Last Stand (The Black Mage Book 4)

by Rachel E. Carter

  Ian’s nod was barely perceptible from the corner of my eye. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “On the count of three, Ryiah,” Ella said. “Then you run.”

  Go save Darren.

  It was the apprenticeship all over again every step of the way.

  “One. Two…”

  On “three” I took off, sprinting as fast as my legs could lunge. Ian’s defense kept off most of their attacks, but it did not keep my boots from skidding along the ice.

  I swerved right just as Ella’s powerful gust sent half the men sprawling against granite and snow.

  A second later, a blade came at my head. I swung with all my might. The impact with my speed sent the man stumbling back. Then I blocked another before it caught me in the ribs. Two more mages sent castings and Ella sent out another gust of wind.

  Only kill if there is no other choice. My friends were upholding their vow.

  The mages fell to more shouts, and Ian’s casting paved my defense. A part of me begged to help, but then their sacrifice would be for nothing.

  Now trust in us.

  I continued to run, slip-sliding along the ice until I reached a second narrow ledge. It led straight to a thick, towering structure of granite and compacted snow.

  The cave towered. Layers and layers of thick ice and black rock stood out like a palace of crystalline shards. It was so large I couldn’t see where it ended, only the beginning. The frozen stream ran along its entrance.

  Darren might not be here. But a part of me knew he would. If the overlook was as impressive as Quinn claimed, the king would be nowhere else. Were our roles reversed, it was the place I would pick.

  Bits of broken granite and ice littered the ground. My footsteps echoed along the tunnel as bits of wind whistled through sculptures of ice.

  Everywhere I looked, all I saw was blue, shades of the most brilliant hue. Icicles hung down from the granite and snow, drops of frozen rain paralyzing in their effect.

  An ocean of indigo water, suspended and hung, glistened like translucent oil under a fallen sky. All of it was so fragile and haunting. In all my life, I had never seen anything so achingly beautiful.

  Small bolts of the night sky peaked through little holes in the ceiling. Bits of moonlight and twinkling stars. Other parts of the cave were dark; I had to trace my hand along the icy walls.

  Eventually, I came across three twisting passages. Each time I let my compass lead the way. The overlook was east. It was the only reassurance I had.

  And, finally, I found my way to the brightest part of the cave.

  My heart caught in my chest.

  He was standing there, dressed in the black ceremonial robe and a crown, staring out at something beyond the ledge, his shoulders lit up by stars.

  He didn’t turn around.

  A fire crackled to his right, heating the outer ledge.

  The icicles near the entrance of the cave’s overlook dripped.

  Drip. Drip. Tiny raindrops of water hit the ground and the sound traveled back to me.

  I took a step forward, cringing as my leather boots scraped against stone.

  He still didn’t turn.

  But there was a sudden intake of breath. I wasn’t sure how I heard it. My pulse was now strangling my lungs.

  “I would have given you the world.” Darren’s back was still to me as he spoke. “And instead you took mine and destroyed it.”

  His words echoed along the walls, sending splinters of ice right into my chest.

  “So tell me, love…”

  The mage king turned around and his garnet eyes flashed as he took me in. They were burning with hate.

  “Tell me, my wife,” he said, “why I shouldn’t destroy yours?”

  18

  I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was stand there and stare.

  Darren had been waiting for me all along, and I had walked right into his trap.

  “You’ve always wanted to save the world.” The king laughed darkly and motioned for me to come forward with the casual flick of his hand. The black hematite crown gleamed as he turned toward the valley below. “Why don’t you come and see what you’ve wrought.”

  I knew what he was about to show me.

  And, for some reason, I still walked. My footsteps echoed along the cave as I approached the lookout and peered out over its ledge.

  Down below were hundreds of flickering flames. Torches and little bits of shadow raced in patterns, no bigger than ants. Thousands of men and women dressed in uniforms, battling late into the night. There were large catapults filled with fire and the clash of shields. The wind carried the sound of each cry to the precipice.

  And their screams as each one fell to the blade of a Crown’s Army knight.

  “Commander Nyx is dead.” I didn’t even have a chance to react before Darren continued. “She was one of the first when I dispatched my army.” He laughed. “Didn’t take much to figure out who your leader was after we found the keep empty.”

  All of the emotions I’d worked so hard to hide surged to the surface; my fingernails cut into flesh.

  “I told them your brother should be next.” He was still watching the crowd below. “They haven’t located Alex yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”

  “D-don’t.” The word came out a broken whisper.

  “Why?” He turned, and there was an inferno in his eyes. “You killed mine.”

  Darren took a step forward, and I instinctively took a step back. “Even after I spared Derrick.”

  “Darren—”

  “You could have run away and never looked back.” Disbelief and hatred were etched into every line of his face. “You could have spared Blayne—for me, Ryiah. For all that we were, all that you claimed to feel, you could have given me that. Even if you believed in their rebel lies.”

  I tried. I opened my mouth, but Darren wasn’t listening. The wind howled on the ledge and his rage built with every word.

  “I betrayed the one person I swore my whole life to protect for the one person that betrayed me.” He took another step and the flames lit half his face, the other shrouded in shadow.

  “I never t-told you because I… I didn’t want you to choose between us.” My voice was hoarse, and I could hear the desperation in my words. “I was trying to protect you.”

  “Protect me?” Darren’s sneer was cold. “The only one I needed protection from was you.”

  Inadvertently, I had let him lead me to the ledge. My back was to the drop. I swallowed, doing my best to hold still.

  Darren’s final step placed him mere inches from my face. The heels of my boots dug into the slippery granite and ice.

  “Still no weapon?” His eyes flared in the dark. “You don’t need to pretend to be the hero, love. We both know the villain is the traitor who called herself my wife.”

  “Darren, please, just listen—”

  His reprimand was sharp: “I heard enough of your lies the first time.”

  I took a step back. “I’m not going to fight you.”

  “Perhaps this will change your mind.” He raised his hand and produced a knife. In all of a second, he had dragged it across his wrist. Blood spilled freely onto the snow at our feet.

  Somewhere miles below, the ground exploded in light.

  I spun around to look, gasping, only to have the king grab me by the arm and send me hurtling back toward the cave with a jerk of his wrist.

  My shoulders hit the wall with a terrible thwack.

  “Time to find out who the best mage really is.” Two axes appeared in his hands. The iron heads whistled as he spun them by the haft. “You always wanted my title.”

  “D-Darren.” I was choking on air. “P-please don’t d-do this!”

  “The only way to truly know,” he continued, and I edged back along the granite, my fingers trailing the frozen edge, “is a fight to the death.”

  My teeth clenched. “I won’t.”

  The king laughed, and it made my stoma
ch go hollow. “If that’s your decision.”

  And then he attacked.

  A part of me refused to accept the hurtling blade flying across the cavern—not Darren, never the boy I loved—but another part of me, the part that had spent years honing an instinct to survive, knew better.

  My defense was a translucent sphere, something so intrinsic I didn’t even stop to think. The casting rose just as our eyes met across the way.

  And then I ran as my sphere shattered from his axe.

  Darren yelled as my boots skidded along ice.

  “You can’t run forever, Ryiah.” His voice reverberated through the passage as I pitched forward and ducked to the right. “Sooner or later, you will have to fight.”

  A moment later, another axe found the corner, a whisper’s width from my head.

  Chunks of ice clunked to the floor.

  I spun, casting a metal shield as the Black Mage sent out a bolt of ice. How fitting. I sucked in a breath and my defense shifted to a wall of fire before the ice could find a way to my hands.

  There was a pool of water at my feet.

  “Please…” My words were stuck in my throat, and my hysteria was rising. This wasn’t supposed to be us. “Darren, this isn’t you!”

  “You don’t know anything about me.” He spat the words as a hoard of knives rose above his head. “You never did. You only saw someone you could use.”

  I threw up my hands and a wall of stone caught his attack. The force of his blow, however, was enough to send a wave of pain down my wrists. Darren wasn’t holding anything back.

  Panic flared in the pit of my chest.

  “Just listen to me!” I shouted the words as I ran. I would not return his attacks; I couldn’t. “I never lied about the rebels!” I ducked around a formation of ice as a ball of fire hit not two inches from my neck. The flames hissed and sparked as a trickle of water wound down the column of ice.

  “Blayne wasn’t who you thought he was! You were always blind to his cruelty—”

  The entire barrier shattered like glass, like it was nothing. Little shards of wall crumbled into crystalline studs.

  I dove, my heels digging for traction along the ice.

  But this time, I wasn’t fast enough.

  Darren’s casting caught me in the ribs and slammed me against another column of ice. The impact rattled my bones, hitting along every point in my spine, so hard and so fast that I lost control of my defense. My magic ceased. I choked on my own blood, fighting the upsurge in my stomach, as I dropped to the floor on my knees.

  Darren made no motion to follow up his attack; instead, he stood there watching me, two yards away, toying with a bit of cloth he had tied around the slim cut at his wrist.

  “I was going to run away with you. Did you know that?”

  His confession was so abrupt that every muscle in my body halted in place.

  “I didn’t believe a word you said, but I had made up my mind. Paige would get you to the docks, and I was going to come find you after the war. I knew it was wrong… but a part of me just couldn’t let you go.”

  “Darren.” My voice cracked. I’d had no idea.

  “I was prepared to turn my back on Jerar. My family. The Crown. This robe. Everything I had ever known. For exile with you.” His eyes shot to mine, and I saw twin pools of fire. “I would have died before I let my brother take your life. I would have done everything in my power to save you even after all you had done…” His words shook as his hands fisted at his sides. “And then you took his life instead.”

  My whisper was hoarse. “I d-didn’t mean to—”

  “You think I enjoy this war, Ryiah?” Darren’s voice rose as he cut me off, echoing along the walls; I felt it right down to my bones. “That I take pleasure in wearing my dead brother’s crown?” He sent off another blast of magic that shook the cavern behind us as he shouted: “You think this was supposed to be me?”

  “Then call your army off.” I pulled myself up slowly, wincing, taking an inch at a time. I could see something in his eyes; it was there, that panic, that desperate boy on the cliffs. I just needed to reach him. “You can stop this, Darren.” Please, listen to me. I know you are still there. “Even if you don’t believe in the rebels, we can still end the war.” My next words came out in a tumbling rush. “You don’t have to be king. You never wanted this. You can walk away and let someone else take up the throne.”

  Rage contorted his face, and whatever I’d glimpsed was gone. “I will die before a pack of traitors take up the crown.”

  “They aren’t traitors.” A plea was seeping into my throat. “Darren, please, they aren’t who you think they are. They sent me to—”

  “To distract the king while they play ‘take out the leader?’” His snarl cut the air like a whip. “I know there are others outside, Ryiah. Who do you think taught you that tactic in the first place?”

  “That’s not why I—”

  “Let me guess.” His lips twisted in a smirk. “You are here for me.” He closed the distance between us; I let him. Darren’s eyes gleamed as he placed himself in front of me, his fingers reaching out to capture a strand of my hair, twirling it in his hand. “They voted to kill the king, but you wanted to reason with him. Surely he would understand if you could just explain.”

  “This isn’t a trick!” Why was this so hard? I could see the disbelief in his garnet irises, and it had my pulse thundering in my ears. “Maybe they don’t believe you can be trusted, Darren, but I know they’re wrong. I won’t let anything happen—”

  “And you won’t let anything happen after I recall my army.”

  My eyes searched his, pleading. “Yes!”

  Darren’s grip tightened on my hair until it hurt. “Such a beautiful liar.”

  “Darren, p-please…” I knew it was wrong, but I lifted my hand to touch his face. His other hand caught it, slamming my wrist high against the wall.

  “Don’t ever touch me again.” His chest rose and fell heavily as he hissed, “I am done playing games, Ryiah. You aren’t some cowering victim; you never were.”

  “This isn’t a game!”

  “I know your friends are out there.” The scorn was etched into every line of his face. “And I know exactly why you are here.”

  “I’m not—”

  My protest turned to a cry as Darren released my neck and used his free hand to produce a dagger.

  “Fool me once,” he said, “shame on you. There won’t be a second time.”

  Then he plunged the blade into the center of my raised palm.

  For a moment, I just stared with disbelieving eyes. There was a faltering in my chest, a hitched intake of breath, and something as precious as hope shattered with the piercing sensation of iron.

  And then.

  Everything.

  Was.

  On.

  Fire.

  There was nothing to describe the way the steel cut through muscle and scraped against bone. The incalculable sting of a puncture and the betrayal in my chest.

  “I wonder how much more it will take for you to break.” Darren pressed close as I fought back a sob. The pressure was doing terrible things to my insides, and it was all I could do to keep my magic at bay. “You can choose to drop the charade now, and fight…”

  I took a shuddering breath. “It’s n-not a—”

  His grip shifted on the knife, and I couldn’t breathe. All I could taste was hot metallic blood as I bit down my cheek to keep from crying out loud.

  “Or I can continue until your screams bring the others out of hiding.” Darren’s lips curled in a sneer. “One way or another, I’m going to get my fight, Ryiah.”

  A part of my hand was numb, plastered against the ice, and the rest was writhing in a gulf of fire and agony. It was hard just to think.

  Fight him.

  No.

  Fight, or die.

  I blinked against a wave of ever-mounting pain. I wouldn’t fight back, any defense would trigger something I could
n’t take back. My control was slipping, and I was afraid just how hard he would push.

  He believes you are here to betray him. Fight, and you lose any chance of bringing him back.

  “No.” The word tumbled from my lips, and it was nothing next to the scream that followed.

  Darren twisted the knife.

  Pain tore a molten trail up every part of my arm, and my screams singed the air as I fought the magic threatening to break.

  “Fight me!” Darren slammed me against the wall. The back of my head hit rock, and I choked, struggling to breathe. “Stop pretending and fight me, Ryiah!”

  His shout echoed my cry, but I could feel the shaking in his limbs.

  Whatever he felt, he wasn’t immune. There was still a part of the boy I knew.

  I just had to hold on, even if the pain was eating me from the inside.

  “Y-you want me to f-fight…” I gasped; the overwhelming pressure was making it hard to speak. “B-because if I d-don’t… it m-might m-mean B-Blayne was wrong.”

  “Liar.” Darren’s chest was rising and falling, but his fingers were trembling against my skin.

  The pain was building, and there was a terrible pounding in the back of my head. Every instinct urged a defense, but something screamed at me not to move. Not yet.

  “No.”

  Darren still held the dagger trapping my hand; his other fist dug into my shoulder blade as he pinned me against the wall. But I could feel the erratic beating of his pulse against my own. He was slipping. “You are just a-afraid of the truth.”

  “I already know exactly who you are.”

  “I know y-you.” My voice cracked and I felt him flinch. “Whatever you t-think you b-believe, you d-don’t want this.”

  I saw a flicker of something, and I pushed. “You want to s-save Jerar,” I whispered, “and you still c-can.”

  I had him. For just a second, I could see the indecision in his eyes.

  And then the pounding of footsteps and voices reached us.

  Darren’s shoulders went rigid as his eyes shot to black.

  “Ever my distraction.” Darren withdrew the blade and a cry escaped my lips. “And here they are, just in time.”