The next attack began at sundown. We had been lucky that day-the sky had been clear and cloudless, so the Helians hadn't been able to attack. But when night fell they could take shelter in the darkness.

A searing torrent of flames poured down from the sky in a concentrated spiral of heat and death. From this distance, it looked like a thick stream of lightning, tearing the dark clouds in two and casting an eerie glow over the burning buildings below. But unlike lightning, the flames didn't strike and vanish: the torrent endured, often growing in strength as it moved across the debris.

We rushed into the streets, desperate to help, as a cloud of thick black smoke billowed up into the air in the west. Even from this distance, I could hear the crackling of the flames and the screams of Arcans who had refused to leave their homes. But there was another sound too. A strange, animal like call; high-pitched, but deadly.

Roxy blanched. "No. He couldn't..." she whispered before running in the direction of the smoke.

There was nothing we could do but follow.

I could feel my skin tingling in anticipation of the approaching heat. My body craved the fire, while my mind yearned for the fight.

Brae had caught up with Roxy by the time we reached the blaze, and the two of them headed off into the chaos together. The air around us was thick with dust and smoke.

"Devon, Brody!" Cameron called, gesturing to a pile of white stone that had been a busy shop just a few days ago.

"Got it, Cam," Devon said, weaving left and heading for the debris.

I felt the wind rustling through my hair as her powers kicked into gear. A lump of white rock lifted from the heap and Devon placed it down carefully to one side. Cameron worked from the other side of the disaster.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" Brody called from the edge, shouting at the top of his lungs to be heard over the crackling of the flames.

He must have heard something in response, as he called across to the others, his voice urgent. "Here! Here! Lift here!"

The Arcan Protectors took no time to get started. Devon was at Brody's side in a flash, using her powers to lift off heavy blocks of stone. Dust flew through the air, filling our lungs and making Devon splutter. But she didn't stop. Another chunk of stone came off, then another, and another, before the trapped Arcan appeared. He was bruised, cut and curled up in a ball, but two large chunks of wall had collided and balanced above his head, shielding him from the full weight of the debris. He crawled out of the gap, praying and crying with relief.

"Fancy giving them a hand with those flames?" Tristan asked beside me, gesturing to the fire that was fast approaching my friends. I had been too busy watching the chaos around me to do anything to help.

Shaking my head, I thrust my hands out in front of me, feeling for the flow. Water sprung from my fingertips, shooting forcefully in the direction of the closest inferno.

It sparkled in the sunlight before hitting down onto the fire, extinguishing it with a hiss and a cloud of light grey smoke.

"Perfect," Tristan grinned beside me. "Now how about we put that lightning of yours to good use?"

"Shouldn't you be helping yourself, Tris?" I asked, slightly annoyed. "You know, putting your own powers to use?"

"I am helping-I'm ensuring that you are utilised to your full potential. Besides, what do you want me to do? Grow some vegetation, creating more fuel for the fire? Cause an earthquake? I'm not really sure that's what this disaster needs right now, do you?"

I shrugged; he made a good point. That didn't mean he needed to bug me though.

"Come on, Sparky," he continued, smiling broadly. "You know you need me."

"For what, exactly? Target practice?" I turned away from him, sending a spray of water into the closest blaze. But I was one, tiny water source in a city of fire. I knew that I could never have a big enough impact.

Tristan moved to stand in front of me, gripping my dripping wet fingers in his. "Stop trying to deal with the fallout, you're just minimising the damage. You need to go straight to the source-use your lightning to blast whatever they've got up there straight out of the sky." His eyes were sincere. He really thought I could do it.

"I don't know, Tristan..."

"The least you can do is try! They need you, Jasmine! Your powers are like nothing this world has ever seen before. You need to stop doubting your skills and worrying about your differences and use the amazing talent you have been given. You can save them, Jasmine. But only if you try." He was gripping my hands tightly in his, as though he thought he could pass some of his strength, his confidence, through to me. "Please don't waste your gift. You have to give it a go."

I thought about Caleb, how he always said that Protector's powers were a gift from the gods, given to those with the power and judgement to use them. I wasn't sure that I agreed though-I didn't have the strength to control my powers, I didn't deserve them. Protectors like Tristan or Brae, or even Roxy, they deserved them. They should have been the special ones.

But, by some cruel design of the Air god, these powers had come to me. I was the only one who could even try to use them. And I could do that at least, couldn't I? I could try. Even if it didn't work, that had to be better than not using them at all. The Sephan was right.

I pulled my hands out of Tristan's grasp and aimed them up into the sky instead.

"I don't even know what I'm aiming at!"

"Don't worry about aiming, just get the bolts started. Whatever the Helians have up there will soon get scared."

Waving my hands above my head, I felt stupid. The whole plan was hopeless.

"I don't know what to do!" I wailed. I was useless. The Air God had to be twisted; giving the one gift that could actually be of use to someone too stupid to wield it.

"What do you normally do?" he asked calmly. I was thankful that he was there, patiently trying to help me. Unfortunately, I was too worked up to convey this gratitude in my response.

"Get stressed out or emotional!" I shouted at him.

"Don't you think you've got that one covered already today?" he shouted back, his patience apparently running out. "Look around you, Jasmine. People are dying. Your friends are in danger. We need you!"

"Well, why can't you go pin all your hopes on someone else? I can't do it, Tristan. I'm not super-human. I'm not special, or amazing, or Realm-saving. I'm not the hero you all need me to be. I'm just a messed up mutant with powers that I can't control." I was screaming at him now and brought my hands down angrily. But as they swung through the air, I felt the oddest sensation in my fingers. My body was in heat mode, charged up from all the fire in the air. It felt as though I was sucking energy from the flames themselves, taking in their heat, their warmth, their danger... My mind was an inferno of anger, frustration and despair. My eyes were welling up with tears.

The moisture from my earlier burst of water crackled on my fingertips.

The sky ignited with a huge flash of lightning.

I jumped in shock.

Tristan, whose mouth was open as he prepared to scream back at me, looked up into the air in amazement.

There was another flash and, this time, a sickening scream-not human, but animal. A huge black shadow tumbled from the sky, landing a few streets to our left with an enormous crash and a cloud of smoke.

"You did it!" Tristan cried, throwing his arms around my neck to hug me tightly. But he quickly jumped back, zapped by the pent-up electricity flowing though my body. "You are amazing!" he said, rubbing his arms in pain.

I laughed and there was another flash of lightning.

We looked to the sky in anticipation, but nothing else crashed down.

With lightning still crackling overhead, we both hurried in the direction of the fallen object.

The wind whipped through my hair as I ran, tossing a strand of violet across my eyes, which I pushed hurriedly out of the way. As my vision cleared, we rounded the corner to see that Roxy and Brae had already beaten us to the crash site.

"Whoa," Tristan exhaled, slowing his pace from a run to a walk as he approached the debris on the ground.

It was monstrous; the size of three Bubble-Carts at least-an easy comparison given that it had crash-landed next to the station.

It was smothered in scales of molten gold and had gigantic wings, with a span twice as wide as its body, which lay crumpled, broken on the floor. The large eye sockets were shut and a pool of shimmering gold blood was collecting around its large snout.

"What is it?" I asked, my eyes meeting Roxy's. She was bent over the creature, running a hand across its flank, almost tenderly.

"It's a drakon. They're really rare, even in the Helian Realm, as they tend to keep to themselves in the mountain regions. And we leave them well alone-they are incredibly dangerous as they can breathe fire from their mouths. They must have been riding them-" as she spoke, she gestured to a body laid out beneath the drakon, crushed in its fall to earth. Olive skin, dark hair and a cloak of red swirls marked him as a Helian.

"Do you think that's the source of the flames?" I asked, looking down at the creature in wonder. Its scales glimmered in the remaining firelight and I was struggling to resist the urge to touch one. It was beautiful. Roxy nodded.

"Do you think that will be the end of their attack?" Brae asked, I could hear the hope in his voice, but Roxy shook her head.

"Cinaer wouldn't have come all this way with only one drakon."

As if he was up there, listening, there came a loud cry from the heavens, followed by another torrent of flames, tumbling to the ground in the direction we had just run from.

I felt my cheeks freeze as the blood rushed out of them in cold fear. "Devon and Cameron!"

{Please vote/comment to let me know what you think! I hope you enjoyed this one; I know there were a few requests for more action chapters}