Chapter 18: The path ahead
All tall and pressed together, the people in the standing crowd had created a wall so thick that they'd almost completely blocked the view.
While trailing behind Katherine, Arabella only barely managed to sneak a peek through the few cracks.
Swishes of red, orange and yellow outlined by a brilliant white and bluish shade rippled through the air and finally rose so high that the barrier before Arabella no longer forced her to twist or crane her neck for a glimpse of the spectacle.
Were those fire and ice? Impossible! How could such mortal enemies dance in each other's arms so beautifully?
"We're almost there," Katherine's voice was barely audible with all the ruckus surrounding them. She dragged Arabella behind herself, throwing glances from time to time in order to make sure she still held the right hand.
Voices roared and applause thundered louder whenever sheets of entwined flames and frost soared up the sky, swirled a number of times only to then descend back down, varnishing everything in their wake.
Arabella's eyes continued to follow the display, or at least tried to, even after they'd managed to escape the suffocating mob.
Katherine led her down a little more lively street than the first they'd taken to reach the town square.
There were fewer and fewer creatures the deeper into it they marched. Although the alleys were no longer brightened by lanterns alone.
Indeed, warm light escaped the open storefronts lining the streets; Fresh meat, sweet blood, an apothecary and many such signs singing the virtues of different products sold in the shops.
"Arabella! Arabella! Can you hear me?" Katherine had stopped and turned around to cup Arabella's cheeks between her hands, "Oh! I knew it! I thought I smelled the aphrodisiac!" she hissed.