Scorched Treachery (Imdalind, #3)(67)

I placed my hand against his stomach, my palm pressed against the fabric of his shirt. His eyes widened as I pushed against him, my magic shooting a blade of fire into him. My eyes flashed with glee and I pushed harder, dragging my hand against his belly as my magic sliced a large gash through him, the heat of my magic cauterizing the wound instantly.

“Choose light, Wyn.” I froze, the advance of my hand stalled at Sain’s voice.

Fine, I would choose light. But that doesn’t mean I will leave him unaccountable. I would not leave him free to repeat his same sins. He could die alone in the dark. The way he deserved to die.

“Goodbye, father,” I spat, before sending his body flying back toward the empty room we had just come from, his back snapping as he impacted with the wall. He slid down and fell into a heap, his lack of magic making it easy for me to leave him to die.

“This way,” I hissed, grabbing Sain’s hand and pulling him behind me.

One step against the stone and I could see a quick layout of the caves, my magic pulsing at the realization that Edmund was moving directly toward us. It was no surprise. The man was smart and he knew me well, too well. I altered my route, pulling Sain into a connecting hallway I hadn’t planned to use in an attempt to get away from Edmund.

If only the hall had been empty. Four of Edmund’s guards were running through the hall in their attempt to get to the blazing orchard, their feet stopping the second we came into view.

I pulled Sain behind me as each of their faces registered our presence, their hands rising in unison. They looked between each other and back to me, their faces lighting with an eager anticipation. They thought they were going to take me down, but they had no idea who they were really up against.

“You aren’t going to try to kill little old me, are you?” I asked, a little pout entering my voice and, in seconds, each of their faces fell. Now they knew. Most of them were old enough to remember what I had been capable of, what Edmund had trained me for. The Trpaslík at the back wasn’t going to risk being near me. One look and he took off in the other direction, trying to escape before I unleashed my full power on him.

Let him run, it wasn’t as if I wouldn’t face him eventually. Besides, the other three seemed to have recovered nicely.

I smiled, waiting for them to attack, letting my magic surge as I prepared to breeze past them. The one in front raised his hand, his fingers shaking as he tried to pull together enough strength and confidence to attack me.

It was pitiful to see, and if I hadn’t hidden all my emotions until I had time to deal with them properly, I would have felt sorry for him, but I didn’t. I reached my magic out toward the wall of the hallway, the cold stone warming under my fingertips. The heat inside my body grew as my magic moved into the stone. I liquefied it, the rock heating to an extreme temperature before it melted into a stream of molten lava that seeped away from the wall and over the floor toward the guards.

The man that had come to the front opened his mouth in a scream as the fast moving molten rock ran over the stone floor, covering his feet and working its way up his body. He screamed as the heat of the liquid rock hit him, as the pain incapacitated him, and one last time before it hardened over him in a coffin of rock.

“Whoops,” I whispered, sending the last of the guards running in the opposite direction, tripping over their feet in a panic to get away.

“Don’t say anything,” I warned Sain as I pulled him past the molten man, making our way toward where I hoped Cail still was.

My feet picked up pace, knowing the fire in the orchard would only keep them busy for so long. Edmund was already onto me. I could deal with his minions, but I didn’t want to test my newly remembered strength against him directly so soon, if I could help it. I ran forward, trying to focus on where Edmund might be, but he seemed to have disappeared.

The halls grew darker the closer I got to Cail’s magical imprint. The normally brightly lit lamps were covered and dark, the yells from the orchard fading into nothing.

I rounded the last corner only to come face to face with Edmund. I had hoped we would beat him here; obviously, I had been too optimistic. He stood between my brother and me, his arms folded over his black leather jacket as he looked me up and down. I could see Cail on a large bed behind him, the jagged red blade protruding awkwardly out of his chest.

I clenched my teeth as I glared at Edmund, hoping my face would be enough to issue a warning, but he only smiled, my challenge greedily accepted.

“Out of my way, Edmund, or you’re going to lose another finger,” I growled, my magic moving through the rock toward him eagerly.

“You really think I am just going to let you leave, after I worked so hard to dispose of everyone else in these walls?” Edmund’s voice was deep, as a wicked gleam played in his eyes. “You are the last one, and you are going to die, just like the rest of them.”

“Move, Edmund.” I felt my fingers flex as I watched him, unwilling to look away for a second. I wasn’t going to step down. I would not back away, not after I had come this far.

“You would risk everything for him, wouldn’t you?” he said, my warning rolling off him like water. “Just as he would do the same for you?”

“Out of my way,” I snarled through my clenched teeth.

“Very well,” he said casually, shifting his body out of the way and giving me a full view of the stone room at the end of the hall. I glanced at Cail’s sleeping body, my feet ready to take me forward, when a man moved to stand beside him, a large knife poised in his hands. I took one step forward without thinking, my blood pulsing with desperation.