She had to dive deeper.
Pushing through the sound, the pain, and the choked breaths, she pushed deeper into the darkness of the phobia. It wasn’t the wasps, no, the thing that came most clearly to her mind was her father’s desperate fear. He’d believed she was going to die.
It had been the first time she’d seen her father afraid. Her father, who had always been a pillar of strength. He was her rock, but he’d nearly shattered when confronted with the possibility of her death.
Her eight-year-old self had been terrified by the concept of her father being afraid. She hadn’t ever wanted to see him afraid again. Because, if he was afraid, then logically, she should be terrified.
Allyra realized that it really wasn’t wasps that she was afraid of.
As soon as she came to the realization, the wasps faded away.
“Can we get going now?” Jason asked sarcastically.
Allyra shot him a glare but was only met with his back as he strode briskly away.
* * *
Death and loss—that was her next fear. First, she saw Emma’s body lying in a clearing through the trees, and Allyra couldn’t help but run toward it even though the logical part of her mind told her it couldn’t be real. Emma’s eyes were opaque and sightless, and her long, blonde hair was matted down with dried blood. As Allyra looked up in the clearing, she saw Rob’s body hanging from a tree.
She knew what was coming next. Jamie and then Alex. It was the same sequence the Revenant had tortured her with.
The fear was horrible and terrifying, but ultimately easier to confront. This fear she understood well enough—there was no secret about the fear of losing the ones she loved most. She stopped the sequence before it could be completed.
Her second fear had set them on a slight detour but had cost them less time than the first.
She followed Jason deeper into the forest.
* * *
“Aren’t you afraid of anything?” Allyra demanded.
Now that she’d managed to confront and move on from two of her worst fears, Allyra couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed that Jason had seen her almost collapse in terror, but she hadn’t seen even the slightest flicker of fear from him. It didn’t seem fair that he hadn’t been tested.
“Everyone is afraid of something,” he replied without breaking stride or turning to look at her.
“If that’s the case—what are you afraid of?”
“Something a little darker than your boring little fears. Did you actually grow up in the little house on the prairie?” Jason asked sarcastically. “But don’t worry, it’s nothing I can’t control.”
Even as the words left his mouth, the forest around them suddenly burst into flame. Thick black smoke snaked its way down her throat, and Allyra choked on the fetid air and ducked low, bringing her sleeve to cover her nose and mouth.
This was not one of her fears. Sure, the idea of burning to death certainly wasn’t particularly appealing, but it didn’t terrify her.
“Can you take care of this?” she spluttered, trying to cough the smoke from her lungs.
“It won’t answer my call.”
Allyra looked up abruptly at the sound of Jason’s voice—it was hoarse and had lost all of its usual swagger. Her eyes burned with the thick smoke, but she could still see Jason standing stock-still, apparently frozen by fear.
She tried to reach for the Fire Element but found that Jason was right. This was like fire in the Between. Real enough to burn but not real enough to answer her call.
“Are you really such a control freak that your greatest fear is loss of control?” she shouted, having to raise her voice over the crackling and popping of the forest on fire around them.
Jason shook his head, horror in his dark indigo eyes.
“That isn’t it at all,” he whispered, more to himself than her.
The fire was burning hotter and closer now, the flames licking at her skin, threatening to consume her.
“Well, what is it?” she screamed over the crackling and spitting fury of the fire.
“I have to accept that this is all my doing,” Jason said, his eyes staring unseeingly into the distance.
“What is all your doing?” Allyra asked desperately, shrinking away from the fire, trying once more to reach for the Fire Element and take control of the raging wildfire. At this point, she didn’t care if she was revealed as an Elemental; if she didn’t do something, the fire would soon burn them to a crisp. But it refused to answer her call. Desperate, she reached for the Air Element, wishing to gather some of the smoke and blow it away, but even that didn’t answer her call anymore. It was as if she’d reentered the Between.
“The end of the world,” Jason whispered.
At the sound of his words, the fire receded, and the cool, moist air flooded back through the forest. Rain started to drizzle through the trees.
Allyra gulped at the clear air, coughing out the smoke still lingering in her lungs. A burn ran along the back of her left hand, which she’d thrown up to protect her face from the heat of the fire.
“The end of the world?” Allyra asked incredulously. “Surely, even you aren’t so egotistical as to think that you could cause the end of the world?”
He was still staring into the distance, horror written into his elegant features.
Allyra moved to stand beside him and saw the fire had burned through the light jacket he was wearing and had melted the black fabric into his flesh in a horrific burn running the entire length of his left arm.
“Damn,” she hissed out.
Allyra glanced up at Jason, but
