Soul of Flame (Imdalind Series #4)

by Rebecca Ethington

  His heart still beat strong under my fingertips.

  I didn’t question how he had survived the surge as I gritted my teeth together, my magic flaring into his in a pulse of fire, coaxing his growing flame to find life. I tried to keep the yell restrained in my throat as my magic tired, my body heaving in exertion.

  Dramin’s magic continued to grow and flare until it was almost what it had been before: a powerful torrent of ability and determination. It was more than that though: it was alive.

  I had saved him.

  I could feel the full torrent of his ability inside of him, his magic alive and well. My soul seemed to soar as I felt it, pulling away the layers of my magic from the now powerful flame of his ability, only to feel his magic flicker and die.

  “No,” I gasped as a weight collapsed over me.

  I felt his magic return to the ash it had been. It hadn’t been enough. Healing him wasn’t as easy as I had assumed it to be, no matter how strong I felt, no matter how my magic had guided me. My attempts hadn’t been enough.

  I needed a jumpstart, like an EKG machine or a car battery. The pulse had been an accident before, but now I needed to try. My lips pressed together in a tight line at the thought. Doing this was going to be dangerous. Too much magic and I would kill him, too little and it wouldn’t work. There weren’t any more excuses; I had to try.

  I needed more power, more magic.

  Before, I had taken it from Ilyan. I knew I still could, I could feel the gentle hum of his magic through the Štít, but I couldn’t risk waking him, not when I was so close to succeeding.

  A low rumble of thunder bled through the dark room, my head jerking up to the sound.

  I hadn’t only taken magic from Ilyan before.

  I smiled toward the dark storm that swirled through the window, the surge of the earth’s magic ticking over my chilled skin as it rode on the wind, relaxing me, energizing me.

  My breath came in staccato spurts as I pulled the earth’s magic from the air, my own swelling as it came in contact with it. My body ached the more I pulled, the more I worked. The exhaustion that weighed on me was almost enough to topple me over. I might have if it wasn’t for the deep strains of earth magic. The powerful waves moved through me like a soothing balm. The pure power was intoxicating.

  My body acted like a filter as I pressed my magic into Dramin, the dangerous power of the earth’s magic trapped inside of me, while the powerful strains moved softly into him. I layered the magic as I had before, the strong blankets moving one after another over Dramin’s heart, over the dying flame of his magic.

  I wanted to believe this would be easy, that only one jolt would be necessary, but I could already feel my hands beginning to shake at what I was about to do. Afraid I would succeed at killing him this time.

  I shook my head as the bitter taste of guilt filled my mouth, as I tried to focus on the way my magic felt inside of him. I could do this.

  I let my magic surge once more, the pulse strong, but I could tell at once that my nerves had depleted the strength. It wasn’t enough.

  “Come on, Jos, don’t be a wuss,” I scolded myself as I closed my eyes, ready to try again.

  Only to have another form of magic stop me in my tracks.

  Every nerve in my spine jolted in fear as magic the color of ice, and just as cold, struck my body.

  The wet chill of the unfamiliar magic wound down my spine as my heart shuddered in my chest. I gasped and tensed, my power surging as my magic bolted through my brother in a torrent of force. It should have been enough to end his life, but instead it did what I had been trying to do all along. Dramin’s magic ignited at the potent surge, his magic catching fire as the pulse of power spread through his body.

  I glanced at the dark room around me, expecting to find the source of the icy magic. Nothing was there, nothing but the heat of Dramin’s magic. I ran my magic through him, checking for injury, failing organs, anything. I felt nothing other than his magic as it coursed through him.

  I only hoped it would stay that way this time.

  I bit my lip as I stood, my hands unwinding from Dramin’s warming fingers. My breath remained captive in the expectation that his magic would flicker and die with the lost contact, but it stayed strong as I released him, the heavy flow warm and welcoming in the air around me. A powerful pulse of life now wound through him.

  I had done it; I had healed him.

  I didn’t dare move as I waited for him to wake and be whole, but he didn’t move; his magic didn’t flare. He just lay as still as stone, the same deathly sheen on his face.

  I clenched my hands together as I stared at him, not wanting to accept that after everything, I had failed, that even though his magic was alive, Dramin was still destined to die.

  I could feel my magic buzz through my fingers as thunder rumbled around me—desperate to try again—when the same icy magic I had felt minutes before shot through me again, the touch cold and painful.

  My magic surged in an attempt to find where the terrifying jolt had come from, to find out who was coming, but as quickly as the magic had come, it left.

  I stood still in the room, trying to steady my breathing as I scanned the dark, my magic soaring down dark hallways as I searched, only to find no one. I stretched out to the very edges of the abbey, but still, I felt nothing. No sign of the ice that had washed over me.

  Until it came again.

  Then the familiarity of the magic made sense. It was the feeling I had always gotten before Cail had come, cold like ice.

  My breathing picked up into frantic pants as the thought raged through me, my insanity trying its hardest to drag me back down to the nightmare that haunted me. I fought against the pull, against the fear, Ilyan’s song coming right to mind in a desperate attempt to cling to the good memories and not let the blood that ran down the walls take over.

  Still, I couldn’t stop my brain from screaming that Cail was here, that he had found me. Even though I knew he was dead.

  I needed to get out of here.

  My shoes slipped as I ran from Dramin in a desperate attempt to get away, to run from the nightmare that was so willing to drag me down. My feet sounded like bass drums against the stone walls, the heavy slaps of my shoes echoing in my ears. I opened the door and closed it without looking, not caring if it made a sound. My focus was only on making it back to my room, on getting away from Cail.

  I didn’t even get the chance.

  The cold magic flared again at the same time that something deep inside of me screamed in desperation. I fell against the wall right outside of Dramin’s door, my whole body seizing as footsteps even softer than mine made their way toward me, the familiar sound of his gait freezing me in place.

  Except it wasn’t Cail, and the knowledge of who it really was gave me no chance to escape.

  Ryland had found me.

  Seven

  “Jos!” Ryland’s voice erupted behind me, loud and unmistakably happy. I wished I could feel the joy that I had felt so long ago, but all I felt was the cold dread that I had lived with for months.

  I dug the soft pads of my fingers into the stone I leaned against in my desperation to escape, the sound of my heartbeat a bass drum that a normal human wouldn’t have been able to live through. It banged painfully against my chest as my voice ripped into a scream of panic that burst through the darkness around me, even though I knew my yell would do nothing.

  He had found me.

  He would hurt me.

  I could hear him walk toward me, his steps slow as the nightmares began to infiltrate my soul, my scream fading into a whimper. The cold, painful surge of what I now knew to be his magic flared next to me again, and I pushed myself into the wall as if it would give way and let me meld into it.

  Let me get away.

  “No, no-no-no-no-no,” I moaned, my fingers moving from the wall to knot through my hair. My chest pulsed angrily as it prepared for the bruises to come, for the bones to break.

  �
��Jos, baby,” Ryland said from over me, my mind distorting the sound into a menacing laugh, into the drip of blood.

  His footsteps echoed in my ears and I jumped, my fingers pulling at my hair with hard, little tugs that part of me hoped would wake me from this nightmare, convince me I was still safe. I pulled until I could barely handle the pain, until the soft touch of his hand against the skin of my arm made my magic explode.

  I jerked as the icy touch reacted with my magic in an explosion of white light and wind that rocked the ancient stone on which I sat. Strands of hair that I had pulled from my braid lashed around my face as I screamed in fear. Ryland’s angry yell was drowned by the crash of stone as the explosion pushed him through the wall across from me.

  I screamed at the sound, my voice breaking in sobs as my stomach knotted in fear. I moved forward on my hands and knees, desperate to get away from the yells, the explosions. To get away from Ryland, to get back to Ilyan.

  “You don’t need to be scared of me, baby.” His voice was rancid honey as it echoed through the hallway from behind me.

  I crawled faster, my frightened sobs covering the sound of his steps as he advanced on me. I wasn’t fast enough to escape him, though; I never could be.

  I screamed as I felt his fingers wrap around my ankle, my nails digging into the floor as he pulled me back, the fragile slivers of bone cracking under the pressure.

  “Help!” I screamed as hand over hand he pulled me toward him. My scream drowned into blackness as Ryland laughed deep and loud. He pulled me around to face him as his eyes flashed blue, his lips stretching into a smile. I tried to move away, to fight against him, but I was trapped; trapped underneath Ryland with nothing but my sobs.

  My mind spun at having him so close, my vision swaying and whirling as I continued to scream. I knew at once that it was not only fear that was making the world turn. I could feel my Drak blood flare in preparation.

  “No, no, no.” I gasped as blackness blurred the edges of my vision, part of me willing the red burn that preceded my sight to take me away from the horror I faced. I saw the tinge of scarlet in a flash of flame before the warm sting of Ryland’s hand against my cheek pulled me from the sight. I inhaled sharply at the pain, at the lost vision, when Ryland’s now disgusted face swam back into view. The knowledge of what I had done, of what Ryland now knew, sliced like a hot knife to the gut.

  “You’re nothing but a pathetic Drak!” he screamed as he moved away from me in disgust, leaving me clutching my swelling jaw in the dark. “All the power in the world and you waste it on that. It’s disgusting!”

  A sob broke from my lips as he yelled, the weak sound drowned by the repulsion in his voice, hearing what he thought of me. It was something that I had come to treasure about myself, and to hear it spoken about with such hostility—the words tore me apart, bit by bit.

  “Disgusting!” He screamed again, a sob ripping from my chest as I stretched my shaking fingers away from me, dragging myself away from him.

  “That’s okay.” The revulsion in his voice lessoned like he had flicked a switch, his hands pulling me back from what little progress I had made in my escape. “I can make you strong again.”

  His nails dug into my arms as he held me beneath him. The boy I had once loved glared down into me with more hatred, more disgust, than I had ever seen while his hand moved to press against the mark on my neck. Ice shot through me at the contact, the sensation painful and caustic as my magic rebelled against me, his hand jerking away as he felt the same reaction.

  “What did you do?” he roared, the ebony hatred of his eyes snaking up my spine, and I cringed, fighting for a desperate escape, even though I couldn’t move an inch.

  “I did nothing other than what you begged me to do!” I screamed, my magic flaring in distress, sending one strong pulse into Ryland, knocking him off his feet and to the ground right next to me.

  I turned and crawled away as fast as I could, my sweaty hands slipping against the stone before I was able to stumble to my feet and run away from him, find someplace to hide.

  “Jos, don’t leave me,” Ryland pleaded through the dark, his voice sounding so normal that I almost turned back. Almost, if it hadn’t been for the clanging of the pipes that filled my ears; if it hadn’t been for the memory of each and every one of his attacks. “Don’t leave me… don’t leave me… leave me. Leave me.”

  His words echoed through the halls that had become a labyrinth to me, his voice breaking in tears before his agonizing screams reverberated through the dark. I jumped at the noise, the fading sound replaced by the frantic pulse of my heart, by the agitated breaths that thundered from my chest.

  My hands guided me down the crumbling halls as I tried to fight the fears of the haunted torments that I had been infused with, but they were too strong. I could no longer find the line of reality, the line of what was safe and what was not. The world I had so recently escaped became the only world I knew, the hallucination taking over.

  “Joclyn! I will find you!” His voice again echoed around the stone, making it impossible to be certain where he was.

  My eyes darted through the darkened hallways as I ran, trying to figure out where to hide, my feet stumbling as I tried to find my toilet, find the room with the books.

  They were nowhere.

  I stretched my hand forward to pull me around the corner, only to fall back in fear at the slick surface that met my touch, the cool wetness that covered the stone. Blood dripped down the stone wall in front of me, my body tensing in horror at glistening patches of red that covered the pads of my fingers.

  “I-i-t-t’s… al-l i-in-n… y-yoooour h-head-d.” My stutter took over as I stared at my trembling fingers, the stammer so bad I could barely make out my own words.

  I backed away from the wall in raw fear, tripping through unfamiliar corridors, only to be met with a wide hand that tightened around my neck, the skin pulsing hot as his magic crippled me. The strong grasp coarse like sandpaper as he burned me.

  I tried to scream at the contact, but no sound came out, only my strangled cry as Ryland’s hand cut off my air supply. A sharp pain swelled against my skull as he smashed me into the wall, my lungs gasping as an ache inflated inside of me, my head swimming. My broken nails clawed at his hand and my lungs began to burn, my legs flailing as I kicked wildly in an attempt to get away.

  His hold increased as his smile did, the darkness behind his eyes blazing, his voice a low growl of rage in my ears. “Ilyan thinks he can keep you from me. Well, he’s wrong. You are mine and everything about you belongs to me.

  “You are mine! Mine… mine… mine!” He moaned again, his voice growing louder with each word as his instability increased. His eyes darted around the room as he mumbled the same word over and over.

  My jaw opened as I gasped for breath, my fingers continuing to dig into his hand as I tried to pry it away, to give my body the oxygen it screamed for, little stars of white popping in my vision. I fought the tears as I fought Ryland, my fear swelling in pain as my lungs burned.

  “Mine, mine…” His chant had turned into a sob when his hand finally released me from the wall, his arms gathering me into him as he held me against his chest.

  I wanted to scream at the contact, at his cold touch against my skin, but I couldn’t move. I could only lean against him weakly as I gasped in air, the pain that had swelled through my body trying to lessen with each breath I took.

  The burn in my chest left as his magic rushed into me in an angry torrent that ignited my fears. The painful cold of his magic provoked my own, sending a powerful spark out of my hands, right into his abdomen. I screamed as the magic left, the fear rumbling down my spine as the dark hallways filled with the sound of his scream. The flame hit him with a flash of light that shook the walls around us, sending him away from me and through one of the many wooden doors that lined the corridor.

  I watched where he had landed, my breath held in the hope that he had gone, that I was safe. But I knew better
.

  My soul screamed in horror as he pulled himself to standing, his chest heaving as he faced me. A prickle of panic ran across my neck at the black in his eyes. I felt the fear, the panic, but this time I felt something more, a wave of emotion that ripped through me. Anger.

  “I d-do… n-not bel-long… t-to y-you!” I yelled as I rose to face him, a line of fire surging toward him, only to have him snap his fingers and turn the weapon into harmless smoke.

  “You are bonded to me! I own you! I can kill you… love you… kill you.” His voice rumbled as he walked toward me, his hands clenching through his curls. His icy eyes bored into me, the look exactly what I remembered from before.

  I didn’t care what Ilyan said. It was him. It had always been him. It was Ryland who had always attacked me. And now he was going to pay.

  “Not-t anymore!” My teeth ground together as I sent a rush of wind at him in an effort to drive him away, but he didn’t so much as flinch from the power. He only smiled as he rushed me, his wide gait closing the last few steps as he backed me against the wall.

  “You are mine, always mine. I won’t lose you,” Ryland whispered, his voice hard and possessive as his hand wrapped around my waist.

  Not anymore.

  “I-I do not b-belong to you!” I yelled as I grabbed his hair, my fingers knotting through the long strands before I pulled him past me into the wall. My magic surged with strength as I bashed Ryland’s head into the old stones, the ancient masonry cracking under the pressure.

  I waited for him to scream, to call out in pain, but he stayed still, his breathing absent until his chest heaved in a low, menacing laugh that caught in my chest and ignited my fears. Fear as black as ice ran over me as he turned to face me, a thick stream of blood flowed from his hairline. The look in his eyes froze me in place for a moment too long. His blood-tinged teeth flashed in a smile right before a stream of red light surged from him, the red-hot burn flaring through my chest.

  Fire burned through me as I soared away from him, the agony growing as I blindly reached for anything to grab onto, to stop what was coming. I found nothing. My body hit against the rubble of the now destroyed hallway with a violent jolt. The snap of my body against stone echoed in my ears, and I cried out, an acidic burn moving through me as my back stiffened, my spine arching in agony.