Burned

by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

  “She must have moved her store a while back. I remembered it differently,” he muttered a moment later when we stopped in front of the last shop.

  “Marcie’s Beauty Salon,” I read the sign above aloud. There was a lot of pink and glittery things behind the glass. My eyes hurt a little. I sensed foreign magic inside; the strong energy was already sliding down my spine. I didn’t want to think negative, but I wondered if this was yet another trap. Anything was possible in a world without magic.

  “The fairy in there can open the portal. I had to pull a lot of strings to connect with her,” he told me, then took something out of his pocket. It was some sort of box. He spread golden dust around us. The whole world around me started moving or maybe it was just an illusion. The humans didn’t notice a thing.

  After a moment, the world around me stopped vibrating and we walked inside. There was more pink colour everywhere and a lot of shiny furniture. I felt like I was in a glittery pink palace. There were four stations altogether, but no customers inside.

  A woman came out of the back room. She was a beautiful, long-legged, stunning blond. She reminded me of the fairy who I met last night with Avianna. Her hair was curly, falling in waves down her back, and she was wearing a very short white uniform.

  “Ah, it’s you. I hope this won’t take long. I have clients booked this afternoon,” she said, and smiled at Idris revealing a perfect set of white teeth. Even her skin was radiant, and I felt underdressed in my old jeans and T-shirt.

  “Donna must have mentioned why we were here?” Idris asked. I clutched the backpack tighter around my arm, trying to ignore her transparent magic. It stung me a little. I was the warden who wasn’t supposed to have any magic and yet, I managed to open the portal back at the bridge. Partly because of Avianna; she filled me with strength.

  The fairy approached Idris and ran her perfectly manicured hand over his chest, smiling provocatively.

  “Yes, yes, she did say that you might be showing up, but she never told me you were so handsome, young Dark One,” she sang, leaning even closer.

  I sort of wanted to punch her a little. Maybe just once, but she was opening a portal after all. So, I thought better of it.

  “What’s going on? Why aren’t you taking me out of this bag?”

  “Shh, there’s a fairy here and she’s interested in Idris,” I responded.

  “What? Then stop her, tell her to get her hands off him. He’s ours,” Avianna said, and I had to roll my eyes, well, only because the same thought had just crossed my mind.

  “Let’s get on with opening the portal, then. We’re pressed for time, beautiful. The payment has already been agreed upon. You got everything that you needed,” he said, sounding irritated. I assumed he didn’t like that she was touching him. Her eyes shimmered dangerously, and I was hit with soaring energy. I felt it moving through my veins like hot lava.

  Before I could react, Idris leaned over and kissed her. And it wasn’t just some kiss, but a real passionate mouth-sucking kiss. My jaw dropped, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Was this the plan or he was doing it spur of the moment?

  They were suddenly all over each other and I wished even more now that I could punch that fairy. For some reason, strong vibes of jealousy shot through my core. I shouldn’t have cared, but I did.

  Idris’s hand grabbed her arse and she giggled loudly. He kissed me that way a while back and I bloody loved it. I cleared my throat, trying to let them know I was still in the damn room. We’d both lost control back in his swanky apartment, and this… this looked all too damn familiar.

  Somehow the half Dark One managed to pull himself together; he pushed the fairy off, breathing like he’d just ran several long miles. He stared at her giggling, then frowning. Her lipstick was all over his mouth and a few lights in the salon started flashing a moment later. This wasn’t good. Maybe she used her magic to make him do it. He looked rather shocked.

  “Don’t use your magic against me again, Donna, or next time, I won’t be so calm. We had a deal. We both know that you don’t have a license to have a salon here,” he snapped, as his chest was rising and falling in rapid movements. He wiped his mouth and then fairy yawned.

  “Oh, don’t be so dramatic, handsome. I needed to taste you. It’s just my nature. This one over there has a thing for you,” the fairy said laughing and I shifted my weight to the side, as my cheeks heated. She was wrong, I didn’t care one bit about him, or so I kept telling myself. Idris looked even more furious now.

  “The portal—we need to pass through it. Can you open the door to Sepulcrum or not?” he asked. The fairy brushed her lips and waved her hand.

  “Fine, fine, let’s get on with it. I thought we could have some fun beforehand. Since the strange-looking warden has a thing for you, maybe we could use the bed?” the fairy continued.

  “Hold on, did she just offer you guys a three—”

  “Shhh, we don’t have time for that,” I cut Avianna off, blushing even more.

  I didn’t normally blush, but right now, my whole body was on fire. That stupid fairy was smiling with provocation, brushing her finger over her lip.

  Idris glanced at me, and his eyes were filled with soaring desire. I swallowed hard, trying to breathe in at the same time.

  “Donna, we really don’t have much time. Portal—we may reconsider your offer once we make it back into this world in once piece,” Idris said, with a hint of challenge in his voice. I opened my mouth to tell him that he was out of his mind when I noticed the fairy had walked us into another room in the back. She moved a heavy curtain, revealing a bare wall. The door shut behind us automatically.

  “So, you want to get to Sepulcrum. Fine, but this will drain me, and you two will be there on your own. If you don’t get to the portal in time, it will be closed off forever,” she warned us. Idris chewed his lip and nodded.

  I was hoping Idris wouldn’t back out now. We needed to get to Nicolas somehow.

  “Open the portal,” I said, but my voice was too high pitched. Then the floor began to shake, and I felt magic moving around me, vibrating and pulsating. Avianna was screaming at me to let her out of the bag, but I couldn’t let the fairy see my dragon. Who knew what she would do with her?

  The magic pounded, and my vision became blurry. The wall in front of me started vibrating, but I was telling myself that it was impossible.

  “The crossover, the crack is usable. I had to use my magic, so the two of you must hurry,” she said, once my head stopped spinning away.

  Then I saw it; the bare wall was trembling and pulsing, there was something else on the other side. A portal of some sorts; the energy was beaming out off of it. It was our way to Sepulcrum. I didn’t think that I would be scared in that moment.

  “Come on, you two. What are you waiting for?” the fairy shouted, and Idris somehow snapped out of it and nudged me.

  “Cross over after me,” he muttered. He seemed unsure but walked through the portal vanishing right in front of my eyes.

  I remembered the time when I was just about to get caught by the Dark Ones in Draconia, crossing over to this world. I’d fallen straight on top of Nicolas and now, it seemed that everything was happening all over again, but in reverse.

  Seconds later, after I approached the portal, I was falling into an unknown darkness. The fairy must have pushed me forward. I was seeing snippets of my life when Dara was alive; her smile and her tears. My voice died in my throat, and the darkness was swallowing me.

  “What’s happening, Fran? I feel strange,” Avianna’s voice said in my head.

  I was just about to answer her when I landed. I heard a loud “oww” and then everything went dark. The pain in my skull made me nauseous.

  “Fran, Fran.”

  Someone was talking to me, but this must have happened after I passed through to the other side. My body felt slightly bruised, but when I opened my eyes, I realised I was lying on top of Idris. His dark eyes were wary but staring into my soul. In th
at moment, I forgot about the fact that I was back in the territory controlled by the Dark Ones. His body heat was crackling all around me, sliding deep into my core, reminding me that he cared about me.

  Chapter Ten

  In hell.

  His stare generated soaring heat inside me that was very difficult to ignore. I hated to think that he made me blush from head to toe.

  “Hello there,” Idris finally said, bringing me back to reality. We were back in the Lower World. I could tell straight away, because here, even the air smelled different. It was smoky, and I felt magic. It was faint, but it was much more apparent than in London—that was how I knew.

  Being away from Draconia for so long had made me realise how different our world truly was. Maybe the Dark Ones were controlling every aspect of a warden’s life but being in a place where magic was present lifted my spirits up instantly.

  Here, a thick mist drifted around the entire space, but I also had this odd, sense of dread in the pit of my stomach, a feeling as if we were being watched.

  Idris didn’t move, and he kept staring right through me. I needed to get off him right away, but I could feel the moisture pooling between my thighs. My nipples were suddenly hard and in a need of his mouth.

  Nothing else mattered right then—I was lost in him. Idris’s eyes were incredible. He was seeing the vulnerable part of me, the side of me that didn’t want to allow anyone else in. Seconds later, I was leaning forward to kiss him. It was like I wasn’t in control of myself anymore. My mind screamed for me to stop, but my body shouted that I needed to taste him again. When our mouths were only inches apart, a petrifying scream broke the silence between us.

  This kind of snapped me back to the present and I managed to pull away from him. I stood up, wondering what the hell was wrong with me. This wasn’t the time nor the place to show any kind of affection, and especially to the man who I didn’t fully trust. Not yet, anyway. I was getting there.

  The voice belonged to a female and it literally chilled my blood. It sounded if someone was being tortured—or worse.

  “We need to get out of here. Look, the mist is slowly descending,” I said to Idris, picking up my backpack. Avianna was still inside, but she was being quiet for now. It was night time in Sepulcrum; darkness shaded the world around me. I’d heard from Dara that wardens who lived in this part of the Lower World didn’t experience much sun. In a way, the council controlled the weather here; they had all the magic, too. This is what was pissing me off the most about the way the system worked. We couldn’t fight them unless we had dragons. Otherwise, we were powerless to stop them.

  “What’s that mean, and why is it so dark out here?” Idris asked, and I was suddenly glad that he’d forgotten about our soon-to-be epic moment together.

  We could see the outline of mountaintops all around us and in the distance, I saw some old rundown buildings. Wardens were here, but they were hiding.

  “It’s an approaching storm. The magic is almost gone from this place, so the sun rarely comes out. The council controls everything in this territory, even the weather. Come on, we have to start moving. The prison shouldn’t be far from here,” I said, looking around.

  “Hello? You need to get me out of this backpack!”

  “Crap, Avianna,” I said, remembering that my baby dragon needed some air after all. The wardens around weren’t going to cause us any problems, and I didn’t care if they saw Avianna or not. She flew out of the backpack, batting her wings like crazy and releasing bits of fire.

  “This is silly, little one,” Idris exclaimed.

  “She can’t be left in the pack the whole time, and its much safer here than in London. Besides, you can sense if there are any Dark Ones nearby, right?” I asked him, feeling on edge. We were too exposed around here and the storm a approaching quickly. At least Avianna had more freedom here.

  “I don’t sense them nearby,” he muttered, staring at Avianna with wariness in his eyes. She was flying really fast and seemed happy.

  We started walking towards the shape of several tall buildings as the mist faded completely. Now the harsh wind was spreading dust around; it was difficult to see anything anyway.

  I’d always complained about living in Draconia, but conditions here were much more difficult.

  “I don’t like this place, Fran. There is magic here, but it seems like someone is constantly draining it away,” Avianna said.

  “There will be more magic around the prison territory. You’ll sense it eventually. I just hope Nicolas is all right,” I said, feeling a little worried.

  Idris looked tensed, too, and for a moment, I was glad he was walking ahead of me. The complete silence was deafening; bad enough that I suddenly wished I had brought some sort of music device with me.

  Soon we approach a few old abandoned buildings. I tried to imagine what this placed looked like years ago when it was thriving with life and magic but couldn’t. Now it was just nothing more than a wasteland. I asked Avianna to hide behind my hood. It was a good thing that I’d brought it with me. There were some wardens in front of a building, sitting on the dusty ground and I didn’t want to cause them to panic.

  My heart leapt in my throat when I noticed some dirty children up ahead. They all looked hungry, staring at us with a mixture of fear and curiosity.

  A man ran up to me and started shouting.

  “Please help us. My wife got infected with the Dragon Fever. I know you’re coming from Draconia, so there must be a cure!”

  He was very slim, and his eyes were bright green. Idris moved towards my direction, but I gave him a sign that it was okay.

  “Dragon Fever is highly contagious. We must keep moving, Fran,” he told me, but I ignored him.

  “Just take me to your wife,” I said to the man, feeling sorry for him.

  “Fran—”

  “Idris, we don’t know exactly how the Dragon Fever is being spread. No one knows, and we can’t leave these wardens. These people have been brainwashed by your kind!” I all but shouted at him, cutting him off. Idris was shaking his head, but he followed me along.

  The stranger took me inside some old ruin of a building. Thunder and lightning crashed across the darkened sky and the ground rumbled. There were at least ten wardens infected inside. Some were only in the first stages of the disease; the others were attending to them, trying to give them some sort of relief. The memories from back home were vivid again. Back in Draconia, when I cared for my best friend, Dara until she died. I desperately wanted to cure her, but I’d arrived back to her flat too late. Right now, I was shaking with anger. The Dark Ones had left these people to care for themselves. Left them to die.

  I started asking the man about their food, water and any supplies they had. Apparently, several miles from here, there were caves and a lot of wardens had built villages there. Some wardens who’d travelled here, were waiting for the cracks of magic to appear, so they could escape to Draconia. They were taking their chances. The man took me to his wife. She was a big blond woman with wide shoulders and sharp features. Her eyes were shiny and orange like mine used to be before I ended up in London. She was having trouble breathing; her face was shiny with sweat. The smell of blood mixed with some chemicals made me nauseous. Her pupils instantly dilated when she noticed Idris behind me.

  “There is nothing that you can do for me, girl. I’m dying, but I’m begging you: Take my husband and kids to Draconia. My sister is there, and she can take them all in,” she said, trying to grab my hands.

  I felt like the biggest coward on the planet. I had no idea if there was a way back to Draconia from here. We were here for Nicolas, but I wanted to find a way to help these poor wardens.

  “Fran, there is nothing we can do for her. It’s better if we go. I know what you’re thinking, but think about Nicolas,” Idris said while all the other wardens were staring at us. My own breathing was irregular and heavy.

  “I have magic; I sense hers, too. It’s convoluted and it’s fading. We can he
lp her, Fran; there’s a tiny voice in my head that keeps telling me to fix her,” Avianna told me.

  Then I remembered the fact that the dragon egg was supposed to be the cure for Dragon Fever. That warden in the wealthy house was talking about it, but Avianna hatched out already. I had no idea if she could help this woman.

  “Will this work? I don’t know. What do you want me to do?” I asked her, aware that Idris was watching me. He probably figured out I was communicating with her.

  There were a lot of wardens and I knew we couldn’t help everyone. The woman’s name was Agnes. She was expecting me to do something, to at least help her children.

  I knelt beside the woman and wrapped my hand around hers. The hard dragon skin had begun to appear on her chest, but she was trying to cover it with an old blanket. Agnes needed magic and she needed more than I could give her.

  Her skin was warm, almost hot to the touch, and I tried to imagine healing her. Idris was silent, but on edge. He looked like he was ready to drag me away from here by force. Maybe right now, he was caring at bit too much for me. He didn’t understand this part of me, he didn’t know that I was one of these people once before.

  No one could see Avianna behind my hood. She was still small enough to hide around my neck. Her energy was already drifting around, moving through my veins. The woman’s eyes shimmered and I concentrated.

  “She’s lost all her magic. Her body is weak, but I can fix her,” Avianna was telling me.

  I didn’t know exactly what she could do, but I focused on her magical vibrations. My skin prickled, the burst of energy caused all the tiny hairs on my body to rise. Avianna was singing some kind of song, and I could feel the warden’s cells were replenishing, connecting with her magic. Her skin changed; it went from that strange almost grey colour to full of life again. Even the hard dragon skin began fading away, like her body was healing itself from inside out. Sparks of magic started flying and for a moment, I was afraid that the other people might notice, too. My whole body was charged with electricity. I felt great, and I’d even forgotten that I was injured last night.