Chapter Eighteen: Burn

When I wake up I can feel how itchy and hurt my eyes are. I can feel the ache in my heart from what happened yesterday and I can feel how ready I am to defend my people. I love Thor. I've loved him since I was a little girl, but there was one thing I had to do that he couldn't help me with at the moment. I had to protect our home.

I know there are men and women who would rather put their life on the line rather than mine, but what they don't understand is I'd rather put my life on the line then put theirs. I don't want anyone to die for me.

I grudgingly get up and go through a nice shower and pull on my red and black leather fighting uniform and brush my hair out. I turn to leave, but stop next to Thor. He's still asleep, but I know he'll wake up. He has to wake up.

"Esmerelda?" I hear Lady Sif say from the door. I suck up my tears and turn to look at her. She waiting with a smile on her face. I smile at her.

"Yes?" I ask.

"There's fighting in the left wing. Some of Sefrina's men have broken in and there fighting hard." Sif says.

"Alright. Let's go." I tell her. I walk over to her and we start our way to the left wing.

"Umm, Esmerelda?" Sif says as we walk. I look over at her and I see that something is really bothering her.

"Yes?" I ask. She looks directly at me and something in the way I look seems to make her make up her mind because she nods to herself and goes on.

"They're fighting with dark magic." She answers. I stop and stare at her.

"What do you mean?" I ask her.

"I don't know how they found it, but somehow they found dark magic and they're using it. Our men are dropping faster than we can replace them right now." Sif says. I nod as we enter the room. Chaos is seen from every angle.

I can hear the clash of sword upon sword, shield against flesh, men shouting in victory or screaming in agony. Women have even picked up swords and began fighting for us. I can tell already that Sefrina's men are in the lead and winning quickly. A black smog seemed to be moving around the room and taking out people with just a whisper of touch. With every person that subdued to it it got stronger and it began to take on a manly form, like it was about to join the battle.

"What the hell is that?" I ask Sif. She swings her sword.

"It's black magic." Sif answers and then she runs straight into battle. She's gone before I scream her name. I watch the magic finally take form and pluck a sword from someone. It even looked like it was smiling. I took a deep breath and decided to pull power from deep inside me. I let my emotions draw inside to that small bundle of electricity buzzing inside of me. I lightly touch it and feel it unfurl, buzzing and I know what I have to do. I feed it to become stronger, gain frequence. I put all my fear, all my love, all my hopes, dreams, pain, and finally rage. The rage I had gained was blindingly white and pure and needed to be let out. I felt it all inside me. I felt the power gain intensity and I felt myself give into it. I felt my body begin to float off the floor and I looked down at the dark magic that was looking up.

"This is my home. You will not take it away from me." I said softly, but it gained it's own intensity and with every word lightning hit the black magic. The minute it touched the magic began to scream. A shrill scream tore through the entire castle and my ears, but I kept going at it. I kept letting lightning strike it and soon enough the magic vaporized and I was finally able to put a clamp on the power.

I dropped to the floor a little shaky and looked up. I saw something I had never seen before. The men that weren't fighting for my home where nothing but standing ashes. They just stood there as if something held them up and then they crumpled to the floor and a fire began to burn around them. I gasped and felt my entire being try to hide what just happened. It was like I didn't want to remember this.

"No!" I heard someone shout and then I felt something solid hit me. The only thing was it wasn't something solid. I couldn't see anything as it slammed into me and had me fly three feet back and then dropped me. I landed with a soft thump and looked forward to see Sefrina standing there with blood running out of her nose. She seemed wild and impulsive. She stomped her foot and I felt the earth shake beneath me and then suddenly it hit up and wrapped around my waist. It squeezed and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I gasped and tried to remove the sand, but it was sand so it slipped through my fingers.

"You are really starting to piss me off. I have gone through so much to get to where I am. I have killed so many people to get to where I am and I won't let some human come and take that away from me!" She finally let me go only to make the air hit my head and I felt my neck whip back. It hurt.

"I"m not human." I say breathlessly as I gained the power to get up. I stared back at this woman who'd killed my family and wanted to kill my husband and I felt that white hot rage come coursing in and this time I didn't want to hold back. I gave my power all the control it wanted because I wanted what it wanted. Her blood.....

"I am Asgardian and I don't submit to things like you." And I hit back. The difference I hadn't noticed before was her power wasn't actually clear. It was black which meant it was her I"d hit earlier. It was her power I'd just put out. I only noticed this because she tried to hit me at the same time I hit her and black clashed with purple. I watched the beauty of the two meeting each other and one trying to have the upper hand in this situation. I saw hers trying to change the color of mne and mine just burning brighter. I was ready to stay here all night to see who held on the longest, but she let go first and I got to watch her fly back. Her entire body did a few flips before it touched down and I wasn't waiting.

As soon as she hit the ground I was off. I flew through the air and I landed next to her. I picked her up off the floor with power and punched her in the face. Her face went left, but she immediately got defensive and tried to hit me as soon as her head turned back the way it should. I deflected with my left hand and pulled my hand back for another hit, but she beat me to it and hit me square in teh chest. I went back and she followed me. I only had a few seconds to pull my right leg up and kick her back with a lot of force and energy. She flew back the way I wanted her to and I got the pleasure of hearing her breathing become irregular. I'd broken at least one rib. Sefrina spit on the floor and looked up at me. She was ready for more. I smiled at her and she snarled at me and came back running the entire way. When she reached me she swung her arm out to hit me and I moved out of the way as fast as I could, but I didn't expect her to do what she did. She ran straight at me and made me fly back with her. The air whooshed out of me as she threw me on the ground beneath her. I felt her push up on top me and she began to hit me left and right and I couldn't defend myself. She had my hands pinned under her knees as she hit me harder each time. I finally couldn't take it anymore and I pulled my knees up to hit her back, but she only growled as I touched her and placed her right hand on my throat and choked me. I gasped as she kept tightening her grip.

"I can't wait to kill you Esmerelda." Sefrina said as she added her other hand and began to really close my windpipes. I frantically tried to pull my hands up from under her knees and get ahold of her,but she wasn't budging and inch and I was really losing air. I could see little black dots appear in my vision and my lungs were burning from the lack of oxygen. I was going to die like this? I don't think so. I did the last thing I thought I'd ever do.

I screamed and I felt my power expand and push her off me. She went flying into the air and I rolled onto my side as I coughed in oxygen. I placed a hand on my throat as I began to breathe. When it was finally under control I looked over to where Sefrina flew to see her twirling around and around. Sif was fighting her and she was fighting hard. I weakly got up onto my feet and watched the worst thing happen. I watched Sefrina lash out hard at Sif and Sif went flying through the air.

"SIF!" I screamed and felt my legs carry me shakily to Sif. She landed with a huge crash just feet from me and I fell down before her. She shook her head and looked over at Sefrina. I followed her look and saw Sefrina walking away. I looked back at Sif and saw her weakly handing me her sword. I grabbed it happily and started to run through the battle field. I passed men who wanted to kill me who got killed by the other men. I only had my eyes on Sefrina so when Loki appeared in front of me I did what I'd been doing for the last few minutes. I slashed at him, but he disappeared.

"Damn it Loki!" I shouted at him. He appears smiling.

"Look you're following a projection. Sefrina went upstairs to check on Thor. She wants to make sure he's alive. I'll handle the fight down here. You go and protect my brother." Loki tells me.

"Why would you want to protect me?" I ask him.

"I don't want to protect you. I want to protect my mother." Loki says and then he says something that even I have to agree with him on. "Besides Asgard is my home and I'm not letting anyone take apart my home." Then he goes and begins to fight on my side, on the side of Asgard. I don't look back. I take off running to Thor.

I arrive out of breath and open the door with my power instead of my hands. Immediately I see Lily standing above Thor with an emerald sheild around them and my father and Sefrina talking wildly with her, trying to make her take the shield off. Sefrina looks badly wounded and my father seems to be deeply upset and angry. The minute the doors crash open Sefrina looks my way and for the first time I see fear in her eyes.

"What are you doing in my room?" I ask them. I'm not as calm as I may seem. I walk over to Lily and smile at her. She smiles back, but tears are in her eyes as she looks at me. I wonder what she sees?

"Esmerelda honey I'm just making sure Thor is fine." Father says. I'm not buying it.

"I'm twenty-five, not six. Tell me the truth." I tell him. I really don't want to hear his lies at the moment.

"Fine if you don't want to be lied to Sefrina and I were checking Thor's vital signs to see how long he has and from what she says he doesn't have long. He'll die any time now." Father says and there it is. The smugness, the pleasure of knowing he was going to watch the love of my life die. He really was a monster and he didn't care about me.

"No he won't." I tell them. I won't let him die.

"Look at the kid Esmerelda. Does she look like she's a whole thing anymore?" Sefrina says and I finally turn to look at Lily. There seems to be a transparency about her that I hadn't noticed before. I turn my complete attention on her and place a hand out on her and immediately my hand passes through where her arm should've been. There was nothing there, but air and her emerald sheild was losing color. I felt the tears appear in my eyes and I shook my head. This couldn't be happening.

"Moma, it's ok. Just don't let them get daddy." Lily smiles and with a brave attempt of holding back her tears she vanishes into thin air.

"No!" I shout as she leaves. "No." I cry and crumple onto the floor. I let the tears flow freely down my face as I stare at the floor. She's gone. She didn't get to live. Thor has to wake up. I finally get the courage to stand up and look over at Thor. He shoulders aren't moving. I place a hand on his throat to feel a pulse and get nothing. I feel the tears gain frequency and then I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"This is the way it should be Esmerelda." Father says. I turn over to him with pure hate in my heart and blink away the tears.

"This is wrong." I tell him. He looks shocked.

"What?" he asks.

"He should live. Not you or her or even me. He was always kind and funny and sweet and he cared for everyone like they were his family. He didn't do anything but protect the people he loved. He shouldn't be dead. We should." I know now. I should've died when I was a kid along with my father. People like us didn't deserve to live in this world. We deserved to die for all that we have down and all that we might do.

I square my shoulders and pull my powers into me. I feel that even my powers know what it's about to do and has accepted it. I smile to myself and I touch my stomach. I feel sorry that my children will never be able to grow on this world, but I'd rather them not be here and safe, then dead by these two.

I close my eyes and let my powers burst out of me. I hear Sefrina and father scream in agony and finallly open my eyes. They stand there, burning in pure fire. It's the color it should be, red and orange and even blue. I smile as the fire works through them and me. I feel it burn my skin and all the nerves trying to fight it's way away from the fire. I feel the scream tearing at my throat looking for a way out, but I won't do it because I know I'll try to put the fire out if I do. Instead I close my eyes and stop breathing. I won't bring oxygen here I"ll just fall asleep as I burn. I"ll be fine then.

Thor's Point Of View

Her screams. In the dark abiss that I was falling in that's all I could hear. I don't know how I ended up hearing them, but I did and it had me struggling to get to her. I had to get to her. She didn't need to be doing this, whatever was hurting her needed to stop hurting her.

I opened my eyes and breathed, then coughed. Ashes and dark smoke clung before my vision, but I could see the burning people in front of me. Two of them were screaming as hard and loud as they could,but they weren't moving. One, the one standing in front of me wasn't screaming at all. In fact she looked like she was trying not to breathe or scream. I knew I could hear her screams even in my head and I knew who this one was. Esmerelda.

"Esmerelda no!" I shout and I place my hand inside the fire. I feel her arm flinch at the new contact, but the fire is dying. I feel her skin begin to heal under my touch and I"m glad it does. I dont' want her hurt. I want her safe. She turns to look at me and I smile at her.

"Don't you ever do that to my again." I tell her. She nods and pulls me into her arms. I feel her lips on mine and then something that even now I should've heard coming happens.

"No!" Sefrina screams and something hits Esmerelda. Esmerelda screams once and then her eyes roll in the back of her head and she falls. I feel complete broken as she limps into my arms. I look up to see Esmerelda still burned, but looking crazy.

"You wil pay for that." I tell the woman and then hit her across the head with Hamma. She falls flat on her face next to that horribly burned man. I look back down at Esmerelda and know one thing. I have to find a doctor fast.

Esmerelda's Point of View

It was a beautiful place. It's the place I'd met my grandma a little while ago, but this time it's not my grandma. This time it's mom and Avalion and Silva.

Mom looks the way she always did. She wore a green dress to match her eyes and her blonde hair was blowing curly in the wind. Silva was a spitting image of mom all the way down. Avalion was like me. Brown hair and brown eyes, but he loved blue. Which is what he was wearing. The only thing that makes me sad is they never got to grow up. Mom's still thirty something, Avalion is still four and Silva is still three.

"Esmerelda my beautiful girl." Mom says as she pulls me into a hug.

"Mom? Is it really you?" I ask her. She laughs and pulls me back just as Avalion and Silva hug my legs.

"I've missed you soo much sissy." Avalion says. Silva just cries and it breaks my heart to get to see them again.

"Oh I've missed you too." I cry and bend down to hug them back.

"Does this mean you're coming with us? Mommy says so. Mommys says it's your time to join us now." Avalion goes on happily. I stare at mom.

"Is it true? Am I truly done?" I ask her. She smiles.

"Yes, you should have  no more fighting to do, but there is one thing you should consider." Mom says. I stare at her. "Your child." I know what she means and a huge part of me believes her. I'm done. I don't have to fight anymore. I can give up and go back to my family. It's so tempting that I amost immediately follow mom, but Silva looks up at me and I know she wants to say something.

"Yes Silva?" I ask her.

"Not yet. I want my sissy more than anything but I want you happy. Thor make you happy. Go back. Go to him." She cries harder and I cry with her. I love her so much and I finally get to remember her for who she is and not for what happened to her. This is my little sister. This is the little girl I love with all my heart. Of course I'm going to go back. She made me see that while this is my family, so is Thor and if anyone needed me it would be Thor. Thor needed me to make him better and whole. He needed me to live for him. Mom, Silva, and Avalion had each other to depend on and they were dead.

"You're right. I'm going home." I clutch Silva and Avalion to me and then I pull back and talk to mom.

"I love you. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you." I tell her. She shakes her head.

"It's ok. I know how hard it was for you to not help. I'm fine with this. I'm happy here, but you need to go back. Thor needs you in ways I didn't even know existed until now." She clutches me close. "I love you."

The minute she pulls away I feel myself being pulled away from them. I watch mom smile and wave at me while Silva and Avalion wave hard and follow me. I smile and wave at them. The light behind them was burning too bright for me and I blinked. The moment after I blinked I felt myself swish inside of my true body and felt  a hand clutching mine. I clutch back and open my eyes to a very tired and anxious Thor. He hair looked like it'd been through many pulls of his hands and his eyes looked as if he hadn't slept for a long time.

"Esmerelda?" Thor says the moment I open my eyes. I stare at him, a little confused and then I begin to cry harder than ever. I cried for everything I missed and everything I'd almost lost. The whole time I cried Thor held on tightly to me. "It's ok. You're safe. You're home."

Home. I was home because home was in his arms.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

PLEASE COMMENT, VOTE, FAN. IT WOULD MEAN A LOT TO ME! I AM UPDATING THE LAST CHAPTER OF THOR SOON.

ALSO COULD YOU GUYS READ MY NEW STORY PROMISE ACADEMY? pLEASE IT WOULD MEAN A LOT.