Like rot.
Fifty-Eight
Ryland
I wasn’t sure I would ever feel warmth again. The cold of this cell had permeated so deep that my joints were frozen, my bones splinters of ice. They creaked as I shifted my weight, as though they would crack inside of me. Sain and I sat back to back against the bars of our cells as if we could trap all of the heat between us. If there was any heat to trap.
“Tell me again what happened,” Sain’s teeth chattered as he pulled me out of my doze, causing me to jump and hit my head against the bars.
“Ilyan took the girl. We beat them.” I said the words that my mind commanded me too. “We killed two. We were… we won…”
A pressure was building in my chest, as though something was there that was trying to get out. Trying to tell me that I was wrong. What I was missing.
“I know the information is in you somewhere, Ryland,” Sain hissed, the bars creaking as he turned to look at the back of my head. “Tell me what happened with the girl?”
That pressure grew at his question.
“The girl?”
“The one with dark hair. The one your father sent you to hunt.”
Cail and I had followed the pack of Ilyan and his men as they had fled my home. We had tracked them as far as an old motel in the middle of nowhere. But the girl was not with them. Ilyan was not with them.
We had set fire to the place anyway.
That memory was new, fresh, and it sent a zipline of terror through me, my heart constricting to an ache of loss that I didn’t understand.
‘You will find and kill the girl. You will do it for me.’ The voice of my father, Edmund, echoed in my head as he took control. The slimy words weaseling into my mind, into my soul, as he manipulated me.
“Tell me about Joclyn,” Sain continued, his voice hissing in my ear. He would have sounded like a villain, the low rumble of his voice a twisted growl, except for what he said.
What he said was like fireworks inside of me.
“Joclyn.” I repeated her name, all of those electric sparks moving through me. I didn’t know who she was, or why she mattered, but she did.
‘Joclyn will die.’ My father’s voice repeated in my head, but I roared against it, my scream lifting from my throat as my magic continued to buzz, feeling like something I could control.
“She is the girl.” I lifted from the bars, feeling the warmth of hope for the first time.
That was until the heavy metal door at the top of the old stone steps opened.
“Sain! What are you doing to my son?” Edmund roared as his and two other sets of footsteps began to race down to the dungeon after us.
All of the joyful energy flatlined at the sound of his voice, the rage of his yell echoing both against the cold stone and in my head. Sain whimpered and scuttled back to the dark corner of his cell, leaving me to face my father alone.
‘Do you really think you can face me? Do you really think you can survive it?’
“Yes.” The word in response was really more of a whimper, and my father chuckled with that deep mockery of his.
“Do you even know why you continue to fight me?” he asked, the words both in and out of my mind as he paced on the other side of the bars, like he was the trapped animal, just waiting to rip me to shreds.
“Yes.” I was even less confident that time, and Cail and Timothy laughed alongside my father, the two of them are never far behind him.
“Tell me, Ryland, who do you fight for?” He stopped pacing, Sain’s whimpers were the only sounds in the underground prison as my father’s ice blue eyes dug into me. Waiting.
I gave him the only name that came to mind, the buzz in my soul increasing as I said it again.
“Joclyn. I will fight for her. I will save her.” Saying that cracked something inside of me, some forgotten hiding space, opening to give me one shy smile and a sparkle of eyes. I didn’t know that it was her, and yet, there was no one else it could be.
All of that burning energy grew and I lifted my hand, sparks of my own making dancing between my fingertips.
“Always for her.”
I lifted my eyes to my fathers, determination buzzing through me as the magic grew. I only caught a glimpse of Edmund’s furious horror before Cail stepped between us and sent a strip of black and red right into my gut. The power impacted with a razor's edge, I felt as though I had been cut in two as I was thrown back, my body slamming into the wall only to slide down it. I couldn’t move.
I lay there like a rag doll as the iron door to the cell swung open soundlessly and the three of them entered.
“We need to dispose of him, sir,” Timothy snarled, nothing but hatred in his voice. “We have been trying to tame him for weeks. He will never bow.”
‘He will bow.’ I couldn’t be sure if the voice was in my head or out loud with how he was looking at me.
“I will never bow.” My voice was as weak as my body felt. “I will always fight for her.”
“He is too much of a liability. If he had fought when he was out with Cail… I will end him. Let me do it,” Timothy continued; his eyes eager at the possibility of ending me. The guy was even rubbing his hands together and licking his lips.
“Maybe you are right. If he will not bow, he is not worth the risk.”
‘Bow to me, Ryland.’
“No. Never.” The two words were near agony to say. It was as though the agonizing weight of Cail’s attack was growing, the edges of his power still slicing away. He stared at me with those dark eyes of his, his focus narrowed as though he was controlling it. As though he was searching for something.
“No!” I yelled, trying to move against the weight. Trying to fight against his prying eyes. “You can’t have her!”
My father raised his hand, ready to strike. I lifted my chin, ready to take it. Ready for pain. It never came.
“I found it. The connection is there, master. As you assumed.” The dark slices of Cail’s magic froze, his smile stretching as he turned to my father. All three of them grinning again.
“So, it was a Zȇlství.” Edmund said, even Sain shifted at that, a weird noise coming from him. They all looked at him before turning back to me, their smiles spreading.
“Wonderful, Cail. I want you to follow it. I think it’s time we take control of the situation.” Edmund squatted before me, his finger cold against my already icy skin as he traced a line over my jaw.
“You can’t… I won’t let you.”
“That’s where you are wrong, son. You will. Sain has already seen it. And, seeing as you won’t bow willingly, I will just have Cail control you. Perhaps we should have done this from the beginning.”
I tried to turn my head to Sain, to ask what he had seen. Ask how he had betrayed me, but the guy was nothing but a dark smudge in a dark prison as I felt Cail’s magic swell inside me.
“You thought you could keep her all to yourself, but now even she will belong to me.”
‘She will be your biggest enemy.’
“I found her,” Cail said through the ever darkening world. This felt different than when my father used me as a puppet, when I was still aware of what was going on. It was as though I was being pulled away from my own consciousness, and someone else was taking control.
“Good. Let’s turn him off, Cail. Let’s see what else we can find.”
I could have sworn I heard Sain gasp as the world faded to nothing, and the prison faded away to darkness.
Nothing but black.
My father was gone. Cail was gone. The jail was gone.
It was only me, standing before a girl with long dark curls and silver eyes. My mind pulled her name to life as though I had known it all along.
“Joclyn.” She smiled at the gasp in my voice, and I ran to her, ready to wrap my arms around her and pull her to me as I had a million times before. As I wanted to for the rest of my life.
Before I even reached her, however, that smile turned into something dark, the corner p
ulling up as Cail’s always did.
I stopped in place.
“Joclyn?” She just chuckled in response, and let her magic twist around me.
Attacking me.
Fifty-Nine
Ryland
“How could you ever think I wanted you?” The words were accompanied by a laugh that moved from high and rancid to low and demented.
I knew that laugh.
“Turn him off Cail,” Edmund’s voice echoed in my head as the world faded into the grey stone of the prison. My legs twitched, a gasp of a scream escaping as I writhed in an attempt to move away from Joclyn as she attacked me.
Over and Over.
But Joclyn was gone. The black nothing was gone.
It was just my father and Cail standing over me. Even Timothy had gone, probably off on some errand for my father.
“Good. Perfect,” my father said through a greasy smile. “This will work.”
“Yes, master.” Cail actually sounded winded. “The connection of their Zȇlství is strong. I can feel the tie, although it is well protected, I still think I can sever it.”
‘You think you can still protect her? Fool.’
“Wonderful.” Edmund stood quickly, his hands flying to his hips as he moved. The motion was so quick that it triggered something inside of me and I flinched, which only caused the depraved man to smile more. “Do it.”
Edmund looked giddy, Cail eager for what was about to happen. But all I could think was that I didn’t want this, that I didn’t want to lose her.
‘Lose someone who hurt you?’
She didn’t hurt me… that was… that was…
My mind struggled to find the correct answer as the two men stepped forward and Cail placed his hand on my shoulder. His magic shot through me, buzzing through everything and right into that line in my heart that I had protected. The line that connected me to her.
“No!” I yelled, attempting to push his magic away. He just smiled and pushed harder, his magic feeling like a branding iron inside of me.
I screamed, writhing as though I could fight him physically, but I was trapped.
Burning lines of iron lashed through me, slicing at that line that connected me to her. At her. I heaved, refusing to scream as I continued to fight him. He just kept slicing deeper.
“Stop! Stop Edmund!” The shout did not come from me, but from Sain, who was now pressed against the bars behind me, his face squished awkwardly. “You don’t want to do this!”
“Do you want to be next, Sain? Do you want to lose all control?” I could hear the threat in his voice, but Sain did not move.
“I don’t but neither will you.” Sain was strangely calm given what he was facing. “You know what I saw. The Zȇlství—”
“You saw the end of my reign! I will not lose this.” Edmund rushed forward, facing Sain within inches. Cail’s magic retreated at the outburst, giving me a moment to breathe. “Unless you have been hiding something, Sain. Have you been hiding something?”
“N...no...no… you know everything. It’s just…” Sain hesitated and I turned, my father so close I could see the red veins of fury in his eyes. But it was Sain who was looking at me, his green eyes pleading. “If you sever the connection. They both die. She will die.”
She will die.
‘She will die and there is nothing you can do to stop it.’
Something in me said I didn’t want that. I would be glad to die, but I needed to protect her. Cail’s magic stalled out, all of the knives of his magic slowing and leaving me feeling raw and open inside.
I sat, heaving, little pieces of a life I didn’t remember bleeding through the sawed off edges of my heart. The sound of a laugh. The touch of a hand. The glimmer of a laugh in a silver eye.
Joclyn.
I needed to protect her. I gathered up those shards of memory and shoved them deeper, locking them not in the box that I had built but in that warm spot in my heart that was just for her.
“I don’t care,” Edmund said with a snarl. “If they both die, then I still win. Besides if all of your sights have been correct, then killing her will end Ilyan as well. I can’t lose.”
‘And you can never win.’
“I can protect her, I will.” I was firm. He laughed, the sound driving me faster to hide her. To protect that line that connected us. To keep the connection strong.
“Ilyan is not connected to her. Not yet,” Sain hissed, face against the bars. “Your pride is blinding you. This path will lead to your end.”
“Master,” Cail interrupted and everyone turned. I froze, my heart rate rattling in my chest as I realized that Cail’s magic was still there. Still strong.
Following my own.
“What is it? Why have you stopped?” Edmund looked at me, clearly not understanding why I still wasn’t screaming. Cail was just smiling.
“He has blocked my path to the Zȇlství—”
‘You bastard! Fool! You will pay!’
“What?” My father was furious, but Cail was still smiling.
“But there is something more. Something better.”
“A connection better than a Zȇlství?” Even Edmund didn’t believe it, but I already knew it was true. Because I knew what Cail had found.
“No. No.” The sound was more of a moan.
“Yes. We might be able to pull her magic through to us. We might be able to control her as well.”
“How?” Edmund asked as they all turned to me. “Show me.”
“No!” I screamed, attempting to fight against them. But my body was still too weak, too tired. “You can’t have her! I will always fight you! I will never let you win!”
‘You will always fail. You are nothing.’
“Turn him off, Cail,” Edmund demanded as I screamed, as I fought. But it was useless, the world plunged back to black before I could blink.
I was left staring at nothing, Edmund’s laugh echoing in my mind as I heard her scream.
Sixty
Joclyn
I had been here before. But not in this dream. I had been here.
I had stood in the center of this clearing a hundred times and eaten pie, shared secrets. I had looked up into these trees and watched their long arms stretch to the sky, begging me to climb them. I watched them now, and although they were the same, something was terrifyingly different. Perhaps it was the color, or the way the branches cut a jagged edge into the night sky. A night sky that only existed in nightmares.
A thick mist swirled around my legs, picking up the light-weight cotton of my pajama pants. It crept over the forest floor in a dense cloud that wet my bare feet and made the forest floor look like a living thing with its rise and flow.
A deep growl echoed behind me and my body tensed, although I didn’t dare to turn. There was a pause as the mist continued to roll and swell before the growl returned accompanied by a warm, putrid breath against my ear. The deep sound rumbled through me as the fog swelled at the same time that the owner’s hard chest rippled against my back.
“Hello, Joclyn.”
Cail.
The fog took on substance, the sound of his breathing freezing me for a second. I could almost feel his warmth, his excitement, rippling off of him and increasing my fear. I felt his magic pulse, one influx of energy reverberating through the heavy sludge of magic inside of me. It was enough to serve as a warning. So I ran.
My feet carried me out of the clearing, plunging me into the pitch dark of the forest. I ran as my eyes adjusted to the black and starless night. The trees flew by me as I picked up speed, what was left of my own magic attempting to carry me faster. I could still hear his foot falls behind me from the crunch of the dying plant life as he passed, marking his progress.
He was getting closer, his breathing louder; he was almost right behind me.
“Run Joclyn, run to my master!” he yelled from behind me, but I barely heard him. I picked up my pace and ran faster, only to sense the world around me shift and change. I slowed as carpet
emerged under my dirty feet, the air no longer smelling so crisp and vibrant. Everything here was dying.
I looked down the hall. Once again I was in a place I knew, but nothing about it was quite right. The cream colored walls were dirty and covered with black spider webs of soot and flame. The carpet had been burned away in giant patches and part of the wall to my right had been blown away, leaving a gaping hole straight into the night sky.
I walked along the burnt fragments of carpet toward the door, a door I had entered almost every day of my life—Ryland’s. My heart thudded angrily in my chest as I moved closer, the slab of wood dangling by one hinge.
I ducked underneath it into his room, a room that was gutted by flame. Embers still glowed in the corner where fragments of his bed were scattered. I stepped cautiously around the partition to where his big, squishy couch sat. The sofa had been torn into pieces that lay haphazardly around the space, exposed stuffing melted into the carpet and walls.
“Jos,” Ryland’s tender voice spoke from behind the battered couch. “You came.”
I stepped around the couch, my feet guiding me to where he was burrowed into his collapsed closet. Embers of a still burning fire glowed near him, the light shimmering in his hair.
“Ryland!” I almost threw myself into him. He was broken and bruised, the way I had last seen him. His body was crumpled in on itself as he fought for control over his mind.
“What did you do to your hair, Jos? I always loved your hair.”
“My hair is long again, Ryland. See.” I pulled the braid Ilyan had given me around so he could see, but his eyes were focused somewhere off in the distance, his arms lifted slightly as if he was reaching for something.
“…Steal the car…” His voice faded in and out before he slumped even further. His body gave out as his arms fell.
“Ryland! Come on! We need to go.” I grabbed at him, summoning the sludge inside of me, determined to find some way to escape. My hands shook as I looked around, my heart pulsing frantically. There was nowhere to go.
Imdalind Ruby Collection One: Kiss of Fire | Eyes of Ember | Scorched Treachery Page 41