I’ d hit the ground on my back with the force of a fucking freight train, my skull rattling and wings crushed to my spine beneath me, blacking out from the pain of the impact with the mocking stars looking down on me the last thing I’d seen.
“Wake up.”
I felt the brush of ethereal fingers grazing against my cheek and a groan escaped me as I clawed my way towards consciousness and the agony of my injuries rushed in to claim me.
Long stalks of grass stroked against my cheeks as the pounding rain continued to batter me and the scent of it drew me out of the void of my mind.
I was alone, vulnerable and dressed in an agony that burned brighter than the fire of my Phoenix.
I flexed my fingers, moving them to press against my side just beneath the base of the metal breastplate where I could access a sliver of skin, and I drove healing magic into my body, thanking the stars and our continued magical lessons for the fact that I knew how to heal broken bones now.
I sucked a shuddering breath between my teeth, working to remove the pain from my body first before shifting my attention to seeking out the injuries themselves and healing those. My broken wings had taken the brunt of my fall and I closed my eyes to concentrate as I mended the breaks in them before moving on to heal the rest of my body too.
When it was done, I blinked my eyes open, squinting up at the dark clouds which continued to spill water down on top of me endlessly, making me shiver as I felt the cold which had sunk into my bones while I’d been out of it.
A flick of my fingers cast a shield over me to keep the rain off and I called on my fire Element to dry me out and banish the chill from my body as I tentatively sat up to try and get my bearings.
I’d landed on a small hill which was coated in grass and peeked out from between the trees to the far side of the clearing which held the destroyed remains of the temple. I glanced down at the ground I was sitting on, finding a perfect silhouette of my body and wings burned into the stalks from my landing and my gut knotted as I thought about what had happened.
We’d only been power sharing, so why the fuck had our magic exploded instead of merging the way it always did?
The sound of heavy footsteps approaching chilled my blood and drew my attention from that thought. I looked around into the trees, noticing a group of huge figures moving between them, closing in on my position.
I couldn’t hear the sounds of battle anymore and one glance at the sky told me there wasn’t a Phoenix or Dragon flying past either, and I frowned as I tried to figure out where the hell they all were.
The haunting rattle of a Nymph drove beneath my skin like splinters, worming their way towards my magic and working to lock it down.
I looked around towards the smoking remains of the temple and found more and more of the creatures moving among the wreckage, far more of them than I had realised were here, and as the figures in the trees turned my way, I found myself vastly outnumbered and alone, like a sitting duck just waiting to be devoured.
The Fae in me wanted to stand and fight, but as a figure clouded in shadow shot across the cloud-hugged moon and I recognised Lavinia on the hunt, I got the horrible feeling that this fight was weighted too heavily against me.
The Nymphs released that god awful rattle again and as I felt their power sliding into my bones, I made the snap decision to hide, driving my fingers into the earth either side of me and harnessing my earth magic so that I sank into the dirt.
I created a pocket of air all around me, banishing my wings to make it easier for my body to slide beneath the ground and willing the grass to grow lush and thick above me to cover the evidence of where I’d been.
With my connection to the earth, I could feel the heavy vibrations of the group of Nymphs drawing closer and my breaths feathered in and out as adrenaline scored a path right through me as the power of their rattle drove into me again.
I had no idea if the creatures could sense my magic or were able to tell that their power was taking effect on a Fae nearby, but I wasn’t gonna stay here and find out by letting them cut me off from my magic so that they could pluck me from the ground like a daisy and devour me whole.
I ground my jaw as I worked to cling on to my power and started driving myself down, further beneath the ground and away from the hunting Nymphs, burying myself alive and delving into the dark.
I was so focused on feeling for their approach that I only noticed the space beneath me opening up as I fell through the roof of the tunnel below me.
A scream caught in my throat as my stomach lurched and I threw my hands out wide, catching myself with air magic before I could hit the floor and illuminating a Faelight as I landed on my feet, looking around for enemies as dirt cascaded down on me from above.