Set the Sky on Fire (Fire Trilogy Book 1) (19 page)

Ari’s mind went blank. Shock stormed her body. No words formed. She stared vacantly at the seether’s lips as he kept talking, her ears taking it all in, even though her eyes saw nothing.

“Imagine trying to explain the blood stains when we check out. Luckily, Michelle thought ahead for a change. She used the kettle cord to strangle her. It’s inventive and, I must say, I'm a little proud of her. That kettle really has come in handy.”

The words struck her again. Nevaeh. Dead. She stumbled back a few paces. A rush of tears choked her throat. She cried out, “No.” The sound reverberated off the stone walls. Tears overflowed, wetting her face. Her fists balled up. Then, in the middle of the churchyard, with its sombre occupants all talking in muted tones, Ari let her rage fly.

Screaming abuse, she lunged at the seether and took a swing at his smirking face. To her utter frustration, he caught her hand, crushing it in his powerful grip. Eyes turned on them both in astonishment.

“You're making a scene, Arianna.”

His words did nothing to abate her hostility. She was so enraged she didn’t notice the shift in the seether’s attention. He was transfixed by the crowd behind her. He spun her around like a spinning top, her back landing hard against his body. His other arm came across her chest, pinning her in place. She had expected to see a multitude of faces, staring in bewilderment or condemnation. A few were, but not at her. The majority of them argued now too, pushing and shoving each other. A minute ago, this crowd had seemed tense, but not violent. Now, some were engaged in an all-out brawl. Her anger had bled out of her, tainting these people. All the practice over the past days had unleashed something new in her.

“That’s not possible.”

Ari's rage immediately receded and, as if they were emulating her, the crowd's anger calmed with hers.

“Most of these people—in a matter of moments, you’ve made them all receptive to me. It would have taken me days...weeks.” The seether was like a kid being offered candy for the first time. “I wonder if those prissy Serrathans know this is what you’re capable of.” He shook his head in amazement. “They can’t know. No way. Otherwise, you’d have a swarm of them hanging around.”

He stared at her, his eyes wide and intense.

“I’ve been stuck playing the same game on this tedious planet for far too long—but you’re going to change all of that. I thought you would hunt the susceptible down one by one, but no, you’re going to be the one that preps them for change. In their masses. Indiscriminately.” The seether paused. “We can tip the balance, and we can do it quickly. Finally. This changes everything. We need to get you back to the hotel and out of the city. Turns out, that little pain-in-the-arse friend of yours had a use after all.”

He dragged Ari off towards the road. In defiance, she dug her heels in and pinned her feet to the ground. Without Nevaeh, what was left for her to save? As the seether pulled at her, trying again to make her move, she shifted her weight back.

“No,” she threw the word at him.

“You are weak, don't ever forget that.”

“No,” she repeated, this time more forcefully.

“We may not have Nevaeh anymore, but I would be more than happy to go and collect your parents if you need a reminder of why you have to behave. Actually, I imagine your parents care enough about you that if I told them you were sick in hospital they would be on the next flight. Save me the bother.”

Panic flooded her mind, and her body responded by shaking uncontrollably. Nevaeh was dead. Her parents would be next. Again, air deserted her lungs, and her breathing became choked and wheezy. It was too much. Resentment smouldered. Then, in a corner of her mind, she heard the clamour from the crowd behind her steadily rising. With a concentrated effort, she drew her emotions under control. The noise began to recede. She would not allow the seether to use her grief.

While she denied him what he wanted, they would all be in danger. Her family, her friends. She couldn’t stand idly by as he hurt or destroyed innocent people. One way or another, this had to end. Right at this moment, he had no one he could directly threaten her with. Now was her best chance to try something. Without a plan, it would be a wasted opportunity, but her mind was in such a precarious state she couldn’t think straight.

“I need a few hours’ quiet time to deal with all of this. Can we go to a park and sit for a while?”

“Nope. We keep moving.”

“Please, I need this.”

“But I like your instability. It’s very beneficial to the cause.”

“Look, if you give me a couple of hours to get my head around everything, then I’ll be subservient. No arguments. I’ll go to Thailand with you. I know what you’re capable of, and I don't want anything to happen to my family.”

The word subservient seemed to draw the seether’s attention. He stopped, a frown between his eyes.

“There is no way I am doing
that
again today.” She pointed to the church. “Our flight isn’t until late tonight, so we can either sit in a park for a couple of hours, away from where the sentinels would expect to find me, or we can go back to the hotel room and spend those hours with Michelle and what's left of …”

She couldn't bring herself to say Nevaeh’s name. Mental images of her lifeless body played through Ari's head. Even thinking the name nearly made Ari lose the little control she had.

“I gave Michelle a few tips about getting rid of the body, so that won't be a problem, but you're right, I think I’d prefer to keep out of the Serrathans’ range. Anyway, it might be fun for your first encounter with Michelle to be in a big crowded airport.” Ari's lungs lurched again, but she held onto her control.

They found a vacant playground nearby. Ari dropped all pretences as she sat on the swing and let her grief take over. She clutched her chest as if someone tried to physically rip her heart out. Time became lost, and when she next glanced down at her watch, she saw it was nearing 5:00 pm and, for most people, that was the end of the work day. She stood up, wiped the tears from her eyes and took a steading breath. “Okay, let’s go.”

“Great. I'm bored with this melodrama,” the seether replied.

He hailed a taxi, advising the driver to take them to the airport.

“Can we drive by the hotel on the way? I want to check if the other sentinels have shown up yet, you know, just curious to know whether he ratted me out.”

The seether fixed her with a probing stare. She held his eye. She so needed him to believe her excuse. He smiled a self-satisfied smile and issued a new directive to the driver, his tone more condescending and arrogant than ever.

As they closed in on the city centre, the top of the hotel bobbed in and out of sight. Ari concentrated her thoughts. She focussed on what Michelle had done. Anger took a grip of her body again, the heat of it travelling to her every extremity. This time, she paid attention to the physical sensation. Knowing it was there and being able to define it gave her some control over it, and she released a little out into the world, then a bit more, just enough to make the taxi driver argumentative. She felt a growing satisfaction as the driver’s frustrations found the most deserving target in the car. Within a couple of minutes, the driver and the seether were at each other’s throats. The seether seemed to be enjoying himself too much to consider why the driver had randomly started a verbal attack on him.

Rush hour traffic congested the streets. As they closed in on Princes Bridge, it worsened considerably, and they inched their way forward, then came to a halt in the middle of the bridge.

“Hello?” Ari asked calmly, checking the two were absorbed in their argument. She had no time to consider repercussions as she flung her door open and jumped out onto the busy road.

Her timing was perfect. A tram rumbled over the bridge towards her. Every fibre in her legs fired as she sprinted to cross the tracks in front of it. It was moving faster than she anticipated. Her body clenched as she waited for the impact. The air rushed past her as the carriage missed her by centimetres.

Somewhere behind her, the taxi driver was yelling at the seether. The seether was screaming too. Even shielded by the tram his voice rang clear. A singular word with tyrannical force could be heard over everything else. “Bitch.” His tone full of violence.

The edge of the bridge was near. She didn’t dare look back, it would slow her down. Gasps came from onlookers, a few even screamed. Ari hadn’t been sure whether he would risk his speed in the open. The sounds of shock suggested he had.

The bridge railing was so close. This was her chance to be free of him, and it gave her courage. She didn't slow her momentum, one hand levering on the bridge, pushing her up, as her legs flicked around to the side. The river was a long way down. She pictured jumping off the high diving board. Lisa’s instructions sounded in her head.
Feet first, straight in and relax.

The seether’s scream followed her over, his footfalls hitting the bridge faster than humanly possible. His hand groped for her hand, as it released the bridge behind her, but he was too late.

She had no time to enjoy her escape. Straightening herself up, she fell feet first towards the muddy river below. Ari hoped it would be deep enough for the plunge. Just before her feet broke the surface, she took one last gulp of air, filling her lungs to capacity. Unlike the pool, the water breaking around her feet felt cold. Colder than she had expected. Her body tensed at the chilly shock.
Relax
. Once submerged, she belonged to the river as it swept her downstream in its lazy grasp.

The light darkened. She was under the bridge.

She hadn’t heard a second splash. The seether hadn’t followed her in. Working out her plan, she’d vaguely remembered Nate saying seethers weren’t fast in the water, but she hadn’t been sure. It was a gamble, and it had paid off. He would still be up on the bridge though, watching and waiting. She broke the surface to suck in some air, then, dived under again before emerging from the other side of the bridge. A long line of restaurants crowded the promenade and, at this time of night, there would be plenty of foot traffic. Swimming underwater as best she could, she moved towards the riverbank.

It was impossible to keep her eyes open in the murk of the river, and her outstretched hand smacked into the stonework on the embankment, algae catching under her nails. Her head broke the water, and she gasped for oxygen, wiping the water from her eyes.

People lined the banks, their heads craned over the side. As the first people saw her surface, they yelled and pointed. Quickly, others joined in. They may as well have lit up a neon sign pointing to her. She looked back up at the bridge and saw the figure of the seether disappearing into the crowd. He was coming for her. Fast.

Still struggling to regain her breathing, she tried to pull herself up. She was too weak. The onlookers saw her struggling, and two of them leaned in to drag her from the water. Ari got to her feet, thanked her rescuers, then, ran off along the crowded promenade. They stared at her fleeing figure, calling after her, but none tried to stop her. Dodging people slowed her progress. They’d slow the seether’s too. It didn’t matter how fast he was if there were obstacles in his way.

Ducking down a side alley, she paused, scanning the boutique bars tucked away there. A waiter at the closest bar saw her.

“What happened to you?” he asked.

She glanced down at her bedraggled state. “I just broke up with an absolute jerk,” she lied. “At least, I know now it was the right thing to do.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“And he pushed you into the river?”

“Yep, off the bridge. Did I mention how much of a jerk he was?” Standing here, talking, made her nervous. The seether would be closing in. She needed to keep moving.

“That's a bit of an understatement, wouldn't you say? You look as if you could use a towel.”

He wasn’t wrong, she felt like a drowned rat. Looking behind her, she saw a trail of water. Her heart sank. Once the seether saw it, he would know he was going in the right direction. Her jeans were the main culprit, dripping water and weighing her down. They needed to come off. Now wasn’t the time to be self-conscious. She gave the waiter an apologetic look before stripping down and throwing them into a nearby trash can.

“A towel big enough to cover my butt would be great, if you have one.” Ari couldn’t help blushing.

Some of the patrons’ wolf-whistled and jeered. Their taunts motivated the waiter, and he hustled her into the building. He beckoned her to a room off to the side of the bar. She asked him for one last favour.

“If the asshole comes looking for me, please tell him I didn't come in here.”

“Of course, yes. I’ll even call the police,” the waiter said.

“No, please don’t. Then, I'd have to see him again. I’d prefer just to forget him. No cops. Just pretend that you never saw me.” If the cops picked her up, what the hell would she tell them?

“This guy sounds dangerous—he pushed you off a bridge.” He looked incredulously at her. “That's not normal behaviour.”

It did sound a bit excessive for a breakup. What person would happily walk away from a guy that did that?

“It's not as bad as it sounds. I don’t think he meant to do it. I was sitting on the side of the bridge, we were fighting and, when I got down to walk away, he tried to stop me. It was all a bit mis-timed, and, somehow, I ended up in the drink.”

He said nothing, but she felt his eyes assessing her.

“Fine, you were never here.” He left her alone to tidy herself.

As she was drying off, she noticed a rack of clothes. The seether was closing in on her location; she could feel him getting nearer.
Bugger it
, she thought, as she took some of the clothes.
I can bring them back later
. She hurriedly put on a white shirt and black pants. Both had been made for someone skinnier than her, and they hugged her tightly, buttons taut over her bust. She rolled her hair up into a bun, securing it in place, at the back of her head, with her hair tie.

The seether was outside the bar.

Ari hoped the waiter could move him on without any problems. She peeked into the bar. The wolf-whistling morons out front were talking to him, while the waiter tried to shut them up. Ari didn’t need to hear the conversation to know what they were talking about. She could see their hand gestures for ‘dripping wet’ and ‘stripping off’.

Ari had no option but to put her wet shoes back on. Not bothering to undo the laces, she rammed them on her feet. They weren't dripping anymore, but they squelched with each step. She dashed out the back entrance and into a service alley. It was lined with doors and dumpsters. The seether had her direction and was moving towards her again. It wasn’t safe in the alley. He was stronger and so much faster. If he saw her, there would be nothing she could do to evade him. Picking a door at random, she barrelled through it. As she stepped inside, a wall of steam hit her. The smell of cooking onion and fried food mingled in the warm air.

The seether was on his way out of the bar and into the alley.

With her back resting against the door, Ari paused to catch her breath and gauge her surrounds. Seven people stared back at her. A line of plated food sat along the bench near two hinged doors. A woman stood near the door with three plates piled on her arms. Her hair pulled back harshly from her face and secured in a bun, mirroring Ari's image, right down to the tight black and whites. She too had stopped what she was doing to stare. Ari apologized profusely as she made a break for one of the swing doors. A man yelled at her to stop, but she fled, barging through the door and into the restaurant itself. The atmosphere changed instantly. Hundreds of twinkle lights recessed in the ceiling, softly lit the room, giving it a calm, placid feeling. A few people sat at the tables, waiting for meals. The majority of the patrons were off to the side, sitting on bar stools, drinking and talking loudly. None of them looked her way.

She took a moment to compose herself. He was close, but she needed to plan her next move. Her first instinct was to run—as fast as she could, straight to Nate. But it would make her much more visible. If the seether followed her out to the promenade, she wouldn't make it very far before he spotted her. She needed to hide.

She headed to the next restaurant. Burning torches with steady, flickering flames, lined the entrance. Reflected in the window, they made it difficult to see into the dimly-lit interior. She watched a waiter go through the main door, carrying an arm full of dirty dishes collected from the outdoor seating. A few steps in, and he disappeared from view. Ari’s attire was the perfect disguise. She calmly walked up to another of the tables where three middle-aged men lounged, empty beer jugs lined up in front of them.

“Good evening, gentleman, can I get you some refills?” she asked in a professional tone as she gathered the empty jugs and glasses from the table in front of them.

“That would be great darlin'. Same again,” one of them replied.

As she was walking away, she heard him say, “I told ya, you get great service here.”

Ari stood a few metres back from the window, inside the dimly lit bar, so she wouldn’t be seen from the outside. She watched as the seether exited the restaurant. She wasn’t the only one to notice how fast he was moving. He paid no attention to the comments as he hurriedly looked up and down the street searching for his prey. He stopped a few people, talking to them, his expression urgent and menacing. They shook their heads before moving on as quickly as they could. Others gave him a wide berth, hoping not to be dragged in to his drama. His whole demeanour broadcast anger, rippling off him in waves, and, it was obvious, no one wanted to provoke him further.

Ari’s concern heightened as the seether walked over to the three beer drinkers. She couldn't hear the conversation, but anxiety crept up her chest, reaching into her throat, constricting it, when she imagined what they might be telling him. Then, the men shook their heads and turned back to talking to one another. She heaved a sigh of relief.

The seether swore so vehemently, even Ari could hear it. People in the street turned to look at him. One lady called out, “
language
.” After one last scan of the area, he shook his head in disbelief and walked away, checking the bars along the promenade as he went. Ari was too engrossed in the seether to notice someone coming up behind her until she felt a tap on the shoulder. She jumped, and the beer jugs jangled against one another.

“Wow, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I wondered whether you wanted me to take those jugs off your hands.” It was an actual waiter, the guy she had followed into the bar.

“Thanks.” She handed the jugs and glasses over. “Those guys out there want the same again, please. They must have thought I worked here, or something.” Ari laughed, nervously.

The seether was moving back in the direction of the hotel, no doubt to take his frustration out on Michelle. Ari felt his presence diminish. Finally, she could do what every cell in her body had wanted to do since she was pulled from the river. She turned towards Nate, and took off at a brisk pace, focussing on what to say when she saw him. In her mind, she pictured him wrapping her in his arms. Perhaps, his embrace would take away some of her pain. Suddenly, Nevaeh’s face filled her thoughts, then slowly disintegrated. Ari tried hard to hold onto the image, but no matter what she did it kept fading. And, in its wake, it left her with a devastating thought. It was her fault. She’d got Nevaeh involved in this stupid mess, and it was her fault she was dead.

Ari moved faster, jogging towards Nate, longing to hear his voice in her ear, softly telling her everything would be alright. Ari's focus on him strained. He was no longer stationary but was moving away from her, picking up speed. The main street was only a few strides away. She broke into a sprint to cover the short distance. A man in a well-tailored suit grumbled at her as she nearly barrelled into him. Without any apology, she side-stepped him and looked again for Nate. The road stretched far ahead of her with a stream of traffic disappearing into the distance. One of those cars held Nate. He was leaving. After what she’d just been through, he was leaving her. She wanted to give chase, but he was already too far from her, and the distance kept increasing.

Please don't go. Not now.

It took all of her willpower not to sit down and scream. The only glimmer of hope she could see was the solitary hotel on this stretch of road. At least, she knew where he had been staying.

She entered the hotel and marched up to the front desk. The other guests gave her a wide berth. It was understandable. She looked like a wreck. She had caught a glimpse of herself in the glass doors. Behind the desk, a woman stood waiting for her. She was beautifully groomed and had perfect posture. The black granite surface of the counter, polished to a shiny lustre, reflected Ari’s face as she leaned towards the attendant.

“I think I might have just missed a friend leaving.” Ari tried to sound confident. “Nathaniel Paterson? Do you know if he checked out or whether he'll be back later?”

The woman behind the desk looked Ari up and down as if appraising her.

“What's your name, dear?”

“Arianna.”

The concierge nodded.

“Just a moment, dear, Mr. Paterson left something here for you. He said you might drop by.”

She took a step to the side and looked under the desk, popping back up moments later with an envelope bearing the hotel emblem.

“He said to give you this.”

“Any chance you know where he went?” Ari asked, taking the envelope from the woman’s outstretched hand.

“No, sorry. That was all he said.”

Ari walked away from the desk and sat on a black vinyl couch placed in the middle of the foyer. She wasted no time in opening the envelope to pull out a short hand-written note. “
If anyone can find me, it’s you. Nate xx.
” The envelope also contained a stack of $50 notes.

Not exactly the hug she’d been expecting, but his actions showed he knew she would come for him, that she was still his. A small glow lit her inside, enough to keep her moving. And he had given her money—exactly what she needed if she was going to follow him. She exited the building, arm raised to hail a passing taxi.

“Where to?” the driver asked.

“Just follow the road.” She pointed down the motorway, in the same direction Nate had gone.

Traffic was still congested but, at least, it was moving. Nate was now too far away for Ari to sense. If she had to, she would make this taxi snake the streets all night until she found him.

The lack of destination didn't worry the taxi driver. He chatted, and Ari politely responded as best she could, her thoughts miles away. A headache developed as she desperately searched for Nate, pushing her ability to its limit.

“Yes,” she cried from the back seat as she felt a trace of him ahead.

“What is it?” the driver asked.

She couldn’t think of an excuse.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to say it out loud,” she cringed.

Nate had been stationary for less than a minute when she felt him slowly slide away again. At least, they maintained the distance. Suddenly, his weren't the only movements she noticed. The seether's vibrations steadily increased. He seemed to be traveling along the same road. There was no way he could track her, surely. It had to be a coincidence. Didn't it? But she couldn't brush off the feeling of dread. Same road. Same time. Was it possible he knew where she was?

“If he can track me, I’ll never be free of him,” she muttered, under her breath.

“What love? Did you say something?” the driver asked.

“Nothing important. Just talking to myself.” She held his eyes in the rearview mirror, then shifted around in the seat, so she could no longer see him

She returned her focus to Nate. His direction had changed. It was now a best guess scenario, estimating which side street he might have taken.