“Okay,” I said, not thinking twice about it.
He had put the demons in cages and drawing his hands up, the cage doors opened. The wind blew their nauseating scent toward me causing me to gag. However, these demon scouts looked different than the ones I had encountered before. They looked like a cross between little shadow people and bears. They had a round head, body, arms and legs, but they were only a couple feet tall. Instead of fingers, they had sharp claws growing out of their hands. Then there were their eyes of course, the eyes of a demon — narrow and red — which sent shivers through me.
Vala stood directly behind the demons. I was able to ignore her completely and aim only at the demons. It took five seconds for me to kill them and send them melting into the earth. Ramsey clapped. “Well done!” He reminded me of a proud father. Looking at Vala, he asked, “Did you feel anything?”
“No.” She smiled. “Not a thing.”
“Excellent!”
* * *
“I have captured more demons to practice with,” Ramsey announced as we walked outside a few days later.
Great. Just happened upon a few more I suppose.
“This is important. I want to teach you how to single out the demons and leave everything else out. There will be a lot of distractions at the battle.”
I nodded. “I understand. I just don’t like it.”
I could see the dwarf like demons approaching now, slobbering all over the ground. I shuddered. I also noticed an unnatural number of wildlife nearby. Ramsey must have brought them in too.
Ramsey stood behind me. “In your mind, pick out the demons from the other animals.”
There were rabbits, squirrels, and birds. I was having a hard time picking out only the demons. “I can’t. There’s too many.”
“You have to.”
I tried again, but with so many different species, I kept screwing up. “It’s not working.”
“Use your mind,” he told me.
“To do what?” I didn’t understand what he was asking me to do.
“Open your mind and send out a stream of light to each demon.”
“What?”
“Just try it,” he said patiently.
I let out a big breath of air, blowing my bangs out of my eyes, and opened my mind. Stream of light, huh? I imagined streams of purple leaving my mind and flowing out to find every evil thing I could see. They swirled like ribbons in the wind until they touched a demon.
“Are you seeing it?” Ramsey asked.
“Yes,” I said quietly amazed.
“Are they only touching demons?”
“Yes.” Unbelievable.
“Now, kill them.”
The demons scurried closer, and the hatred in my body rose. I sent out a surge through the streams, and the demons immediately collapsed on the ground.
As soon as the demons melted, the purple swirls disappeared, and my anger dissolved.
“Good job.” Ramsey clapped.
“Thanks. I never imagined it that way, it was…kinda cool.”
“I don’t think you realize how much power your mind holds.”
“How did you know I could do that?”
“You told me when you were little.”
Oh right. And it probably got blocked out along with who knows what else.
* * *
Two days later Vala called me downstairs. “Kern has decided. They will attack the gifted schools in a week.”
“The schools? They’re attacking the schools?”
“Yes. All of them at the same time. Kern isn’t too happy with your school. He wants revenge because of you. He’s going to be there watching. He’s making a mistake. We will be there too, and you will have your shot at killing him.” Vala clapped excitedly.
I wasn’t sure this was something to be excited about. “How do I kill him?” I asked remembering how hard it supposedly was to actually kill him.
“That is what we will teach you this week.”
A few days later, Vala handed me a new dagger. “This one is only for Kern,” she said. The dagger was longer than my other one and the engravings were different. “This one was made the same way as your other dagger, but it has more magic in it.”
“Do I just plunge it into him?” I asked.
“There are a few ‘rules’, if you will. First, you will need to have Mira or another compeller with you. It might help if you have someone who can read minds as well. Kern will most likely be holding something — a wand, a stick, a remote of some sort. The compeller will need to make him drop that.
“After that, use your gift on him. This won’t kill him, but it might weaken him a little. Then you, and this is important, only you, will need to stab him three times. The last time needs to be directly in the heart, and you will need to leave the dagger in as far as you can. Ramsey or I will take over from there.”
Sounded easy enough.
“It does,” she responded. Sometimes I forgot she could read minds because she usually kept it to herself. “Getting close enough to him will prove to be difficult. He is strong. And if he gets a hold of you first, it could very well be over — quickly.”
“When do we leave?” I asked.
“Soon. I won’t make a decision until I’m ready to leave. Just in case he has a watcher. I’d like to take him by surprise.”
“I’ll be ready.”
“Kassia, you are ready.”
I smiled. That was big coming from Vala. “I hope I make you proud.”
“You will. You already have.”
* * *
Three days later, Vala woke me up. “It’s time to go.” Quickly, I dressed in jeans, a white t-shirt, and my hoodie.
The three of us started walking. “Will we be walking a long time?” I asked.
“No. Just to the portal,” Ramsey answered.
“Portal?” I was flabbergasted. “We have portals?”
Ramsey chuckled. “Yes, there are a few and they’re only used when absolutely necessary.”
“Where is it?”
“About a day’s walk.”
“Oh, so nowhere nearby?”
“Near enough.”
“Is the battle happening today?”
“Yes, they will be there by dusk.”
“Will we?”
“Yes.”
“There won’t be time to socialize, Kassia. You can do that later.”
“I understand.”
“Can anyone use the portal?”
“No,” Ramsey answered, but he didn’t elaborate.
After a few minutes passed, I asked, “How does it work?”
“You just step in.”
That wasn’t exactly the answer I was looking for. “Some things just don’t have an explanation. It just works,” Vala said.
We walked through forests and across meadows stopping only to eat and take short breaks. “Keep up your strength,” Vala said, shoving a sandwich at me. “You will need it.”
During the afternoon, I asked out loud, “Do you think they’ll hate me?”
Nobody answered. Either it wasn’t something they could answer or they didn’t think I’d want to hear the answer. I left it at that. This walk was easier to handle than the trek there. I was in shape now and didn’t mind it at all.
The sun was low in the sky when we reached a secluded area on the outskirts of a large city. I had no idea where we were. “Will this hurt?” I asked skeptically.
“No. Just watch your landing,” Ramsey responded.
“Where does it come out?”
“About a mile from the school.”
“Really?” I couldn’t believe there was a portal that close to the school and nobody had ever mentioned it.
Ramsey did some crazy things with his arms and a light appeared. It grew bigger until it was a large, colorful oval. Ramsey went through first; he just stepped in and disappeared. It was as if the portal opened up and ate him. “You go next,” Vala said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
r /> Hesitantly, I stepped up to the portal. I took a deep breath and stepped in. The next thing I knew, it was ejecting me out into a forest. Ramsey caught me and helped me get my balance. “Whoa.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
Vala stepped out of the portal with grace and ease. “Years of practice,” she said, seeing my expression. “Let’s go. We have a mile to cover, and it’s almost time.”
Soon, I could see Glendale in the distance. My body tingled — but I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or excitement. The students and faculty were all lined up around it. We were coming in behind some of the demons. Vala put her finger up to her nose. The cat-hounds had already started their attack. “Let the institute get rid of them. We don’t want them to sniff us out,” Vala whispered.
I tried not to breathe too deeply because the rotten odor was overwhelming. Must have been the number of demons in the area making it a hundred times stronger.
There were so many demons. Fear was taking over and I was shaking again. Calm down. Just breathe. There’s nothing to be scared of. You can do this.
Once the cat-hounds had been taken care of, the smaller demon dwarves rushed in. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving up in the trees. I lost my focus and looked up. It took only a few seconds for my eyes to adjust, but then I saw them. Faeries. They were a little bigger than my hand and their wings were transparent. This helped them to hide in the trees and blend in with nature. They were striking creatures, absolutely beautiful.
They each had a bow and arrow. Their weapons, being faerie made, were lethal. The arrows were made like the daggers, with magic. As they shot them into the demons, the demons immediately fell dead to the ground. The faeries never missed, never accidentally hit a student or teacher, or never even hit the ground. I suspected a little bit of magic was in play there too.
Vala cleared her throat, reminding me I was needed. “Go,” she mouthed.
I hurried to a spot where I was surrounded by demons and without thinking twice, I killed them. My mind was trained now. I could separate the demons from the gifted. Picking them out so I wouldn’t hurt them was easy. I tried taking down every demon here, but there was way too many for that. I did get hundreds at a time.
Now that I was so much stronger and better with my gift, I could take note of things in the corner of my eyes. Suddenly, I saw her — Mira. She was fighting a demon with her dagger. It was obvious that she, too, had been well trained in the past months.
Seeing her threatened to break my focus. Part of me wanted to run to her, throw my arms around her, and never let go. When Daxton came into view, my heart almost flew out of my chest right then. Seeing him again after all these months had some crazy effects on me.
I noticed Vala giving me a look and realized I wasn’t doing my job. Focusing for only a second longer, the demons dropped to the ground. There were so many of them. To get more at a time, I needed to get in the middle. Running, I took off towards them. Planting my feet and opening my mind I commanded them to die and they did. Killing hundreds at a time was exhilarating. I was enjoying this more than I should.
There were so many gifted mixed in with the demons, it made it harder to focus. Remembering what I had been taught, I singled out all of the demons in the yard by using my power to make purple swirls materialize from my head to each demon. Then, with that power, I sent out a surge and the demons dropped to the ground.
Once the majority of demons on this side of the school were dead, I looked back to where my friends were fighting. They were doing really well, except there were some demons creeping up behind them. I hurried closer, knowing that I could do this without hurting them.
It was then that she saw me. I could tell by the expression on her face that she recognized me immediately. She stopped fighting and was staring at me now. I resisted smiling and running to her. I couldn’t yet. In a minute, she’d be dead because she was just standing there. Zane followed Mira’s gaze, and his jaw dropped as he realized who she was staring at.
As I stared back at them, I realized how I must look. I hadn’t thought of that. I sure hoped I could drop these demons faster than Zane could throw that dagger into my heart. I wasn’t sure I could live through that twice. I only had to focus for a second more and then the demons fell to the ground.
Chapter Nineteen
With the demise of the smaller demons, the bigger ones were coming out of the woods now. There were demon bulls and those giant beasts, like the one that had captured me. I rolled my eyes; they couldn’t have waited a few more minutes? I scanned the yard for Auralee; she was my only chance right now.
I spotted her staring at the demon bull with his big red eyes and steam like smoke coming out of his snout. Auralee! Her head shot up and she looked around until her eyes rested on me. Her jaw dropped. I need you to stop Zane. I don’t have time to explain right now. But, it’s really me.
She nodded and ran to Zane’s side. As I focused on the bulls that were surrounding us, I could see Auralee struggling with Zane. The bulls were harder and took a few seconds longer, but down they went.
Zane saw the bulls die, and he let Auralee force his arm down to his side. He didn’t look away from me. I spun around where I stood looking for any more immediate threats. I figured I had a minute, if that, to go to them.
I ran straight for Mira and threw my arms around her. Inhaling her sweet scent, I closed my eyes, and I was home. I pulled away a little bit and looked at her. She was still in some state of shock. “You’re dead…” she whispered.
“I was.” I said with tears streaming down my face.
She looked me right in the eyes like she was searching for something. I smiled trying to comfort her. “It’s really you.”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Her knees buckled a little, and Zane caught her even though he was still clutching his dagger. She regained her balance and touched my face like she wasn’t sure if I’d disappear now. Tears filled her eyes, and she smiled back finally.
Vala and Ramsey approached quickly. “We don’t have time for explanations right now. We must go.”
“GO? Go where? You can’t leave!” Mira yelled.
“I need you and Auralee to come with me. It’s time to stop Kern,” I said coldly.
Before I turned to go, my eyes rested on Daxton. I went to him quickly and pressed my lips against his. “I still love you,” I told him. Then I grabbed Mira and Auralee and hurried to catch up to Vala and Ramsey.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Back there.” Vala pointed to an area heavily guarded with demons.
As we rounded the school, I noticed that this side of the school hadn’t fared as well. Demons were still attacking. I took a moment to find a good spot, focus on the demons, and kill them — hundreds at a time.
Once they were dead, I nodded to myself, satisfied. “It’s up to us to kill Kern,” I told Mira and Auralee. “Mira, I need you to compel him to put whatever he’s holding down. Auralee, I need you to read his mind. Signal to me by touching my shoulder when he’s at his weakest emotional and physical point.”
“Okay,” she said.
Coming up on more demons, Mira and Auralee positioned themselves to fight them. “Don’t worry about them.” In seconds, I had the first group dead.
“How did you…?” Mira stumbled on her words.
“Later,” I said, focusing on some more demons.
Ramsey pointed. “He’s up there. Remember what we taught you. We’ll take care of the remaining demons out here.”
The three of us slowly approached the woody area, killing demons as we went. Kern came into view quickly. Seeing him again sent the biggest shiver of all down my spine. I forgot how scary and evil he was. His dark eyes were wide. His mouth parted in surprise as his eyes settled on me. I smiled knowing I had gotten the best of him even if just for a minute.
He quickly tried to hide his surprise and replace it with smugness. “Kassia…it??
?s so nice to see you again. I’m thrilled that you are…alive.” His words were dripping with sarcasm. Looking behind me, he must have noticed that I obliterated his army. “I see your powers have grown. It sure would be nice to have you on my side.” He took a step towards us. “Are you sure there is nothing I can do to convince you?” He flashed his gorgeous smile, making my body tremble again.
“No way in hell.”
“Too bad. We would have made a cute couple.”
With a wave of his hand, he sent us flying backwards. He laughed as we stood back up and dusted ourselves off. He made a motion with his hand and giant demons came from behind him. I wasn’t sure if I should take down the demons or go after him. Something in me said to stay focused on him, so I did. He raised his hands, conjuring up a fierce wind.
I saw that he did indeed have something in his hand. Without moving, I began to use my gift. I didn’t want my body to give anything away, so I just started thinking of him hurting. I started off with a lower level of power and very gradually let it grow until he was rubbing his head. I nudged Mira who thankfully snapped out of her trance like look and said, “Kern, put down the thing in your hand.”
Kern laughed. “Like that’s going to work. Please.” He knocked us down again and stood over me. “We could have been so good together.”
“Not in a million years.”
“We were made for each other.”
My stomach turned cold. “There’s only one man for me, and it’s not you!”
I tried using my power, but he was pushing back somehow. “That won’t work!” He jammed his foot into my side, causing me to cry out in pain.
Mira started to come to my aide, but I threw her a look and she backed off.
I pushed harder in my mind and he stumbled back a few steps inadvertently giving us room to get up.
Knocking Mira and Auralee down a third time with a wave of his hand, he quickly grabbed me by the throat and shoved me against a tree before I was able to react. He held me tightly and I couldn’t breathe. My lungs felt like they were on fire. But my eyes still worked. I upped my power a little bit until he swayed and loosened his grip on my throat. He looked at me bewildered.