Born In Flames (20 page)

“That’s why I’m here, Aurora—to protect you should that happen.”
“And what of my parents? Do you know them? Are they safe?”
“Yes, they are safe. Just give it some time for everything to sink in. You can’t expect to understand it all in one night. Remember that I’m here to help. We will get through this, together. I think what you need right now is sleep. It will be easier to talk about this tomorrow with fresh minds.” I agreed. I was beat. I lay in my spot and pulled the covers up to my chin. It didn’t take long for sleepiness to kick in and for my eyes to grow heavy and close.
“Goodnight, Aurora,” was the last thing that I heard.
“Aurora.” I awoke to someone shaking my shoulder in jerky motions. “Aurora, wake up. We need to talk,” said Lexi with worried eyes.
Oh great, what now?
I thought to myself. “Okay, just give me a second.” I sat up in bed, knees pulled up to my chin.
“It’s about Soothe.” She sat down next to me on the bed.
“What about him?” I asked, instantly interested.
“He said he’s willing to talk to you about the prophecy.” Her words rushed out in excitement.
“Back up a sec…you talked to him?” I was jealous.
“That’s exactly what I did. After you fell asleep, I went back downstairs and into his room. I had to know what he’s been up to. It’s my duty to protect you and I had to make sure he hadn’t snapped or gone Rogue.” She was so sure of herself.
“Why’d he leave so quickly?” I asked, getting up to get something to drink.
“I used the Repetio spell to trace his port trail. Your Realm doesn’t take to our magic very well. He left because he didn’t want me to confront him about his screw up. His port trail lingered long enough for me to follow it. I found him hiding out in the woods near the cave.”
I sat down at the table and poured cereal into a bowl. After adding milk, I stirred my chocolaty mass of goodness and watched the milk change color. Drinking it was the best part. The whole time, Lexi sat there watching me in wonder. I tipped my brow towards her, asking if she wanted some, but she shook her head no absentmindedly.
“So Soothe wants to meet and
finally
help me out. Convenient. You know, this whole time I’ve been trying to get him to help me and he’s been dodging me like the plague,” I said in between mouthfuls. “I guess beggars can’t be choosers.”
She gave me a look of confusion at the crunching noise my cereal made. “Are you sure?” I asked tauntingly, swirling my bowl under her nose. She ignored me.
“So he said to meet him around noon,” she explained.
I sipped the best part of my balanced morning breakfast and quickly rinsed out the bowl, tossing it into the dish drainer.
“Where are we meeting him?” I asked, suddenly remembering all the pictures. I really didn’t want to talk to him in an atmosphere filled with stolen moments of my life.
“Near the cave where I found him last night. He says he feels the most relaxed there ever since the voices stopped.”
“The voices?” I asked.
“Yeah, the voices of The Fates. When Soothe broke the law of prophecies, his power was stripped and the voices stopped.”
“Okay then,” I replied, deciding to let that one go.
A little before noon, I locked the door and we ran down the stairs in a flurry, heading to the “borrowed” car in record time.
“Why don’t we just port there?” I asked, not sure why we had to drive.
“Because, Rory, I told you, using magic in this realm is different. Things could go wrong, like you getting lost in the chasm or something, and I don’t want to take that risk. Besides, we don’t really have a good inconspicuous spot to do magic at the moment. You want your motel door left open?”
“No, sorry, I was just curious,” I replied, getting into the driver’s side of the car. She got in and buckled up, following my lead of safety first while I turned the car on. I was just about to put the car into reverse when she braced my arm.
“Rory, wait,” she said as she pulled my arm from off the gear shifter. “Someone’s here.” She was looking around the car for whomever she thought was present.
“Yeah, there are a lot of people around.” I tried to pretend like I didn’t notice the alarm written all over her face and in her voice, but it was undeniable.
Her nose tipped up as she sniffed the air before saying, “We need to go, NOW!” She quickly unbuckled herself and me and bolted out of the car, yanking me from the driver’s seat. She was a moment too late as a fiery ball of energy whizzed past us, barely missing our heads.
“Go back to your room!” she yelled. Out of nowhere, another energy ball flew at us, smashing into the brick building. Debris instantly showered us, the bits of rock shattering windows. We had both dropped to the ground, blood trickling from our hands and faces. I was shaking from limb to limb, the gravel biting into the palms of my hand as my breath came in rapid torrents. Zordon had found me.
Lexi grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the stairs, not stopping for a moment. Her hands lit up and she chanted, “Protectio.”
A bubble surrounded us as another energy bolt flew towards us. It hit the outside of the it and I tensed in horror, waiting for the bubble to break, but the spell was absorbed instead.
“Pulsecto!” Lexi shouted as she threw her energy in the general direction of the attacker.
“Ahh!” I heard a man’s voice cry out.
I scanned the area, trying to find the culprit, but she pulled me inside my room, slamming the door behind us.
“Talk to me, Lexi, what’s going on?” I said between breaths.
She paced back and forth. “He must have followed through my port trail. Damn it! I told my mother to get someone better to do it.” She stopped and looked at me. “Okay, listen carefully. The guy who is here, he is from the other side. He wants to kill you, Rory. He works for Zordon.”
Zordon?
I thought.
No way, this is not happening.

“Listen to me,” she said as she snapped me from my thoughts. “We don’t have much time. He is here and this is happening. I’m going to have to port us after all, and you aren’t going to feel very well when it happens. You have to hang on to me no matter what, okay?”

I nodded in acknowledgement, but I really felt like everything was happening around me and not to me. “Okay, come over here.” I stepped over to her in a daze as she grabbed my arm and wrapped it around her waist. I winced from the sting of the fresh wounds.

“What do I do?” I asked, not sure where my part came in. She looked at me with sympathetic eyes and said, “For now, just trust me,” and I watched as her eyes went from a honey-kissed brown to a deep mahogany. A light green glow emerged from the palms of her hands, the energy pouring out of her and into thin air.

In front of us a void began to open as the energy swirled and began to form a picture of the other end. I could feel the pull of gravity. Her green energy was shooting from her hands towards the void, powering it as a crazed look overcame her face.

Outside I heard heavy footsteps and a man shouting, “Come out, come out, little dragon.” A second later the doorknob rattled.

“Lexi,” I said, fear swelling up.
“I’m going to count to three,” she whispered. ”When I say three, we’re going to jump into the port. Hold your breath. It will only take a few seconds to get through, but when we get to the other side I want you to count backwards from ten. It will help with the nausea.”
I shook my head in agreement and waited. “One…two…three.”
I didn’t pay any mind to what was around me as I was being sucked through space. I did however feel every molecule of my body being moved and rearranged. Our feet landed with a thud on earthy forest ground.
I guess we made it to our destination after all
, I thought sarcastically.
“This was where we were heading, right?” I asked, hoping that Soothe was nearby. Then I toppled slightly as the first wave of nausea hit. “Ooh man, ten, nine, eight…” I began to count like she had said while she sat me down on the ground.
“I figured this would be the best place to deal with who’s about to follow us. Soothe should be somewhere around here,” she said as her eyes scanned the forest. “This guy will be following my port trail. We don’t have much time and you need to hide.”
“Wait a minute. Exactly who is it that we are running from?” I asked through blurred vision, my head spinning.
“His name is Zane, he is Zordon’s son.” The look on her face wasn’t a very hopeful one. I knew exactly who she was talking about—the same guy that Zordon had choked in my dream. It was a shame that he had to send his own son to do his dirty work.
Dread suddenly filled my pores. I’d left my Oraculus in my nightstand. What if he found it? I could almost feel the life draining out of me as sweat beaded my forehead. Lexi told me that she had cloaked it in a protection spell, but it didn’t feel like enough. I held onto my necklace for support. It warmed my palm, easing the panic just enough to let me breathe.
“And what are we going to do when he shows up?” I wasn’t prepared for this. I wasn’t ready to fight someone or deal with magic from another realm when I didn’t even have answers to the million questions that constantly pounded through my head.
“We won’t be doing anything,” she said firmly, stressing the plural. “You have no control over your powers which puts you in more danger rather than helping us out. I need you to hide behind that tree while I figure this out.”
She was pacing again, rubbing her temples, panic radiating off her. “You don’t need to worry though. I have formal training, with the Dragon King, I might add,” she reassured shakily.
Somehow I wasn’t relieved. I didn’t know what Zane was truly capable of. What Mages were truly capable of. My visions were the closest thing I had to knowing what was happening and they only showed me snippets of what might happen.
Like lightning, a crackling sound resounded off the trees as Zane popped out of the air and landed on the ground in a fighting stance. He was instantly recognizable. He looked almost exactly like his father.
I shuddered.
“Zane,” spat Lexi as she crouched ready to fight. I looked down at my hands, hoping that this whole heart-racing, mind-pacing thing would be enough to ignite my powers, but I felt nothing.
“Alexis,” he toyed, “I see you’ve grown into quite a beauty.” He walked casually towards us. “It’s amazing that a girl from the market, working for those serpents,” he said disgustedly, “can look as good as you. Though, you’d look better as a wife.”
His smile made me cringe.
“At least some of us know how to make an honest living,” she threw back at him. Then she clasped her hands together, and a green ball of crackling energy began to emerge between them.
A smile ran across Zane’s face as he stalked towards us. There was nothing I could do. The nausea I now felt had nothing to do with porting.
A snarl came from the pit of her as Lexi threw the green tinted energy again. Instantly, an invisible shield sprung up around Zane, causing the spell to deflect and hurl towards me. I wasn’t quick enough. The energy caught the ball of my heel, a scream ripped from my throat. I was on fire. I had never been burned in my life, yet whatever had just hit me, had ignited my skin, the pain so white-hot I felt on the verge of fainting. My chest heaved rapidly as I tried to see through the pain. But I couldn’t think of anything but the never-ending burn. It wouldn’t stop.
Lexi looked pissed when she looked back at me. She said something I couldn’t comprehend as her energy connected with my heel, the pain instantly relieved. I scurried backwards like a crab, not really knowing what to do. “I’m okay,” I said quickly, pointing to the approaching Zane.
“I see this will have to be done the old-fashioned way.” She sprinted towards him faster than I’d ever seen anyone run before. He began to run as well, and they came together with a colorful thud.
After that, it was hard to make out everything that was happening. I heard shouts of pain and fighting as various trees fell from the dodged energy. My hair stood on end as tree limbs cracked and sizzled.
She shouted, “Occidium!” which caused Zane to lose balance and then followed up with a move that made him slam into a tree. When his back hit, he slid down, the breath knocked out of him.
He didn’t look too pleased as he stood up and quickly shouted, “Afflictum,” hurling a red ball of energy back at her.
She tried to dodge with her own invisible shield, but her magic wasn’t strong enough, and after only a second of the magic pushing against her barrier, it broke through and caught her leg. Her gut-wrenching scream echoed my earlier agony.
I jumped up from the ground at the sound of her scream, panic rising. It seemed Zane had forgotten about me up until that point. I cursed myself for interfering.
“The fight is not with her, you coward. Finish what you started!” Lexi barely stammered out from behind him, stopping him in his tracks as he headed towards me. She was lying on the forest ground in a heap, blood pooling around her leg against the rotted leaves. Fear of what was happening clouded my judgment.
“All right then,” he said in a menacing tone that I didn’t trust one bit. As fast as I could blink he was at her throat, holding her up against a tree. “Slither back to your cold-blooded reptiles, you traitor,” he seethed. Her eyes went wide with shock.
She was scrambling helplessly, trying to get out of his grip like an animal in a trap. “Such a shame though. You truly are a beauty. Too bad things couldn’t be different.”
Then I felt it. I felt the power building up inside of me like a volcano ready to erupt. It was scary at first, but then that crazed delicious feeling returned. Something stirred deep within me. The dragon wanted to break free.
I glanced down and sure enough the blue energy was pulsing around my hands, red scales prickling up my arms. An evil smile crossed my lips.
I didn’t know any spells, but I certainly had my instincts. I noticed a small log lying at my feet. I knew this would be my only real chance to rectify this situation. I focused on the log and saw the energy pouring from me and around the log. I focused on levitating it and watched as it floated higher and higher, my hands rising as it rose, and still I didn’t feel weak. It was like picking up a feather.
“Not this time, shithead,” I declared, catching Zane’s attention. For a millisecond his eyes went wide before I sent the log flying towards his head. I thought I would have cringed on impact, but it felt good to watch him slink unconsciously to the ground. Whatever was inside of me liked it as well. I felt the stir of energy coursing through and wrapping me in a warm hug of approval.
Lexi slowly sunk down against the tree, trying to catch her breath as she grabbed at her throat. There were red welts where Zane’s hands had squeezed.
I knelt down with her, whispering that she was okay, trying to help her focus. Although the energy surge had subsided, I couldn’t help but be satisfied that I had finally done something to help. I had finally taken control of my power.
“Thanks,” she muttered with a halfhearted smile. “Pretty amazing stuff you pulled back there.” She coughed, her voice hoarse. “You really shouldn’t even be able to,” she coughed again, “be able to do that. But cool nonetheless. You saved me.” Her eyes met mine and I could see the thankfulness.
She took another breath and then glanced down at her leg. “We’ve got to fix this fast,” she said, the blood continually oozing from the injury. “I need you to combine your energy with mine for a moment. I’m too weak to heal this on my own.”
“Okay…” I replied, not sure exactly how to do that.
“Just focus on healing my leg and say ‘Mendaro.’ I’ll do the rest,” she explained.
I nodded and focused on the open wound, letting the energy flow through me once again. I imagined it sealing from the inside out, healing and returning to normal as I chanted “Mendaro” over and over. I felt her energy flow into mine as the leg began to heal in front of us.
“It’s working,” I declared excitedly.
Then she stood up, testing its sturdiness. “All healed,” she said with a smile.
She walked over to Zane. He lay there limp and lifeless though we both knew he was still very much alive.
“Stand back. I don’t want you to get pulled in,” she said as she began to weave another portal. I was still smiling distractedly inside, feeling like I had finally done something to control at least a small aspect of my life. No one but myself made me get up and do what I did.
When the portal opened, I helped Lexi pick Zane up and throw him into it. “I’ll be right back,” she said, jumping in after him. I paced the forest, avoiding the puddles of blood that had formed from either Lexi’s leg or the blunt trauma to Zane’s head.
What the hell was happening? I couldn’t do anything but think of how proud Fenn would have been in that moment. To see me finally take a stand for myself.
I practically caught Lexi as she fell back through the port.
“Thanks,” she said. “He won’t be back for a while. We might have enough time to find all the keys before he makes it back. The problem is, now he knows what you look like. And that you’re the one,” she finished, pointing to my necklace. She didn’t look too pleased. “Next time we may not be so lucky, and he may not come alone.” A smile slowly formed on her face. “We make a good team,” she said. I couldn’t help but smile as well, letting myself bask in my moment of glory.
“Now let’s get moving. We have a date to catch.”
Chapter 23
Our Cozy Little Meeting
WE FOUND SOOTHE ALMOST AN hour after the time we were supposed to meet him. He was farther into the forest, resting on a rock near a waterfall.
“Hey!” Lexi shouted over the sound of the crashing water. “Come over this way so we can hear each other a little better.”
Soothe leisurely rolled his eyes as he hopped off the rock and strode casually towards us. “I can hear just fine,” he replied when he was in front of us. “You’re late.”
“Well, I’m not shouting,” she retorted. “And of course we’re late. Zane spotted her.”
For a brief second his eyes lit up, like he was concerned and ready to take action, but then his face resumed that cold, blank expression.
“Indeed,” he replied. “That’s truly unfortunate. And before she had a chance to find all the keys. My-my savior, you truly are proving your worth, aren’t you?” he sneered.
I frowned. “Are you going to help me find the rest of the keys or not?” I bit back, hoping that having Lexi with me would help.
“Do you still have the map?” he asked in return.
“Yeah, it’s right here.” I reached into my bag and pulled it out.
Lexi gasped. “You didn’t tell me you had that,” she chided as she took it from my hands. She unfolded the worn hide, her face lighting up in awe.
I shrugged. “I figured you knew. I mean, weren’t you told everything before you came?”
“Well, yes, but no one said anything about this. I mean technically you shouldn’t even have this. If we were back in our realm, you’d have to face The Fates and explain why this is in your possession. Do you know what this is?” she asked, her voice heightened.
“Judging by your face I’d say it’s something pretty important,” I guessed, glancing over at Soothe.
“It’s a portal map,” he answered dryly. “They’re very rare and impossible to find. There are a total of four, one for each of The Fates. It shows the way to any object you seek to find. In your case, the keys. This is the most coveted map you could ever find. When I left, there was only one missing. This one.”
Lexi cleared her throat. “Scouts were sent out with another map to try and find this one shortly after it was taken,” she said quietly.
“Well they won’t ever find it, now will they? The maps only work in the realm you’re in,” Soothe reassured smugly.
A bleak expression replaced Lexi’s confidence. “Before I left, the scouts went missing.”
Soothe’s face paled. “Let’s pray it hasn’t fallen into Zordon’s hands,” Soothe concluded.
“I can’t even begin to piece together how any could be stolen right from under The Fates’ noses,” Lexi wondered.
“What if the other map is with Zordon?” I asked, a part of me not wanting to hear the answer.
“If that happens,” he said gravely, “then finding the keys and returning home will be the least of your worries.” His face fell. “And every sought after object in our realm is now in danger.”
There was a long moment of silence as we all digested the reality of what Soothe had said. I haven’t even made it back and already my future was looking hopeless. I thought about Fenn and how he was over there, possibly dealing with the danger that seemed to be my destiny. I needed to get the keys, fast.
“Look here,” said Lexi, pointing to an X that hadn’t been there before. It looked like it was around Mily’s house.
“That must be where I found the first key,” I said, suddenly excited. “Only it’s missing too,” I added.
“It’s not missing, Aurora. It is where it should be. That is a part of The Fates’ magic…to protect what is theirs. Trust me,” said Soothe.
“Well, why don’t I see where the other keys are?” I asked. “There isn’t an X anywhere else.”
“Have you used the second sun’s light?” asked Soothe.
“Second sun?”
“Yes, that’s where the Hall of Knowledge is. I’ll show you,” Lexi reassured. “So we don’t need your help after all,” she said to Soothe. “This map will get us the rest of the way.”
“I do have a question though,” I interrupted. “It’s about what you said that night at the diner, about the last line of the prophecy,” I said, fidgeting uncomfortably.
“Yes?”
“A death will come to He that breaks the barrier…what does that mean? It’s the last piece that I can’t figure out,” I admitted.
“What do you think it means?” he asked in return.