Pantha girl's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Marina stood in the stone building with the relic in her hands. The dark stone began to pulse. Warmth spread up her arms, and the carved moons glowed. She did not understand it. The stone answered something inside her, or something outside, she could not tell. Its light leaked through the open door and spilled into the yard. The soldiers saw it. They stopped shouting. Viktor Strand turned toward the building. He was the man who had spotted her face by the ravine and turned the whole camp against her. Now his eyes locked on the glow. He pointed his rifle at the door. "Bring it out," he called. "Slow. Or we burn the whole place down with you inside." Marina's grip tightened. The pulse quickened under her fingers, matching her heart. She felt the brand on her shoulder answer, the mark Bagh Raat had burned there. The two lights reached for each other. The stone grew hot. She understood then. It was not reacting to the cult. It was reacting to her. She stepped into the doorway. The soldiers raised their rifles. Viktor smiled. "Good girl," he said. Marina lifted her panther-fang dagger. The relic's glow ran down the blade and set it burning gold. Light flooded the yard. The soldiers flinched and shielded their eyes. "The jungle fights with me!" she shouted. The shadows at the camp's edge pulled together. Bagh Raat came, a panther of shadow and moonlight, gold eyes blazing. He had torn apart the hunter's machine minutes before. Now he came for the rest. The relic's light poured into him. His runes flared bright as fire. He grew larger, darker, until his shape blotted out the torches. Marina and Bagh Raat moved as one. She ran forward. He flowed beside her, claws flashing through the air. A soldier fired. The bullet struck Bagh Raat and passed through mist. His paw swept the man off his feet. Marina cracked her whip and tore a rifle loose. She drove her glowing dagger down, and the blade bit through steel armor like cloth. The soldiers broke. They threw down their guns and ran for the dark. The officers in their coats fled with them, horns forgotten. Only Viktor held his ground. He fired once at Marina. Bagh Raat caught the shot and roared, and the sound knocked Viktor flat. The big man scrambled up and ran after his men. Then the camp was empty. Torches guttered in the mud. Marina stood alone with her guardian, the relic still warm in her hand. The glow faded. The dagger dimmed. Bagh Raat shrank back to his old size and pressed his great head against her shoulder. "The stone knows you," he said. "That is why they wanted it. And why they will never stop." Marina looked at the dark stone. She had the relic now. But it had shown the cult exactly what it was worth.