Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(111)

I will.

“Go get ‘em, boys,” he sneered as he stepped toward me, his magic sparking as it pushed Ryland and Ilyan away from me, their bodies soaring through the air as he separated us.

My shout was loud as I reached for Ilyan, realizing too late that, no matter how hard my magic tried to reach him, I couldn’t. A wall lay between us, keeping me from him and him from me.

I could hear their screams and feel Ilyan’s fear, but my magic couldn’t reach him. I couldn’t pull him back to me.

Sain looked at me as the world around us shimmered, a dome covering our two bodies, keeping us in and them out, trapping me with a man intent on killing me.

Swallowing in pure feral fear, I looked at my father, the warning of his smile increasing as his eyes dipped to black.

Ilyan and Ryland’s shouts rebounded around us, distorted, as if they had come from a tin can. I might as well have been trapped in a glass tank.

Joclyn, Ilyan yelled through my mind, his thoughts making it apparent he was still trying to find a way back to me. I could see him run around the perimeter. I could see him bang on the wall as magic sparked from his fingers, but I knew it was no use. Besides, a different enemy had already reached him.

My focus darted to his as he fought the disjointed corpses in front of him, his hand pressing against the invisible wall before he turned away. His magic coursed through me, his fear and worry traveling right along with it.

“Ilyan…”

I am here, mi lasko, he whispered with dread, the words filling me as I turned back to my father, his face still blank, his eyes still black.

“How sweet. I certainly hope you get to see each other again,” he mocked, his head twisting to the side. “Now, let’s see if you are as powerful as the sight predicted you to be.”

He gave me no warning before he attacked. Violent spells streamed toward me one after another, his body moving fast while he continued to look at me with black eyes, his hands barely moving as he fought me.

I moved without question, dodging, countering, my hands flailing as I tried to deter him, but the powerful forces kept coming. In the end, I just threw up both hands, a wall flying from me in a desperate attempt to do away with his endless onslaught.

It was something I already knew would not help.

“There is one among us who seeks to change the magic.” His voice growled through the colorful smoke that surrounded us, his words swirling in darkness as the prophecy that had been embedded into my mind was repeated, the verses sounding even darker as they were spoken by the one I now realized they were referring to. “Someone who seeks to kill the magic. He seeks to kill the magic for his own personal gain. We see him as he fights, as he sheds the blood of us, as he sheds the blood of others. We see him as he stops the reign of magic, as he stops the time of ours.”

He smiled, an attack flying toward me as the smoke fell to the ground, the lingering smell of sulfur and death strong in my nose. “Do you see now, child? Do you see what is to happen?”

“It was your sight, Father. That first sight, the one that showed everything: about me, about Ilyan. She is the most powerful. She will be The Siln?, the one who protects us all,” I snapped as I attacked him again.

His eyes widened as the violent stream of magic narrowly missed him, fear glossing over his eyes for just a moment before the smile returned, the glare enough to make anyone flinch. I stood still.

“Do you doubt it now?”

His eyes snapped back to black, digging into me as he smiled.

A ribbon of yellow flew toward me, and I swung out of the way, only to be hit by a jolt of attack, a powerful wave jerking through my spine, freezing me in place.

“I doubt nothing that is based in truth,” he mused as he stepped toward me, his magic still riddling through me, freezing and burning in a confusing agony I couldn’t shake. “Sight, however, is not based on such ridiculous atrocities.” With one more step, he fired again, another attack, the same as the last surging through my body as I screamed.

Ilyan’s yell of fear echoed in my head as he tried again to break through the barrier, tried to reach me in order to kill Sain, to protect me. But the barrier didn’t so much as budge, no matter what attack Ilyan threw at it.

The sound of Sain’s laugh ripped through me as his eyes faded from black to green. “You say your power is free, Joclyn, and I can feel that. Yet you do not use it. You are going to make your death the easiest one yet.” He sighed, his magic leaving me as I fell to the ground in a gasping heap.

Ilyan’s shout continued to rip through me, his worry filling my mind.

“I guess I shouldn’t complain,” he continued. “Once you are gone, everything else will fall into place. You are the last thorn in my side.”

Fight him, Joclyn. Ilyan’s voice filled me as I looked up at my father, looked up at that sly smile, the hatred I felt for him flowing, Ilyan’s magic swelling in me as I pushed myself to standing, my jaw tight as I faced him.

“I knew you weren’t worthy of the magic the mud gave you. No one is. No one but me.” His eyes faded to black as he moved, the attacks coming again in a torrent that, no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to break free from.

Ilyan’s thoughts plunged through me as I fought, his centuries of expertise infecting me, training me as I moved. Still, no matter what I learned, no matter what I did, it was useless.