Crown of Cinders (Imdalind #7)(55)

Hurry, Joclyn! he yelled, his voice filling me as I rushed down the hall, tripping over my own feet in my desperation.

I turned the corner of the wide hall and stopped1 in place, everything freezing around me.

Dramin’s yell echoed beyond the door to my left, his panic clear, but I barely heard it. I barely heard anything beyond the heaving gasps of my lungs as I tried to take in air.

There, in the middle of the hall before me, was the rigid body of Jaromir, exactly as I had seen in sight. The haunting reality smacked me in the face.

Jaromir lay facedown in the hallway, surrounded by a pool of crimson.

Ilyan, the word was numb in my mind as my heart clenched, magic aching as I felt nothing from Jaromir. No whisper of the power he used to hold. No sound of his breath.

Nothing.

My eyes stung as I stood there, unable to pull myself forward, unable to move toward … where he was lying there … just as my mother had.

Just as she had died.

I couldn’t breathe.

Joclyn, listen to me, Ilyan soothed into my mind, his magic wrapping around my soul as he felt the desperation gripping me. Even though I could clearly see him fighting at least three Chosen, he was with me. He was with Jaromir. I’m sending Etma to him. You have to go, Joclyn!

His voice was a drum beat in my head as Míra screamed, her laugh mixing with Dramin’s cries, pulling me out of the hell the sight of Jaromir’s body had trapped me in.

Pulling me right back into the hell that was waiting for me.

“I won’t let you!” Dramin yelled as I threw open the door.

His emaciated body tackled the girl to the floor, a flash of imagery before her magic exploded in a wave of white. It sped away from her, throwing Dramin across the room and tossing me back across the hall I had left, right into the stone wall behind me.

Dramin’s shout mixed with mine as we both impacted with stone and glass and who knew what else.

As I slid down the stone to land on the floor in a heap, my back aching, the strength of her attack rang in my ears like a bell, blocking out the sound of battle with a hollow noise that pressed against my skull. The pain that was already unyielding against my spine increased against the joints in my neck and shoulders. I tried to shake it off, but everything swelled, my heart aching, my panic rising.

“Don’t stop me, old man!” Míra screamed amidst the fog.

The numbing buzz fell away with the pain, leaving me heaving as I tried to reach Dramin.

While I gasped from the movement, the pain in my back turned into a live wire, jolting through me. I couldn’t stay here and wait for my magic to repair whatever damage Míra had done. I could feel it already trying.

“I have to do this!”

I could have sworn Míra was crying, but I didn’t care. I pushed myself up, my magic surging as I stumbled back into the room. My magic ripped the door off its hinges in my desperation to reach Dramin.

Bottles and dishes, plants, and books were scattered over the floor. Thom’s bed was upturned, the man who had inhabited it for months nowhere to be seen, hidden behind the straw and feathers that had been ripped out of his mattress, scattered around them in waves of white. I saw nothing. If I hadn’t known better, I would have said it was snowing. I would have thought it was … if it weren’t for the red.

It was sprayed over the floors and walls as though someone had taken an ax to a man. The color was so bright, so present that I had no way of knowing who it belonged to … until I saw Dramin lying on the ground underneath Míra, soaked in it.

“Try to stop me!” Míra screamed at him as she sent another attack into his chest.

His frail, magicless body took the full brunt, his scream ripping through me, pressing my heart into my throat.

I lost it.

“Don’t touch him, little girl!” I screamed as I ran toward her, my magic crashing against her as I ripped her off my brother then threw her across the room.

She screamed in surprise, hair and limbs tangling as she flew end over end before freezing as she impacted with the wall.

As though someone had hit the pause button, she froze, and my magic dropped from her as she took control, falling to the ground like a cat.

With a snap, she looked up at me, blood streaked over her face, down her hair, staining her teeth red as she smiled at me. Her eyes were a hard glare before she countered. The snap of her magical attack zapped through the air in a shock wave.

With the tiniest flick, I thwarted her, my magic pressing against her and sending the wave back.

She fell to the ground with a shriek, dodging the attack and letting the magical pulse slam into the wall behind her in a blast that shook the room with a roar.

Dramin’s carefully tended bookcases exploded from the impact, sending shards of burning paper, dust, and broken pieces of mugs flying into the air. They showered us in a cascade of flame and smoke, paper and feathers burning against the dim light of dawn like haunted fairy lights. And the air was on fire. The scent was a campfire drenched in the iron smell of blood. The burning embers of paper that fell around us increased that.

“I should have trusted my sight about you.” My voice was as hard as her eyes, the anger flowing inside of her glaring back at me. “I should have seen you for what you are and destroyed you when I had the chance!”

“Trusted your sight?” Pain gripped her voice as she pulled herself up to standing, placing herself between me and my brother.