Eyes of Ember (Imdalind Series #2) (24 page)

My desire
for the water was thrumming steadily in my veins, calling me to it. I fought the strong desire to jump in and shuffled my feet.

“Are you ready?” he asked,
his eager anticipation bleeding through him.

“Yes.” My answer was instant
. I still could not take my eyes off of the water.

“Then place your hand
in the water.”

“That’s it?
” I asked, turning toward him for the first time.

“Yes
. For those who are not among the Drak the water will burn their skin. But to touch the water is essential for the Drak.”

“Will it burn me
?” I asked, even though my desire overpowered my worry.

“No, Silnỳ. You are one of the Drak
. Just place your hand in the water.”

I looked away from him, unable to ignore the pull from my blood any longer. The prickling of my skin grew as I fell to my knees, the heavy
fur cloak falling off of my shoulders. I reached toward the water, my hand hesitating for a moment before I pushed my hand beyond the surface.

I
had barely registered the warmth of the water before my vision faded to black. A bright red ember, like the flame that I had seen in Dramin’s eyes that first day, followed the darkness. My head felt light and airy, like it had been inflated with helium and was trying to fly away. But none of this was uncomfortable, it felt natural.

I looked into the b
urning red color for a moment before my sight changed again. Shadows twirled and danced before me as an image began to form. I saw an infant placed into my Mother’s arms. The vision changed to a flash of blonde hair running down a hall I had never seen before as screams filled the air. The hair stayed before me for a second before it changed to a flash of me crying in my bed as my parents fought. A moment later, a vision of Edmund choking Talon against a wall came into view, Talon’s face battered.

“Give me what I need, Talon,”
Edmund’s voice rang out like an echo in my ears.

“You better make it look good, Edmund,” Talon laughed with a deep chuckle.

I saw Edmund’s hand move back in preparation for a strike before the colors washed away to be replaced by me running through the trees. Ryland’s hand hovered over the ground as he formed a perfect ring of Pansies. The pansies disappeared as soon as they grew, changing into Wyn and my Father running through a dark cave, a man falling to the ground in agony before them.

“Was that really necessary?”
my Father asked, his voice tense and scared.

“He would have done the same to us,”
Wyn hissed, without looking away from the body in front of her. “Don’t like it, don’t travel with a trained killer.”

“As long as that
assassin doesn’t turn her skill on me, I think I will be happy.” Sain laughed humorously as the vision changed to Ryland as a child, speaking to his Mother through the bars of a cell, their hands intertwined.

“Don’t cry, my little lo
ve, you are stronger than your Father will ever be.” Her voice echoed around the space as Ryland cried.

The sight changed again to Cail crying in
the dark and Wyn wrapping her arms around him in an attempt to comfort him, a ripped t-shirt hanging off of her shoulders. A flash of fire met my eyes before it faded again to me crying on a bed, older this time, screaming for help as Ryland moved toward me, his eyes gentle and blue.

“
Jos?” Ryland said softly, “I’m not going to hurt you, honey.”

“Go
… Away!”

A quick change
showed me an image of Ilyan running down a stone hallway, his hair short and dark with his face covered in blood and bruises. My heart ached for a reason I couldn’t place. My head began to pound as the speed of my sight increased, some images barely registering, the voices beginning to overrun one another.

“Take him and use him
for your benefit; maybe that will give you the upper hand.” Edmund said as he spoke to someone I couldn’t see, his hands pushing Ryland’s weak body away from him.

It flashed again to Cail lying in a chair
, Edmund and Timothy around him. “Make her break the bond, Cail, then the sight can never be.”

The colors washed away to something else before Edmund had even finished speaking.

“If you touch her, Father, I swear I will end you,” Ryland was firm, but Edmund only laughed before they continued to spar in the basement of their estate.

The image of them sparing change
d to Ilyan holding me against a wall, a building burning around us, his hand soft against my face. I could just make out tears flowing down each of our cheeks before it changed again to Ilyan walking into a large stone hall that I had never seen before, his hair short against his head. It flashed one last time, a man’s scream echoing in my head.

The scream followed me back into reality, my knees aching from being pressed against the cold stone floor. I panted heavily as the vision left me, everything that I saw
combined into a jumbled mass. But one thing stood out. One thing was crystal clear to me.

I felt Dramin’s arms come around me as he replaced the cloak, my breathing slowing down.

“It’s okay, Silnỳ,” he said softly. “It’s over now.”

I continued to gasp as I reached fo
r Dramin, holding onto his wrist tightly.

“Dramin,” I gasped, “I saw your death... I saw...”

I felt my head go light, my vision blacking out as the sight showed me his death again. He moved in front of what I could only guess was Ryland, a bright light shattering into the space around him. As I watched the scene unfold, my voice spoke in an oddly dark and monotone way. I should have been scared, but my heart rate never increased, my mind accepting my new power.

“Betrayed by your B
rother in the last hour of light, you will save one who has lost more than you. It will come at the dusk of a powerful death before the blood red moon will herald a birth.”

My voice faded out as my vision returned, Dramin’s surprised face coming back into focus.

“Uncle?” I asked, alarmed at having seen his death.

I expected him to be more concerned, for panic to spill out
, but instead he only nodded.

“I know.”

Twenty-Two

I
clutched the mug between my hands and sat back in the large squishy armchair, letting my magic pull the fur tighter around me. I kept the fire strong, the eerie, orange light casting odd shadows around the empty chamber. The only noise was the howl of the wind from the long tunnel that led to the blizzard outside, the sound deep and relaxing. I sunk further into the chair, willing myself to stay awake.

Dramin had carr
ied me back to the main hall after my first sight. I had been too weak to get there on my own. He had draped me in blankets and talked on and on about the significance of what had just happened, and what I may have seen. He taught me to use recall for my sight, but I was so weak I wasn’t able to sustain it for long.

He told me about
the subtle changes for sights of the past, the dirty quality of the image as well as the tinny distanced voice of the subjects. But my tired body was unable to remember much.

T
he image of Wyn comforting her Brother upset me the most. That was obviously not a sight from the past, and it made me anxious to know what it could mean.

Dramin had tried for about an hour to get me to use my recall to view the sight again
and in further detail, or to even be able to call the Black Water myself, but it was no use. I was too tired and my mind too unfocused.

I knew why. I had a feeling that Dramin knew too, but I wasn’t going to say it out loud, nor was I going to visit the Tȍuha to remedy the matter.

I was scared.

I was
as scared of the Tȍuha as I had become of my nightmares. I looked toward Ilyan against my better judgment. I needed to be strong, and pining over the current disposition of my Protector wasn’t going to help me much.

My
Protector. It was odd to think of all that the words had come to mean to me – all that he had come to mean to me.

I wiped the thoughts from my head, not wanting to dwell on something that would ultimately lead me to replay my nightmares
and riddles. I didn’t want to think about it.

I sunk
deeper into the chair, my eyes already starting to droop. I sighed, knowing I couldn’t avoid sleep any longer. I drained the last of the cup and walked to my bunk, my body groaning and my head spinning.

My feet barely carried me across the space before
I collapsed on my bunk, the impact ricocheting through my body.

“Be strong, Joclyn,” I moaned to myself,
the sound echoing around the tiny alcove my bed sat in. A few days ago I had been desperate for my own bed, and now I wanted anything but.

I heaved myself
under the blankets and closed my eyes. It only took a matter of seconds for sleep to overtake me and the dream to come.

I stood
in the middle of the clearing as always, the eerie branches stretching and swaying around me.

“We’ve been waiting for you, Joclyn.
” Cail’s voice was loud and right behind me. I fought the desire to spin around to face him, instead keeping my body still and stubbornly looking toward the trees.

“
I take it you thought that if you stayed awake you could avoid me?” He ran his hand down my hair, the weight pulling at the long strands.

“It was worth a shot,” I said a little
too honestly. I attempted to keep my voice light and airy but my fear was too severe.

Instead of re
plying, however, Cail laughed. The sound bounced around the clearing and ricocheted inside my head.

“Oh, Joclyn
. Sweet Joclyn.” His words were endearments, but his voice was like ice. It ran up my spine and sent an unpleasant shiver through my shoulders.

He had come around to face me, his dark eyes appearing even darker in the dim light
, the red of his hair disappearing in the night. He looked at me with his wicked smile, his hand coming to wrap tightly around my wrist. I felt pain shoot up my arm as he squeezed, yanking my arm and pulling my torso into him.

“You should know better than that,” he said as he increased the pressure. “You can’t escape me.
And you can’t beat me.” He laughed like it was a joke, but I pulled my arm away sharply, my magic boiling through me.

“You
wanna bet,” I spat. I took one step back before he could stop me, turning around to hit my hands hard against his chest. Even though my magic surged with the contact, the dream dampened it, making my power useless.

Cail looked shocked
as he stumbled back to slam roughly into one of the trees. He picked himself up off the ground. I prepared myself for his attack, but he wasn’t angry. He wasn’t going to fight back. He simply laughed.

“
It’s a good thing your magic doesn’t work here. With a temper like that, you’d be an awful lot of fun. I sure hope you don’t throw magic at Ilyan, like that.” He clicked his tongue at me while he walked closer, his strut making my stomach flip in disgust. “There he is, sleeping next to the one he loves, and you go ahead and kill him!”

Cail laughed with all the humor he could muster and my stomach
tensed uncomfortably, my eyes narrowing.

“Ilyan doesn’t
love...” I began to say confidently, but Cail clamped his hand over my mouth and pinned me to his side, his eyes flashing dangerously.

“Don’t say it. You’re going to take away all of my fun, and we haven’t even gotten to our little game yet.”

My insides flipped at the mention of yet another game. I tried to get away from Cail’s firm grip, but he increased his hold, his hand turning into a claw against my face.

“You se
e those trees?” He jutted his chin toward the line of trees directly in front of us. I followed his line of sight, my eyes widening to see two bright red trunks creating a doorway into the shadowy forest behind them.

“I have hidden two very different things in there, and I am going to send you
to find them.” I tried to fight him, but his hold continued to increase, his grip plastering me against his body.

“One of them
will kill you the second you are seen and the other will rejoice in your arrival. If you find the one who would kill you first, then the game is over and you will wake up. If you find the other, you have until I find you before your time here is up. So either way it ends in your death.” He spoke lightly, my stomach dropping at what he had implied. I couldn’t take my eyes off of those trees.

“I am going to give you a ten minute head start.
” I swallowed hard as Cail released me from his grip, my body instinctively taking a step away from him.

“Go.” He
said the word behind me and I didn’t wait. One of the surprises had to be Ryland. I ran into the trees, my heart racing at the thought of seeing him.

The forest was quiet, the silence
making the dying landscape even more terrifying. Desperate to get away from Cail, I ran for a while before realizing that my hurried steps would give away my approach.

Magic may not work as a defensive tactic here, but it could work to my benefit. At least I hoped it would.
I took off into the sky, thankful when my magic supported me as I sped through the trees.

I caught a glimpse of something dark ahead of me and I slowed to a stop,
my heart hammering in my chest as I hovered directly above Edmund. He stood tall in the middle of the forest, his dark curls slicked back. He did not move, his eyes not wavering from the direction I had just come.

Seeing him stand there,
I knew he was one of the surprises I was supposed to find. Cail had sent me into the trees on a direct route to Edmund, practically a guarantee that he would be able to torture me and send me back. I didn’t doubt that Ryland would be here too, but he would be hidden.

I found him, about a hundred feet behind Edmund, his body limp and lean
ing against a tree. I dropped from the air, barely able to catch myself before I hit the ground.

I stood
, coming to face Ryland. I wasn’t even sure it was him, this was a dream and not a Tȍuha after all, but I couldn’t ignore the fire that was steadily moving through my veins.

I moved toward him
, stopping at the bright blue eyes that met mine. He smiled at seeing me there, his hand coming up to rest against my face as I knelt beside him, his thumb lightly tracing my bottom lip.

“Is it
you?” I whispered. I knew I should bask in the fact that he was here, but I had to know. I was terrified that this was just another trap.

“I don’t know,” Ryland’s voice was forced, his tones strained.
My heart dropped as I fought the need to run away.

“I think it is,” he continued. “I remember a lot, but not everything.
My brains messed up. I...” He stopped as his eyes met mine, the blue looking deeply into me.

“It’s okay.” I
said. I placed my hand on top of his, leaning into his touch. I didn’t feel my magic pulling toward him as it always did, but part of me didn’t care if it was him or just another way to torture me. I wanted to listen to the little voice that was begging me to give in to the simple joy that we were together. That was the part that won.

“I love you, Ry,” I whispered
. “I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too, sweetheart
.” His weak body reached up and pulled me into him, his arms draping over me limply without the strength to hold me to him.

“I am going to save you, Ryland.” I made my voice as powerful as I could make it. I wasn’t foolish enough to tell him how strong I was now or
where I was hiding, but I could tell him that I was going to save him.

“I wish you wouldn’t.” I sat up abruptly at his words, his weak arms falling to the side.

“What?”

“I don’t think you can, Jos.
And I don’t want you to get hurt. Please, stay with Ilyan. He will protect you.”

It was the rebut
tal he had given me since the beginning, but it broke my heart to hear him say it again. Both of us had been through hell. If there was a chance I could save him, I was going to take it. Especially since Edmund and Cail were using him to manipulate and torture me every chance they got.

“I can save you. I can’t let them hurt you anymore.”

“While they what? Give you beautiful dreams and magical fantasies in our Tȍuha? I won’t let you go through it anymore. I am going to break the Zȇlství. I am going to break our bond.” Ryland’s voice had gained some confidence, but his body was weak. I didn’t know what was involved in breaking a connection but I knew he didn’t have the strength to do it.

“No, Ryland, I can’t let you do that.
If you do, you will kill me. Do you understand that?” He balked a bit at my words before sitting himself up, his hand reaching forward to grab mine.

“Not if we do it at the same time.”

“No.” I pulled my hand away, disgusted with what he was saying.

“It’s the only way to save you, Joclyn. I have to do it. They are going to keep torturing you, can’t you see?”

I stood up and moved away from him, shuffling my feet into the ground. This couldn’t be him. Ryland had sacrificed everything to complete the connection. He would never suggest breaking it.