No Man's Land by Rupert Gregson-Williams (Wonder Woman 2017)
Grab your popcorn!
~
Lily didn't know what time it was but she'd been tied up for hours. It was the middle of the night and the temperature had dropped, especially with the storm from the mountains approaching, and Lily was shivering.
Her raw wrists scratched against the zip ties - she'd tried to pull her hands out but it was no use, especially with her mother's bracelets jammed together. The zip ties were too tightly fastened and it would take a miracle to get them out.
And she was out of luck. Lily was stuck in a forest waiting for death, and even if she managed to escape the zip ties, she couldn't outrun fifty rogue werewolves. Still, she kept yanking at the ties, rubbing them together to see if friction would weaken the plastic, even if it was impossible without shredding her hands.
Kristofer heard her rubbing the zip ties together, the plastic clicking against the metal pole. He left the group he was talking to and climbed the small mound up to stand level with Lily. "You can't escape zip ties."
Lily kept yanking. "There's always a way out," she said, more for her benefit than his.
Kristofer looked down on her and drew a knife from the holster across his lower back. Lily stilled as he pointed towards the storm coming their way, she could see the lightning illuminating the forest beneath it. "Do you see that Lily? You can't escape that. Accept it, you're going to die today."
"I'm not going to die." Lily whispered, a shiver wracking her body again.
Kristofer narrowed his eyes at her shivering, and grabbed her jumper. "Hey!" Lily screamed as he began hacking away at the fabric, leaving her arms bare and her thick-strapped vest revealed to the world. "What are you doing?!"
He chopped most of the jumper away from her body, leaving it hanging around her waist in tatters. Lily trembled when the cold metal pole touched her bare neck, goosebumps rising on her arms. Kristofer smiled and put his knife away.
"I've seen your creature rise to defend you." He pointed to the storm. "Now you're risking pneumonia, it'll rise up soon, and that storm will only get here faster."
"I can't c-control storms!" Lily's jaw clanged against her teeth.
Kristofer grabbed her neck and drew himself close, his warm breath fanning across her freckled cheeks. "Yuric might not have seen your creature but I have. You threw me across a field and into a tree."
"You p-pushed me out a w-window." Lily forced out, her fingers growing numb.
He only shrugged. "That was your intention anyway. My point is, while Yuric is out there with half our force hunting down that manipulative alpha and his blind followers, I'm here guarding you. Lightning can kill most things, but if it doesn't kill you, then I'm here to make sure you still die."
Lily couldn't tell whether her body was shaking because of the cold or his threats. Kristofer stepped back and crossed his arms, staring at her paling face. "Do you know what you're standing on, Lily?"
"Grass?"
Kristofer scowled at her sarcasm. "You're standing at the same spot where the Witch of the Night was executed. Do you know how she died?"
Lily couldn't think. She remembered Mr Booth only discussing Andromeda a few days ago, when she found out she was Jack's grandmother, but he said she was executed? Why was she executed here?
"She was burned to death." Kristofer tapped the ground beneath them. "This was a mound of coal with a stake for her to burn on. This graveyard was the same one she used to bring vampires to life, and it was abandoned when Andromeda burned here."
Lily curled her toes in horror as she realised just where she was standing. Thunder rumbled closer, she could see forks of lightning stretching across the clouds towards her.
Kristofer waved to a bunch of rogues and he walked off the mound. The four rogues approached holding broken branches, disgust in their eyes, and started laying them down at Lily's feet.
They were building a bonfire for her. "N-No!" Lily tried to kick the branches away but Kristofer quickly pinned her legs down, using more zip ties to pin her ankles. "No!" She screamed, and thunder cracked loudly above them.
"Get away!" Kristofer yelled to his men as Lily kept struggling, kept fighting, even with her arms and legs bound. The branches were down and she was standing on the bonfire, unable to kick away the twigs and unable to stop the storm racing towards her, the dark clouds now brushing overhead.
"Please!" She begged, tugging and pulling at the bonds, rain beginning to pour heavily. The temperature was so cold frost was forming over her bare arms. "Please don't do this!"
Kristofer pointed at her, eyes lighting up in feral fury. "We cannot be free of power, we cannot be rogues, if there are always those above us! We won't let you reign!"
"I haven't done anything to you!" Lily screamed over the roaring rain. She was completely soaked, her hair matte against her neck.
"But you will!" Kristofer roared, the rogues yelling in agreement. "And your friend Isaac thinks so too! You will be struck down, little river, and if you survive the strike you won't survive the bonfire it will ignite!"
Isaac? Lily's heart pounded as lightning forked in the sky above her. "No! Please!" Lily screamed, yanking at the bindings again. She kept struggling, kept fighting, wishing she had the power to escape the bonds.
Thunder snapped above them. The rogues covered their ears as it roared as loud as Lily was screaming, and Kristofer held his breath as he watched the storm halt for a second, silence echoing in their ears.
Lily looked up at the storm, rain pelting her face, as she saw what was brewing. She could sense it - the hairs on the neck stand up and curl, that static charge in the air around her. Her eyes burned molten silver and the soft light lit up the clearing for a moment. She saw all their faces, awe and fear of her creature finally surfacing, but she would never forget them. Not after what they'd done to her.
She looked up at the sky, a silver glow kissing the bottom of the clouds, as the lightning formed. Lily could feel it descend; the electric charges rubbing together at the top of the storm clouds and forming, rapidly falling towards her.
Lily screamed, eyes burning bright, as the superbolt struck her. The rogues were flown back as the bolt burned the pole and Lily beneath it, the force of the strike blowing the sticks beneath her wide. It smothered the entire mound, stretching a few metres across.
The earth quaked under the force of the superbolt, a hundred times more powerful than a standard lighting strike, and trees toppled in the clearing, the ancient headstones collapsing to mere rubble. The town trembled, frames falling, glass shattering at the sheer force of strike's impact. The rogues all fell to their knees at the force of the thunder that followed, covering their ears and screaming. The entire forest shook and trembled beneath the sound.
The strike evaporated and Kristofer looked up, ears bleeding, and the sight that beheld him made him scamper back in fear.
Lily was still standing on the mound. The metal pole was melted behind her, and she had her arms either side, the zip ties falling to the ground. Her eyes were as bright as the stars hiding from the storm. Kristofer whimpered, a sound he'd never heard from his throat, as the mound beneath her sparked, like the lightning had sunk into the soil.
Small sparks danced across Lily's arms, bouncing between the frost that had formed on her bare skin. More lightning snapped and whipped up from the ground, the sulphur from the Andromeda's coal bonfire still soaked into the soil, and the superbolt had ignited it all. Lightning formed around Lily like a sphere of energy, as bright as her burning eyes, and Lily screamed again and shot her hands up. The ball lightning, the rarest in the world, shot up to the sky in seconds, as bright as the sun, and slammed into the storm.
The clouds shot apart, like water to oil, and world fell into chaos around Lily. A shock wave erupted from the sky and the storm shot outward. The rain turned sideways, slamming into the rogues like spears, bruises instantly forming as they flew away from her, over falling trees and landing at the edge of the clearing in a tumble of broken limbs.
In the east, at the edge of the forest, an older teenager snapped his head towards the sound of breaking thunder. He was outside, reading a letter from his father when he heard the storm cleave the world in two. He swept his black hair out of his face, frowning as the forest started to ripple.
"Haidan?" He turned to see his mother walking into their back garden holding a burning candle. She gripped her hijab that was threatening to fly off in the growing wind. "Haidan come inside!"
"Mum!" He shouted, waving at her. Haidan snapped his head to the forest as a bright light filled the sky and the storm rippled. He'd be fine out here, but he couldn't protect his family if his mother stood witness. "Go back inside!"
"Haidan!" His mother stumbled as the wind hit her first, the candle barely holding on as the storm rushed towards them. "Haidan Tariq! Please get inside!"
Haidan looked between his struggling mother still out in the elements and the storm seconds away from hitting them. He couldn't risk his mother being hurt - his father already wasn't around enough, he wasn't going to lose her too. Haidan paled as he saw his little sister's bedroom light turn on, and knew he had to act quickly, even if it meant his mother fearing him for it.
He swore under his breath and stretched out a hand, calling to the rage within his bones. His eyes burned, he knew it was a blazing orange from all the times he'd stood in front of the mirror and seen his fire emerge. The flame at the top of his mother's candle snapped off the wick and flew to his hands, dancing over his fingers and building into a blaze.
Haidan flew the fire towards the treeline, immediately clashing with the storm. Haidan heard his mother scream as the trees were encased with flames but he had to keep the fire standing tall, like a wall to stop the wind and rain piercing his home and his town behind him. The storm reared up, the clouds dispersing as the heat burned them away.
Haidan's eyes burned brighter as strength was sapped from him but he kept pushing, roaring to keep the forest burning. In seconds, the storm had broken, the wind had died, and all that stood in its place was a bush fire that he reduced to embers as he lowered his hands.
He collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily and stuck his smoldering hands into the soil to ground himself. He watched the forest's glow darken, only looking away when he saw the fire had truly died.
He turned back to look at his mother. Haidan's heart shattered when she looked at him with such fear and horror. She let go of the candle holder, the plate shattering on the rocky ground.
The mountain in the north lit up as one house in the skiing village turned on its lights. Another teenage boy with hair as white as the snow beneath his toes quietly stood in his doorway. The wind had shifted in his sleep and instinct woke him up. His toes barely sunk into the snow as he ran towards the cliff edge, easily leaping the fence and he stood on the shard of bare stone that overlook the forest beneath them.
He could barely see, his violet eyes narrowing as he glimpsed darkness over the forest a few hours south. The storm had begun naturally over the village when he was about to sleep, he knew it had nothing to do with the old red-haired woman who irritated everyone with her ramblings about her wild youth.
His eyes widened as the sky lit up, he wasn't blind enough to not notice the largest lightning bolt he'd ever seen slam into the forest, and the ball of light that shot back up and into the storm. He felt the wind ripple, whatever struck it forced the storm out, pushing everything away - it was now racing towards him and his village of sleeping snow lovers and tourists.
He outstretched his pale, veined hands and focused, feeling the currents racing towards him. He blinked as a burning light ruptured to life in the west, a bush fire halting the storm from leaving the cover of the forest. Now all that was left was the storm racing towards him.
He couldn't put it over the mountain, there were cities on the other side, and a storm this powerful would cause a lot of damage. He couldn't hold it above the forest, it was too strong to stop in its tracks. It left one option.
He drew himself tall as the storm raced towards him. The winds he knew so well churned at the base of the mountain, circling the snowy cliffs, like the winding up of a great punch. He gripped the currents like reigns, slamming them into the fierce storm, and flung them east towards the sea. The storm veered, snow falling off the edge as it skittered at the border of his village, and out to the ocean.
The white-haired boy breathed a sigh of relief when the powerful, unnatural storm was completely over the ocean. He took a few deep breaths of the crisp mountain air before looking towards the light he'd seen in the middle of the forest.
He had met many supernatural creatures thanks to the ski village he lived in, but he'd never felt raw power like that. He hoped they were alright, all that power wasn't an easy burden.
But the skies were his home, the mountain his family, and he wasn't going to let someone try to take it from him. It would be the last thing they'd do.