The faster I got to Ilyan, the better.
I let my magic carry me up toward the rooftops, the broken shingles and collapsing spaces stretching before me like some kind of deranged, rotting garden.
Speeding up, I kicked off the corner of an old wrought iron balcony, the ancient structure groaning and shaking underneath the pressure. I had already moved away from it when the sound of metal against stone reverberated through the crippling silence. The balcony crumbled to the ground, landing against a street cart, and the old, food vendor’s stand collapsed under the pressure.
Grinding, heaving, explosive sounds boomed through the dilapidated city, growing louder as bricks and wood continued to collapse.
What was that? He was panicked, and so was I. With the sound of the crash, my heart had sped up, everything tensing in a violent agony. After all, if he had heard it, then so had any other living thing within a twenty-mile perimeter.
Great.
I’m fine.
I had done that a million times before, but this time, when everything was already tense and frightening, it had decided to collapse in the loudest racket possible, guiding everyone and their dog right to me.
Don’t even start, I growled, talking more to myself than to him.
I wasn’t going to. Just get here.
Right. That was going to be harder than I had expected.
I could already see the black specks of the Vil?s zooming through the streets below me, heading right to the noise, toward the now crumbled remains of seventeenth century architecture.
I should be happy that, at least for the time being, it had pulled their focus. I wasn’t an idiot, however. It wouldn’t last. I had learned the Vil?s could track magic like nobody’s business. It was why I was so good at it, it seemed. Why all the Chosen were.
Minutes.
I had minutes.
Ilyan was right; I needed to hurry.
I could feel his magic ahead. I could feel his tension, his anxiety. I could feel his fear right alongside mine.
But I could also hear the Vil?s behind me.
They are coming, I hissed into his mind, my agitation pulling through each syllable while I tried in vain to move faster, knowing it was impossible. I had tried to outrun them before and failed.
Today would be no different.
I could attempt to defeat them, yes. But I already knew there were too many. I could feel each speck of their power as they streamed behind. I could feel their anger, feel their determination to destroy me.
My only chance for everyone was to lose them.
Ilyan! I shouted, although I didn’t need to.
I am coming. A small, black shape appeared between the buildings before me. The form of a man moved closer as he sped toward me, hair and délka vedení královsk swirling around him like the tail of a kite.
I watched him, my heart pounding, as he ran closer, his face coming into focus, his eyes madly searching for me, searching for what was coming.
Can you see me? I asked, panicked. I could see through his shield—I had always been able to—but Ilyan couldn’t. That was one ability Ilyan didn’t have a prayer in.
No, he responded, and my heart dropped. I can feel you.
Just as he was about to collide with me, his arms opened wide, wrapping around me in an iron cage of comfort and security. I had barely felt him against me before he changed direction, his magic carrying us up like a shot, soaring high into the air, above the buildings, above the Vil?s who continued forward blindly, for the moment, anyway.
“Ilyan,” I whispered into the hollow of his neck, the tension building as I watched the creatures stop, their bodies jittering around in a manic need to find the trail again.
“It’s all right, my love,” he growled in deep Czech, the sound lighting me on fire, even through the panic. “Just wait.”
I wrapped my arms around him as we hovered high in the blanketed sky, the planes from this morning still patrolling the perimeter in a slow circle like vultures waiting for the flesh to rot.
Ilyan’s arms were a sweet pressure against my spine as his lips pressed against the crown of my head, a calm wave washing through me. I didn’t understand how he could be so calm with those monsters seconds away from finding us, but he laughed right as a building several blocks away from where the Vil?s had congregated collapsed.
The sound was louder than the small balcony mishap, as loud as the bombs that banged against the sky every day. It echoed around us, trapped inside the dome as it called the Vil?s to it.
As one, they turned, flying toward it in a mad attempt to find a new victim, all thoughts of us forgotten.
“What did you do?” I asked as I turned toward him, my head craning to see him.
His hand left my back to gently push the wild strands of my hair out of my face, a mischievous smile spreading wide at the question, his magic gently setting us down on the roof of one of the many buildings of the city.
“Don’t worry; it’s not the first building I’ve torn down today.” His voice was gruff as his eyes danced.