Feudlings In Smoke (Fate On Fire Short Story) (8 page)

And Ari was the only one who could throw them.

The Prodigy and his Guard dove out of the way and Will sucked in a breath before he willed the sparks to his fingers again, burning his next spell in the air. He went to shove it toward the still-recovering Prodigy, but Ari was there, in between them. Protecting him. And in his way.

“You need to go!” she screamed, the voice hers, but not hers, disguised by the shroud. He ignored her as she had him, but she'd distracted him just enough that the Guard was able to get around her. He threw a spell before Will had time to dodge out of the way, and he turned just as it slammed into him, spinning him completely around. He staggered, the pain nearly causing him to fall, but through a sheer force of will he stayed on his feet, only to see that the Edrens had realized who he was and had turned their attention from the Carules to him.

Awesome
.

Ari swore, which, had the situation not been so dire, would have been highly amusing in her odd, dislocated voice. She threw her hands out and wards bloomed to life between them and the Edrens. Between them and the Carules, as well. She locked everyone out.

Except the Prodigy and his Guard.

Both of whom were frozen, staring in confusion at the wards. Perhaps they didn't use wards where they came from. Or maybe they just weren't thrilled with their odds now that they didn't have everyone on the field attacking their enemies.

Will leapt forward, burning another
lirik,
ready to push it at the Guard, and Ari was there, between them again. Protecting him. In his way. Again.

He bellowed, a wordless, frustrated noise, before he yelled at her. “Work with me, will ya?”

She jerked toward him, as if dumbfounded that he could possibly
not
want her right in front of him. She nodded and they turned just as another spell shot past her and into Will's shoulder. He started to fall, but as he did Ari's hand shot out, catching his wrist and he spun, burning a spell as he did, and threw it at the Prodigy as he came around.

It missed him, but hit the Guard. The big form went down hard and didn't move. The Prodigy raced to his side, turning his back on Ari and Will both. Ari grabbed his distraction and used it, burning a
lirik
and shoving forward. At the last possible second, the Prodigy threw himself backward and the
lirik
flew harmlessly over his head, smashing into the invisible wards beyond him, raining to the ground in a shower of sparks.

Beyond the walls, the rest of the battle had fallen silent as each side, too exhausted to continue, watched in fascinated horror as the most powerful sorcerers ever to walk the earth fought with everything they had to kill each other and end a centuries-long war.

The Prodigy didn't have time to get up before Ari was attacking again, but he shoved a spell at her from the ground. She danced easily out of the way, already burning her next spell. Will joined her, burning spells that worked with Ari's, weaving around the Prodigy, tightening like ropes of flames, ensnaring him, trapping him. Ari had only to throw one
lirik
and the entire war would be over. The Prodigy would die by her hand, and the prophecy would be fulfilled.

She burned it into the air, more slowly than before, as if she was relishing this last spell. It seared the air in front of her, and she pushed it, watching as it closed the distance between them. The Prodigy struggled, the flames flexing around him, almost shattering, but they held. His hands were literally tied. He could not fight back.

And then a portal bloomed to life behind the Prodigy, and several figures—Council Members, if Will had to guess, swarmed through. A
saldepement
burned in front of the Guard, who had somehow managed to sit up without Ari or Will noticing. The Carules surrounded the Prodigy. One of them screamed as Ari's
lirik
hit him instead of his Prodigy, and he burst into flames, like a human inferno. His screaming seemed to jolt the rest of them into action, and they fought back, throwing spells as they dragged their Prodigy through the portal.

Their spells fell like sand, useless against Ari's anger.

Ari screamed like a demon and threw herself at the doorway, but it was gone before she got there.

Will reached for his phone, found it covered in his blood. He hadn't realized how badly he was wounded until now. He hit send, fought to stay focused as he counted down, and burned a
saldepement
of his own. The doorway shimmered to life and Dani stood on the other side, pale, shaking, terrified, but there, always there.

“Ari!” he yelled and she turned, and even grey and faceless she seemed lost and confused. “Come on!”

She jogged after him as he stumbled through the doorway to safety.

The healers were waiting. “Heal her first,” he groaned as he collapsed on the steps outside his house. He dropped his head into his hands and fought to stay conscious. All of a sudden, he was so tired. So very tired.

“Not a chance. He's hurt worse than I am.” Ari growled when the healers attempted to ignore her, and they scurried to Will's side. She fell to her knees next to him. “Dani, can you get rid of the shroud so we can see better where he's hurt?”

He looked for Dani, and she was there, pulling the shroud off of him before her warm blue flames joining with the others, healing him. “You're going to be okay, Will,” she whispered, but tears still streaked her cheeks.

“Can you fix him?” Ari whispered, and for the first time Will could remember, he saw fear in her eyes.

Ward jogged up behind them before anyone could answer her, seemingly in perfect health. “Why didn't anyone tell me they were back? Am I not the best healer we have?” He shoved his way to Will's side, and instantly Will felt the flames mending his wounds, weaving him back together even as they warred with his red Edren blood.

“Yes, Ari. He will be fine,” Dani cried, more tears soaking her cheeks as her shoulders shook with silent, grateful sobs.

Ari leaned her head against Will's good side, and he was shocked to feel her trembling. “You, dear brother,” she said, her voice barely above a shaky whisper, “are in so. Much. Trouble.” She paused, tipping her head back but unwilling to move away from him. “And Will? I always knew… if I needed you, you would be there. And you were. Thank you.”

About the Author

Wendy Knight
was born and raised in Utah by a wonderful family who spoiled her rotten because she was the baby. Now she spends her time driving her husband crazy with her many eccentricities (no water after five, terror when faced with a live phone call, no touching the knives…you get the idea). She also enjoys chasing her three adorable kids, playing tennis, watching football, reading, and hiking. Camping is also big—her family is slowly working toward a goal of seeing all the National Parks in the U.S.

You can usually find her with at least one Pepsi nearby, wearing ridiculously high heels for whatever the occasion. And if everything works out just right, she will also be writing.

Also from Wendy Knight

Chapter One

Please don’t let him be here today. Please don’t let him be here today
.

He was there.

Of course he was there; he was always there. Trey didn’t miss class. For a few seconds Scout debated on backing herself right out the door and skipping class, but Kylin shoved past her, nearly knocking Scout into the wall. Scout gritted her teeth but bit back a reply. Getting in a fight with Trey’s girlfriend right before her first class of the day? Not a great way to start her morning.

It was zoology, and it would have been her favorite period if she didn’t have the privilege of sharing it with Trey
and
Kylin. Scout pushed her light brown waves over her shoulder, straightened her spine and stalked in, choosing a seat as far away from her ex-boyfriend as she could.

It wasn’t that she minded Kylin. The problem was that Kylin minded Scout. It made things a tad awkward when they shared a class. Happily, Scout and Trey were both content to pretend the other didn’t exist, so she didn’t have to deal with him much.

Mr. Zornes, the teacher, breezed into the room. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, refusing to give in to the whole stuffy ‘teacher’ thing. “Morning, guys. Get comfortable, we’ve got tests to go over.”

Almost the entire class groaned. Scout didn’t groan because she was fairly confident she did well on the test. And if she had to guess, she’d say Trey didn’t groan either, but she refused to look at him to check. They were battling over the highest grade in the class and leaving everyone else way behind. Scout planned it that way — because when Mr. Zornes assigned partners for the science fair, he would assign the highest grade with the lowest. That was the way he’d always done it. Scout was making sure there wasn’t a snowball’s chance she’d get stuck with Trey. Never mind the fact she loved every second she was in the lead. Was she bitter about their breakup?

Not at all.

They’d broken up over a year ago. She didn’t care. She wasn’t still in love with him. She wasn’t still devastated over his complete and absolute crushing of her heart.

Not at all.

“Scout, not surprisingly, got the highest in the class with a 98%. Congratulations.” Mr. Zornes winked as he dropped the test on her desk, and she smiled. She had worked her tail off studying for that test. Mr. Zornes passed the rest of the tests out without comment; he wasn’t cruel, and he didn’t want to draw attention to someone who hadn’t done well.

“So.” Mr. Zornes leaned on the edge of his desk, scanning the room. “I’ll give you a minute to go over your tests, and then we’ll go through them together. That will leave us with just enough time to assign partners for the science fair.” The class buzzed as they went through their exams. Scout flipped through hers and found the two questions she’d missed. Mentally she shrugged because they were hard questions.

It was Mr. Zornes’ policy to go over every test and show them the correct answers. He believed they learned better that way. He might have been right, if anyone actually paid attention. Scout tuned out and popped back in when he got to the two she missed, taking notes so she could study for the final. She had to beat Trey on the final. It was still eight months away. She didn’t care.

“So, the bell’s gonna ring any minute. Let’s hurry and get you paired up. We’re doing things a little differently this time.” He grinned like he should be congratulated, but Scout’s heart started hammering in her chest. “In the past, I’ve always done pairs according to percentages — highest with lowest, hoping that the student with the higher grade could have an opportunity to help teach their peer. But it’s occurred to me that this isn’t the way things are happening.”

Scout saw where he was going before he got there.
No, no, no, no, no
, her mind begged. But he ignored her telepathic pleading.

“So this year, we’re going to pair you with the person closest to you in percentage.” Scout felt like someone had karate-chopped her in the throat. “Scout and Trey, you two are together on this one. Given how you are both excelling at this class, I’m excited to see what you will come up with.” Across the classroom, a book slammed to the laminate floor, the echo bouncing off the walls. There were approximately four seconds of frozen silence, and then as one the entire class turned to stare at Kylin. She glared at Scout like somehow this had been her nemesis’ diabolical plan all along.

“Kylin, please pick up your book.” Mr. Zornes sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he had anticipated this. Kylin slowly reached down, doing as she was told, but her stormy eyes never left Scout’s face. Scout contented herself with staring back mildly, wondering if Kylin ever ate. The girl was stick-thin and angry. All the time. In Scout’s opinion, she just needed to eat more and her entire countenance would improve.

Mr. Zornes went through the rest of the class, pairing everyone up without further incident or tantrum. The bell rang and they all got up to leave. Scout waited patiently, hoping Trey and his starving girlfriend would go too, but Trey hung back. Scout frowned, glancing over her shoulder at him, which she never, ever allowed herself to do. His thick eyebrows and unruly black hair, the multiple bracelets-but-not-bracelets that boys wore, the thermal shirt hugging his broad shoulders — these things distracted her, made her forget she hated him ever so much.

When he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave, she sighed and turned back to her teacher. “Mr. Zornes, can I talk to you?” she asked, hesitating near her desk, her finger absently rubbing a broken heart scratched into the wood.

“Of course, Scout, what’s up?” Mr. Zornes leaned against his desk and gave her a friendly smile. He was her favorite teacher, not because he was young and cool, but because he was
nice,
and she was counting on that niceness now.

“Can I do the project on my own?” Scout heard a sharp breath behind her, but didn’t risk another glance at Trey.