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Odessa

T he Healer, The Timepiece, and The Floral all stood in front of us like a formidable wall, ready to attack.

The girl with the floral powers had thick vines with thorns crawling along the ground and arching up the walls and sprouting what looked like deadly glowborn.

A white tipped flower with glowing pink insides, hence the name, that was known to shoot a fatal dart of poison if you got too close.

We’d walked right into a trap and there was nowhere to go.

We had no choice but to fight our way out.

I pulled on my power, feeling the wisps of its tendrils grow at my command. They still felt weak, but it was all I had. Dex’s hand was still wrapped around my wrist. The warmth of his skin grounded me. My power collected at the tips of my fingers, waiting.

“Can we help you?” Dex asked, his voice sounding deadly calm.

“You can give us your powers, how about that?” The one wearing The Timepiece said with a flash of his teeth that was anything but friendly.

He was of slim build and was of short stature with jet-black hair and hawk-like features and a palpable level of arrogance that let me know he thought he was walking out of here with what he wanted— us dead.

I looked at the girl wearing The Healer— Marcela. Her eyes were darting between the three of us, wide and full of fear. Maybe we could use that. People made stupid choices when they were scared.

“I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” Dex replied, holding tight to the torch. His knuckles were blanched white from how hard he was gripping it.

“I don’t think you have much of a choice. We’ve got you surrounded.” He cracked his hands like he had all the time in the world. And with his power, I knew that to be true. He could speed up, rewind, or stop time if he wanted to. All with the snap of a finger.

“Oh, fuck this,” Nat said as the flames came roaring closer. She raised her hand and within a blink of an eye her power slammed forward.

The Timepiece raised his hands, and everything seemed to slow down. But he was too late. The stone power that Nat had unleashed had already taken effect.

One minute the guy wearing The Timepiece was smirking at us, and the next his skin turned to pure stone inch by inch. He was frozen in a look of terror where he stood, and time went back to normal speed.

“You fucking bitch!” The Floral wielder screamed, sending her vines to wrap around Nat’s neck. My shadows were sputtering out as I tried to use them to stop what was happening. The thorns dug into Nat’s flesh biting down hard enough that it punctures through her flesh.

Marcela took off running.

“Odessa, use your emotions!” Dex cried out as he was thrown to the ground by an invisible force.

The Ghost, I realized, had been with them all along, using the power of invisibility.

He looked like he was fighting against air until he grabbed the girl around her neck, making her flicker into existence.

I had to do something. Anything. My emotions were a jumble, going from utter terror to rage. How could I wield something that I couldn’t even pin down?

“Let her go!” I screamed at The Floral, lunging for the vines, trying to stay far enough away from the lethal darts just waiting to be launched if I got within shooting distance.

“Odessa, look out!” Dex yelled, warning me of a sharp vine headed straight towards me. I had to duck, narrowly missing her attack.

It sliced across my cheek, and I felt the blood welling up in a sharp sting, sliding down my face.

Nat’s face was starting to turn blue, and her eyes were fluttering closed.

The fire was nearly upon us, and Dex was scrambling to get ahold of The Ghost. She was stronger than she looked and had clawed Dex’s arms up with her fingernails.

He rolled her then and slammed her head into the rocky ground until she was still and no longer fighting.

Nat gripped onto the vine and slowly it turned into stone.

It followed all the way back to The Floral as she began to shriek as her flesh became hardened.

She tried to run but her feet were stuck to the floor.

She crumpled. “No, no, please, no—” she cried out as the stone continued to turn her flesh solid.

“Nat? Nat talk to me. Are you okay?” I asked, rushing over to where she had fallen.

Her lips were cracked, and her neck was bleeding from the wounds.

“Get this fucking mask off me, please.” She coughed out. Dex leaned down next to us and obliged, removing it from her face.

The gashes on her neck looked deep. And there, right in the crevice of where her neck met her shoulder, was a dart embedded deep into her flesh. “How bad is it?” She asked licking her lips.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I looked at the black webs emanating from the toxic dart.

“That bad, huh?”

The black webs of poison were quickly spreading across her skin. When they reached her heart, that was it. There was no way to stop it. No known antidote to conjure or administer.

“I’m so sorry, Nat,” I said clutching her hand in mine.

She blinked up at me eyes wide as she struggled against the poison that was intent on claiming her body.

Even if the poisonous dart hadn’t lodged itself into her skin, the large gashes from the thorns would have been enough to kill her eventually. She didn’t stand a chance.

“At least I got two of them, right?” She asked as blood from her wounds stained the ground.

“Right,” I answered.

“You see that healer girl, with the mask you wanted?” Nat’s breathing was becoming more labored and her skin looked pale.

“Yeah?”

“You get her ass for me, alright?”

“I’ll try my best.”

“Good.” A small tear escaped the corner of her eye falling into the earth below. “You should go. The fire?—”

“I’m not leaving you,” I said, holding her hand tighter.

“Odessa—” Dex said gently.

“I said, I ‘m not leaving her.” It may have been foolish, but at least I could give her this. A hand to hold as she crossed over. Without her, we would be dead. I was sure of it.

Nat looked up at me, her eyes misting over. She began choking then, the black lines creeping up her neck before she went rigid and those eyes of hers turned dulled as she stared off into nothingness.

“We have to move,” Dex said.

He was right. With the fire growing closer, we needed to move, even though I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to leave her there like this. But if I didn’t move, The Pyro would burn us to a crisp, and then my body would be joining her.