Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Ella
Kaden
Ella
Ella
Ella
Ella
Kaden
Ella
Ella
Thanks for Reading
About the Author
Flame Stirred
Seeking the Dragon: Book III
by
Alexis Radcliff
Books by Alexis Radcliff
Seeking the Dragon
Flame Kissed
Flame Bound
Flame Stirred
Flame Stoked
Flame Slain
Copyright © 2017 Alexis Radcliff
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without express permission in writing from the author.
Ella
Kaden and I stood in the clearing in the twisted woods, staring down Vash Olkarian, a man with pale white skin who oozed with power and seemed utterly and completely unafraid of the Dragon of Alkazar, which was itself enough to send shudders of fear down my spine. Kaden had ordered me to flee into the tunnel back to my world, which was rapidly closing, but could I really just leave him here to face this person by himself after he’d risked everything to save me?
I watched Kaden’s hands burst into flame as he strode toward Vash and hesitated at the edge of the tunnel. I’m not sure if I just reflexively resisted Kaden ordering me around or if I was curious, even though I knew how serious it must be when Kaden told me to run.
Vash watched Kaden approach, unflinching. Little wisps of white trailed off of him everywhere, and I wondered if they were frost. Everything about Vash radiated the deepest cold as surely as everything about Kaden radiated heat.
“Where are your Aethling friends, Kaden?” Vash asked, his tone mocking. “Why aren’t you hiding behind your shining walls?”
“Shut up,” Kaden growled. “I’ll kill you myself.”
“I doubt it,” Vash said. His blade rasped as he drew it from its sheathe. It glittered in the light of day, pale and shining and translucent, like a thin shard of ice. “Your father couldn’t. Why should you be able to?”
Kaden snarled and lobbed a pair of fireballs at Vash. They hurtled toward him, sizzling through the air, but Vash flicked his wrist almost lazily and deflected them with his sword. They bounced off the thin blade and flew into nearby trees with explosive crashes that set the leaves aflame. But Kaden had already brought his hands together to prepare his next spell. A torrent of white-hot energy poured out from them in a solid beam of light that raced toward Vash.
This time Vash raised his sword in front of him with both hands and caught Kaden’s beam on it. The flames poured off of it to either side like it was a shield. Vash’s smile tightened into an intense sneer, and his eyes crinkled. Kaden remained standing where he was, pouring more and more magic into this pillar of raw heat, but Vash took a step into the beam and drove it back.
Slowly, the color of the energy began to change at Vash’s end. His sword and his eyes began to glow the same bright shade of cerulean blue, and the color pooled and spread into Kaden’s beam, pushing back against Kaden’s energy with a frost-tinted pillar of Vash’s own. Sweat broke out across Kaden’s body as Vash took another step toward him, and he grunted with the effort.
I knew I was waiting too long and that I should run for home just like Kaden told me to, but when I looked at Vash… if he was making an effort, it wasn’t much of one. His brows were drawn down in concentration, but his sneer remained fixed on his face. He took another methodical step forward and the blue portion of the beam inched toward Kaden. I realized with a sinking feeling that Vash was toying with Kaden, and he seemed to be enjoying the struggle. No wonder Kaden had sounded frightened. Who was this guy that could grind the Dragon of Alkazar under his heel with a little effort?
Kaden’s gaze flicked over to me as he groaned and struggled with Vash, and he forced his words out through gritted teeth. “What are you waiting for? Go! I’m not letting you die here…”
I blinked and swallowed nervously, swinging my gaze back and forth from the epic confrontation before me to the silvery tunnel that would lead me home. My family waited for me right on the other side. I could put the whole Ether-Realm behind me and forget about it forever if I just walked through now.
But if Kaden thought I might die here, that meant… It means he expects Vash to kill him, I realized. My heart pounded. Kaden had come to the woods to save me. It was my fault he was here for Vash to find. And if I left now, it looked like his fate would be sealed. My path home had cost Kaden his life.
I wanted to do something to help him, but what could an ordinary teenager possibly do to fight a sorcerer that was significantly stronger than Kaden himself? If I died trying in vain to help Kaden, it would just make his sacrifice meaningless.
My hand tightened on the strap of my canvas bag as I stood frozen in indecision. The question was simple: Could I live with myself knowing that I’d been responsible for Kaden’s death?
I moved before I’d even made the conscious decision, one foot pounding after the other as I raced toward the edge of the clearing. My hand wrapped around a softball-sized chunk of crystal debris. I took a few steps for momentum, and chucked it as hard as I could at Vash’s head.
The chunk tumbled end over end, sailing through the air, and missed Vash by a mile. His eyes flicked over to me as the crystal careened past his field of vision, and if anything his smirk deepened. Okay, so maybe I should have spent more time actually playing softball with Katie.
I looked around frantically for anything else that might help. The knife still glowed blue in my hand. Four inches of magically-imbued steel. It’d be hard to miss if I just walked up to him and drove it in. Vash had totally dismissed me. He stood turned away from me, his back exposed. I licked my lips. Could I actually stab someone? I didn’t see any other option. Kaden needed me. I gripped the knife tightly and started edging toward Vash.
Kaden dropped to one knee with a pained shout, straining under Vash’s insistent approach. His muscles corded, and his eyes narrowed at me. “Ella, what are you doing?” he growled.
Vash’s muscled back rippled under his black shirt, an arm’s length away from me. He still held his magical sword out with both hands, his attention fixed on Kaden. It was now or never.
“I’m not letting you die here, either!” I shouted, and I drove the knife into Vash as hard as I could.
A crackling explosion of blue energy flared out when the sharp, glowing point touched his shirt. Vash only stumbled a step forward, but the blast threw me back half a dozen feet while the knife spun away into the trees. I rolled over and pushed myself to my knees, groaning and shaking my head, although the bumps and scrapes I had all seemed to have come from the force of rolling through the brownish grass. Whatever was protecting Vash had deflected my blow. He stared at me angrily, still locked into his struggle with Kaden.
“Irritant. I’ll deal with you as soon as I’m done with this whelp,” he said.
“Please, Ella, run!” Kaden urged. His powerful voice was strained and breaking, and his face contorted in pain. Vash’s blue beam reached nearly to his hands now. I could see Kaden was about to lose, and while I didn’t know what would exactly happen when the blue touched his fingertips, it couldn’t possibly be anything good.
My body screamed with the aches from the blast as I climbed to my feet again, and panic clutched at the back of my throat. The silver path yawned. I might still have time to get away if I moved now. But the fear in Kaden’s eyes held me locked in place. The Dragon of Alakazar needed me. Kaden needed me.
If I could keep distracting Vash, maybe Kaden could think of something, or find some way to fight back. Attacking Vash wasn’t working. I racked my brain. What can I possibly do?
I don’t know what made me do it, but I opened my mouth and began to sing the same song Rhys had pulled out of me earlier. My voice was shaky at first, but then clear, crystalline notes poured out of me. The song filled the glade, pushing back the forest’s oppressive silence, and both Kaden and Vash turned their heads to stare at me incredulously, still locked in their epic struggle.
It seemed ridiculous, but I sang with all my heart. I fell into some kind of trance, losing myself in the song like I always did, and then I felt something warm surge inside of me and spread through my whole body. It extended out past my physical form into the air around me.
I blinked at Kaden and Vash. They both radiated auras now, bright and clear as day. Vash’s was a cold dark blue speckled by flecks of black, and Kaden’s looked like molten gold rippling around him. The auras stretched over their hands and braided directly into the sorcerous energy they held.
I can’t explain what happened exactly, but it felt like my song offered something to Kaden, and his molten gold aura seized it. A golden aura of my own sprang up around my hands, and it reached out and twined with Kaden’s. Suddenly I was part of Kaden’s magic, part of Kaden’s struggle with Vash. I could feel his strain, and I could feel Vash’s insistent push on him. Astonishment rippled across Kaden’s face, and I knew he could feel me the same way.
I pushed my energy through the bond towards Kaden, trying to help him force Vash back, and the blue beam’s advance actually halted. I didn’t understand what I was doing, but it seemed to be working! Hope surged as I sang harder, trying to feed Kaden more and more of this warmth that welled up in my chest. Kaden roared, rose from his crouch, and reversed the flow of Vash’s energy.
Vash’s sneer dropped completely, and for the first time a flicker of worry twitched on his face. I ran to Kaden’s side, continuing my song, and feeding more and more energy through the golden bond. Vash’s sword began to shake and waver, and he snarled at us as we forced his magic back toward him.
Whatever I was doing, it seemed to be feeding Kaden and making him stronger. His aura of molten gold grew redder and redder, like superheated metal. Our entwined auras looked like a glowing gold and crimson braid. The very air around me grew hot as I bolstered his magic and it fed back across our bond. It was a good feeling right up until minor motes of flame began to spring up in a swirl around us both, like sparks from a campfire blaze. Kaden’s face shifted to a look of horror and desperation.
“Ella, stop!” he cried, seemingly unable to stop me himself or break away from Vash.
But I couldn’t stop. Not when we were so close to beating Vash. Kaden’s beam almost reached his sword, and Vash’s hands shook with effort. He snarled and fought, retreating step by step. I sang on loud and clear, letting the notes ring out, letting the warmth rise up inside of me until I felt filled to my very brim. When the fiery sparks around me began to stutter into full-on swirling flames, I ignored the heat and scrunched my eyes closed tightly, pretending I wasn’t afraid.
A moment later an explosive blast rang out like a thunderclap in the glade. I stopped singing and opened my eyes to see Vash knocked back against one of the tall, crystal trees, shaking his head in a daze. His sword lay shattered in pieces at his feet. I could feel Kaden’s emotions clearly as he breathed heavily at my side: fear and hope, desperation and gratitude, and a shocking degree of tenderness for me. Flames still swirled around both of us, but then Kaden’s eyes blazed and something severed the bond between us. The warmth I’d felt died off, rushing back into my core, and the auras winked out. I reeled with shock at the sudden separation.
“Why did you do—” I asked, but then Kaden’s powerful hand wrapped around my arm. He swept me up into his arms, ignoring my protests, and sprinted for the silver tunnel. I watched Vash climb to his feet over Kaden’s shoulder. His eyes began to glow again with that unsettling blue light, and he raised his hands menacingly, but then we were through the threshold. Kaden flicked a finger back and the tunnel closed behind us.
Part of me wanted to demand that Kaden put me down and let me run myself, but part of me just kind of enjoyed swaying in his hunky arms. He carried me effortlessly. “Will that hold Vash?” I asked instead, nodding back to the sealed end of the tunnel. As though on cue, a loud boom shuddered against the seal that rocked the whole tunnel. Silvery lines spun angrily around us.
“Not for long,” Kaden muttered. “Hang on.”
I slid my arms around his neck and held tighter while his eyes glowed vibrant red again, and a door opened in the wall of the corridor, revealing a side passage that dropped off into a long silvery slide that faded into darkness with an alarmingly sharp slope.
“Wait,” I said. “You’re not going to jump down there—” My sentence shifted into a wordless scream as the sealed tunnel ripped open behind us, revealing a very pissed-off Vash storming toward us. Kaden leapt for the silver slide to nothing, carrying me with him. My stomach lurched as we descended in crazy circles, slipping along faster than any water slide I’d ever been on, and I closed my eyes and clung to Kaden’s neck for dear life. Vash’s furious roar chased us down, and then sound cut off altogether as we tumbled into a jangled heap, bouncing on something soft.
Kaden
I collapsed from the silver tunnel into the downy pillows of Ella’s bed, exhausted and battered, still shaking with adrenaline. I could see the telltale shimmer of Alkazar’s protective magic against the sky through her chamber’s window, bolstered once more by my presence within the walls, and I finally allowed myself to calm. We were safe for the moment. The tunnel had snapped closed behind us as soon as we passed through.
Vash’s appearance had caught me totally off guard. How had he found me so quickly? It had been years since I’d last seen him, and I’d always fled too quickly to test my might against him. Vash Olkarian was a figure of dark legend in my eyes, and I never expected to fight him until… well, certainly not for some time. What shocked me wasn’t that he was stronger than me, but rather how long I’d managed to hold him off. It didn’t seem possible. And then actually pushing him back and breaking his focal blade? Unthinkable. It had been incredible, for more reasons than one.
Ella rested with her face against my chest, breathing hard. The battle with Vash had torn my shirt to tatters, and her cheek was soft and cool against my skin. Her eyes narrowed and her hands slid up my chest, fingers lingering on my muscles. I thrilled at her touch. “You seem unharmed,” she said. “Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head. I longed to wrap my arms around her and hold her, but warmth bloomed in her cheeks and she snatched her hands away before I could. She pushed herself up quickly and surveyed the room. “We’re back in Alkazar,” she murmured. Disappointment tinged her voice.
“Yes.” I sat up beside her, wishing she’d lay her hands on me again. I’d been so worried about her…
“But we were in the silver tunnel, headed for home.”
“I diverted us,” I replied. “Vash’s presence changes everything. Neither of us would be safe in your world.”
She quieted and wrapped her hands around her knees. I longed to stroke her hair and comfort her, but I resisted the urge. No doubt it would be unwelcome at the moment.
“But once Vash realizes he can’t reach you, he’ll lose interest, won’t he? We just need to wait a while, and then you can take me home.”
I held her gaze in silence. How could I tell her that she would never be able to return to her family now?
“Kaden? You already told me I could go home
.”
“You kindled your spark,” I whispered. “You fed my magic. And you did it in front of Vash.”
“Is that what I did back there? Kindling my spark?” She gazed down at her hands. “I felt you through the bond…”
My heart pounded at the memory of her magic entwining with my own. I’d felt her as surely as she must have felt me—her passion and courage, her willingness to risk even death to save me. I wondered what blackness she’d seen in my heart. I’d been too busy fighting for my life to think about it. Rhys had said her spark was small, but when she’d kindled it, her magic had exploded in a roaring inferno of power like no human I’d ever seen. How could she wield so much magic untrained? Who was this girl?
But I also remembered my horror as my molten sorcery poured back across the bond. I’d watched the familiar embers gather around Ella from the corner of my eye, seen them swirl into open flames, and all I could picture was Faye and all the other girls who’d come after her, falling to their knees as they burned and crisped in the presence of raw dragon sorcery. No human was ever meant to touch such a blaze.
“Do you realize how dangerous that was?” I snapped. “That was inestimably foolish.”
“Excuse me?” Shock registered in her eyes, and then anger. “What part? Saving your life?”
I growled. “Any of it. All of it. Running away. Then not running when I told you to. Then kindling your spark to feed my magic. A few seconds longer…” I didn’t want to finish the thought because I couldn’t bear to say it out loud.
“And your magic would have burned me to death. Wouldn’t it?” She stared at me with wounded, curious eyes. “I felt the heat. That’s what Rhys meant. That’s why Valeria wants you to train me. You all want to use me for some kind of spell, and it’s going to burn me alive. That’s the truth, right?”
I swallowed. “I would never use you against your will in this way.”
Flame Stirred (Seeking the Dragon Book 3) Page 1