It didn’t look normal.
“Is it anything like what you saw at the Kyō?” I asked, dropping the IV as I raced out of the room and back into the hall.
“Maybe. They were all connected to tubes, but without seeing who was here, it’s hard to know.”
I nodded. I hadn’t seen the monstrosities the Kyō had created, and my mind was already running away with what we had just seen. People were kept here. Ilyan might have been kept here…
All of the rage that had rampaged through me since I had read the text message turned into a firestorm.
God. I was going to kill someone before all of this was over.
“Let’s find them shall we?” My face twisted up into a mutated smile as I shoved my magic away from me. I let it pour through the air, smothering every hall filled with terrified soldiers, into every line of nurses as they tried to make their escape.
I poured every bit of my magic into those halls as I looked for him. He was close. He had to be. But nothing.
No trace of him.
I did, however, find the same magic we had felt before, the twisted brokenness of unhealed magic was like a beacon.
“This way.” I grabbed Ryland’s sleeve and pulled him after me, both of us racing down the hall as a crash echoed through the building.
The sound of glass and stone shattering filled the halls as everything under us shifted.
“Seems the Kyō are taking it up a step,” Ryland mumbled as we raced, both of us turning a corner as the feeling of that broken magic came closer.
“Almost there,” I said more to myself than anyone, just as another bomb exploded somewhere to the left, sending the whole building rocking as it nearly collapsed. I only barely caught myself with my magic, lifting us up as the floor beneath us fell away.
“Going down,” I said as I flew through the hole, rushing toward what I could clearly make out as the massive tile and glass entrance hall to the hospital.
“You know, if we make it out of here alive,” Ryland said as he caught up with me, the hospital creaking as yet another explosion rattled from somewhere deep within, “I call dibs on the leader of the Kyō. I think I’ve about had it with him.”
“He’s all yours. But Nastya Klotz is mine.” I turned to him, giving him a grin as we raced toward the door and the buzzing feeling of magic. Except he had stopped.
Ryland stood in the middle of the giant entry hall, the last of the soldiers running out as the building threatened to come down.
“Ryland, come on!” I rushed back to him, grabbing his hand. I was fully ready to pull him out of here if I needed to. “Ry!”
He turned to me slowly, his eyes wide. If it wasn’t for all the dust in the air I would have sworn he was crying.
“She’s down there.”
“Who?” I yelled, still pulling on his hand.
“Míra.”
He didn’t need to say any more. We were already running.
13
Míra
“The reports are coming in from many different sources, all of which talking about how the might of the SSU will reign victorious through this challenge…”
“Reign victorious,” I scoffed, undoing the last of my straps as I glanced at the fogged glass on either side of the door again. “I’m pretty sure none of you all really think you are going to reign victorious.”
It was absolute chaos out there.
It hadn’t been the TV that had woken me up, it had been the armies preparing for war inside the hospital. It had been the gunshots that rattled through the halls.
The news shows that were playing on my television night and day were nothing more than propaganda, but anyone with half a brain and one eye could figure it out.
Less than two days ago the Kyō had taken over every country save a few, the ones where the SSU were if I had to venture a guess.
And, based on the absolute panic that was outside my room, the Kyō had come to claim the final prize.
My time here was up. It was time I found Ilyan and got us out of here.
And I had been so looking forward to conducting all the espionage. Good thing there was still the Kyō to deal with. I just hoped that Joclyn didn’t go all crazy and take them out in her search for me.
Seeing as they were the last ones I was technically with I wouldn’t be surprised if she went there first. How were they to know Michel was essentially bowing to everyone but Joclyn. He sold me to the highest bidder.
Who happened to be Nastya.
“Don’t forget, you promised her you would cut her head off,” I reminded myself as I jumped off the bed, padding toward the door where shouts of panic had begun to echo through the halls.
I opened the door, the hinges squeaking as loudly as they always had. Not that anyone noticed.
The hallway was in pure chaos. Even my guards were gone. I bet I could walk through the hall in my backless hospital gown and no one would notice.
Why not? I was always up for a challenge.
I cracked my knuckles and neck like those kung fu fighters you see in movies and stepped into the war zone.
“Everyone to the east side!”
“No, to the west!”
The confusing commands in Ukrainian echoed from everywhere, the soldiers rushing around in a confusing pattern. I weaved under two men with large guns, around a crying nurse, and hid behind a bed as I slowly made my way to the same nurses’ station that I had tried to Stutter into before.
The only lead I really had for finding Ilyan in this place was Katenka and her younger clone. I might as well head to the last place I saw them and hope for the best.
“Search to the left! I need eyes.” A shout came from the end of the hall, near my room. Those soldiers were always a step behind me. Poor souls.
I ducked behind the counter at the nurses’ station as five guards stormed past, another two running in the other direction.
“They need help in the blood wing!”
Ooo Blood Wing. That sounds cool.
Looks like we have a winner.
The soldier that had shouted it was already heading in the other direction, running through the crowd in a panic. I snapped a shield into place, important now that people were looking for me, and darted behind him, doing my best to follow. I was dodging soldiers the best I could, well aware that while they may not even notice if I ran into them, it wasn’t worth the risk. I would just fly above their heads and be done with it, but I was pretty sure that a phantom wind through a hospital hallway was not going to go unnoticed.
I darted down a hall that was clogged with soldiers, patients lined up against the hall as they screamed and pulled at the soldiers for help. I needed to avoid that.
I turned in the other direction when one of the soldiers fired gunshots into the air and everyone swarmed in the exact direction I was heading. Unable to see me, I was pushed down, swept to the side and nearly trampled to death.
Okay, running around invisible wasn’t working. The halls were a wave of black uniforms and yellow sunbursts, guns clacking against armor and pointing as everyone raced. I had already lost track of the guy headed to the blood wing.
“This is bullshit,” I said as I tried to dodge around one guy, only to have another smack me in the back of the head with the butt of his gun.
Even if I was being searched for, people would at least naturally avoid me if they could see me. Besides, I could take them if they found me.
I shifted my shield around, pulling myself back into view and continuing my race after the guy who was heading to the blood wing. I moved like some kind of super spy, darting around soldiers and medical equipment until I froze at the messy brown bun that was racing out the door.
Katenka.
Exactly who I was looking for. She turned when she reached the front door, her thin face coming into view. Not Katenka, the daughter. This was even better.
I stretched my magic out as I followed her, trying to sense the strength of her power, but found nothing. I hadn�
�t been wrong had I? I mean, the girl had legit disappeared before. She had to have magic.
Guess it would just be the first thing I asked when I found her.
I quickly changed direction, continuing my darting and weaving as I tried not to lose her. She was good at this, no wonder she had disappeared before.
Katenka’s daughter raced right out the front doors and to a row of trucks that were being loaded with all of the machinery I had seen in Nastya’s torture chamber.
That and guns. So many of those long black guns that all the soldiers carried. I guess I was in the right place after all.
I hugged the wall of the building, edging myself closer to where mini-Katenka was talking with at least ten others who were huddled around the back of a car about fifty yards away.
“Are you sure this is going to work, Kaye?” one of them asked, thankfully giving me her name, although mini-Katenka was growing on me.
“Trust me, I’m sure,” Kaye said, grabbing one of the guns out of the back of the car as she began to change out of her nurse’s uniform and into a soldier’s.
Ooo perfect. Clean clothes. I took a step forward, ready to make my introduction, find Ilyan and get home.
“We just have to move quickly or--” Anything she had been about to say, and any saucy introduction I had been about to make, was lost to the whistling sound of a bomb seconds before the buildings on the other side of the parking lot exploded.
“Shit!” I yelled, loud enough that one of the people Kaye had been talking to turned, staring at me in all of my hospital gown glory.
“Let’s go!” Kaye screamed, just as another bomb dropped and they all began to race toward the trucks I had seen being loaded.
Everything was chaos now, soldiers were screaming and running back into the hospital. People were throwing things into trucks that were already moving as people raced to escape the bombs that were now dropping in earnest.
Dust choked the air, and in turn my lungs as I struggled to keep up. Kaye and the others were only ten feet ahead of me, my focus so intent on them that I missed the whistling sound from right overhead.
Another bomb exploded just a few feet to my left, rocks flew over me, shoving me to the side and right into the glass wall of the hospital. Glass scraped over marble, stone cracked, I could have sworn the building was creaking. But, that might have just been my magic as it snapped through me, pressing a bone or two back together.
I stood, shaking my head as my vision slowly settled, the world continuing to tremble as bomb after bomb exploded through the building. Wind rushed past me, rocks freckling my skin as I took a step and froze at the woman who was racing back into the building.
Nastya.
Blood pulsed through my ears in an angry throb as I took a step toward her. I froze, glancing out the doors, but the trucks were already gone. Yes, Kaye probably knew where Ilyan was. But so did Nastya.
Besides, I had a promise to keep.
“One head, coming right off,” I whispered, smiling as I ran after her.
The hospital rattled around me, the floor shifting as I raced down the hall that was somehow growing colder with each step. The whole building quaked as a bomb exploded somewhere far too close for comfort. The motion sent us both into the side wall, where glass shattered and showered over us like rain.
Stabby rain that cut into my skin.
“You gonna keep running, or are you going to let me finish this right now?” I yelled as she pulled herself to her feet, clearly intending to keep running.
Nastya looked back at me, her lip curling. I guess she hadn’t realized I was here. She really didn’t have good control of her magic if she hadn’t sensed me just feet from her. Then again, her magic was still that drippy broken stuff before Joclyn healed it.
That kind of magic didn’t work quite right. I would know, I was trained with it.
“Finish what?” Nastya asked with that coy voice of hers. “You really don’t think you could take me on, do you?”
She smiled at me in big headed victory, her magic dripping from her fingertips like sludge in what she clearly thought was a threat.
“God. You are really full of yourself.” I stepped toward her, double checking that my shield was still in place. Just in case she got lucky. “You’re like one of those tiny dogs who doesn’t realize they are facing a big dog and just snaps and bites anyway.”
“Did you forget our little playtime the other day so easily,” Nastya asked, magic still pooling from her fingers as she stepped closer.
“You mean when you had me strapped to a table and thought you had restrained my magic? Naw.” I shrugged, lifting my hands for the first time and letting my own magic flow. But instead of sad little wet ribbons of magic it crackled between my fingers, swelling and growing into a crackling ball of power. “I didn’t forget. I just used it.”
I threw the ball then, right into her horrified face. She wasn’t so smug now as she practically threw herself into the wall to avoid my attack. Her breath came in sharp little pants as she slipped on glass and rocks in a panic to get away from me.
I just rolled my eyes, some Queen Almighty she was.
My magic pulsed once as I stepped forward, into the Stutter and across the hall right in front of where she was running. She screamed and ducked, hands over her head.
“Really? You aren’t even going to try to make this a tad bit interesting?” I wiggled my fingers, preparing to attack, and instead found myself falling sideways into the floor as she swept my foot. Rookie mistake.
She jumped over me, already attacking, but I just Stuttered a bit to the left and attacked her. She dodged, although barely.
“Yes! Let’s tango! I’m ready!” I shot another attack at her, and this time she countered, although her magic didn’t have enough oomph behind it to truly block me. Half of my attack sped through, slamming into her gut and throwing her back down the hall.
The hospital shook, groaning as another bomb hit it from somewhere above. This building might not last very long.
Okay, time to get back on track.
“Tell me where Ilyan is!” I yelled as I rushed over to her, my hands pointing at her menacingly.
“Who?” she asked, her voice actually shaking.
“Ilyan! I know you have him!” She still looked at me as though I was speaking gibberish. Good lord, could she really not know who she had? “Blond guy. The Oheň’s partner.”
That did the trick, recognition flared in her eyes, the panic from before fading as she began to laugh.
Okay, that was not what I was expecting.
“Where is he?” I repeated again, even though I was well aware my resolve was slipping. I sent a zap of power into her in warning, just in case.
She just kept smiling. Smiling and laughing like the loon she was.
“He’s already gone. I just put him on a truck myself.”
I turned, hands still trained on her as I looked back to the bay of trucks that had already left. The ones filled with the machinery. She wasn’t lying.
“Seems I should have followed the trucks instead of you,” I said, shrugging my shoulders before I turned back to her. “Doesn’t matter though. Like I said, I had a promise to keep.”
I didn’t even wait for her to protest before I cut off her head.
14
Ilyan
Kaye’s eyes widened, the others looking at me as though I had spoken gibberish. I may as well have. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it in my dreams. If I hadn’t seen myself teach Joclyn to fly.
The admission had my magic erupting. A breeze played around my toes, the memory of throwing Nastya away from me all those years ago replaying softly in the back of my mind.
I couldn’t stop the grin.
“But bullets…” Kaye said, her voice a soft reminder of my fear, and perhaps my limitations.
“Maybe I am bulletproof, Kaye,” I said, my smile growing as the eager joy spread. “There is no better time to find out.”
/> Kaye’s smile rose to join mine, the grin spreading just as wide as she realized what was about to happen.
“We need to get through whatever is on the other side of this rise,” her voice was hoarse as she nodded her head toward the gunfire just on the other side of the rise. “If we can get through that then it should be a straight shot to the border.”
Magic swelling inside of me, I nodded once before closing my eyes, letting the power swell into the air.
Me following right behind.
The men and women in Kaye’s group began to shout in shock, their voices drowned out by the wind as it picked me up, my body wobbling and shaking as I worked to control it.
“Focus only on the wind. Focus on its movement, on its warmth. Focus on how your magic will bring it to you.” My own words whispered through memory, the phrasing unknown to me, although I knew at once what it was talking about.
So I obeyed.
My body began to stabilize as I closed my eyes, magic swelling further as more and more of the drugs began to wear off.
Smiling, I hovered before the group, all of them in different states of awe and fear, all except for Kaye. Kaye stood beneath me with the widest smile on her face, the sheer joy out of place as she stood against the rubble.
“Be ready,” I said, only waiting for Kaye to nod her head in acknowledgment before I took off, soaring over the remains of the old building and toward the fight below.
About twenty black-clad soldiers marched below me, their chests all stamped with the sinister star that I now abhorred. Cleaners.
The Cleaners were closing in on a small group of disheveled militia that were taking stock of their weapons from behind a rise even smaller than the one Kaye and her people were behind.
The rebels were the ones to see me first, their shock and fear rising as they began to lift their weapons. It was only when Kaye and her men ran over the rise that they calmed, but the quiet was short lived.
Flare of Villainy: The Imdalind Series, Book 10 Page 9