De'Vas Chronicles Book 4: Chapter 42

Ash poured out the remains of his canteen over the embers of the campfire. As the steam rose, he looked up and smiled at Selena. She was examining her reflection in a small travel mirror, trying to make herself presentable before they arrived back at Castle Markal later today.

“Why are you grinning, Ash?” Selena asked when she caught him watching her.

He shrugged as he placed the cap back on the canteen.

“Maybe just because of how beautiful you are,” he started. “Or maybe because you’ve purposely tied your hair in a way to show off the hickey on your neck,”

Selena smirked.

“Hickeys. Plural. You ravished me like a feral beast last night, and I want those girls back at the castle to know,” she answered.

Ash laughed.

“I swear you and Haylee believe you’re in a competition with them or something,” he said, shaking his head.

“We are,” Selena replied, returning her gaze to the mirror.

Ash stood, grabbing both of their canteens as he did.

“Let me go refill these at the stream, and we can start the journey home,” he said.

He walked down the small hill toward the stream hidden by the grove of trees. The water was cold and quick-moving as he learned last night while trying to bathe in it. He shivered a little at the memory before kneeling down and dunking the canteens under the surface.

“Morning, Ash,” a feminine voice said cheerfully. “It’s good to see you again.”

He felt several fluffy objects brush against his side and caught a flash of red fur in the corner of his eye. Turning, he looked up and saw a redhead kitsune standing behind him. Her nine tails flicked mischievously around Ash, as if they were trying to box him in.

She grinned as she looked down at him with her one eye, the other hidden behind an eyepatch. Burn marks graced that side of her face.

“Hitomi,” Ash growled, recalling her name. “So you are with the Coalition.”

He stood, pulling on his magic as the elemental scar started to glow. Hitomi’s grin grew wider as she reached up and pulled away her eye patch—a red glowing eye in its place.

“Blue and red are such a lovely color combination,” Hitomi purred. “I’m glad to see you achieved your potential.”

Ash stared at her eye.

“You have an elemental scar as well?” he asked.

Hitomi nodded.

“And like you, I’ve merged with my elemental,” she said.

Ash pulled magic into his index and middle fingers, readying a spell.

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

He heard footsteps and looked over to see Selena aiming her gun at the kitsune.

“Back away from him now!” Selena demanded.

Hitomi’s gaze drifted toward Selena, and she waved.

“It’s good to see you as well, Selena. I’m sorry Victor dragged you into this,” she said. “Though from what I saw last night, you are enjoying yourself.”

Selena fired, the first shot of Death Magic striking Hitomi and rolling her along the ground. Two more shots followed, but even after them, Hitomi stood. Flames emerged from where Selena’s shots had struck her before they faded, showing no signs of damage to her.

“Selena! Take my horse and run!” Ash yelled as he fired his Bolt at the fox. “Get everyone out of here!”

Laughter erupted from Hitomi as fire danced along her body. Whatever damage Ash’s spell had done faded away as the flames died down. Selena gave him a hesitant look before she turned and raced back to their camp.

“So you’re a djinn playing a fox?” Ash accused.

Hitomi scoffed.

“A djinn wishes they had my power,” she said. “My magic isn’t confined to a trinket, or takes years to restore. My magic is an elemental, the same as yours.”

Ash stared at her for a moment, then started to prepare his next spell.

“Selena has the silver ball and is heading back to your castle, isn’t she?” Hitomi asked, ignoring the magic gathering on his fingertips. “I could easily chase her down, even with you pursuing me, or we can have a little chat.”

Ash swore, dropping the spell as he glared at the fox.

Hitomi nodded.

“Good. First, my explanation for sending you to Vas,” she said, stretching. “I knew you were nearing the end stage of the elemental scar’s cycle, a stage that I knew couldn’t be completed on Earth due to how dispersed magic is there currently. You needed to be on Vas for enough magic to complete the change and survive.”

She took a few steps closer to him, only stopping when he took a step back.

“Second is my offer. I want you to join me and what you call the Coalition. War is coming between De’Vas and humanity. The subtle balance of power that our magic gave us in negotiations is slowly fading as humans learn more and more about magic. At the same time, they grow weary as more of us come through from Vas and more humans become mages.”

Ash scoffed.

“You think I would join you after you tried to kill my mother and attacked Cleo? Kaito told me that Piper killed her. Is it true?” Ash demanded.

Hitomi’s smile faded.

“Piper acted on her own and attacked Cleo. I do not know if the Nightmare Queen survived or not,” Hitomi answered. “As for your mother. That was a poor call and a mistake. I thought replacing her with a changeling would allow us to influence you as well as her company.

“When I learned what you were, I knew you would be key in the coming war. So I took a risk at a chance to secure you for our side. Whatever I can do to make amends for that slight, I will, so long as you agree to work with us,” Hitomi said. “What do you say?”

She took a few more steps toward him, her hand outstretched as if expecting Ash to shake it like they had come to a deal. He felt uneasy about how her tails twitched behind her, far too excitedly.

“Why me?” he asked.

Hitomi smiled.

“Humanity uses one thing above all others to control and power their technology, electricity. With training, your lightning elemental powers will let you control and manipulate all forms of electricity, whether it’s made by technology or magic.

“You would be vital to our vanguard, rifting into a city and taking out the power grid within seconds. Even backup generators would be useless because you could pull the electricity from everything.”

Ash felt a cold chill as he recalled Sparky pulling electricity from the powerlines in District 44 when they fought against the djinn. Hitomi took another step forward and snapped Ash from his thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m not fighting for the bastards that butcher their own people,” he growled.

Hitomi stopped as her tails drooped.

“Sometimes when a ship is sinking, one must stand on the corpses of the drowned to escape,” she said solemnly. “Their sacrifice is what allows us to travel to Vas and build a force to counter the humans. It’s why you are alive right now instead of a charred corpse in your district.”

Ash shook his head.

“I’m not joining you,” he said firmly.

Hitomi sighed.

“Very well,” she said, smiling.

BEHIND. MOVE. NOW!

Sparky’s voice echoed in his mind as he felt cold metal pressed against his neck. Sparky emerged from his scar, the cat of Lightning Magic hissing as it launched itself to whatever was behind him. Ash saw a copy of Hitomi made from Fire Magic stagger back and shift into a flaming serpent that collided with Sparky. A metal collar fell from the copy’s hand before it shifted, and Ash saw the runes etched into it.

He turned back to see Hitomi launch herself at him, a feral grin on her face as flames covered her hand.

Ash pulled Riptide from his belt, pushing magic into the rune. The translucent blade of Water Magic finished forming as he swung it at Hitomi. Her flaming hand closed around the blade of the weapon as steam rose from it before she shattered the blade. Then the rune faded from Riptide before the chitin dagger crumbled in his hand.

“You’re mine,” Hitomi cooed as she reached out for him.

Ash felt static in the air as his body shifted to the side of Hitomi’s grasp, lightning arcing off his body as he didn’t so much as dodge the kitsune’s attack as reformed away from it. Raising his hand, he fired a Bolt at her, and Hitomi’s body shifted as well, turning into flames before reforming near him.

“Sparky!” Ash yelled.

The blue cat was still fighting with the fire serpent, but at his words, Sparky jumped to him, slipping back into his elemental scar. Wings of Lightning Magic sprouted from Ash’s back as he shot up into the air. Hitomi grinned up at him as her fire serpent changed into a flame and vanished into the kitsune’s eye. She knelt down and picked up the collar before wings of Fire Magic sprouted from her back, and she launched herself at him.

“There’s no escape,” Hitomi laughed.

Ash’s mind reeled as he tried to come up with a plan, his wings carrying him high above the tree tops. The wings jerked him to the side as a fireball flew by him, and as he righted himself, he saw Markal Forest in the distance.

The dead zone.

His wings shifted to fly in the direction of the zone as he summoned a Bolt and fired it behind him at Hitomi. A wall of flames met his spell, both fading away as the fox kept up her pursuit.

As he led her to the zone, they exchanged spells. Fire and Lightning flashed across the sky, only to dissipate against Hitomi’s Flame Wall or the Lightning Shields he kept summoning.

Laughter roared from the kitsune, and he felt a knot in his gut that she was just toying with him. He knew what that collar meant. He had destroyed a similar one that had been around Kate’s neck, which had made the harpy a slave to the elf Alchemist Fargo.

The forest vanished below as he flew over the dead zone. He fired another Bolt at Hitomi. Once more, the Flame Wall appeared to block his spell, only this time, Ash was already flying straight at Hitomi with his Lightning Claw active.

“You know I can smell you!” Hitomi growled as the Flame Wall faded.

She batted away his Lightning Claw with her own Fire Claw. Ash’s wings shifted, and he tried to kick the fox’s hand holding the collar. She grabbed the leg and threw him, his wings failing to catch the air as he fell toward the dead zone below.