Catalyst(12)

“Why won't you stay down?” Nathan asked.

Blood trickled from the left side of my mouth. I ran my hand over my bruised cheek, feeling how bad a mark I was going to have.

“Please,” I said, gasping for air. The fire within me roared. The heat boiled against my body as I struggled to contain it. “Stop. I don't want to hurt you.” That was a lie. A part of me did want to hurt him for all the times he had beaten and humiliated me. All I had to do was let go. But I was afraid of my uncontrollable power. I didn't want to kill him.

“Hurt me? That's a joke.”

Nathan bent down to hit me again. I put my hand up to try and stop him. All the pent-up emotion—the frustration, the anger, the pain—poured out. It became fire and funneled towards him.

Nathan’s eyes widened in surprise. He was quick enough to turn at the last second. The flame still scorched the right side of his face. He fell to the ground, howling.

I rushed to him, smothering the lingering flame. His once handsome face was scorched and blistered. I reached out, trying to see if there was anything I could do to help him.

He slapped my hand away. “Get away from me, you freak!” His expression, normally full of so much anger and hatred, had changed into something I'd never seen before on his face. I had recently seen it on my mother’s. “You really are a monster!”

Nathan forced himself up, wincing in pain with every movement. He ran, stumbling and falling because of how often he looked back at me.

I checked to see if anyone had seen what happened. I breathed easier when I saw no one. I thought of returning to my mother and warning her of what had just happened. There were bound to be plenty of questions and accusations. I had no idea what she would tell them. If she was lucky, no one would believe Nathan. They all knew what he did to me, even if they didn't stop it. They might even interpret it as me besting him.

The only thing I knew was that I couldn't stay here any longer. If an outburst like this happened while other people were around, they could be seriously injured or even killed. Afterwards, they would want to hang or burn me and my mother as demons. We'd both have to flee. No, it was best I go now, before things got worse.

Things did get worse. And in the way I most feared.





CHAPTER 4



Shortly after leaving Sedah, I met a small group of travelers heading north. They were suspicious of me at first, but when they saw how young I was and that I was alone, they allowed me to travel with them. They were a nice family, heading north to look for work. They wanted to know more about me, why I traveled by myself, and where I was going. I didn't tell them anything except where I was from and that I headed north for part of the way. I wasn't sure if they would want to travel with someone who could shoot fire out of his body.

“Still not telling us where you're going?” Mara, Kenneth's wife said, while we finished up our evening meal by the campfire.

“I should only be with you for another day or two,” I said. “Then I'm heading west.”

“Can't believe that before we picked you up, you were traveling by yourself,” Kenneth said in his deep voice.

I shrugged. “It's not that bad.”

“That's because you're young. Ah, you'll learn. I traveled a lot in my youth, and I learned it's always best to have someone who'll watch your back, and if worst comes to worst, make for another target. Young and alone, you'll be easy prey. When you get older, you had better be handy with a blade.” He patted the dagger lying on the ground next to him. He looked at my waist, eyes narrowed. “I see no blade on you, Hellsfire.” I kept my mother’s dagger hidden.

“Kenneth!” Mara said, glaring at her husband. “Stop scaring him. You make it sound like you traveled where there were nothing but bandits. I'm going to put the children to bed.”

Kenneth put out the campfire and said, “I may have exaggerated a little, but you should still be careful when you leave us. You've got first watch tonight. Wake me in a few hours.”

I nodded. “I will. And Kenneth—thanks for letting me travel with you.”

I took up a position against a strong oak tree, where I would be able to see everything around us. For the last two days, I had been getting used to taking a watch, but it still bored me. Only the sounds of the crickets and the occasional owl kept me company. There was nothing to watch but the stars and animals that hunted in the night.

While I liked Kenneth's family, being with them didn't allow me to practice my gift—or my curse, depending on what you wanted to call it. Before I met up with them, I had been practicing when I could, though it drained me. I needed not just to be able to access the fire, but to control it. While I still didn't have complete control, I was beginning to understand some of what I could and couldn't do. But I would have to make much more progress before I reached the White Mountain. I needed the fire to battle the cold.