Chapter 16
The cabin was quiet.
Pins and needles spiked along Cyan's right shoulder with sharp pain. She blinked at Sarabell's knife sticking through her grimoires open pages, a good inch of the knife buried in Cyan's shoulder. Blood rushed down her side forming a pool under her butt.
Only a second passed from when her grimoire burst through the window and took the brunt of the knife to when Cyan's brain started working again. The wound would have been deadly if her grimoire hadn't shown up. Cyan looked up from the gushing blood and met Sarabell's eyes. No one in the room moved.
She smiled. "I have a new spell. Do you guys want to see it?"
Christopher moved at her words. "Shit. Shut her up!"
Sarabell didn't move in time, her brain still trying to process what was happening. Her brother and Christopher rushed to her side. But they were too late.
Red fog spilled from the open book, darkening the ambient light from the fireplace. "Nightmare Scape, Nightmare Specter!"
The lights went out leaving nothing but the glowing of red fog. Forms began taking shape from the fog, massive hideous monsters straight from the nightmares that assaulted her since her childhood. Elongated emaciated arms ending in curved claws, empty eye sockets and razor sharp teeth sprouting from a long snout.
A monster grabbed Sarabell and threw her away from Cyan, jerking the knife from her shoulder and grimoire. The wound spewed more blood and her arm went numb. Sarabell screamed as she flew through the air and bounced off the wall.
Another monster swung its wicked claws, cleaving through the chains and releasing Cyan. She toppled forward and hit the ground, too drugged to hold herself up. Light flared beyond the window, red flames bursting from a barrage of unseen attacks.
"Someones trying to break down the barrier!" Christopher shouted from somewhere in the fog. "Kill her, quickly!"
The barrier shattered beyond the house with an audible boom . She turned on her side in time to see Jacob rushing to her through the fog. One of the monsters took a swipe at him, Jacob ducked under the slow moving arm and pulled another blade from his belt. When he was a few feet away he jumped and dove towards her ready to slit her throat.
A fireball caught him in mid air. He screamed and dropped to the ground in a heap of smoke and singed hair. Someone grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up. She didn't need to look to know who cradled her gingerly against their chest. The scent of pine was all she needed to know Fuegoleon was there, holding her.
His heart pounded against her cheek, his fingers shook with rage around her shoulder while his breath whispered over her head.
"Little one." He murmured, his voice full of relief. "Can you let this nightmare go?"
More people filled the room but Cyan couldn't be bothered to look to see who it was. She glanced out at the confused shuffling monsters and let the Nightmare monsters go with a thought. They didn't seem to function well when she couldn't concentrate on them which was hard to do when drugged and suffering from blood loss.
The grimoire shut its shredded pages and dropped into her lap, the red fog dissipating with her magic. Sarabell struggled to her feet across the room, blood dripping from a deep head laceration. Christopher stood near the hearth, an electric-blue grimoire open and magic shimmering around him. Jacob groaned from the floor, still smoking. He was out of the running leaving only Sarabell and Christopher for them to deal with. Sarabell's magic was weak from what Cyan remembered but Christopher on the other hand was going to be the problem.
Mel and Tinny walked in front of Fuegoleon and Cyan, each taking a defensive stance ready for a fight.
Fuegoleon stood cradling Cyan in her arms. "This is a surprise Christopher. We've known you since we were children, you and Sister Threasa were our magic instructors. Why betray us now?"
Cyan looked over at the glowering man with confusion. She didn't know who this Sister Threasa was but the fact that Chirstopher was one of his and Mereoleona's instructors meant he was more dangerous than she previously thought. Why was this man working as a handyman for the royal family now?
Christopher bounced on the balls of his feet, preparing to attack. "Like Threasa and so many others, I got tired of the bloodshed and senseless death of war. But every time a war is won or a dangerous mage is put down someone more dangerous shows up and more people die. When will it end?"
Mereoleona growled at her old teacher. "That's why Magic Knights exist, to protect the weak from the strong and dangerous mages. That's what you used to do."
He laughed, a horrible skin crawling laugh full of rage. "And there's always another mage threatening the world, more people dying, more innocents massacred. I told the King and Julius that more restrictions should be in place, dangerous people like the Witch of Nightmares." He shook his head and looked over to where Sarabell stood, preparing to fight. "I thought maybe Julius had finally listened and then turned around and gave Cyan a chance."
"You know," Cyan whispered from Fuegoleon's arms. "I am sick and tired of being nothing but the Witch of Nightmares daughter."
Tinny looked over her shoulder. "Your Cyan. Nothing more, nothing less. The short little freak incapable of cleaning up after herself and-" She flashed the gold bracelet around her wrist. "My closest friend."
Mel rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You guys are weird." She turned back to their enemy. "Don't make me kill you. The Black Bulls will be here any minute and you have nowhere to run."
Sarabell paled and shrank back with a squeak. "Please Lord Fuegoleon, just let me and my brother go." The brother in question groaned from his position on the ground.
A vein in his neck pulsed with irritation. "I'm sorry it came to this Sarabell. But I don't like people touching what's mine."
Cyan raised a brow. Well now, when he got all possessive it was kind of exciting or it would be if she hadn't lost most of the feeling in her limbs. Things were beginning to get hazy, the edges of her vision growing dim.
Shit.
They needed to hurry this up before her organs started shutting down. Christopher seemed like he was waiting for something or maybe someone. He should be attacking but instead he was caring on a conversation about his motives like some cliche villain monologuing.
Magic flitted around his feet, blue and intense as he built up the energy for an attack. Mel and Tinny adjusted their stances preparing for the attack, Salamander in turn grew in size and advanced on Sarabell, scaring her into submission to keep her from the fray.
For a split second Christopher's eyes darted somewhere behind them. None of the other three seemed to notice or cared enough to look.
Cyan turned and glanced over Fuegoleon's shoulder. No one was behind them, no last second reinforcements. It must have been a tactic to make them look which, luckily, had not worked. She on the other hand was a gullible-
Jacob stood up suddenly interrupting her train of thought, wisps of magic rolling off him. His hair was singed short, half his face a raw bloody mess of cooked flesh. In his eyes shined with a level of hatred and malicious intent she had never seen before.
Her brain short circuited. She needed to warn the others, tell them that Jacob was preparing to blind side them. But she couldn't make her mouth work, couldn't react. Behind her Christopher drew their full attention, magic lighting the darkest corners of the room.
They were going to die. The Black Bulls still weren't there, there was no saving them. She didn't care that they were trying to kill her but attacking the people she loved was not okay.
Something in her broke, snapped. The tight hold Cyan had kept on the darkest, deepest depth of her magic broke free suddenly and filled her with all the hatred and rage of twenty years. As if forced to the back of her mind her magic took over like some kind of sentient being.
Her arm raised behind Fuegoleon and her grimoire opened with blinding red light drowning out the blue power of Chrisptopher's magic. Sarabell screamed, her words falling on Cyan's deaf ears. There was nothing but the roar of magic in her veins and the possibility of losing the people she cared the most about.
Shadows shot from her outstretched hands and encircled him. It was like Everett all over again, she wasn't in control. The cold slithering thing always lurking in the back of her mind, her magic, was now in control.
She didn't hesitate or think about what taking a life would do to her psyche, she shut her hand and crushed him beneath her power. He didn't have time to react or even process a thought. He didn't even get the chance to come to terms with his own demise. All he could do was stand in shocked horror and promptly explode everywhere.
Well, explode wasn't quite the best term. He was like a bag of pasta sauce, the top twisted and twisted until the plastic couldn't take the pressure and the sides popped in a spray of tomato gooeyness. Everyone in the room was instantly covered with tomato sauce, complete with chunks.
It was a comforting thought to associate the carnage with a cooking accident, to completely disassociate herself from what she'd just done. Cyan had taken a life, she had used the magic everyone was so afraid of and smeared a man across a cabin without trying.
She stared at the largest pile of Jacob left in the world waiting to freak out or feel something. Everything happened quickly after that, everyone else snapping out of the shock of what she had done quickly. Sarabell tried to run to her brother, screaming at the top of her lungs only to be tackled and held down by Salamander. Tinny and Mel turned back to Christopher as the familiar form of Yami burst through the door flanked by several members of his squad.
Cyan lost consciousness.
"Honestly I'm surprised you don't have brain damage yet." Doctor Owen hissed looking up from his notepad. "I am sick and tired of seeing you in my infirmary girl."
"Uncle Owen, give her a chance to come around before attacking her." Shelia admonished, smacking his chest with the back of her hand.
"Uncle?" Cyan asked, looking between the two. "Never mind, I don't care. You all can keep your secrets."
"Hey," Shelia shouted, turning on her. "Don't give me attitude. You almost died, then actually died once and what's this I hear of Meraliona shattering your eye socket? Then you go and get kidnapped and stabbed and you…you.."
"Killed someone." Cyan supplied.
Sheila deflated and sat on the edge of the hospital bed. "Yes. Are you okay?"
Cyan took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm training to be a Magic Knight, Sheila. Being in danger, getting hurt, it's kind of expected. Besides, I didn't really have a choice in the whole kidnapping thing."
Sheila bit her lip and looked up at Doctor Owen, her uncle, and sighed. "Taking a life isn't an easy thing and if people find out you killed someone then you won't be left alone. People are already terrified of you."
"And that's why no one will know." A loud voice boomed from the doorway. The trio turned to see the fake Julius and the mini Julius standing in the doorway. "No one needs to know the whole truth. Tinny has claimed to be the one that killed this Jacob fellow and that's the story we will all stick with."
Cyan eyed the real Julius who nodded when he met her eyes. They could trust the Black Bulls to keep their mouths shut, they had enough skeletons in the closet as it was. She didn't like the idea of lying but considering people she never hurt had already tried to kill her over her mothers sins was enough for her to keep it to herself.
She shut her eyes and settled back on her bed. "Can you guys give me some space for a little bit? My head is killing me."
"Of course, I need to go and update Temlar. He's been hanging out at the Lion Kings headquarters with Fuegoleon."
"Ill keep an eye on her while she rests." Owen stated and left the main infirmary floor.
Once they were gone Cyan opened her eyes and waited for the Wizard King to approach her bedside. The fake Julius wandered off to stare out the large bay windows and make himself busy.
"So what happens now?" Cyan finally asked the young boy.
Julius placed his hands behind his back taking on the air of a wizened, all knowing man. "Nothing has changed. In three months you'll take the Magic Knight exam, you'll pass and join a squad."
"Why are you pushing this so hard? You should want to keep me stagnant, without my power. But you have done everything in your power to make me a Knight. Why?"
His eyes narrowed, his jaw hard. "Something is coming, Cyan. Something no one is equipped to handle, especially me while stuck in this body." He rubbed a frustrated hand through his curly blond hair. "We're going to need all the power that we can find to stop it."
She sucked in a breath. "Are you going to tell me what it is or just be infuriatingly vague?"
A tight smile stretched across his young face. "You'll know it when it happens. There's no point in distracting you from your training with it."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course. Why be straight forward?"
"There's reasons for why I do what I do. You'll see." He snorted and shook his head at her. His face quickly crumbled with concern. "There's something you should see."
His small boyish hand pulled back the hospital blanket covering her body. Her pale legs were bare since Owen had changed her out of her bloody clothes.
Cyan sucked in a breath when her eyes fell to the inky black marks running up her right leg.
"Is that-'' She couldn't finish her sentence, her eyes tracing the swirling patterns that eerily resembled the shadows she controlled. "Are they the same ones my mother had?"
He nodded slowly and let the blanket slip from his grasp. Even with the mark covered she couldn't look away.
His eyes flicked up to the doorway and his face transformed into a roguish smile. "Looks like my cue to go. Someone is here to see you. We'll talk later when you're healed."
Cyan sat up, wincing through the pain. Fuego was now standing in the door, the sleeve of his missing arm rolled and pinned. He was probably too tired to maintain the mana required for the magical arm.
His almond shaped amethyst eyes watched them curiously. Despite his appearance being immaculate; hair perfectly combed and clothes starched in sharp angles like normal she could feel the intensity in the air around him.
Julius and his fake counterpart drifted from the room giving them space. Fuegoleon didn't move from his position or move to comfort her.
When she couldn't stand the quiet anymore, Cyan blew a raspberry at him. "We've been through this before so if you're angry at me then just say it."
He pushed from the doorway and quickly covered the distance to her bed. Taking a seat on the bed he quickly gathered her in a tight one armed hug. For the first time since waking up Cyan finally relaxed, all the tension draining from her body and allowed herself to go limp in his hold.
"I see you got my gift." She murmured against his chest, playing with the gold bracelet he still wore.
"I wouldn't have found you without it." He pressed a soft kiss to her hair. "I think Tinny and I should be concerned you gave us tracking devices but it was a kind gesture."
She chuckled. "Can't have you going where I can't follow, since I apparently belong to you."
He pulled back to look her in the eye. Something like shame or fear filled his face. "I was angry. I didn't mean it like that." He stammered out quickly.
Cyan had never seen Fuegoleon looking so unsure of himself. He looked like he thought she'd run off if he got all angry and possessive…
She looked away. "I see Tinny brought you up to speed on Everett." When he didn't comment she continued. "I have never looked at you and seen him. Besides, I kinda liked it when you went all Neanderthal like that."
He nodded slowly but didn't seem to feel any better.
They were quiet after that, the tension uncomfortable and stifling. There was too much to be said and Cyan didn't have the right words to express everything she wanted to say. On the other hand there were three easy words she could say that might come close, only they just didn't feel right. Too many life and death situations and impending doom cheapened such simple words.
Instead she pulled Fuego down to the tiny hospital bed and snuggled into his chest. She giggled when he was forced to fold his ridiculously massive form around her to keep from slipping off.
"Did you see it?" She asked suddenly, thinking about her new 'tattoo'.
He nodded and squeezed her.
"Does it bother you?"
"Does it bother you?" He shot back, his voice muffled where his mouth was pressed to her hair.
She searched her feelings and found everything was kind of muted. Maybe she had been through one too many traumatic events and could no longer feel things the way she should. She killed a man and felt cold. She was now exhibiting symptoms her mother displayed which meant she was one step closer to losing her shit.
She felt nothing.
"Fuegoleon, if this-" She pointed back and forth between them. "Needs to end, I'll be hurt but I'll get over it and eventually understand it."
Sitting up, he looked down at her. "Do you want it to end?"
Cyan smacked his shoulder and glared. "Stop parroting my questions back at me."
"I know what I want, Cyan. I just don't know what you want and I don't want to push you into the shit show that will be our relationship." He shook his head and sighed. "This isn't going to be easy, it will never be easy. But if we're in this then we're in this until the end."
Her heart squeezed with excitement. Intense emotions boiled up and squeezed her heart. Those were the words, the ones she couldn't think of to describe her feelings. Of course the educated rich kid could articulate them perfectly without a hint of embarrassment.
She blushed and was forced to look away from his intense eyes. "So when are you going to take me to dinner and woo me? I've never been wooed before. If I'm good, do I get dessert?"
A rueful smile bloomed across his face. "Now now, Little One. If you can't stay out of the infirmary I will never get to have my way with you."
Everything started tingling all the way from her ears down to her toes. He pressed a lingering kiss to the base of her throat. "And I am full of ideas about how I'll have my way with you eventually."
Cyan let out a rough breath and tried to ignore the heat building up her stomach. She certainly didn't like the 'eventually' part. "That is entirely unfair and underhanded."
"So, what do you want? I answered the question, now it's your turn." His tongue slowly moved up her throat, his kisses delicate and tender.
She groaned, her eyes fluttering shut and back arching against him. "My answer might be considered given under duress if you don't stop that."
"Answer me." He demanded lightly working his way along her jaw before finally capturing her mouth. His tongue filled her mouth as if he really didn't need her answer as much as he needed to claim her completely. Plunging her fingers into his hair she pulled him down roughly, he couldn't keep himself up right with only one arm and fell on top of her.
"Ow!" She yelped, pushing him off her bruised ribs. "Sorry. I got a little excited."
He smiled and moved back to her side as she turned to look at him. "I gave you a bracelet that allows me to track you no matter where you are in the world. I think that means I'm sticking around till the end as well."