Playing With Fire by Jordan Mendez Page A

probably would have if
I wasn’t tied up.
    “A
mere child defeated not only one, but dozens of Shadows, and possesses a power
that even the most powerful witches and warlocks can only dream of,” He said
acting as if I were a test subject. “Even in the Forbidden Lands, nothing has
ever amounted to this one gift—this one little girl.” He turned to Enzio with a
smile on his face that resembled a small child about to receive a present.
“Isn’t it just brilliant Enzio?”
    “Mystifying,
my lord,” He said emotionlessly. I was starting to get annoyed. The fact I that
was most likely in mortal danger left me for a moment. Yeah, I had an
interesting temper.
    “Hey,
I’m still here,” I said. “If you’re going to kill me can you hurry it up? I’m
getting kind of bored.”
    Velkire
laughed. Enzio shot me a look that said he wanted to kill me. Maybe he just
wanted to make sure I knew. Nice guy.
    “And
she’s so amusing!” He said with glee. He turned to me. “I’m not going to kill
you yet. It’s been too much fun to watch you struggle. I want to see how long
you’ll last in this game of mine. If you get far enough, I’ll reward you, but
not yet. Shadows are just the vermin of the army I have under my thumb. Although
they are stronger than regular humans, you are too. You also have one other
thing besides your gift that they don’t—a will. Unfortunately they can also be
cowards. I’d send some after you to test your brothers as well, but the forest
scares them so much, they do not obey their master. Hmm… no matter, there are
other things I can send.”
    Fear
for my brothers came into my mind, and I scrambled for an idea. The only one
that came was to keep talking.
    “It
won’t matter what you send, I can stop them before they get within twenty
feet,” I said while forcing a confident smile onto my face. “You know that,
don’t you Enzio? Oh, how’s your hand by the way?”
    “Take
a look for yourself.” He lifted up a bandaged hand and unraveled the black
bandages. As they fell to the floor, a terrifying site began to unfold before
me. Enzio’s hand was no longer flesh and blood. It was mechanized, like an
automaton owned by a cheap magician. But it looked far more advanced than anything
I’d ever seen (even though that wasn’t much). The hand moved like a normal
hand, but where the joints were revealed the strange contraptions spinning
around inside. Enzio seemed to sense my distress.
    “That’s
not even the best part,” He said slyly. In the blink of an eye, the fingers
extended into sharp black claws like those of the Shadows, but they looked like
they could do ten times the damage. I tried my best to keep my cool. I whistled
in awe.
    “Shiny,”
I said in a mocking tone. “Do they come in anything besides black? Or is that
just your pet peeve; red with black or nothing?”
       
Enzio growled, but a stern look from Velkire made him decide not to choke me
again. Velkire turned to me.
    “That
is true, you probably could stop some of my slaves within twenty feet,”
Velkire said in disappointment. “That won’t be even the least bit interesting
at all. And on top of that your father was the best weapons master that walked
the earth, so even without your gift, you are a formidable foe. Fighting just
seems to run in your blood.”
    “Wait—what?”
I cut in, but I was ignored.
    “I’ve
got it!” Velkire said with glee. He took off a black glove from his hand to
reveal his long pale fingers. “This may burn, but it should be much better than
the alternative way.” He held out his hand to me, and revealed the pattern on the
palm of his hand. It was a pentagram—a five pointed star within a circle. He
started to move his hand toward my forehead. I knew whatever he was going to do
couldn’t be a good thing, so I did the only thing I could do in this position.
    When
his hand was close enough, I snapped my jaws down on it, and bit as hard as I
could. The iron taste of blood