Scorched Treachery (Imdalind, #3)(80)

I expected the impact. I had yelled out against it, but it never hit Ryland. It hit Dramin.

I watched him as he moved in front of Ryland, his eyes hooded and sad. He was not panicked at what was about to collide with him, he was accepting. Dramin looked at Joclyn as her magic hit him, his face full of pity before he collapsed to the ground. Everything froze in place as I felt Joclyn fall into sleep beside me, my magic removing her alert state and plunging her into a deep dreamless sleep.

Joclyn’s body sagged as Dramin’s did, but it was Dramin’s body that held my attention this time. The dull clunk of his head against the wood echoed through the quiet room, and through my heart. I could feel the surprise at what had just happened pulse through each of us for one breath before Thom’s yell broke the stunned reverence we had been trapped in.

Thom yelled as he collapsed to the ground by his friend, his hands shaking as he reached for him, plunging his magic into him. His voice was the deep lolling of a keel, the sound of one lost to the deep pieties of the world. The sound of heartbreak.

All other thoughts left me as I dropped to Thom’s side as he howled, my own yells joining his as he held onto his friend. My friend. All the times I had hidden him, protected him, and now he was just another one to fall.

“Dramin,” I gasped, my voice inaudible above Thom’s moans. “No… No… Dramin!”

I placed my shaking hands against Dramin’s face, my magic moving into him in an attempt to find some evidence of life inside him, to find anything that would give me some hope.

I let my magic surge, my panic making it hard for me to regulate the amount that I plunged into him. I explored every inch of his body, my power covering him in my desperation to find something.

If it wasn’t for the deep tick of the Black Water that would forever flow through me, I may not have felt the small spark that was hidden in his heart.

“He’s not dead,” I said firmly, the regality coming back into my voice as I fought the hopelessness that Dramin’s injury had filled me with.

“What?” Ovailia’s surprise mirrored my own, but the bitter sound within her voice was stronger than usual.

I grabbed Thom’s magic that now snaked through Dramin’s body to direct him to the spark of energy that I had found.

“Focus on that,” I instructed him before pulling away.

My magic left him as I brought it back inside of myself, my heart thumping against my chest at what I was about to do.

“Please don’t let me kill him,” I spoke more to myself than anyone else, but I knew that everyone had heard me, that everyone knew what I was going to do. It was what I had tried to do to my friend, Sarin, before I killed him a thousand years before. It was what I needed to do now in order to save Dramin’s life.

My hands rested against Dramin’s face, the skin contact warm and threatening. I breathed in, bringing my magic right to the surface, before breathing out and surging it into him. I let in just enough to jumpstart his entire body and hopefully, ignite his magic, but not enough to kill him – or so I hoped.

I looked up at Thom expectantly, hoping to see him looking at me, but his focus stayed on Dramin. The spark had obviously not ignited; his magic was still not strong enough to sustain his life.

I needed to perform the ozdobit t?ásněmi one more time.

I repeated the process, careful to keep my magic at just the right caliber inside of his body. This time, a small groan escaped Dramin’s lips, his hand twitching in response to my jolt. My heart froze for one terrible moment before I gently pushed my magic back into his body, stretching it right to the small spark I had found, pleased to now find a fire.

I exhaled once I had felt the life inside of him, the knot in my back loosening. I looked up to Thom, his eyes meeting mine.

“He’s alive?” he asked in awe, his voice a heavy rumble over Ryland’s constantly mumbling voice behind us.

“Sta?í nyní.” I answered Thom, careful to keep my voice low. Even though Ovailia was now standing next to Ryland and Joclyn, I knew she was listening.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” I gasped through the tense feeling in my shoulders.

“Me either,” Thom said, his voice awed. “Even when we sparred back in the cave, after she gained full use of her power, she was never able to produce something that strong.”

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, forgetting that I had already cut off the long strands.

“Try to keep him alive, Thom,” I pleaded, trying to make it plain that I needed his help.

“I will, but there is only so much I can do. With his magic so weak…” Thom’s voice drifted off as he placed his hands against the skin of Dramin’s face, his head shaking in worry. “Why did she attack Ryland like that in the first place? I thought she loved him.”

“She did. She does,” I corrected myself, ignoring the heavy thumping in my chest. I looked toward Ryland quickly, thankful to see both him and Ovailia absorbed in the sleeping girl before them. I needed to get over there.

“Something must have happened in the T?uha,” I continued, bringing my focus back to Thom. “He must have been attacking her somehow.”

“Ryland was attacking her?” Thom asked, the alarm in his voice mirroring the anxiety that already burned through me, igniting the heavy Black Water inside of me again. I cringed against the burn, trying not to show the exhaustion the pain was cursing me with.