Soul of Flame (Imdalind Series #4)(27)

“Do you think you belong to Ilyan then?” Ryland asked, his desperation growing as a deep mania rumbled through his voice. “Is that what you think? Lies… lies… lies…” He growled at the same time his fingers pulled violently at his sagging curls, the words coming over and over. “He lies and you believe him—”

“Ilyan d-doesn’t lie to m-me!” I screamed in anger as I stood before him. The rocks around me shook and shattered with the waves of my rage.

Ryland’s eyes widened at my exclamation, his jaw clenching as anger moved into his face.

“He lies to everyone!” Ryland roared, his magic throwing me into the air like a ragdoll. I felt the hard impact as my body hit the ceiling, only to feel the air rush through my hair as I dropped like a dead weight back to the floor.

My fingers grasped at nothing as I fell, the descent too quick to even have a chance to stop it. Fire rippled through my bones as one after another they snapped and broke with the impact. My magic throbbed toward the painful shards of the breaks as it took the pain away, as it tried to heal me. I needed to face him—to make him pay—but the broken bits of my body had turned me into a rag doll, leaving me panting and gasping in the middle of a rubble heap.

I opened my eyes as my body twisted and writhed, only to find Ryland above me, his legs straddling me as they locked me in place. My chest tightened in fear at seeing him there, everything tensing as I fought the pain, fought the fear. Even if I could move, I had nowhere to go.

“He told me he would keep you safe for me, that I could have you back!” Ryland whimpered as he clawed at his hair, his voice broken in tears while his body rocked in the air above me. I writhed in pain below him as he lowered himself to lie beside me, his body pressing against mine as his hand extended to rest against the skin on my face.

“I can have you back. Ilyan said, Ilyan said, he said…” Ryland’s words were a painful promise that sliced through my heart. Even though I knew it was a lie, it was the same as it had been on the rooftop when he had looked at me with those black eyes and told me Ilyan loved me for the first time. I could feel the doubt burrowing into me, through the anger and fear that had wound its way up my spine. I didn’t believe him, even though—deep down—I knew.

“He wouldn’t say that,” I said as I tried to push away from his touch, my voice a grunt through my clenched teeth, willing the words to be true.

“He did. He did… he did. You belong to me. Mine… mine… mine.” His arm wrapped around me, pulling me against him like we were lovers, the movement of my body rippling through me in an ache of pain and fear.

He was lying. I knew it. It didn’t matter if he was, though. His words meant nothing to me. I was not a piece of property.

“I belong to no one!” I spat as I threw Ryland off me and into the stone ceiling. The aggressive force of my power shifted in the air as I sent him into the opposite wall, driving him into the stone.

“I don’t need anyone! Not to save me, not to own me! I can do this on my own!” My blood boiled as I scrambled back to standing, my hand swiping to the side repeatedly as I sliced through his shirt and cut through his skin with the heat of my power.

He screamed in pain as I did in anger, blood drizzling over the white of his shirt in rivers of the darkest red. Seeing the brightness of the blood—the color so vivid against the white—stopped me as a chill trailed down my spine, leaving my hand extended in front of me.

The anger that had clung to me left as he fell from the wall in a heap. I could only stare in horror at the red that drenched his back. I needed to leave, to get out of here. To run away from what I had done.

I backed up as I tried to remember how to walk—as I attempted to tear my eyes from him—only to see his pale face turn up to me, his fingers flexing as razor-sharp blades soared through the air, slicing across my face. I felt the heat as they cut through the skin, the painful burn as they gashed me open.

I stumbled back in pain as my hands flew to my face, the warm wetness of my own blood flooding over my skin.

“You are nothing without me,” he yelled as he approached me, “and even less with Ilyan. If you won’t kill me, then I will gladly kill you. My father was right all along. You are nothing, and you deserve to be dead.”

“I am NOT nothing!” My voice rumbled, my magic growing as I fired blindly through the rivers of my blood. In my attempt to fight back sparks of electricity and flame flashed through the smoke-filled air.

“Ilyan!” I shouted through the pain without knowing if I called the words into his head or aloud, not knowing if the barrier I had trapped him in would keep him from me.

The word escaped my lips just as Ryland pulled me back into him, his body hard against mine, his iron arm pressing me against him. I tried to fight the hold—to move away from the unwanted contact—but he only held on tighter, his face moving closer until I could taste his breath on my tongue.

“Why do you call for him if he doesn’t own you? Why do you sleep with him? Why do you cling to him?” He hissed his words against me as he held me, my heart stuttering as it fought to beat.

I just glared into him in response, my eyes narrowed dangerously as his words seeped into me and joined with my anger.

“You are weak with him! But I can make you strong. I can make you strong enough to be the Siln?. Strong enough,” he whispered, letting the pressure he held me with drop just enough that I gasped for air, “for me.”