Inside the Flame (Elemental Mages Book 2)

by Rose O'Brien

  The spirit looked angry and frustrated. He pointed at Bridget and drew his index finger across his throat in the universal symbol for kill. Jen’s blood froze. She was rarely frightened of spirits, but this one scared her. He was angry, and angry spirits were the only ones—in her experience—that could affect the physical world.

  “Bridget, I’m not sure it’s safe for you here.”

  “What do you mean?” the female mage asked.

  “I mean, this spirit is angry,” Jen said. “And he seems to be angry with you.”

  Bridget suddenly looked nervous.

  “I think we need to get you on your way,” she said, turning and heading for the door on the opposite side of the gym.

  “What about him?” Jen said.

  Theron took her hand again and said, “Once we get things settled, we’ll come back. You can talk him into heading into the light then.”

  Jen nodded. Glancing over her shoulder she could see the spirit was following them. His yellow eyes were rimmed in red, like blood. His stare was unnerving. Jen wanted to ignore him, but she couldn’t help but watch as he followed in their wake.

  At the far end of the gym, Bridget opened a door that led to a stairwell. They descended, Bridget in the lead, Jen bringing up the rear. Ven, the spirit, leaned over the railing above, watching.

  She’d lost count of the flights of stairs when they reached the bottom and another door. Bridget pulled a set of keys from her pocket and unlocked it. Before she reached to open it, she traced a pattern on the door. It wasn’t any pattern that Jen recognized. As she watched, an image flared to life, glowing yellow over the door. It looked like a giant Celtic knot, with runes around the edge, that had been drawn in liquid sunlight. As quickly as it had appeared, it faded, seeming to sink into the paint covering the door.

  “Protection ward,” Theron said in her ear. “Bridget is disabling them so we can enter the room. Let her go first. There could be more of them.”

  Jen nodded and watched as Bridget opened the door to reveal darkness that was shot through with shifting colored light. There was a sense of vast space as they stepped through the door and Jen saw what must be the portal about fifty feet away.

  It was like a dancing rainbow had taken up residence in the rock wall of an immense cavern. The portal itself was a rough oval maybe six feet wide and maybe twelve feet tall. The ceiling of the cavern disappeared into darkness above them.

  “Sir, do you mind getting the torches?” Bridget asked.

  ***

  Theron turned his concentration to the torches hanging in sconces around the room and called his inner fire, sending it outward until the torches caught, one by one, around the cavern. The rock walls around him rose maybe seventy or eighty feet above them, the ceiling forming a perfect dome.

  Bridget moved forward and disabled two more wards set into the floor between the door and the portal. Theron eyed the shifting colors of the rift that would take them straight to the Citadel. No one alive was sure how old the portals were or exactly how they had been created. The prevailing theory was that ancient mages or elves or fey or some combination of those races had tapped into the naturally occurring energy at key points around the globe to create a network.

  The ancient city of Damascus had sprung up around this place. Humans were drawn to places of power, just naturally gravitated there. All the thousands of people hundreds of feet above them had no idea that a portal to the remote Rocky Mountains existed right below their feet.

  He snagged Jen’s hand and stepped forward.

  “It’s going to feel a little weird at first,” he told her. “When you step in the portal, you’re going to feel like you’re falling up, down, and sideways at the same time. It only lasts a few seconds. Just hang onto my hand, and we’ll be there before you know it.”

  Jen nodded at him. She looked a little pale, a little nervous. That spirit upstairs had rattled her. He stroked her cheek with his thumb and looked into those dark eyes.

  “Everything is going to be okay. I’ll be with you every step of the way,” he said. There was a lot more that he wanted to tell her, but that could wait until they got to the Citadel.

  Bridget was standing by the portal waiting for them, the shifting rainbow lights catching in her hair and seeming to sparkle in the air around her. As he stepped forward, Bridget raised her hands, palms out in front of her.

  Jen’s hand was ripped from his grasp, and she flew backwards, slamming into the rock wall with a sickening thud.

  What the fuck? Shock ripped through him as he turned back to see Bridget step toward him. Her eyes were locked on him. He called his fire in his left hand and went for the .45 on his hip with his right.

  The air was suddenly ripped from his lungs in a rush, like he’d been kicked in the diaphragm. He choked, trying to pull in another breath, but his lungs wouldn’t inflate. The fire in his left hand went out as he lost concentration, his brain screaming for oxygen. He raised the pistol in his right hand and pointed at the air mage.

  Why was she doing this?

  A hurricane gale slammed him from above and knocked him flat, grinding his cheek into the rock floor of the cavern. His gun hand was pinned to the floor, useless. Straining with all the strength he had, he couldn’t raise the weapon an inch.

  His lungs were really burning now, and he still couldn’t draw a breath. The only sound he could hear was the howling wind that was pinning him and the sound of his own pulse hammering in his ears. He tried to twist his head around to see where Jen was, where Bridget was, but he couldn’t move.

  The downward pressure lessened slightly, and Theron could feel himself being pushed along the floor, the stone grinding into the skin of his face. He gritted his teeth as his vision began to go dark. As consciousness faded, he tried to call out to Jen, but there was no air.

  Chapter 15

  Theron regained consciousness slowly, swimming up out of the darkness into flickering torchlight and shifting rainbow colors. He could breathe again, so that was an improvement. Pain registered in his shoulders and wrists. Looking up, he saw that there were manacles around his wrists, which were connected to chains bolted to the rock wall.

  Shit, that wasn’t good.

  Frantically, he looked around for Jen. He found her sitting against the rock wall about twenty feet from him. Bridget was several feet away, holding his gun on Jen. Anger flared within him, and he jerked against the chains. They chimed in a very distinct note, and Theron’s heart sank.

  Fairy steel. The chains were made of fairy steel. It was virtually indestructible. There was no way he would be able to melt it or break it.

  At the sound, Bridget glanced his way, but kept the gun on Jen. The little air mage was smart. Given an opening, his Jen would jump her. He wouldn’t be surprised if she still had her switch blade on her. But Bridget was an Academy-trained mage, and she was more than a match for Jen hand to hand, not to mention she had mage strength and could, apparently pull the air right out of your lungs.

  “You traitorous bitch,” Theron spat.

  “Oh, good. You’re awake,” Bridget said. “I was starting to wonder.”

  The mage pulled a radio from her belt and spoke into it, “He’s up.”

  Theron scanned the room for weapons. And took inventory of what he had on him. She’d taken his guns and his belt, but he could feel the knife he kept in a sheath in his boot. And his backup cell was in his other boot. Thank the gods. He might have a shot at getting out of this.

  The door on the far side of the cavern opened, and a tall elf with dark hair stepped through. Ritual scars on his face and neck marked him as a member of the death cult. Damn it. They were inside the Corps, maybe inside the council itself. He had to warn someone.

  Odds were good the entire Damascus team was dead. The Corps had no idea. And the bad guys had a direct path into the Citadel with this portal.

  “Kahler, are we ready to open the portal?”

  “It will take a few minutes.”


  “Then get started. We need to be on our way.”

  Theron’s thoughts spun. If they were opening another portal, it meant they weren’t going to the Citadel. And given the energy in this place, it would be easier to open a portal wherever they wanted to go, even the Fey Realms.

  The elf—Kahler she’d called him—began the process of tearing open the fabric of reality. A blue portal, smaller than the fixed one across the room, began to appear, opening slowly.

  “Why are you doing this?” Theron asked Bridget, trying to stall, trying to keep her talking.

  “Isn’t it obvious? Your girlfriend here is the key to bringing the walls down.”

  There was a manic light in Bridget’s eyes that Theron hadn’t seen before, and there was an edge to her voice that made something twist in his gut. She was insane.

  “The walls?” He needed to keep her talking.

  “Between this dimension and theirs.”

  Something stirred in his memory. Something from the report his sister had filed after she’d killed Dominic and destroyed the revenants he’d created. The vampire had been driven mad, but in his final moments, he’d been lucid. He’d told Alayna as he lay bleeding from the mortal wounds she’d inflicted that creatures from another dimension, he’d called them demons, had been speaking in his mind, directing his actions, driving him to try to destroy an entire city by unleashing hordes of the ravenous dead.

  That kind of terror, pain, and sorrow would weaken the walls between dimensions, in theory, Alayna had said, allowing gods knew what to invade the Earthly Realms.

  They currently sat under Damascus, a high energy point that was already prone to portals, and had been embroiled in a vicious and deadly war for years. If anyone were to stage a dimensional invasion, this was the place to do it. They could decimate this realm’s defenders with little effort.

  “Eurus. The one who put out the bounty. The one giving orders to the death cult. That was you, Bridget,” Theron said, realization dawning.

  The question that occurred to him next was even scarier. Why was he still alive? Bridget didn’t need him, just Jen.

  Jen’s voice penetrated his thoughts. “There’s something on her, Theron! I can’t quite see it, but there’s something—”

  Theron’s heart stopped as Bridget pulled the trigger, and a gunshot echoed through the cavern, as loud as a cannon blast.

  ***

  Jen screamed. Fiery needle points of pain lit up her right cheek. The bullet had struck the rock wall maybe twelve inches from her head, and the tiny shards of rock were in her skin now.

  “The next one goes in your kneecap,” Bridget told her.

  Jen was sure of it now; there was something hovering around Bridget. She’d catch random shimmers in the air, a hint of something that was there, yet not there. In addition, Bridget periodically tilted her head or nodded as if she was hearing something speak that no one else could see.

  The spirit she’d seen earlier was standing by Jen’s side, glaring at Bridget, looking back and forth between her and the mage, tight-lipped, watching with his burning red eyes.

  Jen wanted to cry. They’d been so close. Then Bridget had slammed her into the wall and suffocated Theron until he’d passed out. She’d been too dazed to do anything but watch as she’d chained him to the wall, wrenching his arms painfully over his head.

  Where were they going to take her? What were they going to do to her? What were they going to do to Theron?

  Jen thought about rushing Bridget, forcing the mage to shoot her dead. Dying here was better than whatever they had planned for her. But what about Theron? Could she sacrifice him, too?

  “It’s ready,” the dark haired man with the pointed ears said, standing to the side of the new glowing blue opening in the rock wall.

  “On your feet,” Bridget said.

  “No,” Jen said.

  “Move your ass or I will shoot him,” Bridget said, pointing the pistol at Theron. So that was why she’d left him alive. He was leverage over her. And it was going to work.

  Fear choked her and she heard herself begging, “No, please!”

  Theron’s voice reached her. “Don’t do this, Bridget. It’s not too late!”

  “It’s been too late for a very long time, Blackwell,” Bridget said, venom in her voice, her words coming too fast. “The Mage Corps isn’t worth saving. The Council and the sapiens aren’t worth saving. The demons are coming, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. You can work with them and live or stand against them and fall. I plan to live.”

  “You’re working with demons, Bridget. Do you really think they’ll keep their word?”

  When she remained silent, he continued. “Please Bridget, I’m begging. Don’t take her. You can have me, but don’t take her.”

  Bridget tilted her head and seemed to be listening to something. A sick smile spread across her lips.

  “You care about her.”

  Theron hesitated for a moment, his eyes going to Jen’s for a heart-stopping moment. His gaze snapped back to Bridget’s.

  “Yes,” was all he said.

  Bridget fell silent again, nodding as if agreeing with someone. Finally, her eyes slid back to him and that sick smile got a little wider.

  “They have a deal for you.”

  Bridget moved away from Jen, far out of range. Jen could try to tackle the crazy bitch, but she’d have plenty of time to bring that gun to bear before she could get to her. Taking a bullet wouldn’t save Theron.

  “We’re going to Hell and there’s only one way you can follow her,” Bridget said. “Willingly take your life and follow her to the other side.”

  “What?” Theron’s voice held a dangerous edge. His gaze flashing between hers and Bridget’s.

  Bridget moved up next to Theron, the gun pointed at his throat.

  “Hell is just another dimension folded in on top of this one. I’ve been there. It’s an incredible place,” she said. “Jen will live in her human body, serve the demons with her power. Your spirit can go with her, stay by her side. It would be perfect, don’t you see? Don’t you see the gift they’re offering you both?”

  Bile rose in Jen’s throat.

  Hell? They were going to drag her to Hell? And they wanted Theron to die and go with her?

  “Don’t do it, Theron!”

  “Shut up!” Bridget screamed.

  His gaze locked on Jen’s for a second, considering something.

  His voice was strong when he said, “Not a chance. I don’t make deals with demons. And you shouldn’t either, Bridget.”

  From over by the glittering blue dimensional doorway, the dark-haired man spoke up. “This portal is becoming unstable. We need to go.”

  Jen spoke up.

  “I’ll go with you. Just let him live.”

  “Jen, no!” Theron shouted.

  Jen rose to her feet and headed toward the portal. “I’ll do whatever you want, just please let him go.”

  Bridget moved toward her without taking the gun off Theron. The mage grabbed Jen’s arm and dragged her the last several feet to the portal. Jen could feel something, some force, dragging on her, pulling toward the portal. Anxiety rose within her, like ravens flapping giant wings in her roiling stomach.

  She kept her eyes on Theron, willing him to understand why she was doing this. A roar filled her ears and the dragging sensation became stronger. Another step and she knew in her bones the portal would take her.

  “I’ll find you, Jen!” Theron shouted at her.

  She felt herself starting to fall. Time slowed.

  She saw Bridget raise the pistol and point it at Theron, but the mage seemed a mile away and at the same time inches from her. Jen heard Theron’s voice.

  “Jen, I lo—”

  The gun barked. Twice. Jen could swear she saw the bullets flying as time continued to slow. The last thing she saw was blood spraying as they both hit Theron in the center of the chest. Darkness closed around her then, and she was falling.
/>   ***

  Theron’s heart pounded impossibly loud in his ears. His breath sawed in and out of his chest. The bullets had left trails of fire as they tore into his chest, but now ice was starting to seep in behind them.

  He was alone. He’d watched Bridget shove Jen back through the portal just as she’d shot him. Kahler followed them a few seconds later.

  He’d told Jen he would find her. He’d tried to tell her he loved her.

  He swallowed hard and looked down, watching red bloom across his shirt. He hadn’t worn his vest. He’d thought they were safe. And he hadn’t worn his vest.

  His breath was coming faster now, in little gasps. He closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing, tried to remain calm. He could feel the bullets, feel the pathways they had cut through his body. They’d missed his heart, and somehow missed both lungs, but he was losing blood fast.

  His hands were still chained above his head, so there was no way he could apply pressure to his wounds.

  He still had his knife, but that was no good against fairy steel. Cutting off his own hands wouldn’t help the blood loss situation.

  The cell phone! It was in his boot. There was a chance he could call for help.

  He tried to raise his boot to where his hands were chained above his head, but he wasn’t that flexible. Settling his weight in the manacles, he lifted both feet off the floor and let himself hang. The fairy steel manacles bit into his wrists, but the pain helped him focus.

  His heart began to pound, and his vision started to go dark around the edges as he slowly bent at the waist, raising both legs until his body hung like a teardrop, his boots near his wrists.

  Consciousness started to slip, and his boots hit the concrete. If he’d known he was going to be in this situation, he’d have stretched this morning. He laughed a little to himself. That was a bad sign. He was starting to lose touch.

  What he needed was a way to stop the bleeding. He didn’t have healing powers. Only water mages or a whisperer, like his sister, could do that.