“Ilyan!” I screamed with all the air I could gather, hoping that he would hear my call or feel my pain in his magic that pulsed through me. What I didn’t expect was Ryland’s answer.
“Correct.” My eyes widened, as Ryland’s smirk increased. I didn’t get a chance to ask him what he meant before Ryland pushed away from me to escape the impeding blast.
I fell to my knees as the house begin to collapse on itself and tried to push myself into the air, my body too weak to answer my call. I felt Ilyan’s arms wrapping around me as the house imploded below me. The heat of the explosion on my feet burned as the blast grew, the sound of destruction ringing in my ears. I looked back and knew we couldn’t escape it.
“Hold on to me, Siln?, and whatever you do, don’t let go.” I looked up at Ilyan’s face as his hold on me increased.
He wrapped his body around mine, his hold tight as I felt his magic rush into me with more pressure than he ever had used before. The pressure broke through my barrier, but instead of making me feel as if I was going to explode, I experienced the exact opposite. My body was squished even further against Ilyan as our bodies were pressed together.
The pressure melded us together. The air was pushed out of my lungs, and my body felt as if I was being forced through a toilet paper roll. I tried to scream but no sound came out, the last of my air leaving my already deprived lungs.
I could feel everything. For one moment I was convinced that the blast had found us. Until suddenly, the sensation left. My body crashed against Ilyan’s as we fell to the ground, his arms going limp and falling away from me.
Frigid air swirled around me, snowflakes flying around while my hair and clothes were whipped through the winter storm.
I sat up, my body beginning to shake in the cold air. I looked around in a panic, confused at the mountain landscape I was surrounded by.
“Ilyan?” I asked, my body beginning to shake with cold. “Where are we?”
I looked at the tall snow covered peak that towered over us, my eyes scanning for some form of shelter. I turned toward Ilyan when he didn’t respond, and my stomach dropped into the icy landscape I was surrounded by.
Ilyan lay still, his body surrounded by snow. His blond hair whirled in the air, but he didn’t move. His lips and eyelids were tinged with a sickly shade of blue, his body limp and still. I began to shake in fear as I saw him there.
“Ilyan?” I couldn’t stop the panic that seeped into my voice. I pressed my hand against his cold cheek, surprised not to feel the warmth that usually lay right below his skin.
I moved my hand to my shoulder, trying to focus on his magic inside of me, but all I felt was a weak and dying pulse of latent energy. I pressed my hands against his skin, pulsing my magic into him, trying desperately to figure out how to help him, how to heal him.
“Ilyan!” I yelled, desperate to get his attention. “Ilyan, wake up. Please. Ilyan, please don’t leave me.” I continued to yell at him, my fear having turned into a full blown panic. Ilyan was the last person I had. Ryland’s mind was still trapped, my Mother was dead, and Wyn had been captured and taken who knows where. I screamed as the reality of what was happening hit me and everything came crashing down around me.
“Ilyan please!” The wind howled around me as I yelled, taking my voice with it.
I pressed my hands against his skin, pulsing my magic into him desperate to awaken him, to heal him, but not knowing how. I looked around, knowing that my search for shelter, for help, would be in vain.
“You can’t leave me!”
I didn’t know where we were, or how we got here. I didn’t even know what was going on.
“Help!” I yelled into the snow, my body shaking uncontrollably now, the cold freezing me down to my bones. I clung to Ilyan, my magic surging as I attempted to keep both of us warm, but I couldn’t focus enough to keep the flow of magic going.
“Anyone! Help.”
I turned back to him, my hands touching and pressing against his skin, desperate for any response.
“Ilyan!” I couldn’t keep the hopelessness out of my voice. Everything was an impossible web of danger and fear, and I was trapped in the center of it.
My life was repeating itself, over and over. Somewhere deep inside I wished this to be a dream, whether or not it was controlled by Edmund. I wished that all of this was a fabricated nightmare. But I knew it wasn’t.
I lay down next to Ilyan, my skin freezing against the snow and my arms clinging to his still body.
“Ilyan...” I pleaded, unable to deny the ache I felt for him. “Don’t leave me...”
I had barely gotten the words out before I saw a dark figure moving toward us.