Blue Dragon

Her little voice was as sweet as ever. ‘You killed my Charlie. You hurt my Leo.’ The black oily mist writhed around her hands and expanded.
    Wong was paralysed. ‘No.’
    ‘I don’t like you.’
    He was frozen with terror. ‘Yin.’
    ‘Yes,’ Simone said, as if from a million miles away. ‘My daddy is yin.’ She smiled serenely at Wong, her eyes still black. The whirlpool above her head grew and a cyclone of yin detached itself and spun around her head, making her hair fly upwards. It lengthened and darkened into a black writhing mass of shining strands. ‘I am yin too, when I want to be.’
    The moisture in the air around her froze, forming swirling icy sleet. Simone had gathered pure yin. Pure, dark, cold, absorbing death.
    ‘Are you yang or yin?’
    Wong was speechless with horror.
    ‘I suppose it doesn’t matter,’ Simone said calmly as she approached him, her eyes still black, her hair writhing above her. She smiled sweetly, held out her hands and the yin leapt to him. ‘Because you won’t be around long enough to tell me.’
    The yin spiralled. Wong watched it surround him. His mouth was open but he didn’t make a sound. The yin spun like black ribbons around him; where it was close to him, he was sucked into it. Small parts of him separated and flew into the spiralling force. The holes in him grew larger. He raised his face, his mouth wide but silent.
    Simone smiled as her black hair whipped around her head.
    The yin spiralled up around him and circled his head. His eyes rolled up. His head dissolved. The rest followed. He was completely sucked into the yin. He was gone.
    Simone held out her hands and the yin leapt back to them. She raised her arms, her face became a mask of rapture, and the whirlpool above her head absorbed the yin. It spiralled out of her hands, upwards into the vortex. The vortex shrank and disappeared.
    Her eyes snapped back to normal and her hair lightened and fell to frame her face.
    The barrier disappeared and I fell forwards. I pulled myself to my feet.
    ‘Now,’ she said, ‘let’s find the King and get you out of here.’
    ‘I’m here,’ the King said behind me. ‘Hello, Simone.’
    Simone’s eyes went black again.
    ‘No!’ I shouted. ‘Don’t hurt him, Simone!’
    ‘He took you away from me,’ Simone said.
    ‘He had to,’ I said softly. ‘It was the only way he could get both you and the bad demon here, so that you could destroy it.’
    ‘Well done, my Lady,’ the King said. ‘I was right about you all the time.’
    ‘Why did he do that?’ Simone said.
    ‘Because you were the only one strong enough to kill the bad demon,’ I said. ‘Even stronger than your daddy, right now. And the only way to get you here was to have me here first, so that you’d come and find me.’
    ‘I want to take you home,’ Simone said. ‘If he doesn’t let you go, I’m going to yin him.’
    ‘He’s not holding me here, Simone,’ I said. ‘I promised to stay, to keep you safe. I’m here by my own free will.’
    She dropped her little head and her tawny hair fell forward around her face. ‘I want you at home with me, Emma,’ she whispered. ‘You’re all I’ve got left.’
    ‘You are released from your oath, my Lady,’ the King said. ‘You can go home with her if you choose. The choice is yours.’
    ‘I’m free to go?’ I said.
    ‘Yes, but please consider, Emma,’ the King said. ‘If you go with her, all deals are off. I won’t make any attempt to keep her safe any more. And if the Dark Lord touches you while you are like this, you will be destroyed.’ He smiled and shrugged. ‘Stay here with me instead. When he returns, I will make you whole and the two of you can be everything you want for each other.’
    ‘I want you at home with me, Emma,’ Simone said, her voice small. ‘I need you.’
    I approached Simone and crouched in front of her, not touching her. ‘Look inside me, Simone, very carefully.’
    I felt her Inner Eye and stiffened with the agony. It snapped off before I screamed from the pain.
    Simone’s face screwed up and she turned to the King, furious. She pointed at me, glaring. ‘Did you do this?’
    ‘No, I swear, Princess,’ the King said. ‘I had nothing to do with it.’
    Simone turned back to me and her little face softened. ‘I don’t care, Emma, I want you at home with me. Please come home.’ She reached out to touch me but I pulled away.
    ‘Stay here, Emma,’ the King said. ‘If you go with her, you will