“Well, let me know when you figure it out,” Kaye whispered, helping me to sit up and lean against the truck.
The truck rattled and shook from the uneven road as Kaye handed me a water bottle, the rickety movements sending cold droplets splashing over the dirty cotton bottoms I wore. I grabbed the water greedily, splashing it over my chin as I drank.
“I don’t know how much I can do,” I said between gulps, desperate for air and water as I slowly felt myself return to normal, even though I knew it would be days before whatever they had been giving me worked its way out completely. “I don’t know…”
“You have more control now than you did when you saved me from the Chrlič,” Kaye chastised, interrupting me with one look. “You probably have more control even with the drugs.”
She looked at me intently, nodding to my hands before fixing me with a glare that only made the magic inside of me buzz more, ready to show her.
Returning the glare, I sagged against the truck, lifting my hands as the magic pulsed deeper, the strength of the surges becoming frightening.
As the drugs began to fade, as my magic began to fight, it was no longer the sludge that I had grown used to, it was the live wire I had only felt in my memories.
Looking from her to my hands, I swallowed, my throat unbelievably dry given the amount of water I had just consumed. The magic roared and rocked just under my skin, surprisingly staying restrained. I had felt less and caused an explosion before. Now, it remained locked in place, until with one thought I sent sparks flying. Electric sparks of the brightest gold jumped between my fingertips, the eruption sending the others in the truck into a panic.
“You trapped us with one of them?”
“He’s going to explode!”
They yelled in Ukrainian as they began to scuttle and move, but I couldn’t look away from my hands, I couldn’t look away from the magic I was now controlling, my command of it focused down to the minutest detail.
“Calm,” Kaye snapped, her voice obviously not directed at me. “You must stay calm.”
The light grew brighter as I willed it to, the light molding and shifting into a smooth bubble that floated just above my hand, making everything glow.
The truck rattled as another bomb dropped, the entire bed shifting abruptly to the side. We could clearly hear the driver shout something in Ukrainian, his panic filtering through the wall. In the bed of the truck, however, there was only calm.
Everyone stared at the light as I lifted it higher, letting it hover to the top of the canvas. It grew brighter as another bomb dropped, the light exploding in a thousand multicolored lights.
A soft scream echoed over the tent, before a sprinkling of laughter followed, the man who had been so gruff and angry before commenting about how beautiful it was.
“It is,” I said, watching the color as another memory tried to move to the surface, something about the way the lights danced seemed familiar.
My hands flew to my lips as the lights fell. The awe turned to screams as the sound of a bomb shook everything and the vehicle soared through the air, the massive machine turning end over end as everything became a tangle of limbs.
I heard the impact before I felt it. Before the hard ridge of the truck bed dug into me, before my mouth filled with dirt and blood. Arms and legs tangled as my screams joined the others, my already pained body rippling with further agony.
It didn’t last, however. The magic that was once sludge soared through me, following the aches and breaks and swelling around them, swelling inside of them. Healing me.
I clearly felt a bone snap as the truck came to a stop, a few of us rolling out and over the rubble of what I was sure used to be a city.
Large sections of cement buildings were scattered everywhere. Broken furniture, bloodied clothing, and the haunted face of a child's toy were littered over the ground. I looked right into the green eyes of the doll as my magic throbbed, my jaw clamped as the pain lessened.
“Jan!” I heard Kaye yell from somewhere behind me, but I didn’t turn, I wasn’t sure I could quite yet. Although the pain was little more than a dull roar now, I didn’t trust it enough. I could barely move before the accident, trying now that I had been thrown from a truck seemed like I could be asking too much.
“Jan,” she said again, her voice was closer now, the sound of rock and stone shifting just behind me as she stumbled over to my side, her hands rough as she began to turn me over.
“Are you alright?” I asked as she came into focus, my body flopping to the side as she moved me.
“I was going to ask the same of you,” she said, each word a struggle, although the corner of her mouth pulled up a bit. “I’ve been worse. I have also been better.”
The smile didn’t hit her eyes and my heart dropped, a fear moving to my toes as I reached for her, glad when she took my hand.
“Don’t be scared,” I whispered, the words sounding ridiculous when the quick tap of gunfire began in the distance.
Kaye looked at me curiously as I clenched her hand tightly, holding it in a vice grip as I let my magic swell in my hand before pushing it through me and into her.
The magic was different from the accidental healing from all those years ago. It was a flood of heat, and her eyes widened at the sensation, gasping as she tried to shift herself away from me.
“Does it hurt?” I asked in alarm.
“No,” she clarified, her eyes wide as she stared at me and my hand. “It’s just… warm.”
“Good, let me know if it becomes too much.”
I let more of it move into her, although I wasn’t sure how much was needed, I wanted to be careful. I had never controlled this, after all, I didn’t know what was required.
Closing my eyes, I focused the same as I had done in the dream, glad when the magic began to move through her, relaying what felt like whispers of information back to me. Tiny cuts, abrasions, a fractured rib, a bone in her ankle seemed to be out of place. I saw each of them, I felt each of them. My magic pooled around them as she sat before me, her eyes growing wider as one after another they healed, even the cut on the skin above where I held her hand began to knit itself back together.
“Jan,” she gasped, eyes wide in shock.
With a sigh, I released her, falling back against the rubble, the world filled with gunfire as those who had been in the back of the truck slowly made their way over to us.
I watched them move, blood pouring from head wounds, broken bones cradled against them as a few of them limped. I swallowed. I wasn’t sure I could heal them all, I was honestly amazed I had been able to control it enough to heal Kaye. Besides, I was sure their reaction to whatever had happened would not be as calm as the powerful woman before me.
“I’ve never seen it heal that fast,” she sighed, still looking at the dried blood that had poured over her arm from where a cut had previously been.
I looked from her to the others in her team, the closest man now within earshot. Only the rumblings of their quick Ukrainian was audible as I lay among rock and steel, listening to the gunfire as it moved closer. It sounded like it was just on the other side of the pile of rubble we had sequestered ourselves against. Their conversation stopped at the sound, Kaye rushing past me until she reached the gentle rise of what was once a building, army crawling over the last of the rubble to look at what was coming.
“There are a few rebels there,” she hissed to me and the few others who had joined us, “but they may not hold the line for long.
“Who are they fighting?” one of the older men asked with a groan. The sound of his voice and blood covered arm made it clear he was in pain.
“The SSU. Although I know we passed a depot for The Kyō not far back,” Kaye responded as she checked the weapons I had seen her loading before, throwing one to the side when she determined the barrel was no longer safe.
“Trapped between the SSU and the republic,” a woman said as she too began to check her weapons, her voice gruff and angry. “Igor
picked a hell of a spot to dump us out.”
“Where is he, anyway?” the pained man asked over the gunfire, looking from Kaye to the wreckage of the truck that lay about twenty feet behind us. It was only then that I realized how far I had been thrown. No wonder my body was all beat up. It was amazing that I only broke one bone.
“He didn’t make it.” Kaye didn’t look at anyone. “Andriey didn’t either. I can’t find Yana.”
The man swore loudly and spit on the ground while the woman crossed herself and mumbled an old familiar prayer. The other six that stood with us did the same, the same prayer roaring over me and blending with the gunfire in a twisted worship that made my spine twist.
“So we are surrounded,” the man said, his voice still hard from his outburst. “By both the SSU and those republic zealots.”
I looked to Kaye in question but she only shook her head, there was only one thing I needed to know, and the man had already made that clear.
“How far are we from the border?” he asked as the others finally emerged from their prayer.
Kaye pulled out the same rectangular phone I had seen so many times before, tapping the screen as she brought it to life. The once pristine thing was now dented in several places, the bright screen cracked and flickering. She held it close to her face in an attempt to see and carefully begin hitting the screen. She moved quickly, the screen continuing to flicker before it went out altogether. Two quick taps and it flared back to life, a small sigh escaping her lips.
“It’s two miles that way,” she sighed, pointing in the direction of the fighting. “If we can make it through that, we can make it out.”
Everyone began to nod, the same determination coloring each of their faces. I was sure they had set out from the hospital ready to fight. No escape would be without damage or battle, but their eyes made it clear they hadn’t expected this.
They had already fought. Now, it was just survival. It was just two miles to freedom.
I would make sure they made it.
“Now,” Kaye said, cocking her small firearm, “who can walk?”
I wanted to say that the question was for everyone, but she was looking right at me.
“I can do more than walk,” I said, shifting myself to sitting as my body ached from so many years of ill use. None of that mattered now.
“I think I can fly.”
12
Joclyn
We lay flat on our backs on top of one of the tall buildings that surrounded the hospital. We were doing our best not to be seen, even though we had both realized it was pointless at this point.
“I don’t know if I should complain we are here too late, or be excited for the battle,” Ryland moaned from where he lay beside me, thankfully not looking as green as he had a few minutes ago.
“This is definitely going to make finding them a bit harder.” My stomach was already in knots and this was making it worse.
We had, somewhat foolishly, assumed that we would get here before the Kyō army would. The Kyō, however, had clearly already been heading this way when news of them ‘taking control’ of every country had spread.
“Harder? Or easier?” Ryland said, that eager grin he always got before battle making a return. Sometimes he looked so much like his brother it made my heart cleave in two.
But not this time, not with Ilyan so close.
“What do you mean?” I asked, twisting to the side as I looked at him.
“Well, look at it,” Ryland said, making a sweeping motion toward the hospital. “The place is in shambles. Chances of anyone noticing us when we walk in are slim to none now.”
He had a point. When I had seen the hospital in my sight it had been calm, in fact it almost looked abandoned. But now, soldiers were everywhere. They were breaking windows as they threw equipment out of them so they could load the trucks. They were trying to build lines around the hospital to stop the Kyō armies as they got closer, fashioning whatever equipment they didn’t want to pack into some of the shabbiest barricades I had ever seen.
The army Ryland and I had seen the other day was nowhere to be found. These soldiers didn’t have magic, but the Kyō did.
Just laying here, I could hear the fighting growing closer, the SSU armies that had been sent through the streets after the Kyō were growing closer.
Essentially, we only had until those armies got here to find him. We were looking at a ticking time bomb.
“So, you are suggesting we just walk in and find him?” I asked as a line of trucks pulled up to the front of the hospital. I scanned the backs and fronts, looking for the woman from the tent, the woman I had seen torture Ilyan. Except for the very scattered looking drivers these trucks were empty.
“Yep. You’ll be able to sense Ilyan’s magic, probably even Míra’s. Chances are, knowing Míra, she has already found him and is running through that mess like she’s on a spy mission.” I couldn’t help but smile at that, I knew he was right.
That was, assuming that they were both okay. Reason number one for why we needed to get in there.
“Okay, let’s go.” I stood, dusting off the knees of my jeans as I prepared to hurl myself into the building and find my mate.
I could already feel my magic boiling right to the surface, pulling through the air as it searched him out. I could feel it pull me into the chaotic halls; as though it had already found its other half.
I pulled Ryland up, ready to go when the phone in my pocket began to buzz.
I told Thom and Wyn not to contact me unless it was an emergency, and here they were -- contacting me. I glared at my phone even before I pulled it out, already knowing I wasn’t going to leave for anything. Even a coup.
I wasn’t going to leave Ilyan behind, we were too close.
The screen flared to life, Ryland looking over my shoulder as the text loaded.
‘Her name is Nastya Klotz. She’s the head of the SSU and has been torturing Ilyan for years. She wants you. Be careful. It’s a trap.’
I was instantly raging. All of my magic boiling right to the tips of my fingers as the word torture played on repeat. Each time it beat through my head it got louder until it was all I could hear. I didn’t know how Thom and Wyn had gotten this information, and I didn’t care. It was all I needed to go in and rip that entire place to shreds.
Ryland laughed beside me, the humorless sound ripping me out of the murderous rage that was quickly growing in my head.
“Did Thom really think that we should be worried about walking into a trap after telling you that this woman has been torturing your husband for years?” He laughed again, but I was staring at the hospital, almost desperate to find the woman now.
I barely saw Ryland turn out of the corner of my eye. His laugh stopped short as he saw me, standing there, staring at the hospital with laser eyes.
“Or he knew exactly what he was doing,” Ryland mumbled, his hand warm on my shoulder as he pulled my focus. “You ready Jos? Not like I really have to ask.”
“Let’s find this bitch.” I took off without even waiting for him.
My magic gathered, circling around me in a powerful wave that took me right into the air, over the lot that was filled with trucks and right onto the roof of the hospital.
If Ilyan was here, I was going to find him, and together we would make that woman pay for what she had done.
Ryland landed right behind me, already running toward the buzzing energy that I was sure he felt just as strongly as I did. Magic, poisoned magic, just a little bit ahead, maybe two feet down. Ryland had gone on so many tracking missions over the past three years that I let him pull ahead, his magic already surging as he held his hand out and sent one blast into the roof.
A stream of black slammed into the cement and asphalt, shaking the hospital as though it had been hit by a bomb.
Because it had.
Ryland’s attack hadn’t been the only one. The Kyō had apparently arrived, and were blasting their way in just as we were.
“W
ell, this just got dangerous,” Ryland said, turning back as he pulled to a stop before the now gaping hole in the roof. “The race is on. Who will find Ilyan first.”
I didn’t like that. Just thinking about it made my stomach twist and writhe. We should have left last night. We had waited, and now everything was shifting.
Keeping Thom’s text message in mind, I jumped into the hole, landing on cracked linoleum as I searched for any sign of the magic users we felt, or of that woman.
The hallway was empty. There was nothing but cracked walls, blinking lights, and forgotten medical supplies.
Creepy as hell. “No one is here.”
“Going down,” Ryland announced as he landed beside me, already blasting a hole into the floor and taking us down closer to the pulsing veins of broken magic we had sensed on the roof.
Now it was fading, almost as though the owners were being led away.
“Hurry,” I spat, mostly to myself as I jumped through yet another hole and fell into hell. “What in the world?”
This was not the run down hospital hallway of a floor up. This was cement walls and stained floors. This was bare lightbulbs swinging from wires and the smell of human excrement. This was where you put the people you hated most.
I ran to the first open door, to a child's drawings that were painted on the floor with things I didn’t want to think about. I bolted across the hall to another, to chains so coated in blood they looked red, and then to a third, to a plastic lunch tray with untouched food and a slip of paper on the ground.
I picked it up, the edges torn and paper worn as though it had been folded and unfolded hundreds of times. It only had four words on it, the handwriting close to chicken scratches: When can we visit her?
I showed the slip of paper to Ryland, but he was just as lost as I was. Nothing about this place made sense.
“Do I really want to know what was going on in here?” Ryland asked behind me as I walked further into the room, grabbing the IV off the ground. The long tube went to a box in the corner, whatever all of these people had been pumped with still dripping through in slow drops of the brightest blue.
Flare of Villainy: The Imdalind Series, Book 10 Page 8