Authors: Wenona Hulsey
Sensing movement off to her side, Nicole pulled her eyes away from the fighting warriors to face Spade again. He was holding Kat around the neck with Nicole’s own gun pointed to her best friend’s temple. “You better call your friend off if you don’t want her brains on the ground!” Kat whimpered from the pain as he pulled her tightly against his chest.
“Luke stop!” she screamed through her gritted teeth, keeping her eyes on Spade as he started dragging Kat toward the roaring plane. Luke and Ronald were circling each other waiting for an opening to attack. “He’s going to kill her if you don’t back off!” She could hear the wheels spinning inside of Spade’s head. He was panicking, wanting to get out of here and he didn’t care if he had to kill everyone else. “I’m going with them so please just stop.” She pleaded with Luke as she saw Ronald’s plans to kill Kat then shoot Luke, so he could force her to go. Tears prickled her eyes when Luke turned his attention to her, a fresh cut along his cheek dripped blood and his hands were glowing red and blue. He reluctantly took a step back from the other warrior as he viewed the scene.
“Now that’s a smart girl,” said Ronald as he moved toward her, careful to keep a wary eye on Luke. “Get on the plane and Spade will let your friend go.” He reached the steps and started to climb. A cocky smile played across his face as he turned his back on Luke and stepped inside.
She could hear the engines roaring as the pilot revved them and prepared for flight. Spade smirked at her as he motioned with the barrel of her own gun for her to move along.
What happened next was over in a heartbeat but to Nicole it was like watching a stop motion film being made. Each step clicked by, each moment agonizingly slow. Kat swung her hand wildly knocking the gun away from her face and sending Spade stumbling backwards. She dropped to the ground as Sage and Rhys swarmed him. They circled around him as he fought to regain control of his gun.
Nicole was excited with the turn of events, and looked for a way she could help. She gripped the rail of the steps with white knuckles as her eyes gauged the situation. Then, she felt a hand wrap into her hair and pull her back. She landed on the stairs, hitting the back of her head on a step. Her vision blurred but she could make out Ronald looming over her. She reached back, grabbing onto his arm as he tried to pull her to her feet by a handful of hair. With her fingers locked around his wrist, she sent fire to her palms. Ronald growled and jerked away from her. Nicole could smell singed hair and burning flesh in the air.
Nicole raised her head from the steps to find, Luke, Rhys and Sage all staring in her direction, distracted by the fight on the stairs. Nicole looked past them as Spade regained his footing and shoved Kat to her knees in front of him. A gunshot rang out, echoing off the hanger and pavement like thunder.
Nicole shot two balls of blue fire from her hands as she bolted forward, catching Kat’s slumping body before it hit the ground. Blood poured from Kat’s chest, seeping through her torn shirt and dripping onto the ground.
Kat’s eyes were wet with tears as she tried to focus on Nicole. Her mouth opened and closed several times as she tried to form words.
“Don’t, just stay still,” Nicole whispered stroking her friends matted hair. Behind her she could hear the plane start to taxi down the runway.
“I’m so sorry,” Kat’s voice broke off in a strained gurgle, “I wasn’t a good friend.” She took an unsteady breath trying to continue.
Nicole pressed her hand against Kat’s bleeding chest. Fresh tears fell from her chin, cutting trails across her crimson stained hands. “Please Kat, don’t do this. I need you here with me,” her voice quavered. She pulled her tightly to her own body as Kat’s breaths became more shallow. In her mind she heard “
I love you Nicole,”
as she watched the life fade out of Kat’s dark eyes.
A sob filled her chest as she rocked her best friend’s lifeless body. Sorrow began dragging her into the dark depths as she prayed. A tear dropped from the tip of her nose and she watched as it mixed with Kat’s blood, barely making a ripple in the still expanding pool of crimson. She shook her head from side to side as she raised her head. “I will not fail.”
She stood, rage fueling her heart and soul, as her eyes darted from side to side searching for Spade. The air around her began to spin as her fury spilled over. The scent of charred flesh offended her nostrils as her eyes spotted Spade’s body several yards away in a flaming heap. “That was too good of a death for you,” she yelled.
Nicole turned toward the low flying plane, raising her hands up to the night sky. The wind obeyed by leaving her side and rushing up into the blackness. Black clouds filled the sky above her as lightning struck the ground in front of her. Trees twisted and snapped as the wind around the runway began to spin. She gave it everything she hadinduced by everything she lostuntil a flame filled funnel dropped from the clouds. The funnel, as if it were the devil’s finger, cut a burning trail across the field as it closed in on the plane. Within seconds, the tornado consumed the jet sending it to the ground in a fiery explosion.
Nicole walked back to Kat’s body and kneeled down placing one hand on her friend’s head and the other over her friend’s silent heart. She didn’t think, she just pushed with everything she had left inside. A bright white light emerged from Nicole’s hands causing Kat’s entire body to be engulfed in pale flames. She watched as the ghostly glow danced over every inch of her friend’s still body. She continued until she was sure the power had touched every inch of Kat, then she let her hands fall heavy at her sides. She looked around at the growing flames dancing along the ground around her, filling her vision with red, then everything went black.
Nicole stood in the familiar graveyard with Queen Titania at her side. The once green grass was now black and smoldering. The smell of smoke filled the air around her as a dark haze drifted across the graves. The light of small, creeping fires cast an orange glow across her skin as scorching air filled her lungs.
“So now you are ready to fight?” Queen Titania spoke softly but did not meet Nicole’s eyes.
“I have no choice!” she snapped with tears streaming down her cheeks.
The old woman nodded as she placed her hand on a crumbling headstone. “We all have choices,” she waved her hand across the graves. “We fight or we give up,” she shrugged, “it’s that simple, my dear.” She turned her ghostly blue eyes to Nicole. “Are you strong enough to stand up for your people, even when you doubt yourself, when darkness blocks out all of the light and you feel as if you’re alone?”
“Alone,” she snorted, “I decided long ago that alone was how I would live my life.” She paused staring up into the ominous smoke as she wrapped her arms around herself. “But I’m not a leader for anyone, I failed Kat tonight, and now she’s gone.”
Queen Titania placed a hand under her granddaughter’s chin raising her eyes to her own. “My dear, you are just beginning to live. Who you will be tomorrow could be someone you do not know today. You have the power to set everything right again.”
“And if I do nothing?” Nicole’s brows pressed together as she looked pleadingly into the woman’s eyes for answers. There was a throbbing hole where her heart once lived. She could think of nothing but Kat. She shook her head trying to erase the image of the beautiful woman she had known most of her life lying cold and bruised on the ground with her blood pooling into the dirt.
“Loch wants a war and he will not stop until he gets it. He will continue to try to force you to join him or fight. You are the one missing piece that he has been searching for relentlessly. If you stand by hanging your head in sorrow, we will fail.” Her voice was steady and unwavering like someone who had lived in times far harder than this moment. She cupped her granddaughter’s cheeks in her strong hands, forcing Nicole to face her. “Then Loch will win, killing you, everyone you love and all of fae kind.” It began to rain around them, the red embers on the leaves of the willow hissed as beads of water rolled off them onto the ground, nourishing small green sprouts that pushed through the singed ground. “Time will keep moving even if you refuse to open your eyes.”
*****
"She’s waking up.” Sage’s voice was shrill to the point of being giddy.
The shuffling of feet on pavement met Nicole’s ears as the smell of burning jet fuel and rubber assaulted her nose. A soft hand caressed her cheek as it slid her hair away from her face. She could hear Rhys’ voice in her mind,
“I fink the princess needs training beyond me knowledge, I’ve never seen a power like this. Please don’t die princess. You don’t know how much you mean ta me.”
His thought was soft and full of worry, a side of Rhys Nicole never knew could exist in a man like him. Maybe he wasn’t all testosterone and lust after all. He was right there laying his life on the line to protect her. She remembered how he pushed her to dig deep in her efforts when she was training, even if his methods were over the top. If he hadn’t pressed her to do her best, then maybe they would have all died tonight.
Rhys’ words were overpowered by Luke’s inside her head,
“Don’t give up Nicole, please. We can do this together. I’ve waited centuries for you and I be damned if I’m letting you go now.”
His words reminded her of the moments before she had blacked out. The moment when all eyes were focused on her as she watched Spade pull the trigger, ending Kat’s life. If she had never allowed Luke to get close to her, he would have been worried about protecting Kat, the real victim, not her, and Kat would still be alive.
A soft palm cupped her cheek as fingers worked gently to wipe away the tears trailing down her hot face. The thought of her best friend’s bleeding and bruised body lying on the ground broke her down all over again. She rolled to her side on the pavement ignoring the pain of gravel digging into her skin as she covered her ears with her hands, as if that would keep the thoughts from tormenting her, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut as sobs shuddered through her body.
“We are all okay Nicole, thanks to you. Everything is going to be fine.”
Nicole’s breath caught in her throat as she tried to block out all the voices in her head along with the roaring and crackling of the fire from the burning jet. She let her hands fall from her ears as she strained to hear. For a moment there was nothing, not a foot step, not the wind blowing across the air field, only the sound of the blood pumping in her ears as her heart banged in her chest. “It can’t be,” she whispered.
Nicole felt a warm hand on her arm, “You saved me.” The whisper into her ear came from a familiar voice. She opened her eyes to see Kat’s smiling face looking back at her. She shook her head as she pushed herself up from the ground.
“How?” Nicole asked with wide unbelieving eyes. “You were dead, I saw you take your last breath.” She pulled Kat into her arms hugging her tightly then leaned back looking Kat in the face again.
Kat chuckled softly as she pulled Nicole back into a hug, “I don’t know how you did it. I just know you saved me. I knew you would…Through it all, I always knew you would come for me.”
Nicole pulled back, this time really looking at Kat, “Your arms and,” she turned Kat’s arms in her hands then pressed her fingers to Kat’s cheeks, “your face too, all of the bruises are gone.”
“You have the gift of the healing flame,” whispered Sage. “There has only been one other to possess that power…Queen Titania.” She looked over at Rhys and Luke then turned her gaze back to Nicole.
“Did you hit your head Nicole?” Kat snickered. “I think you should be more amazed that I’m no longer dead. I mean, I was dead and now I’m not.” She stressed the words as she stepped back, waving her arms across her body. “If you can bring back the dead, a few black eyes should be easy.”