Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(108)
“Never do that again!” Ryland’s voice echoed around us the moment we reemerged on a dingy street in Old Town, his body collapsing against the wall that hadn’t been there a moment ago.
Crinkling my nose against the smell of a million dying fish, I shot Ryland a look. The poor boy heaved as he clung to the wall beside him. Obviously stutters did not agree with him. It’s not like I was much better after my first, but then, Ilyan had knocked himself unconscious for several days, so at least I had that going for me. I wasn’t even sure why I had thought I could drag him through in the first place. I was beginning to wonder exactly how much power I had regained from Sain’s control. My magic kept surprising me, the power I felt daunting at times.
“Try to keep it down,” I hissed as I glared through the dark, my magic aching in fearful anticipation of what was coming.
“You say that like you didn’t try to kill me.”
I rolled my eyes at him before I walked away, the sounds of his gasping lessening with each step I took.
My magic moved in a rush as I pushed it through the streets, attempting to find where Sain had gone, but there was nothing: no trace of his magic, no image of a cloaked figure running through the dark. It was no more than a dark world, ribbons of deep red seeping through the gaps in the buildings as the sun set, a deep pitch plunging the shadowed world into a nonexistent realm.
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.”