Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(103)

I looked at Joclyn. Her green eyes were wide as they faded to black, staring at me while she looked into something beyond us.

I shivered. I had seen that look before. It didn’t make it any less creepy.

“Oh, my gosh. He can’t!” she hissed, pressing her hand against the torn sleeve of my T-shirt in an attempt to shove me back down to the ground, a move that I resisted. “Stay in the smoke as much as you can. You cannot fight this one, Wyn.”

I was about to retort, to give some loud explanation of why she couldn’t keep me away, when she turned, and Sain appeared behind her with a sudden pop, an attack already forming in the palm of his hand.

She had obviously seen his arrival before he came, because her attack was already speeding toward him. It never made contact, though. It sped through the air where he used to be, slamming against the far wall with a force that made the whole cave rumble and shake.

“Hide,” she told me, disappearing as she stuttered, appearing across the hall with a pop right before Sain did.

Her attack hit him in the back with a thud, and he cried out in pain, shuffling over the floor as he turned to face her. She was already gone, her attack meaningless as he, too, vanished.

The two reappeared again, fighting in a flurry of spells. They appeared and reappeared, spells and attacks flying through the air as they fought, moving past the large hall in a confusing mass. Everything moved so fast I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t know where to look. Jos was right; this was a battle I could not face.

Once again, Sain disappeared, and Joclyn popped out of existence behind him. But not before she sent an attack toward me, the red electricity crackling above my head.

Watching it with wide eyes, I tensed, expecting it to hit me. Instead, it hit Sain as the man appeared over me with a smile. His eyes flashed from black to green as he held a red knife above my heart.

I saw the image, the glint of the knife clear in my eyes before his yell overtook me.

The man stumbled before he disappeared again, and then the sound of the battle continued as the two of them danced through those terrible stutters, their precognition anticipating everything.

The blur of noise and color continued, but I didn’t see it. I stared straight ahead, the red knife clear in my mind. The sharp point of my daughter’s soul glinted in the light right before me. I could reach out and grab it.

It was the other piece. I needed to get it.

Shuffling to my feet, I spun around, my magic ready as I attempted to find some pattern, to find a place to attack. There was nothing but the flashes of bodies and sparks of magic. Everything was a blur.

Sain would have to attack me again if I wanted to get a good hold on him.

I wished he would.

Perhaps I could make him.

Forcing out a shout, I sent a line of fire directly into the ceiling just as they appeared again. The room lit up with the bang, but they didn’t seem to notice.

Their fight continued with magic and fire, knives, and who knew what else speeding through the air.

Then, with a bang, they halted. Sain stopped in place, a smile on his face.

I didn’t care that he had stopped, that he was smiling. All I could see was the knife.

I took my chance, an attack speeding through the air, ready to immobilize him, ready to destroy him.

He didn’t even seem to see it coming, but he stepped out of the way, anyway. His focus was intent on the smoke in front of him as he began to laugh, slow and demonic.

The nefarious sound plunged into my heart, ice moving beyond the fire of my soul and extinguishing it as I saw what he was so focused on. My best friend on her knees, hand over her chest, blood pouring from between her fingers.

“No!” I yelled, this one real, agonizing.

Sain heard this one. The sound had broken through the spell that had been over him, and his focus snapped to me.

His eyes glinted as he once again vanished. This time, however, with the anger that had taken control of me, with the power of my magic that was roaring inside of me, I was ready for him.

As fast as he had disappeared, I extended the fire magic into the ground, letting it ignite the earth I stood on.

With a pop, Sain reappeared before me, unaware of the landmine I had set in the ground beneath him.

His feet had barely made contact with the stone floor of the cavern when it went off like a bomb, rock and fire exploding around us, sending Sain into the air. His blood sprayed over my face in a line of damp that sizzled against my skin, boiling from the heat there.

Watching him soar, I let the smoke swallow him before I ran past the fire that still burned against the stone. The heat licked against my skin, comfortable and soothing. The feeling did not last. It vanished in a splash of cold water against my skin, the scene on the other side smacking me in the face.

Joclyn knelt, ash falling over her like the snow we had left. Gasping for air, she stared at the blood that dripped from her chest, the same bright red color that drizzled from her lips.

“Jos!” I ran toward her as Ilyan appeared between us, his body snapping into place with a pop as he ran toward his mate, his scream ripping my heart in two.

“No!” he yelled, the pain in his voice making it clear he knew something I did not.

“Ilyan,” she gasped as she looked up at him. Her blood-soaked hand extended toward him before she collapsed, Ilyan barely catching her.

“No! No, no, no!” Ilyan cried, his panic cut apart by a dark laugh that I had been expecting before.