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My mind seemed to scream to a body that simply ignored it. “Is that what you want?”
Marius moved his nail down to my chest, tugging at the string cords that kept the material over my shoulders. He did not stop until the point of his nail pressed against my naval.
“You burn bright yet hold your flames at bay. I sense your want for me. Is that why you keep your power contained? If you will not fight me, then let me have what I desire…”
I hardly registered as flames dripped from my slackened hands like water. The aged flooring hissed as the tongues of hungry fire took control of the dead wood. I blinked, slowly, as the room lit from the ever-growing blossoms of fire.
Marius made no move away from me, not as the fire melted the leather of his boots or flirted with the material of his trousers.
I gasped at the wet lap of tongue that tickled my neck. My stomach jolted, urging the power to burn hotter, higher.
Marius moaned, wrapping one arm around my back, the other grasping my jaw. “You are the greatest I have tasted. Like honey and sugar, so sweet.”
“Stop.” As I listened to my pathetic voice, it was as though I watched on in astral form, hardly lifting my hands to bat him away.
“Say it louder,” he growled, voice vibrating against my skin as he pressed his lips into my neck. “Then maybe I will listen.”
I fought against my own reasoning. It would be easy to give in. To close my eyes and see the end.
“Stop,” I said again, lifting my hands before my face. Fire dripped down to my wrists as its unwelcome light seared into my gaze.
Marius hissed and his hold loosened. With the lack of his voice, I regained my control. I pulled away, throwing myself over the rivers of fire that ate away at the room. As though the amber glow had brought me out of a daze, I scrambled away from Marius.
Except he no longer stood in the room. It was only me and the fire that devoured the shadows until every corner of the room was bathed in its light. Strange shapes had been covered in dusted sheets, revealed by the light of my fire. Furniture forgotten from years of disuse. A room lost to the dark years that’d passed, unveiled by my power. Yet Marius was lost to the light, not hiding in the corners where the shadows fought to hold their positioning.
He had fled.
For now.
I pushed myself to standing, unable to ignore the slow movements of my limbs. Marius and his touch had done something to me. Kept me in a dulled, calm state, effects which still lingered. I took a step back towards the door and stumbled over my footing. Each blink slow, that when I opened my eyes the room had seemed to shift.
I felt… drunk, my mind foggy and limbs equally useless.
I gripped the door frame as I reached it, noticing the lack of fire across my hands. Behind me the heat from the remaining flames intensified as the room burned. I squinted back at it, watching my lingering power devour the room entirely. It spread quickly, walls and floor creaking as though it screamed in agony.
I could put it out — stop the flames with a single thought.
But I chose to ignore the notion and left them to feast across the room until fire chased after me when I finally left my compromised hiding spot.
* * *
The fire spread swiftly,devouring the floor I had left and the many above it. I thought back to Marius’s study, imagining how the books would only fuel the flames that had become the master of this place. Guilt stabbed at my gut as I ran down the stairs towards the entrance. I had my arm held to my nose to keep the intoxicating smoke from dragging me into an unwanted sleep. One I would not awake from.
Marius did not intercept me. Not as I took two steps at once, practically throwing myself down the flight of stairs to the ground floor. The grand doors were open, giving view of the night beyond, a domain of shadow and the beasts that lurked within it.
Yet I still ran for the exit as more sounds of shattering glass and the loud snaps of wood shuddered through the burning castle.
The kiss of night engulfed me as I stumbled outside. I took mere steps before falling to my knees as the hacking coughs overwhelmed me. My fingers dug into the gravel path, mud sinking beneath my nails, as I willed for my lungs to welcome the fresh air, to battle out all remnants of smoke that dared linger behind.
My ears rang violently. As the sound finally calmed, it gave way to a deep growling. A feral, guttural noise that resonated all around me. I looked up slowly, rigid with fear. The fire from the castle cast enough of a glow to bat away the immediate shadows around me. But among that darkness, barely an arm’s reach away, was a host of glowing red eyes.
Unlike Marius, his bloodhounds lacked the sophistication and patience to stalk me. Even as I stood on the path, they lacked the rules that Katharine had explained. I supposed rules did not apply during an evening of such horrors.
I sensed its rushed move before its shadowy claws left the dirt ground to pounce for me.
Deeper into the damp, dirt ground, I dug my hands in until my fingers became the very roots that dwelled far beneath me. I called for the earth, urging it to be my protector.
The ground rumbled and split. The level of energy required snatched my breath away. I pinched my eyes closed moments before hearing a wheeze as a root speared through the gut of the bloodhound. Opening my eyes, I saw rows of teeth inches before me, frozen in air as yet more feral roots joined the first. They wrapped around the creature’s dark fur, containing its thrashing and snapping jaws.
