The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2) (37 page)

The sky overhead was dark, and the wind was picking up, colder and colder with each gust. The stone had to be here somewhere. I could feel the edges of it, but it was like the magic had always been—just beyond my reach, as though my senses could merely graze the surface but nothing more.

I walked between the broken pillars toward the crumbling walls, stepping over fallen rocks and boulders; my boots left soft imprints in the snow. I rounded one of the walls and picked up a chunk of stone that had fallen in the snow. I squeezed it in my palm and it crumbled through my fingertips.

“Looking for this?”

Danton stepped from behind a broken piece of wall, his black cape fluttering all around him.

“Danton…?” I took a step back. What was he doing here? Something shone brightly in his hands. The unity stone. I looked back into his blue eyes. They weren’t the friendly eyes I remembered. These shone with something callous and bitter.

“Danton, what are you doing?” My voice shook.

Danton turned the stone over in his hands, staring absently at it. “To be honest,” he continued, hiding the stone back in the depths of his cloak, “I’m a little surprised you made it this far without me. Then again—” he tilted his head, glancing at me with a sardonic smile “—you had help. Tell me, princess, how did you find Steerforth?”

Steerforth?

Had he…?

I might have believed it of Danton’s father, but not Danton himself. He wasn’t capable of anything so cruel…was he?

No, I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to.

“You didn’t,” I whispered.

His eyes flashed with perniciousness. “Not
technically
. I guess you can thank my friends the shadowguard for that.”

This wasn’t the Danton I had sat with on the roof, or the Danton who had understood and comforted me. This wasn’t the Danton with the warm smile and handsome face, but looking at him now, the face I had thought handsome before was shaded in malice. “I can’t believe that.”

“Can’t you, princess?” he growled.

I shook my head as my eyes stung from the wind. “No, Danton, that’s not you. You
know
it’s not you. You are better than that.”

He grimaced. “And you would have someone like Steerforth on the throne?”

“If he’d earned it,” I said.

Danton’s anger flared. “For too long has this world been under the oppressive thumb of an incapable and weak man. His time is done.”

I didn’t like the king, either, but even more than that, I didn’t like what Danton was saying. “That’s the purpose of the games, Danton, you said so yourself—”

“Mortis curse what I said,” Danton hissed, and I stepped back farther. “All you had to do,” his voice turned low and frighteningly even, “was trust me.” He stepped forward, halting inches before me. “I didn’t want to do this alone, Daria. I knew you wanted freedom. No one blames you for that and certainly not me, but you didn’t have to enter the games for it. With me holding the shield and your knowledge of how to use the stone…”

“What do you mean,
my
knowledge?” I cut him off.

The wind howled, and his lips curled. I didn’t like the twist of his thin lips.

“I know who you are.” He stepped closer still. “Daughter of a Pandor. You hold the secret to utilizing the shield to its full potential, and together—” he reached out and ran his cold fingers along my jaw “—we could do anything.”

My heart beat fast and my insides screamed at me to run, but I couldn’t move. I was stuck, frozen in place. What was he talking about? I didn’t know anything about how to use the shield, and if that knowledge had belonged to the Pandor family, it had been buried with my mother. Even Headmaster Ambrose had known that.

“The shield is being stolen as we speak,” he whispered. “I can protect Fleck, you know.” He leaned so close I could feel his breath on my lips. “I can give you what you want if you just come with me and…”

Something inside of me snapped, and I made a fist and punched him in the face.

He staggered back, startled, flexing his jaw, and his eyes went from wide to furious. “Why you little…” He lunged forward, but I jerked my daggers free, holding them between us.

“Don’t think I won’t!” I growled, and he saw that I was serious.

His anger boiled, but I wasn’t sure if it was from rejection, or something much, much deeper. “Don’t be a fool.” His voice could’ve melted the snow. “There’s no other way for you. You’re a Pandor. If you don’t come with me now, you will be hunted for the rest of your pathetic life, just like your mother—”

A shadow flew from above, and Alex landed right into Danton’s side.

The pair of them rolled and tumbled through the snow, ramming into a pillar in a heap. They were thrown apart, but leapt to their feet within seconds, swords a blur. Danton ducked away from Alex’s sword, and Alex jumped up as Danton thrust his sword in return. “I should’ve known better,” Danton grumbled.

“And, like usual, you didn’t,” Alex retorted as he rounded Danton, brandishing his sword, eyes narrowed in fury.

Danton blocked Alex’s strike, but barely. “Still angry I kissed her?” Danton sneered, and then he tilted his head. “Or”—
clang
—“maybe you should be reminded about who kissed who. What do you say, Daria?”

My stomach twisted inside of me.

Alex’s jaw clenched as he came at Danton again, and Danton started laughing. “You won’t win this, Del Conte. Even
your
skill and power are no match for him.” Danton ducked away as Alex lunged forward.

“You’ve bought into a lie,” Alex spat.

“Kenley!” Danton yelled.

Kenley appeared from the shadows, short and dark and brooding. Danton tossed something over his shoulder—the unity stone—and Kenley caught it and started running.

He ran past me, and I threw myself on top of him.

We rolled on the ground in a heap. He might have been short, but he was stronger than me and his movements were quicker. I saw his fist coming and reacted, using his momentum to throw him forward.

I snatched the stone from him as he rolled. The light inside of the stone, the one that had pulsed a white-blue light, became blinding. It burned in my hands, illuminating the landscape with its light, and for a moment everything went still. Alex and Danton hesitated, Kenley gaped, even the wind ceased to blow.

Then a breeze ripped through, swirling and twirling in a gust of white and silver, wrapping around me in a whirlwind. For that moment, for that split second that felt like forever, I felt nothing but raw power, as if it were flowing from the depths of the world, suddenly running through my body, coursing through my veins with a connection I’d never felt before. A connection that made me feel as though I might do anything, conquer anything, and no one could stand in my path.

The gust died, the light dimmed and faded, and right as I glanced back, I was knocked sideways and Kenley grabbed the stone from my hands.

With a grunt, I pushed myself up and bolted after him. I leapt over stones and boulders as the wind ripped through the ruins, blowing snow all around. Kenley ran and dodged quick, jumping without effort. He landed on a ledge and glanced back, a twisted smile on his face. He extended a palm, and a bolt of light shot forward, straight at me.

I jumped to the side and the blast hit, the force sending me tumbling through the snow, rolling until I rammed hard into an old wall. My body ached as I forced it to move, cold and wind biting my face, my hands, anything it could touch.

My vision blurred and everything had become a mass of white and grey. Finally, it came back into focus and I saw Kenley edging his way along a narrow ledge toward a thin slit in the rock, and Vera and Ehren just within sight.

“Vera! Ehren!” I screamed, running through the snow, trying to catch up to him.

They glanced back and followed my gaze; Vera started running, too, and Ehren strung his bow.

An arrow slipped through the air, a black streak against the grey clouds, but right before impact, it stopped as though it’d plunged into an invisible wall and fell to the ground, lost in the snow.

Vera climbed onto the ledge, holding her blades with a violent smile spread across her face.

She headed Kenley off, throwing him off balance. The two of them fought, neither of them gaining advantage. I ran as hard as I could, jumping over fallen stones, leaping across open spaces, and joined Vera on the ledge just in time to see a bolt of light hit the ground at her feet.

She realized what had happened right as the ground fell beneath her feet.

The wind blew around me as I lunged, throwing myself forward as far and as fast as I could, desperate to reach her. The wind seemed to carry me as I flew through the air, much slower than I had thought possible, and I landed hard on the ground, Vera’s hand in mine.

My arm burned from her weight, her body dangling over a ledge that plunged into thick white clouds below. The wind blew around us and her palms sweated, making her fingers slip through my fist.

“You’re slipping!” I screamed.

She grunted, trying to get a better grip as a pinky slipped, her ring finger…

Her other hand swung out and gripped my wrist, and I sighed.

But then I started sliding after her, over the icy ledge. I gripped with my free hand, but I kept sliding and sliding, my neck, my shoulders…

Someone grabbed my ankles: Ehren. He clenched his jaw as he pulled, tugging us back over the ledge to safety.

Vera landed on the ledge and rolled on her back, grasping her stomach with her eyes shut, breathing hard. “Stop…saving me…” she whispered.

“Stop trying to get yourself killed.” I heaved.

A grin twitched at her lips.

“Watch her,” I said to Ehren, and he nodded as I leapt to my feet, searching the mountainside.

There, on a broken ledge, was a blur of power. The sound of their swords was lost in the wind, the shine dulled from the darkening sky.

“Daria, get down!” Ehren shouted behind me.

I dropped as a bolt of light whizzed past my head, landing on a stone above me. It exploded and I curled into a ball as pieces of rock fell all around me, and then I glanced up.

The shadowguard.

My chest felt heavy as I staggered to my feet.

Ehren and Vera were already dodging light and fighting against three that had materialized out of thin air. Vera moved with lightning speed, and at the last moment she spun, bringing her swords together through one. It shattered into black glass right as another appeared behind her. He shot a stream of light toward her face, and she dodged; it crashed into the rock wall beside her, sending rock and debris everywhere.

Ehren had strung his bow, his arrows wrapped in a net of what looked like threads of light. He shot one at the shadowguard right behind Vera; it landed in his chest and he exploded with an alien wail.

I had started to run toward Alex when a shadowguard appeared before me.

I brought my daggers around, jarring them into the shadowguard’s black sword. He moved, slipping from my reach, appearing on my other side and bringing his sword down. I rolled away, barely missing it.

I tried and tried to get at him, but he was too fast.

He extended his gloved hand and I dropped as light shot past me, hitting rocks and pillars, sending pieces of rock flying all around. I lured the shadowguard back, farther and farther, closer to the ledge, dodging more blasts and falling stone, trying to keep my steps steady.

I reached the ledge. My heels crept over the edge as the wind blew hard at my back, holding me upright.

The shadowguard paused before me, its eyes blacker than night. He extended his arms, and I felt the power inside of him building.

The shadowguard leaned forward, the power within surging through his body, down his arms, through his fingertips as he leaned forward still, and I ducked, stabbing my dagger into his foot.

He fell forward and plunged headfirst over the cliff.

I was stepping forward when something caught my boot and jerked me over the ledge.

Chapter 24

Betrayal

L
ike a stone, I dropped through the sky. Wind screamed past my ears as my insides lunged into my throat. In every direction, all I could see was white. I wouldn’t have known up from down if I hadn’t been falling.

There was nothing to grab hold of, nothing within reach. All I could hope was that the impact would be quick, that I wouldn’t feel any pain.

But the wind did something strange. It turned softer and softer, becoming thick like a blanket, wrapping itself around me. As each second passed, my fall became slower and slower.

A shadow appeared in the distance, moving through the clouds toward me.

A vox.

Its wings flapped hard against the wind, carrying it forward, closer to me. It swooped down, and as easy as if I’d crawled on top of it, it pushed up at the last moment, securing me on its back.

With a smooth turn, it soared upward while I held tight to its mane. It was snowing, now, and any moment the wind would bring its wrath. I trusted the vox knew where it was going, and sure enough, only a few minutes passed before the vox landed softly on the ledge, right beside Alex.

Alex’s eyes were wild, the color gone from his strained face as he searched the clouds, and the moment he saw me he sprinted to my side. He reached his hands around my waist, pulled me down from the vox, and then held my face in his hands so tightly I thought he might crush my skull. He searched my eyes. “I thought I’d lost you.” His voice was tight. Before I had a chance to speak, he pulled me in his arms, holding me close. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” I said, “but the stone…it’s gone.”

My legs trembled beneath me from the adrenaline from the fall.

Alex pulled back, jaw clenched. Vera and Ehren appeared, both of them out of breath, their cheeks flushed pink as the wind blew their white hair everywhere.

“Gone,” Ehren said.

“Did you—” Alex started, but Vera cut him off.

“Last one vanished after yours truly”—she nodded at me—“jumped off the cliff.”

Alex looked back at me, his eyes hard. “You jumped?”