Scorched Treachery (Imdalind, #3)(57)

I heard the two men exclaim, before Timothy laughed, his joy making the sound high pitched and girlish.

“Feel better?” Edmund asked, “Remember everything?”

I didn’t respond. I just hung my head between my arms, the lack of muscle strength giving me reprieve.

“Now, tell me Cail’s secret. Why will he do anything to save you?” I just looked at him, not willing to give him the information, knowing deep down that soon I wouldn’t have another choice.

“Tell me what I can threaten your brother with, Wynifred.” I felt his fingers rest against my spine, his magic jerking into my spinal column as he moved to take the information by force.

“If Cail dies first, then I die. If Timothy dies first, the curse unbinds itself.” My voice was dead as Edmund forced it out of me.

“There now,” Edmund sneered, the smile wide on his face, “That wasn’t that hard, was it? Come along, Timothy. It looks like I have a job for you.”

He moved away from me then, the door swinging shut behind him with a clang before the shackles around my wrists vanished, sending me to the ground in a heap.





Ilyan





Chapter Seventeen





I could not thank Ovailia for her foresight in adding modern bathrooms to the ancient chambers at Rioseco more than I did right now. The room was still steamy from the prolonged shower, the air heavy with the mist of the okouzleny bush. I breathed in the heavy flavor of the wood, savoring the way it relaxed my heart and cleared my lungs.

I had let the water run for much longer than was strictly necessary as I cut my hair back to the short cut that Joclyn had said she liked, letting the steam move out into the bedroom where Joclyn lay on the large soft bed. She looked so peaceful, and although I knew the magical properties of the bush would not wake her, I hoped they would calm her in the nightmare she was still restrained within.

Still she lay, unmoving, and calm. Thankfully, we’d had no more injuries in the past few hours since arriving at Rioseco. I still couldn’t believe we had arrived safely, my heart whole and unscathed. Magic like that had never been accomplished before, and to do so twice in such a short time… I had not expected to survive it. I did not look at this accomplishment as one to boast of. If anything, it only increased my ability to protect her.

Cleaned, cut, and shaven, I walked out of the bathroom of my large suite at Rioseco into the bedroom, the sight of Joclyn’s sleeping body welcoming me. She lay still underneath the heavy white covers; the bright white looking out of place against the ancient stone walls. Generally, I preferred white. I preferred the serenity, the hope, and the reminder that you could always start again that it offered me. So many of my rooms were decorated with it, but here, in the ruins of the first Abbey I ever lived in, I could not cover the brick I had laid with my own hands with such a trivial thing as paint. These walls reminded me of starting over in their own way, and that was enough for me.

Joclyn’s clean hair fanned behind her like a dark stain of spilled ink against the white. My magic flared inside of her, moving to reach every corner of her body in an instant, the once powerful barrier now nowhere to be found.

Thankfully, her body was whole, but the absence of the barrier still worried me. It had been strong enough to keep me out of her when she was first trapped in the T?uha, only to fade the longer she stayed inside of it. Now, it had simply disappeared. I knew the absence meant something, but what it was I couldn’t place.

My father had found a way to work beyond my realm of thinking, his mind working faster than mine for once. Any other time I would be glad for the challenge. But somehow, the brutal torture of a girl I loved, happening right in front of me, changed that. I didn’t like to lose, and Edmund had upped the stakes in this game.

I lay down next to her, letting my magic flow into her mind as I joined myself to her, hopeful that this time I might find something. I knew the hope was slim, but I couldn’t stop it from coming unbidden to my mind.

I let my mind seep into hers; the desperation, at once again finding nothing, gripping me to my very core. Her mind had still not returned; a path to retrieve it had not been found. I could still find no trace of where she could have disappeared to.

I had entered her soul, moved into her mind, reversed her magical line, healed her body, held her heart, and now the barrier had gone. The last thing I knew her to control.

She was a shell.

I had run out of ideas.

With all my training, all my power, this problem had stumped me.

We had one thing left, one thing we could try. Being at Rioseco had given us access to the mugs that could hold the Black Water, just as Thom had reminded us in the cave. As Joclyn’s only food source, the Black Water might possibly be the key to awakening her.

I held her to me, my mind still wandering inside of hers, my song filling her mind, my words lingering as they echoed through her soul and vibrated through the tender muscles of her heart. I left them there, within her, before withdrawing from within only to hold her to me, her body pressing up against me.

“Jos, my love,” I whispered to her, knowing it was no use. This was not like when I had been knocked unconscious by my overuse of magic. Her voice had called to me then, but I doubted mine could call to her now. There was nothing there to hear, not that I could find. But, I still couldn’t stop the hope.

“Whatever happens, please know that I will always hold you in my heart. I now know I was not the one to save you, as much as my heart longs to be. But I will protect you, until the one who can awaken you returns.”