It was punishment.
It was fuckingjustice.
“This kind of thinking… there’s no cure for it. No redemption. Once you go there, once it’s shown you’re capable of doing something like this, it’s set in stone.”
I yanked him back to me, his skin and clothes smoldering.
“The world’s suffered enough as it is from fuckers like you. Beings like Vaxan and me have suffered enough.”
“Zayn…” Vaxan croaked.
I swept him underneath the shield a good few feet from the ailing and struggling Andrew.
“Not… what I… meant.” His pained eyes gestured at Pierce—what I was doing to him.
“He deserves it! They both do!”
“You… follow through any… further… you risk… becoming them.”
“How can you say that after what they’ve done to you?”
“Generational… crueltycanbe… broken. But when justice becomes… vengeance unchecked… that possibility… lessens.”
“Vaxan—”
“Power isn’t all. That’stheirline… of thinking. Don’t let it... poisonyou.”
“Motherfucker!” I roared, tossing Pierce over toward Andrew, where he landed in a heap within the sun shield and rolled back and forth weakly, trying to put the flames out.
He couldn’t manage it all the way because he was too weakened.
“Come the fuck on,” I muttered to myself as I held my right palm up and steadily drew the flames into my glowing fuchsia fire, pulling it all from him and channeling it into what became a sphere the size of a bowling ball levitating over my palm.
He finally stilled and laid there beside his fool of a buddy, and I strained to then draw the elemental fire from my arcane flame, releasing it steadily into the atmosphere bit by bit, where it would assimilate into the sun’s rays and also absorb into the heat emanating from it.
It took me longer than I would have liked, but I couldn’t just release it in a burst, or it could cause a dangerous explosion that, when combined with my own flame, could level a good portion of the immediate area.
While I had the ability to push back fire, even the likes of dragon fire, I didn’t like playing with it or absorbing it with myown. It felt… uncomfortable. Kind of like nails scraping across a chalkboard.
By the time I was done, Pierce had managed to pull out the stakes from Andrew’s throat and gut.
And then the two of them vamp-sped away together.
My instinct was to go after them.
But I stopped myself.
One, Vaxan needed immediate help.
Two, I’d tagged them both with my magic so there was nowhere they could run where I wouldn’t be able to find them.
Three, we had to be drawing attention by now.
Hold on.As I rushed to Vaxan and scanned the immediate area with my peripheral vision, I saw a bunch of people nearby playing near the lake, some who weren’t vamps or Basilisks sunbathing, some wolves leaping over things and having fun. And even two members of the faculty having a meal on a bench.
But none of them were freaking out or rushing over.
The faculty members—I didn’t even know how long they’d been here, because I hadn’t even cared about my surroundings or anything but stopping what had been happening to Vaxan. Then punishing those shits.
