Call Me Fire

CHAPTER VI

'THIS ISN'T HAPPENING...'

Denial was the first thing that came to Tonya in the face of fear. Her eyes were wide while staring at the sprinkler attached to the ceiling. Given the huge flame eating the whole place, the alarm should have rung, and the sprinkler should have sprayed.

But no.

None of those happened at all. Rather than water, the sprinkler was blowing heavy steam as if the water that was supposed to come out of it evaporated even before it flowed.

'This is really not happening!'

When the brood of kids surrounding her ran and begged for protection, the only thing she managed to do was tremble and watch the flames licked the ceiling of the room.

When the air filling the room got replaced with dark smoke, all she did was swallow the painful lump in her throat and clasped the brown book in her hand tighter.

Nothing was making sense!

Not the screams that were competing with the creaking sound of the wooden floor turning to coals. Not the scent of thousands of books burning and sending flaming shreds all over the place like autumn leaves. And not even the scorching heat that was licking their skins when the blaze entered the room through the door like an angry beast cornering them so they couldn't escape.

"Tonya!"

"Do something!"

"Help us!"

Every terrified voice commanding her to move were nothing but empty echoes that lingered for a second before slipping her ears. The chaos wasn't registering to her at all, even after a good chunk of the door jamb fell on the floor and sprayed them with blinding sparks.

The fire seemed furious. 

'Good Lord...' she gasped when her peripheral caught a glimpse of the lone window on the wall. It was quickly cracking with the pressure and was warning to break. 

'Holy s**t!' she jerked when what she anticipated actually happened.  One second, the glass covering the window was there, and the next, it exploded -- bursting into fine shards before the flames ate its wooden frames whole. 'What's happening--'

"Tonya, wake up!"

It was that twin-b***h slap that made Tonya blink her eyes repeatedly after a long trance. Her cheeks stung badly when those tiny hands left screaming red imprints on her skin. However, she was too frazzled to even butt a word when the child she hated most anxiously grabbed the neck of her shirt and shook her hard, forcing her to regain herself.

"Tonya, wake up! Move!" Jen was crying. The child's tears were turning red as they reflected the glow of the whole room. There was a part of the little girl's dress that was burned. She must have been in pain like all the other kids with her, but then Tonya was too paralyzed to even talk. 

"I'm begging you, Tonya." Jen coughed hard, choking with the black smoke that was squeezing in her lungs. Then through her wheezing breathe, she screamed, "You have to save us, Tonya. We'll all die!"

.

.

.

.

THE AMOUNT OF FEAR AND DESPAIR bouncing against the burning walls of that hallway was satisfying. It was so good that Fire had to close his eyes to savor the sound of dirty little mortals, same as who betrayed him, suffer.

Every scream was euphoric and sounded like sweet revenge.

His skin, which was now a combination of red and gold scales, was rippling with so much ecstasy with every up and down note of mortal screams. His hair, which used to be dark, was now ash-blonde. It was soft and even turning a bit red under the glow of flames he had made. 

The smell of things burning and crumbling helplessly around him was so nostalgic that he felt taken back thousands of years. Yes, this was like a fragment of the last time he had seen the town he grew up in. The ashes floating all-around was exactly the same-- flickering and swirling like fireflies before disappearing into the air.

"Escovia..." he hummed, smiling while swaying his head. The agony, helplessness, and, most of all, terror resonating in the library was music. "Good Ol' Escovia--"

"Tonya!" Then there was that loud squeak that had him fluttering his eyes. "Tonya, get up!"

'Tonya?' He shook his head repeatedly to deadpan the desperate cries that echoed in his head. Something inside him was asking him to move, but then it wasn't in his plan to help any mortal in there. His unwanted mate wasn't an exception to that. Truth be told, he loathed her with all his 'missing' heart.

Nobody helped him when he crawled on the ashes of Escovia after a powerful sorcerer ripped out the oneness of him and his dragon. The event degraded him not just from being a pure breed to the level of a shifter but crushed his royal pride too. It was the reason why his dragon ended up as a different entity within him for thousands of years. His dragon part slept after that, leaving him with nothing but his human embodiment and just a few abilities.

Today was different, though. For the first time since forever, his claws were back to being sharp, and his skin was withstanding the melting temperature around him. When he raised his hand to check, he saw it leathery and webbed. Not completely like how it used to but then close enough for him to recognize that something came back.

"Get up! Get up, please!"

"Help! Someone, please help us!"

"Tonya!"

He ignored the pleas and strode across the hallway like nothing was happening. Most of the people who were there earlier already escaped. Thus, leaving just the set of mortals, he intentionally locked inside the reading room.

That was far less entertainment compared to hearing hundred choir cries, but then those kids were the exact reason why he was mad too. For gracious sake, they almost fulfilled the curse! Good thing that he was able to stop it at the nick of time, or else he wouldn't be just a half-scale man walking around but a complete gigantic dragon.

'Serves you right, imbeciles...' he c****d his head contentedly, passing by the door where the sounds were coming from. Grinning, he then turned to the group of once happy children who dared play with his name just to see how far they were dying.

It was too late to regret what he did. Right before he could laugh again, a part of him suddenly screamed in horror, seeing who was slumped on the floor under a slab of wood that must have fallen from the burning ceiling.

The screaming kids... all twelve of them were now safely outside the room. They were jumping, crying, and looking through the burning window. It was a no-brainer that his 'unwanted mate' did her best to save her wards, probably by carrying them all to the expend of sacrificing herself.

"Tonya, don't die there!"

"Tonya!"

"Tonya. Please..."

It wasn't in his plan when his feet stepped in their own accord towards her, passing through the blaze like a fire-proof god rushing with time.

He didn't want to do that. He loathed the mortals. All of them. Period. 

He denied that it was him who command the flames to create a curtain on the window, completely covering it, and at the same time, pushing the horrified kids away with a hard flickering gush of wind. Hot enough to make them scream louder but then cold enough not to hurt them bad.

He swore it couldn't be him who rushed in that burning room, crushing some floorboards under his weight when his powerful stomps hit it and sent more burning coals to the air.

All the living things in this world could die, but he wouldn't admit that he was the dragon who commanded the murderous blaze about to touch the tip of her hair to back-off at once, clearing a safe space around her that not even a spec of coal dared to fly in.

He was too prideful and mad to let anyone know that he was the one who lifted the slab pushing his unwanted mate's fragile body down against the floor.

He hated her to the bone. He spent thousands of years detesting her kind and building his walls. His defenses couldn't just crumble like a well-soaked biscuit, right?

And that trembling breath that echoed with the sound of the burning building? It wasn't his.

It wasn't him who mentally called her with a shaky voice, hoping for her to reply telepathically.

'Tonya? Speak...'

He was quick when he cradled her in his arms and nervously checked for any signs of life. His golden eyes were keen as he scanned her from her closed eyes to her pale lips.

With extra care, one of his hands wiped the ashes off her beautiful face, feeling how soft her skin was under his palm for the first time. A curse escaped his mouth when his touch landed on something warm and wet. Tonya's forehead was bleeding, and just the sight of it made his empty chest growl.

Was it possible that his heart was flinching right now, wherever it was? But how?

The dragon was confused but at the same time worried when he bolted out of that room with her in his arms. Like magic, the flames blocking the hallway immediately grouped to the walls as if giving way for their king. It created a clear tunnel leading them to the closest exit like it had its own mind.

'This part that cares for you, Tonya...' He took a heavy breath. 'Remember that this isn't me...' he convinced her, or rather... himself.