Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(9)

Joclyn! What? I heard Ilyan’s voice, felt his mounting confusion, but I couldn’t think through the panic, through the Vil?s screams that were ringing through the open window.

The light was dazzling, the sound ravaging, my magic a violent spiral through me. It was hard to think, but it didn’t matter.

I turned from the window, ready to face the fear and panic of my people, ready to take control. But they merely stood there, staring at me in confusion.

“We need to move,” I said, the dread growing from seeing them remaining motionless. We weren’t that ill prepared, were we? We had trained for this. They had all trained for this. “The barrier is down. We need to move.”

I tried to put the forceful power into my voice, but I could already feel it wavering. What little confidence I had ebbed as everyone looked at me in confusion, their eyes downcast as they whispered to each other, a fear I had never seen moving into their eyes.

Seeing them, watching them whisper, watching their eyes, an anger mixed with the disorientation the screams of the Vil?s had given me, the emotion clashing with the way my magic was swollen and painful inside of me.

Mi Lasko …

“What are you waiting for? We need to move!” I practically yelled, my hands spreading out from me in a frantic plea. Still, no one moved, the fear and confusion growing as they looked at each other and at me.

“Perhaps we are waiting for the barrier to break.”

I knew that voice, that slow, snide, and overly calm voice. I knew the falseness of it and the hateful man it was attached to.

Turning toward Sain, my eyes widened at seeing him before me, surrounded by people, a look of confusion and worry plastered on his brow. He stood there like some distorted holy man: his clothes baggy, his hair unkempt, his beard untrimmed, looking as out of place as I felt. Yet, he fit. People swarmed around him while taking a step away from me.

He looked at me for a moment before whispering something to the girl next to him. Her eyes widened as he took a step toward me, a look of worry hitting his face, even if it didn’t hit his eyes.

“But the barrier is down!” I snapped at him. Having to deal with him never did anything good for my temper.

Joclyn, I need you to calm down. Ilyan was pleading with me, his voice worried, concerned, and at any other time, it would have snapped me right out of it, but not when I faced my father.

“Child,” Sain cooed, the ever-present sound of irritation in his voice rattling me further. “Daughter, my child, can’t you see…? The barrier…” He gestured toward the window, his eyes sad.

Right as he said it, the screams of the Vil?s stopped, silence resonating for the briefest of moments before the television static erupted inside of me, the grinding, electrical noise that had taken over my sights invading my reality. The sound moved through me, loud, abrasive, and painful.

I shook my head to rid myself of it, freezing in place with the knowledge of what had happened.

Sain looked at me with that same false concern, the whispers of those around him increasing.

I didn’t want to turn around. I didn’t want to see what lay outside the window, even though I already knew. I didn’t have another choice.

Joclyn, I need you to talk to me. Snap out of it, Siln?. Everything’s okay. He was scared, concerned.

I didn’t care.

“What did you do, Sain?” I growled, the anger in my voice causing several around me to flinch.

It should have been my cue to calm down, to just go to Ilyan as he had asked, to forget all of this, but I couldn’t. Not with the way my anger pulsed, not with the way my muscles seized. Not with the way he was looking at me.

“What do you mean?” His feigned innocence ground against me. “I didn’t—”

“I know you did something!” It was a scream, followed by a lunge, my magic trying to fly out of me to attack him, even if that meant clawing his eyes out, all of which would have succeeded if it wasn’t for the strong arm that wrapped around my stomach, pulling me into a hard chest that I knew all too well.

Apparently, rugby muscles didn’t fade into nothing after spending a year going crazy and being tortured.

“Let me go, Ry,” I growled as I fought against his hold, fully aware that was the most I had spoken to him since the night in the cave on our way to Prague, since the day I had healed Jaromir, the little boy Ilyan had pulled from his mother’s arms.

“Not going to happen, Jos.” His grip was tight yet even. I could tell by the tension in his voice that he was having a hard time keeping a good hold on me. “You’re making a fool of yourself, Your Highness.”

Two words and, just like that, the reality of what I had been about to do, of what I had done, came crashing down on me. The faces of everyone came into sharp focus, the fear in their expressions increasing as they looked from me to Ryland to Sain. But mostly at me, the queen who had, for all they knew, hallucinated the fall of the barrier then turned and attacked her father.

Great.

Joclyn, Ilyan’s voice rushed into my mind, his magic moving into me so fast I was certain I had been blocking it until that moment. You are okay. Everything is all right.

I began to calm, my breath heavy as I stopped pushing against the wall that Ryland had captured me in.

He didn’t let go, and I didn’t blame him. I still felt dangerous. At least skin contact with him wasn’t violently painful anymore.