his true colors." I narrowed my eyes at Peter. "What makes me more important than them?"
"In battle, you quickly learn who matters and who doesn't."
"Are you sure that your personal feelings aren't getting in the way?"
He sucked a breath through his teeth and gave me a gentle nudge towards the door. "It's a simple equation. Don't get any stupid ideas and play the hero. Stay with me."
"Yes, sir!" I said, my voice laced with sarcasm.
Peter grasped my arm in his tight grip, his eyes like daggers. "I'm serious, Liselle. This is not the time to prove your independence. You're not a combatant, and they have fucking dragons."
"Fine, I get it."
"No, you don't," he said in a firm tone. "Whatever you might have heard, never underestimate the ferocity of a dragon. Trust me, I know better than you think."
"All right," I said, ripping my arm from his grasp.
"Dragons are impulsive and ferocious creatures controlled by whoever holds the reins. If the controller is evil, a dragon is the deadliest creature you will ever face. Have I made myself clear?"
I nodded.
"Good," he said, "as long as we understand each other."
"Peter?"
"What?"
I raised myself on my tiptoes, and he lowered his head. "What about the Fireborn?" I whispered in his ear. "Can't they help us?"
Peter pursed his lips and squeezed his eyes shut. "Many of them aren't fully formed yet, and it makes no sense to throw only a hundred onto the field. When we attack, we want a damned battalion."
"Not fully formed!" I exclaimed. "After two months?"
"The process is laborious and painful, and they require several weeks of physical training," he admitted. "Half of the candidates have not even survived the initial transformation."
"My gods!"
"If the Ministry had allowed us to launch a pre-emptive strike, the handful of Fireborn might have helped." He checked the sundial on the wall. "No more time for twenty questions. Let's go."
As we hurried through the halls, a few stragglers fled towards us, their clothes and skin scorched. One of the male Wizards running towards me grabbed me by my Healer robes.
"Don't go to Halden!" he yelled. "Go back to your dorms while you still can!"
"It's a bloodbath!" a Rogue shrieked as she hobbled past me, blood trailing along the cream carpet. "You'll die."
"The dragons torched everything," the Wizard wheezed. "There's nothing left."
He collapsed at my feet.
"Oh, gods, Peter!" I exclaimed, running a hand through my hair. "We have to help them to the infirmary first."
"No! We have to go and help the other survivors in Halden," Peter shouted as he placed his hands on a scanner and gained access to the Healer portal. "This way, hurry!"
"There's no one left alive!" the Rogue screamed. "Don't go back there!"
I ran towards Peter before I lost my nerve.
When I entered the portal room, a large metallic archway about twenty feet tall stood before me, its field thrumming with regular pulses. Both sides of the archway were covered in glowing panels, fueled by an unknown power source.
He ran towards the panels and checked the settings, nodding in satisfaction.
Closing his eyes, Peter morphed into a female Human Fighter form I'd never seen before. Her ebony skin glowed in the light of the forcefield, her skull clean shaven. She stood well over six feet tall with a broad frame and wiry musculature that made her both agile and strong.
After throwing me a medical pack, she grabbed a huge rucksack of medical supplies and heaved the bag over her shoulders with a grunt. From the wall, she grasped a giant broadsword.
"The coordinates are already set." Peter turned to me, her gray eyes determined and forceful. "Have you ever used a portal before?"
I shook my head, too stunned to speak. Had my worst terrors come to life? I took a deep breath and steeled myself.
No, it's impossible. My fiscas can't be real.
"Hold my hand," she commanded. My hand trembled with fear as I reached out for hers. "This is going to feel...a little weird. Just hold on tight, all right?"
I nodded.
"On the count of three," she said. "One...two...three!"
I jumped into the field of energy, squeezing my eyes shut and keeping a tight grip on Peter's hand. We were in a freefall, the same sensation that swept over me before one of my visions. A pulling sensation tugged at me, tearing me away from her grasp.
My stomach leaped into my throat when I landed on the dusty ground of Halden with a grunt.
The first thing I felt was searing heat. I whimpered, unable to catch my breath. A fierce gust of wind whipped across the fields, now naught but a river of fire. Raging plumes of black smoke rose to the heavens like the breath of a giant firedrake.
My visions! They weren't fiscas at all. None of them were.
I groaned in anguish.
"Liselle!" Peter cried as she ran toward me. "Are you injured?"
The fire raged across the horizon as though the oceans of Hades had burst forth from the core of our planet. I fought to catch my breath, overwrought by the stench of burnt flesh, hair, and wood.
Distraught, I stared at the billowing smog rising from the rubble that dotted the landscape, blurred by silent tears. It looked as though a giant monster had smashed every house and farmstead as far as the eye could see. Lush grass and farmland had turned into nothing but ash and dust. The horizon glistened red like blood.
"Bragda!" I coughed from the fumes and sank to my knees. "No, no, no!"
Peter knelt beside me pulled me into her arms. "Liselle..."
This is my fault. If I hadn't ignored my visions...
The dust swirled through the air in poisonous clouds. The firestorm swallowed up my cries as the winds shrieked like wild animals.
"We have to find the others," Peter said. "Can you stand?"
I nodded, and she helped me to my feet, shielding me from the storms. "Where in Hades is the infirmary?"
"It should be here. The coordinates are right."
No matter how many times I'd seen this in my dreams, the reality hurt so much more. Like a Shadow Rider had stabbed me a thousand times and shoved my body into a tub of acid.
Nothing remained of my homeland. It was worse than my visions.
But if I can help save people, maybe...
The intense stench made me retch once more. Peter wrapped her arm around my back in an attempt to keep me upright.
"Liselle," she yelled. "We have to move!"
"We landed in the wrong spot," I said over the roaring wind. "The infirmary isn't here."
She pointed at something in the dust cloud. "I think I see something nearby. A glimmer of green."
I leaned on Peter for support. Together, we stumbled towards a pile of ash and shattered glass about thirty feet away. She rummaged through the debris, her lips pursed as she lifted up a fragment of some scorched canvas.
It displayed the green Healer cross.
I shook my head and backed away, not daring to believe my eyes. "No, no, it can't be."
"Liselle," she choked. "This...this was the infirmary."
"Oh, my gods!" I yelled as I looked around me in a daze, tears clouding my vision. "Where are all the people? Where are the wounded? Where's the Professor?"
"Incinerated," she said, narrowing her eyes. "By a firedrake."
A piercing whine cut through the howling wind. Peter jerked her head towards the screech, her eyes widening. I followed her fearful gaze and watched in stunned silence as one of the faraway clouds of smoke coalesced and swirled into a funnel.
"A tornado?" I exclaimed. "Here?"
It tore across the fields, ripping apart everything in its path.
And it was heading straight towards us.
"Fuck! Run to the portal, Liselle!"
We sprinted towards the gateway. In the blink of an eye, the funnel appeared above the portal, suspended in mid-air. Hovering. Waiting to crush us.
I screamed in terror.
"Hit the ground!" Peter roared.
She pressed me against her body, morphing into her Orc form. She held me close and encased me like a tortoiseshell shield. My body trembled with fear as I huddled beneath her.
"Peter!"
Without a word, she covered my ears with her giant, gnarled hands. The tornado touched down, destroying the portal in a massive explosion.
Ringing ears. Pounding head. Burning lungs.
Shrapnel and fire raged around us as Peter slumped, curling around me. Face sideways. Her eyes shut.
I feared the worst.
"Peter!"
"You're safe," she said to me in a gruff Orc accent. "The blast can't hurt us."
Once the dust and debris had settled, Peter rose and pushed me behind her. The tornado had vanished. Dressed in identical black leather armor, six Wraiths sat astride pure black stallions behind their King. All cloaked in black robes of swirling shadow.
We're going to die.
"Lord Hesse," Peter growled. "The Shadow King."
"What do we do?"
"Hold onto me. No matter what happens, don't let go."
I squeezed her waist so tightly that she grunted, and she wrapped her arms around mine.
"Shield," she commanded.
A thrumming electric force field buzzed to life, encasing us both in a protective bubble. As the Riders cast fireballs, ice daggers, and lightning storms, the shield defended us.
"Good, Liselle. Just hold onto me."
The King reached out a hand toward us and clenched his fist.