by DM Fike
All intentions of serenity fled in the wake of the attack. I dodged a second fist to the chin but received a kick to my side for my efforts, throwing me back into the ashes. My internal temperature rose dangerously. I grabbed my water charm, drawing a series of Vs with a slash through them. A steaming current of water whipped out of my fingertips, directed at my attacker.
The figure screamed, a mixture of a real cry and crackling fire, as it shielded itself with its arms from my attack. It was then I got my first good glance at the thing. Definitely not a bull, and certainly not any animal I’d ever seen. Instead, it appeared as the shadow of a man made completely of fire, standing several feet taller than me, with no real physical form underneath that I could tell. It had no distinguishable hands or feet, just stumps, as if someone had cut them off at the ankles and wrists. As it turned to me in hate, I noticed it had no real eyes or mouth, only gaping cavities of intense fire that burned where those features should have been.
It didn’t appear or act like any vaettur I had ever fought. It looked more like a demon straight out of hell.
My water charm’s pith ran out of juice, so I drew on the rest of my inner reserves. As I drew a five-pointed star, I sneered at the fire demon.
“Bye, bye!” I yelled as I let the water banishment sigil fly.
Now, I know that not all banishment sigils work as effectively against all vaetturs. A fire vaettur isn’t necessarily weak to water, even though it’s not a bad bet. Still, even if a banishment doesn’t outright get rid of the little suckers, it usually causes them some pain. I was trying to fling him back to his home world through a tear in space-time. It’s not supposed to tickle.
But this thing, whatever it was, didn’t so much as blink as water pith struck it square in the chest. In fact, the attack meant so little to the demon that it charged straight forward without pause, arms blazing like scorching baseball bats of death.
The thing wanted me dead. I didn’t have a lot of coherent thought at that point, except dying wasn’t high on my to-do list. When you’re face-to-face with impending doom, you grab your biggest boomstick to fight it off. My fingers clutched the metallic cylinder around my neck crammed with four batteries’ worth of lightning pith. I sucked the entire charm’s storage of pith, then focused it in a lightning banishment on my enemy. As it surged out of my arm, it made my whole body go numb.
Normally, when I release lightning, it packs a pretty powerful punch. It’s hard to control, but I generally can at least fling it in some general direction, even if I can’t really aim it.
Not so with Sipho’s lightning pith charm.
The lightning bolt that shot out of my hand burst in all directions like a bomb. It had an intensity to it I’d never released before. It made the forest fire around us fade into bright shadows. The entire world went a stark white, engulfing the surprised fire demon. It also created a sonic boom that probably left people deaf for miles.
It was within that sightless and soundless space that I fell unconscious, having busted straight past the limits of what I could handle.
CHAPTER 12
I WOKE UP in a hospital room.
At first, the setting didn’t register in my muddled brain. I smelled the disinfectant, coarse linen sheet pulled up to my chest, harsh fluorescent light bulbs clashing with the natural sunlight attempting to stream in between the vertical window blinds. A beeping on a machine next to me reassured me I had a pulse. But I didn’t bring all those sensations together until I saw a blonde-haired pretty boy slumped over in the world’s least comfortable armchair, fast asleep. He wore the same outdoor clothing as before, a backpack crumpled at his feet.
“Rafe?” I croaked.
Memories came flooding back in a rush—the fire, saving the geezer, running into Rafe outside of the school, and facing the weird fire demon. The last thing I remember was going guns out in a spectacular lightning blast, and then fade to white. End scene.
Rafe must have heard me because he stirred in his seat. A red mark remained on his cheek where his shoulder had dug into the flesh too long, but even that somehow made him appear cute. He flashed me a comforting smile.
“Good morning, Ina.”
“Morning?” It had been the middle of the night only seconds ago, but sure enough, the annoying ticking clock on the wall read ten. “What’s going on?”
“You’re in a hospital. Don’t worry, everything’s okay.”
I didn’t want to rehash stuff I already knew. “Yeah, I got that part. I mean, what brought me here?”
“The firefighters found you in the middle of a charred section of forest, unconscious but alive. They brought you here.”
I wish they hadn’t. The hospital couldn’t do anything for me that an hour at the hot spring wouldn’t fix. But I had other problems to deal with. “And the fire? Did they contain it?”
“I think so,” Rafe shrugged.
I leaned back into my pillow, relaxing a smidge. I guess that meant I’d actually gotten rid of that weird fire demon. I couldn’t believe it had attacked so close to civilization in the first place. I doubted it would have simply walked away and stopped setting fires unless I’d blasted it back where it came from.
Nothing about that thing felt normal.
Rafe scooted his chair closer so he could place one hand on the hospital bed railing. “But more importantly, I’m glad you’re okay.”
I blushed in spite of myself. People don’t gush over me. They roll their eyes, give me unwanted advice, and berate my decisions, but besides Vincent, they didn’t generate a ton of genuine concern for me.
I shouldn’t have thought of Vincent. My blush morphed into a scowl. I hated how that awful sting of jealousy reared its head when his memory popped up. How my heart ached. Hadn’t I left teenage crushes behind a long time ago?
Rafe noticed my mood shift. “Is something wrong?”
“No, I’m just groggy. It happens when you run headfirst into fire.”
“I suppose that’s not something ordinary people can relate to.” He pinned me down with those gorgeous eyes. “Only something a shepherd can do.”
The startled gasp left my lips before I could stop it. It made my next shaky sentence much less believable. “What are you talking about?”
Rafe threw me a conspiratorial smirk. “Come now, Ina. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You relied on your fire pith to walk through that blaze. No other explanation makes sense.”
I sat up in the bed, every muscle clenched. How could he know all this stuff? “Who are you?”
He raised a palm in friendly surrender. “Not an enemy, I assure you. Quite the opposite. An ally of the shepherds, actually, even if they don’t want my help.”
I had never heard of anyone outside of our world talk about shepherds. Even Vincent, who eventually accepted me for what I was, had never heard of anything like us. “I don’t understand.”
Rafe stood up to his full height, fervent with his next words. “There are followers of Nasci outside of your circle, Ina. People who believe passionately that we must stop harm to her at all costs. But alas,” he adopted a solemn, almost angry tone, “not all of us can harness elemental pith the way you can. We have to rely on other methods to do our part.”
“Other methods?” My mind could barely keep up with this surreal conversation.
“Have you ever heard that vaetturs possess their own kind of pith?”
I balked at that. “Vaetturs devour Nasci’s pith.”
“That’s true, of course, but have you ever wondered how it is that they often wield the same elements as shepherds? Earth, water, air, even the latest one, the copper bull, burned with flame?”
“You know about the khalkotauroi?” This conversation just kept getting more bizarre.
Rafe nodded. “That’s how I ran into you when we first met. I was tracking the bull. Even then, I suspected you might be a shepherd. You appeared near a breach in the middle of nowhere with no real means of transportation. When you respond
ed to the raven’s call—” he stiffened slightly, “—I knew you must be a shepherd.”
My brain jammed, processing all this information. I decided to stick to one detail at a time. “So, if you were tracking the bull, does that mean you were trying to banish it too?”
“Not banish it, use it,” Rafe said. “Suck out its fire pith and let the vaettur wither and die, like the way they kill dryants.”
“That’s crazy!” I cried. “Shepherds don’t kill vaetturs, we send them back to Letum. It’s unheard of to do anything else.”
“Only unheard of because it’s shepherd tradition,” Rafe argued. “But given what I’ve witnessed of you, Ina, you’re not one to adhere to tradition, are you?”
My voice rose a notch. “And what exactly do you think you know about me?”
“I know you can absorb lightning pith.”
The blood drained from my face.
He nodded, acknowledging my surprise. “Oh yes, I understand how rare it is to be able to do that. But that lightning strike confirmed it. It scared the daylights out of all of us watching at the school.”
“It was just a random lightning bolt,” I mumbled. “It happens.”
“Without a single cloud in the sky?” Rafe chuckled. “No, that was Nasci, the work of a shepherd.” He sat back down. “But I get why you would deny it. Trust me, I know all about how strict shepherd life can be. The others probably fear you. Resent you. See you as a threat. You break the rules, merely by your very existence.”
He really didn’t know the half of it. “Okay, so you know a lot about shepherds,” I said, wanting to steer the conversation away from my unique abilities. “Then why are you here, watching me unconscious in a hospital bed like a creeper?”
“Because I recognize an opportunity for someone like me to assist someone like you. To prove that more people than shepherds can worship Nasci and protect her from harm.”
I didn’t have time to respond to this theatrical proposal as footsteps approached the hospital room.
“Ina,” Vincent called, breathless as he rounded the corner. “I heard about a woman with no ID being brought here from a fire call last night. You matched the description, so I came here as soon as…” He trailed off as he caught sight of Rafe. All hint of worry left his voice, replaced by a brusque, “Oh.”
Rafe bowed his head slightly. “I was about to leave,” he drawled. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a light gray stone with tiny hairline cracks, the ubiquitous kind you find all around the woods. He placed it gently on my palm.
“We’ll find each other when you’re ready to test the waters,” he whispered in my ear, then closed my fingers around the stone. A shiver went up my spine as his caress lingered on my skin. Then he hoisted the backpack over his shoulder and exited the room.
Vincent’s lips went so tight, I thought he’d sucked them straight down his throat. He stared at my hand holding the stone.
“Who was that?” he demanded.
I shifted the hand out of sight underneath a blanket. “Somebody I met in the woods. He was at the fire last night.”
“He’s not a firefighter. I know that crew.” He frowned at the doorway. “And he doesn’t look like a local.”
“He’s just a hiker. He’s harmless.”
But Vincent wouldn’t let it go. “Not all hikers are harmless, Ina. I’ve met some really dangerous people lurking in the woods. Violent. They live out there to escape society. Or prey on it. If I were you, I’d steer clear of that guy.”
I couldn’t believe Vincent of all people had waltzed into the room to tell me who I should and should not hang out with.
“Excuse me, but it’s none of your business,” I said curtly.
“I thought we were friends,” Vincent threw back, his anger mounting. “How do you think I felt when I heard you’d been injured in the fire last night?”
His declaration of so-called concern snapped my composure in half. “It probably feels about as terrible as when you waltz into a random bar and find a guy you nearly kissed on a date with his side piece.”
Vincent flinched at the vehemence in my voice. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the pub in Eugene, Garcia. I was there. I saw you drive off with your girlfriend. Don’t play dumb with me.”
I wanted Vincent to deny it. I wanted him to tell me I couldn’t believe my own eyes, even though I still wouldn’t believe him.
But instead, he said, “You were there?”
I’d had my fill of this hospital and all the obnoxious conversations associated with it. I yanked the IV out of my arm, causing the machine to curse at me as well. This only set me off further.
“Yes. I was at the bar, Vincent, so don’t come waltzing in here telling me how much you care about me when you’re banging some other chick in Eugene.”
I grabbed the pile of my clothes they’d left on a vacant chair, balanced the boots on top, and shoved the weird stone Rafe gave me into a pocket. Vincent tried to block the door as I made to leave.
“It’s not like that, Ina. We’re not a thing.”
My fire pith rose to my fingertips even before I raised my hands. “You’re not going to be a thing in about two seconds if you don’t get out of my way.”
Vincent wisely stepped to the side but followed me as I stalked down the hallway. “Ina, you’re being unreasonable. They’re not going to let you walk out the front door without an official release.”
I glanced down the long hallway, past the nurses’ station and out toward the automatic sliding glass doors, where an aging security guard stood by.
I flipped on my heels and spotted the barred emergency exit. “Then I’ll find another way out.”
Vincent realized my plan as I took off at a full sprint. “What? No!” he cried. “Wait!”
The piercing wail of the emergency door’s siren blocked out all other protest. I didn’t slow down as I ran across the parking lot, pebbles digging into my bare feet. They didn’t sting nearly as much as the tears as I fled toward the wisp channel that would take me far away.
CHAPTER 13
I SHOULD HAVE gone straight back into the Siuslaw to find Guntram to let him know I was okay, but since I’d gotten rid of that fire demon thing, no one was in any real danger. Besides, my body jiggled like loosely functioning spaghetti. Physically, the hospital had done zero to alleviate the pain from electrifying myself into unconsciousness. Mentally, I could barely keep myself from full out crying, overwhelmed by both men’s dramatic conversations at the hospital. So instead of being a responsible shepherd, I hightailed it back to Sipho’s and marched straight to the hot spring.
Soaking in waters fed by magma, Nasci’s lifeblood, acted like a soothing balm. All the pith oozed out of my pores, a kind of osmosis flowing between me and the high levels of energy contained in the spring water itself. I closed my eyes and allowed the sensation to rock me like a mother and child, rhythmic, back and forth.
It didn’t solve anything, of course. I still felt betrayed by Vincent, who hadn’t even bothered denying meeting this girl of his. The way they had acted together, they had to share some deep history. And I’d noticed that brief flash of guilt on his face when I confronted him, like he’d been caught in some way.
I clenched my hands into fists under the water. How could I have been so dumb?
And to make matters worse, now I had Rafe to contend with as well. Another outsider who had taken an interest in me. But he was more unusual than Vincent. Rafe not only knew way more about shepherds than any normal person should, he thought he could help us. This flew in the face of everything Guntram had taught me about becoming a follower of Nasci. Only the chosen few heard the goddess’s call, and only they could take on the sacred task of protecting Nasci’s precious life energy flowing through every living being on this planet.
“Fool me twice,” I whispered. I couldn’t fall into the trap of trusting strangers again. Not after what doing so with Vincent had taught me.
>
But why did making that resolution leave me feeling so empty?
I became so lost in my own thoughts that I didn’t hear Sipho walk down the stone steps to the first pool. “Ina!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing back by yourself?”
I glanced upward and quickly glanced away. Sipho had already removed all her clothes and wore nothing. Sunlight filtering through the trees hit her bare skin, glistening with sweat. She must have just finished some hard, physical labor, not surprising given the kind of work it took to keep the homestead in tip-top shape.
“I ran into some trouble,” I told my hands as she sank down into the water on the other side of the pool. I looked up at her again once she’d covered herself from the breasts down. “I needed a quick recharge before heading back out.”
Sipho’s gaze lingered on my collarbone. She frowned. “I can see that. You not only broke your lightning charm, but your defensive charm shattered too.”
My fingers brushed up against my charm necklace, and sure enough, both aforementioned charms had jagged edges, the etchings of them broken so they no longer served their primary function. I hadn’t even noticed it, since the necklace had been the one thing the hospital had never removed from my body.
I threw her a wry smile. “I’ll give you one guess how using the lightning charm went.”
Sipho’s eyes widened slightly. “That’s how you broke the defensive charm?”
I nodded.
She cursed under her breath. Then she scooted closer and held her hand out to me. “I worried about such a possibility. Can you give me a detailed description of what happened when you drew lightning from the charm?”
After sliding the twisted metal off my neck, I gave her a recap of the explosion I’d caused fighting the fire demon—how I couldn’t control the lightning, its ridiculous intensity, and the bolt knocking me out cold.
She twisted the charm up in the air, scrutinizing it first with her right eye, then her left. “The pith did not flow the way I expected it too. It appears to have swelled in places it should have pooled, and vice versa.”
