Authors: Jordan Mendez
Suddenly,
Vaze whipped his wings out once more while dangerously close to the ground. The
feeling of gravity pulling us down turned into a sharp yank as we fell into a
gentle float. I refused to open my eyes until I felt Vaze touch the ground. Vaze
let go of me and, like the klutz I was, I fell to the ground looking like a
fool.
“What
did you do that for you idiot?” I yelled. He didn’t reply, or even acknowledge
me. His eyes were focused straight ahead with an intense hatred. I tilted my
head back to find town square upside down. A man was sitting on the stone
fountain that marked the center of the town. I flipped myself over and the
world was right side up again, allowing me to see the man at the fountain.
My
breath was caught in my throat. The only thing I could focus on was the man’s
blood red eyes. I scrambled to my feet immediately. I really,
really
wished I hadn’t grabbed onto Vaze now. Standing before us, lounging on Laetus’s
heart, was Enzio. His arms were crossed casually and he almost seemed
human—almost.
“Thirty
seconds; I think that’s a new record,” He said emotionlessly. “I knew you’d
come, but I didn’t think you’d make my job easier by bringing my next target to
me.” Vaze didn’t bother replying. He took out the dagger that the Bookworm had
given him. The assassin chuckled. “How cute, you think you can beat me.”
Shrieks
that resembled a cat using glass a scratch post resonated behind us. I flipped
around to find an impossible number of Shadows streaming in through the streets
toward us. The same thing happened where-ever I looked, there were hundreds of
Shadows piling into the town square. My heart was beating so fast that I
thought it would burst out of my chest.
In
less than a minute we were surrounded by a sea of Shadows. They made a ring
completely around us. I looked back to Enzio. As much as I was afraid of the
Shadows that surrounded us, I was more concerned about him. He was a bigger
threat than the uncountable Shadows. He seemed to read that from my expression,
and his eyes crinkled a bit, as though underneath his mask of red rags he was
smiling.
Vaze
bolted for the assassin faster than I’ve ever seen anyone run. Though his speed
was impressive, it was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen somebody do. It
probably could have gone down into the history of dumbest things ever done, or
at least tied with something stupid that I’d done. Enzio didn’t move, nor did
he make any attempt to protect himself. He just looked completely relaxed.
Vaze
was within inches of him with his dagger even closer to Enzio’s face, when
suddenly, Enzio was gone. Vaze stopped and looked to his right and left sides
with on-edge paranoia. Just as quickly as he had disappeared, Enzio appeared
out of the air behind Vaze. The assassin raised his arm to strike Vaze with a
black dagger, and Vaze was completely oblivious to the fact that Enzio was
behind him. But I wasn’t.
I
concentrated on Enzio and with the flick of my hand his dagger caught fire.
Enzio yelped in pain and dropped the black dagger. Vaze whipped around and,
without missing a beat, slashed out at Enzio. Enzio jumped back, but the tip of
the dagger still caught his stomach. It tore through his shirt with ease, but
only managed to create a thin cut across his stomach.
Enzio
shot an evil look at me and my blood froze. Fortunately for Vaze, when Enzio
momentarily stopped my heart, it also momentarily threw off his concentration
so Vaze was able to get in another shot, this time cutting a little deeper—this
time into his left shoulder. Enzio grunted but the sound was quickly drowned
out by the shrieks of the Shadows. I finally realized the Shadows were making
no attempt to attack us. It was more like they were just watching the fight as
if we were dogs they were betting on.
I shook it from my mind and continued to help Vaze. Whenever Enzio touched the
ground, I made fire spew out from beneath him. It may have been raining but, as
I have said before, water doesn’t affect my control over fire. In fact it
helped a little bit. Whenever Enzio was about to step into an especially large
puddle, instead of making the ground catch fire I used the fire to make the
water boil.
There
was one flaw with my method. I had to make every trap Enzio disappear whenever
Vaze was about to step into it. It was hard to only hit Enzio without hitting
Vaze. If they had been going at a slow pace it would have been easy, but they
were moving so fast my eyes had trouble tracking them.
While
still in the air after jumping away from another trap, Enzio knocked Vaze back
with one arm. Vaze flew backwards and landed with a thud, but the second he hit
the ground he had already started to get back up to his feet. I thought for
sure that Enzio was going to use this as an opportunity to attack Vaze, but to
my surprise he turned to me. “Get her!” He yelled, with one badly charred
finger (which to my satisfaction, was the hand that I had burned) pointing at
me.
The
Shadows went completely nuts. I had thought their screeching before was loud,
but the sound they all made together at once was mind numbing. Luckily I caught
on before it happened. The sea of Shadows rushed to one point in the town
square: me.
Surprisingly
enough, I was calm. Wait no, that’s not it. It was more like my mind completely
cut out my emotions and let my body take control. The last thing I heard was
Vaze screaming: “
Scarlet
! NO!”
The
first Shadow to reach me was the first Shadow to meet God, or where-ever they went
to after death. The Shadow lunged at me, but being the self-confident idiot I
was, I didn’t even flinch. When it was an inch from me it burst into flames and
fell to the ground screeching. In a matter of seconds it was reduced from
nature’s ugliest creation to nature’s ugliest pile of ashes. However, it became
quickly clear that the Shadows were going to be too many for me to pick off one
by one.
An
idea sparked into my mind. I slammed an open palm into the ground, and
immediately a wall of fire erupted between the Shadows in front of me, killing
some but keeping others at bay. I whipped out the dagger I had taken from the
Bookworm and sliced behind me. A Shadow dropped dead as I made a one eighty to
face the other Shadows trailing around obstacles to reach me.
The
first time I had fought Shadows, I had no idea what I was up against or what my
opponents were capable of. I still didn’t know much, but I knew enough to
figure out that they pretty much thought the same. I also realized that they
didn’t do too well in a large group. They were falling over each other to
attack me, and there wasn’t enough room to use their speed, like I had seen
when they attacked Vaze and me the night before.
One
by one the Shadows dropped around me as I lashed out with the dagger. My aim
was deadly accurate, though every thrust and lash was completely reliant on luck,
which for once in my life I seemed to have an endless supply of. The fact that
I couldn’t fully concentrate on fighting because I still had to concentrate on
my firewall behind me made it harder then it seemed. Regular fire wouldn’t last
a second in the pouring rain, so I couldn’t let it subside into regular
soulless flames or else my one defense would disappear and unleash all hell on
my weak side
Out
of the corner of my eye I could see that Vaze wasn’t having much luck without
my help. He was covered head to toe with shallow cuts, but he didn’t seem to
notice. He kept up a flurry of slashes and punches and kicks that were all
blocked one after one and greeted with a tiny counter attack that always left a
trickle of blood. It didn’t take a fool to see that Enzio was toying with him.
A
small pile of dead Shadows had begun to form at my feet, and I was growing more
and more tired with every Shadow that fell. For most of the beginning of the
fight, I was scar free, but eventually some Shadows had managed to snag me with
their claws. The injuries were hardly anything more than scratches, but the
fact that I was getting hit not only meant I was growing weary, but that the
Shadows were getting better. It suddenly popped into my mind that there was no
way I could get out of this alive. Even if I managed to kill every last Shadow
in the place, there was no way Vaze could kill Enzio, and we’d still have to
deal with him, and by then chances were I’d be way too tired to even stay
conscious.
Over
the screeching of the Shadows I could faintly hear laughter from Enzio. “You
make this far too easy Vaze; your feeble attempts are hardly a step above
committing suicide.” A quick glance showed me Vaze pinned on the ground by
Enzio. Enzio reached beneath his cloak with one hand and pulled out a short
sword that looked like nothing I have ever seen before.
Its
handle and hilt looked like it was made of a glossy black rock and it had
intricate designs that I couldn’t clearly make out. The blade gleamed white
like pearls. The weapon itself was beautiful, but I knew the man that held it
used it for an evil intent.
I
had to do something, but what I decided to do was just plain stupid. Without
missing a beat, I grabbed the head of a Shadow and shoved it down. As I had
hoped, the Shadow used its powerful legs meant for speed to keep itself upright,
giving me the momentum to get high enough in the air for the next step.
As
carefully and quickly as I could, I landed on the head of another Shadow and immediately
sprang to another. It wasn’t a long process, but Shadows figured it out and
angled their mouths up and I had to watch out for razor sharp teeth while I
sailed towards Vaze and Enzio.
Enzio
poised the blade so that it hovered dangerously close to Vaze’s throat. Vaze
struggled to get away, but eventually seemed to make up his mind to submit.
Instead of looking defeated, he looked directly into Enzio’s eyes fearlessly.
Enzio laughed coldly.
“In
your last moments you choose to act like the prince you always wanted to be,”
Enzio said trying to rub salt into Vaze’s wounds. “Do you have any last words?”
“Burn
in hell,” Vaze hissed. Enzio only laughed again, his voice deep and gravely.
“I
have. Longer than you can comprehend,” he replied. “Devour him, Alma Ladron.”
The
blade began to glow as Enzio pulled back to strike. I launched myself off of
the last Shadow towards Enzio. Time seemed to stand still in those few seconds.
The only thing I could see was the look of Enzio’s blood red eyes swimming with
rage and victory. It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
It
was all over the second I made contact with Enzio. The impact knocked the wind
out of me, but I wouldn’t be subdued so easily. Before Enzio could land on the
ground or recover from shock, I did my best to restrain his movements. The
blade was knocked out of his hands and clattered across the wet stone pavement
as it returned to normal. We hit the ground hard and luckily, Enzio took most
of the impact.
Vaze
snapped off the ground and snatched up the blade that Enzio had tried to kill
him with. The second he clutched it in his hand he yelped and dropped it. His
hand was red and the hilt was smoking.
Enzio
snickered. With an incredible strength Enzio threw me off of him as if I were a
fly. He turned to me and I realized this was the worst idea I’d had in the past
forty eight hours. I had seemed to be making a lot of bad mistakes in that time
span.
“
You
,
child, are truly one of a kind,” he said casually. “First, you save a prince from
the Shadows, who, in my opinion, are only a few steps above useless, but then you
manage to inflict some damage onto me, and escape. But no matter how unique
that was for a twelve-”
“Fourteen,”
I interrupted, just for the heck of it. If I was going to die what did it
matter?
Enzio
looked at me in disbelief for a moment. I bet he wasn’t used to little girls
back talking him.
“My
apologies,” He said tonelessly. “As I was saying, no matter how extraordinary
that was for someone like you, you make incredibly moronic decisions. You could
have escaped when we first met, but you chose to risk your life to save Vaze, a
complete stranger. And on top of that, you brought him to Draco Hale’s home to
get him help. Not only have you exposed to me where an old enemy of mine is,
you have also revealed your brothers to me. You alone are their protection,
since Draco decided to renounce his powers. When you tried to stop Vaze from
going after me, you left them and now, after I kill you two, I am going to send
each one of them to the afterlife, slowing and painfully.”
My
eyes grew wider with each word he said. My brothers were my entire world and
the only reason I was alive. Without Jake, I would have probably died of
starvation in the forest, and without the rest of my brothers, I’d probably have
gone insane.
“Touch
any of them and I swear I’ll kill you!” I screamed with rage. Enzio laughed.
“Such anger, such passion,” he said jokingly. “And here I thought the youth
nowadays only cared about themselves.”
The
ground began to shake beneath us, knocking Vaze off his feet. “Finally!” Enzio
sighed. “I truly do hate baby-sitting the new Shadows during a Convergence, it
takes so long, and has gotten incredibly boring.”
An
earth-shattering roar broke through the air from the street behind us. I looked
around in confusion, expecting some new creature. Enzio’s eyes widened with a
mixture of surprise and disbelief. I turned my head to find Shadows sailing
through the air in all different directions. If I had been in a dumber, more ‘I
just woke up five seconds ago’ mind-set, I would have thought that they were a
flock of crows flying away.