“Whoops,” I whispered, sending the last of the guards running in the opposite direction, tripping over their own feet in a panic to get away.
“Don’t say anything,” I whirled on Sain before I pulled him past the molten man, making our way toward where I hoped Cail still was.
My feet picked up pace, knowing the fire in the orchard would only keep them busy for so long. Edmund was already onto me. I could deal with his minions, but I didn’t want to test my newly remembered strength against him directly so soon, if I could help it.
I ran forward, trying to focus on where Edmund might be, but he seemed to have disappeared.
The halls grew darker the closer I got to Cail’s magical imprint. The normally brightly lit lamps were covered and dark, the yells from the orchard fading into nothing.
I rounded the last corner only to come face to face with Edmund. I had hoped we would beat him here; obviously, I had been too optimistic. He stood between my brother and me, his arms folded over his black leather jacket as he looked me up and down. Cail was on a large bed behind him, the jagged red blade protruding awkwardly out of his chest.
I had seen the souls blade so many times over the last few weeks, but now that I had my memories back it gnawed at my heart until it ached.
That was my daughter. That was Rosy. If I wanted to free my daughter’s soul I would need that blade. Looking at it now, it seemed smaller, more fragile.
Just like Rosy when Edmund had killed her.
I clenched my teeth as I glared at Edmund, hoping my face would be enough to issue a warning, but he only smiled, my challenge greedily accepted.
“Out of my way, Edmund, or you’re going to lose another finger,” I growled, my magic moving through the rock toward him eagerly.
“You really think I am just going to let you leave after I worked so hard to dispose of everyone else in these halls?” Edmund’s voice was deep, a wicked gleam playing in his eyes. “You are the last one, and you are going to die, just like the rest of them.”
“Move, Edmund.” My fingers flexed as I watched him, unwilling to look away for a second. I wasn’t going to step down. I would not back away, not after I had come this far.
“You would risk everything for him, wouldn’t you?” he asked, my warning rolling off him like water. “Just as he would do the same for you?”
“Out of my way,” I snarled through my clenched teeth.
“Very well,” he said casually, shifting to the side and giving me a full view of the stone room at the end of the hall. I glanced at Cail’s sleeping body, my feet ready to take me forward, when a man moved to stand beside him, a large knife poised in his hands. I took one step forward without thinking, my blood pulsing with desperation.
“Nonono,” Edmund taunted. “Remember, he dies first and then you die, and if I am not mistaken, Timothy still lives.”
Curse Sain for talking me out of killing the old man. I was a fool to have listened to him. I should have known better. I should have expected Edmund to play this game.
My jaw clenched, my eyes glaring at Edmund before moving back to where Cail lay on the bed. Choose light, Sain had said. What was he thinking? Light and dark. I thought I had chosen correctly. Had I really chosen the wrong path? I wanted to say no, but I could hear the footsteps of Edmund’s army surrounding us, and I felt Sain cower by my feet, his practically useless magic no help to me.
That was fine. I had enough power for both of us.
I narrowed my eyes at Edmund, my lips turning up in eager anticipation. I felt the army surround us as their magic surged through the stone. The large stone cavern was now protected from every angle, trapping us in place.
For the moment.
Forgive me, Cail.
I surged my magic into the rock below me, sending Sain into the air as I tapped my toes to the ground, a deep rumble spreading out away from me like a ripple on water. The rock shifted as it opened up and swallowed those around me to the waist before solidifying again, trapping them in the stone. I didn’t wait, I knew I only had a matter of minutes to use this diversion, and we needed all the head start we could get. I took off into the air, grabbing Sain around the waist and cutting our bodies through the air toward the exit.
Yells and explosions echoed behind us as the rock I had trapped everyone in was blown apart.
“Wynifred!” The ripple of Edmund’s magic traveled through the air behind me and I twisted and dodged, afraid of what he might do to us.
It was too late anyway. There was only one way in and out of these caves, through the gate. You couldn’t even stutter in or out, Ilyan had seen to that.
The massive reflective carving that served as the gate into the underground circuit of caves towered above us—the large man sitting astride his horse, surrounded by a large intricate arch.
I angled us toward the carving, toward what appeared to be a wall of solid rock. Without stopping, I pulled us through the rock and into the large canyon on the other side, right into a large group of tourists that had hiked through the moss-covered trench to see the mirror image of the carving that we had just passed through.
Shouts of surprise echoed around us as a few tourists at the front witnessed our miraculous appearance from the stone.
I pulled Sain behind me as I plunged into the thickening crowd of people, the initial shouts drawing others from nearby. I didn’t care about their mortal worries right now, I had bigger problems on my heels. Like the fact that we were attracting too much attention, and I knew Edmund and his guards couldn’t be far behind us. I shielded us quickly, the decision only causing more screams of fright to echo round the canyon as we disappeared from view.
I moved us through the horde of tourists that had congregated around the ancient carving at the end of the damp canyon. The carving was known as the dwarves’ door to the tourists, but was known as the gates of Imdalind to my kind. It was those gates I needed to seal.
At this point, I did not care about the upset I caused. If I had, I might have been more careful, but my only goal was to get us in position before Edmund could find us. I needed him out of the cave before I could block the opening and seal him away from the wells of Imdalind.
I pushed people out of the way, causing more fear as people reacted to being manhandled by an invisible entity.
We reached the end of the line of tourists and moved around the edges of the crowd back to the side of the ornate carving.
My heart thumped in anticipation as I locked my jaw. The tourists had begun to settle down, forgetting what they had seen quickly, as is the case with magic—their fully mortal brains unable to process what had happened. There were a few others, the ones with un-awakened abilities in their blood, who were still so worked up that they were lingering on the edge of panic.
I watched and waited, trying to control my breathing as I placed my hands against the rock face. My magic surged under my skin, the pulse of it matching the hectic beat of my heart. I felt the magic surge again as it prepared to burn the rock and destroy the portal. I needed to find him first.
It was only a matter of minutes before I caught sight of him, my chest tightening at seeing Edmund in the middle of the crowd. He had appeared there, having shielded himself to get through the gate, but unable to maintain his cloak as he moved through the panicking tourists. Edmund was out. Timothy and my brother were still inside.
I narrowed my eyes and let my magic swell, filling the rock as I melted and morphed it with my power, as I urged it to shift. I was careful to keep the labyrinths of mazes intact, careful to keep Cail safe. I moved the rock until I was sure I had covered the entrance, hoping to block Edmund from the wells of Imdalind. Of course, I was also trapping Cail inside, and I was leaving Talon’s body behind.
Perhaps forever.
One Hundred Twenty-Six
Wyn
I stood beside the fused rock and took one moment to breathe. I risked more than I should have in closing my eyes to say goodbye. I looked into the blackness be
hind my lids and said goodbye to my brother. I thanked him for what he had given up to help me and then silently prayed he would be alright and that I would see him again. I said my final goodbye to Talon, the man who had loved me no matter what and had protected me from myself for a hundred years, helping me grow as a person and learn to love life. I placed my hand against the cold stone of the mountain and felt my magic surge, the heat behind my eyes growing as I fought back the tears.
Then the moment was gone. I shoved the pain and loss into the black pit of my icy heart and opened my eyes to the crowd of tourists. They snapped pictures of the carving, made crude signs in front of their cameras and complained about their lack of water. I heard them, but let it all wash over me as my eyes scanned for what I was really looking for.
My magic ran through the ground, serving as my sensor. My magic did not work as Ilyan’s did; it did not alert me to any power nearby. I had to scan through the ground.
My eyes narrowed as I found him near the edge of the crowd, surrounded by at least twenty of his men. Edmund stood still, presumably looking through the crowd for me.
My jaw set in a scowl as I looked at him, my magic pulsing in excitement.
I could take out at least three of Edmund’s guards before he could do anything. If the tourists surrounding them didn’t notice the men turning to pillars of ash right beside them, however, I would eat Thom’s ugly hat. I wasn’t sure that causing trauma for innocent bystanders was really my thing anymore, anyway.
I didn’t want it to be.
I needed to get to Ilyan and to Joclyn, so that together we could end this. As much as regaining the fire magic had benefited me, Joclyn was the only one that could stop Edmund. Fighting was not an option for us here, no matter how much I wanted it to be. Our best chance was to fly toward Ilyan’s ancient evacuation tunnel hidden in the catacombs of St. Vitus Cathedral in downtown Prague.
There were a few problems with this plan. First and foremost, it was in downtown Prague. We were currently tucked away in the mountains, and it would take me at least fifteen minutes to fly us there, if Edmund didn’t track us right away.
The Cathedral also sat in the middle of one of the busiest squares in the old town, and at this time of year, it would be flooded by tourists. I would have to be careful. I couldn’t let Edmund follow us, too many people would die. Too many people already had.
“St. Vitus.” Sain’s voice was a whisper next to me. I had almost forgotten he was there. I turned to face him, not daring to keep my focus off the crowd in front of me for too long.
“Excuse me?” I asked, alarmed that he had somehow seen into my head, which given who he was, probably wasn’t too far off.
“We are going to St. Vitus, but we need to go by the Orloj where Kadan put his clock. I must retrieve something or this escape will have been in vain.” His voice wasn’t normal. It wasn’t like when he was given the Black Water, but more like when he had told me of Talon’s death. Considering what Edmund had done to him over the centuries, it was amazing his sight was still part of him at all, but if this was how the remains of his power chose to make itself known, then I would take all the help I could get.
I grabbed Sain’s frail hand and held it in my small one. Our best bet was to fly, and if I could do this without detection, it would be a miracle. Digging my bare toes into the loose dirt, I let the power inside me build. It bubbled and boiled until my body felt like it was vibrating; the anger and power bleeding together in a torrent that flooded out of me. It raced through the dirt, and into one of the large wooden benches that someone had placed on the side of the path.
The second the power had filled it, I sent a pulse, one strong surge of magic that boomed through the air in a violent explosion. Fire filled the sky as the tourists screamed, the noise barely audible above the echo of the blast that bounced around the small canyon.
People raced down the canyon in their mad attempt to escape the blast. They ran into each other, children and women racing away as frantic men trampled over them. I could just make out Edmund as he turned toward the explosion, his eyes scanning the crowd for me.
I wasn’t stupid enough to expect him to run toward the blast. He was smart, and hundreds of years of working with him had taught me his weaknesses.
I dropped the shield around us, the lack of security making us visible to him, but making it easier for me to merge with the crowd. I didn’t wait to see if he had noticed us because I knew he would.
I took off running toward the now destroyed bench, my hand tight around Sain’s as I weaved us through the terrified hoard that was fleeing the scene.
Please don’t let anyone get hurt.
I shielded us again, hoping that our brief stint of visibility was enough time for Edmund to have noticed us and then sent my magic into a bench on the other side of the canyon.
This time, I didn’t wait for the pressure to build. I just sent the pulse into the wood and sent the shards of wood into the air in a fiery explosion.
The effect was instantaneous. The remaining tourists screamed and turned to run toward the narrow opening in the canyon that had led them here, the only way to truly escape. They panicked and screamed as they ran, and I was swept up with them as they fled toward safety, their exodus taking Sain and I along for the ride.
Edmund and his guards were forcibly separated as the crowd intercepted them, dragging them toward the bottleneck that was forming in the crowd.
At any other time, I might have expected Edmund to attack. He saw mortal life as useless, but they were his cover as much as they were mine. He was being smart.
So was I, and I couldn’t wait any longer.
I stomped my foot into the ground, sending out a pulse of energy that shook the mountain. It rippled away from me and sucked the energy out of the legs of all those within range. Mortals fell as the power surged through them, their primitive minds signaling an earthquake as they screamed in fear.
I kept the shield strong around us and took off into the sky, Sain’s body unsupported as he dangled below me. I couldn’t risk bringing wind to support his weight as that would be much easier for Edmund to detect. Sain would have to wait until I was sure we were not being followed.
Edmund and his men had fallen to the ground with everyone else, but they recovered quickly, and instead of searching the people on the ground, he was scanning the skies.
Crap.
He lifted his hand, his magic soaring through the empty skies. It would only be a matter of seconds before it would intercept with me, signaling to Edmund exactly where we were.
I felt his magic wash over me. It was the sign of the end, but I wasn’t going to give up without a fight. I turned abruptly in the air, changing course, hoping that he would assume I had continued in the same direction.
“Are they behind us?” I asked to still dangling Sain, careful to keep my voice low and controlled. “Are we being followed?”
“I don’t know…”
My jaw clenched. Of course, we were being followed. It was a stupid question really. My only hope was that they were following the wrong glare of the sun, the wrong gust of wind.
We sped through the air as farmland turned to city. The red-roofed buildings of Prague looked up at us as I soared over the narrow, cobbled streets and right to the center of the city, the small bend in the river serving as my compass.
I set my jaw and increased my speed. I could see the cathedral now and the clock was just on the other side of the river.
We were almost there.
“Wyn! Look out!” Sain screamed, his voice ripping me from my focus on our goal and straight to the car that had exploded from the ground below us, the large heap of metal making a beeline right for us. I screamed and blinked once in reflex. The car exploded in the sky.
“Well, if there was any question of where we were before…”
I swore loudly and spun out of the way of the explosion, drawing wind to support Sain as the exertion of my power caused my shield to evapor
ate. Not like it mattered, they obviously knew right where we were anyway.
I twisted my body through the air, searching for them, only to see Edmund streaming toward us, about three hundred feet behind. For one stupid second, I rejoiced that it was only him, but then reality caught up.
Crap. Edmund was right behind us.
I sent my hand out, my magic surging into a line of fire that worked itself into a wall, a barrier that I hoped would slow him down. The wall moved toward him, the attack lingering in the air as I dropped us toward the crowded streets below.
“Is he following?”
“What kind of question is that?” Sain yelled as we landed in a large courtyard before an ornate fountain, cherubs and snakes shooting water behind us. “Of course he is following us.”
Tourists scattered and screamed at our arrival, but it was only a horrifying backdrop as Edmund prepared to land right before us.
“Your magic… Can you help me?” I asked Sain, my eyes trained on the wicked man who was set on killing us both.
“Not unless you want to know what you are going to have for breakfast.”
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face, the wicked gleam floating up to Edmund who only smiled more.
“Get to the clock, then meet me at the Golden Gate.”
I didn’t wait for his response, it wouldn’t matter if he could get to the clock and back if I didn’t stop Edmund after all. Or at least slow him down.
That was realistically the only thing I could hope for.
I swung my arms wide, sending what was left of the tourists and residents away from me. They slammed into buildings and landed in the fountain, but I didn’t care. If I didn’t get them away, something far worse was going to happen to them. Broken bones they could recover from, melting skin they could not.
I let my magic surge through my feet. It connected with the magic of the cobbled street and grew as it rushed through the stones, shaking me as the road vibrated. The cobbles that had been laid thousands of years ago rattled and pulled themselves out of the ancient plaster they had been set in. They hovered above the ground as my magic seeped into them, heating them, melting them.
Imdalind Ruby Collection One: Kiss of Fire | Eyes of Ember | Scorched Treachery Page 94