The Girl with the Fire Heart
Chapter 16

The next few days happens in a blur. Because Valentina and Damon are leaving for the tanzanite village, preparations happen at lightning speed. There are constantly people in and out of the shepherd’s home for dress fittings and practices for dances. There are visits from esteemed historians educating Valentina on the kingdom she is bound for with Damon.

By the end of the third day of visitors, Valentina is exhausted and is desperate for a little reprieve. Brielle and Callie decide they have gone long enough without seeing their friend and take her out to another part of the village Valentina has never been to before.

In the main village, the homes are quaint and welcoming. The area the two girls take her to is anything but that. The buildings are tall and all in some varying degree of decay. It doesn't look like a place where three girls should be and she voices her concerns to her friends. They reassure her that nothing untoward is going to take place.

They walk further into what appears to be an abandoned warehouse. There are people sitting or standing in clusters, looking at the three newcomers suspiciously. Valentina notices how almost everyone here is dressed in tattered clothing, though some look as if they were intentionally ripped. Valentina's muscles tense up at the stares and soon, the whispers that follow them the further in they go.

The three girls walk into a building that looks like someone tried to fix it up before abandoning the project completely. There is patchwork covering the holes in the walls and what appears to be a faint smell of paint in the air. Something in Valentina warns her to be careful and her fire responds in kind to the warning. Brielle and Callie tug her along.

Valentina digs her heels into the ground, hoping some level of resistance will dissuade her friends from taking her further into this place. They ignore her and keep dragging her along. Valentina can suddenly hear what sounds like cheering and the sounds of thuds and slams coming from further in the abandoned building. The closer the girls get to the sound, the stronger her suspicions become.

Finally, the sounds of cheering and thuds and slams become clear in the mostly empty building, revealing a large group of people lining the edges of an open space in a circle. Some are sitting, some are standing, but everyone’s attention is zeroed in on two people in the middle of the large circle.

From what she can make out, almost everyone there is either her age or somewhat older. Valentina misses when Brielle and Callie whisper to a group of people in front of them. They lead her to an open spot, filling the pocket of people in the outskirts of the audience.

In the center of the circle are two young men. One of them she recognizes as a boy with a marble heart, the son of the woman who had beat her senseless when she was younger, the son of the same woman who did not want her playing with him outside of her home. She struggles to remember his name, the memory overshadowed by the events of that fateful day.

Standing opposite him is a boy whose heart is made of granite. She doesn't recognize the young man, but she can recognize the clear malice lining his features.

It doesn't take long for her to find out what they're doing in the middle of the circle. The boy with the granite heart swings at the boy with the marble heart. The boy with the marble heart swiftly moves out of the way before taking a swing of his own. His fist connects with the other boy’s jaw and back and forth they go, swinging and hitting and exchanging words with one another.

From where she's standing, she can't hear what they are saying, but she imagines that it can't be good. Again, she feels the fire in her heart give way, another warning that she shouldn’t be here.

She looks around the room seeing all the faces of the people watching these two boys fight. She looks at her friends and sees with detached horror their open appreciation and enjoyment. She doesn't know why, but this seems to bother her more than the fight. She feels eyes on her suddenly. She looks away from her friends, feeling another whoosh of her flames in response to the unusual environment and searches for the person watching her.

Finally, her eyes connect with the boy with the marble heart. His eyes flash in recognition before turning his attention back to the boy with the granite heart. He sets his jaw in determination. She doesn't like the feeling that maybe he was waiting for her. Even worse, she doesn't like the feeling that maybe her two friends brought her here on purpose.

She watches in barely constrained outrage as the boy with the marble heart takes yet another swing, this one more precise, more intentional, more methodical. She watches as he pursues the boy with the granite heart with such ferocity. She watches as he releases some of the clear restraint she is sure he was holding onto when the fight started.

Another whoosh in her necklace tells her to look down. When she does, she sees that her flames are starting to nip at the edges of her necklace warning her she is seconds from losing control. She needs to get out of here, and she needs to get out now.

She turns and runs from the fight, moving too fast for either of her friends to grab her and stop her. She hears the shouts of people around her as she pushes through the small crowd she didn't notice had gathered behind her. She doesn't stop moving, she doesn't stop running, pushing past anyone who stops her from leaving.

She forces her mind to replay all the steps she took to get here, looking for markings on the walls that would show her the way out. She can feel her panic and fear creeping up inside of her but she pushes it down, focusing on getting out before she can properly freak out. Finally, she finds the entrance to the building and dashes towards it. Before she can reach the broken down entrance, what she assumes used to be a door, someone steps into her path, halting her from making her hasty exit.

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