Sophia

I shivered and hurried to the entrance, dropping my keys when I tried to unlock the door with shaky hands. When I finally opened the door, I stumbled over Pascal lying on the floor. I shrieked and dropped to my knees, shaking him. “Pascal! Are you okay?”

I leaned closer and listened for a heartbeat and I sighed in relief when I realized that he wasn’t dead. I shook him again, but he didn’t wake up.

My chest tightened, fear rushing through me like a freight train.

“Mom! Dad!” My panicked voice echoed through the silent house as I rushed to the living room and pushed the door open, only to stumble to a sudden halt. All the air left my lungs as my eyes darted around the room, bright lights dancing in my vision.

The picture in front of me burned into my brain as I stared at the lifeless bodies of my family scattered around the living room floor, blood dripping out of the cuts on their necks.

My throat closed up as I stumbled toward my father, lifting him off the floor and onto my lap. His blood drenched my jeans and shirt and I felt for a pulse, but I couldn’t find one. Silent tears ran down my face as I brushed through his disheveled hair. They were all in their nightgowns, so they must have already been asleep when, for whatever reason, they ended up here in the living room.

I carefully placed him back on the floor and moved to my sibling’s bodies, not finding a pulse either. Last, I crawled to my mother’s body, holding her in my arms. For the first time in a long time, I saw her with a peaceful look on her face. No frown or disappointed look in her eyes, and it broke my heart. Only a few hours ago we were arguing and now she won’t ever say another word to me again.

Motion in the dining room caught my attention and I stumbled to my feet, rushing inside the room. A group of hooded people came into view, one of them holding my little sister in their arms.

“Let her go!” I screamed and they all turned to me. The familiar rush of coldness rushed through my veins, while my skin felt impossibly hot. Anger boiled in my body, my magic reacting to it as if it only waited to get freed.

“Are you deaf? Let her go!” I repeated, a blast of flames shooting out of my hands, rushing towards the group while it set everything on its way on fire, but before it could reach the group, an invisible wall blocked my attack, diminishing the flames into thin air.

The heat of the surrounding flames pushed me forward as I sent several fireballs their way, an explosion rumbling through the house each time they shattered against their barrier. The group of people shuffled together as they chanted words I couldn’t understand. Through my fury, I spotted the soft, green magical signature glistering in the air, the familiarity of it robbing my breath again. I could almost taste it on my tongue, but my brain didn’t want me to believe it. It was impossible.

My heartbeat rapidly pounded in my ears as I summoned more and more fireballs, but regardless of how many hit the barrier, it wouldn’t break.

I stared into the group, tears streaming down my face. One of them stood outside the circle and I felt their gaze on me, even with the hood hiding their face. I stopped in my tracks for a moment, before shaking my head and mobilizing the last energy I felt in me to whirl another fireball at the barrier. A loud crack boomed through the room and a smirk spread over my face as I found new hope to stop them, but I was a little too late. Just when the wall crumbled into itself they stepped in a shining ring of some sort of symbols, disappearing to who knows where.

I fell to my knees, surrounded by angry flames, staring at the empty spot in front of me.

A scream left my mouth, so loud and high that it barely sounded human. When my voice disappeared, I crumbled to the floor, pulled my legs to my chest and sobbed with only my flames offering me comfort and warmth.

Adam

I pulled the hood off my head and opened the buttons on my coat hastily, my fingers trembling as bile rose in my throat. It was as if someone punched me in the guts.

“I will bring her to Samuel,” someone in the room said, and I looked up with blurry vision, seeing Lucas carrying a girl in his arms.

“Can anyone remember what happened?” I asked, my head throbbing, trying to get rid of the images out of my head. Of the blood, the death, the devastation.

The guy next to me raised a brow. “Of course not, dude. You know we aren’t supposed to remember our missions.”

He threw me one last glance and shook his head as he passed me, almost as if he couldn’t believe what nonsense I was spouting, like I was crazy. And maybe I was. I didn’t even bother remembering my fellow scholars’ names, except my roommate’s, so maybe something was odd about me.

After they all dropped their clothes on the floor and left to take a shower, I also removed my clothes, smelling the distinct smell of fire and ashes in the air. I almost threw up. I wish they would be right about forgetting our missions because I clearly remember what we had done.

We killed an entire family and kidnapped the last surviving family member. That’s what we thought, anyway, until another family member entered the scene. If I had known this was her family, I wouldn’t have gone. How could I have done that? This damn blood trance turned me into nothing more than a puppet in the hands of my mentor, but even knowing that I couldn’t stop the guilt that was almost eating me alive.

I still saw her blue eyes staring at me, while silent tears ran down her face, with all the fire raging around her. It was as if someone had pulled a cable in my brain, ripping me out of the blood trance. She looked breathtaking and all for the wrong reasons.

My heart clenched and I dropped onto the wooden bench behind me, rubbing my face. I tried to get in contact with her for years after she disappeared from my life. I always wanted to thank her for saving me and now that I finally met her again, it was only after helping to kill her family.

How can I ever redeem myself now?