Scorched Treachery (Imdalind #3)

by Rebecca Ethington

  He snarled like an animal as he continued to attack Cail. His eyes were feral, his growl deep and menacing. I moved away until my shoulder could move no more, the desperate violence in his eyes scaring me.

  "She loves him, Ryland. Joclyn loves Ilyan more than she loves you. What are you going to do about it?"

  “Kill…kill…kill,” Ryland repeated over and over, his body rocking again.

  “What. Are. You. Going. To. Do?” Cail asked, each word stronger than the last.

  "I'm going to kill him!" Ryland pushed and tugged against the bars, his voice deep through his clenched teeth.

  "And what about her?" Cail asked, his voice still containing that menacing taunt. "Are you going to hurt her? Make her pay?"

  "Yes!" Ryland yelled, and Cail smiled more. “Hurt her…hurt her!”

  "She hurt you!" Cail yelled, his voice moving into a taunt, and I knew at once what they were doing. Cail had gained full control of Ryland’s mind. He was manipulating Ryland into believing things that he wouldn't believe otherwise. The lines of reality and manipulated horror were so blurred I could tell Ryland had no idea what was what anymore. .

  "Are you going to kill her?" Cail asked, the final brick in his bridgework laid.

  "Yes!" Ryland yelled, his feral growling against the bars increasing for a moment before it dropped, before Sain's hand, unseen by both Cail and my father, touched his back. The touch brought him back down to earth. The frantic movements slowed. Ryland’s body settled back onto the damp floor of the prison, his hands shaking as his fingers curled around his head.

  "No," Ryland gasped, his face horrified at what had just happened. “Nonononono.”

  "No?" Cail asked, even though his anger at the temporary glitch was obvious, his voice still held that manipulative tone. He didn't miss a beat, and Ryland began second-guessing himself.

  "But she hurt you," Cail stated, moving himself closer to the bars again.

  "It wasn't her," Ryland said, yelling as he tried to convince himself as well as Cail. “Wasn’t her, wasn’t her, wasn’t her.”

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "I know." Ryland lunged at the bars again, but Cail didn't even flinch, even though the raw aggression had returned to Ryland’s face.

  "The way she knows you didn't just try to kill her, for the second time?"

  Ryland's jaw moved as he tried to get the words out, but nothing came. Finally, two words left him, the conviction almost gone from his voice, "She knows."

  "How?"

  "She knows, she knows," he repeated.

  "Why don't you show her?" Cail asked, his lips twitching with a pleased sneer.

  Ryland's eyes widened as Cail pulled a double sided blade from his pocket, the metal of the blade bright red. It had no handle and no finger hold. It almost looked like a shard of jagged stone, sharpened to a point on both sides.

  Ryland looked at it as Cail extended it to him through the bars, his fingers twitching as he slowly reached to grab it. I couldn't take my eyes off the blade. I had seen these many times before I escaped, and seeing one again made my stomach turn. It was a knife made of blood and bits of soul. It had dark magic at its core, but I wasn’t sure what they were doing with the knife. I didn’t want to find out. I pulled against my chains, the metal clanking as I tried to move away, knowing there was nowhere to go. I couldn’t take my eyes off the blade, my breath coming in short little spurts as Cail held it between his fingers.

  "Tell her the truth, Ryland," Cail whispered, the last words all Ryland needed to hear before he snatched the blade from Cail's hand.

  Ryland held it confidently, knowing exactly what to do with it. He lifted his shirt to reveal his chest, the skin over his heart pock marked with line after line of stab wounds.

  Sain reached forward and placed his hand over Ryland's heart, the skin of his hand equally as scarred. I only looked at it for a moment before Ryland plunged the blade through Sain's hand and into his own chest. Both men called out in pain, and my screams joined them until the pair passed out, leaving my screams to fill the prison.

  Timothy took the final steps toward me, his body coming to stand right before the now open door of my cell. I barely saw him. I couldn't look away from Sain and Ryland's frozen bodies. I couldn't stop screaming. I expected my father to punch me again. What I didn't expect was for him to unchain me.

  “Why don’t you join them, princess?” Timothy’s voice was icy as he grabbed the chains that connected to the shackles on my wrist, one yank sending me to the ground as he pulled me over the cold uneven floor.

  I didn’t have to ask what he was doing. I knew. I skirted away from him in my panic, trying to ignore the frantic beating of my heart and the tension that had moved its way to fill every nerve ending in my body. If I could have moved into the wall to get away from him, I would have.

  I kicked and fought as he tried to take me toward them. My voice caught and screamed as I pleaded with him to leave me alone, to save me. It was useless. My fear seized into me in my desperation. Timothy ignored my pleas, pulling me by my chains, my body dragging against the stone floor as my feet kicked in desperation. I screamed again as he plowed my flailing body toward the collapsed forms of Sain and Ryland, my pained body trying to fight him but unable to.

  "Are we ready?" I barely heard Edmund’s voice over my screams as my father pulled my hand toward the protruding edge of the dagger. My body was unable to fight him, so my screams were the only defense I had against what was coming.

  "Almost, Master." My brother’s voice was cold, distanced, and almost excited.

  My screams turned to pleas as I felt the sharp point of the dagger press against the skin of my palm.

  "No," I begged. "No, Daddy, please no."

  "Sorry, princess," he said, although he didn't really mean it. "But you'll like this, I promise."

  I heard Cail and Edmund laugh at his words only moments before Timothy pushed my hand into the blade, my scream breaking through the air as my soul was sliced apart.

  Chapter Five

  I was floating.

  I was gliding through mist and water. At least, I think that's what it was. I couldn't be sure. After all, I wasn't sure where I was, or who I was. My body felt disconnected. Not separated from me, but separate. I couldn't tell where my arm extended to or where my leg was. I saw white and dark, and memories that I knew did not belong to me. I felt happy and sad and scared and anxious, but none of the emotions were mine.

  I was lost in a sea of everyone, a mist of white that gobbled everyone up and mashed us together into the confusion I now felt.

  The dungeon was gone. The pain in my body was gone. It was just me, floating through the endless mist.

  The last thing I remembered was the feeling of the blade plunging through my hand, the blade of souls. Is that where I was, trapped within the blade, just another nameless face to all those already killed by the dark weapon?

  Yes, I suppose I was.

  I floated and let the bits of souls wash over me, my body of smoke and cloud taking it all in, my cares gone.

  I floated. I was, and yet, I wasn’t. I was nothing and everything. It didn’t make sense, but I didn’t care that it didn’t. I didn’t care that everything was gone.

  "Sain?" A voice cut through the cloud of white. I was sure it was Ryland's, but it seemed younger somehow.

  I would like to say I turned toward the sound, but I am not sure I could. I was too lost in the fog, swimming in sea foam.

  "I’m here." My consciousness perked at the voice, my awareness clicking into place. "They brought Wynifred here too, Ryland." That voice, it wasn't familiar, and yet, I still felt like it should be.

  "Of course they did," Ryland replied, his voice floating to me through the damp, white cloud. "She is their bargaining chip now."

  "Wynifred?" Sain’s voice called out to me. "Don't be scared child, you are safe here."

  I would have loved to respond to him, but I still couldn't figure out how to speak, what t
o say, or even if I had a mouth to use.

  "You need to focus, Wynifred. Think about where your body should be, and it should appear for you."

  I gaped at Sain's words, the instructions foreign and awkward. I wasn't a body. I was mist. I was bits of everyone, and at the same time, nothing. How could I focus on a body if none existed for me? I heard Sain sigh and Ryland laugh, the sounds rippling through me. Why did they seem so normal? Weren't they screaming only moments before?

  "She's more stubborn than you were Ryland," Sain laughed, an impatient clip in his voice.

  "I'm just lucky you were here, old man, or I would have stayed a floating blob of other people's emotions forever. Well, until Cail forced me out, anyway."

  Is that what I was, a floating mass of other people's lives? Yes, I was. I had known this before.

  "I don't know why you count centuries of torture as 'luck', but I suppose I will take your word for it."

  "Did you feel that?" Ryland interrupted, his tone deep and panicked.

  "Is Joclyn falling asleep?" Sain’s voice was just as worried. "Is he here?"

  "No, it's something else."

  I heard their words. I liked the way they floated through me. It was not their words that I felt now; however, it was small fingers on my cheek. A cheek.

  Once I felt my cheek, my body fell into place, my mind detaching itself from the mist and the group memories that had plagued it. I felt my legs connect and step onto something hard, my weight dropping to the ground as my legs chose not to support me.

  My vision circled and flowed as colors took over the white, a forest floor crackling under my fingers. I had barely registered the pine needles before Sain rushed up to me, his hands moving to my shoulders as he inspected me for injuries.

  "Are you all right?" I looked up to face Sain, his face clean shaven, his hair short, and everything about him clean and well taken care of. I wouldn't have recognized him if it wasn't for his eyes.

  I nodded once.

  “You will be safe,” Sain said, and I couldn’t help but hear the heavy infliction in his voice, the way his tone dipped and wavered into something deeper.

  “So it is you?” I asked, the normalcy of my voice taking me off guard.

  “Yes, I could tell you my life story, but we simply don’t have time for it, nor do I think you want to hear my depressing tale right now.”

  He smiled sadly, his kind eyes still searching mine. I couldn’t return the smile. I just couldn’t. I was far too confused.

  “Can you stand?” Sain asked, his hands wrapping around mine and pulling me up before I had a chance to respond.

  “It can be disorienting at first, so don’t try to make too much of it. We are only here for a few minutes.”

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “This is where we wait,” Sain said as he steadied me. “He doesn’t know we are able to materialize. He makes us wait before he uses us as his pawns.”

  “He?”

  “Your brother.” I winced at Sain’s words. I tried not to, but I did. The memories of what had so recently happened to me were still fresh.

  Despite the effect Cail’s name had on me, I still didn’t understand where we were exactly. I arched my eyebrows at Sain and cocked my head in confusion, hoping to prompt him to continue, but his face fell, his head shaking dejectedly.

  “Nothing good happens now. What your father has done to you in the dungeon, that’s just the opening act.”

  “I thought you said we were safe here,” I said, looking around and still not understanding.

  “Not here,” he said. “Where he takes us afterwards. Just remember, it is only a dream.”

  I swallowed hard, the inflection in Sain’s voice heavy with fact and warning.

  "It's gone." Ryland’s voice was loud as it broke our conversation apart, leaving my hundreds of unasked questions trapped inside me.

  "What was it?" Ryland asked Sain, ignoring that I was there.

  "You control this place, Ryland, you tell me. It's just my blood that makes the connection."

  Ryland snorted and shook his head, his curls bouncing as he finally turned and acknowledged I was there. He stared at me intently, a million emotions set into his eyes.

  “Is she all right?” he said succinctly.

  I leaned into Sain, not knowing what to say or how Ryland would react to the little I did know. While I would like to say he was safer here, more stable, I could still see the anxiety, the exploding anger, behind his eyes.

  “I don’t know,” I whispered. “She has been in hiding with Ilyan. I haven’t seen her in months.”

  I watched as Ryland’s jaw clenched, his eyes turning to the chilling color of ice. I could feel the anger radiating off him as he walked away from us, his fist colliding with a tree, and then punching through it as the sturdy trunk turned to smoke.

  “Calm down, Ryland,” Sain said, his voice deep and fatherly.

  “How can I calm down?” he yelled, his voice loud. I flinched into Sain, feeling weird for trying to find comfort in him. “It’s been months, she says. Months! We have been tortured, used against her, beaten – for months. All while she has been on an extended date with her new boyfriend.” I flinched at his words, taking a step closer to Sain. I really wished I hadn’t said anything.

  “That’s not true, Ryland,” Sain said, his voice a calming beacon that Ryland didn’t seem to respond to.

  “He has his hands all over her!”

  “No, Ryland, don’t give in to Cail’s games. You know he is lying,” Sain pleaded as he moved us toward him. Ryland stepped forward, squaring his shoulders, but Sain didn’t back down.

  “How do I know?” Ryland spat, his anger fuming as he moved and paced.

  “Remember what I told you?” Sain’s voice was calm as he placed his hand on Ryland’s shoulder, the touch once again triggering a calm in him.

  “Only Joclyn can stop my father.” Ryland’s voice was tight as he spoke, his eyes unfocused on something far beyond us.

  “Yes, and who is the only one that can help her with that?”

  The temporary calm that Ryland had found faded away as fast as a slap. His breathing picked up, and his chest heaved, his eyes darkening into a deep icy blue.

  “I can do it.”

  “Ryland, I…” Sain tried to interrupt him, but Ryland exploded, and I jumped away from him.

  “I am strong too, stronger than him. The sight was wrong, Sain! It is me that can help her! I need Jos’s power to stop him.”

  “No, Ryland!” Sain roared, causing Ryland to stop in his tracks. “You must not take her power. That was your first mistake – when you foolishly sealed yourself to her. At that moment you were more in love with Joclyn’s power than with her.”

  “Don’t judge what you don’t know! I love her!”

  I was not one to hide by any means, but the volatility of Ryland’s emotions was terrifying. I looked around for somewhere out of the way, but all I could see was forest.

  “You did, Ryland, you loved her. But when you found out who she was, your love changed…”

  “No…” Ryland interrupted, his voice airy and desperate.

  I took a step back instinctively, not liking the fiery sheen that was taking over Ryland’s eyes.

  “You loved her magic more than her,” Sain said, his voice calm and level. “You loved what her magic could do for you.”

  “No, I need her magic.” Ryland sighed and shook his head as if clearing the thought from his mind. “I love her.”

  “That may be,” Sain said, his voice still low and comforting, “but this bond has only caused her pain. We have talked about this; you are not helping her now. You must trust in the sight if you wish her to end this.”

  “You just want Jos to be with a King, not a worthless Prince.” Ryland spun to face Sain as he spoke, the anger deep in his voice as he hissed at the old man, his face only inches from Sain’s.

  “I want her to live up to her true potential.”

&
nbsp; “And that is not with me?” Ryland asked, the deep root of his voice struggling to keep steady. Sain only shook his head.

  “How do you know, Sain?” Ryland spat, “Have you seen something new?”

  “You know I have no control over my sights anymore, Ryland. I see only what he would have me see,” Sain said, his voice a whisper against Ryland’s outburst.

  Ryland howled at Sain’s words, moving away from us to smash his fist through several more trees that turned to mist at the impact. Ryland stood still after disintegrating his eighth tree, his chest heaving as he watched the white mist float toward the empty expanse of sky above us.

  “Don’t give in to Cail’s taunts, Ryland,” Sain counseled. “If you give in, then he has won. Use this time to clear your mind. It’s the only time you are in control of yourself. Don’t let Cail’s words cloud you here.”

  Ryland stood with his back to us, his head bobbing once in understanding before he turned, his strides taking him right into Sain’s arms. The older man embraced him, his hands wrapping around him tightly. They said nothing, the embrace enough to convey all that was needed. Ryland moved away and came right over to me, his giant arms sweeping me up as he squeezed me against him.

  “I’m sorry, Wyn,” he whispered in my ear. “I’m sorry, I got so mad. I just can’t see the lies from reality anymore.” He dropped me and smiled. “My brain is a mess. All I can remember is Joclyn, but the details are all fuzzy.”

  I wanted to laugh at what he said; I could tell that had been his intention, but I couldn’t. I heard the honesty behind it, and it broke my heart. Edmund had tried to delete Ryland’s mind, but somehow Ryland had fought him. So instead, they turned to manipulation and torture. I felt my stomach swim, the lack of contents adding to my nausea.

  “If it wasn’t for Sain, I would probably be more of a mess.” He chuckled again, but I could only smile.

  Ryland’s awkward chuckle stopped as he looked away. Both his and Sain’s eyes turned outward as tree after tree began to vaporize, the white fog that surrounded us started as moving forward, seeping through the trees much faster than was natural.