#literally cuts off at the diaphragm??? do you want me to point an arrow at the empty space?? do you want me to draw the rest???

[hearty-an0n]

how am i supposed to label on the diagram where the trachea is if the digram is of the abdominal cavity

[scribomaniac]

Man of Ash and Thorns: Chapter 12

Start from the beginning here!

Reyna stared at the powerful Castor before her. Adele really was marvelous. Her fashion style was on point, her magic was . . . off, but strong, and her confidence—her swagger—she was everything Reyna felt she was supposed to be. What Dunstan tried to turn her into. It was a wonder she hadn't climbed through the ranks of the supernatural community already. Adele began to move, her long dress dragging on the floor behind her as she slowly walked counter-clockwise. Mirroring her, the two Castors circled on another, sizing each other up and waiting for the other to make the first move. The green eyed Sorceress had never been in duel before, especially not one to the death, but she'd be damned if she let the first one become her last.

Reyna felt every cell in her body come to life in preparation of the fight. Her limbs hummed and tingled, then crackled to life as a layer of fire arose from her skin. In a flash, she raised her hands, snapped her fingers and barraged Adele in burst after burst of fire. The sound was deafening as the blades of flame made contact with the stone floor, dry wall and brick foundation of the basement. Smoke emanated from the point of impact, causing Reyna's eyes to sting. Waving her hand before her, she hurriedly brushed the gray tendrils away to see if she'd hit her mark. Where Adele had once been standing was now a new, imperiously tall stone wall. It looked unnatural; it's large, gray blocks not matching the the tan, skinny ones that surrounded it. The wall had taken on the brunt of her attack, but barely showed marks of scorching on its front.

Adele's cackling laugh echoed throughout the room and then the ground began to rumble and shake beneath Reyna's feet. Plaster and crumbs of stone fell from the ceiling like sand in an hour glass. The stone wall protecting Adele vibrated, making Reyna take a wary step back, and then multiplied itself. Then again, and again, and again, until the room was full of stone walls cutting this way and that.

"The fuck?" Reyna heard Samyaza. He'd just been ten feet behind her before, but now they were separated by who knew how many layers of stone. "What is this?"

"A maze," Reyna mumbled, more to herself than to Sam, and looked around. There were two paths before her, one to the left and one to the right. Placing her hand on the stone wall closest to her, Reyna closed her eyes and breathed. She couldn't trace Adele's location through the wall, it was purely her and would lead her around in circles, but she could tell that the previously large cellar of the bar was long gone. The dimensions altered to fit the maze's need for space. It was a fortress, and wouldn't be broken easily.

"I prefer the term labyrinth," Adele's voice sounded so close, almost as if she was right behind Reyna. Spinning around, Reyna felt her heart thump painfully in her chest. No one was there, she realized soon enough, but from Adele's cruel laughter, Reyna knew the red headed Castor could see and hear everything within her maze. Swallowing loudly, Reyna clasped her hands together and go to work. She needed to bring down the labyrinth and she needed to do it now. Squeezing her hands together, Reyna poured copious amounts of magic into the small space between her palms and then opened them up. A small, shining golden ball sat in the middle of her palm. "Very pretty," Adele commented, again sounding like she was just hovering over her shoulder. Not turning around this time, Reyna placed the ball into a small gap in the stone wall.

Nothing happened. "Huh," Adele huffed, "that was anti-climactic. Come on, Reyna, you can do better than that!" Fluttering could be heard down the walkway to her right. Reyna stared down the path, trying to figure out why it sounded so familiar. "You might want to hurry, Reyna, dear. Hurry up and find me . . . find me before my beasts find you!" Eyes flashing dangerously, Reyna barred her teeth at the invisible Castor. The sarcastic term of endearment focused her, forcing her to remember everything that rested on her shoulders. Everything that depended on her. Sophie was depending on her.

Taking the hall to the left, Reyna ran into the unknown. Behind her, the fluttering grew louder. Shrieks and clacks soon followed after it, and Reyna chanced a glance behind her shoulder. Nothing was there. Not yet, at least. She had no idea where she was going. For all she knew she was going in circles. But she couldn't stop to gain her bearings. She needed time. She needed to get Adele talking—to distract her. So skidding to avoid a dead end, Reyna called out in a breathless voice, "Is this how you plan to kill me? By trapping me here?"

"And where would the fun in that be?" Adele's dream like voice answered. It was calm and unhurried. Satisfied and confident. She was toying with Reyna, and enjoying every minute of it. "I'm just having a little fun with you. Keep running for me. Eventually I'll get bored. Probably."

"How comforting," Reyna stopped to catch her breath and leaned over, hands braced on her knees. The fluttering was almost deafening now, and Reyna realized why it sounded so familiar. Pupils shrinking, she snapped up and threw her hands up in front of her. "Avikele!" She yelled, raising a barrier of pure magic just as a legion of three eyed ravens crashed into the invisible wall. Reyna grunted, feeling herself slowly being pushed back as more and more monstrous shades slammed into her barrier. Gritting her teeth, she widened her stance and held her ground. With an animal like shriek, Reyna pushed her magic forward, casting it away from herself and towards the opposite end of the hallway. The three eyed ravens, continuously trying to get past the barrier, were pushed back along with her magic, and like a fly swatter making contact, crushed the birds against the stone wall at the end of the hall.

Breathing heavily, Reyna didn't wait around for a second barrage of birds and began to run again. "Is that all you got?" She taunted. "Just some shades? I thought you were more advanced than that!" A hiss reverberated throughout the walls, making them shiver and shake. Good, Reyna thought. If the walls were shaking from Adele's anger, that meant she'd invested herself into the labyrinth emotionally. Reyna could use that to her advantage. "I know ten year old's who could summon better looking shades than those ravens! Hell, even Weres could do better." The walls continued the rumble, echoing its mistress's displeasure. Coming to a fork in the labyrinth, Reyna quickly chose the path to her right. "You must be the luckiest usurper who ever usurped! Good thing you and lover boy haven't left your little back water town yet—the rest of the world is gonna tear you apart at this rate."

A wall materialized before her, blocking her once clear path. Chest heaving, Reyna grinned, "There you are." Intertwining her fingers and splaying her palm towards the new wall, the green eyed Sorceress summon magic up from the very bottom of her feet, up through her body, along her spinal cord, and through her arms to her finger tips. The walls around her pulsed as a bright, golden light illuminated her hand. All around her, in between the stones of the labyrinths walls and throughout the cracks and gaps, roots and vines grew. Nature began to reclaim what once belonged to it one wall at a time. Thickening until they were the size of her forearms, the vines and roots expanded and overtook the walls, expelling it stone by stone. The wall before her quickly crumbled, it's newness and hasty creation making it weak and vulnerable to Reyna's magic. The golden light illuminating her hands pulsed and sent shock waves throughout the entirety of the labyrinth. Vines surged forward along the floor, creating a new layer of undergrowth that faintly resembled the web of a spider. Walls crashing to the ground echoed throughout the room. Reyna , unhurried, walked forward on her vines and roots as the walls standing in her way crumbled to her feet.

With all the green and brown, the colors of Earth and nature, surrounding her, it was easy enough to spot Adele's flaming red hair off in the distance. Her face was and angry red, her teeth barred in a snarl, and her hands twisting and flailing uselessly as she tried to regain control of the environment and reinstate the labyrinth. She hadn't noticed Reyna yet, her anger and frustration blinding her to the danger. A vine reached up and wrapped itself around the Sorceress's forearm and wrist, anchoring itself. Sucking in a deep breath, Reyna held it and charged. She leapt of fallen stones, ankle shattering roots, and other forms of debris deftly. Launching herself off an upraised root, Reyna threw her arm out, as if she were throwing a javelin, and flung the vine latched on her arm at the red headed Castor. The vine, now straight and pointed like an arrow, burrowed itself into Adele's back, through her chest, and protruded out her chest.

Adele sucked in a breath and fell to her knees. "Adele!" Ashur's voice called out from somewhere far away. The Castor gurgled as blood seeped into her lungs and overflowed from her mouth. Reyna stalked around her prey, her breaths coming out hard and fast after all that exertion. Adele reached for the hardened vine still within her. She glared up at Reyna who stood in front of her now, her eyes glazed over with pain and the first touch of death. Adele's mouth opened, and a hoarse whisper escaped. The vine had pierced her diaphragm, rendering her literally speechless.

Adele's hands reached for the vine and she gripped it tight before beginning to pull. Reyna's brows furrowed. The vine was most likely the only thing still keeping her alive. Without it she'd bleed out soon enough, so Reyna watched silently as Adele brought on her own doom. It was hard, every muscle in Adele's body was trembling with shock and her hands could barely hold steady long enough to pull the vine out. She managed it, though, and Reyna waited for her body to fall to the ground. She waited for the woman to die. It was taking long enough as it was.

Adele shifted, and Reyna released a breath she didn't realize she was holding. This was it. Now she'd fall. Adele's body swayed, but instead of falling lifelessly to the ground, she regained her bearing and began to stand. Reyna watched with wide eyes as Adele batted away death's cold hands like mere flies, how a healthy flush once again colored her cheeks, and as the hole in her chest slowly closed. Muscle, bone and skin re-knit itself before her and soon enough the only evidence of the wound was the hole within Adele's dress and the blood on her chin. "What?" Reyna whispered as Adele spat the remaining blood from her mouth onto the floor before her.

"Did you really think it'd be that easy?" Adele's asked hoarsely. A smug smile overcame her lips. "Did you really think I'd allow myself to be killed?" Reyna's mind ran wild, trying to think of what spell could be responsible for this. She herself had cheated death before, with a Goblin in a forest once upon a time, but that was because of a binding spell. And that doesn't work nearly as quickly. That spell takes at least a half hour to kick in. And technically, during those thirty minutes, you were dead. Adele hadn't died. She hadn't even pretended to. She'd healed herself—but not even Jorge could have healed such a fatal wound. This was something else. Something new. The way her body had knitted itself back together . . . it was something she'd seen before, but never from a human. Her mind flashed back to Ashur—to the mark on his chest. "Vampire," she gasped.

"Hmmm, you are a smart one," Adele confirmed, her voice growing louder and stronger with each passing moment. A ripple of magic hit Reyna and the rest of the labyrinth crumbled to dust. Adele was switching tactics. The cellar returned, Reyna's vines and roots still ingrained within it, and Ashur ran started for Adele. She held a hand up, stopping him in his tracks. "I'm fine, love. Just a bit bruised." Ashur hissed and barred his long canines at Reyna, but didn't take another step.

"Reyna?" Bub called out behind her. "What's going on?"

Reyna didn't reply. She didn't know how to. She stood frozen, not sure how to proceed with the duel. How was she supposed to win now when her opponent couldn't be killed? "Don't mind her," Adele directed. "She's just coming to terms with her inevitable demise." Walking closer, Adele reached out and grasped Reyna's chin. Her nails dug into her skin, causing small beads of blood to rise up. Jerking her arm forward, Adele propelled Reyna across the room. Her body slammed against a wall with a sickening crack and she slumped to the floor.

"Reyna!" Both Bub and Sam yelled. They didn't move though. The duel was still on and they couldn't interfere.

Adele threw her head back and laughed. The red haired Castor raised her hand, lifting Reyna up off the floor and magically pinning her against the wall. Reyna's head lolled to rest against her chest, a ribbon of blood trickled down the side of her face from where her head hit the wall, and her eyes stared, unfocused, before her. "You put up a good fight, Reyna-darling, but in the end it just wasn't enough," she purred as her eyes raked over her prize. She stepped closer, her heels clicking against the hard floor the only sound in the room. Reyna's roots and vines coiled away from her, retreating to the four corners of the room.

Reyna blinked once. Twice. The foggy haze in her eyes lifting away as her gaze connected with Adele's. "Sophie," she whimpered."

Adele stopped and titled her head, "What?"

"Sophie," she repeated. "What did you do to Sophie?"

"Sophie?" Adele looked over her shoulder to Ashur, who shrugged. Turning back, she quirked a brow, "Who?"

"What," Reyna's voice was slow, steady, and devoid of any emotion, "did you do to Sophie?" She enunciated every word, her green eyes piercing into Adele's.

Ashur barked out a laugh, causing all eyes in the room to veer towards him. "Oh, you mean Lilith's pet!" He laughed again, placing a hand over his heart. "That obnoxious, pathetic excuse for a Vampire!" Smirking, he demanded, "Don't tell me you cared about her?"

Adele puckered her lips in thought. "That loud, blonde thing?" She inquired. Ashur nodded, but continued chuckling to himself. "She's dead," Adele informed her with a shrug, brushing it—brushing Sophie—off like it was nothing. Like Sophie was nothing. Reyna's fists curled into fists. Leaning in to gloat, Adele gloated, "What were you saying before? That the rest of the world would tear me apart? Do you still think that?" Not waiting for an answer, she stepped back and turned her head towards Ashur. "What about you, Ashur? Think I'm still too weak for the big bad world?"

"Well let's see." He stroked his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "You have the entirety of New Orleans under your thumb. You've dethroned the Vampire Queen. Defeated a member of the Council of Three. It doesn't seem like there's much else in your way."

Adele and Ashur droned on, their voices a mere muffled noise in the back of Reyna's mind. The only thing she could truly hear was her pulse thump, thump, thumping in her ears. Sophie was dead. Sophie was dead and they killed her. Sophie was dead and they killed her and they were making plans! As if they'd already won everything! As if they were talking about the weather! Reyna's blood boiled within her veins. She was hot. So, so very hot. She wanted them to feel this burning within her—she wanted to set them ablaze. Listen to their screams and laugh the way they laughed at Sophie. She wanted Adele, Ashur, this whole city to burn!

Adele screeched, bringing Reyna back into the now, as she stomped out a fire burning at the bottom of her dress. Snarling, Adele pressed Reyna harder against the wall, causing the green eyes Sorceress to hiss in pain as the bricks behind her dug into her back. "Still got some fight left in you, hmm?" Adele snarled, getting up in Reyna's face. "I think it's time to end this duel, don't you?" She tightened her hand into a fist and Reyna gasped as she felt her heart constrict.

"No," Reyna hissed defiantly. "Not yet." Arching her back, Reyna spiraled deep down inside of her, pulling up every ounce of magic inside of her. The grip on her heart loosened, the invisible bands around it breaking, as her magic over came Adele's. Yelling at the top of her lungs, expelling every emotion from her in one massive flood of exhalation, Reyna's body fell back down to the ground. Her feet held her body upright on wobbly knees, and with a wild glint in her eyes, the green eyed Sorceress gave Adele a taste of her own medicine. Throwing her hand out, she propelled the red haired Castor across the room and slammed her into the wall across from her. Breathing heavily, Reyna kept a hand out stretched to hold Adele in place as she struggled against the wall.

"Adele!" Ashur yelled, stepping forward to help her. The vines and roots that had been waiting in the shadows, waiting in wait, struck out and wrapped around his legs. He grunted, pulled at the roots, tore at the vines, tried to over power them by forcing his legs forward, but they didn't budge. Instead, with each struggle, with each movement, they thickened and strengthened, trapping him in place. The roots spread out through the room, widening each crack, finding the holes in the building's infrastructure and rose higher and higher. The vines slithered this way and that, snaking around Ashur's neck and squeezing tightly, cutting off his cries and howls. The building rumbled as the roots began to raise up, past the ceiling, out towards the city above. Soon their environment looked more like a swamp than a cellar. Vague echoes of screams could be heard from the city above, as well as tire screeches and horns blaring from cars being stopped and interrupted by Reyna's roots. They kept growing and growing, taller and taller, until there were no longer just roots, but fully grown trees, taking over everything and anything around them. Nature had been unleashed, and it wouldn't stop until the city had been reclaimed.

Reyna's breath was a wheeze, her ribs ached sharply, and blood still dripped down the side of her face and off her jaw line, but she stood tall before Adele. A conqueror before the defeated. She was a bat out of hell, thirsty for blood and seeking vengeance. "You thought," she fumed, a ticking time bomb preparing for detonation. "You could escape death without any repercussions? You thought escaping death would keep you safe?" With each word her voice grew louder and louder until she was howling into the woman's face. Spit flew from Reyna's lips and trickled down her chin which she angrily swiped away.

"I'm immortal," Adele taunted, her lips quirking up into a smile. "You can't kill me. Beat me into oblivion," she challenged, "and I'll still win. The smile turned into a sneer as she explained, slowly, as if to a child. "There is no beating us."

"You're an idiot," Reyna surmised, her voice steady and cold. "if you think there's nothing worse than death. Sorry to break it to you," she stepped closer and wrapped a hand around Adele's slender neck, and whispered, "But there are worse fates than death." The tattoos on her forearm burned with the warning. Free hand shimmer an illuminating, white light, Reyna forced it into Adele's chest. Adele's body instinctively tried to get away from the pain, it tried to flatten against the brick wall behind her in an attempt to escape the hand burning through her body to her very center. Adele wailed, screamed, howled, as Reyna dug through her chest. She sobbed, and begged for Reyna to stop, but her pleas went unanswered. The green eyed Sorceress dug and dug and dug, burning through the woman's sternum, her lungs, her heart, searching for something hidden—something deeper. And when Adele's body regenerated thanks to whatever bastard spell she'd cast, Reyna tore through her again.

When Adele's cries died off, and her head lolled to the side, her eyes glazed over with shock and pain, Reyna found what she'd been looking for. Gripping it tightly within her illuminated hand, which still shook from rage and exhaustion, she tore her hand out from Adele's chest with a sickening hiss. Releasing her hold on Adele's body, Reyna watched as the woman's body fell to the ground like a discarded rag doll. Ashur's muffled cries of concern were the only sound in the room, but no one paid the Vampire any attention. Slowly, and with great effort, Reyna uncurled her fingers and stared down at her prize.

"Reyna?" Bub called out quietly, slowly walking towards her. "You all right?"

Sam whistled and stared at the Sorceress's handy work. Unlike his brother, he walked at a normal pace until he stood before Adele's broken form. Nudging her body with his foot, he asked, "What'd you do to her?"

Bub gently placed a hand on her shoulder, making her jump. His blue eyes peered down into her green ones, his concern overwhelming. Glancing away, she stared down at her hand, which had returned to its normal color and no longer glowed. Following her gaze, Bub asked, "What's in your hand, Reyna?"

"Her soul," she mumbled. A small sphere of misty light hovered over her palm. It was light gray and weightless. It looked like nothing, really—almost resembling a ball of mist—but it meant everything. In her hand, which shook and trembled and her fingers twitched, Reyna held Adele. Everything that ever was, is, and would be Adele now hovered harmlessly in her grasp.

"Shit," Sam cursed, frowning before nudging Adele a little harder with his foot again.

"How?" Bub asked, his brow furrowing.

Reyna shook her head, "Not sure," her voice sounded so small, so tired. "I've seen you two separate souls from bodies . . . and I just did it. I knew I could. I was just so mad," she fingers clenched as Ashur's laughter flit through her mind again. Looking up at Bub, she added, "She deserved it."

Bub didn't say anything in response to that. A muscle ticked in his jaw, but he nodded in agreement. "'Course she did," Sam said, placing his hand on the back of Reyna's head and bending down to touch their foreheads together. "She hurt you, Reyna. She hurt the people you love. She deserved this and so much more. Don't ever doubt that." Tears welled up behind Reyna's eyes, making them burn. A lump grew in the middle of her throat, rendering her speechless, but she was able to nod her thanks.

Extending her shaking hand, she choked out, "Take it." Her fingers unclenched completely as she offered Adele's soul to Samayaza. He didn't say anything, just kept eye contact and took the soul out of her hand. Reyna didn't see what he did with it, nor did she particularly care. The fight left her then, all adrenaline seeping from her body, and slumped forward, resting her weight against Samayza's solid form.

"What next?" Sam asked, carding his fingers though Reyna's hair and using his other arm wrap around her waist in case her legs gave out on her.

"Lilith," she murmured into his shirt.

"Right. Any idea where she is?" Reyna shook her head no, and she was too tired to really figure out where they'd hidden the Vampire Queen. She had to be close by, but the details were unknown. "That's okay, we'll just ask lover boy over there."

Ashur moaned and began struggling again, hoping that Reyna's exhaustion had weakened the spell. It held strong though. Not just for Ashur, but above ground as well. Screams of terror could still be heard if they listened hard enough. Reyna's trees were growing rampant, and they wouldn't stop even now that Adele was defeated. "You gonna do something about that?" Bub asked, his head tilted back so he could look up at the ceiling.

"Why should I?" Reyna confessed bitterly. She sneered at the thought of calling off her trees. It wasn't the burning she had imagined, but the trees were scratching that itch within her for destruction just fine.

"Reyna," Bub was suddenly in her face. Not in an angry or aggressive way, but in an attention seeking way. "Stop," he commanded. Placing his hands on her cheeks, he saif softly, "I know you're hurting, but the people up there didn't cause it. They didn't know. Sophie's death is not on them." Then, knowing she'd need something to focus her anger on, Bub side stepped and pointed to Ashur. "He is."

Green eyes glinting in the dimmed light of the cellar, Reyna felt her magic coil with anticipation. Reaching out to her trees, she called them back to her. Slowly, one by one they listened, shrinking back into thin roots and vines until nothing was left of them but a single, golden seed lying on the floor before Reyna. The vines and roots holding Ashur down had disappeared, too. Pushing away from Sam, Reyna stalked towards him. Their eyes locked on to one another's. Silently, through that gaze she conveyed to him that it didn't matter if there was no longer anything to hold him down, because there was nowhere to for him to run.