"What-." I started to say, but was cut off by Katana's words. Her once soft, smooth skin is etched in claw marks and bruises. Holes appeared in her clothes as her body Shaked from the brisk cold breeze that just came in.
"We don't have time for questions, Quinn. Grab your bag from the car, you too Kai." He didn't hesitate one bit when his sister gave her stern order. I couldn't move, couldn't register what just happened only a few seconds ago. I can remember the woman, whose name is Fallon, hands on my face. Those rough calluses rubbing against the delicacy of my skin.
Then, the pain. My body shook to the core, embers of shocked pain ruffling through me. She did something, something I couldn't understand, Then, I did something to her, whatever it was she cowered back like a child who got caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.
I remembered that look. It was the one Lyra gave me when I tried to kill her at the pack house. A haunted look bloomed in those sapphire eyes, taking the twinkling sharpness they once held. I can't understand how Katana and Kai could just-
"Quinneth! Why aren't you moving?" Her voice didn't waver, or shiver from the cold but held sternness and determination to get the hell out of here.
"I- wha-." The words couldn't come out, so I just forced my brain to move my feet as Kai handed me my lavender backpack. The key chain I got from Chicago 2 years ago dangled against my hip.
"Burn it." Was all Katana said. I look to her, confused by her statement. Her finger pointed to the dented car with the glass busted out of it.
"The car? I can't burn a car."
She walked towards me, her movements the light sounds of a cat treading on carpet. "We can't just leave it out here, Fallon and her goons found us, who knows who else is coming for us. Burning the car eliminates all traces of us being out here. So, do as I say and use those powers for something other than lighting people on fire." I just sigh and raise my hands to the car, that once hot fire that was there before is now back. The car lights up like a bonfire, I could see it dancing in Katana's gloomy eyes.
"I say we head south and then set up camp." Kai said nonchalantly as he pointed in the southern direction. She nodded and walked over to him, while I stood.
"Camping?" They both gave me incredulous looks. "I don't know if you guys recognized, but I'm a human who will die in these woods from frostbite."
"We have no other choice, plus Kai and I will keep you warm. Now, come on." Her voice comes out soft. No sneering or demanding tone, just a person trying to calm someone down. I breathed, stretched, looked around and followed behind her into the woods. The roaring fire behind us crackling, not one of us turned around.
🌺🌺🌺🌺
Turns out in Katana and Kai's bag, they both had tents in them. I didn't wonder why they had a tent in their bags, but how they fit it in when they both carried a backpack. I stood to the side, the wind blowing at the five layers of coats that I wore. Even with the thick coats, I could still feel the wind gliding through my sides.
The Khan sibling fascinated me, a lot. From the movements to the quickness, it was extraordinary. Kai was the caring sibling, and was nice. Kai- who back then was Lyle- dancing at homecoming with Kate burned in my brain. I wonder if he ever called her, if Kate wonders about him, where he went. But when it came down to it, he would rip out someone's throat if they hurt someone he loved. He just got done building his tent, he sits his blue bag inside of it.
Then, he announces before walking off into the dark depths of the woods, "I'm going to hunt us some dinner." I give him a warm smile as my fingers pick at the old bark on the tree next to me. Katana just nods to him; he takes that has a 'be safe' and goes.
I look to his older sister; her bare hands lift up 20-pound logs around a non-lit camp fire pit. She set that up an hour ago, making me walk around and find tons of sticks, which didn't take me long at all. She was strong, so tough. The only fear I'd ever seen from Katana is when someone would harm me. Like her body couldn't bear the trip of going on without me.
Those black locks were tied in a low bun behind her head, only a jacket and skinny jeans clung to her toned body. She was so beautiful, rough, but beautiful. I could see why Nyx couldn't keep his eyes off of her, I remember that hand he had laying on her back. A curious side of me wanting to know their back history, but the realistic part of me said stay out of it.
My mind drifts to my bedroom. When she told me the story of Sasha's sister, Shila. How her mother went insane, and said she had to get her daughter out of Insofar, for what reason, Katana never found out. At 14, so young, just a babe even, had to take her cousin to a pack in her uncle's region, the Nygaard region. Then, after a few weeks she went to go check on her to have everyone in the pack be dead. She told me of the death that wafted the air, the buzzing of flies twirling over dead corpse.
She failed, is what she told me, and that she regretted not being able to save Shila. That's why she's so adamant on saving me, keeping me safe. But I wonder, does anyone take care of her? Does anyone ever risk their life for her, the beautiful fighter standing before me. Sasha hated her, and Katana hated herself for what happened to Shila.
"Hey, fire hands." My head whips up to her, those hooded eyes looked up at me as she sat on her log. "Light the fire so we can warm you up, wouldn't want you dying of- what did you say? - frostbite." I only rolled my eyes and send a bomb of fire to the sticks.
🥀🥀🥀🥀
Kai came back with two white rabbits. I freaked out when he loomed over me with them, some blood dripped onto my jacket. As I shuttered with fear, he just laughed and slapped them down on his log. I tended to the fire, having to relight it three times since the gusty wind killed it. My body felt a bit drained from using my powers this much, the feeling of waking The First Power laid heavy on my mind. Remembering the limpness of my body, the life escaping from me. Alexander's crimson blood soaking my eggshell colored nightgown, him taking his last breath.
I knock those thoughts out of me, death will not haunt me tonight. Katana and Kai skinned the bunnies, tied them to some old sticks and rolled them over the fire like pigs in a King's feast. "So, do you guys do this kind of stuff often?" I asked out loud, my hands warming on my jeans.
They both looked to each other, then to me. Kai was the one to answer, "Only when were on missions."
"And is that all the time?"
"Sometimes, we never go on these together, actually." He looks to his sister, something warm glimmering in those eyes. "Ah, the foods done, time to eat." He eyed the rabbits like they were the salvation to life, like they held all the secrets he so desperately needed answered.
The light around us darkened, the only light was from the moon and the fire we all sit around. The wind asleep as is the birds that were chirping just a few hours ago. The bunny wasn't half bad, when Katana handed me my plate, I reluctantly took it. She saw how I eyed the piece of bunny leg I had, how my mind couldn't register the fact that I was about to eat a raw bunny. She told me I better eat it; with the long journey we'll have I'll need the energy. So, I bite back any disgust that lingered and ate the bunny.
"Are we going to talk about what happened back there?" I asked once I finished my dinner.
"No."
I look to Kai, he just shrugs his shoulder as if he was saying, 'what can you do.'
"And why not?" I held her gaze, not flinching as her essence loomed around me.
"It's none of your concern, that's why. Your job is to make sure you can convince the King and Queen to give a cure for Alexander." I remember those hands on my face, the piercing pain I felt in my head. "My job is to get you to them, alive."
"It IS my concern Katana Khan. I almost died back there, this Fallon chick, whomever she may be wanted me dead. Six feet under. And YOU sit there and tell me it's none of my concern." I stand, not being able to sit with all this tense energy inside of me. Kai only sits in silence, not sure of what to say. Thank God he didn't, if he did, I felt that I would blow up on him, and I don't want that.
She remains seated, her body not moving a bit as the fire casted shadows on her tan skin. "I'm trying to protect you." The words bite as they come out.
I swirl around, "I DON'T NEED YOU TO PROECT ME!" The ground under us starts to rumble.
"Calm down." Kai whispers to me. I abide by his words.
She now stands, she wasn't even shaken up or scared that I rumbled the ground under us, "Do you want to know who Fallon is, what that was back there?"
"Yes." I breathed.
"Fine. Her name is Fallon Chase, her power is telepathy. She works for a powerful family of old witches that wish to see you dead, your bones rusting under the very ground we stand on and you rumbled just a few minutes ago. They know that you woke up The First Power, and are mad, wait not mad, angry that they seek vengeance and won't stop until you're dead. Waking them didn't just scare the werewolves, but the witches and other covens across the continent."
Kai stepped in, "Katana stop, you're scaring her."
Her eyes boil open, "No Kai, I will not stop. She wants the truth, then I'll give it to her." She continues on, and I let her. "The old witches almost died centuries ago when they took down The First Power. Thousands of people died when they created the Zastitniks, exhibit A: Rhella. You know her story, she killed half a kingdom, and the King himself because of what they did to her village years ago. One of the old witches, Zrak, died in the war to take her down. So, you waking up the deepest evil to save your boyfriend was selfish and dumb, there I said it. You were selfish Quinn, for risking the lives of millions for one. SELFISH!" She kicks dirt into the fire and storms off into her tent.
I just stand there, taking in her words. A few tears escape my eyes as my world shakes and utters. She's right, I was selfish. I look back at her tent, "I don't regret what I did, even if it was selfish." My voice wobbles, "I'd do it again in a heartbeat." She doesn't say anything or come out her tent.
I stare into the fire, taking in the evil shadows it cast around the campsite. My heart beats erratically.
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