Imdalind Ruby Collection One: Kiss of Fire | Eyes of Ember | Scorched Treachery

by Ethington, Rebecca

  He looked at me with his wicked smile, his hand coming to wrap tightly around my wrist; pain shooting up my arm as he squeezed.

  “You know better than that,” he said as he yanked my arm and pulled my torso into him. “You can’t escape me, and you can’t beat me.” He laughed like it was a joke. I pulled my arm away sharply, my magic boiling through me.

  “You wanna bet?” I spat. I took one step back, twisting around to hit my hands hard against his chest. Even though my magic surged with the contact, the dream dampened it. It was still enough.

  Cail looked shocked as he stumbled back to slam roughly into one of the trees. When he had steadied himself, I prepared myself for his attack, but he wasn’t angry. He wasn’t going to fight back. He simply laughed.

  “It’s a good thing your magic doesn’t work here. With a temper like that, you’d be an awful lot of fun. I sure hope you don’t throw magic at Ilyan like that.” He clicked his tongue at me and walked closer, his strut making my stomach flip in disgust. “There he is, sleeping next to the one he loves, and you go ahead and kill him!”

  Cail laughed with all the humor he could muster and my stomach tensed uncomfortably, my eyes narrowing. How did he know where Ilyan slept, and that my magic presented in the waking world? He couldn’t. He had to be playing with me.

  “Ilyan doesn’t love...” I began to say confidently, but Cail clamped his hand over my mouth and pinned me to his side, his eyes flashing dangerously.

  “Don’t say it. You’re going to take away all of my fun, and we haven’t even gotten to our little game yet.”

  “I’m not interested.” My insides flipped at the mention of yet another game. I tried to get away from Cail’s firm grip, but he increased his hold, his hand turning into a claw against my face.

  “You don’t have a choice. You see those trees?” He jutted his chin toward the line of trees directly in front of us. I followed his line of sight, my eyes widening to see two bright-red trunks creating a doorway into the shadowy forest behind them.

  “I have hidden two very different things in there, and I am going to send you to find them.” I tried to fight him, but his hold continued to increase, his grip plastering me against his body.

  “One of them will kill you the second you are seen and the other will rejoice at your arrival. If you find the one who would kill you first, then the game is over and you will wake up. If you find the other, you have until I find you before your time here is over. So either way, it ends in your death.” He spoke lightly, my stomach dropping at what he had implied. I couldn’t take my eyes off of those trees.

  “Ryland.” I couldn’t stop the name from escaping. Cail couldn’t have been more pleased.

  “Yes, but which one? I am going to give you a ten minute head start.” I swallowed hard as Cail released me from his grip and sent me stumbling toward those red trunks.

  “Go.”

  I didn’t wait. I ran into the trees, my heart racing at the thought of finding Ryland. The real Ryland.

  The forest was quiet, the silence making the dying landscape even more terrifying. Desperate to get away from Cail, I ran for a while before realizing that my hurried steps would give away my approach.

  Magic may not work as a defensive tactic here, but it could work to my benefit. At least I hoped it would. I took off into the sky, thankful when my magic supported me as I sped through the trees.

  It wasn’t long before I caught a glimpse of something dark ahead of me and I slowed to a stop, my heart hammering in my chest as I hovered directly above Edmund. He stood tall in the middle of the forest, his dark curls slicked back. He didn’t move, nor did his eyes waver from the direction I had just come from.

  Cail had sent me into the trees on a direct route to Edmund, practically a guarantee that he would be able to torture me and send me back. I didn’t doubt that Ryland would be here as well, but he would be hidden.

  I found him about a hundred feet behind Edmund, his body limp and leaning against a tree. I dropped from the air, barely able to catch myself before I hit the ground.

  I moved toward him, stopping at the bright-blue eyes that met mine. He smiled at seeing me, his hand coming up to rest against my face as I knelt beside him, his thumb lightly tracing my bottom lip.

  I wasn’t even sure it was really him. This was a dream and not a Tȍuha after all, but I couldn’t ignore the fire that was steadily moving through my veins.

  “Is it you?”

  “I don’t know,” Ryland’s voice was forced, his tones strained. My heart dropped as I fought the need to run away. “I think it is. I remember a lot, but not everything. My brain’s messed up. I...” He stopped as his eyes met mine, the blue looking deeply into me.

  “It’s okay.” I said, placing my hand on top of his, leaning into his touch. I didn’t feel my magic pulling toward him as it always did, but part of me didn’t care if it was him or just another way to torture me.

  “I love you, Ry,” I whispered. “I miss you so much.”

  “I miss you too, sweetheart.” He pulled me into him, his arms draping over me limply. He lacked the strength to hold me to him.

  “I’m going to save you.” I pulled back, all of my magic flaring in determination. I couldn’t do it before, but I could do it now. I wasn’t foolish enough to tell him how strong I was now or where I was hiding, but I could tell him that I was going to save him.

  “I wish you wouldn’t.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t think you can, Jos, and I don’t want you to get hurt. Please, stay with Ilyan. He will protect you.”

  It was the rebuttal he had given me since the beginning, but it broke my heart to hear him say it again. Both of us had been through hell. If there was a chance I could save him, I was going to take it. Especially since Edmund and Cail were using him to manipulate and torture me every chance they got.

  “I can save you. I can’t let them hurt you anymore.”

  “While they what? Give you beautiful dreams and magical fantasies in our Tȍuha? I won’t let you go through it anymore. I’m going to break the Zȇlství. I am going to break our bond.” Ryland’s voice had gained some confidence, but his body was weak. Breaking the connection would probably kill him. It could kill us both. Maybe that was the point.

  “No, Ryland, I can’t let you do that. If you do, you will kill me. Do you understand that?” He balked at my words before sitting himself up, his hand reaching forward to grab mine.

  “Not if we do it at the same time.”

  “No.” I pulled my hand away, disgusted with what he was saying.

  “It’s the only way to save you, Joclyn. I have to do it. They are going to keep torturing you, can’t you see?”

  I stood up and moved away from him, shuffling my feet into the ground. This couldn’t be him. Ryland had sacrificed everything to complete the connection. He would never suggest breaking it.

  “No,” I said. “This isn’t you, Ry. This isn’t...”

  “Besides,” Ryland interrupted me, his voice even stronger than before. “It probably won’t even hurt you. You don’t truly love me anymore. If I break the connection, it won’t even affect you.”

  “What are you saying?” My voice was barely even above a whisper. “You can’t be... Ryland!” I dropped to my knees feeling pain so strong I couldn’t breathe. “Don’t say that. I do love you. Why else would I have gone through all of this to get you back?”

  Ryland shook and mumbled something I couldn’t hear before he pulled me against him, his arms gaining strength as he pressed his lips into my hair, kissing me softly. I moved at his touch, desperate to feel his lips against mine at least one more time. He looked at me right before he kissed me, seeming to decide if I wanted him to or not. I waited, my breath caught in my chest for the moment before our lips met.

  This was not a Tȍuha, it was only a dream. There was no electric connection, yet my heart still stuttered with the feeling of ecstasy that washed through me. I clenched my hand a
round his shirt, pulling him closer to me, and inhaled deeply as his tongue wiped against my lower lip. I groaned and leaned into him further. My body was begging him to deepen the kiss, but instead of answering my need, he pulled away, his eyes boring into me.

  “We need to say goodbye, Jos.”

  “Not yet.” I tried to kiss him again, but he recoiled.

  “It’s okay if you don’t love me anymore, Jos. I don’t blame you. Our connection has done nothing except cause you pain and misery. If anything that will make the severing of our bond easier.”

  My jaw dropped at his words. “Don’t play like that, Ryland. You know I love you. I…” I noticed a minute too late that his eyes were dimming to black. “No!”

  “Oh, yes.” I froze at the voice.

  Edmund snaked his arm around my neck and pulled me up; my feet left the ground as he flattened me against him, his strong arm cutting off my air supply. I gathered my strength and produced a large chain to wrap around him, but the magic turned to smoke in my fingers.

  He laughed in my ear as I sputtered, his strong arm causing my vision to pop much faster than I would have expected.

  “Watch your mate die, my son,” he said, his voice deep. “Oh, no, Joclyn. It doesn’t seem like he is too concerned. I guess he wasn’t lying. He doesn’t want you anymore.”

  I looked to Ryland, gasping out his name with my last breath, but he didn’t move. He just sat there, his body too weak to do anything, his dark eyes dim and unfocused.

  He didn’t even move as I gasped for air; as everything went black.

  I woke up in a start, gasping for breath as the panic at what had happened worked me up into a terrified state. I wasn’t screaming as I had been before, this time it was a howling sob. The sounds I made were those of heartbreak.

  I cried and called out to Ilyan, to Ryland, to anyone that would help me, but no one came. No one was there. I wasn’t sure if I was upset that no one came or glad that I had been ignored. I couldn’t have Ilyan or Ryland, and there was no one else I wanted to calm me.

  I turned in my bunk, my body calling out in pain as I moved to face Ilyan’s bunk where he continued to lay in his dimly lit hollow, his hair fanning over the edge of his stone bunk. I looked at him until my howls had died down into gentle sobs. I desperately wanted to go to him, but one move of my arm told me how impossible that was. Pain shot through my shoulder and my back, eventually traveling into my head. I gasped through the tears at the new pain.

  I was alone. Ryland, if that had really been him, was determined to break the bond. Wyn was gone. My parents were gone. Ilyan...

  I was supposed to be the most powerful of all, destined to do something huge that I didn’t even understand. It was as Thom said, I was like Atlas, holding the world on my shoulders, and try as I might, I would never be strong enough.

  I stopped; my pity-party halting in its tracks. Atlas. I had missed the whole lesson behind what Thom had tried to tell me. I had been too caught up in my self-loathing to have fully taken in what he said.

  Atlas had possessed plenty of strength. He had just been too proud to ask for help when he had needed it. It wasn’t strength that I lacked, it was stubborn pride that I had too much of.

  I didn’t need to be strong all the time. I needed to get over my insecurities and start to have faith in someone else to help me through it. I needed to stop hiding silently behind my pain and throw the emotional hoodie away.

  I was strong.

  I looked at Ilyan. He might be the one who could help me do that. At the very least, he was definitely the one I wanted.

  Ninety-Six

  Wyn

  Ryland was screaming again.

  All he did was sleep and scream.

  After we had all been released from the blood magic, we had been bound alone in our cells. Sain sat still in silence, Talon remained unconscious, and Ryland transferred between periods of waking and sleeping. His waking moments were spent screaming in agony about Joclyn, even strangling the bars of the cell as he attempted to kill her. What little he was awake, and not screaming, he always sat, rocking back and forth, as he mumbled promises to himself to both kill and protect Joclyn.

  It had only gotten worse after the last time they had forced Sain and Ryland to open up a blood connection, trying some weird plan that Edmund had. Ryland had spent two hours muttering that he didn’t love her anymore, that she didn’t love him, before he had finally given in to the torture Timothy had forced him to endure and became silent.

  Ryland had been driven mad by torture, the Vymȁzat and Cail’s manipulation. If it wasn’t for Sain and his support, I was sure Ryland would be much worse. They had been imprisoned together for over three months. Ryland had only been let out when Edmund needed his magic to track Joclyn—when he needed him as a weapon.

  And Sain… Sain’s magic was weakened to nothing by years of Edmund withholding the clay mugs. Without the mugs, Sain could not produce Black Water. Without the lifeblood of his magic, he was left weak and useless.

  We all were in the dark, both literally and figuratively, confined in small spaces, food never provided, a bathroom a thing of the past. The only luxury we knew anymore was the daily glass of water. One glass of filthy water and I dreamed of it as if it was wine.

  The whole room smelled of vomit, human excrement, and the heavy mildew smell I had noticed on my arrival. The odors hung in the air, heavy and physical. It seeped into our tattered clothes, our hair, and lingered in our nostrils. I would like to say that I had become immune, but the smell stuck to me. I had given up begging for water and food. I had given up begging for a bathroom. Each time I opened my mouth, my father would appear, the back of his hand at the ready and my query forgotten.

  We were in the middle of another of Ryland’s fits, and I could hear Sain whispering through Ryland’s screams as he tried to calm him, to silence him before someone came down.

  “Shut him up, Sain,” I hissed, my eyes peering through the darkness toward them and then back to where I knew the staircase was. I listened intently in the fear of footsteps.

  Sain whispered more, and I shifted my weight, the chains of my shackles rattling as I turned my body toward Ryland’s cell.

  “Shield him,” I hissed, but Sain said nothing. It was a foolish idea anyway. They had already heard him, and if they found out Sain still used what little magic he had left, we would all be in trouble.

  “Ryland,” I whispered, my voice joining Sain’s. “It’s okay. Joclyn’s okay.”

  Ryland only howled more, and my heartbeat froze as footsteps sounded on the stairs, the pace fast and quick. I shuffled back to my wall, my hands directly above my head, as a blue light floated down before Cail came rushing in, his face hard and angry.

  “Shut up, dog!” he yelled, the door to Ryland’s cell swung open without Cail having even touched it. Cail blinked once, and Ryland screamed in agony, the magic attacking him from the inside. I looked away, not wanting to see the physical blows that were sure to come. They always did. We all had our fair share of bruises and broken bones, and with no magic to heal us, we sat, useless and mortal in the dark prison.

  I pressed my face into my shoulder as the sound of flesh on flesh echoed against the stone. Ryland screamed until his cries turned to sobs, his sobs turning to whimpers, and then silence.

  Cail laughed, while the grind of the metal as the cell door closed echoed around the rock. Then, there was nothing. I didn’t move. I didn’t flinch. I kept my head rolled into my shoulder, my eyes staring at Talon’s sleeping form, silently begging him to wake up. I wasn’t sure if Talon waking up would take away my terror or add to it. I didn’t know what I would do if they beat him in front of me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut.

  I tried to focus on something good as I waited for Cail to leave, the prison silent with expectation. He didn’t leave, though. His breathing picked up before the squeal of the door to my cell sounded, the door opening slowly.

  “What did they do to
you?” he questioned, I almost didn’t recognize his voice.

  I couldn’t help it; I looked up as Cail walked in, and I recoiled. I wanted to plead with him that I had said nothing, that I had remained silent, but I couldn’t let the words filter to my tongue.

  My brother looked at me, the hard line of his jaw gone, his eyes soft. There was a look of hope in his eyes that I only remembered in the shadows of my memory. I glimpsed the look of the love and dedication that he had shown me as he raised me.

  “Does… does it hurt?” he asked as he kneeled in front of me.

  I couldn’t trust this. Brother or not, Cail only hurt those around him. Always. Every part of me recoiled as he kneeled in front of me, his hand moving up to touch the metal bands around my wrists. I gasped and moved myself into the wall in an attempt to get as far away from him as possible. The metal clicked as the shackles opened and my hands fell into my lap, my weak and pained shoulders unable to support them.

  “I’m sorry, Wynifred. Dad is mean sometimes.” I froze, my eyes wide as my breath caught, tears threatening. This was familiar, this voice and those words. I couldn't remember much, but I knew that this was the brother I had known as a child. He reached forward, and my breath stalled in expectation of a hit, but nothing came. Instead, his hand was soft as he reached out and it rested against my cheek.

  I stared into his eyes, the pressure against my cheek soft and gentle, and waited for my breathing to regulate. I couldn’t seem to gain control of it. Everything screamed at me to attack him, to run. Deep down, I wondered if that was what he wanted. If this was all a game to give him a reason to attack. Cail wasn’t like that, though. He didn’t need a reason. He just liked to cause pain. I couldn’t trust this, I couldn’t.

  My breathing calmed and my heart rate slowed as he looked at me. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on. Without my own magic to alert me to the change, I had missed the fact that Cail was calming me.