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“Hello, Hazel. I am called Jayce.” He glanced up at her through a dark slash of brows. “You really don’t know what you did? What you conjured?”
She sat down with a thump on the other side of the small table, all the while shaking her still pounding head.
“I really, really don’t know. Hence the questions, and the…the damn headache.” She rubbed against her temples, trying to ease the ache and suddenly there was another set of hands there, pushing and massaging in all the right ways. Hazel sighed as she melted under that touch, the pain just fading away until it was barely notable. What was extremely noticeable was the way her body arched toward the touch, a different ache growing in her center.
Suddenly conscious of herself, she cleared her throat, forcing away the pang of regret as she pulled away from the sweet touch.
“Um, thank you.” She said softly, not looking up at Nika where he stood like a mountain behind her.
“Here, drink this. It will help get rid of the ache for good.”
Yes, but which ache? she wondered as she took the mug from Jayce, their fingers barely brushing but still enough to send a tidal wave washing over her. His eyes locked on hers, staring so deeply that she was sure he could hear every thought, see every image that tried to form in her mind despite her best efforts. There was a sudden flash of fire turning his eyes molten, but then he looked away, dropping his hand to the floral print table top.
Hazel took a sip, and then moaned slightly at the silky smooth sweetness. It was utterly delicious and she hastily drank the rest of it down, praising the instant relief from the still nagging pounding of her head.
“Delicious.” She said, her lips still wrapped around the lip of the mug. They both stared at her for a long, tense moment before Jayce finally spoke.
“Yes. Delicious, indeed.”
There was something in the tone of his voice that had her looking up at him again, but then Nika was there, sitting down in between them, and it was almost too much to take, looking at them both at the same time, their twin metallic gazes locked on hers.
“So, explain.” She said, trying to drink the last few drops that clung to the bottom of the mug.
“We are...We were warriors. Drakolia warriors.”
“Drakolia.” Hazel said slowly, tasting the unfamiliar word. “I just conjured you up? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Yes, it does. We served under Drakon himself. We were imbued with his powers, his…abilities, as all of his soldiers were. There were many of as at first, thousands of us. Now, there might only be us, left.” Nika shook his head sadly, his thoughts far, far away. Jayce picked up where he left off.
“We were sent on a mission. Our last mission. To hunt down and destroy Eidolon, but he ended up being far more clever and more desperate than we had realized. The only way to save humanity was to lure him into a cage, using ourselves as bait, and spring the trap on us all.”
Jayce stared into Hazel’s unusual violet eyes, trying to stay calm as he continued but there was a tightness as he spoke that told of the anger that simmered just below the surface.
“When you cast that spell, you broke the prison, so to speak. Released us from the Neverworld, and Eidolon as well. Now, we must recapture him, and as fast as possible. He is weakened now, disoriented, but he won’t be for long.”
“What are you saying, that I…that I…” Hazel couldn’t even get the words out as visions of massacre and devastation burning across her home played over and over in her mind. “But that’s impossible! I’m not powerful enough to do something like that, like…what you said. I can barely light a candle!”
“Well, you did a whole lot more than that, sweetheart.” Jayce snapped at her, his temper finally getting the better of him as he jumped to his feet, the chair crashing to the floor as he stalked away.
“You made this mess, and now we’re going to have to clean it up. Just pray not too many more people have to die because of the monster you released.”
“But, wait, I…” but he was already gone, leaving just a flash of brick red scales as he fled through the front door and out into the night.
