Prelude
Eternity scrambled up the burnt stones, scraping her knuckles and gagging from the brimstone. Heavy footsteps echoed behind her. She clawed at the dirt trying to escape.
A large hand grabbed her hair and yanked her off the hill she was climbing, onto the rocks below it. She cringed at the pain, but didn’t yelp like she wanted to.
Eternity glared and gritted her teeth at her captor as he pulled her up by the dirty strands of her hair he held.
She hung from his hold staring into his eyes with all the revulsion she could muster in her tired state.
Eternity spit in his face as she tried to yank her hair free from his grasp. Her feet barely touched the ground he now held her above.
With a quick swipe, he struck her across her face, whipping her face to the side. He hit her again quickly, this time ripping the hair from her head and dropping her to the ground.
The warrior tossed her hair from his hand aside. Eternity wiped the blood from her face.
She looked up at the man standing over her. The look in his eyes let her know he meant to kill her.
Eternity gripped the dried dirt under her, digging her nails down deep into the dusty soil. She pushed her magic, surged it through her. Using what little strength she had left.
The Dark Lord’s man coming towards her,
stopped as vines started to grow through the dirt underneath his legs and pin his feet to the ground. He looked confused for a second, but then laughed.
The vines that had grown died almost instantly, turning from green to brown, from touching the thick smoke filled air, choking for clean air, and starving from the unhealthy, unsupportive dirt. They crumbled and turned to dust in the air as he continued toward her. This
ground could support no life. Eternity closed her eyes, cursing her luck.
The man grabbed one of Eternity’s wings, pulling her from her thoughts. He yanked hard, pulling it from its socket. This time Eternity did yell. She rolled and collapsed back on the ground, face down.
She lay on the ground, growing frantic now. She couldn’t fly home! No escape. They would catch her and take her back to the dark castle for God knew what tortures!
At these stressing thoughts her mind raced. Her pulse quickened and sweat beaded on her brow.
She pulled herself up on all fours shakily as she turned her head to the man watching her with a confident smile on his face.
She closed her eyes, waiting for her fate. Her breathing turning into gasps of fear at her short lived life span; at all her regrets and things she left behind.
Then, she calmed with the vision of one thing in her mind. A Redeemer. A man.
Her brows lifted and her face smoothed as she relaxed.
The warrior standing in front of her drew his sword as she laid there motionless in the dirt.
Her mind played memories over and over in front of her closed eyes. The visions slowed to the last day she saw him. To those sad eyes watching her leave. A single tear rolling down his face. Gabriel.
Rage and desperation surged through her.
She couldn’t walk away from him again.
Eternity’s eyes opened and lightning danced in her eyes. She called the bolts down and the man was forced back, hitting a rock.
As he laid there unmoving, Eternity was awed by her own power. She had never before called lightning without first calling a storm to bring it forth. Her abilities were growing.
Eternity caught her breath. She was out of strength now. Exhausted. But she couldn’t stop. Not yet. She had to push through this.
Reaching back she gritted her teeth. Her body was so numb from the pain she felt now, a little more wouldn’t matter.
She grabbed her wing and took a deep breath. Quickly, she yanked it back in place. She let out her breath after a moment and the pain turned into a hum in her bones.
Standing, she raised her wings and lifted into the air. She pushed and pumped her wings as hard as she could, to get the height she needed.
Tears flowed down her face with each pump of her quickly fixed dislocated wing. The pain was unbearable.
She grinded the sore wing back into place with each pump. But she had to get back to the castle. Her home.
Gliding the rest of her way home, her wounded wing would heal. It would be healed by the time she reached home. Just a few short hours. A perk of being a Redeemer. She wasn’t worried about the healing, though. She was more worried she couldn’t have the life back that she had given up.
