The phantom said nothing. They weren’t usually capable of speech, but they’d picked up my name from somewhere. Unless their whispers had been a figment of my imagination, of course.
“I don’t suppose you know where I can find an Akrith?” I didn’t expect a coherent answer, but I was desperate enough to try anything at this point. Even if the phantoms were the ghosts of living people, I had zero clue if they might have once been human or elf. It didn’t really matter, since they were little more than echoes, less substantial than the recorded tape of a living person left behind following their death.
I spotted a flicker of light behind the phantom, amidst the ruins of the collapsed wall. With no response forthcoming, I walked that way, and a transparent small figure appeared before my eyes. Around eight inches tall, he resembled a humanoid male, and from the blue sheen around him, he must be a water sprite.
“Oh,” I said. “Hi. Can I help you?”
“You’re the one who saved us from the tower,” said the sprite.
“I am.” Relief struck me at the sound of a disembodied voice which wasn’t creepily whispering my name. “I didn’t know any of you were still here.”
“You shouldn’t have come back,” said the sprite. “It’s not safe out here.”
“I had to,” I said. “I’m looking for something important.”
“There’s nothing here but death,” he said.
“And phantoms,” I added. “Were they… I mean, were they once the people who lived here?”
“I don’t understand phantoms any more than humans do,” he said. “But I’ve seen worse here in the ruins. I’ve seen… them.”
My heart climbed into my throat. “The Family didn’t build another warehouse, did they?”
They didn’t necessarily need to, what with the number of cantrips already in circulation. The earth mages who worked with them had spread the damn things all over Elysium and possibly further afield, though it was entirely possible there’d been more than one manufacturer. They never let the people making their cantrips live near their estate. Understandable, given the risk that they might have ended up turning on the Family and setting the place on fire like I had. It wasn’t like anyone had thoroughly combed the ruins in search of a second hidden warehouse, either.
The sprite didn’t answer, shrinking into the shadows. I turned around and nearly jumped out of my skin when the phantom appeared nearby, now with two others at its side. The whispers returned, echoing in a single chilling note. Bria. Bria.
One word repeated over and over again, like a warning.
Then I saw him, a solid figure standing atop a pile of debris, and my heart dropped like a stone from a great height.
Adair was here.
4
From the outside, some might think my brother and I were related by blood. He was tall and lean, with inky dark hair and a pointed face and ears. He kept his elven features on display for the world to see, stalking out in the light where I hid in the shadows. He hadn’t spotted me yet, but there was no use hiding when the slightest movement would make a sound that would alert his attention.
Ignoring the tension prickling at my skin, I walked until I was within his line of sight. When he saw me, his brows rose a little, then a smile broke out on his mouth. It was not a friendly expression at all. I swiftly dropped my gaze to avoid looking him in the eyes in case he tried using his persuasive magic on me.
Miles floated up to my side, facing Adair. “Hey, dickhead. Mind buggering off?”
Adair’s gaze went to Miles. “Too cowardly to risk venturing out of your hidey-hole in person, were you?”
“Nah, you aren’t worth getting out of bed for,” said Miles. “Why’re you sniffing around here, then?”
“Hoped I’d get lucky and find a rat or two.”
“Hilarious,” I said. “Did Lex and Roth send you? Or are they hiding out here somewhere as well?”
“They wouldn’t bother wasting their time on the likes of you.”
So they’d sent him alone. It wasn’t unusual for them to send him to run errands, but dealing with Adair and his mind-controlling power would be difficult enough. “Yet they have you wasting your time poking around these ruins. I guess nobody else was available, or they wanted you out of the way.”
His face flushed. “You don’t know shit.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
I did know he desperately wanted to please Lex and Roth, because I’d wanted the same thing, back when I hadn’t known any better. The Family’s lies had wormed their way into my head, and it’d taken years for me to begin to shake off their conditioning. They’d had years longer to work their spell on Adair, as the eldest of the pair of us, but he’d always been crueller and more willing to hurt others, while I’d refused to do so even before I’d known the depths of the Family’s depravity. All the same, their mild cruelties towards the pair of us when we were children were nothing compared to this.
“What made you come here, then?” he said. “Not the scenery, I assume.”
“Maybe I just felt like a walk,” I answered.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “You wouldn’t risk your life, or your precious friends, unless you were doing something important.”
“Well done, Sherlock,” Miles said.
Adair ignored him. “I could make you tell me.”
Miles drifted closer to him, unafraid. “You’ll have to go through me first.”
Adair narrowed his eyes. “I can hunt you down at your hiding place, along with those spirit mage friends of yours. I’ll make you beg me to spare their lives.”
My chest tightened, though I felt doubly relieved that I’d convinced Miles not to come here in person. I’d guessed right that Adair couldn’t use his powers on Miles when he was astral projecting. Ryan and Trix didn’t have that advantage, though. I could take Adair on alone, no problem, but not if Lex and Roth showed up to join him. They’d sent a message to the Death King that was tantamount to a declaration of war already. Dammit, I should have stayed away from the ruins until I had more of a plan.
“Why are you here?” My fists clenched. “Building more warehouses? Or do Lex and Roth have you creating cantrips for them instead of the elves? Did they tell you about the one they left on the Death King’s doorstep early this morning?”
Confusion momentarily crossed his features. “Huh?”
“I guess not, then,” I said. “I suppose Lex and Roth only tell you what’s absolutely necessary. If they’d sent you to deliver it in person, you’d have probably wound up getting yourself locked in a cell again.”
“I seem to remember you were the one who let me out of the cell,” he said. “Along with that friend of yours.”
Don’t you dare talk about Tay. Wanting to knock him off balance, I said, “As a matter of fact, I’m here because I was born in this town before the Family wrecked the place. Maybe you were, too. Do you remember?”
My words hit home, and he stared at me for a moment before his expression hardened with anger. “Does it matter? Lex and Roth did more for us than whoever gave birth to us, and you repaid them by throwing it back in their faces.”
“Lex and Roth set my home on fire and then stole me from the ruins and left my family to die,” I said. “They did the same to you, too, I’ll bet. They didn’t give us anything but trauma.”
“Enough of your bullshit,” he said. “The elves are a lost cause. They’re going extinct, and we’ll see to it that there won’t be any left standing to challenge us.”
What the hell was he talking about? “You’re here to look for the elves?”
“Of course,” he said. “Can’t have them picking the wrong side, can we?”
The Family was looking for the elves as well? Dammit, I should have known. Despite my reluctance to admit we had anything in common, they’d shaped my way of thinking, and they knew that if they were in my place, they’d be seeking out the elves, too. “Since when were Lex and Roth even interested in recruiti
ng elves?”
“Not those pathetic city elves,” he said. “The real elves. We already have one Akrith, and we can get more.”
“Am I supposed to know what that is?” I did my best to keep my expression neutral, but alarm flickered within me at the mention of the word. They have an Akrith?
Adair scoffed, but before he could say a word, Ryan fired a blast of air which slammed into Adair with the force of a speeding truck. He flew a good fifteen feet into the air and crashed to earth in a pile of stone and dust.
I grimaced at the sound. “Ryan, what the hell was that for?”
“I thought I should finish him off before his delightful adoptive parents showed up.”
“That won’t have killed him,” I said. “He’ll be back on his feet soon enough.”
“Time for us to leave, then,” Ryan said. “Come on, Trix. I’m done risking our necks for one morning.”
“Hey!” I said, as they made to turn away. “We haven’t even found what we came for. Trix, did you find any signs of an Akrith?”
“No.” He lithely stepped over the ruins, his mouth turning down at the corners. “If a single trace of the elves was ever here, it was lost a long time ago.”
“I bet it’s in their house,” I said. “The Family’s, I mean. Adair said they have one. The fuckers scavenged it first.”
“You can’t go to their estate again,” Miles said. “That’s exactly what they want you to do.”
“I know.” Now they had the perfect bait to lure me back into their midst, but I wouldn’t take it. I’d need to find another way to get to the elves instead.
“Don’t you even think of going back to them,” said Ryan, as though I hadn’t already got the message. “However urgent you think it is, it’s not worth your life or ours.”
I looked at Trix, whose concerned expression suggested he understood the conflicting thoughts in my mind. Not that knowing he understood made it any easier for me to deal with the knowledge that in walking away, I might have given the Family the chance to get to the elves first. “The Death King is the one who told me to get in touch with the elves, but if the Family has one of the Akriths, that doesn’t mean they have all of them. We still have a shot at finding one, if not my own, right?”
“Of course,” said Trix.
“Come on,” the Air Element insisted. “We’re walking targets out here.”
At Ryan’s urging, we began to retrace our steps out of the ruined town. As we walked, I said, “I think we can safely say we’re chasing the same goal, and the Family is ahead of us.”
“Bastards,” said Miles. “I’d be happy to throw that dickhead around for a bit, but I don’t think you’ll find what you’re looking for out here.”
No. We wouldn’t find anything but trouble, but the fact that the Family had decided to recruit the elves was bad news all around. I kept both eyes open for any signs of Lex or Roth, certain that if they did have an Akrith, at least one of them would be back at the house. Waiting—or hoping—for me to walk into their trap.
“How widespread are these Akriths?” I asked Trix. “I mean, what are the odds of the one Adair has belonging to my birth family?”
“Depends where they got it,” said Trix. “It’s unlikely they dug it out of the ruins on their own, though. Most likely they stole it from another elf or bought it from a trader.”
I pulled a face. “Thieving bastards. Adair implied the Family is looking to get the elves on their side, but I don’t see how stealing all their artefacts is going to endear them to anyone. Also, what did they mean about ‘real elves’, as opposed to ‘city elves’? What other kind of elves are there?”
Trix’s usually confident steps faltered. “It’s possible they might be trying to find an Akrith which contains enough of the power that once resided in our living trees, in order to open a way to the elves’ realm.”
My heart missed a beat. “To the what?”
He glanced over his shoulder as though worried about being overheard. “The elves’ realm was cut off when most of our artefacts were destroyed. None of us know if anyone’s even alive over there, but that’s where our Elders were last seen.”
“I didn’t know the elves had their own realm.”
“Neither did I,” said Miles.
“That’s because it’ll have been cut off around the time of the last war,” said Ryan. “Right, Trix?”
“Right, but there was never conclusive proof the connection was severed permanently,” he said. “In fact, a lot of us have wondered if it’s possible to open a way back, but most of the Akriths contain little power of their own and no connection to the trees from which they were cut. It’s commonly believed that a living elven tree is the only way to open our realm, and I’ve definitely never seen one of those in a long time. The mages burned them all down.”
My chest tightened, and the echoing scent of smoke from last night’s dream lingered in the back of my throat. “If the Family found a living tree, then would they be able to get through?”
“Can you imagine them seeing a tree without burning it down?” said Miles. “Whatever they’re doing, I doubt it’s the elves’ realm they’re after.”
“I don’t know, Adair did say he was looking for the ‘real’ elves. Whatever that means.” I shook my head. “Are there likely to be any survivors in their realm, Trix?”
“Yes, I think so,” he said. “The elves’ realm was more well-equipped for our endurance, so if they did survive, they’ll still have access to their artefacts and their weapons.”
Well, damn. If we were able to make contact with an army of powerful fighters and form an allegiance with them, it would certainly help our cause… but what if the Family got to them first?
“Would the war have caused the same level of damage to their realm as it did to the Parallel?” I asked.
“No more than it did to Earth, the humans’ realm,” Trix responded. “The mages wouldn’t have been able to fight the elves in their own realm, so they did the next best thing.”
“They cut it off so nobody else could get in there, either,” I concluded. “If the Family finds them, they’ll either slaughter them or get them to fight on their side. Like the Houses.”
“The elves would never join them,” said Trix. “They’d sooner die.”
My stomach lurched. “Yeah, that’s what I figured. We can’t let that happen.”
Miles cleared his throat. “Not to minimise the threat to the elves, but we’re already unlikely to be able to beat the Family as we are now. Not without a shitload of luck on our side.”
“I know,” I said. “But the elves are one of the few neutral forces in the Parallel, and if any survive in their realm, they probably won’t even know who the Family is, let alone anything else that’s happened since the last war. If there’s truly been no contact with this realm…”
“Exactly,” said Trix. “They won’t know the Family is hunting them down.”
No. The mages had resorted to simply closing the doors between realms rather than beating the elves outright, though, and if their magic was stronger in their own realm, then for all we knew, they would be a match for the Family.
Could we really count on that, though? It was safe to say the elves probably wouldn’t happily agree to an alliance with the Family once they learned of the atrocities they’d inflicted on their fellow elves, but that didn’t mean they’d join our side either. Especially given the scale of the damage of the last war, and the way the mages had used the aftermath to cover up the elves’ own history. The Houses certainly weren’t innocent, either, and nor were the other authorities in the Parallel.
“I didn’t know the elves built the citadels,” I said to Miles. “Did you?”
“No,” he said. “I always wondered why they were so resilient, but I assumed the materials they were made from were used up a long time ago or were destroyed in the war.”
“Yeah.” Discomfort rose within me at the thought that the Family had played a larger role in
the previous war than I’d ever known. Did that mean they knew how the elves’ realm had come to be cut off from this one? Had they witnessed it?
A scuffling noise came from within the ruins, and Adair surfaced in a shower of glass and stone. He didn’t look like he should even be standing, but he staggered towards us, his head lolling and his mouth half-open. Blood smeared his face, and the layer of dust on top made him look like a revenant. How was he still walking?
Adair kept moving. At every step, his feet dragged. Oh, hell. He was still unconscious… which meant Lex was using his body as a puppet.
“Run!” I shouted to the others.
We ran. Trix and flat-out sprinted using our elven speed, while Ryan kept pace with us by using their air magic to speed up. Miles, of course, could astral project ahead of us with ease, but even moving at our quickest didn’t make it any easier to navigate the crumbling piles of stone with a zombie-like Adair trailing behind us.
I leapt over a collapsed wooden beam and into the path of a revenant. Fire blasted from my hands, turning it into ashes, and I kept on running. I could hear crashing from behind us and risked a glance over my shoulder, where Ryan’s air magic flung debris into Adair’s face to slow him down. Good thinking.
As we rounded the corner, the node came into view. With Trix slightly ahead of me, I picked up the pace towards the current of energy.
As we ran, another bright light detached itself from the ruins. The phantoms were back, several of them, drifting across our path. Not ahead of us, but behind, until they formed a wall between us and Adair. I had no time to stop and wonder what the hell they were playing at, instead sprinting forward until the light of the node surrounded me. A heartbeat later, the others ran into view, and we all vanished at once.
I landed beside the others in an unfamiliar street, breathless. “Who brought us here?”
“I did,” said Miles. “We’re in Elysium, but nowhere near the Spirit Agents’ house. Thought it’d be a wise idea not to give that dude an easy way to follow us.”
Tower of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 3) Page 4