Eric chuckled at the inquisitor’s supposition they were lovers, but he didn’t refute it. “Not my fault you have no imagination.”

If Illius ran, they might follow him, but they would completely surround Eric. If he stayed, they could overpower him and use him against Eric.

“Think you can take us all?” Three more mages stepped from the trees.

Eric cracked his neck, letting the pop fill the air. “Guess we’ll find out, won’t we?”

“You’re a cocky bastard.”

“I like to think so.” Eric raced forward to the man with the swords.

Everything in Illius screamed as he froze in place. Coward! Coward! Coward! his own mind echoed back at him. What could he do, though?

Eric caught the swords on his staff, but the man quickly swung his left sword toward Eric’s shoulder. Ducking, Eric struck the end of the staff into the man’s stomach, then bobbed up to smack him in the jaw. A swing of the staff and a crack against his ear sent the man crumbling onto the ice.

“Ah. I won’t underestimate you, then,” another mage said as he leapt onto the ice in unison with a second. A third on the shore manifested shields around the two. Illius watched in awe as they exchanged blow for blow and Eric held his ground.

But Illius saw a fifth mage running for him from the trees, and a strangled cry left him as they knocked him into the snow.

“Illius!” Eric turned toward him, and one of the mages knocked his staff from his hands. They pounced on him, pinning him to the ice and materializing a spear to shove through his back. 

No, no, no! Get your fucking filthy hands away from Eric!

Illius yanked on his magic, reaching for the mages surrounding Eric and feeling the tight coils in his body release a charge from his chest, running down his right arm and leaving his fingertips. The air cracked. Light illuminated the woods brighter than the sun ever had. A thunderclap rocked his body and flung the mage off of him. He blinked slowly, reeling from the shock. Darkness rushed for him. Even as he willed his eyes to stay open, they betrayed him. He couldn’t—couldn’t leave Eric there.

“Illius!” Eric’s voice reached him. He opened his eyes to see Eric bent over him, trying to lift him out of the snow.

“Eric!” Hireth screamed as she appeared out of thin air. “Is he alive?”

He could barely hear her.

“We’re okay!” Eric shouted.

“Get out of here!” Her eyes turned dark, and a power so strong that Illius felt it shaking his body emanated off of her. He knew… He knew what that kind of power felt like now. Why wasn’t she terrified all the time? She turned to the mages picking themselves up from the snow, and three scythes appeared in the air around her. Then, Eric scooped Illius up and hid Hireth from his view. As Eric carried him off, Illius could hear the crash of battle behind him.

“Eric?” Illius mumbled just as they came in sight of the library.

Hireth suddenly appeared in front of them, and Eric yelped in surprise, almost dropping Illius.

“Is he okay?” she asked.

Both men just stared at her. “You’re covered in blood,” Eric said.

“Yeah, well, people aren’t made out of potatoes.” The witch wiped some gore from her mouth and spit out some more. “Illius, what’s going on? Your magic is…” She waved her hands around.

“I don’t know.” He shuddered. “I don’t know. It won’t stop. I can’t turn it off.” 

“What’s going on?” Eric’s voice wavered as he set Illius down on the ground. “Hireth, what’s happening?”

“Illius.” Hireth knelt next to him, “I need you to relax.”

“I can’t.” Illius shook with the effort of containing the lightning within. The magic overwhelmed him. Whatever he had done, there was no stopping it now. Years and years of stuffing it down, and now it wouldn’t listen anymore. It had tasted freedom, and it wanted out. “I can’t. It will come out.”

“Then let it out.”

“I can’t!”

“Yes,” she whispered, “you can. This thing inside of you, you’re holding it so tightly it’s hurting you. It’s meant to be part of you. You have to accept it and let it go.”

“N-no.” Illius shook his head as the magic bubbled ever closer. He was losing control and he knew it. His hands shook and his lips quivered; it took everything he had to hold the magic in, and yet he knew… it was winning. “No, I can’t. You’ll d-die.”

“What’s going on?” Eric asked again, voice sharp and tight.

“Illius,” Hireth said. “Talk to us.”

“I don’t know! It won’t stop!” He punched the magic back down, but it ran to his fingertips, electricity crackling between his thumb and index finger. “I had—had to save Eric, and now it won’t stop. It keeps coming up, and I can’t stop it, and I don’t know what to do! The institution… they took me and… m-my power came out… and I-I was so scared. They p-put me in this cage, and then they gave me something to drink, and I—” His voice broke. “It hurt so much I blacked out, and they wouldn’t—wouldn’t make it s-s-stop. I don’t want that to happen again. I can’t control it! It hurt so much, and I couldn’t stop it!”

“I know,” Hireth whispered. “I know what happened, Illius. Your magic is part of you, though. You’re rejecting your own essence, and it’s making you sick.”

“What am I?” He started sobbing. “I hate it. I hate it so much. I used to wake up in the night, afraid that I’d lose control and hurt my mom. They called me a monster, and I don’t—don’t want to be a monster.”

“Oh, honey.” Hireth reached out to hug him.

“Don’t touch me!” Illius recoiled.

“Okay. Okay.” She held up her hands. “None of this is going to get better if you don’t let me help you, okay?”

“You can’t!” he said. “You can’t help me! You can’t get rid of my horns! You can’t make me stop being a therian!”

Hireth hesitated, her face falling. “Illius, I don’t want to change you. Okay? There’s nothing wrong with you.”

“Then why do I have horns?” he shouted. “Why? Why couldn’t I have been born without them? Why does everyone hate me? What is so wrong with me?”

“Nothing.” Hireth knelt beside him. “Take my hand.”

He shook his head fiercely and tried to sink into the snow even more.

“Take my hand,” the witch ordered. Gingerly, he reached out, willing the charge back inside of him. She laced her fingers in between his, and he felt his magic shrink from her touch. “I am not afraid of you. You have nothing to be ashamed of, and there is nothing wrong with you. They lied. The church lied. The institution lied. They lied about you, because they’re even more terrified of you than you are of yourself.”

“I can’t control it!” Illius could hardly register what she said as his magic strained against him so hard, he could barely think. “H-help me. It’s coming, and I can’t stop it.”

“Illius.” She reached out and brushed his hair from his face. “You have so much energy flowing inside of you that you’re hurting yourself. You’re a lightning storm. You won’t hurt anything out here. Let it go.”

“But…”

“I’m here, and I’ll shield myself and Eric. You won’t hurt us.”

“No.” He shook his head. “No, no, no, no, no.”

“How about a little spark?” she said. “Remember the baby dragon? You have to encourage it. It’s okay. This is what you’re meant to be. There’s nothing wrong with you or your magic.”

The baby dragon. Illius took short, gasping breaths, bracing to keep the magic bound inside of him. He wasn’t a dragon. He was a therian. There was nothing he could do to fix it. The baby dragon doesn’t need fixing, though, a little voice in the back of his head reminded him.

“Let a little spark go.” Hireth pulled him from his thoughts. “Just a little one. Let the magic take over. Stop fighting it.”

Illius sat with his knees up to his chin, crying his eyes out.

“Just a little one,” Hireth encouraged again, squeezing his hand and then pulling away.

He closed his eyes. So much magic. It threatened to drown him, choke him with pure force. Did he dare let go? He knew if he did, there would be no going back. This magic was wild, and he knew he could never shove it down again. What will it look like? Will I always be surrounded by lightning? What if no one can ever get close to me again?

The dragons.

The dragons aren’t afraid. Hireth said they burn themselves when they learn how to spit fire. The dragons aren’t afraid.

He raised one shaky palm toward the sky and released the magic writhing between his ribs.