CHAPTER 7

The Fire

     That night, surprisingly, Brynn was actually able to fall asleep. Maybe Nina had done something to her heartbeat, or maybe Brynn was just too tired to pretend anymore. But just because she was able to sleep didn't mean the nightmares stayed away, too.

It started off a happy dream. Sasha and Brynn were sitting out in the front of their little hut they called home, Brynn reading a book while her sister played with her favorite doll she had named Neoni. It was a doll she'd gotten at a Suli carnival. A beautiful brown girl with her hair cropped short sold it to them for very little. Sasha loved Neoni.

A thirteen-year-old Brynn looked up when Sasha cried out. A ruddy-faced boy held Neoni in his fat hand, grinning in victory at Sasha's distraught cries.

"Aww, is the little girl going to cry?" teased the boy in Kaelish. He was Brynn's age, four years older than Sasha. Brynn had never cared enough to learn his name.

"Give it back!" shouted Sasha.

The boy laughed. "I don't think so." Then, he ripped the arms off of the doll, throwing it back at the crying girl. "Have fun playing with your doll now." He cackled, walking off towards his friends who snickered a few feet away.

Sasha ran to Brynn, tears running down her face. "He broke Neoni!"

"Shh," shushed Brynn, wiping the tears from her sister's eyes. "It's okay. Go inside and Ma will fix it for you. Maybe she'll even let you have a piece of cake."

The girl's face lit up a little bit and she nodded, stumbling into the house behind Brynn. When the door closed behind her, Brynn stood up, her book forgotten. Nobody picked on her sister but her.

She found the boy behind another house down the street, laughing with his red-haired friends. Brynn curled her hands into fists and stepped closer towards them. When the boys caught sight of her, they only seemed to laugh harder.

"Are you going to cry, too?" said the ruddy boy. "Crying is for babies. You're not a baby, are you?"

Red filled Brynn's vision and she cried out. Then the screams started. She briefly realized that the boys were on fire, trying to put themselves out on the ground and on the walls of the other houses. But she didn't care.

Her hands were flaming, the faint smell of burning flesh filling her senses. Where's Sasha?

Brynn stumbled away from the boys and the alley, going back home. Smoke and fire clouded her sight, shrieks just barely registering in her mind. All she knew was that she needed to get home.

The hazy outline of her house came into view and Brynn broke out into a run. She careened through the door as soon as she got it open, running in quickly. She saw Ma first.

"Where's Sasha?"

Ma hurried towards her. "She went looking for you, Brynn. Where have you been?"

A scream filled the air. Brynn knew it was Sasha's immediately. She turned around, searching for the source of the scream, but it sounded like it was everywhere. Everything was on fire and, soon, Sasha's screams were drowned out by the screams of others.

Brynn clutched onto Ma and Da, the three of them sliding to the floor together. Her grip was searing and deadly, but her parents didn't release her. Even as they burned and charred, their clutches did not cease, tears flowing freely down their scorched skin.

~~~

Brynn hated the cold. She also hated being unbearably hot, but tramping through the cold, snowy land was a different kind of cruel. Brynn shivered, her thick boots and coat not providing much comfort in the freezing snow flurry around them.

She trekked behind everyone else, not as used to the physical activity. When she stumbled, someone caught her. Jesper grinned at her and helped her stand up again.

"Can't have you falling and freezing your face off," he winked at her. "The cold can't be good for you. You know, with your Inferni abilities and stuff."

"I wouldn't know, I haven't been this cold since..." Brynn paused. "Actually, I don't think I've ever been this close to getting hypothermia."

"But isn't the Wandering Isle in the north?"

"Yeah, but it just never really got that cold." She shrugged. "I don't know why. Or maybe I was just used to the cold."

Jesper shivered. "I don't know how anyone can 'get used to the cold.' It feels like my toes are all gonna fall off and run away with my boots."

Brynn reached for her rings under her gloves, then realized that she had left them on the Ferolind. Just how Jesper had left his prized pearl-handled revolvers, Inej her collection of knives, and even Kaz, who'd traded his Fabrikator-made cane for a less conspicuous one. Brynn had a lighter in her pocket, but had no intention in using it.

Her gaze found its way to Kaz's limping figure in front of her. He was by himself, Mahhias and Nina occupied by themselves and Inej walking with Wylan. Jesper saw her looking at him.

"How'd Kaz break his leg, anyway?" wondered Jesper.

Brynn shrugged, looking up at her taller, dark-skinned friend. "Don't know. He's never let me fix it, though."

"He's too attached to that cane, that's why," he said.

"What, like how you're too attached to your revolvers?" joked Brynn.

He frowned, then nodded. "Yeah, actually. I guess they're both like good-luck charms for us."

She thought back to her rings. Maybe the reason she didn't want to part with them was because they were the last things she had to remember her family by.

She was the one who'd caused that village fire. Brynn wasn't brave enough to admit that to anyone other than herself. Because she was the reason for her family's death. She was the reason her entire village went up in flames. She was the wicked monster.

After she finally got away from the charred remains of her parents, she'd stumbled to the harbor and paid for a ship to take her anywhere but the Wandering Isle. Anywhere but home. But the ship was heading for Fjerda.

Brynn tried to get safe passage out of Fjerda, but they wouldn't let her until she showed identification. Obviously, she had none. So Brynn had no choice but to stay in Fjerda.

Two months she stayed in the Grisha-hating nation full of witchhunters. Two months of hiding, getting weaker and worse with every day she went without using her powers. But she was okay without using it. Just seeing fire brought back unwanted memories.

Until one day, when she was walking down the dark streets of Elling in the comfort of the shadows, Brynn watched as a group of rowdy Fjerdan boys beat up a tiny Zemeni immigrant boy. When the Fjerdans had their fun and left, Brynn rushed towards the Zemeni and healed him. The boy watched her with wide, awe-filled eyes. She hadn't even finished before she was hauled up by a group of drüskelle and a pair of handcuffs were slapped over her hands.

Panic overtook her and the same feeling from just two months ago came back. The feeling that she couldn't just control fire, she was the fire. And there was nothing left behind after she was done but ash.

Brynn was so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't realized everyone stopped. She bumped into Nina, but the girl didn't acknowledge her. Then the smell of burning flesh found Brynn's nose.

She looked up to a horrific sight. Three pyres stood tall in front of them, three Grisha tied on them and burned to death.

a/n— Let me know what you guys think!