Page 9 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

I try to prepare myself mentally for what it'll feel like, but it's so incomprehensible to me. She's supposed to be alive, curious and growing confident with every new day. I was supposed to protect her, and I failed.

But I won't fail at this next task: revenge.

The men have a significant lead on me, so I have to book it as fast as I can to overtake them. My legs burn with the effort, my hand cramping around the rifle's stock. I ignore the rumbling of my stomach, focused on my goals.

I'm vaguely aware of the passing of time. The rising of something wild and feral within me. Around me, the animals seem to grow disturbed, their feathers ruffled and their fur on end. I can feel their distaste for what I've become, even as the blue magic leaks out of me and flames lick at my neck, dancing in my strange blue hair.

I wonder if this was what the witches of Salem felt when they were reborn on their death pyres and descended on the town that forsook them, madness at their fingertips and death in their heart.

I can feel him in the distance. He can't be more than a mile away. His followers have stopped, and they have something with them.Lizzy.

The last of her magic is a bitter presence to my senses; when a witch is bled to death, our powers are the last thing to desert us completely, leaving only with fire or time. The Heretic, I realize, must have taken her out here so he can use her death magic for some kind of arcane ritual of his, to heal his wounds or bind his followers to him.

He's perfectly fine withusingmagic. It's being born with it that he's decided is wrong. The cruel, soulless man. I'll kill him for what he's done.

My rage is all-consuming.

It spills out of me with every step, turning the world around me blue—or maybe that's my eyes, tinted by out-of-control magic.

I'm not even sure if I'm human anymore. If I ever was.

Chapter 4

My magic seemsto grow the longer I walk through the woods, rage beating in my heart and clenching my hands around the stock of my borrowed rifle. Blue trails at my feet and spills from my clenched fists, turning the leaves my tennis shoes crunch down on into strange purple-tinged things. I glance up towards the sky, judging the position of the sun, and the sky is unnaturally blue—from my magic in the air or the blue of my eyes, I can't tell, but it looks beautiful in a neon lights kind of way.

The animals of the forest tell me where the strange human scents go, but as I get closer to their trail I can see it more obviously. They've broken twigs on the ground and barely bothered to cover up their footprints. Obviously they didn't think that I'd be hunting them, so they got lazy.

Or they were dragging a small body across the ground.

I try not to think about it, but anger twists up my lips and quickens my pace. I find myself crashing through the woods, careless of the trail I leave behind—after all, there's no Heretic or his followers after me anymore.

How different it feels to be the predator instead of the prey.

My anger flows out of me into the woods, carried by the innate magic in my blood. It touches every wild animal that considers these trees a safe haven and leaves its blue-tinged influence behind. Birds cry sharply in the trees above, diving at each others' nests; squirrels chitter angrily and rumble above my head on thick, twisting branches.

I try to pull the anger back, but the more I follow the path, the deeper the grooves in the ground and careless footsteps grow. And the easier it is to imagine her little body, limp and lifeless, blood gone from her innocent cheeks.

My anger can't be tamed.

Then I feel them. Three fully grown predators. They're out in the woods, past rivers and hills, far beyond the usual radar my naturalist senses give me. It's like whatever rebirth happened to me in the fire gave memoreof my witch magic, and now I can go further than ever before.

They're huge. Strong. Intelligent and keenly aware of my presence. I can feel them jerk to life as my magic brushes against them, wild with madness. One is a wolf, two of them big cats that shouldn't even be in these woods.

I'm briefly distracted from the trail by the touch of their spirits against my magic. Like the doe in the woods, I can feel their intentions and their strength. But unlike the doe, these predators are evolved, something more than simple wild animals.

I don't mean to, but somehow I call to them with my naturalistic powers. I feel them swing their heads towards me and surge forward on strong, predatory feet. My rage and madness tugs on their feral spirits and draws them to me. Their paws sink into the ground as they leap over rocks and fallen tree trunks, heading right for me.

I have no idea what the madness will do to them. They might fight each other to death or even attack me. I've never even felt animals like them before: prescient, unnaturally intelligent, their minds nearly human. Anything could happen by the time they get to me.

Even though it pains me to do so, I turn away from the trail I've been following to face the three animals. Warm blue flames lick up my arms, my power expanding outward from my body to face the imminent threat. I have no idea what the blue fire does or where it came from, but I'm glad that it followed me from the funeral pyre.

Now that I'm not facing down the path, I can see what's been going on all around me as I stalked through the woods. Magic, like blue dust, glows in the trees and shines in the eyes of squirrels and birds. Straggly plants reach up towards the sky, leaves dipping with the weight of blue magic that gathers on their stems.

I can sense the three predators approaching just before I hear their feet crashing through the undergrowth. They plow through bushes and snap twigs beneath their paws, not caring if I hear them. I can sense the reckless danger of the madness in their minds—and something like fear as well, all of it swirled together like a toxic cocktail.

Suddenly they're here, close enough for me to see and not just sense. Tension crackles in the air as they move through the trees towards me: a wolf and two panthers, impossibly large, eyes glowing blue with feral magic. Their presences are distinctly male, making it even stranger that the three of them are together. I've never known predators to mix with other species or have overlapping territories, especially breeding age males.

But it doesn't matterwhythey're here. It matters how I can keep them from eviscerating me.

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