Chapter 15

Locked inside the Magi camp, Reyna had few chances of seeing anything beautiful. She was kept apart from the other trainees and had to sneak around just to see their faces. Once she had been near the practice field during an orientation session of some new recruits. They were a few years older than her yet their training was not as daunting. She watched as they were punished every time one of them failed to do what was expected.

In the end only one of them remained, he was on his knees with his back still straight. Even as the lashes became deeper he didn't give out under the force of the whips. Reyna's eyes shifted to the rest of him wanting to escape the gory sight of the torn flesh that was his bloody back. The boy's hair was a brilliant silver and in the moonlight it seemed to be made of pure metal.

His skin that remained untouched by the stinging whips reminded Reyna of the fragile porcelain figurines her mother used to place on the top shelf. As red spots of blood splashed on it they created a heartbreaking piece of art. The boy turned his head in her direction as if sensing the intensity of her stare. Their eyes met. Reyna watched as mild confusion filled those orbs of electric blue before he mouthed something. Her brain was too frazzled to understand what he meant.

A single tear, a line of liquid silver in the moonlight, made it's way to his cheek. Reyna's heart clenched at the image of the sad beautiful boy. A gasp escaped from her alerting one of the supervisors of her presence. Just as he turned in her direction, the silver-haired boy let his body fall to the blood soaked ground. In the commotion that ensued, Reyna's intruding was forgotten as the broken bodies of the trainees were gathered and taken to the infirmary wing.

That night the image of the boy haunted her sleep and as she remembered his face she finally heard what he had been trying to say. "Run, get out."

The words came to mind again, a few months later when she discovered that the boy was dead. He had refused to bend to the force of the Magi and in the end it broke him. She had crept into the room that was used as the morgue before the bodies were incinerated. Just one last time she wanted to see the face of that beautiful boy who still roamed in her dreams but he wasn't there. In the stark white light, she found a frail wasted corpse instead.

Not even a ghost of his beauty remained. His silver hair was matted onto his forehead, his cheeks creating dark hollows in his face. His skin was an ashen gray that seemed to darken in front of her eyes. She had cried then, for the boy that had been and the body that was left. He had been brave enough to resist but only for so long. She finally understood what it meant to be a hero and the boy was it.

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Beautiful, no other word could describe the colors that drifted in and out of the darkness she had created. Maybe they existed but none of them came to her mind at that very moment. She had seen rainbows before, had wished she could touch them but all of their magnificence was dulled at the sight of the beauty in front of her eyes.

As the waters rushed down in their entrancing grace they met the beams of Light conjured by Miran. Together they made spectrums more magical than anything she had ever seen before. On instinct, she reached out her hand wanting to hold the colors and see them up close but instead her Darkness shot out and joined the show. The spectrums that were once magical became ethereal.

Reyna could only stare at them. If she could cry or laugh she would have but she didn't remember how. The pain in her chest, a constant reminder of all that she had lost. Something tapped at the back of her mind. The feeling of submerging under water returned and Reyna was once again floating in pure darkness.

"As romantic as this is, we have a situation."

Izzy's formless voice surrounded her in the never ending darkness.

" What is going on?"

"A smell of rotten flesh burned in sulphur in currently surrounding the area around the big house we now live in and if by any chance you understand what I'm saying please wrapped the show up and get your behinds there."

Reyna didn't need any explanations to know what was going on. The putrid stench of flesh could only mean one thing, demons. If she had been on her own, going back would have been the last thing on her mind but now she was stuck with these Guardians, who were kind to her no matter how wary that were. Serena had been left at the mansion, the butler along the staff she had never seen were there as well.

"Yes, yes and if you want to save them in time hurry up and finish this sobbing thought process before they become dinner for you know what."

Reyna's consciousness returned to the present but not before she heard all the curses Izzy was muttering at the stupid cosmic rules.

The dizziness of being pushed back into her body made her lose her footing. Only the hands that suddenly appeared holding her waist kept her from plunging head first into the the river below.

" Reyna, are you okay?"

Even though she heard Miran's words, all that was ringing in her mind was demons.

"We need to go, Serena is in danger."

She purposefully mentioned Serena knowing how much Miran adored her and also to avoid any questions he might have asked. His face hardened at her words and even though Reyna saw the confusion in his eyes, she was relieved when he chose to believe them.

He created a portal similar to the one they had travelled in before and held out his hand for her to take. The message in his eyes was clear enough. Don't let go. The moment her hand was safely in his, they were off. Going through the portal was like rushing through a fast moving tunnel with blinding light that made you close your eyes only for it to end a second later.

The choking smell of sulphur welcomed them as they landed in the woods that bordered the mansion. Though it had been dark at the waterfall, it was still daytime at the Guardians' place. Reyna had never asked the name of the area so she couldn't tell which time zone they were in.

The woods were silent. Too silent to be precise. Not a single insect or bird could be heard. Reyna didn't see the demons and even with her great sense of smell, the sulphuric stench cloaked the air and she could not tell where it was coming from.

She didn't want to wait for them to find her first because they were an unknown. She wasn't even sure how to kill them even if she caught them, but maybe Miran did.

"If I draw them out, do you know how to kill them?"

He replied with a simple nod but it was enough for her. He too sensed the lurking evil and his dark expression told her that he was more than familiar with their presence.

In order to find the demons, she needed to concentrate and focus her energy towards the shadows that seemed endless even in the light of day. Reyna closed her eyes and in her mind she imagine her power as strands, each one under her control. She used them to feel through the shadows of the trees around them, looking for anything that didn't belong.

The scorching aura of Miran's power beside her made the strands curious and afraid of getting close to him. She felt the tug as one of them caught something. It was dark but not like her Darkness which resembled the night sky. It had an oily sheen to it that seemed revolting. One by one the strands each caught the foreign evil. Using the very shadows they hid in, Reyna pulled the strands back, still making sure they held on tight to what they had found.

The demons that surrounded them were not less than twenty. They were hanging in the air struggling against the invisible hands that held them place.With her eyes open, she could now knew why they had no specific forms that she could identify with. Their many limbs were scattered everywhere and Reyna couldn't see any eyes on them.

As if on cue, Miran struck out with his power and dissolved the disgusting beings into non-existence. The horrible stink of burnt flesh wafted in the air even after all of them were gone. Reyna let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. She knew what had to be done. The demons were obviously after her. She couldn't let them take her again neither could she allow them to hurt innocent people. She had to run away.