Chapter 13
Aries vs. Enepsigos
I needed Wi-Fi, I decided as I stepped into the first bedroom I saw along the corridor on the first floor. After I’d shut the door, I dashed to the bed, dropped my backpack onto it, and rummaged for my iPhone, switching it on as I pulled it out. I desperately hoped there would be Wi-Fi in this house, however—just as I’d expected—there wasn’t. Or my parents were smart enough to turn it off.
I tossed my iPhone back into my backpack and flopped down onto the bed. I didn’t have roaming, and there was no Wi-Fi. No way to contact Sasuke or anyone else to get me help.
Not giving up, I looked around the room, hoping to find some sort of communication device—a telephone, a computer with broadband, anything—but there was nothing useful in here, only gothic bedroom furniture and a flat-screen TV.
I stood up and tiptoed outside to try the other rooms even though I had a feeling the chances of finding something useful were extremely slim. I’d managed to scour a couple of rooms in the big double-storey house—with zero success—before stumbling back on the sitting room by accident. My parents were still inside.
Damn!
Instinct made me dive down behind the long, wood-trim sofa at once.
It was a close call, but luckily, they hadn’t noticed me. I breathed a silent sigh of relief.
“And I need to hear it again,” said my mother in a troubled voice as I was about to crawl away from the scene. “You killed a fifteen-year-old?”
I stopped crawling and eavesdropped.
“I didn’t mean to take her life, but apparently, the extraction of an astrological spirit from a host results in immediate death,” explained Lucifer, hardly sounding remorseful.
“Is there no other way to get you better?” asked my mother, almost pleading.
“Not that I know of.”
“What are our plans now? You told me to go get Averie since we’ll be settling down soon, but now that we’ve aggravated the Savants, wouldn’t they be coming after us?”
“I’ve got everything under control,” Lucifer said, his voice rich with confidence. “I’ll get us all settled down within the week. Meanwhile, you should pick out your dream home with Averie. Anywhere in the world is fine, save for Singapore, and money isn’t an issue.”
“There’s another thing I have to discuss with you. It’s about Averie.”
I tensed at the mention of my name. I couldn’t see their faces, but the grave tone in my mother’s voice unnerved me a little.
“Go on, speak your mind,” prompted Lucifer.
“Look at this. Averie showed it to me when I picked her up. Can you think of anyone who would want to pass themselves off as me? The person even nailed my handwriting.”
Seconds later, I heard paper being crushed.
“This note is nothing to worry about. I know who’s behind it, and I’ll deal with her.” There was the sound of footsteps muffled by carpet, and I could see Lucifer from where I was crouching. “Evonne, I need you to go somewhere with me. Let’s go tell Averie before we leave.”
Shit.
If they walked out now, I wouldn’t have time to get out of the sitting room. I needed an excuse to be here or they’d get suspicious. Quickly, I removed my gold locket—the only thing I had with me—and laid it on the floor next to me just before my mother and Lucifer busted me.
“Averie?” My mother frowned. “Why are you still here? I thought you went to rest in the one of bedrooms.”
“I dropped my locket,” I said matter-of-factly, pointing to the locket on the floor with the most innocent face I could conjure. “This was the only place in the house I’d been in other than my bedroom, so I came here looking for it.” I picked it up and slipped it around my neck and under my coat. “I heard you guys talking about going out. Go on. I’ll just shower and go to bed. Goodnight.” I made myself frown a little. “Come back soon, okay? Being alone in an unfamiliar house makes me a bit anxious.”
Whoa. I was quite impressed by my own lying skills; I thought I’d pulled it off pretty well. After all, this was my chance at escape. I couldn’t afford to screw it up now.
“Get some rest, and don’t try anything, all right?” said my mother as she watched my every move closely, not bothering to hide her distrust.
I nodded with a straight face, doing a really neat job at concealing my delight.
All this while, Lucifer had been staring at me with an unfathomable expression on his face, and I panicked a little, wondering if he was suspicious, but all he said was, “When you’re in trouble, Averie, ditch the locket. It’s an amulet meant to protect you.”
Okay, that was random, and the first time I’d been told to ditch an amulet in times of crisis. Weren’t you supposed to keep an amulet close?
“Oh. Erm…sure.” My mother’s sentimental words regarding the origins of the locket surfaced in my mind, and realisation sank in. “By any chance, did my locket come from you?”
“It did,” he said, and turned away.
“Where are we going?” my mother asked Lucifer as they started to stroll out of the sitting room. She kept glancing back at me apprehensively, so I started to walk as well, pretending I was heading back to my bedroom.
“Aquarius and Libra have arrived. We’re going to pick them up.”
“What do you mean, arrived?” I wondered aloud as Lucifer reached for the knob of the front door.
My mother and Lucifer both swivelled around to study me.
Damn. Had I blown it?
“You can tell me your plans, I’m your kid.” Great, their expressions softened as they registered the ‘I’m your kid’ line. “I’m just curious.”
Briefly, Lucifer hesitated before saying, “My servant Enepsigos has successfully captured the hosts of Aquarius and Libra. When I have control of all three of my air spirits, the Savants won’t be a threat. I let them off easy just now, but if they ever try something again, I’ll crush them.” His forehead creased. “Remember, Averie,” he went on austerely, “you can never trust the Savants.”
Who were the hosts of Aquarius and Libra again? I couldn’t remember the long list Sir Albion had once written for me, but it didn’t matter. Knowing the hosts’ identities was the least of my concerns right now.
“Are they going to die like Jamila Green did?” I said accusatively, incapable of keeping my contempt in check.
“They have to be sacrificed in order for our family to be well and complete,” said Lucifer as evenly as ever.
I turned to my mother, sending a hard stare her way. “Are you okay with that?”
Looking uncertain, my mother merely avoided eye contact with me and maintained her silence.
Throwing my hands up in disbelief, I pushed. “Are you okay with exchanging the wellness and completeness of another family for our own?”
When my mother didn’t say anything again, I turned back to Lucifer and looked him in the eyes. “If I were to ask you to let the hosts go, would you do it?”
“The house will be locked, but no worries, we’ll be right back.” Lucifer put an arm around my mother’s shoulders, giving her arm a reassuring squeeze. And with that, they exited the house, leaving me behind, dumbstruck.
Feeling more pissed off than ever, I flounced down onto the couch, only to spring out of it the second I sat down.
I had to do something to stop Lucifer from killing the hosts.
Running to a window in the same direction as the front door, I tried to push it open, but it was locked. I tried all the other windows I could find, but they were all locked.
Trapped in the house, I could only watch helplessly as my mother and Lucifer got into another pricey-looking black car and left. When the tall, automatic gates clicked shut behind them, I felt more powerless than ever. Even if I managed to get out of the house, I wouldn’t be able to climb over the fence.
It was hopeless. I kicked the cabinet in front of me in exasperation, and the impact made something crash loudly to the ground—an old-fashione
d rotary dial telephone.
That’s right.
I had to fall back to my original plan and find a way to communicate with Sasuke.
Hope was now right in front of my eyes, only I didn’t know how to dial Sasuke’s number from Vancouver. I paced around anxiously, when an idea suddenly struck me. Immediately, I raced to my bedroom. Grabbing my iPhone from my backpack, I ran back into the sitting room and plopped down onto the floor next to the precious old-fashioned telephone. My iPhone 5 would show me the country and area code.
Quickly, I plugged the telephone into a nearby socket then searched for the required codes. When I had the numbers, I dialled them in hastily and added Sasuke’s number. For some maddening reason, the call didn’t get through, so I tried Chaste’s number instead. It rang.
Thank goodness, she picked up fairly quickly. “Hello?”
“Chaste! I need a favour. Don’t ask questions. Just do as I ask, all right?”
“O-okay can,” she agreed readily, though she sounded pretty unnerved.
“Whatsapp Sasuke and tell him to come for me at this place I’ll be describing—” Shit, I forgot to check how the house looked like before I called. “—to you. Okay so far?”
“Erm, yes.”
“Hold on a minute.” I put down the receiver, walked to the adjacent corner of the sitting room, grabbed a knee-high wooden sculpture of a bird, trudged back to the telephone and, with two hands, threw it at the window I’d been unable to open.
The glass cracked. When I flung the sculpture at the window a second time, it smashed to pieces as the sculpture flew through it. I picked up the telephone and set it on top of the cabinet before sweeping everything else—glass shards from the broken window and the other decorative objects—off as I clambered onto it.
I had to swinging myself out the window. There were still fragments of glass left on the window frame, but I would have to do it. Swallowing my apprehension, I leapt through the window promptly and tumbled onto the lawn outside with a few cuts on my jeans-clad legs; the thick winter coat had managed to protect my arms from the sharp edges of the remaining glass.
Not wanting to waste any time, I got up at once and dashed across the long stretch of lawn to the gates, seeing a sign that said ‘Blundell Road’ as I neared. With a good look at my surroundings taken, I hurried back to the broken window to continue my phone call.
“Chaste?”
“Oh my gosh!” she cried. “Are you all right? I heard loud crashes or something.”
“Calm down, Chaste. I’m fine. Now, listen closely, this is what you have to tell Sasuke. Tell him I’m a couple of streets from the loft, and that I’m in a house on Blundell Road. It’s in a remote area of the neighbourhood. It’s a large red brick house with a white roof and green windows. There is a green lawn at the front of the house and the gates are tall and black. Just whatsapp him everything I’ve said, and he’ll understand. Tell him to come quickly, okay? I’m going to hang up now. Have you got everything?”
“Yes, I got it.”
“Thanks, and please hurry!”
I put the phone down and went to sit on the porch. Now, all I could do was wait for Sasuke and hope my parents wouldn’t be back before he arrived.
Only a few seconds of waiting had ticked by, but I couldn’t stand the idleness any longer. I got up, deciding to look for escape routes myself instead of doing nothing. Exploring near the fences, I actively searched for any broken or loose parts, though the odds were really grim; the house was exasperatingly new and well-maintained.
I combed the whole place in roughly half an hour, but to no avail. Losing hope, I returned to the porch dismally.
Not too long later—a couple of minutes, probably—the loud rumble of a speeding vehicle snarled fiercely across the street. Inhaling sharply, I leapt to my feet, my heart pounding hard and fast against my ribs.
Anyone but my parents. Anyone but my parents. I prayed diligently. Please. Anyone but them.
A small yellow car screeched to an abrupt halt before the gates, and an enormous wave of relief gushed over me. Good grace. It wasn’t them.
The engine of the car stopped.
Could that be Sasuke? Hope rapidly peaked within me as I ran across the lawn. Please let it be Sasuke!
The car door flew open and the driver got out, and it definitely wasn’t Sasuke because the driver was female. From here, that was pretty much the only thing I could make out.
Regardless, she could help me. I would just make up some story about being kidnapped and tell her to get the police to break me out.
“Hey!” I yelled to her, beckoning for her to come closer. “Please help me! I need help!”
She slammed the door so hard, I almost fell over in surprise; it was a wonder the door didn’t come right off. Nevertheless, she came loping in my direction, but as she closed in on me, recognition kicked in. Absolute shock and bewilderment took me as I watched her approaching.
“Ms. Psy—Evaline? W-why are you here?”
Shocking me further, she gripped two adjacent poles of the metal gates and, with only her hands, pulled them apart, bending them wide enough that she slipped through easily.
I was so shaken that I didn’t realise what was coming next until I felt it—a sharp blow to my stomach. The sudden offensive blow sent me toppling to the ground before sliding backward, all the way across the lawn and into the stone of the porch support. I tasted iron.
With that blow, I could establish two things: One—her arrival was nothing but trouble. Two—she definitely wasn’t human.
Across the lawn, Ms. Psychotic cackled—actually cackled—for a long moment. When she finally snapped out of it, she came hurtling toward me. I wanted to get up and away, but my body refused to cooperate.
I’d barely managed to spit out a mouthful of blood before Ms. Psychotic threw herself to the ground next to me and breathed into my face, enunciating every syllable in a really sick way, “I—have—come—for—you.”
I didn’t have a chance to react because she seized me by the throat within a split second. Throttling me, she forced me to my feet. I tried prying her hands off, but she was too strong and I soon grew too weak to retaliate. When I was sure I was going to suffocate to death without even knowing why I was being attacked by my psychopath teacher—my inhuman psychopath teacher—she let me go. Elbowing me in the chin, she sent me flying again.
Crashing through the broken window I’d escaped through not too long ago, I slammed into the gigantic screen of the LED TV then fell forward from the impact. The TV smashed to pieces, and I instinctively shielded my face from the flying fragments with my arms. Despite my fast reaction, some of them still managed to nick my face before I hit the ground—very painfully—and bowled straight into the coffee table.
Curling up in agony, I groaned loudly while Ms. Psychotic wasted no time leaping ineptly through the window after me. In an instant, she had me by the throat again, slamming my head against the solid marble floor. My vision swam as her monstrous grip tightened.
When the world came into focus again, Ms. Psychotic’s venomous glare bored through me. Facing the intense hatred in her eyes, I recoiled. I didn’t understand why she hated me so badly. I never had.
At a sharp pain in my right calf, I gasped and, gazing down my body, found a glass fragment set in a deep cut just below my knee.
“I did so much for him, and what did I get in return? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! He didn’t even bother to make an effort to lie to me!” She ranted on, but I had no idea what or who she was talking about. Taking her distraction as a cue, I attempted to struggle out of her deadly grip. She didn’t even budge, but she did notice what I was trying to do and dealt me a hard, warning slap to the face. I wasn’t surprised when my eyesight blanked into darkness or when my hearing turned haywire. I was surprised my neck didn’t break.
“Who?” I managed to wheeze out when I’d recovered, frustrated and puzzled by what the ‘him’ she was talking about had
to do with me.
“Your heartless father!” she screeched into my face, as though it were a heinous crime that I didn’t know.
The first person who came to mind was a regularly drunk Singaporean man, but it couldn’t be him. “Lucifer?” I grunted, going blue from the lack of air then made a desperate—and pointless—attempt to squirm out from under her.
“Yes!” she screeched again then started weeping. “Century after century, I’ve followed him, doing as he asks. I love him...” She paused, and I watched her staring into space. It was a long moment before she spoke again. “He told me to lure Chastity Tan out, and I did. It wasn’t my fault that you, you little slut—” My muscles tensed. I would have made a noteworthy response if I could have. “—and the other retarded kid decided to tag along!”
So that’s why Chastity had been getting bizarre dreams during Chemistry—it was all Ms. Psychotic’s doing! But why did Lucifer want Chaste? She wasn’t an air sign…or maybe... She knew about Atward and Chaste! I got it now—he intended to use Chaste against the Savants! I was surprised I could still think so logically without oxygen supply to my brain. It was a pity I could only be this sharp on the brink of death.
“Just today, I brought him the remaining two!” she rattled on. “The Aquarius boy was easy...”
How much evil had Lucifer done? How much more was he capable of? My eyelids drooped as I began to feel faint, and she snorted in amusement—clearly enjoying my suffering—then went back to sobbing. Highly unstable, for sure.
“But Libra?” she cried. I squinted. Her volume had suddenly shot up drastically, and twitching was the only movement I could make now. “I spent so much time getting him to fall in love with me! How else could I get him to follow me out of Singapore, despite the old man’s warning?” Her long, manicured nails bit deeper into the skin of my neck, and I felt my eyes rolling back in my head. “Does he have any idea how I had to degrade myself to seduce that gross security guard? And then all he said when I handed the hosts over was, ‘With that, your service is terminated’!” She halted her sobbing suddenly and darted a look of pure venom at me. Sadly, I actually gasped. “That slut! Your mother! It’s all her fault! Before he met that slut, things weren’t this way! He used to be mine! Mine! She took him from me!”
Piece by piece, things started to fall into place. She was Enepsigos—the servant Lucifer had mentioned—and she was positioned in Black Gold to get hold of the remaining air hosts. Judging by her inexplicable hostility toward me the day we met, she’d already known who I was back then.
Enepsigos leaned close, grinning too sweetly for it to bode well. “Now, it’s only fair that I take someone from her, too. How can you disagree with that? When you enrolled, I originally thought the old man would investigate your paternity and take care of you himself—only he didn’t. In hindsight, that’s a good thing, because now I get to enjoy the kill myself!”
She was the one behind that note…but the handwriting definitely belonged to my mother. I opened my mouth to speak, but all that would come out was a gagging sound.
“You have something to say?” She broke into another uncontrollable cackle then stopped abruptly and released her iron grip on my neck. “Go on, say it.”
I lapsed into a coughing fit. “How did you imitate my mother’s handwriting?” I rasped when I’d recovered enough breath.
“I have the amazing ability to perfectly transform into anyone I see. Isn’t that convenient? That’s the ability that awed Lucifer so much,” she revealed in a singsong voice, a smug smile on her face. “He used to value me so dearly…so dearly…until that slut came into the picture! She can have his children and I can’t…but who needs kids! She’s beautiful,” Enepsigos turned into another beautiful young woman then another and another, stopping after becoming a stunning European lady who was unquestionably of beauty queen standard, “but I can easily be a thousand times more attractive than she is!” She yanked me upright effortlessly, dealing me a second hit to the stomach before tossing me aside, and I wound up back on the floor. “I’ll be really generous and allow you a choice.”
On all fours, I gagged and gasped. “What. Choice?”
She flashed me that sick, malicious grin. “How do you want me to kill you? Come on, you get to pick!”
I stared at my attacker in absolute horror. This woman—thing—was twisted to the core.
“I said pick!” she spat in my face.
A horrifying feeling smothered me, and my stomach reeled, ready to throw up everything. How the hell was I supposed to answer that?
“You’re a monster!” I found myself screaming, cracking under pressure.
“I am a monster!” she fired back, letting me go and standing suddenly. “To be completely accurate, I’m a demon.” She gave me yet another evil grin. “I am the majestic demon Enepsigos, and I just figured out the best way to do myself justice!”
A blast of wind ripped through the room, ramming me headlong into the brick and stone fireplace, where I smashed loudly into the logs. For a while, I lay there, crouched over from the pain. Then shock registered; I was so lucky the fireplace wasn’t lit.
An unbearable shriek shook the room, and when I looked up between my gasps of agony, Enepsigos had transformed from beauty queen to an enormous two-headed creature. She had cracked reddish-black skin, seven angry auburn eyes of very different sizes, and a tuft of stiff straw-coloured hair on each of her heads. At least three meters tall and almost as wide, she had four long stick-like arms with three fingers on each hand, two stumpy legs, and a huge tail that looked so powerful one whip could easily kill someone.
The sitting room was blasted into complete ruins, and when I met the demon’s many eyes, they opened wide with hunger—hunger for my blood.
“I’m going to kill you slowly and painfully,” she notified me in a singsong voice—making me sick to the stomach again—then lunged at me.
Taking no notice of my body’s vehement protests, I commanded my gastric contents to stay, scrambled to my feet hastily, and barely managed to avoid being crushed to death. Leaving no time for me to catch a breath, the demon’s tail sliced through the air and struck me on my back, thrusting me forward. I flew across the room, choking on my own blood and feeling my ribs break. That last blow ripped my coat apart, and as I nosedived to the ground, my locket clattered noisily against the marble floor.
When you’re in trouble, Averie, ditch the locket.
Remembering Lucifer’s advice, I grabbed my locket—wincing as I moved—wrenched it off my neck, and, with all the strength that was left in me, tossed it into the distance. As the locket left my hand, bam! a sudden tremor rumbled the house, startling me.
Glancing back over my shoulder, I expected another attack by Enepsigos—which I probably wouldn’t survive—but instead, I saw hope in the form of a very breathless and shaken Sasuke tearing through what remained of the sitting room.
He arrived at my side seconds later, panting heavily. He looked every bit as tired as I would’ve expected him to be after combing the entire neighbourhood in search of this remote house. The stamina training with Sir Albion had finally been put to use. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, reaching forward to touch me, but I held up a hand to stop him.
Every breath I took hurt so badly now that the earlier numbness was starting to fade away. I had to spit out more blood before I could speak. “Wait. Can’t leave.”
“Why?” he asked agitatedly. “You’re losing so much blood! If we don’t rush you to the hospital—”
“Remember what Atward told us?” I said with much difficulty. I hoped Sasuke wouldn’t pick up the suffering in my breathy voice. “I’ll be fine.”
Sasuke was unrelenting. “But—”
“Well, well, well, look at what we have here—the loving couple.” Enepsigos joined the conversation, sending a cold shudder down my spine. “You’re making me envious, little slut.”
“Watch out for her,” I whispered to Sasuke as the demon
continued her never-ending tirade.
“What the hell is that thing?” whispered Sasuke back, his eyebrows furrowed deep.
“Ms. Psychotic,” I told Sasuke, and his eyes went broad with shock and, probably, disbelief. “We need…whereabouts of…Aquarius and Libra.” I paused and gritted my teeth; my ribs were hurting too much. “Fill you in later,” I said when I felt slightly better, seeing how confused Sasuke was. “First, we need to...move to a place where there—” I took in a sharp, painful breath. “—isn’t human nearby...or this monster might...”
“I understand,” said Sasuke, looping my arm around his neck and helping me up. It took all my willpower to keep from gasping out in pain. We then zapped off, materialising next to Enepsigos’s tail. Sasuke touched it with his free hand, and we took off again, teleporting to a dark new place with the giant monster in tow. Wherever we were, the sun had set, or hadn’t risen.
“What the fuck did you do?” snarled Enepsigos. Blind fury raging in her eyes, the monster stomped about in circles, thrashing her tail violently. Good thing nothing was close enough to be hit by it.
We didn’t stay and wait to be struck when her tail came sweeping in our direction. Sasuke quickly zapped us off again, and we hid in the woods nearby, close enough to hear the demon’s rampage.
Sasuke looked at me, his expression increasingly distressed—his eyebrows were pulled tightly together into a deep frown, and his lips had formed a thin, hard line. “Averie, are you all right?” he asked as he rested me on the forest floor, against a tree.
“Yeah,” I assured him weakly. I didn’t have to look at him to know I wasn’t convincing him. Even I didn’t believe myself.
It took him a few seconds to overlook my feeble reassurance, but he did. “We need a plan,” he said eventually. “We have to get the Savants to help.”
“I’ll keep this monster busy while you get the Savants—that’s right! Asa and Sir Albion! Are they—”
I jerked in surprise as a new voice spoke. “Averie, it’s nice to finally meet you, even though I would’ve preferred to have the meeting in a more peaceful setting.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Sasuke, his forehead crinkling more deeply than before.
“Didn’t you hear that?” I asked him desperately. I hadn’t gone berserk like Ms. Psychotic, had I? “Someone just spoke to me.”
Sasuke looked perplexed. “No—I didn’t hear anything.”
“Don’t panic.” The voice spoke again. “It’s just me. Aries.”
“Oh, you.” I sighed loudly in relief. “Why are you speaking to me all of a sudden? I used to call you all the time, but you ignored me.”
“Huh?” Sasuke’s expression turned more bewildered by the second.
“I’m talking to Aries.”
“You manage to call on it?”
I nodded.
“The locket Lucifer gave you was charmed to seal me away the moment I possessed you,” said Aries, “so that you wouldn’t be able to use my powers.”
“But why would he do that? Lucifer told me the locket is meant to protect me!”
“Once you use spirit, Archangel Israfel will be able to tell which of the archangels you descended from. Lucifer probably didn’t want your identity as his child revealed, fearing that might bring you to harm.
“Found you!” squealed Enepsigos all of a sudden, a sick smile playing on her mouth as she hopped into sight, pouncing at us and catching us off guard.
Things were happening too quickly, too suddenly, we couldn’t react in time. Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, Sasuke collapsed, dropping onto the dirt in a limp pile.
Enepsigos withdrew all four of her hideous outstretched arms. Only then did I realise that her knife-sharp nails had pierced Sasuke’s chest. I stopped feeling. The next thing I knew, I was tumbling across the woods—away from Sasuke—before finally smashing into the trunk of a tree. I was flipped over by the impact as I slid to a rest, flat on the ground, facedown.
I lifted my face off the dirt and looked up the moment I stopped, and there, under the dim moonlight, Sasuke lay lifelessly in a pool of blood.
I hadn’t felt the tears forming; they just started to spill.
“Sasuke?” I called his name as dread choked me. There wasn’t any response, so I tried again, louder this time. “Sasuke!”
Silence. Cold, frightening silence.
No, Sasuke couldn’t be dead. Nephilims don’t die easily.
“Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!” I tried again, and again, and again. But still, there was no response. Nothing.
Nothing at all.
I stared at Sasuke, desperately wanting to hear his voice, to hear him tell me he was all right...
This was all my fault.
We should have run while we could...
Not try to play hero.
I picked up laughter—thin, wicked laughter—in the distance, and my body turned rigid. Rage exploding, pain forgotten, I kicked myself up from the ground and lunged forward, swivelling my attention to the source. And it torched up as soon as I made eye contact, erupting into flames. It didn’t go down without a fight; it flared and shrilled as the flames devoured it—until it finally went silent, reduced to ashes.
Void and depleted, I closed my eyes. I was falling...