From Flame and Ash

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  I needed to fight.

  And when we fought, my foes would die.

  They would burn.

  Because I was the Fire.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “Lyric.”

  The voice drew me back. I knew that voice. I loved that voice.

  I blinked again, and suddenly, I could see, I wasn’t surrounded by fire, or even by the terror of what had just happened. Instead, I stood on a cliff face, the wind blowing in my hair so violently that the small strands seemed to cut into my face. I looked over at Easton and then down at my hands.

  “I…I…oh, God.”

  I leaned down, put my hands on my knees, and tried to suck in a breath.

  “It’s good that you unlocked your fourth element,” Easton said carefully, then came to me. He helped me stand, putting his hands on my shoulders. “But we’re not done yet. Can you do this?”

  I looked at him and tried to nod, only I felt like I was a few steps behind. I wasn’t going to let the Fire control me. I couldn’t.

  But I still felt like I wasn’t all there.

  I hadn’t felt like myself when all of that had happened. I’d felt like I was only watching, that I had actually been the Fire, and that was scary.

  Considering what had happened when I unlocked Water, I was terrified of what would happen if I let Fire go again.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. I wasn’t steady.

  “We’re not going to have enough time to plan it,” Rhodes said. “They’re coming.”

  I turned to him and then looked forward. That’s when I saw them.

  The Lord of Water had used the time we’d been under to start assembling his army. The League, the Creed, and some of his own men were standing, all in battle leathers, shouting at each other and at the Lord of Water as they tried to amplify their messages.

  I didn’t think it was a fight. No, they were just revving each other up so they could fight whoever came at them.

  I didn’t know if anyone could actually see us because we were slightly downhill, but we could see the line of soldiers. There were so many, and I didn’t know what to do.

  But I couldn’t let the Lord of Water go. Not with everything he had done.

  “Rhodes, your father can’t create this army. He has to atone for his actions.”

  “I know.” Rhodes looked at me then, his silver eyes filled with pain. “And I know you don’t want to be the one who has to deal with it. I don’t want you to either. I’ll take care of him.” He raised his chin, and I reached out and put my hand on his upper arm.

  “We can do it together. I think that’s why I have the four elements now. Why I’m here. You can’t bring together a realm if its core is rotten.”

  “I’ll be by your side, too,” Easton said, coming up right behind me. “Unless it wouldn’t do to have the King of Obscurité helping you.”

  I looked over my shoulder and tried to give Easton a grateful look.

  It was going to be complicated, but we couldn’t let this go on. Not when the bones of those who had died in silence screamed at us from beneath the sea.

  “I don’t think it’s Lumière versus Obscurité at this very moment. We’ll deal with the consequences later. But I could use your help. I don’t know who on my father’s side truly knows who he is. Or if they do, they might not care. Because he’s been the pretty face, the one who has lied about his power for so long. And people have been afraid of what they’re losing, afraid of the world failing around them. So, they’ve clung to my father, even through his lies.”

  “You won’t fight alone. We’re stronger than he is. Together.”

  “What about the power he’s stolen from the other Wielders?” I asked. “Because I felt those bones, and the Spirit Wielders told me it would be hard.”

  “The Spirit Wielders?” Easton asked.

  “I’ll tell you later, but I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

  “You don’t,” Rosamond said, coming towards us.

  I looked at her and almost wept in relief.

  I hadn’t known where she, Wyn, Teagan, Luken, or Rhodes’ grandparents had gone, but now they were all here, coming from the other side of the hill where Durin and the others couldn’t see them. There were others with them, those who had come with us from the Air territory.

  “Rose,” Rhodes said, his breath coming out in a quick, choppy pant before he crushed his sister to him. “I thought he’d taken you. Or worse.” He kissed the top of her head, and Rosamond patted his back.

  “He’s been using the bone magic to stop me from Seeing,” she said as she pulled away. “That’s why I couldn’t See what he had been doing to Mother all this time. Why I couldn’t See why he wanted you to go to the Air territory. I saw none of it. Because he was blocking me. But he will not be able to do that any longer. The disasters I See? The end of our eras? That will happen if he becomes king or finds a way to start this war within the Lumière Kingdom. He can’t see us now because he’s so blinded by his own ambitions that he won’t even bother to look for magic beneath the hill. But he will know us soon.” She raised her chin, looking more like a queen than I’d ever seen her.

  She was the Lady of Water, in truth.

  A Seer, and a brilliant tactician.

  I wouldn’t want to face her as my enemy.

  “We will help, as well,” Lanya said, hugging Rhodes to her. “We might be the Lord and Lady of Air, but we come with powers of our own. He killed our daughter.”

  “And he will pay,” Holdar growled.

  “I’ve been able to See it all now,” Rosamond explained as we all looked at her. The others hadn’t been down below the surface of the sea with Easton, Rhodes, and me when Durin had revealed his plans. “It was like as soon as I was able to figure out where to look after his speech at the funeral, I could See what I had been missing. But by then, it was too late.”

  “It was too late to save Arwin,” Wyn said softly. She looked at Easton and me and blinked away tears. “We put his body in one of the caves nearby so we can take him home.” I reached out and gripped her hand before letting go.

  “We evacuated as many as we could from the estate,” Teagan explained. “Rosamond said she Saw that we needed to, so here we are. But it’s us against an army. It’s not going to be easy.”

  Teagan and Easton shared a look, one that spoke of warriors or long-ago battles, but I knew we would fight. Because we couldn’t allow Durin to win.

  “I think if we make sure the others know exactly what he has done, some of his army won’t fight with him. I think they’d fight against him.”

  They all looked at me, and I held up my arms. “If we could use the Water and Air Wielders, and perhaps even the other Wielders, we can pull some of the bones up from the sea floor, and they will speak their truths.”

  “Lyric,” Lanya said, putting her hand over her mouth. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. I think that’s the last part of the puzzle for me. Once I unlock my Spirit Wielding, maybe I’ll be able to figure out what to do with them.”

  “I know, dear,” Lanya said. “My husband and I, along with Rosamond, will know what to do with the bones. Once we are done here, they will find their place. First, you are right, this territory needs to know what rot lies beneath the surface. Are we ready?”

  The Lord of Air smiled, just for a moment, and it reached his eyes. “My daughter was not the only warrior,” he said to me and then kissed his wife hard on the mouth. “We will avenge our Áine. And then we will help rebuild this kingdom. We will not let our daughter’s death be in vain.”

  “My mother will have a name and memory that was of truth and strength,” Rhodes said. “Trust in that.”

  I let the family have a moment to themselves, and then we planned.

  We didn’t have long because the army couldn’t ignore us for too long, but as we rose and walked to the top of the hill, I knew this might be our last moment to speak, to form a plan, t
o do anything, but we would not let Durin die today without the world knowing what he had done. And we would not let him rule.

  “Look at your Lord of Water and know what he has become,” I called out, my voice low, sounding much more like the Spirit Wielders’ than my own. The others gave me a startled look, but not Easton. He just smiled and then winked at the guards and others in front of him. He wasn’t in his glamour. No, he was out in his pure King of Obscurité glory.

  Now they knew. But they would know the rest, too.

  Luken came up from behind Rhodes then and nodded. “We’re ready,” he whispered.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Durin shouted. “Seize them. The King of Obscurité is here, and he’s come to take my children.”

  “No, first, you will listen to the truths.” I held up my arms, my palms out as I lifted them. The other Air Wielders around me did the same, and the Water Wielders put their hands out to their sides as if parting a sea.

  The Earth Wielders put their hands down, palms facing the ground. It shook beneath us.

  Teagan didn’t use his Fire Wielding, but that was fine, that would come later.

  It wasn’t lost on me that Arwin’s Earth Wielding would have helped, but we would avenge him. We would avenge them all.

  “You think to stop me on my own lands?”

  “Your Lord of Water has committed a grave sin. He has killed thousands for power. Listen to the bones.”

  “You have no proof.”

  “We have all the proof,” the Lord of Air snapped back. “You killed our daughter. You killed so many.”

  But before the Lord of Water could defend himself with lies, the sea shook, and the bones of those who had been lost slid up into the air, shining beacons of magic and depravity.

  “Look at what your Lord of Water has done.”

  And then Rosamond took a step forward, one step and then another, her hair blowing in a breeze that wasn’t there.

  “My father is a bad man. You know I am the Seer. You know I can See what is coming and what is lost. But he used bone magic to cripple me. He used bone magic to kill my mother. Watch and listen to the bones of those who have died before us.” And then she held out her hands, and every single person in front of us opened their eyes wide, their eyes going glassy.

  I hadn’t known that she could do this, that she could send her visions to others.

  From the way she swayed on her feet before Luken and Teagan reached out to steady her, I knew she didn’t do it often for a reason. It took too much out of her, but this time, it was worth it.

  Some of the army looked surprised, some looked aghast, some even threw up where they stood, dry heaving as they watched what the Lord of Water, their so-called future king had done to the innocent.

  What he had done to their lady.

  What he had done to me, Rhodes, and Easton.

  Some started to scurry away, and some even came to our side.

  Nobody else moved, nobody tried to fight. Not yet.

  But I knew this peace wouldn’t last for more than a moment.

  “She lies. The King of Obscurité and his men have jaded my daughter and son. They’ve put lies in their heads and made them commit treason. They have corrupted and befouled the Spirit Priestess. We must protect our realm. And to do that, we must end them. For the change that is coming cannot be on the shoulders of those in front of us. We have the strength. Not them.” He held out his hands, looking fearful for just a moment, but then the power within him ignited around the bone necklace he wore, and in the bones in his crown.

  “Save our kingdom, save our territory, and take out what is putrid, what is wrong.”

  And then he shouted, and the battle was truly upon us.

  The League and the Creed stayed on the side of the lord, as did some of his men, but some of them had moved to ours. Some were just Water Wielders, others with dual powers, and some were even Air Wielders who maybe lived closer to the border.

  I didn’t care what they could Wield, as long as we all worked together.

  Wyn and Teagan worked side by side as usual, while Rhodes and Luken worked together with their Air Wielding. It was a familiar sight to see Luken use his sword to direct his Air Wielding before he smashed his body into the others, a warrior of old and one that protected his prince.

  Rosamond looked weak but stood between her grandparents, doing her best to use her Wielding to protect everyone.

  I stood with Easton and tried not to be overwhelmed.

  Because I’d never fought with four powers before, and I’d never really used Fire before at all. So I didn’t this time either.

  It wouldn’t be safe. So, I used what I knew. What I had been trained for.

  A man came at us, his Air Wielding weak but not weak enough. I threw out my hands and slammed them to my sides, creating a gust that rammed into the man. He fell back, rolled around, and then came back at me, shooting a blade of Air towards me.

  I put my hand in front of my face and then shoved it towards him, fingers splayed. Rocks formed between us, and the man slammed into them, knocking himself out.

  “That’s a good one,” Easton said, grinning, using his Fire Wielding to burn anyone that came close to us.

  People shouted. I had never seen a battle like this. All four elements were in play, Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. The only thing missing was Spirit, though I didn’t think that would help any of us.

  The bones that had been in the air before now lay in a long line at the edge of the cliff, safe and protected from those who might hurt them or use them.

  We couldn’t let the Wielders’ deaths be in vain, so we protected their remains while we defended ourselves and the territory.

  The Lord of Water stood in the middle of the fray, fighting with all of his power, everything shaking around him.

  I knew what he was feeling. Far too much power all at once.

  I couldn’t control mine, so I wasn’t using it. I was trying to be safe.

  But Durin wanted all the power, and he was going to explode from the inside out if he wasn’t careful.

  He came towards me, one step after the other, but stopped when he saw the Lord of Air in front of him.

  “You will fight me, Durin,” the Lord of Air growled, his hands outstretched, two cyclones on each palm ready to go. “I shouldn’t have let her marry you.”

  “You were always a weak prick.” Durin scowled. “I should’ve gotten rid of you long ago. She cried when she said she wanted to go back to you. But it was never enough. She acted as if I wasn’t enough. Well, she’s not here to complain anymore.” Holdar threw one of his cyclones at Durin, and Durin used his Water Wielding to create a shield in front of him, water pouring out of the pouch at his side. The magic was shaky at best, but far stronger than it should’ve been.

  He was adding bone magic to his Wielding.

  Even as I fought some of the Creed and League with Easton, I watched what was happening. I was afraid.

  There was no one else around Durin and Holdar, only small skirmishes.

  It was just the Lord of Water and the Lord of Air, two leaders of the Lumière, fighting. Not for territory or for power.

  No, this fight was for Áine.

  “You were nothing,” Durin snapped.

  “You took my daughter. You won’t take anything else.”

  Slam, smash, crinkle.

  Holdar sent out another cyclone, and Durin blocked it. The Lord of Water sent out a wave, and Holdar made it mist before it even slammed into him. Things shook around the lords, and mud flew as they fought. Sweat beaded on both of their brows, but then Durin tapped the bone right at the side of his temple, and I shouted, knowing I was going to be too late.

  Durin held out both arms, his fingers splayed as blades of Air shot through the distance between them.

  It was silent. There were no screams, no shouts, nothing.

  One second, Holdar was fighting. The next, his eyes were wide, and then he was down on the ground.

&nb
sp; The scream from Lanya was deafening, and the ground beneath us shook, not from Earth, but from the Air coming from all around us, shaking the molecules themselves.

  Rhodes came running, doing his best to fight through the pack, but then Durin turned, facing his son, and smiled.

  That expression scared me more than anything I had seen or experienced. More than the chains, more than the dragon that spat venom.

  That smile spoke of death and everything that was wrong with this realm.

  The Lord of Air was dead, lying on the ground as Lanya ran towards his body, but I was watching Rhodes. Wyn moved to my side then since Teagan was near Luken and I was on my own. She fought off another attacker, and I tried to help, but I still only had eyes for Rhodes, afraid of what he’d do in the heat of the moment.

  And because of that, I didn’t see when Durin turned to me and threw out his hand, a bone in his other palm, blocking me from my own Wielding. A shockwave of Air slammed into me, and I fell back, Wyn toppling along with me, but we were on the cliff’s edge, scattered among the bones of the lost, too close to the side where we could fall to our death. I looked down at my hands and noticed a crack along the edge. I scrambled, taking one step after another, but Durin threw another wave of Air at me. This time, the bones in his crown lit up as he pulled on their magic.

  I knew if I didn’t get out of the way, I would fall, and there would be no coming back from that. There’d be no using my Wielding to try and get out of it. I dug my hands into the soil, trying to claw myself back up, but then Rhodes was there, and I watched as he took the full brunt of the Air assault into his body, blocking Wyn and me from what Durin had sent with the bone magic of death on the air.

  Durin grinned while I shouted, trying to get up, trying to do anything. Rhodes’ body shook, lighting up as if he’d been hit with lightning instead of wind.

  I staggered to my feet while Wyn dragged me away from the edge and tried to reach for him, screaming his name. But I was too late.

  The rock face gave way, and Rhodes fell.

  He looked at me, his silver eyes wide but not scared. There was no fear there, only purpose. The wind ruffled his hair, and while he had his hands out, trying to reach for his Wielding, it wouldn’t come. It couldn’t. Not with what Durin had used on him. Not with the bone magic that must be blocking Rhodes from his Wielding.