Everblaze (Keeper of the Lost Cities Book 3)

by Shannon Messenger

  Each feeling rushed through her like a summer breeze, and she swirled them together, letting them spin into a mental storm. The energy was wild and unruly, but powerful.

  So powerful.

  It was the most powerful force she’d ever felt. And as it surged inside her mind, she knew nothing could hold it back—certainly not a silly circle of metal.

  She took a deep breath, readying her body to grab Grady as soon as his mesmer was lifted. Then she opened her eyes and shoved the warm energy out of her mind.

  Grady groaned as the wave hit him, and Sophie tackled him, rolling him away as the fireball crashed down beside them.

  She lost sight of Brant in the wall of flames, but she had bigger problems to worry about. Grady had gone limp in her arms, and his cloak was already burning.

  She tore off the flaming fabric and tossed it away, then grabbed Grady’s arms and dragged him as fast as she could move him. The Everblaze was spreading, but the winds were in her favor, and she dropped him behind a giant boulder, checking his pulse and making sure he was still breathing.

  “You should’ve let him kill me.”

  Sophie spun around to find Brant standing behind her, his blood-streaked face as wild as the fire behind him.

  One of his hands was gone. The singed stump was wrapped in orange cloth he’d torn from his robe. The other hand controlled another burning sphere of Everblaze.

  His scarred, bloody lip curled with a smile as he told her, “Now I get to finish this.”

  SIXTY-FOUR

  IS THAT REALLY WHAT YOU want?” Sophie shouted as Brant raised his arm to hurl the Everblaze. “Your own parents abandoned you—but Grady never did. Is this how you repay him?”

  “It’s how he repaid me,” he said, showing her his blackened stump. “But maybe I should let him live. Then he can wake up every day knowing he lay there useless as I killed another of his daughters.”

  Sophie’s hands curled into fists, feeling cold metal bite into her fingers.

  Her ring.

  She pressed the panic switch, not sure how Dex was going to help her—if he could even find her. But she was too drained to inflict again. Calling for help was the only play she had left.

  Well, she did have one other—but it might be the stupidest thing she’d ever done.

  “You don’t want to kill me,” she whispered, taking a slow step away from Grady to keep him safer.

  “No, I really think I do.”

  “You don’t. If you did, I’d already be dead. You had plenty of chances when I was your hostage.”

  “I had orders not to kill you.”

  “Orders?” Sophie asked, stunned to realize Brant wasn’t the leader. “From Fintan? Or was it the ogres?”

  “Nice try. And stop trying to distract me—it won’t save your life.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” Sophie asked, hoping she was right about why he was hesitating.

  She held out her arms, fighting the urge to cower and close her eyes.

  Brant didn’t move.

  “You can’t, can you?” she asked, lowering her arms back to her sides. She took a shaky breath as she asked, “It’s because I remind you of her, isn’t it?”

  “No!” Brant shouted, but his face said otherwise.

  And for once Sophie was glad she reminded someone of Jolie.

  “I know you didn’t mean to kill her, Brant. It was a horrible, tragic accident. Don’t make the same mistake again. Let me live this time—like you wish you could’ve done for her.”

  For a long second Brant looked tempted.

  Then he whipped back his arm and screamed, “If she doesn’t get to live—no one does!”

  “That’s what you think!” Dex shouted, charging out of the smoke and tackling Brant before he could launch his attack.

  They rolled across the uneven ground as the fireball crashed behind them, igniting the rocky soil and forming another fire line.

  “Dex, get out of there!” Sophie screamed as she grabbed Grady and tried to shake him awake.

  Whatever she’d done with the Inflicting had really knocked him out, leaving her no choice but to drag him as far from the fire as she could—which was only another hundred feet. Then she reached the sheer edge of a cliff.

  “I’m serious, Dex, we have to go—now!”

  “Do you?” Brant asked, parting the wall of Everblaze so he could walk through—and dragging Dex by the throat with his good hand. “Lovely gift you’ve brought me. A chance to take care of both the kids that got away. Remember me, boy?” he asked as his hand turned red-hot, searing Dex’s neck.

  Dex eyes watered and his body shook from the pain, but he didn’t scream.

  “So here we are again, Sophie,” Brant said, shoving Dex in front of him. “What is this—the third time today? Are you as weary of the games as I am?”

  “No—I just got here,” Dex answered for her. “Let’s keep playing.”

  Brant rewarded him by burning Dex’s cheek, leaving a finger-shaped blister.

  “Ready to lie down and die yet?” Brant asked him.

  “Not even close.” Dex shifted his feet to steady his balance. Then he spun around and punched Brant.

  It was a solid punch—square in the jaw. Still, Sophie was surprised when Brant toppled backward, rolling head over feet into the neon yellow flames.

  “Grab his arms!” Sophie shouted, hardly believing she was saving Brant as she ran to the fire line and tried to drag him free.

  Dex stumbled over, and together they pulled Brant’s thrashing body from the flames. He wasn’t as scorched as Sophie thought he would be—but he didn’t look good. His skin was covered in blisters and boils and he could barely breathe from all the coughing and wheezing.

  So the last thing Sophie expected him to say was, “Will one of you hand me the leaping crystal from my inner pocket? My arms are a bit immobilized at the moment.”

  Dex snorted. “Like we’re going to do that.”

  Brant laughed, the same breathy, haunting laugh that had filled Sophie’s nightmares for weeks. “I think you will. I have information you need—and there’s only one way I’ll share it.”

  “There’s nothing we need to know that badly,” Sophie promised. She was dying to find out if he knew about the ogres or the missing dwarves—but that information could wait.

  “Even if it’s about your friends?” Brant asked. “The ones who think they’re setting up an ambush for us today—if you’re wondering who I mean.”

  “How do you know about that?” Sophie shouted, pressing him harder into the ground.

  Brant coughed and wheezed in her face as he told her, “First, give me the crystal.”

  “He’s just saying that so you’ll let him go,” Dex argued as Sophie bit her lip.

  “Yes, but it’s also the truth,” Brant promised. “And if you hurry, you might still have time to save them. But only if you let. Me. Go.”

  “You can’t trust him,” Dex warned her, and Sophie knew he was right.

  But the fact that Brant even knew about the ambush proved he knew something—and she couldn’t waste any more time thinking about it. The ambush was happening now, and the Everblaze was closing in around them.

  “Pin his wrists,” she ordered Dex, making sure Brant couldn’t grab her or toss her into the flames as she peeled back the scorched fabric over his chest, revealing a tattered pocket with a slim wand crowned with a green crystal.

  “You could’ve used this the second we got here,” she realized, studying the strange pathfinder, wondering where the crystal led. “But you stayed to face us.”

  “I wanted revenge,” he growled, triggering another round of coughs and hacking.

  “And it cost you your hand.” She leaned closer, so her face was directly over his. “I will find you again—and next time you won’t get
away.”

  He coughed a wheezy laugh. “Where I’m going you’ll never be able to follow. Now. My crystal?”

  Dex tightened his hold on Brant’s wrists as Sophie placed the pathfinder in his blistered palm. Before she let go, she ordered, “Tell me what you know about the ambush.”

  Brant coughed again, and a thin stream of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “We’re on to your friends’ little plan. They’re going to cower in their secret cave while the dwarves attack, right?”

  “How do you know that?” Sophie demanded.

  “We have many ways. Just like we have many dwarves hiding in the mountain—far more than the Black Swan will be bringing. And they have orders to kill everyone waiting for them.”

  The words were still on his lips when he bucked his body, throwing Sophie and Dex backward. He groaned in agony as he raised the crystal to create a faint path. But his lips were smiling as he rolled into the light, vanishing in a vivid green flash.

  “Come on,” Dex said as he offered Sophie a helping hand. “We have to get Grady out of here.”

  “No—I have to go warn the others.”

  “Then I’m going with you. We’ll drop Grady at home and then—”

  “There’s no time. You heard him—we might already be too late.”

  “Okay . . . then . . . tell me where to find them and I’ll go while you—”

  “I’ll have to teleport there—if I can even remember what the cave looks like. I don’t know if I ever saw a picture of it and I—wait.”

  She patted her pockets, never so happy to feel her iPod. And when she touched the screen it sprang instantly to life.

  “Green Boots Cave,” she whispered as she punched the letters into a search and dozens of pictures of the disturbing scene scrolled across her screen.

  “This is all I need. I’ll teleport there while you take Grady home—actually, no, go to Everglen and tell Alden . . . what?” she asked when she caught the look on Dex’s face.

  She realized what she was forgetting before he even said it.

  “Right. I can’t teleport.”

  Dex reached for her forehead, but Sophie backed away.

  “You can’t Dex—they’ll know.”

  “You have to go, right?”

  She gave herself five seconds to accept that it was the only way. Then she nodded.

  Dex nodded too, closing his eyes and whispering something she couldn’t understand as he reached up and pulled the circlet off her head.

  Instantly her headache vanished and the world clicked into focus. Her mind raced through a dozen different thoughts and sensations, like her brain was stretching its weary muscles after being closed in.

  “You okay?” Dex asked as she rubbed her temples.

  “It’s like I can think again.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  She smiled sadly. “I have to go.”

  “Wait!” he said, pulling a wide black cuff off his wrist. “I know you probably don’t want any more of my gadgets, but did you see how far Brant flew when I punched him?” He flipped the cuff over to show her three silver rimmed slits. “These release an extra burst of air to thrust your arm forward a lot faster. I think you should wear it. Just in case.”

  She didn’t know what to say as he gently clasped it around her right wrist, just above her nexus. So she threw her arms around him, holding on with all the strength she had. “Thank you, Dex. Take Grady to Everglen, and make sure Edaline’s safe too. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  She gave herself one quick breath before she let him go. Then she ran to the end of the cliff, turning back to wave goodbye.

  She caught a quick glimpse of Dex tossing her circlet into the glowing flames of the Everblaze.

  Then she closed her eyes and jumped off the edge.

  SIXTY-FIVE

  A SHEARING WIND NEARLY KNOCKED Sophie over as she landed in a snowdrift on the narrow ledge of a vertical incline. She had about a second to celebrate that her teleporting had worked and she’d made it to Everest. Then reality kicked in.

  She hadn’t considered the toll it would take on her body to drop into such an extreme environment with no oxygen, or coat, or boots, or anything she needed to survive. Within seconds, her blood started to freeze in her veins, making her brain throb and her whole body shake as she lost feeling in her fingers and toes. She could vaguely see the rigid shape of a corpse in green boots amid the blinding white surrounding her, but her head was spinning and her chest was heaving and she was fairly certain she was dying—if she wasn’t dead already.

  She stumbled forward, and the motion made her want to vomit. Her limbs felt like they were dragging anchors, and all her instincts begged her to curl up in a ball and never move again. Only sheer desperation propelled her into the cave, which mercifully gave her a slight break from the relentless wind.

  But it was empty.

  It was just her and Green Boots—a fact she was trying very hard to not think about.

  She trudged to the rock face, searching for any sign of the door that was supposed to be there. But all she found was solid ice.

  Panic took over and she pounded on the walls, screaming for Fitz or Keefe or Biana or Dex or Alden or Grady—she couldn’t remember who was supposed to be there anymore. She could barely remember her name. And she knew she was there for something important, but she couldn’t remember what it was.

  At least she wasn’t shivering anymore.

  In fact, she felt . . . hot.

  Scorching.

  Her tunic was suddenly smothering her, and she thrashed and flailed, trying to make her numb fingers rip off the suffocating fabric. Before she managed it, strong arms dragged her into a dim cavern, which sealed closed behind her.

  She fought and squirmed as something metal was shoved over her nose, but the muscled arms held her in place as a gruff voice said, “Breathe, Sophie.”

  Sophie.

  Her name was Sophie.

  Her shoulders relaxed and she inhaled a deep breath of warm, sweet air.

  Then another.

  And another.

  Her head felt like it was filled with gray, sloshy soup, but she could feel tingles in her toes and fingers as her frozen body started to thaw.

  “Better?” the voice asked, pulling the cold metal away from her nose.

  When she opened her eyes, she found Mr. Forkle leaning over her in a small, low-ceilinged cave. A bubble of warmth, and—strangely—normal air, deep in the mountain.

  “Atmosphere stabilizer,” Mr. Forkle said, holding up a triangular gadget, like he knew what she’d been thinking. “Only works in small spaces. Think you’re capable of swallowing something?”

  Sophie nodded, even though her tongue had frozen to the roof of her mouth.

  He tipped her head back and poured a small vial of yellow-orange liquid through her lips. The salty serum thawed her tongue enough to let her swallow, and the medicine turned warm as it rushed through her veins, defrosting her from the inside out.

  “Better?” Mr. Forkle asked.

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “Good. Now. What were you thinking?” he shouted. “Five more minutes and I might not have been able to save you!”

  “Uh, this is Foster we’re talking about. Are we really surprised?” Keefe smirked when she sat up enough to find him in the tiny cave. “What—had it been too long since your last brush with death?”

  “Judging by the state of her clothes, I’d say her last brush with death was only moments ago,” Mr. Forkle said quietly.

  “Her circlet’s gone too,” Fitz said behind her.

  Sophie reached up to feel her forehead, stunned to realize he was right. She traced her fingers where the metal had rubbed her skin raw, and felt her memories rush back.

  “They know we’re here!” she shouted, jum
ping to her feet—and then immediately collapsing from a head rush.

  “Yeah, that’s the point, remember?” Keefe told her, pointing to the Sencen Crest pinned to his long white cloak. “Everyone’s in position.”

  “No—I mean they know it’s a trap. They have a whole army of dwarves waiting for us.”

  “Are you sure?” Mr. Forkle asked as Sandor rushed to a hairline crack in the wall and pressed his nose against it.

  “I detect nothing,” he announced after several deep breaths.

  “But your senses can be tricked, right?” Sophie reminded him. “Brant told me they’re here.”

  Sandor froze. “Brant? As in . . . ?”

  Sophie nodded. “He’s part of the Neverseen. He’s the Pyrokinetic who burned me—and killed Jolie. Grady went to confront him and it turned into this huge fight and Brant called down Everblaze and—”

  “Everblaze?” Mr. Forkle interrupted, rubbing his temples when Sophie nodded.

  Sandor knelt beside Sophie to check her more closely. “Was anyone hurt?”

  “Grady passed out after I inflicted on him, but Dex is taking him to Elwin. I didn’t mean to do it, but he’d already made Brant burn his hand off—”

  “Whooooooooaaaaaaa,” Keefe whispered. “Grady’s hardcore.”

  Fitz elbowed him.

  But Sophie nodded. “He really lost it. He was going to make Brant jump off a cliff, until I stopped him—but then the Everblaze went everywhere, and Brant almost caught me, so I called for Dex, and we almost had him trapped—but then Brant said he’d tell me what he knew about the ambush if I let him go, and I had to make sure you guys were okay—”

  “You let Brant go?” Sandor asked, clearly not thrilled with her decision.

  She wasn’t a fan of it either. But . . .