“Ilyan.” Her voice moved through me with the strength of a tidal wave. It crashed into my soul and took the breath out of my chest.
I looked into the silver sheen of her eyes, my soul undeniably lost to her, my heart belonging to her more than it ever had. Just as her sight had said. She wrapped her hands around my neck and brought my forehead down onto hers, the contact of her skin igniting my blood. I could feel the fire of the Black Water speed up in my veins, its burn deep and yet so pleasant.
I would have gladly stayed there for hours, staring into her eyes, her skin against mine, but I could feel them coming. My magic had been so focused on Joclyn that I didn’t feel their pulses until they were right on top of us.
I turned toward them as the door opened, stepping away from her in a panic, unsure as to how Joclyn would react at seeing Ryland.
He was the first one in the door, his blue eyes blazing as he searched for her. I looked toward Joclyn, expecting to see the heart-stopping joy I had seen light up her face before, but it was not there. The look of pain and fear that I had seen on the haggard girl’s face had taken over Joclyn’s beautiful features. Panic and fear ravaged her before her hands raised toward him, a pulse shooting through the air with more power than even I could conjure.
The glowing mass exploded from her hands with enough energy that the air rippled behind it, the deep earth magic reacting to Joclyn and strengthening the attack.
Time slowed as I watched the flame burn through the air, everyone slowly registering what was happening. Joclyn’s response to seeing Ryland was the exact opposite of what I had been expecting to happen.
Ryland pulled up his shield as a reflex reaction, although his confused face opened in a plea I barely heard above the panicked noise that had filled my suite.
I shielded Ryland quickly, knowing that even with both of our barriers her energy pulse would burn right through. The mass barreled toward Ryland’s chest faster than a bullet. I could tell by the look on Joclyn’s face that this wouldn’t be the last attack. She was angry and terrified. Her eyes held more hatred then I had ever seen. I surged my magic through the ?tít and into her tense and frantic body, my magic soothing her mind to sleep as quickly as I could, just as Joclyn’s attack made contact.
I expected the impact. I had yelled out against it, but it never hit Ryland. It hit Dramin.
I watched him as he moved in front of Ryland, his eyes hooded and sad. He was not panicked at what was about to collide with him, he was accepting. Dramin looked at Joclyn as her magic hit him, his face full of pity before he collapsed to the ground. Everything froze in place as I felt Joclyn fall into sleep beside me, my magic removing her alert state and plunging her into a deep dreamless sleep.
Joclyn’s body sagged as Dramin’s did, but it was Dramin’s body that held my attention this time. The dull clunk of his head against the wood echoed through the quiet room, and through my heart. I could feel the surprise at what had just happened pulse through each of us for one breath before Thom’s yell broke the stunned reverence we had been trapped in.
Thom yelled as he collapsed to the ground by his friend, his hands shaking as he reached for him, plunging his magic into him. His voice was the deep lolling of a keel, the sound of one lost to the deep pieties of the world. The sound of heartbreak.
All other thoughts left me as I dropped to Thom’s side as he howled, my own yells joining his as he held onto his friend. My friend. All the times I had hidden him, protected him, and now he was just another one to fall.
“Dramin,” I gasped, my voice inaudible above Thom’s moans. “No… No… Dramin!”
I placed my shaking hands against Dramin’s face, my magic moving into him in an attempt to find some evidence of life inside him, to find anything that would give me some hope.
I let my magic surge, my panic making it hard for me to regulate the amount that I plunged into him. I explored every inch of his body, my power covering him in my desperation to find something.
If it wasn’t for the deep tick of the Black Water that would forever flow through me, I may not have felt the small spark that was hidden in his heart.
“He’s not dead,” I said firmly, the regality coming back into my voice as I fought the hopelessness that Dramin’s injury had filled me with.
“What?” Ovailia’s surprise mirrored my own, but the bitter sound within her voice was stronger than usual.
I grabbed Thom’s magic that now snaked through Dramin’s body to direct him to the spark of energy that I had found.
“Focus on that,” I instructed him before pulling away.