Shadowstorm (Sorcery and Science Book 6) (30 page)

“Should I get off?” she asked.

He shook his head. If she couldn’t walk, she’d be stuck there when the Phantom and the guards came charging up the stairs. He wouldn’t leave her. Marin brushed past him.

“I jammed the door. Not sure how long it will hold,” she huffed out as she disappeared around the corner.

Everett pressed on, even as Leonidas passed him. Every time he turned a corner, he expected to see the door out of that winding stairwell of misery. After the tenth or so time, he had to resort to bribing his body to continue moving. He promised it a bath and a steak dinner if it could just hold out long enough for them to get off the island.

“Here!” Marin called out, a cool breeze wafting down with her words.

He turned that last corner and ran up to the door Marin was holding open for him. As he made it to the top, he tried to give her a smile, but his face was too tired from breathing to work properly. The smile probably came out more pained than appreciative. Beyond the door lay the largest rooftop terrace Everett had ever seen. And tethered there, just fifty meters away, was an airship.

“You were right,” he told Ariella.

“Of course I was.”

Leonidas was halfway to the airship, two unconscious guards at his feet. He waved them forward. As Marin tinkered with the door—hopefully trying to jam it—Everett moved forward, one shaky step at a time. He just had to make it to the airship. That was their way off the island.

Just as he’d made it to the base of the ladder dangling out of the airship, the door to the stairwell flung open. The Phantom stepped outside, his eyes burning like liquid gold. Everett waved Marin forward. She ran past him and began to climb up the ladder.

“The last one,” Leonidas said, reloading his gun. He took a step into the wide open expanse that separated the airship from the Phantom.

Everett climbed next, fighting not only his own exhaustion, but also the wind rocking the ladder. Finally, in spite of wind and tired sweaty hands, he made it to the top. Two hands reached down, pulling Ariella off his back. Everett looked up into the face of Davin Storm, prince of Elitia.

“You’re hurt,” Davin said to Ariella, his eyes panning down her broken leg.

“How did you get here?” she asked.

“Later. First, let’s get out of here.”

Marin was already sitting in the pilot’s seat. As Davin set Ariella down gently on the seat, the engines roared to life. Everett looked down to see how Leonidas was doing. The spy was already halfway up the ladder. He’d cut the ropes holding the airship to the building. They were starting to rise—just not fast enough.

Staring up at them from behind his bow, the Phantom unleashed an arrow. As Leonidas reached his hand toward Everett, the arrow tore through one of the ropes holding the ladder together. Leonidas slipped down, banging against the side of the ship.

Everett aimed his gun down toward the roof and shot at the Phantom. He hit him a few times.

It didn’t slow that monster down at all. Ignoring the bloody holes in his top—and his arms—he raised his bow once more. Everett put away his gun. It would take a building falling on that madman to even slow him down.

As though he’d heard Everett’s thoughts, Davin said, “Try this.”

Everett took the grenade, holding it just long enough to send it on its merry way down to the roof. He lowered his arm to Leonidas, pulling him aboard. As the airship’s propellers turned on, pushing them up and away, a fit of explosions bursted up in fiery plumes along the research facility’s rooftop.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

~
Sea of Chocolate ~

527AX January 18, Over the Emerald Sea

DAVIN’S FINGERS STROKED smooth, soothing circles into Ariella’s scalp. It felt so good that for a second she almost forgot about the pain in her leg. Almost. It was healing, which hurt almost as much as the kick that had broken it.

“You’re hurt,” Davin said for the hundredth time.

“And you’re crazy,” she replied. “Which, by the way, we need to talk about right now.”

He kissed her softly on the forehead. “A simple thank you would have sufficed.”

“Ok.” She took a deep breath. “Thank you. Now tell me how you knew I was here? And what in Aurelia’s name possessed you to come after me?”

“You’re cute when you’re livid.”

Magic permeated her skin, filling her with warmth. Resisting the urge to throw her arms around Davin, she instead folded them across her chest and waited.

“Ok. Fine,” he said. “Chimera told me that you were headed for Lord Varen’s island.”

Ariella had updated him via her sand slate. “I told him to share that information only with King River.”

“Father was busy, so Chimera told me. Then he asked me what I was going to do about it.”

“You ran off to an island no one returns from because a Phantom dared you to do it?”

“No, I ran off to an island no one returns from because no one returns from it. And you were there. The thought that I might never see you again…” He cleared his throat. “I couldn’t even think about that possibility. I couldn’t think about anything. I had to see you. I had to know you were safe. So I went to Seastone and found a Varenese airship. I enchanted the pilot into taking a nap, then I stole it and flew it here. And took the pilot’s stockpile of grenades too. I thought they might prove useful. Looks like I was right.”

“You have completely lost your mind,” she growled at him. “Lord Varen’s island is dangerous. And you don’t even know how to fly an airship.”

“I’ve done some flying with the simulator in Orion.”

“With…the…simulator…” Ariella let out an anguished laugh. “That’s not the same at all. You could have gotten yourself killed!” she said, pounding her fist against his chest.

He caught her hand, holding it to him. “This is an airship, not a fighter jet. You tell it where to go, and it just sort of floats there by itself.”

Ariella looked forward, where Marin was fiddling with the controls, trying to get them well out of range of Lord Varen’s weapons. Flying didn’t look easy to her, despite Marin’s special knack for making everything look easier than it really was.
 

“You’re crazy,” Ariella told Davin again. She didn’t know what else to say.

His hands slid over her shoulders and down her back. “You make me crazy.”

“I—”

Davin leaned in close, his lips brushing against hers. “When I heard you were coming here, I just about lost my mind. I had to come. I had to see you.”

He kissed her once, quick and soft, then drew back, leaving her aching for more. She locked her hands behind his neck and pulled him back to her. His eyes lit up, smoldering with teal fire. And this time when he kissed her, he wasn’t quick or soft. As his lips molded to hers, a dozen emotions flowed into her. His fear mixed with hers. His love. His madness. His desire…

Someone cleared their throat loudly. Ariella peeled herself away from Davin, her cheeks going hot as she looked into Everett’s face.

“Get a room,” the Rev chuckled.

Davin took her hand. His finger stroked tempting lines across her palm. How could something like that even be tempting? There was something really wrong with her—but she didn’t even want to fix it. All she wanted was for everyone to go away, so she and Davin could pick up where they’d left off. She loved him. She wanted him. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. And when he put himself in danger like he’d just done, she wanted to punch him in the head. She settled for the arm.

“Ow,” he grumbled, rubbing his arm. “What was that for?”

“If you ever put yourself in danger like that again, I won’t be so gentle.”

“I love you too.” He smiled at her. “And for that reason, I’m still going to give you the present I brought you.”

“Chocolate?” she asked hopefully.

He pulled out a flat box and handed it to her. “You’ll just have to open it and see.”

Ariella slid her hand across the smooth lid. It sure looked like a chocolate box—one of those expensive ones sold in fancy bakeries. There wasn’t any lettering, though, to indicate which shop it had come from.

She lifted off the lid. A sea of white chocolate balls stared back at her—and nestled in the middle of them all lay a ring. The breath swept right out of her, and the box slipped out of her fingers.

“Ariella?” Davin asked, his voice uncertain.

“Are you…are you…?” Her mouth couldn’t form the words. They were too unreal.

Davin lowered to his knees, barely fitting between the two rows of seats. “Ariella Steele, I have been in love with you for years.”

This wasn’t happening.

“Even if I didn’t know it then,” he added with a lopsided grin. “The bond we share runs deeper and truer than anything I’ve ever felt. And I want to keep sharing it with you forever.” He plucked the ring out of the chocolate box. “Will you marry me?”

Ariella reached toward him. “I…” She stopped. “This isn’t about what my parents said, is it?”

“Remember what I told you before.
We
are all that matter. The two of us. Our bond is between us. Not your parents or my father or Elitia. Us. Forget about them.” The shine of the ring paled in comparison to the light in his eyes. “I have spent too many years ignoring my heart. No longer. This is what I want for me. For us.” His lips quivered. “If you will have me.”

“Of course I’ll have you, you lunatic,” she said, tears stinging her eyes.

He stared up at her, his face rawer and more vulnerable than she’d ever seen it. “So that’s a yes?”

“Yes.”

As he slid the ring over her finger, cheers and applause exploded from the other seats. Leonidas pumped his fist in the air. Everett patted Davin on the back, muttering, “About time.” Marin had turned completely around and was bouncing in her seat while clapping her hands together.

“Try not to crash the ship,” Leonidas teased her.

She swiveled her seat around to him. “It’s an airship, not an airplane. I can’t crash it. It’s floating.”

“You could still hit a mountain or tree.”

She pointed out the front windows. “We’re over the ocean. There’s not a mountain or tree in sight.”

He grinned.

“And even if there were, I can multitask,” she told him.

“Could you build a bomb while piloting the ship?”

“I could even construct a bomb while brushing my teeth,” Marin boasted.

Leonidas snickered. “Now that I’d like to see.”

“I said I
could
do it. Not that I would do it. I wouldn’t want to mix up my supplies.”

Leonidas stared at her for a moment, then laughed so hard he nearly fell off his chair. Ariella looked down at the ring now sitting on her finger—a platinum band set with two amethysts hugging a diamond—then she looked at Davin, who had wrapped his arm around her.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered to him.

“More importantly, it matches your sword,” he replied.

Ariella took a bite out of a chocolate ball, allowing it to dissolve into her tongue.
White chocolate and a ring to match my sword. Davin sure knows how to woo a woman.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

~
Interworld ~

527AX January 19, Over the Emerald Sea

WHEN ARIELLA WOKE up the next morning, her leg had healed. Her neck, however, was stuck at an awkward angle, courtesy of her upright doze in the massively uncomfortable chunk of plastic that the Varenese seemed to think passed for a chair. She leaned forward, trying to stretch out the stiffness. Marin sat in the pilot’s seat, donning a ridiculous hat a few sizes too big for her head. Right beside her, Leonidas had his feet propped up on the panel of controls and blinking lights.

“Feet off the dashboard, Leo.” Marin swept her hand across the panel, knocking his legs away.

“You have the ship on autopilot. You’re not even using the controls right now.” He swiped the hat off her head. “Where did you find this silly pilot’s hat anyway?”

“In the closet at the back.” She tried to snatch it back, but he put it out of her reach. “Give it back.”

He smirked at her. “The last person to wear this hat probably had lice. Or fleas.”

“Yes, and now they’re crawling down your arm.”

He tossed it from one hand to the other, then back to her. “Here. It looks better on you than on me anyway.”

Marin plopped the green and gold velvet hat down on her head, sliding her hand across the rim with a flourish. “You bet it does.”

His laughter roared over the soft whoosh of an opening door. Ariella turned around as Davin and Everett stepped out of the stairwell to enter the airship’s top deck. Each held a half-eaten sandwich in his hand.

“These are actually pretty good,” Davin told him, then took another bite. “What did you say is in them?”

“I didn’t.” Everett grinned. “And you probably don’t want to know.”

Marin turned around. “You know, I could do a chemical analysis on one of them and then see what—”

“Don’t think.” Everett tossed her a wrapped sandwich. “Just eat.” He tossed the second one to Leonidas. “And enjoy.”

Marin and Leonidas unwrapped their sandwiches and began to eat.

“Breakfast is served,” Everett said, leaning over to hand Ariella a sandwich of her very own.

The artificial scent of it stung her nose, but she didn’t let that stop her. She’d had Everett’s sandwiches before. They tasted worlds better than they smelled. Or looked. Besides, healing a broken leg plus a myriad of fractures in her foot had taken a lot out of her. Her body had long since burned off Davin’s chocolate, and it was screaming for real food. Everett’s sandwich was the closest thing that qualified.

“You look better,” Davin whispered as he sat down beside her.

“So do you.”

It was a really stupid thing to say, which she realized as soon as the words left her mouth. Her response seemed to tickle Davin’s funny bone, however. Chuckling under his breath, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and hugged her close to him.

“Whereabouts are we?” Everett asked.

“Over the Emerald Sea, about an hour out from Seastone,” replied Marin.

Everett looked at his watch. “It’s just past seven. I told Ryder we’d meet him and his gang in Seastone at half past eight. We’ll be cutting it a bit close.”