Legacy of Fire (The Blaze Trilogy - Book #1)

Chapter 30

I’m staring at the space in front of me, the space where my grandfather once sat. Now all that remains is a collection of slumped limbs and lifeless features. 

Something inside me breaks. 

I no longer feel the pain biting where the knife sunk into me. Instead I feel even more focused than before, like this loss has ripped a catastrophic hole inside my soul, leaving space for all the hatred to fester and grow. 

My fire has ignited around me before I’m even aware of it. I Push it in front of me with terrible force, and a slash of flame knocks Hannova of her feet. Her screams are silenced when her head cracks against the white walls, and I see the trail of blood that extends downwards. 

Her eyes are glassy, like a snuffed out candle. I don’t care.

Then I turn to Kathu, and something inside me blooms with pleasure at the stark fear on his face. I have nothing left to lose. 

And that is when I’m most dangerous. 

Kathu smacks his hand against the communication panel, and speaks quickly. “We’ve lost control of the situation. Get in here.” Then he angles his head towards me, trying to keep his chin high as he stares out at the fire that’s about to engulf him. 

I bare my teeth at him. “Don’t worry, this time you’ll be dead before the medics can fix you.”

But it’s not the medics that burst through the door - it’s Elder Daemon, his steely eyes fixed on Kathu. “Sir, we need to get you out of here.”

“No!” I shout. The anger boils within me, and I can feel it churning my fire. But it’s not that comfortable, warm heat. It’s almost cold, like a destructive, dark energy that’s unfamiliar to the touch. I reach inside it, ready to tunnel the rage and destroy the man that took everything from me. 

But the fire doesn’t listen.

Instead the heat begins to grow uncontrollably, and I cry out as it twists around me in wild waves. They sizzle around me, growing wider and wider as they spread. I focus my concentration, begging the fire to do as I will it to, but it’s no use - it pushes and chaffs against my control, demanding freedom. I can see Daemon dragging Kathu out the door and I scream in anger as the flames begin to roar louder and louder, and then I can’t hold it any longer.

The fire rips out of me like an explosion, spreading through the room. It claws along the white walls, tearing through them, burning the structure to dust. That stabbing agony in my abdomen has returned it’s dull throb, and I sink to the ground, overcome by a sharp wave of exhaustion. The fire ignores me and my pain, preferring to wreak it’s havoc. 

But the enemy is gone. Kathu escaped. I failed. 

I close my eyes, and let the fire take me. 

–––

I wake up to a pair of soft hands moving against my body. Urgently. I snap my eyes open as I recoil away from the touch, searching for it’s owner.

A nurse stands above me. I taste the sharp pang of nostalgia - of Rita, nursing me back to life after she saved me. But this woman is not Rita - she’s unfamiliar, and keeps her face impassive as she continues to sort out the tubes. Tubes? I look down at my arm to see their points of insertion, each one stuck in and pumping me with different liquids and medicines. 

Fear snakes through me. I’ve been captured. 

But as I quickly inspect the room around me, expecting to see the cold white walls and smell the acrid tang of disinfectant, I’m surprised. My cot doesn’t lie in a room - I’m in a tent, with rough, tan fabric hanging overhead, and nothing more than a mat for the floor. Sunlight streams through the tent flap, and I can hear faint voices coming from outside.