Soul of Flame (Imdalind Series #4)(102)

I pressed my lips against Ilyan’s as the lightning inside of me sped up. The power was strong as Ilyan kissed me back, his touch desperate as his arm wound over my back, pressing me into him at the same time his tongue parted my lips. I let him into me, breathing him in as I felt his passion, the love growing without regret as the kiss deepened, my hands clawing at his sides in an attempt to bring him into me.

The fire in my stomach grew, my skin sealing itself together as Ilyan’s hand trailed up my back, his touch soft against my neck as his finger made contact with my mark.

I screamed at the contact, at the way the lightning fought its way through me. It was the first time he had touched the small brand since our bonding, and our magic reacted, rocking through us with an aggressive force more powerful than I had ever felt before. His scream joined mine, an eruption of power and lightning streaking through the air as the Trpaslíks who surrounded us evaporated into smoke and ash, as the building we stood in rumbled and rocked with the power until I was sure it could not stand.

I gasped for air as my eyes opened, Ilyan’s dark blue eyes staring into me as he tried to control his own breathing to regulate the power that still jolted through him. I looked into his eyes until the walls around us shifted, making it clear that the abbey was falling apart below us.

My eyes darted away as the wall moved, the silver of my eyes coming into contact with Edmund’s for the first time in months and I smiled. I smiled because I knew there was nothing he could do to stop us, and while I would not kill him today, his day was coming.

I continued to smile as I clung to Ilyan, my eyes locked with Edmund’s as my magic pulsed, as I sent the army that surrounded us away.

Fire ripped away from us as Ilyan’s magic pulsed alongside mine, my body tightening against Ilyan’s as he took us away.

Into the black void between worlds.

Into a place Edmund could not follow.





Twenty-Four



I clung to Ilyan as the world re-emerged around us, ash and soot filling my lungs while the sound of fighting met my ears. My eyes shot open as I turned from Ilyan to the battle that still raged in front of us. It wasn’t the battle we had just escaped from, however. This fight was a perfectly planned execution.

One that I would make sure would fail.

Sain and Dramin sat, huddled into each other not thirty feet from where we had emerged, their weak, defensive magic serving as no more than a shield around them. Wyn and Thom stayed as close to them as they could, their magic surging as they fought the Trpaslíks who streamed through the trees like a slow-flowing ketchup bottle.

Amongst them all was Ryland. A Ryland who screamed, and yelled, and cried. A Ryland who was attacking everyone.

Light and fire erupted from him as he screamed, his attacks firing at everyone with no regard for what side they might be on, or if they had already been attacked or not. He moved from screaming to crying so fast that it looked like someone had punched him. He cried as he turned to Wyn, his wails ringing through the trees as he fired a stream of golden knives at her.

The sharp blades glinted in the dim light before Wyn deflected them in one glance, her magic sending them to the ground before her hand pressed away from her. A line of dark ink shot from her palm, right to a Trpaslík who had just exploded from the trees, dropping him to the ground.

I’ll stop Ryland, Ilyan said urgently, my mind buzzing with the strength of his magic as he pushed the words into me. You get everyone to the cave. Ilyan pushed a flash of our destination into my mind, the path perfectly laid out as he ran to his brother’s aide.

I rushed toward Wyn as her magic surged, burning the two attackers in front of her to ash right before my eyes. They were frozen in screams before what remained of their bodies floated into the wind, adding to the mass amount of ash the burning forest had already surrounded us with.

Wyn’s face lit up as I met them, the smile on her face chilling.

“Did you kill Edmund?” she asked in mad excitement, her hands flicking just as a tree to the right of her caught fire. Thom lifted it from the ground from where he stood, throwing it into a line of Trpaslíks running toward us.

“We have to get out of here!” I yelled back, purposefully avoiding her question. I didn’t even know where to begin with an answer.

I stretched my magic out, my heart falling at the wave of attackers that were headed in our direction. We hadn’t even begun to see the end of this; our only hope now was to run.

Wyn looked at me like she was going to press for information before she thought better of it and nodded once. Her jawline tightened as she turned to where Thom fought behind her, his magic strained as he tried to keep up with the battle that had surrounded them.

“Thom, you take the Draks with Jos. I can stop them all long enough to give us a good start, but you all have got to be ahead of me.”

Thom nodded at Wyn’s instructions at the same time that Dramin and Sain pulled themselves to standing. Thom moved closer, ready to whisk them away toward the cave that stood just beyond the next clump of trees.

Thom had just begun to get away as a woman with wild hair broke through the tree line right behind them, blocking their path. Her hands rose as I felt her magic surge toward Thom’s exposed back, and my heart raced as I witnessed the underhanded attack take place.

My magic surged at seeing her there, the power reacting without me having to so much as move. The powerful pulse I sent toward her slammed into her heavy frame, sending her right into a large tree trunk, which promptly broke apart into slivers at the impact.