House of Royale (Secret Keepers #4)(67)

Xander didn’t sound worried, so I tried not to stress about it either. They’d be here as soon as they could.

“We’re not going to catch her in time,” Emma cried.

She was very right. “Go ahead,” I said to Xander. “Your friends need your help, and our human legs are too slow.”

He hesitated for a beat, then kissed me hard and sprinted away in a flash.

“Come to me,” Laous shouted again, his flames warding off the worst of Lexen’s storm.

“No!” I screamed, seeing that Callie was only a few feet away now. We were too late!

Out of nowhere—or so it appeared from my angle—a figure raced in from behind Laous. A tall, bulky man. For once his head was held high, scarred face filled with determination. He ran at full speed toward Callie, tackling her down to the ground.

She immediately started screaming, kicking and fighting.

“Rao!” I gasped, wishing we were closer so I could see better.

Emma choked on her next words. “He’s … trying to stop her. He’s giving our guys time to get there.”

Callie’s flames rose higher then and I couldn’t see her anymore. She had completely covered herself and Rao in fire, and I hoped Rao was immune to Imperial flames. Otherwise he had just sacrificed his life to save the stone.





22





Callie





Darkness held my mind, the same way it had when I’d been trapped in the concrestia goo, the Soulstealer, running through an endless land of nothing, screaming, desperate to get back to my family. The only positive this time was I knew what was happening to me. I knew it, but I couldn’t figure out how to fight it. My bond to Daniel flickered on and off, but I could never hold on to it long enough to actually free myself.

Words flashed across the darkness again, one of the few differences to last time. It reminded me of a computer doing an update, where the script would appear on the dark screen, scanning down the page.

Some of the words were in English too. I’d catch glimpses of familiar phrases, but they moved too fast for me to read them. My stupid fucking brain was useless.

Calm, Callie. Breathe and calm your mind. You’ll never be able to read when you’re trying this hard. Your brain is stressed.

Emma’s words came back to me, something she’d said often in the hours we’d spent learning together. She was so patient, never getting upset or frustrated by my shortcomings.

Her voice wasn’t the only one I had heard. There was Ava’s too, calling me back to them.

“Help me,” I screamed.

Why was I back here again? What had happened to the starslight stone?

“Come to me.”

That insidious voice slithered inside of me and my legs picked up speed, moving even faster than before. Toward what, I had no idea, because there was only darkness around. When I tried to stop myself from moving, I found that I had lost all control of my body. It didn’t run because I wanted it to, it ran because someone else did.

Laous? Could he have had done this to me again?

I couldn’t rely on Daniel this time. I had to figure out how to save myself, because I sensed that this was bad. Time was running out for us all. I would be strong enough. My mom didn’t know me as well as she thought when she called me stupid and weak. I would be more than she’d ever dreamed for me.

Words appeared across the sky again, and I found myself focusing on the first word. One word at a time, Emma always said. Don’t look ahead or you’ll get confused.

“Sto-ne,” I said slowly. “The stone.” Moving on to the next word, I sounded it out, one by one. Each time the words disappeared, I came back to where I’d been up to, just like Emma had been drilling into me.

“The stone will … set … you … free.” I sobbed. “I read it. I actually freaking read it.”

The stone will set me free? What did that mean? The starslight stone? Or another completely random one? The words faded out again. I was trying to stop my legs again, because there was no way I could find a stone sprinting like this, when something hit me hard from the side.

I got my wish to stop, because the heavy weight knocked me right off my feet.

“Come to me!”

I began to scream, kicking and fighting and thrashing to be freed from whatever held me. Sweat dripped down my brow as the heat kicked up a notch.

“Callie, stop fighting me.”

It was another voice, low and thrumming with pain. “Just let go,” he said. “Don’t fight any longer.”

I wanted to stop so badly.

“Callie.”

The low, stilted way he said my name … I recognized it.

“Rao!” I shouted back to him, knowing he wasn’t here in this world, but wondering if he might be in the physical plane. With my body.

A scent of burning flesh hit my senses hard. I thought of his burned face. The fresh burns. The old burns. And now … there was so much heat around us.

No! Oh, my gods, no. Please … no. Please don’t let me be the one burning him this time. He’s already been through so much. Too much.

I was praying and screaming and crying, trying to figure out how to wake from this nightmare. All the while the heat grew stronger around us.

“Let … stone … go,” he choked out.