Feral Magic

by J E Reed

  They were gone. In the blind of an eye. Gone.

  Vixin wrapped her arms around Zak and he clutched her middle, sobbing into her shirt. She tried to hold it together, but no amount of training could have prepared her for this. For the crushing pain of death.

  Zak had made her a part of his family. And losing family hurt far worse than any wound she’d ever experienced.

  Zak eventually separated himself from her and fell asleep in the corner. She must have fallen asleep too because the next time her eyes opened, she was freezing.

  Vixin cocked her head to the side, trying to listen for any signs of movement. Her and Zak couldn’t hide forever.

  She shifted the dirt with her magic and daylight greeted her through a small hole. Vixin took another moment to listen before widening the hole enough to poke her head out.

  Nothing moved.

  “Zak,” she whispered. “I think they’re gone.” Vixin shifted the plants away from the door and shoved it open. Afternoon sun blinded her for several seconds, but she climbed out anyway. “Come on, we have to get moving.”

  She surveyed the area, her heart breaking at the site of the smoke rising from their home. She could see parts of the structure had collapsed but tried not to think who might be buried beneath.

  Vixin jumped back into the hole. “Zak, we have to—”

  She froze. The world faded and some small part of her that’d been barely holding it together fractured into a million little pieces.

  “Zak?” Her voice broke, her entire world breaking with it.

  She crawled across the small space and touched his hand only to recoil at the feel of icy skin. Her lips parted and a noise she didn’t recognize escaped her lips.

  Vixin tried to breath. She wrestled with her lungs, fighting, and finally screamed.

  Memories flooded blurry vision. The first time they’d met running through the woods. The first time she’d gone on a mission with him. Their first training session. Her first kiss.

  Vixin’s jaw clenched and unclenched, her breathing rapid and shallow as an entirely new kind of pain lanced through her core.

  Why?

  Why?

  Why?

  She screamed the word, staring toward the heavens for some kind of answer.

  She’d wasted time. So much precious time. If anyone knew what survival meant. What the consequences of failure were…

  Vixin took a shuddering breath only to have another jolt of pain tighten around her chest.

  Last night. That’s all she’d had with him.

  She balled her fists and curled in on herself, clutching her heart as if she could hold it together. Vixin pressed her forehead to the ground and sob after sob tore through her tired body.

  She didn’t know how long she stayed that way. She didn’t care.

  Her breathing slowed and her chest loosened ever so slightly.

  Vixin lifted her head to look at him, her eyes drifting to the blood on his shirt and wound in his stomach. If she’d had enough light, if she’d known, she might have been able to find Sam before—

  They're all dead.

  Vixin drew her knees into her chest and let the silence of the world take over. Why was she left behind? Why was she the only one who—more tears fell, but after what seemed like an eternity, Vixin struggled to her feet.

  She stared at Zak. At the boy she’d tried to push away. At the boy who’d never given up.

  With an aching heart, Vixin crawled from the cellar. She stood at its edge and finally called upon the wisteria to cover his body. It crawled over the wound first and then lilies bloomed, followed by roses and fauna.

  She wouldn’t bury him in the place he feared. She’d let him sit in the sun, lost within a field of flowers that no one would ever disturb.

  She took a breath and turned toward their damaged home. Or what was left of it. Vixin took a step forward, followed by another, unable to tear her gaze away. Fires had torn the base from its branches and smoke still rose as a reminder of the carnage.

  She trudged toward it anyway, unable to stop herself even after seeing the first body.

  An empty face. Another contorted in a scream. Then—

  Vixin choked out a sob and hit her knees all over again. Sam.

  Grief consumed her, tearing every bit of self-control from her grasp as she howled in sorrow and rage.

  She clenched her teeth, biting the inside of her cheek and that depthless sorrow shifted into burning rage. She clawed at the ground then lifted her head in the direction of her enemy's camp.

  Vixin placed one foot beneath her body and rose. Bloody. Aching. But far from broken.

  Oh, so very far.

  They’d pay. Every. Single. One.

  Vixin wiped her tears and tried to ignore the faces as she lifted herself toward a section on the second floor. The section where her and Zak’s rooms sat side by side.

  His was half charred but hers sat untouched. As if it’d been unworthy to join its neighbors in death.

  She lifted herself through the window and went straight for her weapons. The knives she strapped to her back. Two shorter blades went in her boots and she strapped a third around her waist for good measure.

  Vixin didn’t bother changing her clothes. She’d wear them until she got her revenge and if she died in them, then it’d be fitting.

  Vixin exited and paused to survey the carnage below. She pulled at her magic and let the Wisteria grow, weaving between the bodies of her fallen comrades as she lowered herself to the ground.

  She poured magic from her body, feeding, feeding, feeding until the sharp sting of physical pain begged her to stop.

  But she didn’t. Couldn’t. Vixin took several steps back and let the poisonous ones take root, springing to life among the beauty. They crawled and weaved, hiding the destruction that had destroyed her newfound life.

  Vixin staggered back, leaned against the nearest tree, and slid to the ground. Tears rolled down her face in a river she wasn’t sure would ever stop. She just sat there, staring at the beautifully haunted place that would forever hold a piece of her fractured heart.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Vixin followed the same path her and Zak had trekked only hours ago. Only this time it was empty. Hollow. Replaced by an unending rage that crackled through her in waves.

  Vixin curled against a tree and pulled her cloak tight as the rain started again. She didn’t bother with a canopy. Instead, she let the water soak through her clothes until her body felt the same as her heart. Numb. At least in the moments the rage receded.

  Vixin dozed, letting the monster her magic had become slumber. Rest. Recover. Because when she unleashed it again, she wasn’t letting a single person walk out of that camp alive.

  The days drifted as she walked and Vixin let herself relive the memories. Her magic shifted and pulled, digging beneath her skin, craving release. But she held it back and when that wall came into view, her memories faded, replaced by a lust for their blood.

  Nothing made sense and she felt that hurt even worse. Why slaughter a small camp for stealing a few weapons? It wasn’t like they’d hurt anyone.

  Vixin clenched her fists. Her heart pounded in her chest as their hollow faces flashed in her mind’s eye.

  She climbed into a tree, keeping her magic on a tight leash as she examined the men guarding the wall. They smiled at one another, passing drinks and food between them as if they hadn’t just murdered over thirty people a few days ago.

  No shame. No remorse.

  Vixin took a calming breath. Death didn’t matter, as long as she made each of them pay for what they’d done. She’d shatter the night and make each of them regret ever setting foot outside their fortress.

  She slid from the tree and stalked the perimeter until nightfall. Vixin counted the guards, located the barracks, and took a mental note of those with long range weapons. She was certain all the guards had some sort of magic.

  Vixin spent the day shifting her plants into place far bene
ath their feet. The soil was thicker the further down she went, but with so many enemies she needed this to play out perfectly. For Sam and Zak. For Anton and Blitz and Daniel.

  Night descended and Vixin slipped from a tree. She checked her weapons and stretched her stiff body. Now was the moment to make her father proud. Despite his reluctance to speak of his military life, he had told her a few stories about his friends. About those he’d lost, those who’d saved him, and those he missed dearly.

  She understood now. He never wanted her to fall among the lost. He wanted her to find people to spend her life with, people that would gift her with treasured memories.

  She found that and these monsters had torn it away.

  Vixin dashed between the trees and lifted herself over the wall on silent feet. No one saw her slip inside. She pressed her back against the nearest wall then poured her magic through the earth, harnessing hundreds of seeds she’d put into place that afternoon. They rose another foot to the surface.

  No alarm sounded.

  Vixin made her way through the compound, keeping to the shadows, until she reached the center building. The same one her and Zak had spent a single night in. She wanted to personally kill whoever had given the order, before she unleashed hell upon the others.

  Vixin reached for the seeds and raised them another foot. Then another. She listened, waiting to see if anyone with similar abilities would notice, but the silence stretched.

  Vixin pulled her hood up and slipped in through the back door. Warmth from the ovens greeted her, singing her wet skin, but Vixin ignored it and crawled toward the voices. She narrowly avoided a young woman working the kitchens and refused to look at the girl’s face.

  Vixin crouched in the doorway to listen.

  “You should have seen it. The place looked like a damn treehouse.”

  “Was it the right group this time?”

  “You saw the tunnel he made from our warehouse. Earth, just like the rumors claim.”

  Vixin’s hand shook as she snaked her magic in through the backdoor.

  Another voice spoke. “Based upon the descriptions we received, I’d say the boy was a bit young.”

  “Descriptions from people scared out of their minds.”

  Another to his left chimed in. “Even if it wasn’t them, we still eliminated a threat. They were thieves and living far too close for my comfort.”

  “We shouldn’t tell Atilla until we know for sure.”

  Their voices faded. Earth. Zak was dead because—her body shook—because of her magic. Because they thought he was someone he wasn’t.

  It’d been her idea to sneak in. Her idea to tell them he possessed her magic. Her breathing accelerated and Vixin clenched her chest. She had to calm down. Calm down. Breathe.

  Vixin peeked around the corner and studied the chairs. Only five of them.

  She wiped her stinging eyes, drew her long knives, and sprinted through the doorway, plunging her blade straight through the nearest man’s back. Vixin yanked it out and lunged at the man to his right, slitting his throat in one swift movement.

  She eyed the others and tugged at her magic. Nothing. Vixin growled and tugged again, but it felt as though an invisible wall had blocked it off. Just like before.

  Something collided with the back of her head and stars shot across her vision as she hit the floor. One of her knives slid across the room, but she kept the other clutched in one hand. Vixin swung wildly, cutting nothing but thin air as she stumbled to her feet and backed against the wall.

  She pulled at the magic again, but that invisible wall stood firm, blocking her from the very things that were going to tear this place down.

  Dizzy, but raging, Vixin took a quick head count. Three stood in quiet concentration while four others edged away from the corner of the room.

  One’s mouth gaped. “It’s a girl.”

  “I’m not blind you moron.”

  “But if this girl is the one using earth magic, then we didn’t get the one responsible for—”

  “Shut up,” another voice boomed. “Girl or no, she stole from us and we can’t allow that.” He stomped toward her and leaned forward. “You’re not the only one who can play with magic. Where I come from, thieves are punished. Severely.”

  She didn’t speak, couldn’t, with the rage bubbling beneath the surface. They had her magic pinned, so what? She’d trained for years without it.

  He smiled as if she still didn’t have a blade in one hand and just as he tried to speak again, Vixin yanked the knife from her boot and launched it into his throat.

  He spluttered, grasping at the blade. The wall restraining her magic wavered and Vixin dove through a tiny crack, grasping a vine before ripping it from the ground. It wrapped around one of the men lost in concentration and the poisonous thorns pierced his arm.

  He winced, took a few steps back, and cursed. The invisible wall thickened again.

  A hulking man in the corner drew a small knife and greenery that didn’t belong to her ripped from the floorboard. The vines engulfed her body, tying it down. Vixin fought, screamed, and kicked, but the vines forced her to drop her weapon and fall to her knees.

  “I apologize, but it has to be done.” He took several steps closer, confident she couldn’t lash out at him again. He knelt before her and Vixin lunged, sinking her teeth into his neck.

  He screeched and the knife in his hand plunged into her side, withdrew, and plunged in again. Tears stung the corners of her eyes, but something in the barrier faltered again and Vixin dove for it. She grabbed the seedlings she’d planted and shattered the rest of the wooden floor.

  They scrambled, desperate, and Vixin breathed in their fear. Fed from it. The greenery caught each individual one by one and squeezed the life from their bodies.

  She took a step, but blinding pain lanced through her side. Vixin pressed a hand to the wounds and it came away bloody. She cursed, kicked the dead body nearest to her and climbed the stairs.

  Vines stretched out on all sides, slithering beneath doors for those who would wake, only to step on her deadly thorns. She almost wished she could be there to witness each and every death.

  Vixin stormed through an empty room and climbed out the window. Pain tore through her side as she lifted herself onto the roof, but the pain in her heart cut deeper.

  There were already people below, running to sound the alarm. Good, let them be scared.

  Vixin planted her feet and fed her magic through the ground. She summoned all the seeds and plants she’d shifted into place then let the world erupt.

  Those at the gates recoiled, many jumping inside the safety of the walls as plants crawled over, under and around. They engulfed the buildings, tearing through structures one by one. People screamed, running from the terror, but they couldn’t escape her poisonous barbs.

  Guards rushed out, shouting orders that would never be obeyed. They ran, many cutting through her plants with magic of their own. But their bodies turned sluggish and their magic flickered out as they grasped at their throats and choked in their own blood.

  She wouldn’t give them the mercy of a swift death.

  The cries of alarm slowly faded as more and more people fell into a painful slumber. And when crickets and the sounds of the night were the only things left, Vixin finally let her magic fade.

  She collapsed on the rooftop and another wave of pain that had nothing to do with the wounds in her side assaulted her body. Tears rolled down her face as she gazed out onto the green carnage. She hadn’t let anyone out. Didn’t care who they were, only that her friends were avenged.

  Despite her body’s protest, Vixin used her magic to lift herself from rooftop to rooftop, careful of the poison she’d left behind.

  She set herself outside the gate and leaned against the nearest tree, letting grief take its toll.

  ~~~

  Vixin’s eyes fluttered open with the first rays of dawn. She shifted and hissed at the pain in her side. The blood had stopped, which meant her wound
s probably weren’t that serious. She half laughed to herself. Lucky or cursed, she wasn’t sure.

  Maybe she’d been allowed to live because she still had someone to hunt down. This Atilla. She glanced toward the camp. Eventually, someone would come along and see what she’d done. They’d report back to him and simply knowing he’d fear for his life was enough to satisfy her for now.

  Footsteps echoed down the road and Vixin shot to her feet. She wouldn’t hide. If it were more men who called this place home, she’d gladly let them go in.

  Vixin pressed a hand into her side feeling the trickle of blood again. She’d have to stitch it later, but for now, she waited.

  The procession, consisting of at least fifty men, halted several yards away. They seemed to study her before two men separated from the group and approached. Vixin held her ground, the magic already writhing beneath her feet. She didn’t care who noticed.

  They stopped, gazed at the carnage behind her, and then one spoke. “Did you do this?”

  “Does it matter?” she snapped. Vixin noted the way he kept his hands at his side, though his companion didn’t do the same.

  He gave her a sideways grin. “Looks like you did our work for us.” He furrowed his brow. “Though I guess there’s no looting whatever’s inside.”

  “Not unless you want to die.”

  They stood in awkward silence, but Vixin still didn’t release the hold on her magic.

  “Are you alone?” he asked. When she didn’t respond he waved a hand toward his companions. “You could join us if you wanted.”

  Vixin snorted. “Not a chance. And if you don’t want to end up like them, you’ll get out of my way.”

  He raised his hands and took a step to the side. She noted the bracelet around his wrist. The same color as her own.

  Vixin stormed past, but his companion protested. “Reece, she’s just a kid.”

  “She can take care of herself.”

  Vixin didn’t look back. He knew what crawled beneath her feet. What kind of hell she could still unleash if any of them came after her.