The Burning Chaos (Smoke and Mirrors Book 2)

by Melissa Giorgio

  Leonid shook his head and turned away.

  I surprised everyone, including myself, when I asked, “What do you mean?”

  I expected more threats from Parnaby, but instead he closed his eyes tiredly. “What Aeonia took wasn’t an amplifier. That would have been bad enough, given what we saw she’s capable of today.

  “That stone? That was a prison for three of the most dangerous magicians who have ever lived.”

  JAEGGER BARED HIS TEETH. “YOU LIE.”

  “Why would I lie about something like that?” Parnaby said. Before Jaegger could respond, he continued, “I won’t speak another word until you get off of me, you foul beast.”

  The dragon’s growls shook the room again. “The moment I let you go, what will stop you from attacking us?”

  Parnaby gave him a humorless smile. “You will have to trust me, I suppose.”

  “Trust a magician?” Jaegger shook his head. “Do you take me for a fool?”

  “Do it,” Leonid said suddenly. He was staring off into the distance, frowning. “He won’t attack us.”

  Jaegger’s head swiveled in my direction. “Little bird?”

  I hated that he left the choice to me. If I said no, Leonid would once again think I didn’t trust him. I knew he was listening to his instinct, but what if he was wrong? He’d been wrong with Wilson…

  Breathing in deeply, I hoped I wasn’t making a huge mistake when I told Jaegger, “Let him go.”

  Jaegger lifted his claw and Parnaby scrambled out from under him. Getting to his feet, he clutched his shoulder and winced.

  “What did you mean by that?” Leonid asked. “This… stone isn’t an amplifier, but a prison?”

  “Yes.” Parnaby leaned against the wall, still holding his shoulder. He sighed. “This is not something I thought I’d ever divulge, but thanks to what Irina and Vernen did today, my hands are tied.” Parnaby was speaking to Leonid directly. “What I’m about to tell you is a closely guarded secret that is only entrusted to the caretakers of Dusk.”

  Caretakers? Is that what Parnaby was? Even though I wanted to ask, I kept quiet. I knew he wouldn’t be fond of me interrupting him.

  “You’ve been taught that there were two sides in the old wars: the magicians and the dragons,” Parnaby said. “The magic was different back then. Darker. Like what you saw Bantheir wielding. Magic that involved sacrifices. While most of the time those sacrifices involved humans, there were other, more ambitious magicians who used dragons instead. This is what sparked the wars. The dragons were ancient, nearly immortal creatures, and they would not tolerate this treatment of their kind. And so, they struck back.”

  This part, I knew. How the wars lasted hundreds of years, with the death toll rising on both sides. It only ended with the total annihilation of the dragons. But… I placed a hand on Jaegger’s side. They hadn’t killed them all.

  The dragon looked at me, his aquamarine eyes heavy with sorrow. “It was a bad time. Be grateful you weren’t alive during it, little bird.”

  “But how did you—” I cut myself off when I noticed Parnaby’s glare. Fine. That was a question for another time. I had a feeling Jaegger wouldn’t reveal his escape in front of Parnaby, anyway.

  “We know this part already,” Leonid said impatiently. “Every child learns it. What does this have to do with what was stolen?”

  “The day the dragons struck back, the magicians united as one,” Parnaby continued. “But only because they had a common enemy. This is never mentioned in the stories of the old wars, but the magicians were heavily divided before then. Not everyone practiced dark magic. Not everyone agreed with blood sacrifices.

  “But the magic had been fading, for years then. And when the dragons started killing scores of magicians, the ones who hadn’t gone dark knew that they had no choice. They had to unite with the dark magicians. Without a united front, they would be slaughtered, and the magic would die with them, lost forever.”

  The rest of us were silent, frozen in place as we listened to Parnaby’s retelling of history. Despite my reservations, I found myself leaning forward, anxious to hear the next part.

  “There were three magicians who were the strongest of them all,” Parnaby said. “Dark magic users, of course. They were the ones who came up with the idea of using amplifiers. Stones imbued with the power of hundreds of magicians were exactly what they needed to destroy the dragons. But what they failed to mention was the sacrifice required to create those amplifiers.” He dropped his hand from his shoulder, his fingers stained red with blood, and spoke the next words woodenly. “And so in addition to killing the dragons, they also killed their own.”

  Shock rippled through the room.

  “‘A noble sacrifice,’ the three leaders said. ‘Something everyone should volunteer for. It’s the only way,’ they said. ‘It has to be done, to save the magic.’ But it was all a lie.” Parnaby shook his head. “They didn’t need to sacrifice their lives. They only had to give their magic. That would have been enough to destroy the dragons. But the leaders needed the magicians’ lives, you see. They needed them to grow even more powerful than they already were. By the time the magicians realized they’d been tricked, it was too late. Thousands of magicians had died, and the dragons were extinct.”

  Jaegger growled softly, his tail flicking back and forth in irritation.

  “The magicians—the ones who didn’t believe in using dark magic—knew something needed to be done to stop the three leaders. Because even though the war was over, they knew the leaders weren’t done yet. They wouldn’t be satisfied until they had claimed all of the magic for themselves. So the magicians worked together to defeat the leaders.” Parnaby laughed softly. “It was genius, really. They used the leaders’ same method; they created a stone, claiming it was an amplifier. A gift to the leaders, for all that they’d done to stop the war. The leaders greedily accepted it, but when they tried to harness the stone’s power, they were instead trapped inside. Where they would remain until the end of time.”

  Parnaby shoved himself off the wall. “The remaining magicians discussed what to do with the stone. Some wanted to toss it into the oceans. Others wanted to bury it in the mountains. In the end, they realized it needed to be guarded because leaving it for someone to chance upon was too dangerous. They took a vote and decided to entrust it to the one who’d come up with the idea of a prison stone. Agreeing, he took it and some of his companions and traveled far until they came to a river. Settling there, they built the founding stones of what would eventually become Dusk. And when he had a child, he passed the stone to him, who in turn passed it on to his. And on and on, until it was given to me, along with the secret of its true nature.”

  He glared at me again. “And now you’ve given it away—do you even realize what you’ve done? If Aeonia releases those magicians from their prison, the entire world will burn.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. I deserved Parnaby’s wrath, and so much more.

  “There is a chance she does not know what that stone really is,” Jaegger said. “I myself believed it was an amplifier.”

  “That’s because it’s warded,” Parnaby said. “But eventually, she will break those wards, and when she does, she’ll realize what it is. The stone…” An uncomfortable expression passed over Parnaby’s face. “It speaks to you.”

  I exchanged an alarmed look with Vernen. The whispers we’d heard… They belonged to the captured magicians? But why did they speak to me? I wondered. I don’t possess magic. They were better off targeting Vernen…

  My stomach dropped when I realized that’s exactly what they’d done. I may not have been able to touch the stone, but Vernen had picked it up easily. And when he’d tried to hand it over to Aeonia, he’d hesitated. As if…

  As if he hadn’t wanted to give it away.

  “Did you really not understand them?” I asked Vernen.

  He shook his head, staring at me intently, imploring me to believe him with his eyes. “I didn’t. I swear
it, Irina. I heard voices, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.”

  “But you understood them?” Parnaby asked me.

  After a moment’s hesitation, I nodded.

  A calculating gleam shone in his eyes. “Interesting…”

  “But why?” I asked. “Why me?”

  Jaegger shifted his large body. “Do not waste your time worrying about that, little bird. You had a shard of my Essence inside of your hand; they sensed an immense power coming from you. It’s only natural the trapped magicians would try to speak with you.”

  I raised my brows. “So you’re saying it’s your fault?”

  He playfully butted me with his head, causing me to nearly fall over.

  “How do you release the prisoners?” Leonid asked, bringing us back to the topic at hand. “Is it something that can easily be done?”

  To my relief, the president shook his head. “No. It requires incredible power, and a blade imbued with magic that was used to fell a dragon. Most of those blades were destroyed or lost, but there have always been whispers that some still do exist.”

  “So we need to find her before she locates a blade.” Leonid had a contemplative look on his face. “But how do we track her?”

  Parnaby’s eyes gleamed. “So you’ve decided to help me.” He held out Leonid’s pin, but his ex-captain ignored it.

  “I’m not helping you. I just don’t think we need a bunch of psychotic magicians running around.” Leonid sent him a leveled look. “We have enough of those already.”

  Parnaby’s hand curled around the pin, his face reddening. I held my breath, wondering if Leonid had pushed him too far. If anyone else dared speak to Parnaby that way, they’d be incinerated on the spot.

  Jaegger pulled away from me to stretch. “Getting back to the topic at hand, I can sense the amplifier, even now. Aeonia has left the city. She heads north.”

  “Then we go north,” Leonid decided even as I wondered, What waits for Aeonia in the north?

  “I’m going with you,” I said. I didn’t have to think it over; this was my mess, and I would be the one to fix it.

  “Me too,” Vernen said quietly.

  “I’ll see if West is up for an adventure.” Leonid picked up his ripped and sooty coat from where it’d fallen on the floor and put it on. “Let’s move fast. Aeonia has a head start on us, and it’ll take us time to gather supplies. Come on, Irina. Vernen.” He left the room in a rush, leaving me and Vernen to scramble after him.

  But Parnaby grabbed me by the wrist before I could follow Vernen. “Even if you retrieve the stone and bring it back here, I will not forgive you for your treachery,” he hissed.

  Jaegger lunged for Parnaby, his sharp teeth gleaming in the candlelight, and the president stumbled backward with a curse. “Do not touch her,” Jaegger snarled.

  Parnaby glared at us. “Both you and Vernen are no longer welcome in Dusk. The moment you step foot outside the walls, you are forever banished from this city.”

  “So dramatic,” Jaegger said with an eye roll, even as my heart squeezed painfully in my chest. I didn’t want Parnaby to see how much his words affected me, but try as I might, my eyes still burned with tears.

  Dusk was my home, my only home. If we succeeded, Leonid would come back. He would never leave his siblings, I knew that. But where would I go? What would I do?

  I’d never felt so utterly lost.

  “Parnaby, stop,” Elyse said. She’d been so quiet, I’d forgotten she was in the room with us. “Haven’t you done enough already?”

  “Me?” His voice rang with disbelief. “After everything she did!”

  Elyse folded her arms over her chest. “She’s not the only one to blame, and you know it.”

  Even though I enjoyed seeing Elyse put Parnaby in his place, when Jaegger nudged me toward the doorway with his maw, I let him. “Come, little bird,” he said. “You heard the soldier; we must make haste. Besides, I grow tired of this one’s company.”

  Parnaby paused in arguing with Elyse to snap, “The feeling is mutual, beast.”

  “Are you sure I can’t eat him?” Jaegger asked me.

  “No,” I said as we left the room. “He’ll probably give you indigestion.”

  The dragon’s booming laughter shook the mansion.

  BEFORE I COULD STEP OUT the front door—there was no point in using the secret tunnels—I heard Quinn calling my name and stopped. The girl ran up to me and Jaegger. “I want to come with you.”

  “What?” I asked. “No, Quinn, it’ll be dangerous—”

  “I don’t care!” Her eyes filled with tears, which she impatiently brushed away with the back of her hand. “This happened because of me, and I want to make it right! I’m not going to let that woman win. I’m not going to let her destroy the world.” She was talking like an adult, and I realized that was Aeonia’s fault. She’d forced the girl to grow up by showing her the world was a cruel and harsh place.

  I was exhausted, and arguing with Quinn was the last thing I wanted to do at the moment. So I sighed and told her she could come, knowing Leonid wouldn’t be happy about that.

  “I’ll meet you at your home,” Jaegger said before slipping away. I imagined he was using the secret tunnels to avoid being sighted. But at this point, did it really matter if someone saw him?

  Outside I found Leonid explaining things to West and Aden as Vernen looked on. Both men appeared drained, but they stood up straighter when they spotted me. Quinn ran to Aden, who patted her on the shoulder.

  “You don’t have to come with us,” Leonid was saying. “I understand if you want to stay in Dusk. If you want to keep helping these people who need you. I’m not your captain anymore, but I could still really use your help…” He glanced at Aden, who looked surprised. “Both of you.”

  “When do we leave?” West asked. “Captain?”

  Leonid swallowed hard, and it was clear he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. “In an hour. Pack some things and then come to my house.”

  Everyone nodded and the group split up. West, Aden, and Quinn disappeared while Leonid kept pausing to speak to his fellow soldiers. Despite his urgency to leave as soon as possible, I could tell he was having a hard time doing just that.

  Vernen and I stepped back to give Leonid a moment, and my eyes trailed over the destruction. The fire across the street had been put out, but the rubble continued to smolder. Thick clouds of smoke escaped into the darkening sky, and the air smelled strongly of burning wood. The victims who had been laid out on the lawn of Parnaby’s mansion were gone, transported to nearby hospitals, Vernen explained in a quiet voice.

  “How many died?” I asked.

  “Five that I know of,” Vernen said. “But many more were injured. And so many saw what happened today and are in utter disbelief.”

  “They know,” I said. “About Parnaby and the magic and the danger. Right now, they’re the only ones who do, but the whispers will spread until the entire city realizes what’s going on.” Parnaby hadn’t said what would come next, what he would do to calm the masses. Was there anything he could do? Was there a spell strong enough to make an entire city forget?

  I hugged myself. Maybe it was better we were leaving.

  “Irina?” Vernen asked, touching me on the shoulder.

  “He said we’re banished from Dusk.” I could barely choke the words out, and again my vision blurred with tears.

  “Oh.” His face fell, but then he shook his head. “It’ll be all right. Let’s just deal with one problem at a time.”

  I half-hiccupped, half-laughed. “Aeonia releasing three insane magicians into the world isn’t a problem, Vernen. It’s a catastrophe.”

  “It’s nothing we can’t handle.” He squeezed my shoulder once before letting go. “Besides, as far as we know, she only thinks it’s an amplifier. Have faith. We’ll retrieve it before she realizes what she’s actually carrying.” He paused as two soldiers walked back, eyeing us curiously. “And it’s not like blades used to
kill a dragon in the old wars are just lying around. We can do this.”

  “We have to do this,” I murmured.

  He nodded. “Exactly. We’ll fix this, and then we’ll deal with Parnaby.” His blue eyes darkened, turning nearly black in the fading light. “He’s not as strong as he thinks.”

  Watching him, I swallowed hard. His expression… It was like the other night, when the lamp’s flame had nearly sputtered out of control. Was it the magic controlling him?

  Was Parnaby right?

  No. I refused to believe that. Vernen was nothing like Bantheir, and he never would be. He would learn to control himself and his magic, and I would help, any way that I could.

  I would show Parnaby that he was wrong.

  “Vernen,” I said, softly but firmly.

  He blinked and was slow to focus on me. “I’m… all right.” Vernen glanced at Leonid, and his face reddened. “I should… go. Leon shouldn’t be much longer. You’ll go back to Way with him?”

  His abrupt need to leave startled me. “What about…?”

  “I should probably go to the stores and get some supplies. I’ll meet you at home.” Again Vernen glanced at Leonid, his face distressed.

  All at once, I understood. Vernen didn’t want Leonid to see him acting this way. Even though Leonid knew about Vernen’s magic, Vernen was embarrassed. Which was ridiculous, and I wanted to tell Vernen that, but I knew he wouldn’t listen to me. Instead, I forced some enthusiasm into my voice and said, “That’s a great idea!”