Ilyan moved away from me, the image of the sight flashing through his mind: the broken image of Ilyan holding me against the wall as the abbey burned and we cried in each other’s arms. I replayed the sight of the moment we had shared, letting it flash through me as he dwelled on it, as his fear peaked. I knew at once what he had seen; I knew what was wrong.
“This is the wrong wall,” I gasped. Ilyan’s head whipped around as he searched for the right wall, his mind moving fast as he tried to place sense against what had just happened.
“This is wrong. The sight… it’s wrong.” His deep voice affected me more than I would have assumed. My father’s warning was loud and angry in my ears. The sight had been broken, and now nothing was seen; nothing was guaranteed. My Drak magic heated me as it affirmed this, the power of the realization scaring me.
“I can’t beat him,” I said just as the screams of the Trpaslíks who descended on us reached my ears, Edmund’s roar of anger rippling through them.
They were coming, the sounds warning us of how little time we had left.
“I don’t know anymore. I don’t know what is going to happen now,” Ilyan said, his fear at his lack of knowledge startling.
This whole fight, all of Ilyan’s life, had relied on that one sight, and now we stood on the wrong wall with everything shattered before us.
I felt Ilyan’s determination—his readiness to die for me—but today was not my day to die, nor was it Ilyan’s. I would see to that.
“I’m going to get us out of here!”
“How, Jolcyn? A Stutter could kill you right now.”
“It’ll be okay.” I yelled the words over the rumble of fire and thunder that moved over us, the screams for blood mixing in with them until they broke through the thunder.
The vision from the sight I had a few minutes ago broke through me, my magic screaming at me, telling me what to do.
“Take the fire,” I repeated the words from my sight as I held Ilyan against me, my blood burning as the lightning shot through it in answer.
My spine straightened as my magic sped through me, the trapped energy ready to do what the earth had designed it for.
Destroy.
My eyes shot to Ilyan’s as he looked down at me in confusion, a wide smile spreading over my lips as I stretched onto the tips of my toes, my breath running over his lips as I extended up to meet them.
I could hear the screams of our pursuers and felt the rumble of the earth. I saw the battle as the others screamed, and I knew we needed to get there, knew I didn’t have another choice. I was perfectly aware that the destiny everyone had laid out for me was wrong.
I pressed my lips against Ilyan’s as the lightning inside of me sped up. The power was strong as Ilyan kissed me back, his touch desperate as his arm wound over my back, pressing me into him at the same time his tongue parted my lips. I let him into me, breathing him in as I felt his passion, the love growing without regret as the kiss deepened, my hands clawing at his sides in an attempt to bring him into me.
The fire in my stomach grew, my skin sealing itself together as Ilyan’s hand trailed up my back, his touch soft against my neck as his finger made contact with my mark.
I screamed at the contact, at the way the lightning fought its way through me. It was the first time he had touched the small brand since our bonding, and our magic reacted, rocking through us with an aggressive force more powerful than I had ever felt before. His scream joined mine, an eruption of power and lightning streaking through the air as the Trpaslíks who surrounded us evaporated into smoke and ash, as the building we stood in rumbled and rocked with the power until I was sure it could not stand.
I gasped for air as my eyes opened, Ilyan’s dark blue eyes staring into me as he tried to control his own breathing to regulate the power that still jolted through him. I looked into his eyes until the walls around us shifted, making it clear that the abbey was falling apart below us.
My eyes darted away as the wall moved, the silver of my eyes coming into contact with Edmund’s for the first time in months and I smiled. I smiled because I knew there was nothing he could do to stop us, and while I would not kill him today, his day was coming.
I continued to smile as I clung to Ilyan, my eyes locked with Edmund’s as my magic pulsed, as I sent the army that surrounded us away.
Fire ripped away from us as Ilyan’s magic pulsed alongside mine, my body tightening against Ilyan’s as he took us away.
Into the black void between worlds.
Into a place Edmund could not follow.
Twenty-Four
I clung to Ilyan as the world re-emerged around us, ash and soot filling my lungs while the sound of fighting met my ears. My eyes shot open as I turned from Ilyan to the battle that still raged in front of us. It wasn’t the battle we had just escaped from, however. This fight was a perfectly planned execution.
One that I would make sure would fail.