Uriel

It was the burning in his hand that stopped him.

Every instinct in his body wanted to put that knife through her skull. But the voices were a reminder that there was more at play than he was aware.

Keep her, they whispered.

But he understood what they meant.

Keep her alive.

Forcing himself to lift the dagger away, he let go of her and ever so slowly withdrew. Straightening, he stared down at her wide eyes, that retched blue too bright to ever be natural and calling to the beast. It pushed at his skin, wanting to touch, making his fingers flix with the urge.

Clenched them into a tight fist, he ground his teeth to keep from doing just that.

She was dangerous. Dangerous in a way he despised. Even now he could feel the power she wasted. Raw and unbound, it seared through his nerve endings. And that was just from a taste. What would it be like if he took more? Her death might be sweeter than the brightest sunset but there was one thing stronger than the destruction that danced along his fingertips.

Creation could be just as potent a drug.

The thought sent a different sort of hunger shivering down his spine and disgust twisted in his gut. She was barely more than a child to him, but the beast didn't care about age. If it got free, it would take what it wanted.

Just like it always had.

Natalia. Natalia. Natalia.

The name came unbidden, shaking the foundation of his walls and leaving a bitter taste of grief on his tongue.

He lurched back, standing to distance himself from the girl. but the beast wasn't so easily discouraged. Not when the prize was so tempting.

"Don't ever" he seethed "do that again."

His own voice sounded distant to his ears and the beast's howl was an unending roar that drowned out everything else. His skin felt taut, ready to split apart as the beast swelled inside him. It grew, given strength by its taste of her, pressing against the bars of its cage to lap at the grief seeping through the crack rendered by her name.

Too late he realized why the beast purred with joy.

All its hunger and pain focused on that one point of weakness, it dove at the girl, slipping through before he could close the gap.

Her eyes rolled back as it tore into her mind, meeting little resistance where there should have been at least an instinct to survive.

Only to scream at the chaos that surrounded it.

Ecstasy and agony, her mind pressed into the beast. The dark void inside Uriel stretched open, gapping wider to take all of her in. Her power. Her mind. Her soul. And the sheer expanse of her essence was a tidal wave crashing forward to meet it.

Keep her alive.

With a growl, Uriel pulled the beast back.

Its howl reverberated through his skull as he extracted it from her mind. Wrapping it in steel and stone he dropped the cursed creature in its cage and turned his attention to the girl.

She still lay unmoving on the floor. New bruises bloomed under her chin and that unseeing glaze had returned to her eyes. But they did not glow as before. Instead, a darkness seemed to swallow their light, leaving bottomless pits to stare up at him.

A shiver ran up his spine and his hair stood on end.

Even the beast stilled its struggles, aware something was very wrong.

He felt the tug before cold rolled over him, so dark and deep it sent ice through his soul, and he could almost see the black hole split open inside her, as if in response to his own. Like a vacuum in space, it pulled everything in toward her as she rolled to her side. Seeming to collapse in on herself she curled up into a ball just as frost began to creep along the floor. The lights flickered before blinking out and the bawl of crystal talismans beside her blazed only to dim as they were drained of the energy stored within them.

A crash from the kitchen had Uriel's head whipping toward the sound. He could just make out Nina's barefoot through the doorway along with her toppled stool. Panic twisted in his stomach and without thinking Uriel was moving. He rushed to Nina's side and took her face in his hands making her eyes flutter open for just a moment before sliding closed again.

He could feel the hollow emptiness inside her, growing with each passing second as everything she had was drained from her body.

"Uri," she breathing " El malo, está aquí."

The bad man, he's here.

Dread was a heavy stone as he looked toward the girl. Was she connected to the factories? Did she know who made the Skyglass machines? Were they, her master? Was that the real reason Python and all the lords wanted to get their hands on her?

Nina's body jerked bringing him back to the present. There would be time for questions later. Right now, he had to stop the cursed wench.

But how?

The voices wanted her alive so killing her was no longer an option, but neither was letting her take Nina. He could feel the insistent tug that pulled at his mind, making it hard to think so he threw up a wall to buffer them, but it only collapsed, sucked into her vortex along with everything else as Nina whimpered in pain.

Desperation sent him back to the girl's side. Letting the void draw him close, he gathered the same steely will he used on the beast. Agony tore through his nerve endings when he placed a hand over her heart for there was no well of power to greet him this time, only a consuming emptiness. All the heat in the room had disappeared into it, turning his fingers into ice, but he forced his will around the girl. Incasing her in a living wall, he sealed it just above her skin, severing her from the world outside and entombing her within.

Frozen fire burned and he quickly released her.

The silence was almost deafening in the sudden stillness that followed.

The girl groaned and blinked. Then panicked when the lack of air became apparent. She struggled to move but this wasn't the first time he'd trapped a soul and it certainly would not be the last.

Cautiously he withdrew the wall and she sucked in a gasping breath. Panting she slowly sat up.

"What...?" She started but he was already on his way back to Nina.

She still lay where she had fallen, sprawled and still. His heart beat too fast in his chest as he gathered her to him, checking for a heartbeat, a flicker, a breath. Anything to say she was alright. The beasts' whimper pressed against his lips when he saw the crake running down her forehead as if she were a porcelain doll, but he refused to let it out. He would not give her up so easily. Not when he'd kept her alive this long.

He pushed deeper, searching for the fire sprite that was her mind. She had always been a fighter. He Knew she would hold on, she had to. The beast pushed with him pulling on the familiar thread that tied the little girl to them.

There.

It was the smallest ember but it was enough. He couldn't save her like this, but he knew who could.

Easily lifting her little body, he carried Nina to the living door where She was waiting for him. Looking lost and small, the girl hugged herself in a pathetic show of pitifulness.

The beast reached out, tentatively probing, but Uriel shoved it back. He was not in the mood for a repeat of whatever just happened. He wanted to leave her, to lock her away in this bunker until the whole world forgot she ever existed. But he couldn't keep her here; it was too dangerous.

As he approached her face grew pale at the sight of Nina unresponsive in his arms.

"Did I...?"

Again, he didn't wait for her to finish. Letting the beast show her his teeth, he snarled at her.

"Go to the door"

Her eyes widened but she snapped her mouth shut and did as bid.

The smooth wood seemed duller than usual, but he didn't have time to analyze the oddity. The girl stopped in front of it and glanced at him in question. He nodded to the ancient spells depicted on its surface. "Put your hand on it"

She hesitated and he growled at her.

Quickly she obeyed and he stepped forward to do the same. Pressing his own palm against the carved wood he pushed and, thinking of the place he wished never to return, slipped through.

It was time to call in an old debt.