Burnt Devotion (24 page)

The pace of my heart increased with each slap of Ilyan’s steps against the stone, his body hesitant as he moved toward the stroke of light that leaked between the doors. All the while, the babble of what I could only assume to be people flowed through the heavy panels and filled the once silent cave with noise.

No one dared breathe as Ilyan pressed himself against the doors, his body tense as he looked between the narrow gap. He stood, framed by the sliver of light, the pure brightness blinding as his body diffused it over all of us, illuminating the cave in its brilliance.

My chest ached as my heart beat, and I searched Ilyan’s mind and magic for clues. The breeze moved through us one last time, the long slender ribbon that ran through Ilyan’s braid reaching back to me as if it couldn’t stand to be away. My hand reached up on instinct, my fingers wrapping around the long, golden strand and holding it against my skin.

Ilyan
, I whispered to him.

His shoulders relaxed ever so slightly before he turned from the door. His jaw was set in a powerful line as he looked between each of us then finally settled his gaze on me, his magic surging once as his eyes flashed with menace.

“Everything is calm,” his voice rumbled through the cave as the breeze shifted through the door, tugging at the ribbon I held in my hand, but I wasn’t ready to let go. “That doesn’t mean it will be safe. I need to know if Edmund is close. I cannot assume he has stayed in Spain.” His eyes held mine as his thoughts overran the words he spoke—the anger at Sain’s lies, the fear over what it could mean, broken sights and mislaid trust.

Knowing the city was safe should have brought calm, but it didn’t. It couldn’t. Not with the new unknown we faced. If the attack hadn’t happened yet, when would it? What trap were we walking into if there was one at all?

“If he’s stayed in Spain, then I’m about as desirable as a popcorn fart,” Wyn scoffed with a laugh.

My eyebrows rose as I tried to decipher the words that had leaked from her. She didn’t seem to care. She only rolled her eyes at me before looking back to Ilyan, her jaw tightening as an old magic came over her.

“I’ll find him.”

I didn’t dare move as Wyn’s magic swelled and grew before it moved through the floor beneath me, the heat burning the soles of my feet again.

I stood still in the darkness of the cave, my shoulders tight and taut as I looked from Wyn to Ilyan, watching the way his muscles rippled with a fear that was infecting me as the babble outside only grew. I could tell in the way his magic pulsed through me, his emotions carried on its back like little, black boats of warning.

Warnings that came louder than I would have liked.

“I can’t find him, Ilyan,” Wyn said, her body tensing as if she was preparing for the doors to open and a battle to begin. “There is something different, but it’s a long way off.”

“Silnỳ?”

I swallowed once as I met his gaze, my insecurities bubbling for only a moment before my jaw squared, and my magic surged in heat and excitement, as if the power itself had heard him and was ready to answer.

I felt a pulse of Ilyan’s magic surge, his lips twitching as he let his power move through our bond, the heat a heady reminder of support and love. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread over my face as the heat grew, as my fingers flexed, and as Ilyan’s voice filled my mind.

Find him, my love. If anyone can find him, it will be you.

I knew it was true as much as he did. My heart picked up as my magic bubbled to life, the excitement growing as if Ilyan’s words had been all that was needed to open the floodgates.

Ilyan’s magic melded with mine, the power seamlessly blending together as I closed my eyes and let the magic spread away from me.

I could still hear the excited babble of the people beyond the gates, feel the calm and the enjoyment of the crisp fall day of the mortals as they shopped in the markets. They went about their day to day life as if nothing was happening other than the threat of rain the weather forecaster had given them on the news that morning.

I moved through the city streets with eyes that took in every detail. The white washed stone walls, the ancient statues, the ruddy brown of the river—I saw it all.

My heart beat faster as I recognized many of the buildings from my sight, saw the red shingled roofs of the old town. Except, it was different.

There was no fire. There was no screaming. It was a city before the sight had come, a city as I had never seen it before.

It was beautiful.

Or it would have been if it wasn’t for the odd pull that was laced behind the laughter underneath the sunny cobbled streets. Something lived underneath the joyful exterior, something that only increased my fear.

It was different than the rancid magic of the Vilỳs, different than the pained swells of the earth I had felt when flying through the trees in Spain. It was a thing so raw and vile that it twisted through me. It was the pockets of fear that hid in abandoned buildings and the rippling agony that slithered through the sewers.

I gasped as the tension moved into me, my muscles twisting in anxiety that should have been a warning to stop. However, I couldn’t. I needed to know where Edmund was, and more than that, I needed to know what was coming. How true my sight had been.

If it had been.

I pushed my magic farther, away from the center of town, away from the towering doors we were all clustered behind. The more I pushed, the worse the plague of fear grew. The more my magic buckled underneath it.

It crept into my soul with the same agitated fury I had felt in Spain, the pressure and fear seeming to grow within me until I reached the forest that surrounded the sprawling city along with the surges of magic that grew and swelled amongst the trees and farms that were clustered there.

I knew I was close. I could feel the faint throb of Edmund’s power now. I could feel his hatred. I could feel the black tar of his magic where it had leeched into the soil and poisoned it.

I continued to push, letting my magic trail after the ripples of power that I felt, but the farther I stretched, the weaker the fingers of my power became, until it was only wispy shadows that retreated back into me like a tape measure. I panted as I fell to my knees.

My vision snapped back to the cave with a heave of breath, my inhales shaking as I desperately tried to fill my lungs with air that seemed foreign and forgotten.

Wyn’s hands were on my back before I even had a chance to focus on the uneven floor my fingers were spread against. Ilyan’s magic flooded every inch of me as his shoes tapped loudly against the floor in a desperate need to reach me.

He sunk to the ground before me, his hands shaking as he reached toward me. Even though his face was stoic and calm, I could feel his worry leech through our connection, my injury from Spain still weighing heavily on his mind.

“Was it a sight?” Dramin said from beside me, his voice weak as it echoed around the cave.

“No,” I gasped, my eyes still not leaving the concern in Ilyan’s face. “I found him.”

“Where?” The concern on Ilyan’s face vanished almost instantly, albeit I could still feel it tense through his body.

“There is a forest that begins near the farms that surround the towns…” I began, hoping it was enough to explain. I wasn’t familiar enough with the city to know how to begin, and I had a feeling saying, ‘In the mud by a farm with tomatoes and funny looking cows,’ wasn’t going to cut it.

Thankfully, Ilyan seemed to understand. He released a tense breath with a sigh, his hand wrapping around my elbow as he helped me back to standing.

I’m fine, Ilyan,
I added silently, grateful when the tension in his shoulders lessened a bit.

I know,
he said with a laugh, the joy on his voice disappearing with the next question.
What else did you see? What did you feel?

I wasn’t foolish enough to hide anything from him, despite being uncertain what the dread that filled the city was. Besides, his magic had been there right alongside mine. I was sure he had felt it, too.

Fear,
I said, hoping it would be enough yet knowing it wouldn’t.
Not in the mortals, but in something else that was inside the city, something that was hiding.

He shot me a look that had as much question as I felt. Yes, fear hiding in the city did sound a bit crazy … but with everything we had gone through?

I only shrugged my shoulders in response, a fact that he seemed to find quite humorous. His loud laugh echoed around the tension in the cave like a broken cymbal, the sound loud as it broke the fear with its beautiful sound.

“Ugh,” Thom growled from behind me, the first word he had spoken in a while ringing with his typical irritation. “I’m going to start laughing randomly and answering questions from nowhere if you guys don’t knock it off. Why, yes, peanut butter is delicious, thank you for asking.” Thom rolled his eyes in frustration, but everyone else stared at him in utter disbelief.

It wasn’t until Wyn’s high pitched squeal broke against the stone that everyone else began to laugh, the sheer misplaced nature of his comment breaking through the tension.

“Yep, I’m hilarious,” Thom growled, oblivious to his own absurdity. “Is it at least safe to leave the cave? I would really like a shower…”

Ilyan looked at me in question as the laughter faded to nothing, his hand winding around my waist as he pulled me into him. I could hear the question on his mind without him having to even put voice to it.

“I didn’t feel Edmund or any of his men inside the city,” I said, my voice sounding far too loud against the silence of the cave.

“Right.” Ilyan moved away from me and back to the door, looking through the gap once again before turning back to us. “You will need to be under a shield if we wish to make it through the court without attracting too much attention.”

I nodded with all the others, no one daring to second guess his proclamation. If we went out as we were, I was sure some kind of riot would break out. My shirt was still covered in dried blood; Ilyan was prickled in small cuts that, although they had healed, had left trail of dirt and blood behind; Dramin could barely walk on his own; and Ryland … One look at Ryland sent nerves into an electrified storm. The darkness that had taken over his eyes was back, a panicked fear rumbling through him and setting my desperate need to attack back into motion.

I looked away before it took hold, but not before Ilyan caught the whisper of my thoughts in his own mind, his head turning toward his brother before a panic washed over him.

Ryland had told me he was fine, because his father was too far away, because some blade was too far away. He
should
be fine, since I couldn’t feel Edmund anywhere close. Regardless, he wasn’t. Something was digging into him.

It rooted at the pit of my own stomach, and my magic flew away from me again, soaring through the city as it searched for whatever I had missed. Sure I had missed something.

There was nothing, however.

“The closest safe house is above the clock about ten kilometers to the north. Stay close, but if you get separated…” Ilyan paused, the tension in the cave swallowing the temporary joy as if it had been waiting in the shadows the whole time. “Just make it to the clock.”

Everyone nodded once as they began to break into groups. Wyn moved to Ryland, Thom to Dramin and Sain. It was the same grouping they had adopted for most of our trek through the dark, the bonds forged in hundreds of years or months of surviving that had driven them together.

Ilyan pressed me against him once more, the warm palm of his hand running down my bare arm as he stepped back to the crack in the door, toward the light that seemed noticeably darker. The crowd’s noises lessened.

My body already longed for him as he stood a few feet from me, his back tensing for a moment before his hand wrapped around the massive iron loop. The ancient groan of handle and hinge echoed through the cage as if it was a monster that had been roused from its sleep. I almost expected the thing to erupt into a nightmarish creature as the groan only grew. Ilyan’s magic coaxed it along as the door began to swing open, flooding us all with blinding light as the stone itself bent to Ilyan’s will and allowed us enough space to pass.

We stood in the bright bath of warmth and light, the tattered group of survivors mere steps from our next destination, from the next leg of the war we had to win.

Wyn sucked in breath as the door opened, her eyes flashing with panic before she glanced to me. A mischievous grin tried desperately to meet her eyes, but it didn’t quite make it. It stayed on her lips, the two Wyn’s colliding in the middle.

I looked at her, struck by the humor of yet another silent goodbye before she grabbed Ryland’s hand, and her magic surged through the cave. I was sure she was shielding herself from view, even though the simple magic didn’t seem to work on me. It never had, after all. I guessed there wasn’t any reason for it to start now.

Wyn looked stoically forward, her jaw set in that powerful determination she had been trying to hide from me before she ran from the cave and into the courtyard before us. She and Ryland were followed by the already concealed Thom, Dramin, and Sain.

I stared after them all, past the door and into the courtyard that was so bright it could have been the afterlife for all I knew. The haloed shapes that moved and laughed through the stone space could be nothing more than angels.