Burnt Devotion (19 page)

Edmund was too close, the madness they had wound in him too deep.

I watched the desperate need to escape his own mind lessen to only a slow boil, but the madness still remained, his voice babbling nonsense, his hand digging into the dirt as his eyes darted around me.

My heart clenched as I watched someone I cared about fight these endless demons. Watched him writhe, knowing there was nothing I could do to help him.

Knowing just being there was not enough.

“Ryland,”—his name was a snap in the air as his eyes darted back to me, the bright blue filled with the same ice Edmund always had—“I know you can still hear him, but you can hear me, too. Can you focus on my voice? On Sain’s?”

My heart beat wildly as I stared at him, my foot pressing against the ground as I scanned the forest for signs of an attack, for any sign that we had been seen or heard. Luckily, we seemed to be in the clear so far, something that was both comforting and disturbing.

Surely someone must have heard that.

My mind watched the forest while I kept focus on Ryland, grateful when his breathing began to regulate, when the manic movements began to slow, and his powerful body began to relax underneath me.

“Good.” I hadn’t realized how tightly my muscles had wound themselves until that moment. The release of fear was almost like a breath of fresh air.

Of course, it couldn’t disappear completely, not with the way the sky was constantly ripping itself apart, the way it shook with the distant battle, the sky flashing in colors of war I was trying very hard not to acknowledge, not to accept that we could be headed into the same fray.

My stomach knotted together. Tension built further as I felt a pulse of power, a jolt of negative energy just on the outskirts of where my magic could reach, someone standing there.

Pacing.

Waiting.

As if they knew where we were, knew how far my magic allowed me to scan the forest. And knew right where to stand in order to go undetected.

“Good,” I repeated the word again like it was on repeat even though I was no longer looking at Ryland. My focus was far away, drifting through the trees I now stared at, as if I would somehow be able to see miles away, see who stood there, waiting for us.

Sain spoke softly to Ryland as I moved away from him, still staring into the trees. My magic stretched toward them as I moved, wrapping around them, around the angry flame of his magic. Not only him, but several dozen others that appeared into being as I approached them, standing beyond my reach.

Waiting.

“What is it?” I barely even acknowledged Thom’s approach. I didn’t look away from the trees.

“It’s an ambush.” The words were lead, but I knew at once they were true.

There was no other reason for them to be standing there. No reason for them not to rush toward the fight that I knew Joclyn and Ilyan were currently raging on the other side of the abbey.

A battle for distraction, a battle to give us time to escape.

Useless.

Edmund had been one step ahead of us.

I exhaled roughly as my magic flared, a small tree a few feet away turning to ash with the impulse.

I didn’t even seem to notice, although Thom jumped a bit. I guessed it had been awhile for both of us since the full strength of my magic had been released.

Now was as good a time as ever, I supposed.

I was ready.

I couldn’t stop the sinister smile from curling over my lips as the same maniacal joy that ruled me took over, heating my blood and loosening my stress in exhilaration. We might not make it to Prague, even if there was anything left. Hell, we might not even make it to the caves. Regardless, I was going to do my best, and I was sure going to have fun trying.

“Let’s go.” The depth of my voice had come back in one crashing blow.

Thom chuckled beside me as he walked back to Dramin wordlessly, leaving me staring at the trees for only a moment more before I turned, striding right to Sain who was still struggling with Ryland.

“Go help your son.” I didn’t give him a chance to rebut. Leaning down to help the blubbering boy to stand, I felt my magic move into him on instinct.

“He’s close,” he moaned as I draped his arm over my shoulder, as if I was going to be able to somehow carry him on my own the rest of the way. “He wants me to kill her.”

“I know, Ry. I know.”

He whimpered beside me as he twitched, his body jerking violently before my magic surged through him, stabilizing whatever Edmund had done and lifting him off the ground enough so I could run without hindrance.

I was going to need it.

With so much of my magic concentrated on keeping Ryland stable, I wasn’t going to be able to scan the forest as I had originally planned, a fact that was only going to make our situation worse.

We might know that a herd of Trpaslík were shadowing us, waiting to attack, but now we had no idea when.

It only added to the fun, though.

Thunder resounded above us again as we ran through the forest much faster than we had before. While the distribution of invalids might have been better with speed, it was the only thing that was on our side anymore.

We needed to get there.

I stared ahead, trying to block out the constant moans and outcries from the broken boy I stowed, focusing with all my might on the forest that surrounded us. I was waiting for a twig, a bush, an explosion, a clown to pop out in warning, something to clue me in on when they would attack us.

So far, there was nothing.

Nothing except the sound of our own feet, the pained noises from Ryland and Dramin, and the long, meandering line that Ilyan had placed in my mind, the line that part of me was still questioning.

Not like I had a choice now.

A bright red line intercepted the path we were following not far ahead of us, the map Ilyan had placed in my mind casting the magical instructions before me like a blue print.

Burn the trail here.

His instruction were as clear as day, his voice echoing through my mind as my feet began to slow on their own. The bind he had placed over all of us kept me in perfect time with what the plan was.

I laughed aloud at the realization. All my worries and questioning for nothing. Even if we had chosen to break the path, he would know. He had done this to me a few times before, and I always hated it. I wasn’t sure this qualified as using your magic for good, but I didn’t question it.

Thom and the Draks sped past me as I came to a stop, my hand still firm against Ryland’s skin as I let him fall to the ground, the full weight of his body coming to rest on my shoulders. It was a miracle I was able to stay upright underneath his bulk.

I held onto him as tightly as I could while pushing my magic through the earth as I took the chance to scan our surroundings, knowing I wouldn’t have another chance until the next intersection Ilyan had made in the map.

With the speed of the lightning that cut through the blackened sky, my magic spread through the soil, pressing against the bounds as I looked, as I searched for the same magic I had felt before. I found nothing, nothing but the same angry energy I had felt before. The presence was so heavy I could feel it wind its way over my magic, weighing it down, holding it in place as if it could devour it.

Burn the trail.

His voice came again, louder this time, and I knew I couldn’t ignore it. My magic recoiled back into me like a snake, the slithering tendrils moving through me like warm bubbles before I sent them out again, into the soil in a fan of heat and power that burned through the trail we had created, forging a new one away from us, through the forest and right back to the abbey.

It was an old trick, but one that almost always worked. Few people could actually feel and track the magic of those that were around them. The majority of the time, we all relied on good old-fashioned tracking.

Change the path, confuse your pursuers.

It was easy enough, yet something about it was digging into my gut.

I looked toward the trees, toward where I had felt the magic before, and fought the urge to scan again.

Ryland screamed beside me, the nonsense flying out of his mouth fast enough that I couldn’t mask it if I tried.

“Let me kill her!” he roared. “I need to kill her.”

I plunged my magic into him as quickly as I could, knowing it wouldn’t be enough, and then began running again. His weight lifted off the ground as my magic filled him, his body hovering beside me as I picked up my pace and moved after Thom and the others, realizing they hadn’t gotten too far ahead of us.

The trees began to get closer together, the forest darker as the endlessly tall shafts closed us in. The trees stretched toward the snaps of lightning that came so fast the forest was nothing other than light and dark, a strobe of light that made it hard to see where I was going. Even with my heightened sight, even with Ilyan’s lines stretching before us, everything felt heavy. It was as though I had walked into a fun house maze only to get lost for hours.

My stomach twisted, the tense ball only calming when Thom came into view. Their pace was even slower than before as the two men carried Dramin, who now appeared to be unconscious.

“Is he okay?” I asked as I caught up with them, my voice broken and heaving from exertion.

“Keep moving.” Thom barely got the words out while he kept pushing his body forward as I overtook them.

My eyes scanned the forest, desperately looking through the trees for any sign of danger, only to stop in place at an explosion that rippled under the ground beneath me in waves of power and screams of fear.

The entire forest was bathed in blood as the force of the blast ran over us, the brilliant red light of magic and death cutting through the sky in a pillar that blocked any light that might have been, leaving us staring into the red lit world of danger and fear.

My heart tensed at the power, at the fear of what Ilyan and Joclyn faced, of what had happened and what might now be heading right for us.

Ryland screamed as the roar of the explosion grew around us, the sound of the blast too much for him. Then he broke out of my grip in one swift movement, darting into the forest as he screamed about death, blood, murder, and an insatiable need to kill.

I looked from Ryland to the pillar of light to Thom, the rumble of the earth, of thunder and death rattling in my ears as our eyes met. The silent understanding was all that was needed before I bolted into the forest after Ryland, Sain following close behind as the red light faded to the strobe of lightning that screamed from the earth in pain.

Flash after flash ruptured around me as I moved through the trees, my magic pressing through the soil as I searched for the mad prince, searched for danger, searched for anything that would let me find him and get us back on our path and to the trail quickly.

There was nothing. Not even a whisper of where Ryland could have gone to. No sound of his insanity, no whimpers, no warmth of his magic. Only the crunch of leaves under my feet, only the flash of light as the sky continued to open up in fear and anger.

“Ryland?” It was foolish to call out, but I didn’t see another option. I couldn’t feel him, despite knowing he had to be close.

“Ryland.” I tried again, quieter this time, only to jump when the snap of a branch answered back, the sound harrowing in the roar of thunder right above us, loud and oppressive.

I turned toward the sound, staring into the dark as the sky flashed white, the forest illuminating in flashes of electricity. The boy stood only feet from me.

Staring at me.

“Ryland.” The name should have been calm. I should have been overjoyed to see him, but the look on his face and the way his eyes stared at me—dark and omnipresent the way they had so many times before in the dungeons of Imdalind—struck fear in me in a way I hadn’t felt before. Not only because I knew a monster stood before me, but because no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t feel that monster’s magic.

I couldn’t sense him.

“Ryland?” My voice shook as the sky cracked again, the light revealing nothing but trees, an empty forest that wound through me and tensed in my spine with daggers of flame.

I merely stared, waiting for the light to come again when a flash of power moved through me, the forest illuminating in deep green as Sain caught up to me, his face stoically bored exactly as it had been every time we had pursued.

I was beginning to wonder if he found joy in watching others panic and simply had a very good poker face.

“Thanks.” It was hard not to feel like a fool. I didn’t know why I hadn’t illuminated the forest before. The fear of seeing him there, his eyes so dark they could have been coal, froze me more than I realized.

The forest looked much safer with Sain’s familiar glow illuminating it, yet my heart was still tense and uncomfortable within me, my muscles still overwrought with confusion and worry.

I had seen him.

Hadn’t I?

I continued to scan the forest around us as we began to move together, each crunch of undergrowth sounding loud against our strained breathing. He had to be here somewhere.