by Jenn Nixon
“I don’t know if this is the best idea…” Jack rubbed his thumb over his water brand.
“You said you trusted me.” Cyndra called the flames to her right hand and the energy to her left, letting the elements build and swirl around her fingers. “Mergan has been a caster longer than I’ve been alive. She’s been siphoning my power from Zorin. I know I’m close. I need full control.”
Do it, Cyndra. Rune projected, holding Jack back in the doorway.
Nodding, she stepped on the edge of the broken floor, towering over Rune’s enormous staircase and shut her eyes, allowing her elements free.
The flames licked up the side of her arm and shoulder, down her hip and leg, covering her left side in a glowing, hypnotic fire dance. The greenish-white energy swirled next, ready to come forth, and formed on her right side in one quick outward blast.
Cyndra’s arms lifted from her sides, crackling and churning with her elements, coating her skin with power, unlike anything she experienced. When her feet rose off the ground, Jack and Rune gasped and moved closer. Their worry filtered through the bond.
Are you okay? Rune asked, inching closer.
Yeah, she projected. I’m almost there… Zorin’s chaotic energy entered the mix throwing her focus. Cyndra pulled her power back, rested on the ground and glanced to her friends, both who seemed to sense his approach. “He’s coming. Block the doorway.”
“Is Mergan with him?”
“I don’t know,” she said, turning to the sky, searching for him and tensed when he landed behind her, saturating the air with his presence. She didn’t turn or alter her elements. She didn’t breathe.
“Release the barriers around the island. You have one hour.” Hearing Mergan’s words through Zorin’s voice broke her heart.
“No. Not until the mirror prison is unlocked.”
“It was not a request. Do you want your gargoyle back?”
Cyndra spun around, stared up at him, unable to stop her fire and energy from riding up her forearms. Jack, holding a ball of water in his hand stood shoulder to shoulder with Rune, already guarding them both with his fiery casterguard. She couldn’t let either get hurt, needed to keep Zorin’s focus on her.
“Let him go first, Mergan. I don’t trust you to keep your word.”
“Do you think I’m new at this?” Zorin’s face tightened. He growled and stumbled sideways, holding the side of his head.
“Stop it.” Cyndra jerked forward, grabbing Zorin’s wrist. He looked into her eyes and wrapped his free hand around her neck. Then he slammed her into the wall.
“Zorin!” Jack shouted as Rune dashed down the hall.
She held up her hand to them and secured the other around Zorin’s wrist. His grip, though strong, didn’t hurt and only served to strengthen the pull of his siphon. All the power she had evoked seeped out of her body and into him as his glassy eyes stared into hers. Speaking to his mind meant Mergan would hear her. Saying anything aloud was pointless.
Cyndra thought of the night before, letting all the sensation bubble into the siphon. Somehow, she had to remind Zorin what he was fighting for, what they both stood to lose if Mergan won. “Zorin, please, come back.”
A tear streaked down his cheek as his grip tightened. “He belongs to me. He doesn’t care for you. He doesn’t need you.”
Totally done with Mergan’s constant lies, Cyndra pushed all of her rage, her pain and loss, the years of struggle and strife, into her elements. Her fire and energy sparked instantaneously, whipping and crackling from her body.
“Oh, yes, caster, feed my monster.” Zorin rumbled, inching his body closer to hers, siphoning her power, untouched by the fire or energy flickering over her skin.
“Cyndra stop!” Jack said when the floor beneath them shook.
“Go,” she whispered.
Zorin dipped his head, moving his face an inch from hers. “Concede to my demands and I will let you live.”
Tell her you’ll do it. Rune begged, tears filling his eyes.
She shook her head. Hurry, Rune…
Cyndra felt the drain on her body. Her siphon opened out of need, trying to take back what she was losing. Rune’s fire and Jack’s water seeped into her veins. Earth filled her body. Zorin’s energy, though always there, amplified, teasing her libido and easing the ache of his tight hold. He was taking too much and she was trying to compensate. “Fight her, Zorin. I still need you.”
“He’s mine!” Zorin’s siphon doubled, draining her bones.
When a new sensation entered her siphon, Cyndra knew immediately what it was. The lids on Zorin’s eyes widened as if he felt it too. She took in Zorin’s unique aircasting power and her flames grew, the energy surrounding her turned a darker shade of green. Too much. Too strong.
Rune and Jack were gone.
Safe.
Zorin, still locked in Mergan’s command, absorbed her fire and energy even as he pressed his body against her like a shield.
Cyndra reached up with her left hand and touched Zorin’s cheek. I can’t stop it. I’m going to flare out. You need to go.
“Why?” Zorin released his grip and siphon, stepped away from her, smirking. “This is precisely what I wanted.”
Clenching her fist, Cyndra tried to pull it all back. Nope, she was right, there was no stopping this power from getting out. Fire and energy weren’t the only elements inside her now. The colors of the remaining elements mingled with her fire, altered the hue of her energy.
Mergan started laughing using Zorin’s deep, penetrating voice. “He thought you surpassed me? You can’t even control your powers yet let alone what you siphon.”
“Zorin?” The flames and swirling energy thickened and expanded truly beyond her control now. Without her crystal, without Zorin, she was heading straight for that flare out.
“See. He doesn’t care.” Mergan’s words rumbled out of Zorin’s mouth. “I will enjoy feeding off your gargoyle once you’ve popped. Maybe engage in some extracurricular play. He is quite good in bed, isn’t he?”
Cyndra’s eyesight went red. The fire and energy swept upward, lifting her arms, sparking through the tendrils of her hair, pulsing like her rapid heartbeat, fast and erratic. She rose into the air again, hovering above her gargoyle, watching his eyes widen with fear then instantly change to joy.
Zorin stepped away from her, pressing his back against the opposite wall of the hallway, lifting his head as she raised higher, flickering and burning with fire on one side, sparking and churning with energy on the other.
“Let’s hope she survives, pet.”
Cyndra’s elemental powers covered every inch of her body. The fire and energy met in the middle, merging and mixing, tempting her control. Blood dripped from her nose. Zorin’s pain seeped through their bond. She didn’t want to hurt him.
Go, please…
“Oh, no, caster, your power will be mine just like your gargoyle. He’ll never touch you again.”
Streams of fire shot out of her fingers. The energy surrounded her entire body. Flames thickened and grew, shooting upward just like the flare Mergan’s army had created.
Cyndra met Zorin’s eyes, clasped her hands together overhead, trying to direct all her power up to the ceiling. Her energy pulsed and vibrated off her skin in every direction, smashing Zorin into the opposite wall. “No!”
The flare erupted next, crawled up the walls, and covered the room in a blazing inferno. Zorin dropped to his knee, never taking his eyes off her, never losing the slight smirk Mergan forced upon his face. The red filter over her eyes dimmed. Weakness replaced the overwhelming power inside her body.
Cyndra smiled at her gargoyle, keeping his face in her mind as her power faded and she crashed to the ground.
Chapter 26
Cyndra dropped as if she were boneless. The rage coursing through Zorin’s body made him quake. He’d drained his caster, absorbed every molecule of power inside, and set her flare loose. Mergan’s laughter in his mind broke the last piece left
of his heart.
Even as a tear rolled down his face, he did nothing but stare at Cyndra, barely breathing, while she clung to life. Zorin was useless once again. Even with all her power surging and roiling under his skin, he couldn’t break free of Mergan.
No one could save him.
Her next set of instructions entered his mind. Zorin turned away from Cyndra, empty and shattered, extended his wings when he reached the end of the hall and took to the air. He circled around the mansion until he saw the two remaining casters near the stone walkway leading to the backyard.
“Should we go back?” Jack asked while Rune nodded. They both spun around when he landed on the top step near the back entrance.
What do you want now? Rune barked through the mental bond.
Help was the first thought to come to his mind but not pass his lips. Mergan’s chuckle echoed in his mind first, and then her words escaped next, “A truce.”
“Where’s Cyndra?” Jack barked.
“Where you left her,” he replied, gritting his teeth as Rune ran off. “Once she wakes, tell her to remove the barriers and we will never bother you again. You can free all those pathetic people from the mirror and let them finish destroying themselves.”
“How? How do we remove it?” Jack asked with desperation in his eyes.
“Cast from the lighthouse, see it in your mind, control your fucking powers, caster, and set me free,” Zorin barked Mergan’s unhelpful words. “You have half an hour now.”
“What if she’s not ready?”
“I’ll have Zorin drain you and the mute and feed her until she is.”
“They talked about you, you know,” Jack said, crinkling his brow. “All the casters knew who you were, said you were once beloved by those who considered themselves outcasts.”
“And families like yours treated me like I carried a plague.”
“I don’t know the history or the whole story, but I do know that using the bond between two casters, to manipulate them, will only end badly for you.” Jack frowned yet looked him directly in the eyes. “I’ll keep Cyndra safe, Zorin. Do what you need to do.”
“Obey is the only thing he can do. Twenty-eight minutes, not a second more,” Zorin said sharply then clawed up the far side of the mansion and jumped into the air, following Mergan’s sinister draw.
He found her in front of the mansion, waiting on what used to be the driveway. Without a word, he swooped down and scooped her up, using the momentum to lift them higher. She wrapped an arm around his neck and stroked the top of his ear.
Zorin didn’t dare look her in the eyes and flew even faster toward the port.
When he set her down, she stayed close, sliding her finger along his chin then down his chest, stopping at the waistband of his shorts.
“Did you see the look on her face, thinking I’d actually sleep with you?” Mergan threw her head back, cackling like the witch she was and held her chest to overplay her act. “At least I helped push her in the right direction, I’m certain you sensed she’s close to mastering her energy.”
Refusing to give her the satisfaction of a verbal answer, he dipped his head. Mergan grabbed his face, forcing him to lean over when she tugged him down. She lifted her brow. “Yes.”
“If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll do it.”
Zorin clenched his jaw.
“Perhaps I should fulfill the lie,” Mergan cooed, running a second hand down his chest. “She’ll never want you again.”
“She’s not as petty as you. She’ll know I had no control.”
“Does she fuck that well?”
“Jealous, Mergan?”
“Men do little for me, Zorin,” she said, slipping her hand beneath his waistband. “Seducing them, however, is easy.”
“I’m not a man, you saw to that.”
“Did you really expect me to just ‘poof’ make you stronger with no consequences?” Mergan spat, lifting her hand from his shorts and slapping him across the face. “I siphoned twelve casters to transform you. You understand that power, the craving.”
“What good will power do if you’re the only one left?”
“I don’t care, I want it back!”
“By killing all the casters…no—the missing crystals. Jack was right, there’s a barrier around them. How many are there?”
“Silence.” Mergan motioned for him to close his mouth. He did, narrowing his gaze on her as her face fell. “Silvio and Evie thought hiding the crystals from me and locking me in the mansion with his barrier would solve their problems. They’re the reason I began siphoning you. They’re the reason you craved so much power.”
Zorin wanted to grab her, shake her, and wake her up to reality, to show her Silvio and Evie had been trying to stop her from going too far. Mergan would never see it that way. Everyone was always against her, out to get her. People who stood in Mergan’s way and told her no died or found themselves trapped in a mirror.
Mergan snarled at him. “Those are the choices, my pet. The barriers drop, I collect the crystals and leave or she refuses and I’ll have you drain them all for me and blast this entire island with power and take my chances surviving.”
“And me?”
“Same choice as before, come with me and I will turn you back. Stay with Cyndra and remain the monster you hate so much.” Mergan shielded her eyes from the setting sun, huffing at the broken landscape that used to be the port. “I’m getting tired. I should make you take me to the lighthouse, show me where you hid for the last twenty-five years.”
Zorin went still.
“Oh, lighten up, I’m not that evil,” Mergan laughed. “Take me to that resort on the ocean side. You know the one.”
“Yes, I do,” Zorin replied and picked her up once again, taking to the air, hating the feel of her body in his arms, disgusted at the way she stared at his face as if contemplating her next round of torture. She stroked his cheek this time, taking Cyndra’s power then feeding him her distorted energy, keeping her control over his mind strong. When they landed on the beach, near the rundown resort, Mergan smiled up at him, caressing his chin.
“She doesn’t want you anymore, Zorin. She would have come after you if she did,” Mergan said softly. But I’m still here. I’m always here, in your mind.
Zorin shuddered and shut his eyes, trying to block her out, knowing it was impossible. Her snicker cut into his back like a hot dagger. She’d never release him. He’d never be free. Never feel Cyndra beneath him again.
Mergan’s face twisted as she jumped out of his arm. Her eyes darkened, obviously catching his thoughts. She lifted her hands, evoking her powers as if she had never lost them and directed the blast in his direction. “No, you won’t.”
Rune’s voice in her head was the first thing she heard when she came back to reality. Her head throbbed. After he helped her to her feet, Cyndra sighed with relief when he wrapped his arms around her and hugged.
Are you all right?
“Not really,” she replied, frowning along with him. “She’s already too strong and now she’ll have all my powers...”
What are we going to do?
“No idea.” Cyndra palmed the wall as she inched closer to the staircase. Looking down made her head spin. Rune clasped her elbow. “Don’t let go.”
I won’t, he projected with a chuckle and helped her down, only releasing her when they were firmly on the ground. When Rune sighed, she glanced up to see Jack jogged toward them not looking very happy. What happened now?
“Mergan.”
“You okay, Jack-Jack?” Cyndra asked, reaching out and clasping his hand when he neared. Jack nodded and squeezed her fingers. Then he furrowed his brow and opened his mouth. Cyndra cut him off. “You talked to her?”
“Yes.”
What did she say?
“We have twenty-five minutes to lower the barriers.”
“She’s out of her fucking mind,” Cyndra spat, shaking her head. “There was no way I can evoke a matchstick worth of fi
re in that little time, let alone take down barriers. And I…I don’t even know how.”
“Apparently you have to cast from the lighthouse, see it in your mind. Whatever that means. Patience isn’t one of her strengths. Maybe the journal can help,” Jack interjected, moving alongside Rune as they walked back toward the lighthouse. “I don’t have any other ideas. Rune?”
Feels like a no win situation. We remove the barriers she leaves to do who knows what in the future. We don’t and she’ll sic Zorin on us.
“And I can’t get close enough to the mirror without Mergan catching wind of it.” Cyndra hopped over the rock wall, keeping her eyes forward, wishing they had someone else to consult before making such a drastic decision. “Well, we have twenty minutes to figure it out.”
Jack and Rune sighed, bringing the mood down and making for an awkward and quiet walk up the lighthouse stairs.
Cyndra wanted nothing more than to find a hole, crawl in it, and cry for a week. She wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. Mergan’s words kept swirling and taunting. Her ability to manipulate, weave truth with fiction had gained her a strong following of lonely and loyal casters, like Zorin, who only wanted somewhere to call home. A community, like Rune said, of family, friends, loved ones, working together; a place she had often wished Turner’s Village would be. If her life had been different, Cyndra might have fallen for Mergan’s promises and faulty vision for the future.
Now, Cyndra was the key to changing everything as the sole energycaster and the only one who could even attempt to remove the barriers.
Once back at in the living area, Jack went right to the journal while Rune pulled out drinks for everyone. Cyndra set her sai on the table and felt her hands tingling with growing power. Although weak from Zorin’s drain, she seemed to recover quicker than last time.
Rune set three cups of juice on the table and took the stool at the head, motioning to the empty one at his right. Cyndra reluctantly sat and sipped the juice for a few seconds. One quick look at Jack and she knew what he was going to say.