The silver van drove by and I met the watery eyes of the young boy as his parents sped away. His sister was missing from the seat beside him. I wondered if her body now lay rotting somewhere around here.
“Calan,” someone softly said my name. Emma was at the side of the car. She had stayed out of harm’s way, for which I was grateful.
“Where’s Travis?” I asked in a panic. As soon as the soul eater had become strong enough, it would go after the Propheros and I’d have no way of stopping it.
“He’s safe, for now,” she said, keeping a calm, low voice. The screams of agony echoed throughout the u-shape of the motel block. Over her shoulder, I watched the owner perish under the soul eater’s hunger.
I grabbed Emma’s arms and together we pulled me out from the windshield with another loud crunch of glass. The shards rained down, tinkling as they hit the paved parking lot. Instead of rushing back into the fray, I paused. Yet again, I was failing to protect. We should drive away and pray it wouldn’t catch up.
“It’s too strong.” My words struggled to get past the lump in my throat. “Too fast, and too powerful now. Nothing can stop it. We must run.” My heart broke into pieces at the prospect of retreat. I had never run before, especially when so many could be harmed, but I had to protect the Propheros. These people were lost and there was nothing I could do.
As I watched the scene in abject horror, paralyzed by fear, Emma’s hand curled around my bicep and she lifted up onto her toes to whisper into my ear. My eyes shut of their own accord and I leaned into her.
“Calan, you can do this. Use your magic again.” Emma then laid a sweet kiss on my cheek that warmed my face. The warmth traveled down to warm my body with a comfort I was unaccustomed to. “I believe in you.”
Power erupted inside me like a geyser, so unexpectedly that I lost my breath. What felt like liquid sun raced through my veins, renewing my energy. Could her very words be magic? I didn’t know what it was, but the effect was power unlike any I’d known.
Time slowed once more. Striding forward, I walked over the bodies until I was ten feet away from the feeding soul eater. I dropped to a knee and held my hands in a triangle. The pads of my fingers met each other in familiar greeting and my palms sang with comforting heat. The soul eater turned, its heavy step vibrating the ground. The words my Masters taught me fell from my mouth like a rushing waterfall.
The soul eater let out a sound resembling a laugh except it was grated like a manhole cover scraping against asphalt as it was removed.
Sure of myself, I built the power between my hands until I felt I held the sun itself. The pressure was so intense I thought my very heart would burst from joy. Despite my eyes focusing on the soul eater, all I saw in my mind’s eye was Emma.
A cheer whooped out behind me. “Get him, Calan.”
My mouth quirked in a smile and I remembered the words Emma had whispered to me, her breath caressing my ear. The soul eater advanced on me but it had barely crossed half the distance to me before I felt the crest of the wave and let it land. My magic thundered from my hands in a blast of blinding light like nothing I’d ever unleashed before. My body shivered violently with the waves the rushed off me, but it was rooted in pleasure. Pleasure like pizza. Pleasure like kissing Emma.
The soul eater screamed, the light surrounding its form, enveloping it. Then with a last cresting wave, my light grandly exploded once more and the soul eater did so along with it.
I blinked to keep the tiny, gray dust particles of what remained of the soul eater from getting in my eyes.
“Whoo, suck on that soul eater.”
I turned around to see Emma dancing in victory bringing a smile to my lips, but it soon faltered as I took in all the decaying bodies surrounding me.
Gods. How could I have failed so many?
Emma ran out into the street and began jumping up and down in a strange dance. A car pulled into the lot, distracting me from my grief. It was Emma’s jeep. I hadn’t even noticed its absence. As it neared, I saw Travis was at the wheel. He gave me a salute with a shaky hand, his mouth set in a tight line.
Emma bounded up to me. “We got the girl in the back.” Her eyes took in the sight of the bodies and her face sobered. Eight were visible, but who knew how many were putrefying in their rooms? “Should we go?” she asked, forcing her eyes back on me.
Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Thank you.”
She smiled again, though it wasn’t as bright as before. “You were the one who did it. After all, you are Chevalier.”
My heart sank. I was. She had given me the gift of power I’d never known, but it changed nothing.
I followed Emma to the passenger side of the car, where she quickly hopped into the back. I caught a glimpse of the little girl, white-faced, and clutching her stuffed bunny like a life line. I felt some solace from the opportunity to return the girl to her family. It wouldn’t be hard to track them if we left now.
My fingers closed around the door handle at the same time something stung me on the side of my neck. I looked in at Travis’s face through the window, my mouth opened but no words came out. He met my look with a confused expression, then his eyes fell over my shoulder and I watched recognition dawn on his features.
“Go,” I said. It was barely audible, but Travis saw my lips move around the word.
From the back of the car, I heard Emma’s muffled voice. “Calan?”
The car handle ripped out of my hand as Travis slammed his foot on the gas and the jeep jumped forward and away from my already falling body.
Darkness swallowed me into oblivion.
