Page 4 of Scaled Hearts

Shit.

“Sorry! I—”

I’m cut off by a low rumbling. Just as I turn to see where the noise is coming from, screams erupt and chaos takes over. I gasp and cover my head with my arms, dropping down to the ground when a pickaxe is hurled towards me.

“Arg!” I hear Broswin groan from behind me, followed by a loud thud from his body dropping to the ground.

“Kara!” I yell for her, my voice drowned out by the screams.

But just as suddenly as it started, it stops. The entire shaft goes completely silent. I lift my head slowly and push myself up from the ground. All around me are dead bodies, slain from whatever cosmic energy has just ripped through the mineshaft.

“No…” I mumble. “No, no, no. Kara!!”

I hear a sob in the distance, deeper into the mineshaft. “Kelly…!”

My heart lurches, I grab the lantern from on top of the cooler and race to where we last were standing

“Kara! I’m coming!”

What the hell just happened?

“Kelly!” my sister calls again.

I raise the lantern up high in my hand, spotting her a few feet away from me.

Her axe is clutched in her hand, the end of it coated in blood that is now dripping onto the ground beneath it.

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes.

“I’m sorry.”

2

Angurus

“Hello, little one.”

I remember this.

She’s smiling at me. Her eyes, the color of a strike of lightning, glitter from the glow of the fire that surrounds her. There’s a haze over everything though. It’s not a memory, but a dream of a memory.

“You are one of my chosen,” she reaches out, caressing my cheek. I feel warmth infuse my skin at her touch. With her silver hair and matching eyes, I expected her ashen skin to be ice cold, but it’s not. My head nuzzles into her hand. “I have chosen you.”

The Hearthkeeper gazes at me, features soft, ruby-red lips parted in a smile. My head spins at her words. I feel dizzy.

“Chosen?”

“Shhh,” she moves her hand up to smooth back a strand of my hair, tucking it behind my ear. “Worry not, little one. You shall help me usher in a new era.”

Her hand moves down again, the other coming up to cup my cheeks. Her eyes flutter closed and the fire that surrounds her shines more intensely, the color changing from yellow and red to a bright white. I can’t bear to look so I have to close my eyes as well.

“Feel it inside you, little one,” she says as the warmth inside of me erupts into a burst of flames. My entire body is aflame, I can feel the heat lick at my skin.

My eyes fly open in alarm but I’m not burning up. The flames merely tickle pleasantly as they envelop my body head to toe.

“What’s happening?” I ask, lifting my hands to look at the fire that surrounds me.

“You’re changing, little one. You are my chosen child. You will help defeat the monster race.”

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