Hellfire Crown by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 19

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cornstalks were over two feet above me. The field spread out under a low, overcast sky. I could not see its end. I let my senses out to explore further, to feel its perimeter and the danger within, and I got nothing.

I also lost my sense of direction. That was exactly the design of this trial. There’d be no easy way out, and most of the contenders would die in the mazes.

I evened my breathing and prowled ahead, ideas running wild in my head. When I realized that it was counterproductive, I tried to quiet my mind and follow my instincts, which offered no opinions.

I called my magic, flexing my fingers. It tried to respond but couldn’t rise. I was in a null zone. The Wild Hunt was trying its best to create as many barriers as possible for me. It had targeted me in the second trial, so I had no illusions that it would be friendly in this one.

I kept gathering my magic quietly, a trickle at a time, letting it accumulate in the depths of my well until I felt a spark of the flame my mate had given me.

I walked for a long time. Exhaustion dragged my limbs and hunger gnawed my belly.

I sent my weakened magical sense out again to search for an exit and found no end. There wasn’t the slightest wind in the field. I kept panic at bay while dark feelings rose within me.

Maybe I should use the spark of flame to burn the cornfield, but I dismissed the idea. My magic was still weak, so my water and ice wouldn’t be able to rise to the occasion if something went wrong.

Then a new idea formed.

When the angel of death had forced me to show the power of my Morrigan heritage, my wings had popped out for the first time. I doubted that anyone else had seen them, except for Azrael, who’d gotten a kick out of seeing my phantom wings.

I’d forced them back, as I hadn’t wanted my dark Morrigan magic to sweep me over, as my mother had warned all of her children might happen. A sudden grief overcame me at the thought of my family. I was trapped and alone in this endless cornfield, and my whole family was gone.

I let the grief pass through me and didn’t invite it back.

I needed to focus on the game if I wanted to get out of here alive. Right now, it was time to summon my wings and fly away. Using a small amount of Morrigan magic wouldn’t lure me to the dark side, or so I told myself.

I called my wings, picturing them emerging and bracing for the pain. Then I felt the unbearable weight behind my back and sharp pain coming with it. I kept pushing it, ignoring the burning sensation and agony, until my wings whooshed out, spreading wide and arching high.

Just as the angel had said, I was a natural.

I laughed. Joy beat in my veins. I lifted and flapped my wings, ready to take my first flight.

The sky suddenly shifted, crimson lightning flashing across the sky. Then a membrane dropped above the cornfield like a transparent dome. Crimson lightning traveled across the membrane, which was low enough to prevent me from soaring.

My throat felt parched. The Wild Hunt magic was monitoring my every move. It wouldn’t let me out so easily.

I checked my mental shield and enhanced it. Even if I could keep the Wild Hunt magic out of my head, it would still see my actions and try to sabotage my every effort.

It’d be a battle of will and wits.

I let my wings vanish.

I’d have to burn the field then. Time to go to the extreme and do some damage.

I started to uproot the cornstalks around me to make a circle. When the clearing was big enough, I’d stay in the circle while the rest of the cornstalks went up in flames. I conjured the flame gifted by my mate, and a spark appeared in my left palm.

It would be enough.

I had no means of knowing where the trial was set, but I strongly suspected it was taking place in Hell, judging from the heat of the soil.

Fire would do just fine to toast the Wild Hunt’s cornfield.

Before I tossed the spark to a cornstalk to light it up, a dark gust of wind swept over the cornfield, bending the cornstalks below my eyelevel. Two pillars of cornstalks moved apart until a broad path lay in front of me.

I narrowed my eyes, my heart pounding, my fists ready for a punch if any opponents lunged at me.

No foes appeared, but a head with long silver hair like mine was hurled toward me. I yelped in alarm and dashed to the side. The head didn’t go past me but landed in a thud right before my feet.

A scream tore through my throat.

The head belonged to my mother.

Icy raged burned in my eyes. My limbs went utterly cold, my mind numb.

No, no, it couldn’t be. I kept shaking my head. My family had been dead for a decade. Ragnarö had beheaded all of them with his black broadsword and forced me to watch.

Yet seeing my mother’s bloody head in the field of cornstalks, I couldn’t help but sob. Wails broke through my throat, and I howled like a wounded animal.

Terrified cries jerked me out of my sorrow.

Ten feet from me, my fourteen-year-old brother, Neleus, and my ten-year-old sister, Regina, knelt on the icy ground, struggling and crying, but a magical force, stronger than our ice magic, pinned them down, just as my father’s head fell and rolled between them.

Then my teary eyes watched my younger self break free of the Ice God’s magic binding and charge him. The bastard’s silver eyes widened in surprise and delight as she grabbed a blade from a guard, trying to stab the god with it. She was the only one who could counter his magic.

The fucking Wild Hunt was replaying my nightmarish memories of a decade ago in the clearing of the cornfield.

I didn’t care if it was real or not. I roared and charged the Ice God as he subdued eight-year-old me. I might still save my brother and sister in this cornfield.

A long blade rose and flashed with dark light, slicing through my sister’s, then my brother’s necks before I could reach them.

“You sadistic fucker!” I screamed in grief and rage. “I’ll be coming for you, and I’ll shred you like the garbage you are!”

I blew at the spark in my palm, and it leapt into a flame.

I lit the cornfield.

I sprang back to the clearing I’d made and watched the field burn with a wicked grin while tears streaked down my face.

I’d burn all the fuckers, including the Wild Hunt, one day.

I didn’t forgive. I didn’t forget. I’d pay them back, no matter how long it took.

A chilling howl rose ahead, then more joined in. It was the wolves.

The stench of sulfur, blood, and burned dirt and corn invaded my nostrils.

The shifters were in trouble.

I hadn’t sensed them in the cornfield. I’d been sure that I was all alone in this setting. The Wild Hunt might have shifted them here in retaliation after I set the field of cornstalks on fire.

I couldn’t let my allies perish here.

I threw out my hands and let whatever ice and water magic I still had drench the fire I had started. I raised my head and mimicked a wolf’s howl, telling them that I was coming.

And I sprang toward the direction of the wolves at top speed.