Chapter 80 CHAPTER 80

Chapter 80 CHAPTER 80
ALIRA'S POV

My anger was overwhelming even though I didn't know why that was my go to emotion.

Or maybe I did.

Everything reminded me of that night, and each and every time, I searched for what I could have done different and every damn time, I come up empty.

I didn't even know what the fuck was happening.

The night ended peacefully and the day began horribly and I was in the center of it.

I'd been punished in different ways for that night.

The scientist taking me for his horrifying tests was because of it, the years of enforced therapy was for it, the blocking of my Chi was as a result of all the drugs I was forced to take

I was literally the lab rat for lots of drugs for a while until Momma won the battle to stop it.

The punishment has been prolonged, unending and honestly unjust.

It's a terrible thing they died, I will always feel bad for that but I didn't intend for that to happen. The court ruled in my favour because there was no clear indication of malicious intent, not even against Matron Kate.

So this strange thing drowning me in a pool of black slime trying to maximise the pressure of it all and kill me with emotional pain needed to take his bullshit elsewhere.

I was done accepting guilt that wasn't mine, done allowing myself obsess over what I could have done differently because there was absolutely nothing to be done.

When the Leech noticed I was quiet, it intensified it's pull at my energy.

How on Drakon’s planet I wasn't dead yet was beyond me but I took that as my sign to stop giving up and actually fight.

Maybe I could pull it off.

Maybe somehow, that power everyone keeps whispering about would help.

Even if I was going to die, I didn't have to make it so easy for this stupid leech.

So I forced my physical lips to move..

I wasn't screaming in my head anymore, I worked my throat, stopped myself from calming down, allowed the hyperventilation to settle deep in my bones, mixed with anger and determination and forced a scream out.

Well, tried, I sounded like a dying cat.

But it was more sounds than I made before.

The leech recoiled.

Just slightly. Like it hadn't expected resistance.

Good.

I screamed again. Louder this time. My throat burned, my lungs ached, but I didn't stop.

I felt my anger waning, but I refused, infusing more and more of it, but it wasn't working.

Until I realized every emotion worked too.

And I was desperate and terrified.

Desperate to live, terrified of death.

So I screamed for Maisie and the other kids who should have never lost their lives because I was in the wrong planet for some reason.

For myself for being traumatised by a power I didn't understand or have anyone to guide me on its consequences.

I yelled louder, releasing everything in me for every year I'd spent drowning in guilt that wasn't mine to carry.

The black slime tightened around me, trying to silence me, but I felt something shift deep inside my chest.

Beyond the searing pain, I felt a trickle of warmth that had no business in the cold hold of the leech.

It started small but the longer I refused to give in, the wider it spread.

I realized it wasn't my fire magic, not that I've felt that thing in over a decade now. That one was red, wild, and destructive.

But this was completely different.

It was a white, furious power that hurt me the wider it spread.

Warm became hot and soon, I wasn't trying to scream, the scream was effortlessly spilling out of me in a deranged plea for respite.

But the power grew larger.

It pulsed with every scream, growing hotter, brighter.

The leech sensed it too, how could it not? I felt its panic in my gut where it had it's strongest hold, a sharp, acidic fear.

It tried to pull back, to release me to save itself and leave this power to consume me

But it was too late, we were both going to die from my own resistance and honestly, it was better than dying alone.

With a louder scream, sharper than others and clearer this time as the leech was pulling back, warmth exploded outward.

White light erupted from my skin, my eyes, my very bones. It burned through the black slime like sunlight through shadow, searing away the darkness.

The leech shrieked, a psychic wail that made my ears ring even inside the void.

Suddenly memory of the orphanage shattered around me.

Everything broke and reality snapped back like a rubber band.

But the pain increased exponentially, it was like I was burning from inside my soul.

I realized then that I was on the ground. There was hard stone beneath me and cold air on my skin.

I gasped, choking on real air, my body convulsing as the last of the leech's essence burned away.

Am I?

Alive?

My hands where glistening, my scales burning away the dark slime

A shadow passed overhead and I instantly looked up, my vision blurring.

A dragon was flying this way, thank God!

I looked up, trying to raise my hand and wave at the silver scales catching the dying sunlight.

But the pain in my arm was a reflection of the intense one in my core but thankfully, the rider was diving straight towards me.

I was about to look away and lie down when I noticed something familiar.

That hair…

My heart stopped.

Florian.

I wanted to scream out in excitement and relief but my body wasn't having it.

It was like I was burnt beyond repair and my charred remains were trying to move. I felt flakey, like any rough movement would lead to my disintegration.

But Florian was back and the dragon was fading from my vision, everything was.

“Shit Alira, stay with me please. Fucking stay with me, don't sleep off okay?”

But his words only sounded like a lullaby.

I jerked up in pain when his hands reached to pull me in his but the second he adjusted my head, I lost all consciousness.