CHAPTER 1
When things go wrong, people claim that their world goes up in flames. That was not the case for me, my world became cold, distant and barren. A realm that was once filled with fire and burning hot rock was nothing but blackened coal and ash. The cobble stone steps leading to the fiery gates had been coated with ice, and the gates were frozen shut with frost, and there was nothing beyond them anymore.
Many others likes to joke that our realm was nothing more than another layer of hell, but no one else aside from my family had ever been so lucky to have entered before, until that one fatal day. They killed them. Every. Single. One.
I was the only one left when I came to find their bodies turned to nothing but ash, and their fire's extinguished, I had barely even stepped foot in the gate when I was taken hostage.
I had only ever seen one book about my kind, and it was over 200 years ago, back when there were still myths about us and what we could do. The legend spoke of a species so beautiful that sailors and travellers were captivated by their beauty, and they fell into a trance like state where they would do anything the creature requested, including sacrificing themselves.
In the book I had read, there was a quote from a man who claimed to have seen us
I would have thought they were angels, had I not been looking into the face of the devil. Their beauty was beyond compare, with pale skin, amber glowing eyes and a sinister perfect smile, they floated over the water, they moved like lightning and their laughs echoed like songs over the water. With one look they had pierced my soul and when they spoke I wanted to listen to it for the rest of life. They demanded us to complete tasks and we were helpless to chose otherwise, they spoke to us of how we would die, and not a soul on that boat cared so long as we pleased them.
They manipulated and conjured fire from mid air, they burnt our ship to ash and left us all for dead in the Ocean then retreated into the sky like shooting stars.
They were forged from the fires of hell, and I never believed in the devil until I looked directly into it's eyes.
It was the most accurate representation of us I had ever heard.
There was a common misconception, confusing us with mermaids, the truth was that when the mermaids caused ship wrecks it was because they actually did not know which way to send the sailors. When we caused ship wrecks it was out of joy, and the need to keep their experiences with us a secret.
But those fucking guardians had taken it all away, they murdered my family, they stripped me of my powers and kept me on a short chain. They took away not only my family's life but my life, and I vowed that the Inferno's would rise again as they dumped me into the world. Only problem was I was the last soul living one, and there was no chance of another Inferno just appearing in the world.
I had been making my usual rounds for the day, when I felt a sudden drop in temperature where it was meant to be May.
I paused in mid flight and fell to the earth, there was not a human in sight on the street and it gave me an eerie feeling to see that the streets were so abandoned and dead at this time of night.
"I thought I smelled BBQ." I knew the voice all too well, hovering above me was the famous Jack Frost, leaning on his staff, a smile on his face.
"I should have known you'd still be hanging around this place Frost bite." Over the past few years Jack had taken quite an interest in this little town, for reasons unknown but he was surprisingly content to stay in one place for an extended period of time.
"Actually." He said floating down to stand in front of me. "I've been spending a lot of time in the North pole."
"Voluntarily?" He chuckled and nodded. "And North is actually okay with that?"
"Kind of has to be. I'm a Guardian."
"A guardian of what?' He laughed spinning his staff around in his hands.
"You know, kids, their dreams." I raised an eyebrow at the white haired boy, Jack and I never really got along, we loved to hate each other, it was a terribly cliche rivalry with Ice and Fire, but the truth was we fought because of how he used to mess with the Inferno clan. He would freeze ships so they stood still in the water, and attempt to freeze us in blocks of ice, and there was a
rumour going around that he was apart of the army that took down my family, although that was just a rumour.
I looked him up and down, skeptical, "Why in the world would He chose you to be a guardian? And why would you accept?" Being a Guardian was like being the police of the fantasy world, nothing was done without their approval and they hounded you like a dog if you so much as spit in the wrong place, Jack was a trouble maker, he wasn't evil in his soul but he didn't have the kindest heart either. Why they chose him as a Guardian, I didn't know but the situation was laughable.
"Did you not hear about what happened with Pitch a year ago?" I rolled my eyes.
"Oh was the Bogeyman giving you all some trouble?" Jack glared at my sarcasm, Pitch was considered an evil and malicious being to the Guardians, he was their biggest threat, and if they thought that he was dangerous I would hate for them to meet a Siren.
Another large part of why Jack and I didn't get along was Jack was always a bit of a prisoner, like the other Guardians he needed people to believe in him to be seen, while I was able to seen at any moment I wanted, which allowed me to travel and interact with the world while he was alone.
"Well I thought you would, good triumphs over evil once again."
"I'm evil? What are you, Nice?" I gestured towards him, he had been on Norths Naughty list for as long as anyone could remember, and was always causing trouble. Granted he had never killed anyone, but evil comes in all shapes and forms, he enjoyed peoples agony, after all he is the creator of ice, frostbite, and hypothermia.
"I was nice enough to come meet you rather than Bunny." I narrowed my eyes at his mention of the Easter Bunny.
"What are you talking about?" Jack only smiled, and nodded behind me. I turned to see two large Yetis' but before I could react I was snatched up by the arms, and stuffed into a large sack.
"What the hell?!" The last thing I saw was Jacks smug smile as the draw string closed and I was somehow floating.
I landed on my back with a thud, I was seething mad, and it showed as my skin flared up with heat, melting the back until it was nothing but ash around me.
"Raina Ember!" North's voice boomed, I turned to look at him, Jack, Tooth, Bunny, and the sandman stood peering down at me on the floor. None looked happy to see me. "Welcome to the
North Pole, I haven't seen you in almost ten years."
"There's a reason for that." I snapped brushing the ash off me and standing up.
"I'm so happy you have come so willingly, last time we had new Guardian he froze the place!" He let out a hearty booming laugh.
"Meaning don't torch the place." Jack smiled sitting on the mantle of the large fire place.
"Did you say, the last time you had a new guardian?" I looked around the room, the elves geld trumpets, the yetis' stood at attention, and the Man in the Moon was staring down at us awaiting for something to happen. "What the hell is going on?"
Tooth turned on Jack quickly. "Jack, did you not tell her?"
"No, I wanted to see her reaction when she got here." He laughed floating off the mantle.
"But the whole point for you going was to coax her into coming and gently explain the situation. So there would be no problems."
Bunny stomped over to the two in rage. "Why did we even expect him to be able to handle this. It's funny to him, everything is a game to him."
North put a large hand on Bunny's shoulder silencing him, carefully, as if I might blow up if he spoke too loudly North leaned down to look me in the eyes. "Raina, Manny has selected you as a Guardian."
I would have thought he was joking had it not been for the burst of laughter coming from Jack and the solemn but honest looks coming from everyone else in the room.
Anger. I was angry, I was as angry as I had been when they had dragged me into the courtroom four hundred years ago.
"You kidnapped me." North backed away quickly. "You held me hostage."
"Raina-"
"You bound me to a deal in which if I don't fly around every night you'll lock me up."
"Please calm down-"
"You took away my Inferno nature, you limited my powers, you took away my sword and you murdered my family!" I screamed at him, my body erupted into flames, the five guardians shielded their eyes from the heat and the room illuminated with light.
"Cool off!" Jack yelled blasting me with ice and snow, it extinguished my flames but it left me filled with more anger. His ice never really hurt, it was almost refreshing on my hot skin, the only time he really held a threat was if he were to freeze me entirely. Infernos were made with flame, if that began to extinguish then it would be painful. My eyes narrowed on North, fists clenched and steam coming off my body.
"You expect me to become a guardian, after everything you've done?"
"No we expect you to become one after everything you've done." At my silence he continued. "Manny see's the good in you, the good that you can do for the children. You know the evil in this world, you could protect them, probably better than any of us."
"Whoa speak for yourself!" Bunnymund called from the other side of the room, arms crossed. He was too proud a person to ever admit that he needed help, and it was obvious that he was not in favour of having me there.
"I am the evil in this world North."
"You have not done any evil since we released you." He was an idiot, a Russian idiot, toy maker.
"We're not like your goddamned kids North, it's not like if we're good for a year we go on the nice list! We're Evil for a reason, it's down in our core, its who we are, you can't change that. I don't know if you're trying to trick me, or humiliate me but either way I'm not a guardian."
North shrugged and crossed his large arms. "Manny says you are."
"Manny also created that thing over there!" I snapped pointing to Jack. North followed my gaze then settled it back on me.
"If you are guardian, the contract is dissolved." I visibly relaxed. He had to have been lying, he had to have been trying to trick me now. Even he wasn't dumb enough to give me back my abilities, the world would be in flames within the hour.
"I tell you." He continued. "If you agree to stay for one year, Contract stays intact, we still own you, but you get powers back."
"North!" The others chimed together but he held up his hand to silence them.
"You get powers, after year if you don't want to stay, I will have the contract destroyed and you are free."
Tooth buzzed over, worry on her face. "North, you can't do that. Father time-"
"Father Time has given me full control over Raina since Manny announced her Guardianship." He turned his attention back to me. "Raina, if you decided to become Guardian then you are welcome, if not, you'll be free. But one year you must stay and help, one year with no evil acts. Do we have deal?"
They had begun to protest again, but before anything could be said, my burning hand reached out and clasped his large one.
"Deal."
