Chapter Thirty-one

♦Selena's POV♦

I walk away from mother's room with more uncertainty than I went there with and I was pretty unsure about a lot of things so that's saying a lot.

On the spur of the moment I decide to check on September even though I checked on her before going to mother's room, I couldn't shake off an eerie feeling.

September's room is still a little down the hallway to the right but a sudden urgency overwhelms me and without a second thought, I dematerialize to her room.

The sight that greets me is pure horror, you know, straight out of a mentally damaging nightmare kind of sight.

Her entire bed is on fire and yet she's just sleeping peacefully on it like she's taking a nap.

"W-What?..." I mumble, holding my head in devastation.

I don't even remember making for the bed, my only thoughts are getting September away from the increasing fire that keeps threatening to devour her entire room until someone shoves me out of the way.

I shake my head, I'm even more groggy from the hard impact against the floor. Neruda is yelling something at me and pointing at the door, I concentrate hard to understand what he's saying… September! I need to get her out of the fire!

Cool hands wrap around my face, calming the maddening storm that is whirling in my head.

"Hey Selena, Selena? Listen to me." Neruda is saying, enunciating each word because I can't seem to hear what he's saying clearly, it's like I've been insulated from the rest of the world by a bubble of water. 

"You're hurting yourself and if you keep this on, third degree burns will be the least of your worries." He says in a voice that's both sad and pitying.

His pity makes me grind my teeth and close my eyes, I can't hear him properly unless I read his lips but I'm too angry to look him in the face.

"I promise I'll save September…" He tags on, at least I think that is what he says.

I want to stand up, shove him to the side and tell him to fuck out of my way, out of my house and out of my life but my body won't listen to me.

The activities of the day are finally catching up to me, I needed rest, there was no pushing my body further anymore. I had to break my limits to even fight back at mother.

I force my blurry vision to stay open, I wasn't blacking out until I see for myself that September is safe.

I watch Neruda quickly walk into the roaring flames, hands out. For a while, he just stands there, waving them around but soon, slowly but surely, the fire starts to die down.

♦Neruda's POV♦

I concentrate all of my energy into putting out the fire that acted like it had a life of its own, I wasn't the one who started the fire but Hellhounds had the ability not just to create flames but to control them as well but this fire was a mean one.

All those literal firefighting training paid off because soon enough I manage to fully extinguish the flames.

Maids pour in at this point, Mr. Laccrosse in tow.

"What the hell happened here?" He demands with authority and a healthy dose of terror as he takes in his last child lying still on a charred bed and her twin sprawled on the ground at the edge of the room, passed out.

The fire had burnt away everything that had been on the bed, leaving a thick pile of ashes and bed frames in its wake. The fire had also started to spread out to the walls and the draperies, the ceiling was painted a smudgy black.

Maids had quickly covered up September and I get a good look in now, she was unscratched, despite being in the middle of all that for a very long time.

Selena hadn't even been anywhere close to touching her and yet there were blisters all down one side of her body.

"I'm not sure, sire." I bow low, letting the ingrained training of proper etiquette take over. "I was attracted by the fire so I rushed over here in time to put it out before anyone got seriously hurt, I have no idea how it started." I say sincerely, watching Selena's prone body from the side of my eye, there was no reason for me to keep September's secret, I simply deduced that this was the best course of action.

Mr. Laccrosse walks over to his peacefully sleeping daughter on a bed of ashes and cinders and tries to rouse her.

September blinks open an eye and then frowns at the sight she registers, I can imagine what's going on in her head right now.

Waking up to a roomful of people with smoke and ashes all around.

"Dad?" She blinks, looking up at him. "Why are you here?"

"Are you okay?" He asks with concern.

"I guess." She mumbled distractedly.

"What happened?" She holds her head, looking around with a confused expression which slackens as soon as she sees her twin on the floor being attended to by maids.

"Selena!" She exclaims, shooting out of the bed to meet her twin sister.

"Oh, she's hurt so bad." She murmurs in a sad voice, holding onto her one good hand.

"W-We'll be fine dad." Selena's raspy voice spills out when their dad, inches closer to watch.

Mr. Laccrosse simply nods and makes his way out after a lingering look at them and signalling most of the servants, to make themselves scarce.

"You can't sleep here." I finally say, wanting to fill up the eerie silence that had settled over the room as a couple nurses bandaged up Selena's injuries.

She nods her head at this, "I know. I'll sleep in Selena's room."

Everywhere goes quiet again and I pace a bit, thinking of how to raise the question of how she thinks the fire started.

"Did I do this?" She asks in a strangely calm voice.

"I don't know, seeing that you just manifested your powers for the first time this evening…" I start to say .

"It wasn't the first time." She interrupts on a mumble.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Um, okay? Yeah as I was saying, there's a high chance that you were the one who started it as your fire powers are highly volatile at this point."

She just nods and stands up, the maids are done patching up an unconscious Selena, there are servants waiting for the nurses to be done so that they can move their Mistress back to her room.

"I see, so this means I hurt Selena." She muses to herself in a dead voice and I unconsciously reach forward to stop her self-destructive line of thinking.

"It is not your fault…" I start to say.

"I know," she cuts me off curtly, the servants are already taking Selena out so September starts to follow as well. "I know." She repeats again, her dark green eyes filled with pain and anguish. 

"I know." She repeats again in a dead voice. "I'm told that every time."

I watch her walk out with mounting anxiety, why do I feel like even though I've found my Imperial and she already has her fire power that I'm just getting started and the furthest away I've ever been from saving the world?