“Ava.” Jack’s voice was barely a whisper.
Positively hyperventilating I clapped my hands together, rubbed them to cause friction, clicked, stomped, even punched myself several times.
Jack began sliding down the wall even further.
“No!” I cried, still trying with all my might to produce some kind of fire, “I can do this! I’m a Fire Mage! I’m a Fire Mage!” I screamed at myself.
Elvira Frost cackled, utterly enjoying herself. I turned to her angrily.
“There’s no point in trying to help him.” She threw her head back and laughed, “My ice never melts. Ever. Even if you did manage to regain your powers there is no way a Mage as weak as your could ever melt my ice. It’s unthinkable. You would have to be of a greater Power level than myself, and such Power does not exist.”
I wanted to rip, tear, punch, kick bite at every part of this wretched woman I could reach. I had never been so angry and full of hate in my entire life. Jack was going to die because I could not help him, and this was all my fault. I had dragged him into this mess. Part of me wished that I had never befriended Jack Greenwood so that he could carry on living, never knowing of the other life he could have had. It was true, destruction really did follow me around. All my life, nothing but destruction. Perhaps I really should be locked away so harm could not befall good, kind people like Jack and R?ven. Turning back to Jack I found that he was now lying sprawled in a pool of his own blood. His eyes were closed and his skin was as white as snow. His breathing was getting slower each second. Great rattling breaths escaped his mouth. He would be gone any second and there was nothing I could do about it. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.
“It was supposed to be me.” I whispered.
“What?” Frost said lazily.
“It was supposed to be me.” I repeated louder this time.
“What are you going on about you stupid girl?”
I stood now, my legs somehow supporting my weight.
“It was supposed to be me! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ME! ME!”
Elvira Frost recoiled slightly and I thought it very odd. She was staring at me in a strange way. With a start I realized that my hands were glowing. Looking down I studied myself and found that I was no longer shivering, in fact I felt quite warm. As I grew angrier and angrier each second I came to realize that it was not only my hands that were glowing bright orange. My arms were so hot that the clothes upon them were beginning to smoke. I touched my face and when I looked at my hand I saw steaming lava which had been oozing from my tear ducts.
Looking up at Elvira Frost I noticed that she looked quite concerned.
“Irrelevant. You are nowhere near powerful enough.”
“I feel powerful.” I said in an undertone, too quiet for anyone to hear, “More powerful than any other time before now.”
All over my body my clothes began to smoke and catch alight. This had never happened before now. I had never emitted such heat from every part of my body.
“This is new.” I whispered.
“He is dead! Your friend is dead!” Elvira screeched at me, “You were too late!”
I looked at Jack and saw that he was quite still.
The Creeley twins cackled in unison.
That was all I needed to be pushed over the edge. I was filled with such boiling rage that before I knew it I was screaming at the top of my lungs and I was nothing more than an enormous ball of fire. The flames consumed me and I felt a control over them that I had never experienced before. They were my flames, my pets, my minions which would do my bidding and follow my every command. The clothes upon me were incinerated within a matter of seconds and I was naked apart from the flames which covered my entire being. My very flesh became lava and I felt as though I might just be able to rocket into the sky with the Power which consumed me. For the first time in my life I understood the fire. I understood how it interacted with me, and was part of me, something I had never thought of before.
I turned to the Creeley brothers, whose mouths were hanging open as though they had recently been clobbered over the head with a bat. They stared at me in awe, as though it were truly a sight to behold. As they realized that I was glaring right at them, the two men made a scramble for the door. I sent a fireball in their direction, but I was too late. They had already teleported to safety.
I turned to Jack who lay motionless upon the floor. Uncertainly I reached towards the ice spear. I felt no cold against my hand. For the first few moments nothing happened yet after a while I felt it begin to evaporate. Withdrawing I saw that all that remained was a gaping hole in Jack’s chest. But his chest was no longer rising and falling with each breath. He didn’t move at all. Even the blood which had been pumping from his chest so furiously had slowed down.
“Stop!” Elvira burst angrily, “My ice never melts! How have you done it?!”