Chapter 188- Smoke Against Shadow
Tarria
The battlefield was fire and thunder.
Lexy’s flames had exploded outward, a sun born in the middle of night. The sheer force of it halted Kael mid-stride, the ground splitting beneath his feet as fire lashed across the battlefield, hemming Adrian in and keeping him from slipping free. Shadows reeled back like startled animals, Adrian’s snarl ringing even through the roar of the blaze.
And Kael—Kael finally moved.
I saw the hunger in his eyes, the way his blade glimmered with shadow. His intent was clear. He would tear through Lexy’s fire, cut her down, and deliver Adrian from the noose CJ’s steel and her flame had drawn tight.
Not while I breathed.
I lunged, steel in hand, body braced against the scorching heat that pulsed from Lexy’s phoenix form. My strike met Kael’s blade mid-arc. Sparks flew, steel grinding against steel. The impact rattled up my arm, but I gritted my teeth and shoved back.
Kael sneered down at me; the same cruel twist of lips that had haunted my nightmares since the time he kidnapped me. “The child dares.” His voice slithered, thick with disdain. “You think you can bar my way?”
I didn’t flinch. “I don’t think, Kael. I know.”
Our blades locked, shadows curling around his like smoke turned solid. His strength pressed down on me, heavier than I remembered, but this time I wasn’t the frightened girl who once had no choice but to follow. This time, I had something worth burning for.
I pushed off, rolling back, sword ready. My lungs ached from the heat of Lexy’s fire, but inside me another heat stirred—one darker, heavier, coiling like a storm cloud waiting to burst.
My smoke.
I’d held it back, feared what it could mean, how it could twist me into something like him. But now… now I understood what Lexy always said: our powers were not curses if we chose how to wield them.
And I chose.
Kael struck again, shadows stabbing forward like daggers. I spun low, letting the blade slice air where I’d been, and countered with a slash across his ribs. His armor caught the edge, sparks flying, but the surprise in his eyes was worth the effort.
“You’ve grown teeth,” he said, voice low and dangerous. “But you’ll break all the same.”
I gripped my blade tighter, chest heaving. My eyes flicked to Lexy and CJ—still locked in a storm of fire, steel, and shadow against Adrian. I couldn’t let Kael reach them. I couldn’t let him tip the balance.
This was my fight.
“Not this time,” I said, and my voice was steadier than I felt.
Kael came at me with fury, shadows exploding outward to blind me. They writhed, thick and choking, like a storm meant to swallow me whole. For an instant panic flared—too much like the cage I once knew, the prison of his power.
But then I remembered Lexy’s fire. CJ’s steadiness. The way they fought as one, unshaken. All the training Lexy put me through to empower me and push me to my limits.
How training with her and CJ we had perfect a trio attack with our powers combined.
And I reached inside myself, into the knot of smoke that had always lingered there, coiling and waiting.
I exhaled.
Smoke poured from me in thin tendrils at first, curling around my arms, spilling across my blade. My missing hand was now replaced by a smoke hand. It wasn’t Adrian’s suffocating shadow or Kael’s cruel darkness. It was mine. My smoke, my choice, my weapon.
Kael faltered, eyes narrowing as he saw it rise. “You—”
I didn’t let him finish. I didn’t let him even think of his next move.
The smoke surged, wrapping me like armor, weaving into the air with a will of its own. I moved faster, my steps hidden, my blade a flicker in the haze. Kael’s shadows lashed out, but they struck only smoke, slipping uselessly through the veil.
I slashed across his arm, the blade biting this time, and his blood-spattered dark against the ground. His snarl cut the night like thunder.
“You dare wield that against me?” he spat, fury igniting in his voice. “I am the master of shadow, and you are nothing but my echo!”
I steadied my breath, letting the smoke curl thick around us, cloaking the battlefield until even the firelight dimmed. My voice rang through it, firm, defiant.
“I am not your echo. I am not your shadow. I am smoke—and I am free.”
He roared, the ground trembling under his power, and charged. His blade cut through smoke and flame alike, a storm of rage and darkness. Of pure impulse.
But this time, I met him as his equal.
The smoke thickened, coiling around my arm, around my blade. When his strike came down, I caught it—not with brute force, but by letting the smoke absorb the impact, twisting it away. His balance faltered, just for a heartbeat, but it was enough.
I drove forward, pouring everything into the smoke that pulsed with me now. It rose like a tidal wave, swallowing the space between us. Kael’s eyes widened as he realized it wasn’t a shield this time.
It was an attack.
The smoke slammed into him, thick and choking, wrapping his body, forcing its way past the defenses he’d always thought impenetrable.
The battlefield stilled, as though every warrior felt the shift in power. Shadows recoiled, Lexy’s fire flared brighter, even Adrian faltered mid-strike. The world seemed to hold its breath, waiting to see if Kael—the man who once chained me, who thought himself untouchable—could withstand what I had become.
The last thing I saw before the battlefield disappeared in my haze was his sneer twisting into something else—shock, maybe even fear.
He definitely wasn’t expecting that I would know how to use my powers since the last time we faced. I couldn't help but smile at the thought.
And then the smoke struck him full force.
The night broke apart.
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