Page 1 of Hell's Storm

My cheeks are crusted, dry with tears that have stopped running. The icy feeling of numbness runs across my heated body, my eyes are locked on the palace in front of me. My home is completely engulfed in flames. The tears and the echoes of ached wailing have finally stopped, but I still cling to the small body in front of me. My mind can’t wrap around what just happened in the last few hours.

“A-Asura?” Hazen asks, crouching before me, but he sounds like he’s at the end of a tunnel. Distant and far. His blue eyes are filled with tears. He reaches up to touch my cheek but pulls back hissing. “Fuck, she’s hot!”

“No one touch her,” Khazon’s voice comes.

“Too late,” Hazen mutters, rubbing his fingers.

When did he get here? Had he seen what happened like I did? Did he… do it? The people are masked… But Khazon would never hurt me like this. No matter how much he hates me. He would never hurt the man that was a second father figure, and the boy who was like a brother to him.I think.

“Asura?” He waves his hand in my face, causing me to blink. “Give him to me.”

My limbs sag heavily, like I have massive weights around me. I’ll be sinking into the ground if the pressure sticks on.

“You’re burning him more… Give him to me.”

Slowly, I pry my eyes from the castle before me and onto the body I so desperately cling to. Fenric’s body is turning to ash…black instead of his life-filled, pink ivory complexion. It makes him look even more lifeless. My bottom lip quivers, and my eyes tear up again.

Crack!

Then a whipping noise filled the air, and my father turned just in time to see a knife flying into the chest of Fenric.

Bile burns at my throat as waves and waves of coldness rush over my body.

“Asura?” Khazon reaches out to me.

My breath is gone, and I take quick puffs to catch it. I push away from my brother and let Khazon take him. Turning away, I puke, hurling up food from the party. My eyes burn with tears, and I watch as they drip onto the dry soil before me.

“Let it out, baby,” Hazen whispers.

I cringe, not wanting them to see me like this, but I can’t help it. My eyes move to the castle again as I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. My home is gone. Everything is in flames and falling to the ground, exactly how it was in my vision. I tried to stop it.I didn’t know it was going to be like this. I would have tried to stay away, tried to save…

My eyes move to…Fenric. Khazon has him wrapped in a jacket, so I can’t see his face anymore. But I see it every time I close my eyes. His small, taunt face shifts into a look of horror as that dagger enters his heart.The world around me spins like a top as the heat of Hell engulfs me. My skin becomes slick, and my breathing staggers.

“Asura?” Hazen’s words sound farther away than they did before. My body wavers as I hurtle to the ground and let the darkness take me.

We all rush out to catch her before she hits the ground. As soon as Hazen or Jigsaw touch her, they hiss, trying to hold on to her.My arms wrap around her, using my weight to anchor us from hitting the ground. I don’t feel the same blazing heat they are hissing about. Yeah, her body feels a few degrees hotter, but not to the point where I can’t touch her.

“What happened?” Khazon whispers, looking down at Fenric’s body.

Hazen is shaking his head, looking down at his blistering hands. All he wanted to do was comfort her, but he probably couldn’t because of the flame she inherited.

I look down at Asura. The flame is now more prominent around her body, swirling a blazing amber around her. Red blazing lines swirl on her skin. The same magic that her father has—had. It was the power and reign of Hell. Her curls are messy from the night she had, and her PJs are almost entirely burned off her body.

“She just started…” Jigsaw starts, running a bare hand through his shoulder-length hair. He looks like he just woke up too, but probably with her. He smells like her; her sweat, her juices,her.

“Screaming,” Hazen finishes. “She woke up screaming, and that’s when the flame ran across her body. Then… the smell of smoke filled the air. I-I—”

Killian let out a sobbing cough, drawing my attention. His body is huddled against Derrick, and Derrick has his arm around him. I wasn’t even sure he was capable of having feelings.

“When we were leaving… she was clinging to Fen.”

“Fuck!” Jigsaw growls, his hellhound threatening to take the surface. His hellhound hasn’t been out for a while, and it’s an excellent reason.

“Calm down!” I snap.

“Me? You fucking calm down!”

“I am calm!”It is a lie. I am not calm. I feel hotter than Asura probably does with the flame.

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