“Mara, you can't! You're going to get hit!”
“I won't stop.”
This fight has to end, and soon. I can't stay back and be careful not to get injured anymore. I'm already injured, and all three of us will get more hurt if I don't act now. There are humans and werewolves dying on the other side of that mountain Ravena created, I can feel it. I feel the sorrow and anger of all the werewolves. I hear yells, screams, and the faraway sounds of a raging battle. I hear the black wolves fighting a giant bear on the other side, our mates fighting like beasts for our survival. Everything is happening here. That curse is driving us crazy, and building fear in us. Even more so in the minds of the humans. They are making both groups fight each other, and I won't stand for it. It has to stop. Now.
“Get ready,” I say, even my inner voice is out of breath.
I feel it. The electricity, charging up all around me. It's like I'm burning inside and outside. Flames are now surrounding my entire body, flying behind me as I don't slow down. I hear the crackling all over my body, as if it was getting ready to break or explode. My blood's burning and rushing. The speed helps me focus as I summon the hot air, both above my head and inside my stomach. I'm a wolf, but I'm also a witch. I can control the magic regardless of the body I'm in. I'm a Fire Witch, a powerful witch. I can do anything. This is my fire, this is my power. I'll summon the sky's wrath to this ground if I have to. I've never felt this powerful, as if it was all coming together. Fire Magic and Water Magic. The two reluctantly mixing, fighting, and melting inside to make something much more powerful, more dangerous. The electricity starts crackling and hissing along my fur. I'm charging up like a lightning bolt, and the heat starts to devour me from the inside.
“Mara!”
I ignore them, and keep running. More. I need more. I need to be unstoppable. I ignore the pain, I muzzle it. I'm not suffering, I don't feel a thing. My whole body's about to burst, I'm nothing but power. The crackling gets louder in my ears, a monster taking over my body with hisses and high-pitched screams. Series of blinding flashes blink before my eyes, making everything else dark and almost monochromatic. I stop seeing with my eyes; I have to trust my senses to not get completely blinded by the random flashes. I feel the lightning forking all around my body, violently ripping and streaking the ground. I hear the furious rumbling of the sky above. The thunderous booms echoing my race, as if trying to get back ownership of that running lightning power. But it's not the sky this time. It's me, just me. The thunderous power coming from my guts, from my growling wolf like a beast of electricity and fire.
“Now!” I shout.
I change direction and this time, aim right at Ravena. The wind flies in my ears. I keep running, charged with electricity like a thunderous bolt ready to strike. The ground is ripped apart all around me, nothing can stop me. I jump past a gap that opened too late, and another one, and dodge a clay fist that emerged from the ground. My wolf only relies on her instincts, we're almost flying above the ground. I'm blind, but I know exactly what to dodge, where to step. The crackling increases like a ticking time bomb above, ready to explode. The bird screeches around me are deafening. I just keep running toward the mass of darkness in front, like one would run inside a thunderstorm. I feel its power, I feel its fear. Something tall appears in front of me, but a white wolf-shaped form jumps on it to get it right out of my way with furious growls. I lost sight of Nora and Selena, only to hear them furiously fighting those new obstacles. I feel something hitting me, again and again, but it's blasted against the electricity running throughout my body. I feel like a lion, all my senses on edge, my hair standing up to the last bit. My whole body is electrified, I'm summoning this tremendous power like a goddess would summon thunder. I only borrow it for a minute, but for that minute, I'm beyond all the magic power I could have imagined...
I finally get inside the hurricane, right beyond the dark cloak. I see a human body. Ravena's body. I'm there! ...I jump right on it.
The thunderous boom explodes right above my head. I hear the sky break, and the lightning violently strikes my body. I feel as if my whole being is exploding in a thousand pieces. I fall, and I hit another body under me.
Voices call my name, but I'm... really out this time. I can hear faint crackling, remnants of the electric power summoned in this place. I try to open my eyes, but either I'm blind, or... they refuse to open. I can't tell. My body is heavy, and some parts I can't feel... at all. I just know for certain I'm not dead yet. I'm in a tremendous amount of pain, but that pain comes as if it was from behind a glass wall. I'm... numb. I feel cold, all of a sudden. I feel... the darkness. The cold, scary, and swallowing darkness surrounding me. I can only feel that. What is this…? It comes to me slowly, like a scared creature. I feel its power, though. Like shadows, ready to engulf everything, a hungry and blind beast ready to swallow me... I feel it circling around me, coming closer and closer, sensing me.
“...Yes, come. Come to me. I came for you, after all…”
The darkness touches me. It feels as cold as ice over my skin, my fingers, my nape. It's penetrating through all of my pores, getting inside and taking over like a demon looking for a host... I feel the darkness filling me... it's taking a hold of my body, trying to swallow everything it touches. To taint it, to corrupt it. It wants it all... my fire, my wolf, my power. My magic, all of my magic, to devour it...
“You can't have me.”
I don't know where I find the strength to speak. That thing hesitates, and like millions of small little black snakes, it scatters all around, trying to get away from my fire. Oh, no. You got close, now you're going to get burned... I can't feel my body, but I channel all the power I can. If you want it, come and take it, you damn curse.
I grow my fire, I make my wolf growl and my water flow. My inner self is gearing up for battle against that thing, and the shadows react. Like a dark cloud, it gets thicker, almost hissing back at me, ready for a fight. Come here... Let's get to a common ground where we can talk. If you want my power, come and get it... I tease it with my flame, taunting it, making that thing approach until I can get a hold of it for real. It knows of my power... It knows I know who they are. Who it really is behind the shadows, lurking, waiting for hundreds of years. Waiting for revenge, poisoning minds, and growing in the darkness.
“...I see you.”
A shy white light appears, and I let myself be pulled toward it. I know who you are. You can't run from me like you hid from all the others... I know you… You and I are the same. We are the same… The same darkness. You can take my power. I'll give you what you want, what you've always wanted. I'll free you from your madness... and then, you'll be free.
Free to unleash your wrath.
Chapter 36
The light and the darkness are both there, slowly coming closer, surrounding me in this strange place of silence. The light is shining, so bright and pure, yet so shy in front of me. It's brightening the darkness around like a small window. I feel myself slowly, naturally, pulled toward it, and I do not fight it... I'm not scared. I know where I am, who is there.
I feel myself slowly drown, like coming out the other side of the water. Moon Goddess, it's so cold over there... so lonely too. The silence is echoing within itself, making everything sound so small in the middle of something so vast. I try to focus on the little, vivid flame in my stomach, holding on to it like the only source of warmth around. I really feel like I'm going to freeze to the bone if I forget it's there to warm me up...
I hear wailing, somewhere on my left. I try to remember how to even see anything, and a shape slowly appears. It's a woman, and she smells of... fresh grass and soil... Ravena!
She's curled up on what ought to be some sort of ground. She's obviously in pain... I hear her wailing, but I can't... go anywhere near her. I can't even pull myself there. I'm like a tiny speck of dust, thrown left or right on a breeze's whim, while she's a rock, abandoned there and left to her pain. Her sobbing is so genuine, I feel sorry for her. I can't see the details of her face in the darkness, only her silhouette shaking, following the rhythm of her cries. Damn it... She smells like death. I have no idea how to save her. I don't even know how I can regain control of my body.
"Help... me..."
I hear her muted plea, making me even sadder for her. ...Can I do something for her? I want to reach out, but... I'm so powerless right now.
"Ravena...?"
I can barely recognize my own voice, as if it was coming from very far, like an echo... but she hears it. Her silhouette stops shaking, and I can finally distinguish the traits of her face. The blood I saw earlier, coming down from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears is still there... She's not going to make it. I can almost see the veil of death in her expression: her empty eyes, the way she looks so tired...
"...Ravena."
