My girlfriend is trapped in my superpower

The streets of Ashthorne always seemed busy, but today they felt louder.

Children darted between market stalls, women bartered for cloth and spices, smiths hammered at iron with the same steady rhythm as before. Yet, as we stepped out of the Masters' keep, the crowd seemed to bend around us, whispers trailing in our wake like shadows.

"There he is…"

"That's him. The boy with the fire."

"Not a boy—demon."

"No, savior. Didn't you hear how he drove the beast back?"

"Savior? Don't be foolish. Power like that only destroys."

I kept my head down, though the words clung like nettles to my skin. For every pair of eyes lit with awe, there were three narrowed in suspicion.

Bram, naturally, was oblivious. He strutted a few steps ahead, humming some bawdy tavern song, grinning as though the whispers were praise for him. Mira walked at my side, tense and watchful, her hand never straying far from her blade.

And Lyra… Lyra was walking free again, sauntering just behind me in her loose, swaggering way. Only I could see her, but that didn't stop her from bowing mockingly to the gawkers.

"Look at you, Kael," she murmured, lips curling into a smirk. "You're already a story. Half of them want to crown you, the other half want to burn you alive. Delicious."

"Shut up," I muttered under my breath.

"Talking to yourself again?" Bram called back, not bothering to lower his voice. "Careful, lad. That's how madness starts."

"Or how it ends," Lyra quipped.

We passed a group of older men seated outside a tavern. One spat in the dirt as I walked by.

"Mark my words," he growled to the others. "That thing's cursed. Fire like that belongs to no mortal."

My jaw clenched, but Mira's hand brushed mine—just enough pressure to hold me still.

"Don't," she whispered. "Not here. Not yet."

Lyra leaned over my shoulder, golden eyes glittering. "But wouldn't it be fun, Kael? One little spark, one little blaze, and they'd all remember who they're whispering about."

I ignored her and kept walking.

The marketplace opened wide around us, color and noise pressing in. Children peeked out from behind their mothers' skirts, some smiling shyly, others dragging their parents away as though my presence might scorch them.

A young girl—no more than seven—slipped free of the crowd and ran up to me. She thrust a small, wilting flower into my hand, then darted back before anyone could stop her.

"For the hero," she said breathlessly before vanishing into the press of bodies.

I stared at the flower. Half-dead, fragile. Yet it burned brighter in my hand than any flame I could summon.

Bram leaned over my shoulder, grinning. "See? Told you. You're practically a legend already."

But when I glanced around again, the other faces staring at me weren't smiling.

The day stretched on in muted colors. We drifted through Ashthorne's streets, lingering near the spice merchants, watching jugglers toss knives in the square, pausing where glassblowers shaped molten fire into delicate ornaments.

It was almost normal. Almost.

Everywhere we went, the eyes followed. Admiration. Curiosity. Suspicion. Hatred. They clung like a second cloak, and even Bram's unbothered cheer couldn't fully shake it.

"Do you feel it?" Mira murmured as we passed a cluster of gossiping women. "The whole city's on edge. They're waiting for something."

Lyra, still lounging invisibly at my side, hummed. "Of course they are. Fear sharpens the air. All it needs is a spark…"

Her words proved truer than I liked. The sky had just begun to tilt toward dusk, bleeding orange over the rooftops, when the first scream cut through the marketplace. Then another. A ripple of panic tore through the crowd.

Shadows moved at the far end of the square—shadows that shouldn't have moved. The Devourer. Or what was left of it.

Twisted, scorched, but still alive. Its many eyes gleamed with hateful hunger, its limbs dragging across cobblestones as though the fire that had nearly destroyed it only made it angrier.

The marketplace erupted in chaos. Merchants abandoned their stalls, children screamed, guards shouted orders that no one obeyed.

Bram's grin finally dropped. "Oh, bloody hells—" He drew steel.

Mira's sword was already out, her stance calm but tight. "We can't let it reach the crowd."

Lyra's laugh was sharp and bright in my ear. "Round two, Kael. Let's see if you've learned anything."

The Devourer lunged forward, crushing a wagon under its weight. Splinters flew, barrels rolled, people scattered in blind terror. And in the middle of it all—frozen, too slow to move—the little girl who had handed me the flower.

Her wide eyes locked on the beast as its shadow fell over her. I didn't think. There wasn't time. My body moved before my mind caught up. I threw myself forward, fire bursting in my veins, the air screaming with heat as I tore across the square.

The Devourer's claw swung down—massive, jagged, meant to crush. I caught the girl, scooping her into my arms, rolling just as the blow smashed into the stones where she had been standing.

The impact shook the ground. Dust and debris exploded upward. My ears rang. The girl sobbed against my chest, clinging to me with tiny fingers. I looked up through the haze, meeting the Devourer's eyes.

And for the first time, the whispers of the crowd were gone. Replaced by silence—shocked, breathless silence. The flower the girl had given me was still clenched in my fist. Bruised. But not broken.

The silence broke like glass.

Screams rose again, sharper now, a chorus of terror as villagers surged backward, knocking over stalls in their frantic scramble to escape. The square became a storm of bodies, trampling feet, and desperate shouts.

The Devourer shrieked—a sound like metal tearing, like bones breaking—and its claws slammed against the cobblestones where I'd just rolled with the girl. Cracks spread across the stone, dust choking the air.

"Kael!" Mira's voice cut through the chaos. She was already moving, her blade flashing silver as she darted in low, aiming for one of the beast's limbs. Sparks flew where her steel met its hide, but the Devourer only twisted, knocking her aside with the back of a massive claw. She skidded across the ground, gritting her teeth as she forced herself up.

Bram was a blur of motion at her side, leaping onto the creature's back with reckless confidence. "Ugly bastard! You didn't get enough the first time?" His blade sank deep into one of the beast's joints. The Devourer roared, bucking violently, throwing him off like a rag doll.

"Bram!" I shouted.

"Still alive!" he wheezed, already scrambling to his feet with a grin that was more blood than teeth.

Lyra materialized at my side, her fiery form glowing brighter than the lanterns overhead. She smirked, though her eyes burned cold. "Your friends are buying time, Kael. What are you going to do with it?"

I tightened my grip around the little girl. Her tiny frame trembled in my arms. She clutched my shirt, sobbing quietly, trusting me in the middle of this nightmare.

I set her down gently, pressing the flower into her hands. "Run. Don't look back."

She nodded, wide-eyed, and bolted toward the fleeing crowd. The moment she vanished into the throng, I turned back to the monster. Heat coiled in my veins, building, pressing against the limits of my skin. My vision pulsed with fire.

The Devourer's many eyes fixed on me. Its maw opened, dripping shadow and acid.

"Kael," Mira's voice warned, sharp, urgent. "Stay with us."

Lyra tilted her head, smiling like a predator. "Or don't. Either way, something in you is about to break."

The Devourer lunged.

I met it head-on, fire erupting from my fists as I struck upward, the impact shaking through my bones. The square lit with flame, heat rolling off me in waves that sent villagers screaming even further back.

The beast staggered, shrieking in fury, its claws raking through the air, too close, too fast. Mira darted in again, her blade catching one of its strikes, sparks scattering as she was nearly driven into the ground.

Bram hurled a dagger that buried itself in one of its glowing eyes. "That's right, you ugly shit, look at me!"

But the Devourer wasn't looking at him. It was looking at me. At the fire curling tighter, hotter, hungrier around my body with every breath.

Lyra leaned in close, her whisper molten in my ear. "You can keep holding back. Or you can show them all what you really are."

The Devourer's claw came down again. I braced, flames roaring around me— the world seemed to teeter on the edge of something vast, terrible, inevitable.

The claw slammed down.

I caught it with both hands, fire exploding from my palms. The weight nearly crushed me flat—the Devourer's strength was inhuman, a mountain pressing against my bones. My knees buckled, cobblestones cracked beneath my feet, heat seared my lungs.

"Kael!" Mira's voice rang sharp, but she couldn't close in—her last strike had left her arm trembling, blood running down her sleeve.

Bram darted back in anyway, reckless as ever. "Oi, flame boy—don't hog all the fun!" His blade scored another slash across the Devourer's leg, but it barely flinched. The beast twisted and kicked him square in the chest, sending him crashing into a broken cart with a grunt that made my stomach clench.

"Bram!" Mira tried to reach him, but the Devourer swung again, cutting her off.

The square was chaos. Villagers screamed from the edges, pressed against buildings, torn between terror and awe. "Monster," I heard one hiss. "He's fighting it with fire—look at him!" Another voice spat, "Demon."

The word stuck in my chest like a knife.

The Devourer shoved harder, its claw pressing down on me. My flames licked up its arm but didn't stop it. The heat should've seared flesh. It didn't even twitch.

"Kael." Lyra's voice cut through the roar, calm, taunting. She stood beside me, untouchable, her fiery hair flickering like a banner in a storm. "You're holding back."

My teeth ground together. "I'm—"

"Pathetic," she cut in, her grin sharp. "Struggling against a half-blind beast while your friends bleed out? How long will you keep pretending you're ordinary?"

I roared, forcing more fire into my grip, flames surging until the cobblestones beneath us glowed. The Devourer jerked back, snarling as smoke curled from its arm. But it wasn't enough.

Not nearly enough.

It whipped its tail around like a battering ram. Mira dove aside, barely avoiding being skewered by the jagged spines. The tail smashed through a stall, splinters flying like arrows.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Bram stagger upright, coughing blood but laughing anyway. "Come on, Kael! I didn't crawl out of bed to watch you play tug-of-war with that thing!"

I wanted to answer him. I wanted to laugh. But all I could hear was the pounding of my own heartbeat, the tearing of my muscles as I forced the fire higher, higher—

The Devourer shrieked, its many eyes flashing like molten pits. It lifted both claws, shadows swallowing the square.

I braced for the strike—too slow, too heavy. The weight of those claws would crush me into ash before I even drew my next breath. My fire sputtered, my body screamed.