So he could mark her as our target.
But I don’t think either of us expected this, that much was clear with the fury on Ilyan’s face.
“Is she leaving with him?” Ilyan asked quietly in Czech, his voice strained. I turned back toward them, my heart dropping to my toes as Ryland helped Joclyn into his car.
“Yes. Ilyan, you’re not going to let her go with him are you?” I looked up to him, I was a bit more upset than I should have been, but I had every reason to be. We had come here to ‘save’ this girl and now Ilyan was just going to let her leave with him.
Him.
The guy who had been hunting her as long as we had.
If we didn’t act soon they would take control of her, then all of this would be over.
“I don’t have another choice, Wynifred,” Ilyan’s voice dripped with dejection, his jaw tight even though his voice was pained.
“He’s going to take her right back to Edmund, Ilyan. He gets her, we lose. We need to just go in and take her, like I said before we even got here. Let’s end this.”
Ilyan had always been understanding of my outbursts, but I knew I had stepped too far over the line that time. He turned from the retreating car, the students streaming around us as Ilyan leaned down to me, his tall frame folding so his eyes could bore into mine.
“Pochybuješ o mě?” Do you doubt me? Each word was slow, the command sparking in his eyes. I grit my teeth, all of that stubborn fight that made us butt heads so often boiling over.
“No, My Lord.”
“And what is my role, as laid down by those born from the mud?” He was using the voice, the ‘King’ voice. I recoiled from it and forced myself to look away, to look at the car that was now no more than a speck as it carried our prize away from us.
“To protect those who look to you for guidance and are in need of your protection.” I recited the words quickly in Czech, knowing I missed half of the official wording, but not really caring. I heard the words when Ilyan retook the oath at every council, neither of us really needed a refresher.
“Does that girl need my protection?”
“Joclyn.” I corrected him without thinking, as was my usual. I would have regretted it but instead of hardening, Ilyan’s face relaxed, his eyes closing in enjoyment.
“Her name is Joclyn?” He asked, his voice soft, the name sounding weird with Ilyan’s thick accent. I only nodded.
Ilyan closed his eyes and I could see the last of his anger melt away, his body relaxing as his eyes stayed focused in the direction Ryland had driven Joclyn away.
“My Lord?” I asked, careful to keep the formalities now. “Will she be all right?”
“There is more at work here than you can ever assume, Wynifred. The visions laid down by Sain are unfolding before my eyes and I have to trust that what was shown will lead us all to victory. It must be expected that the magic of the world is pulling the strings. We will wait until the time is right, until we know more. For now we will protect her from afar.”
I just stared at him. I couldn’t expect to make sense of anything that Ilyan said, that was too confusing even on his level. I could already tell by the look on Ilyan’s face that I was missing something. This was more than just grab the girl, run, and defeat Edmund. This was the future of everyone, and I was beginning to think it lay more with Ilyan than with Joclyn.
“Okay, so what do we do now?”
“We need to gain her trust. How do you feel about a girls night?” He gave me the slightest smile before he shoved his hands in his pockets and led me toward the black sedan he had purchased for this expedition.
“A girls night?” Truth was, I was all for it, and Joclyn seemed like someone who would love a girls night. And we probably both needed a friend. There was just one problem. “How am I supposed to hold a girls night without giving us away?”
“Simple. We need to build ourselves a home. You invite her over, and then you can introduce her to me.”
I stopped only steps from the car. “About that… I might have told her you are my brother.”
Ilyan froze, hand on the car door as he stared at me, eyes narrowing before he laughed. “You know, Wynifred, I think I would like you as a sister. We may not always get along, but you sure know how to kick ass.”
Of that, he wasn’t wrong.
Now that Ryland was in the mix, it might be a good thing I was here.
If we were going to get out of here alive.
Ten
Wyn
It became even more apparent why I was the one to come on this mission with Ilyan minutes after we walked into the thrift store, that I had tracked down like a hunting dog. He stood in the doorway, looking around in confusion, his nose wrinkled at the smell of dust and rot that always occupied these places. I just rolled my eyes at him and made my way toward the guys t-shirts. Thrift shops were always a gold mine for 70’s band shirts, and I was going to take the opportunity to add to my collection.
It may be my job to gain Joclyn's trust, but I wasn't pretending to be something I was not. 70’s music would always be my favorite. I grabbed a Styx and an ELO shirt right off the bat. Humming along to the Fleetwood Mac song that played over the Mazak, I began to sift through the brightly colored plastic bracelets and necklaces that had been haphazardly thrown into a bin as though they were trash. Foolish mortals.
I would have to remember this store. It was a gold mine.
"We are supposed to be furnishing an apartment, Wynifred, not window shopping." I didn't even turn as Ilyan came up behind me, his eyes darting around as though everyone here was about to ambush him. He needed to calm down, I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. Besides, with how much money Ryland and Edmund were kicking around, they weren't going to be seen within five miles of this store.
"I am. I need clothes to go in my drawers if I am going to invite her over."
"And what drawers are you going to put those clothes in?"
I looked up at the furniture that was laid out on the other side of the store. All of it in nice rows, all of it nicked with peeling paint. It was all begging to be refinished and repainted, but for our purposes it would do just fine. Just from where I stood I could see a couch, love seat, TV stand, two dressers, two beds...
"Go buy all of that," I said, knocking my head toward the display. Ilyan wrinkled his nose. He had a certain aesthetic and that wasn’t it. "We aren't going to be here long enough for it to matter, Ilyan. Especially with Ryland involved, you know as well as I do that we need to get in and out even faster now. All of that will work for a girls night, then we can go back home."
I could hear Ilyan exhale, but I kept shifting through the jewelry before moving to the records. He followed.
"About that, I think we need to shift our priorities."
I froze, the Chicago vinyl slipping back into place on the rack. "From what? We aren't going to give her to them?"
"No. We need to find out what Ryland knows."
"I'm not going into that house.” I was firm. “I don't want to call you stupid again, but that's stupid. I mean, unless you want to blow our cover and start a war."
"I'm not saying you need to go into the house. Ryland doesn't know what you look like. You can get close to him. Get close to them both, find out what they know."
"I doubt he knows she's the one. She wouldn't be in a public high school if they knew. Hell, she might not be alive if they knew."
"I know. So, let's make sure we have the right girl. We need to know where her mark is. If Ryland knows. If he does and hasn't shared that with Edmund..."
I gave him a look before turning back to the records, shifting my fingers over the old albums. I already owned most of these.
"I'm not going to help you try to get Ryland too," I said to the records and Ilyan exhaled loud enough it sent a plume of dust into my face. "The last time you tried that you almost died."
"Ryland didn't kill me then, even though he was commanded too."
"We don't have enou
gh fire power." I knew it wasn't wise to fight with Ilyan, but he couldn't fight me either. He knew I was right. "I'll find out everything I can. But you can't push this, My Lord. Talon will be pissed if you don't get me back in one piece."
Our eyes locked, he knew I had won. He would never betray his best friend.
"I'll go buy that furniture."
With some careful negotiation and a little bit of bribery we were able to get the furniture loaded up in a few of the workers cars. It was only then that we realized we didn't have a place to take it. We had been holed up in a hotel and had clearly missed a step. Two phone calls and an internet search later, Ilyan had secured us a tiny two bedroom apartment that was perfectly placed between the school and Edmund's compound.
With the old furniture in place and a few boxes stacked in random corners it actually looked like we had just moved in.
Best of all, it gave me my own room.
Even with the door closed I could still hear the buzz of the news program that Ilyan was watching on a TV he had found by a dumpster. I was sure he could hear me, but I didn't care. My phone was out and I was pressing buttons before I had laid down on my ‘brand new’ lumpy mattress.
"Wynny?" Talon picked up the phone with a panicked gasp, he had clearly been waiting for my call. "How's everything going? You okay?"
"Yeah. We haven't bitten off each other's heads yet." Talon chuckled at that. He may be the only person who truly understood the extent of the tension between Ilyan and I. He had known each of us long enough. "But there's been some interesting developments." I cast my eyes to the door and the buzz of the TV. Technically I shouldn't be telling Talon anything, this was a 'mission' after all.
"You mean like Ryland already knowing the girl." Of course, I hadn't taken into account that Talon was Ilyan's second in command and therefore privy to far more than would usually be permitted.
"Yeah," I chuckled, falling back on the bed that was even lumpier than I imagined. This was going to be a long couple of days. "I guess that means this will take less time, though."
Less time, but it was getting more and more dangerous by the minute.
"True. You need to be careful, Wynny, and not just in keeping yourself hidden."
"What do you mean?"
"Now, you are dealing with not one, but two people that you know Ilyan would set down his life to save. He spent his entire life looking for the Silnỳ. She is to save us all, and you know his commitment to that. But with Ryland..."
I sat right back up, the bed creaking underneath me. "Stupid Skȓíteks. Why are you all always such martyrs?"
"It's how we were raised, Wyn. You know this," Talon's voice dropped an octave, his already low rumble vibrating the phone against my ear. I held it closer, as if we were both afraid that Ilyan would hear us. I focused on the door, on the strip of light right underneath it. "But as much as we need that girl, we need Ilyan more. If that girl is lost it will spell war. If Ilyan is lost..."
"It will spell the end," I finished for him, watching as feet moved over the light under the door.
Eleven
Joclyn
If it weren’t for the cat calls that echoed around the school halls the next Monday, I might have been punched.
“Get her!”
“Beat the weirdo!”
“Watch out, Joclyn!”
I swerved to the side at the noise and saw the angry, little fist whip through the air in front of my face. My quick movement upset my balance, and I tumbled to the ground, hood falling off my head as I landed hard on my tailbone.
One little punch and a crowd gathered around me, eager faces jostling over each other in their attempt to get a better view, many of them yelling ‘catfight’ over and over again. I looked away from them, unsurprised to see Cynthia pacing in front of me, her face screwed up in furious anger.
Seeing her fuming form made me cringe. Hell has no fury like a woman’s scorn. Ryland’s dismissal of her yesterday was going to cost me big.
“So, you thought you could show everyone how popular you are by paying some rich stripper to come pick you up?”
“He’s not a stripper.” The words escaped me without warning. While I should have been surprised that I had chosen to stand up for Ryland before myself, I was more surprised that I had responded to her taunts; I hadn’t done that in years. That fact didn’t escape Cynthia’s notice either; her face lit up in joyous expectation for the coming fight.
“Prostitute, stripper; it’s all the same.” She walked up to me, her high-heeled foot swinging wide in a poor attempt at a kick.
I swung out of the way, sliding against the floor and into the crowd who stood me up and pushed me toward Cynthia. I rammed into her hard, the push from the crowd giving her the perfect opportunity to throw a tiny, angry fist into my stomach. I cringed, but it didn’t hurt much. I had been sucker punched harder by Ryland when I was eight and we were fighting over Ninja Turtles.
Without any warning, Cynthia began clawing and slapping at my face, the only exposed skin on my entire body. I yelped in a panic and tried to fight back as best I could, but it was no use. She was hellbent on turning me into her scratching post. I pushed her away from me before her attack could get any worse, the palm of my hand slapping hard against her cheek.
“Leave me alone; at least I have friends who will stand up for me.” It was a lame retort and I knew it, but I couldn’t think beyond the burning in my face.
“Well, he sure isn’t your boyfriend. After all, who could love an ugly, useless, insignificant, little nothing?” She hit me hard in the stomach, and this time, I doubled over, the wind knocked out of me. The crowd around us yelled as I fell to my knees, my eyes watering.
Cynthia walked up to me and lowered herself down to whisper in my ear. Her bottom stuck out precariously, causing several of the boys to whistle. “Your own father didn’t love you, why would anyone else?”
My blood boiled under my skin. The truth of her words dug into me and fueled the intense pain and anger I always kept hidden. I could feel the necklace grow warm against my skin, the warmth fueling my intensity. Without thinking, I hurled my hand into her stomach in a pointless attempt to hurt her, to get her away from me, to humiliate her somehow. Instead of her scuttling across the floor on her ridiculous heels like I had hoped, she flew ten feet straight into the air. Her back slammed against the ceiling tiles before she fell like a rock to the ground.
The crowd went quiet.
What. The. Hell.
I stared in horror at Cynthia’s motionless form. My heart thumped wildly as I desperately tried to make sense of what had just happened. I didn’t know what had happened, but I did know I needed to get out of there.
I didn’t even bother to meet any of the curious stares that were trained on me, and I didn’t stop to check if Cynthia was all right. I just grabbed my bag, shoved the few things that had been scattered around the hall back into it and took off.
I held the bag against me as I power-walked away, my head down in my normal attempt to blend in. I hadn’t lost control like that in a long time. Okay, I hadn’t lost control like that ever.
Because I didn’t think you could lose control like that.
Throwing someone ten feet in the air? That didn’t just happen, right? I had heard of women lifting cars off injured people and defending themselves in times of danger; it didn’t seem likely, but that must have been what had just happened to me.
An angry warmth leeched out of me as I walked; my skin less persistent in its attempt to crawl away. The necklace that always seemed to echo my moods faded from a white, angry heat into a warm, calming sensation.
I turned into the hall that housed my locker, surprised to see Wyn leaning against the locker next to mine. Her eyebrows were about as far up as they could get. Had news of my superhuman feat spread that fast? I ignored her and caught my breath; I had no intention of discussing what had just happened.
“Tall, dark and handsome, eh?” Obviously, she hadn’t heard yet
.
“Don’t start, Wyn,” I snapped.
“Who is he? Why didn’t you tell me you had a boyfriend?” She spouted out her questions, but even I, the new friend, could tell she was restraining herself; she was dying to ask a million more.
“His name is Ryland and he is my best friend, not my boyfriend.”
“Didn’t look like a not boyfriend to me,” she said cryptically.
“He was trying to piss off Cynthia, just like you did.” I snapped my locker door shut.
“Oooo, a kindred spirit.” Wyn smiled as she fell into step beside me. “I like him more and more.”
“Not my boyfriend,” I reminded her.
“Yet,” she said pointedly. “See you at lunch!” She waved at me before running down the math hallway, leaving me to walk alone to English.
I slid into my seat just as the bell rang, my heavy book slamming into the old wooden desk. Mr. Heart hadn’t arrived yet, so I smoothed my hair and wiped my palm against my face to check for blood.
Even before Cynthia’s little catfight, I had been the recipient of taunts and insults all morning; all ranging from asking how much he cost to wondering how I did it. I didn’t give anyone answers and had kept my hood up more than usual. My carefully crafted ‘disappear into the walls’ routine had been broken wide open. I sighed and slammed my head onto the desk as Mr. Heart walked in, silencing the class immediately.
Mr. Heart got right to business, one of the few teachers to take the end of the school year seriously. A little more than half the class were seniors, and so, their minds had already moved to graduation. I, however, pulled out my notebook and began to take notes in preparation for the final exam in two weeks.
“Pssst.”
I heard the noise, and I could already tell whoever had made it was trying to get my attention.
Imdalind Ruby Collection One: Kiss of Fire | Eyes of Ember | Scorched Treachery Page 8