Greys III - Revelations

Chapter 1 - Down to Hell We Go

I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep after returning to my room, the feelings in me tumbled like a mountain threatening avalanche, yet I still felt calm...and exhausted.

I was worried for Kael and Nevaeh, worried for James and what he needed, what I would have to be for him, how I could help heal him into the man I had known, while still feeling high with that realization that so much had been mended, that we had a plan, that we were actually going to do something, together, search out our family. The mere knowledge that my Pair wasn't just a shell, that James was still alive even beneath his Shift, that he wasn't lost to me, made me want to dance around my room. I had seen life in his eyes again, determination, heard the voice of my leader without his nature covering his eyes.

But even with the excitement, my body felt heavy and my eyes couldn't seem to stay open. Sleep dragged at me, refusing to relent. Choices could wait for the morning, enough had been decided for one day. I laid in bed with a new feeling in my chest, something light. Knowing that just one wall away was someone I truly cared for, someone I hadn't lost, someone that would no longer wither away into dust and shadows, the only person I had ever been connected to. It gave me a feeling I had almost forgotten; hope. I fell asleep with a smile on my lips.

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I woke up to the smell of smoke and immediately my body was on alert, adrenaline in my veins and my Shift pulling at its anchor. I leapt from my bed as I heard a shrill scream. I was out my door and into thick, black smoke a moment later. I knew that scream. I had never heard it before, but I still knew it. Levi. My Shift ripped from me as I ran down the hall, seeing through the smoke like it was merely a light haze. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, each room had blackness billowing out from it, each door opened wide or kicked in, but I knew where Levi would be.

I saw the entrance to the forest and my heart stuttered, the doors were blown off their hinges, sharp splinters of wood covering the first yards of green. I ran through the opening and was met by a forest on fire, the entire woods was now red and orange and ash, as if the high vaulted ceiling was raining fire down on it. I only took in the horrible scene for a moment, before I sent out my Sight and followed it to Levi, followed it to the little boy I had sworn I'd protect.

I ran through burning leaves and crumbling trunks and roots, covering my mouth and nose to try to block out some of the smoke. My eyes burned and even my Sign couldn't rid the air of the smog that hung in it heavily. I could hear fires still crackling at times, see where the trees had become too weak and fell, snapping at blackened joints. I felt a horrid hopelessness as I searched, but then I saw the small lake, looking pristine in the midst of fire and soot and destruction. I saw Levi standing by its edge, his back to me, a tall man standing next to him. The man had his arm around the boy's shoulders and when I got closer he turned him, though the man continued to look out at the water, ignoring me.

Levi's blue eyes, filled with fear, sent a bolt through me, just like the man whose back was still towards me sent a trail of ice over my skin. I knew who he was, even if he wouldn't give me the respect of turning and facing me. Levi took a step toward me, or tried to, but the man's arm held him back. I saw Levi's lip quiver and my Shift tipped higher, burning brighter in me, through me. Everything was plunged in shades of blood when I spoke.

"Let him go."

My words ground out painfully, my voice shaking from rage. In my new bloody vision, the man seemed to glow before me, while Levi looked less real, like someone so good wasn't supposed to be seen through eyes like mine, a Shift like mine.

"Let him go or I swear I'll kill you. I'll make you suffer for every hair on his head you touch."

I knew my threat was empty, he would know it too, but that didn't matter. I couldn't let anything happen to my little brother, to that small, joy-filled boy with the dark hair and light eyes, with the Gift that made him hide from others, that made him so wise even as young as he was. Nothing would happen to him. I wouldn't let anything happen to him. Ever.