Mari Mancusi - Scorched

“I’m sorry, Trinity,” he said so softly she could barely make out the words. “No one should have to go through something like that.”

She gave a choking laugh and pushed herself off the couch, out of Connor’s reach, stalking to the other side of the room, trying to ignore her pounding heart. Seriously, what was wrong with her? She paced the room, her nervous steps eating up the distance between walls, feeling embarrassed and awkward and not knowing what to say. Here Connor was, trying to save the world from a dragon apocalypse, and all she could do was babble on and on about her pitiful life story. As if it would matter to him in the least. So her mother died. Big deal. His whole freaking world had died. Hell, he probably only hugged her in an effort to get her to shut up for three seconds, so he could get back to the mission at hand.

She turned back to him, crossing her arms over her chest, trying to pull herself together. To appear strong and in control. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to unload on you like that. Trust me, it’s not something I normally do. Even with people I know.” She scanned the room, her nose wrinkling in distaste. “I guess it’s just this place—filled with empty promises and broken dreams.”

Connor was silent for a moment, regarding her with serious eyes. At last he spoke. “The Surface Lands can be like that for me.”

“The Surface Lands?” she repeated, cocking her head in question, more than grateful for the sudden subject change. “What are the Surface Lands?”

“That’s what we call the world aboveground where I come from,” he clarified, waving an arm around the room. “You know, where the dragons rule. Every time I head up there—on mission or whatever—I feel like I’m stepping into a graveyard.”

“You mean because of all the people who died in the apocalypse?”

“ Because of my father.”

His voice was gruff. Brittle. As if it hurt to say the words out loud. And they sent a startling revelation straight to her core. He’d lost someone too. Someone he loved. His family had shattered, just like her own. Suddenly she didn’t feel quite so pathetic for spilling her secrets, for accepting his comforting hug. Because, she realized, he wasn’t looking at her with pitying eyes like the rest of them did. He was looking at her with understanding.

“Was he…?” she started to ask, then trailed off, not knowing how to voice the question.

“Burned alive by dragon fire?” Connor finished for her. Bitterness flashed across his face. “Yes. It’s a common way to go in my world.”

She waited for him to continue, but he fell silent instead, probably as uncomfortable as she’d been sharing such intimate details with a practical stranger. She wanted to tell him that it was okay, that she’d never betray his secrets or mock his pain. But she stayed silent, thinking perhaps it was too much, too soon. The near-death experience and mad escape for their lives had stretched her emotions taut as piano wires. But that didn’t mean he felt the same.

“He was a Hunter,” Connor said at last. “A Dragon Hunter, just like me. He was good too. Maybe the best ever. Until…” He trailed off again, silent for a moment, then shook himself. “In any case, that’s the kind of senseless death I’ve come back to prevent. If I succeed in my mission—and I don’t intend to fail,” he added, giving her a fierce look, “the Scorch will never take place. And dragons will be gone for good.”

The fire in his eyes and the fervor in his voice sent a chill down to her bones. He was so passionate, so determined—especially for someone so young. Completely unlike any of the boys she knew from school. They were all too wrapped up in sports or video games or the latest viral something-or-other to hit the interwebs to concern themselves with the atrocities of the world. Never mind muster up the energy to do something about them.

But Connor was different. The travesties he’d witnessed had made him strong, not scared. Determined, not demoralized.

“Tell me about this Scorch,” she requested, wanting to hear him talk more, to unravel the secrets of his strange, futuristic world—and maybe a few about himself. “What was it like? I’m trying to picture it, but all I can think of was this really bad movie I saw once.”

Connor seemed to consider this for a moment. “If you want, I can show you,” he said at last.

“Show me?” She squinted at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

At first he didn’t answer. Outside she could hear the wind whistling through the trees, announcing the encroaching storm. A coyote howled mournfully across the plain, echoed by a few neighborhood dogs. But inside the house, the silence was thick and suffocating as she waited, on the edge of her seat, for what he was going to say.

Finally, he nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I think it’s the only way to do this. Otherwise, it’ll be just words. You’ll never truly understand what it was like. Why this is all so important.” He gazed at her, his eyes darkening with emotion. “But I warn you, it’s not an easy thing to see.”

She squared her shoulders, not sure what she was agreeing to. But she’d come this far already—and she wanted him to know that she could be brave too.

“Nothing has been easy since I met you,” she declared, drawing on all her remaining bravado. “Why start now?”

“Right.” Connor gave her a wry look. “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

He reached out, taking her hands in his own. She felt something hard and cold between them and realized he’d placed a sapphire-colored gem into her palm. She stared down at it, wondering what it was for. Before she could ask, Connor closed his eyes, his face glowing with concentration as he squeezed her hands tightly in his.

A moment later the gem began to heat in her hand, hotter and hotter, until she was sure it would catch fire and singe her skin. Panicked, she glanced up at Connor, but his eyes remained closed and lips pressed firmly together—as if nothing was wrong. And so she forced herself to ignore the burn, closing her eyes and readying herself for anything.

But nothing could prepare her for what she saw next.

The world was on fire.

At least that was Trinity’s first thought as she opened her eyes. No longer safe and sound in her mother’s old house, she found herself standing in the center of Old Oak Grove’s town square, an inferno raging all around her, as far as her eyes could see. White-hot flames licked at shops and restaurants while bright orange fire devoured the trees. Smoke, thick as pea soup, flooded the streets, as desperate, human-shaped shadows flew past her, stumbling in a frantic attempt to reach safe ground. Sobs echoed through the air, competing with children’s screams, and the marble fountain in the center of the square violently boiled over.

“Connor?” she cried, trying to peer through the smoke. “Are you there?” Her voice was raw and hoarse, and her lungs burned in protest as she waited for his reply.

But there was no reply. No answer to her calls. No sign of the time traveler who’d sent her to this hell on earth.

She was alone.

How could he do this to her? Just dump her here at the end of the world—with no explanation as to what she was supposed to do? Where she was supposed to go? Was this simply a vision of an event that had already taken place? Or had he actually sent her forward in time? Was she safe and sound in her former home, still gripping Connor’s hands? Or was she really here, her life in danger?

An inhuman screech ripped through the air, shattering her questions and rendering her immobile. At the same moment, the smoke seemed to sweep away in a gust of sudden wind. Gathering all her courage, she dared to look up, just in time to see the shadow of a giant serpent swimming through the sky, its wingspan so vast that, for a moment, it blotted out the sun.