I pointed to a peddler in white robes, someone we could ask for directions, but my father shook his head and drew us into the shadow of a house. “The people here live their lives in the light of the Illumined One. His gaze is everywhere, like the rays of the sun. To disobey him is to die. Helping us would be a death sentence.”
A shudder ran down my spine.
When the peddler passed by, we moved on.
“How do you know where to go?” I asked.
“Long ago, before our first escape attempt, we were permitted in this area,” my mother explained, as we snuck along the back of a tall stone building. “There’s a gateway to Merchant Town at the other side of the chamber. We’re not far. Our mine was the closest of six. Good luck, really.”
As we snuck through the city, I gave my parents a brief, whispered rundown of my life. Orphan, scholar, detective, full djinn. I omitted the whole working with a FireSoul and being chased by a genie-hoarding demon bit. Things were complicated enough without having to worry about that. Yet.
Spark finally caught up with us. He’d assumed the form of a bobbing light and was practically invisible in the surrounding glare. He stayed high, scanning for signs of pursuit.
It became harder to avoid people as foot traffic increased. We would stick out like three racoons in a chicken coop. I was decked out in jeans and a jacket, while my parents looked like, well, dirty runaway miners.
I scanned the rooftops. They were flat and barren, though a few had lines with white laundry drying in the light. “Spark, can you find us some clothes?”
On it. He zipped away through the sky.
I touched my father’s shoulder gently. “You’re half-djinn. Can you fly?”
“I used to. Not sure about here.”
“We should try. We might need it.”
“I can’t,” my mom snapped.
“She’s a bit bitter about that. But she’s got more magic than I’d know what to do with.” A slight breeze rose around me, and my father floated quietly into the air a few feet off the ground. “Looks like I’ve still got it… but not much. This place is sucking me dry.”
I tried joining him in the air. Floating was possible, but even harder than when I was first learning—no power whatsoever.
The joy of the moment extinguished any frustration I had. I was flying with my father. I could barely register it.
A long robe swept down the alley, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Spark. With laundry. It took him a few trips, but we were soon draped in ill-fitting white robes and head dresses.
It is hard to understand your proper size. Clothing makes no sense.
Wasn’t that the truth.
“City folk cover themselves head-to-toe. The light of the Illumined One is said to burn exposed flesh,” my mother explained.
At least it gave us plenty of cover.
We still kept to the alleys. The robes didn’t hide our feet, and my boots screamed intruder, but at least we couldn’t be identified from a distance.
Unfortunately, the streets got even busier. We kept our heads down, and at last, we reached the edge of a large market square. A massive gateway stood at the far end, flanked by two towering stone statues. They were like the clay warriors we’d fought earlier, just a hundred-or-so feet tall.
The way out.
I glanced back at the opposite end of the square into the blazing light of the Illumined One. It was too bright to make out the crystal dragon slumbering on its pile of gems and treasure. My head ached when I looked away, and spots swam before my eyes.
Time to get the hell out of here.
9
Neve
We strode out into the square, making our way toward the gateway. It had two towering stone doors that were open.
Thank fates.
I’d take all the small miracles I could get, because I was betting we’d have to get past an army of clay heads.
My mother adjusted her billowing robe. She was short and scrappy, and the hem dragged along behind her. “Hopefully, we can talk our way through. Your father and I know the local language. Don’t say a word.”
I nodded, and then suddenly jerked back on my heels.
A man dressed in all white yanked a fistful of my robe. He said something in a language I didn’t understand and tugged again.
I smacked his hand away and cursed, immediately regretting it.
His eyes widened, and he snatched the front of my robe, glaring at my boots and shouting something. What, I had no idea, but it sounded bad, and my father’s face went as white as his robe.
Damned boots.
At least they were good for something. I rammed my foot upwards into my assailant’s balls. The man gasped and doubled over, so I took the opportunity to ram his face into my knee. “I think the jig is up! We’ve gotta run now!”
I took off through the market square, my parents close behind, as furious cries rose around us.
“Sorry!” I shouted.
“Served him right!” my mother yelled as she shoved a hapless bystander out of her way. “You don’t even know what he said!”
Now I was curious, but there was no time. The gate loomed ahead. We were almost there.
The cavern shook as a deafening roar thundered through the air. It was as shrill as broken glass and as deep as an earthquake. My parents stumbled to their knees as small stones rained down around us.
My father’s lips moved, but all I could hear was a high-pitched ring.
Pandemonium erupted as terrified marketgoers ran for cover. I couldn’t hear their screams. I shook my head, trying to clear the ringing in my ears.
What the hell was that noise?
My gut knew. The Illumined One had just woken.
I hauled my mom off the ground as my father staggered to his feet. He waved to us and started shouting. I couldn’t make out the sounds, but I could read his lips well enough. Get your mother! Run!
I grabbed my mom by her elbow, and we hurried toward the gate. The massive stone doors began swinging shut.
“Spark! Can you do something about those doors?”
The dragon darted into the air. Knock, knock.
Spark shot forward, transforming into a blazing meteor mid-flight. He slammed into the right door, and it exploded in a cloud of dust and rubble.
Panic shot through me. “Spark! Are you okay?”
Slightly dizzy. Just a minute, he said.
Momentary relief flooded through me. His voice was distant, but he was okay, and we had a way out.
We skidded to a halt as the ground shuddered and ripped open in front of us, revealing a gaping chasm of jagged rock. My mother slipped, but my father caught her arm, and we pulled her back from the precipice.
The ground shook as the chasm widened. Horror clenched my gut as stone houses split in half and crumbled in a cascade of rubble.
This was all to stop us?
My stomach knotted. Everywhere I went, I brought chaos and destruction.
But I couldn’t face that now. We were only a few hundred feet from the gate and had to focus on getting out. The chasm kept widening, though, quake by quake.
“Shit! Do you think we can fly?” I turned to my father, not sure if he could hear me.
He rose unsteadily into the air. “Barely. Perhaps between the two of us, we can carry your mother across.”
His voice was like a faint echo in my ringing ears.
I nodded. We each grabbed an arm and rose into the air, slowly hovering across the growing trench, slowly losing altitude.
Please fates, have our backs.
Halfway across, we’d already dropped below the lip of the chasm. I had so little strength here.
Rage coursed through me, drowning my panic. This was not how I would lose my parents. I gritted my teeth and called the wind. A slight boost pushed us up.
But it was not enough.
We slammed into the far wall of the chasm, just at neck level. My father grabbed on with his free arm, and my
mom grabbed hold with both hands. Summoning my khanjar, I slammed it into the ground and levered myself up over the ledge, panting. Turning, I dropped onto my stomach and grabbed my mother’s wrists and heaved, pulling her kicking and scrabbling out of the abyss. My father, no longer having to hold her up, rose beside her.
The earth shook again, and I nearly tipped back into the rift. We scrambled from the edge as the lip began to crumble behind us.
A voice like a thousand shattering glasses ripped through the air. “They are stealing what is mine! Stop them.”
The earth rumbled and shadows shifted around us. Terror shot through me. The Illumined One was moving.
With a cacophonous boom, the massive stone statues flanking the gate tore their feet off their pedestals and turned their vacant gazes on us.
Oh crap.
The hundred-foot-tall statues moved unnaturally fast. I shoved my parents out of the way as a stone spear buried itself deep in the earth where we’d been standing.
My mother wrenched free of my grip and stood, hands out, facing the colossal warriors. Green magic crackled around her, forming in her hands.
The second warrior hurled his spear straight at my mom. I snapped my hands up at the same time as my father, and we blasted it just out of the way with our feeble gusts of wind. The spear skidded across the ground and tipped into the chasm.
Magic cracked as my mother finished her spell. She slung the green ball of magic at the slow-moving colossus. The spell burst into his leg, and emerald lightning crackled across his body.
His knee began to glow a pale green and then exploded outward in a burst of dust and rubble. The statue shuddered, and then began to topple forward, arms spreading wide.
My mother cackled with glee. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall!”
Who was this madwoman?
In retrospect, this probably explained a lot about my temperament.
I shot across the space between us and shoved her out of the way. We landed in the rocks and rubble as the stone warrior crashed to the ground behind us. It shattered into a cloud of dust and rock, and shrapnel tore across our backs.
“The smaller you are, the easier you squish,” I muttered. Gritting my teeth against the pain in my shoulder blade, I pulled my mom to her feet. “You almost got pancaked.”
“Just admiring my work… but maybe we should run. I need to recharge.”
The earth shook as the second colossus stepped over the remains of his shattered companion and drew his spear from the ground.
“Good plan, Mom.”
His mouth opened in an eerily silent howl of rage. We bolted right, but he slammed his spear down in front of us, blocking our path, ready to sweep us off into the chasm.
My head snapped up as a black shape rose in the air behind him.
A beautiful angel with burning arms.
Damian. But how?
The dark angel landed on the head of the colossus and slammed his iron spear into its stone skull.
Thunder cracked, and I felt Damian’s signature wash over me, sending heat straight through me and bringing tears to my eyes.
The statue opened its mouth in a silent roar as Damian’s dark magic blasted out from its vacant eyes. It took a single step and then its face exploded, raining rubble down on top of us.
A jagged crack ripped down through the stone colossus like a zipper opening up. Damian leapt into the air as my mother and I darted between the legs of the faceless giant, beelining for the open gateway.
The statue slammed into the ground, shattering across the remains of the other sentinel. The earth quaked, sending us to our knees.
Damian was at my side in a second, pulling me up. “No time. Run!”
Before I could respond, the Illumined One’s unearthly roar shook the cavern to its core.
My ears screamed, unable to take any more. My father was at my side, shouting, but I couldn’t make out his words.
Damian shoved us all past the broken doorway into a dark tunnel. Light and heat surged behind us. I looked back as a blinding ray of light reduced the remaining door into a waterfall of molten stone.
“Holy fates!” I screamed.
Rather than breathing out flames, the Illumined One released a beam of searing light.
Spark, in dragon form, soared overhead. I wish I could do that. Maybe I will be big like him one day.
Rhiannon appeared at my side, helping pull my father along the corridor.
“Rhia? You’re here, too!”
“And not barbequed, miraculously!” I could barely hear her words. “I hope he can’t stick his head into this hole, or we’re gonna be fried chicken.”
We staggered forward through the tunnel. The passage shook, and I lost my footing as bits of the ceiling collapsed around us. I crawled to my feet and barely made out a few travelers in the dim light ahead. They were screaming and stampeding toward the other end where dull light filtered in.
The way out.
The earth began to quake, not a single burst, but wave after wave. Stone poured from above in sheets and boulders.
“He’s caving the tunnel in!” Rhiannon screamed.
Damian unleashed an enormous burst of cold, and a wall of ice formed across the ceiling above us. I assumed he was trying to support the rock, but the quake shattered it too, and ice shards rained down.
Then everything slowed. Rubble drifted downward like gentle snowflakes as Rhiannon’s magic washed over us. She’d slowed time around us, but it would only last a few seconds.
“Run.” She appeared to be screaming, but the words barely registered in my deafened and ringing ears.
We sprinted toward the light as time snapped back to normal behind us. A tsunami of stone and dust chased us down the passage.
We stumbled into the open square of what I assumed was the Merchant Town as the gateway to the City of Light collapsed inward behind us. I spun around, and my shoulders sagged with relief. We’d made it. All of us.
I sensed we were past the teleportation barrier that had enclosed the mines and the City of Light. But we were still in the Realm of Earth, and my powers were weakened. I grabbed Damian’s arm. “I don’t know if I can planes-walk us out.”
Damian pulled me close and shouted over my shoulder. “Spark, we need to get out of here! Let’s planes-walk everyone to the Realm of Fire, now!”
Before I could open my mouth, Spark and Damian’s magic swirled around us in a maelstrom of flame. Damian held me tightly, and we exploded through the cosmos.
Mind-rending seconds later, I collapsed onto a hardened flow of lava and sucked in a deep breath of air. It tasted acrid and stunk of brimstone, but it was the most wonderful breath I had ever taken.
Clambering off my knees, I wiped my bloodied palms on what was left of my shirt. My magic coursed through me like a breached dam. Gods it felt good.
I looked around.
Damian, Rhiannon, my mother and father, and Spark.
My family was here. All of them. For the first time in my life.
My body shook with terror and joy and fatigue, and tears streamed down my face as I wrapped my arms around my parents.
Eventually, I released my hold on my mother and wiped my eyes. Even with my magic restored to full strength, exhaustion tugged at me.
Stepping back, I bumped into Damian. I spun, suddenly just inches from his body. His signature tickled my senses, and heat—his or mine, I couldn’t be sure—swept over me.
Joy pierced my heart, bringing me back to the moment I’d seen his shadow rise behind the colossus. The moment I’d known for sure everything would be all right. “You came for me.”
Something flashed across his face, and then his expression hardened. “You saved yourself.”
His signature left me spinning and drew me in like the ether. The world around us was barren and reeked of brimstone, but all I could see were his forest-green eyes, and all I could smell were ancient trees and sandalwood.
I took a sharp breath as he
pulled me close. Without meaning to, I traced the strong lines of his jaw with my fingertips, as if my hand had a mind of its own. As if my body knew what I wanted. My gaze drifted to his lips, and I parted my mouth.
“Nevaeh, who is this?”
My father’s question shattered the moment. My heart stopped, and my stomach dropped about ten feet. I burst from Damian’s arms, my face as red and hot as the lava lake.
Oh. Gods.
My life had suddenly become a lot more complicated.
10
Neve
Introductions I didn’t want to ever have to make: Hey mom and dad. I know we’ve just reunited, but here’s my guy friend. He’s not really my boyfriend, but he went down on me once. There’s probably something between us. Also, he’s a crime lord, a fallen angel, and a FireSoul, and he may want to kill me to steal my powers. But he has a nice car.
Rhiannon took one look at my wide-eyed panic and jumped to the rescue. “Mr. Malek is an independent contractor and a specialist on missing items. He recently helped Neve rescue me from the Realm of Air and helped save Magic Side from a terrible curse.”
“Oh?” my mother said, looking from Damian to me. I made introductions all around and quietly thanked the fates for Rhiannon, the queen of positive spin.
I probably would have stuttered something horrific. Like, Oh him? This is the guy who released the djinn and who used to be pals with the asshole who is currently trying to bind me to his service.
So good save, all and all.
But damn. Three hours into having my parents back, I was already looking for ways to lie to them.
My father politely reached his hand out to Damian, pretending not to notice my sudden and horrific embarrassment. “Thank you, Mr. Malek, for helping us get out. I don’t think we could repay you.”
My mother hugged Rhiannon. “And you, too, of course. Things were getting a bit dicey for us. Did you really stop time? It was extraordinary.”
I’d introduced Rhia first, and I could already tell that my mom would treat her like a second daughter.
I closed my eyes. Separate worlds. I needed everyone in their separate worlds. Everything was too new. I didn’t know what my parents were really like. Hell, I didn’t even know what Damian was really like.
Broken Skies: Dragon’s Gift: The Storm Book 4 Page 7