Dawn of Ash (46 page)

Ilyan?
I called to him, my breathing picking up alongside my anxiety.
Where are you?

A few streets over.
The reply came automatically, and my magic pulled right to him. I wished knowing where he was helped calm my anxiety. I could feel Ilyan there, Ryland behind me, but other than that …

Nothing,
Ilyan clarified, his magic pulling together with mine as I searched.

It’s too quiet.
My voice was clipped, the tense agitation matching the heavy weight that collapsed against my chest, the heavy beat of my heart loud in my ears.

I took another step closer to the end of the street, the wide intersection seeming too perfect for the situation we were up against. My heart throbbed in my chest, almost expecting to find someone hidden around the corner, waiting to attack.

Closing my eyes, I pressed my back against the bricks of the building, trying to regulate my breathing into something more manageable before letting my magic pull away from me again.

With a slow exhale, my mind’s eye opened to the streets that surrounded us, pulling through the empty ruins as I searched, knowing he should be close.

Still, nothing.

I gasped aloud, hating how high the anxiety around me had built.

Turning back to the dark shadows of the street behind me, I watched Ilyan jump from the rooftops to land before me, his arms open wide. The look on his face made it obvious he knew what I was feeling, and he had felt it, too.

I let him enfold me in his arms, his magic plunging into me as I listened to the steady strum of his heart. Though he was as concerned as I was, he was calming me down a bit. My heart rate was already slowing to something that could possibly be considered normal.

“ ‘Kay, I think I survived that…” Ryland gasped as he came up behind us, his body still visibly shaking, even though he was trying to act all macho. “But never again, Jos. I’m still not completely convinced I haven’t died.”

“Ryland?” Ilyan asked, his back tensing a bit underneath me. “How did you get here?”

“Jos brought me. Didn’t she tell you through her wicked mumbo-jumbo telecommunications radio thing you have going on?” I wasn’t convinced his brain was screwed on all the way. That made no sense.

“No, she didn’t.” I would have expected the tension in Ilyan’s back to lessen, but it stayed. His eyes were wide as he looked down at me, the tempo of his heart wrapping around me. “And you didn’t pass out for days. I guess I did choose wisely.” He spoke in deep Czech, his voice rumbling over me deeply, and I melted a bit, right there in his arms, collapsing against him as I smiled like a loon, my lips seeking his out automatically.

“I love you,” I sighed against the tender skin, and his reply echoed right back to me.

I kissed him deeply, moaning a bit when he pulled me into him. Part of me knew I should pull a way, at least before the crazy lights showed up.

“ ‘Kay,” Ryland snarled, disgust evident in his voice. “If you are going to drag me along, can you at least keep this down to a minimum?”

“Oh, I quite agree,” another voice broke through the darkness around us, a snake that wound through my spine and froze me in place. The tones of the voice were unfamiliar and foreign, yet I knew who it was.

I knew before he stepped out of the shadows, the hood low over his face. I knew before he smiled at us, the wide grin cutting through his face differently than I had ever seen.

I could see him there, yet his magic was gone. I could feel nothing, as though a mortal walked toward us, although I knew that was not the case.

Ryland stiffened as he turned, and Ilyan’s arms tightened protectively as his magic flared, his nerves moving into high alert. Still, the cloaked man stepped forward, straighter and taller than I had ever seen him.

“Sain,” I whispered through clenched teeth as he removed the hood, his smile spreading while eyes as black as the night looked into us, the color fading back to their normal green with one blink.

“Oh, come now,” he cooed, his voice as unrecognizable as the person before us was, and judging by the anguished tension that had wound through Ilyan, it was unfamiliar for him, too. “I think I deserve a more formal greeting than that.”

“Deserve may be the wrong word there,
Father
.” I spat out the last word like it was poison, part of me expecting him to flinch or howl in anger. However, his smile deepened, his steps hollow as he continued forward, step after step grating against me.

“Oh, no, child.” His voice was soothing in the dark. If the threat behind his words wasn’t so clear, I might have believed the lie he was trying to weave. “Deserve is
exactly
the right word because I deserve what is about to happen to me, just as you deserve what is about to happen to you. I have been working toward this since before any of you were born. It’s fitting that you be here to see it to its end.”

“What have you done, Sain?” Ilyan’s chest rumbled beneath me as he spoke, the feral snarl erupting through the dark street like a drum. Sain, however, took one more step toward us, obviously unfazed by Ilyan’s questioning and the many different meanings it held, none of which were lost on any of us.

“Done?” Sain asked with a laugh.

Ryland slowly stepped back, away from the man and closer to where Ilyan and I stood. His back was tense as his magic flared.

“I have done nothing. I was not the one to kill your mother. I was not the one to start this war. I have merely given—eh—helpful guidance along the way.” He flipped his hand to the side as he spoke, the movement so casual you would assume he was discussing anything other than the orchestrated destruction of an entire race of people.

My blood boiled with every word he spoke as I looked into the reality of what—no, of whom—we were truly facing. “It’s all a game to you.”

“Oh, yes.” The slime of his voice dripped off the wall, and I cringed. “One of the best sort. And you all have been playing without even knowing.”

“You’ve used everyone. You used me…” Ryland growled, his feet shifting as if he was debating whether or not to attack Sain right away. I didn’t blame him. It would have been a foolish move, something Ryland seemed to pick up on.

“Used is a harsh word, Ryland. I used no one. I only helped them see their true potential, helped them understand what they were really meant for, even if they didn’t see it themselves.”

The true reality of what he had done became frighteningly clear. This was more than spreading rumors about my magic. This was more than controlling the Draks. I could tell by looking at him, looking at this stranger, that his motives went deeper than the prideful games we had assumed them to be.

“Well”—Sain’s eyes narrowed as he took yet another step forward—”I guess I have done
something
.” His smiled stretched wide again as he froze before us, unwilling to look away while his magic slowly started to awaken from within him, the same powerful strain I had felt running through the city before emanating from him like a poisonous fog, sticking heavily in the air as though it was attempting to strangle us. His smile rose as his magic did, the darkened street behind him illuminating as the forgotten streetlights blazed to life. His magic infected them as he ignited them, blanketing us in a flickering yellow bath.

Our shadows stretched and swayed over the blood soaked street as the lights continued to flare, swallowing the dark until it showed us what he wanted us to see.

Until it showed us what he had “done.”

A pile of lifeless corpses, their clothes covered with wet blood, their faces gaunt as they stared at nothing. Their hands were posed as if they were still trying to attack whatever had destroyed them, as if the magic inside of them was still trying to get out, still trying to save them.

But there was nothing except death.

“I did this.” His voice was light, proud, joyful of the handiwork he had accomplished, as if the life he had destroyed was more beautiful than the life that had been. I didn’t even care if they were Edmund’s men; it still made my stomach turn. “Edmund sent me with ‘fifty of his strongest’ on a mission to kill you. I made him believe I could use my sight to sneak them into the cathedral to draw you out, something that was obviously not too hard. However, I didn’t need them to complete
my
task. But Edmund needn’t know that.” He smiled, the grin infecting me like poison, sending my insides spinning in varying levels of disgust and anger. It was all I could do to keep my temper at bay. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the one I should have worried about.

“You’re a monster!” The words erupted from Ilyan as he stepped around me, the rough edge of his magic cutting through me, making his intent clear.

I lunged for Ilyan as his brother did, both of our magic flooding into the king in a desperate attempt to quell his temper.

Sain, on the other hand, stood still, that disturbing smile still in place while he watched us, laughing.

Ilyan,
I spoke into his mind, my hand wrapping around his neck as I pulled him toward me, Ryland stepping between us and Sain protectively.
Calm down, my love. I am here. Do not rise to what he is doing. We know his game. If we want to survive this, we need to play it with him.

Ilyan’s widened eyes darted toward me as his thoughts flooded me. His anger made it hard for to him to focus. I had never seen him like this. I had heard about his temper and thought I had seen it before, but this was beyond anything I had witnessed. It scared me. I had never assumed that level of uncontrollability was possible in him.

As I looked at him, fear looked back at me. Dangerous anger rumbled through me in a warning that went unheeded.

Keeping my magic inside of him, I let it soothe him, my love filling him as the unconditional emotion expanded. Even though this side of him was frightening, my love didn’t leave. It only grew, my connection with him expanding alongside it.

I’m here. Now it’s my turn,
I whispered to him before I turned away, my hand not leaving his as I faced my father, my real father, for the first time in my life.

My jaw was tight as I narrowed my eyes at him in defiance. The man who had reduced me to anger-fueled hysterics so many times before now only left me with a ripple of annoyance, a heavy feeling of power and control taking over my soul.

This was a villain I had faced many times before, a villain who had walked out of the shadows to show his true colors. I could tell he expected me to wilt under my anger as Ilyan had done, his eyes minutely widening at the strength I showed him, the power I faced him with.

“Well, Joclyn,” Sain said with a growl, his own inability to remain emotionless shining through, “it seems you have finally come into your own … Would you like to test the limits of that magic of yours? Test it against someone who can actually match you?”

He didn’t give me any warning; he just attacked, his eyes moving to the black sheen of sight that was so familiar as his attack sprang forward in a stream of silk that slithered through the air like a fish, moving right toward where I stood as it doubled in size.

Sending a counterattack right into it, I jerked, screaming with exertion, only to watch Sain’s magic devour my defense. The weaving ribbon of power shimmered with light as it absorbed the blast, the perverse creature swelling.

Gasping in fear, I felt my magic flare in warning, my usual ability to feel and track magic, to understand how to counter it, failing. I jumped to the side, Ryland and Ilyan following suit as the attack sped past us, impacting with the road where we had just stood.

I screamed at the assault, scuttling over the road in an attempt to get away from whatever was coming. Before I had moved more than a few inches, though, the street before my face exploded, attack after attack following as I was forced back.

Crawling on my belly, I moved as fast as I could, hissing in pain as magical residue and burning rocks fell over me.

“Joclyn!” Ilyan’s voice boomed as I stared wide-eyed at the smoldering pothole inches from me.

The street erupted in green as Ilyan ran, intent on protecting me, his attack streaming toward my father, only to fall to the ground in a shower of sparks as Sain moved his hand toward it. One movement and his power had faded as simply as if the attack had lost momentum.

“No, no, I don’t think so.” The hiss in Sain’s voice increased with the words, the dangerous ripple of his warning echoing through me. “This fight is between my daughter and me. But don’t worry,
my lord,
I will keep you and your brother busy.”

I heard Ilyan’s scream as his magic moved away from me, Sain throwing him through the air and into one of the buildings that surrounded us without so much as a twitch of his fingers.

“Ilyan!” His name cut through my fear as I jumped to my feet, turning to face my father whose eyes were still shrouded in black, his white teeth flashing in a menacing grin.

“I doubt you can stop my power, Ilyan. If I say she is mine, she is mine. Besides, I have a much bigger job for you.”

I stood still, my heart longing to run to my mate, but I knew I wouldn’t get more than a step before Sain would attack. I could feel his longing, feel his worry. Even he had frozen. We had all underestimated him.

“No more games, Sain,” I growled, unwilling to look away from the enemy before me.

“Oh, I beg to differ, Joclyn. We still have many games to play. Why don’t we play the best one right now?” His eyes dug into me as he tapped his toe, the hollow sound of his shoe against the street echoing menacingly around us.

I jerked at each tap, not knowing what to expect, and then the carelessly thrown away corpses in the street behind him began to twitch, began to move.

Horror filled me.

Sain’s menacing smile was forgotten as I looked away from the demon, staring as the lifeless flesh convulsed in harmony with the tap of his shoes.

With each beat, I shivered. With each beat, Ilyan moved toward me. With each beat, Ryland stepped back, ready to protect us from whatever was about to emerge from within the pile.