Awakening (Children of Angels) (23 page)

And then, with a sigh of relief, she felt Leonara’s hand reach out through the storm behind her, and touch her on the shoulder. She had come back. Mia relaxed, dropping her guard and her shielding and allowed Leonara to take her back to the safety of the hotel room, and away from this awful storm.

She closed her eyes for a moment, relishing the moment the air around her changed from the bitter cold wind and driving snow to the warmth and dryness of the hotel room. Well, warmer than outside at any rate. It seemed chillier than usual. Perhaps she was still just cold from being outside. She kept her eyes closed, and a smile spread on her face.

“
I
’
m so glad you came back - I don
’
t think I
’
m ready to Shift by myself just yet.
”

“
That
’
s good to know
”
answered a deep male voice.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

M
ia’s eyes flew open, and standing in front of her was not Leonara at
all, but the boy. She was paralyzed with fear, and in response to the fear, she felt her powers start to wake up within her. Her entire body trembled with both fear and the sheer force of the building power - her body was ready for a fight, even if her mind was not.

“
Calm yourself, Mia,
”
said the boy
“
I am not going to hurt you. And you, little girl, are most certainly not going to hurt me.
”

He spoke in cruel, mocking tones, and Mia wondered how he could be so sure of himself. She moved to back away from him, not wanting to be this close to him. All she could see was him, she had to see past him, see if there was an escape route. She took a few steps back, and then stopped abruptly, hitting a wall behind her. She looked around the room frantically, noticing that the boy had not moved towards her at all. She wondered what he was waiting for.

She turned in a full circle, quickly, not wanting her back to the boy for too long, just in case he did decide to make his move. She must have turned too quickly though, for what she saw made no sense, she didn’t see a wall anywhere, just open space and then darkness beyond, like a huge underground cavern.

She looked at the boy again, who stood, perfectly relaxed, a few feet away, his hands in his pockets and a lazy smirk on his face as he watched her. Mia returned his gaze steadily, attempting to stop herself from shaking, and her power from bursting out of her and…and what? She had no idea what she could even do. If it was even possible to hurt him. This boy who stood before her was the reason her life had fallen apart – but also the reason she had a life to begin with - without him, there would be no her and whilst that was a bewildering thought, it did not detract from her anger at him.
He
was the reason she was taken from the parents who had loved her all her life,
he
was the reason she wasn’t ‘normal’, and
he
had the audacity to stand there smirking at
her
when
he
was the one who had ruined everything.

“
What do you want from me?
”
She kept her voice as steady as she could, and levelled her gaze at him.

“
Me? I want nothing from you, Mia
”
he replied simply, returning her gaze with a cold one of his own.

“
Then why am I here?
”
she demanded, a slight quiver slipping into her voice.

“
Because I brought you here.
”

“
Well
obviously,
”
she spat, her fear turning to anger
“
b
ut
why
did you bring me here? Why did you come into my dream? What use am I to you?
”

“
You are of
no
use to me, or to anyone else.
”
Anger flared in his eyes as his temper rose to meet hers.
“
B
ut just like you, I have my orders, and my orders were to follow you and to find out what you know, how strong you are, if you would be an asset to us - believe me little girl, I have far better ways to spend my time and much better things to be doing than watching the education of a
simpleton
, but those were my orders.
”

His words stung, and she was taken aback. Her anger fell away for a moment, and was replaced with hurt. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes, and threatened to fall. He laughed, a cruel and bitter laugh.

“You’re going to
cry
?” he scoffed “oh this is just too good. Their great saviour, a
snivelling
child who
cries
when someone hurts their feelings. What’s the matter, Mia? Did you get so used to being told how special you are that you started to believe it? That Leonara
bitch
fawning over you gone to your head has it? Think you’re something special?” He sneered at her maliciously, withdrawing his hands from his pockets and folding them across his chest. “
W
hy do you even
care
what I think of you? You are
weak
to allow someone to hurt you like that.”

“
I don
’
t
know
why I care what you think
”
she screamed back, as a few tears escaped.
“
And I
’
m not
weak
or a
simpleton
you
bastard
”
she spat, the anger rising again. He had actually made her cry. It was so humiliating she couldn't bear it.

Her power had now built to an unbearable level, and she
had
to do something to release it somehow. She focused all her energy and hatred on one simple goal - hurting the boy who stood there sneering at her. Leonara had said she could make Truths, that she was strong enough to do that. Well one Truth she was creating in her mind right now was that her power could be used to inflict terrible pain on this creature standing in front of her. This hateful boy, who followed the orders given to him by
evil
creations, blindly and without question, simply because it was what he was told to do. She hated him, and the feeling was unfamiliar. She thought she had hated people before, but no, this was completely new to her.

She narrowed her gaze and glared at him hatefully as she unleashed a huge, blinding bolt of power, aiming it squarely at his heart. She was aiming to kill. The light blinded her, and was white hot. She shielded her eyes, and crouched to the floor, squeezing herself up against the wall, trying to curl into a ball to protect herself from this white fire that was everywhere, all around her. She listened to hear if he was screaming, if there was any sign that the fire had hit it’s intended target.

If it had, he was surely dead, the heat was so intense it was starting to burn Mia, she could smell a sickening scent, and realized with horror that it was her own flesh starting to cook. She had been an idiot. She had no idea how to control something like this. Her rage had gotten the better of her, and now she would die here too, die for her foolish pride. But at least she could die knowing that
he
was gone, that
they
no longer had their greatest weapon. So there was some hope for Leonara and the others. She closed her eyes and smiled, despite the agony ripping through her body. She waited to die.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A
fter a long time - or perhaps it just seemed like a long time (Mia
suspected that being burned alive might somehow influence your perception of time) - the flames died down in one whoosh of cool air. She lay with her eyes still closed, her entire body roaring in pain. She wanted to scream, but even her throat was burned, and her lungs felt as though they were still filled with the fire. It would do her no good to scream, she realized, there was no-one to help her. She had thought that dying would stop the pain - perhaps she wasn't quite dead yet. She hoped that death would come for her soon, this torment was too much. She did not deserve this.

Or perhaps she did. She wondered vaguely if the boy was in a similar state to her, or if death had been kinder and taken him faster. There must be something she could do about this pain. It was the kind of pain she imagined people must be feeling when they were “writhing in agony”. She couldn't even do that though, her body would not even obey her command to squirm. She tried to shift her arm, just to test, to see if she was still alive and in her body. It moved slightly, and instantly the pain there intensify tenfold. She felt the dried out burned skin on her chest and arm tear, even though the movement was only very slight, and heard a sickening ripping sound, and felt her skin separate from the ground beneath her. The fire had been so intense her skin had literally begun to melt. She wanted to cry then, but no tears would come. Something had to stop this pain, why was it taking so long to die? How long did she have to stay here like this, unable to move or to even cry out in pain, just trapped in a body she could not move, dying slowly? She lay there in silence, screaming in her mind.

CHAPTER TWENTY

T
he flame had come at him suddenly, out of nowhere. Well, not
exactly from nowhere - from her. He had seen it coming, as though it was happening in slow motion, but was powerless to stop her. She had no idea how to control it, had no idea that she was surrounded by a shield that could not be penetrated by anything she threw at him, and that could only be removed by him. She had attacked him out of pure rage - the intensity of the fire, the heat of which beat him back, even through the shielding, told him that.

He had yelled out to her, told her to stop, but above the roar of the fire she wouldn't hear him, and in all likelihood he doubted she knew how to stop it anyway. Frantically, he tried to still the flames, but the shield that he had constructed around the girl was so strong that even he couldn't get his powers to pass through it.

Panic had set in, and it was frightening to Evan. He did not panic, he had never had the need for panic. And he was never afraid, of anything. But now he was, he was afraid for the girl. She had stopped screaming. The light was too bright for him to see her, the flames still swirled around, trapped by the invisible shield and giving the impression of a huge ball of flame in the middle of the cavern.

He struggled to calm himself quickly, he had to have a clear mind to think. He couldn't remove the shield, that he knew, the ball of flame looked tightly packed, as though it would fill the entire cavern if released - he would be no good to anyone if he was dead too. He could form a shield around himself at the exact instant that he disengaged the shield around Mia, but that would require perfect timing and running the
huge
risk that he would not get his shield up in time. And even if he did have that shield, he would not be able to reach the girl without lowering it.

He paced rapidly in front of the wall of flame, like a caged animal, and realized there was only one option left to him. He stopped pacing, and stood squarely in front of the wall of flames, hammering against the invisible shield, like a demon trying to get free. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing his mind on accessing his power, which at that moment was not too difficult. It was flowing through his veins like an adrenaline rush, ready to be used, almost as though it was a living being, waiting to be free, just like the fire. Well, it made sense that they would behave in the same way - they were, after all, the same thing. The fire was just Mia’s unleashed power, and it was almost impossible to believe that so much could come from one small girl.

He turned his thoughts from Mia, he had to focus on the task at hand. He would be no help to her if he did this wrong, if he died too. Something in the back of his mind screamed at him to run, to go and get someone else, to get Arduino to come here, centuries old and the wisest of his kind, he would know what to do. Or he could just run and leave her there. He was not supposed to have made contact yet, he certainly was not supposed to have taken her from her mentor, kept her prisoner. And why did he care if she lived or died? Wasn’t it better that she was gone? His biggest threat - his
only
threat - eliminated?