Keahi groaned and rubbed her cheek against the coolness of the marbled floor as she attempted to push herself up. Her nose and lip were swollen and bleeding, her cheek bruised and her ribs aching with every shallow inhale.
"Finally awake," Crow mumbled, bored.
Keahi followed the sound until it landed on Crow. He was sitting, slumped back and legs spread, on the throne as if he hadn't a care in the world.
"It's been an hour already, here I am, using all my power to teleport into here with those two stupid Draugar and you don't even have the decency to put up a good fight."
"Oh, yeah? Where's Hel when you need her?" Keahi asked sarcastically, spitting blood on the ground and running her tongue over her bottom lip. The metal tang caused her to wrinkle her nose as she pushed herself up. She staggered at first before finally catching her weight on her feet.
Crow gripped the armrests of the throne and bulked forward. "She is still finishing the ritual before she can fully escape Nifelheim." He seethed, his black hair falling in wild strands in front of his face. He made no move to push the pieces from his eyes. "But she had the energy to bring her army to your doorstep. So, tell me now, Keahi, are you afraid? Are you ready to join the powerful side now?"
"I'd rather die." She leveled her gaze with him.
His eyes tightened and a vein bulged in his neck. "What is your problem, Ki?"
"What is power when it isolates you to your own madness and leaves you alone?" Keahi's voice reverberated off the high vaulted ceiling. She spread her hands. The trickling of purple and blue started in whimsical and artistic weaving designs before simmering out. "I found my genuine power, and it's nothing like yours."
"Because it's weak." Crow sneered.
"No because it's beautiful. And I learned to grasp ahold of that by learning from everyone around me. I have a family now and I wanted you, at one time, to be a part of that. But I see now that your bitterness and anger has consumed you and I'm not trying to save you anymore."
"Shut up! I never needed nor wanted you to save me!" Crow finally yelled, leaping from his spot and taking the steps two by two until he stood nose to nose with Ki.
She glowered under the frame of her dark lashes, her own eyes burning hotly.
"What are you going to do with this so-called family when I've killed them all?"
"Well first, I'll make sure that doesn't happen." Keahi lashed out, but Crow was fast and they locked hands together. Wrestling one another's strength back and forth.
"You don't have the power to fight me as I am." Crow sneered.
"I'll burn it out of you!"
"Just try, Ki, you'll burn to the ground with me!"
"You're not half the man you seem to think you are! You know you can't fill that emptiness with power!" Ki roared back. Blue and purple flames engulfed her hands as her eyes simmered hotly. Her body steaming as she pushed every ounce of flames within her towards Crow.
Maybe she could really burn it out of him. Just as flames started in hers, black, inky flames started in his and the two flames struggled over one another. Spits of flames bounced from their hands, igniting the carpet runner on fire, then the tapestries that hung on the wall.
Smoke began to fill the room, obscuring it in gray haze and steam. Sweat started on her brow as her arms shook, throbbing painfully as she tried to wrestle against him. Crow was a lot bigger than her, and while she was strong, she couldn't keep up with him.
He managed to hook his foot behind her ankle. It caused her to stumble just long enough for Crow to get the upper hand.
He placed his boot on her chest, Ki let out a cough, and her hands clasped his ankle while he looked darkly down at her. His eyes swirling crimson as a smirk bled onto his face. "Last words, Ki?"
"Yeah, see you later." She grunted, putting every ounce of firepower and expelling it outwards. Her flames unraveled like the petals of a rose before washing over the entire room and expelling outward with the force of a solar flare.
The entire side of the room exploded outward, piles of brick flying out into the fjord as flames licked at the side of the castle. Crow was thrown back into the fjord with the pile of rocks and bricks that crashed into the water.
Ki stood up with a grunt, holding her ribs as she staggered over to the open side of the castle as she reeled back in her flames to keep them from burning anything else. Placing a hand on the rocky outcrop of what remained of the wall, she scanned the fjord below.
She knew he was still alive.
He wouldn't die that easily.
