The Bound (Ascension #2)(60)

Orden grabbed a lever and hoisted open a door. Footsteps could be heard distantly in the hall behind them.

“Hurry!” Cyrene cried.

“Just go!” Dean yelled.

“Go now!” Orden ordered as well.

The Leifs were the first to dart out through the open door. Whoever was behind them was gaining just as the rest of their party ran toward the city.

Cyrene could see Avoca up ahead, and she felt the gut-wrenching pull of her magic. It was like a magnet drawing her closer, and it only made Cyrene want to pull from her own source now that she could touch it.

Orden was the last to follow. He cut the rope for the door and then ran at full speed toward them. The gate barely missed him as it tumbled down, blocking the entrance. A group of guards yelled from behind the barricade. Arrows were nocked above them, but in the close quarters, only one or two arrows were fired, and they missed their mark.

Their group barreled through the city, toward the docks. Adrenaline fueled Cyrene forward.

The moon glowed bright overhead, illuminating their every move. There was no place to hide in the city. All she could do was hope that they would make it to Dean’s ship before the guards caught up to them.

The ship loomed in the distance, proud and true, waving the Eleysian flag.

Her heart hammered in her chest, and everything ached. It felt wondrous and impossible that she had come all this way, and she would finally get to go to Eleysia. Even if nothing had gone as planned, they could still get there after all—and on the Prince’s ship, no less.

Dean was keeping pace at her side. She knew that she was the slowest of the bunch.

She could feel her magic thrumming in her fingertips, but she refused to reach for it. Not until she could fully control it. The only time she had ever used it and not passed out was when she found the deer. She hadn’t even done anything with it. She couldn’t afford to pass out at this point.

Cyrene could see that Darmian had already reached the vessel and was commanding the crew to set sail.

“We have to move faster,” Dean said.

She didn’t dare look behind her in fear of seeing the guards approaching. They were on foot, but drawing nearer.

“I know,” she gasped out breathlessly.

“Some more of that magic again would be most helpful,” he insisted.

Her feet stumbled over the word, and her mouth dropped open. He knows. Of course he knows! He had seen her kill the Braj. Miraculously, he had killed another. But still…hearing that word out of his mouth felt like a dream. She had only just told her Ahlvie. She didn’t know how she felt about anyone else knowing, let alone a stranger.

“I don’t…”

“Just use it,” he said.

Her fingertips tingled. Everything tingled. Her body came to life. She breathed in what she had been holding back for much too long. Her lungs expanded, and her body felt lighter. She didn’t know what she was doing or what she was even thinking. All she could feel was the sweet bliss of being filled with the Creator’s blessing. It was glorious and eternal.

The fear that had pricked her mind before vanished.

I can control it. I can do it, she chanted to herself.

Without another thought, she recalled the last thing that she had done and pushed the energy blast out behind her. The earth quaked under her feet. The wind roared in her ears. Her whole world shattered.

She flew ten feet in the air and landed heavily on the shaky ground. Dean was a good twenty paces beyond her on the dock. He had somehow cleared the distance and was on safe ground. But where she lay was still trembling with whatever she had done.

Dean screamed her name and gestured behind her. She turned away, and in horror, she saw what was happening.

The beautiful stone houses that had lined the docks only minutes ago were demolished. Rubble.

Her mouth hung open, and she let loose a cry of despair.

The guards lay on the ground. They were alive. She could dimly feel their pulses, proving to her that they were alive, but they were holding on to anything through the trembling of the earth.

Whatever she had thrown at them multiplied and magnified. A ripple passed through the city. She could see the destruction from her magic in its wake. Nothing as bad as the immediate vicinity but not good either.

“Dean, go,” Cyrene said. Tears brimmed in her eyes.

For the first time, she felt wrong for going on this mission. She had no clue what she was doing. Working with her magic was wrong. It could hurt people. Destroy lives. Wreak havoc. She couldn’t do this.

Then, Dean grabbed her by her shoulders and hauled her onto her feet. “Breathe,” he whispered so softly that she shouldn’t have heard him over the wind in her ears. “Breathe in and out. It will be okay. Just breathe.”

She stared into his dark eyes and felt grounded in that gaze. She took a long deep breath and let it out. He nodded, encouraging, and she refused to break her stare.

“That’s it,” he said. “Just breathe.”

Slowly, something shifted within her. Her body loosened. The air died down. The earth stopped shaking. And then her magic vanished. Winked out like a light.

She sagged into Dean’s arms, and he held her tight to him.

“There, there,” he said soothingly. He breathed into her hair. “If I had known, I never would have suggested that.”

“I didn’t mean to,” she whispered.