That time, she jumped. I knew I should feel some kind of regret for my outburst, but I couldn’t. Not with the way I was literally watching her soul break in two, again. Not with the way my own heart was cracking.
I wouldn’t let her go through this. Not when we could stop it.
“You think I like this, Ryland?” she snapped, slamming her palm on the table and sending one of the lanterns tumbling. Wyn barely caught it, mumbling something about letting her deal with all the fire while Jos and I stared each other down.
“We can save him, Jos. We know where he is. Let the Chosen go after the head. We can find Ilyan, and then we can end this. Together.” I was firm, confident. I tried to grab her hand, needing her to know that she was not alone, that we would fix this. Instead, she pulled away.
“No.”
“No?” I jerked away from her so quickly I sent the lanterns rattling again.
“These are my people, Ry. Our people. I cannot just abandon them to go find… to go save…” She pressed her lips together, glaring daggers at me in an attempt to hide her pain.
I reached out again and this time, thankfully, she let me grab her. I wrapped my arms around her the way I always had, holding her against me as she breathed, as her magic pressed against mine. The fiery touch of it, the caustic iciness that had lived between us for so long now just a friendly simmer.
“You can’t keep sacrificing yourself like this,” I whispered into her hair.
“What if we do both?” We turned. Wyn stood there, raising her hand like she was in elementary school, both she and Thom looking smug as though they had planned this all along.
“What if we get Ilyan before we head to Japan?” Wyn continued when neither Jos nor I said anything. “Say you two head to Kiev, take out the SSU before the Kyō get there. Rescue Ilyan… and Míra,” she added when my brow furrowed. “Come back, and then we all go to Japan and finish this off. End all the regimes, and take over the world.”
Wyn grew louder as she continued to lay out the plan before laughing like one of the villains you saw in old movies. I probably would have been scared if I didn’t know Wyn so well. Somehow ‘evil woman villain’ suited her.
“Why am I not surprised that you want to take over the world?” Thom teased as he threw his arm around Wyn, pulling her into him.
My stomach flip-flopped, of course evil Wyn would turn Thom on; it’s how he knew her.
“I’ve always fancied myself as Queen Empress Supreme,” Wyn teased, kissing Thom on the nose before turning to where Jos and I stood on the other side of the table. Jos was grinning like a loon, I was starting to feel like I was going to vomit.
“I mean, of course, I’ll have to fight Jos for it but--”
“Oh no!” Jos cut her off, hands in the air. “I resigned my title and gave it to Ryland, remember?”
“Leave me out of this!” I roared, throwing my hands up, too. Jos and I looked as though we were being held at gunpoint for the crown. Maybe we were.
“Don’t worry, we all know it’s Ilyan’s crown and I don’t have a big enough head to try to take him on.” Wyn grinned, Thom giving her a look that clearly said she did have enough air in her head to think she could take Ilyan on.
“So, what do you say?” Wyn continued, still ignoring Thom. “Shall we go get them?”
All of the weight that had been on my heart fell away, even Joclyn straightened.
“Once everyone has arrived here,” Jos began, her fingers trailing over the map again as she pointed right at Prague, or rather the caves of Imdalind that were right outside it. “Wyn and Thom can train, organize and supervise while Ryland and I go here.” She moved her fingers to Kiev and I could have sworn my heart attempted to explode right out of my chest. “We will get Ilyan, find Míra, and do whatever we can to the SSU. After that, we all go to Japan and end the Kyō. Then Wyn and Ilyan can fight for the crown of world emperor.”
“Empress,” Wyn corrected her.
I smiled, I couldn’t help it. We were going to go save her. Them. We were going to go save them.
“I hate to bring up anything against this great plan,” Thom said, pulling down Wyn’s victory stance, “but do you think you two can take on everything on your own?”
I half expected Joclyn to sag beside me, but she just smiled wider, leaning over the map to stare him down.
“I found my mate, Thom, do you really think I would let anything as simple as a massive Trpaslík army stand between me and Ilyan?”
Thom wasn’t even phased by her death stare. He just smiled and leaned over the table towards her, both of them so close as they scowled at each other that I had to fight my bodyguard instinct to pull Jos back.
Not that she couldn’t take him on anyway, not with the fire that was in her eyes.
Not with the fire that was rippling from her magic.
“You’re right, nothing is going to stop you.”
3
Míra
If I had picked a way to spend my seventeenth birthday it would not have been tied to a hospital bed in the middle of Ukraine.
I wasn’t a hundred percent sure it was my birthday, but it had to be close. It had only been about a month away when I followed Ryland to London, and seeing as I woke up in a grungy hospital room and not the nasty train I had been knocked unconscious in, more than a few days had to have passed.
So, birthday it was.
I blinked away the throbbing headache that I was starting to think was a symptom of whatever meds they were pumping me with and tried to sit up. No go.
I was strapped down like I was in a mental asylum. Great.
It’s where you belong.
Had to hand it to him, I couldn’t really argue with Edmund that time seeing as he was actually a voice in my head.
I tried to move again, realizing that I wasn’t tied down with zip ties this time, just metal handcuffs. Judging by the lack of buzz through my veins, whatever they were pumping me full of had taken away my magic, too. So, no chance of getting those suckers off any time soon.
Which left me with one, foolproof, option: an amazing escape.
I laid still, listening to the hum of the television on the other side of the room which was showing images of world flags being burned. I didn’t understand enough Ukrainian to know what was going on one way or another, however. The buzz of steps and voices on the other side of the door mingled with that of the TV, the sounds drifting from the large wooden door, and the hulking shadows of two guards that wiggled through the fogged glass on either side.
I had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side of that door, but I was going to have to make this work.
“Hello!” I yelled in what I hoped was Ukrainian, jiggling my handcuffs loudly. “I have to pee!” I jiggled again, the shadowed shapes of the guards shifting as they turned to the door. Neither of them moved to come in. What kinds of guards were these? Of course, although I knew a few phrases in Ukrainian asking to use the bathroom was pretty much it.
“Hello! I don't want to pee on the bed! I have to go!” I yelled in Czech and jiggled the cuffs again, and one of the guards stepped away. Maybe he was going to go get the keys or something. Perfect.
Honestly? I didn’t actually expect that to work.
“Hello! I really have to go!” I added a bit of whine to my voice that time, jiggling the handcuffs against the metal rail with more urgency. “I have to pee.”
Do you really think this is going to work?
I ignored him and instead focused on the shadow of the guard who had returned, this time joined by another. A shorter woman with a severe bun.
Damn. If that was Nastya then this was either going to be really fun, or a terrible disaster.
The door swung open. It wasn’t Nastya.
It was a squat, haggard woman whose dark hair was pulled back in what turned out to be a messy bun. The guards practically threw her in before slamming the door shut and locking her in with me. The poor lady looked absolutely flustered. She g
ave the door a scowl before turning to me, doing her best to look professional.
“What seems to be the problem?” she asked, her eyes darting up to the top corner of my room.
A box, the same as I had seen on the train, was tacked to the wall there, directly underneath a camera that looked like it had been pulled out of a dumpster in 1989.
“I have to pee,” I said, still staring at the box. “Are they watching you?”
“They watch everyone,” she mumbled, shuffling over to the bed, and removing the top layer of blankets before freezing. “I don’t have a key to these.”
She was staring at the handcuffs now, her forehead crinkled with lines as she gave the camera one last look before she began to tuck me back in.
“But I--”
“I can’t help you,” she snapped, her voice harsh as she flattened the blanket over me. “I don’t have the keys. You’ll have to open them yourself.”
“Open them myself, do I look like I have the keys?” This woman was being ridiculous. It was hard not to get frustrated with how quickly my plan was being foiled, especially with how often this woman kept glancing at the box on the wall.
“Yes.” Her eyes were dark as she leaned in and placed her hand against my forehead. I was sure she wasn’t taking my temperature, she was talking so low she clearly didn’t want to be overheard. “They only chain the ones who know what they are doing. The dose isn’t high enough. You must focus.”
My heart started beating erratically, a painful pressure moving over my chest as I stared at the woman. I probably could have fought my way out of the train car, but I came here because of what Nastya said. They had Ilyan, and based on what this woman said, she knew of others like me. That meant there was a high probability she knew where he was.
I leaned closer, well I lifted my head a fraction of an inch as I fought against the straps that were over my chest. Same difference.
“Who else do they have handcuffed?” I asked, careful to keep my voice low. I didn’t know if that ancient camera had a microphone, but considering this woman was playing super spy I would assume it did.
She opened her mouth to respond when the door was flung open and four guards streamed in, immediately followed by the one person I had no interest in seeing right then.
Seeing as I had threatened to rip off her head and was now handcuffed to a bed, she looked about as smug as I would expect. Things weren’t looking too good for me.
“Katenka!” Nastya said with that rancid candy voice of hers, and the woman stiffened, straightening my pillow once before she turned. “What are you doing in here?”
“The guard pulled me in. She said she had to pee.” Katenka actually looked like she was shaking. Apparently everyone was scared of this woman, but it didn’t make me feel any better about the tightness that was assaulting my chest.
I hadn’t felt this out of control since I had been taken to Edmund’s camp after I first got my bite.
And you know how that ended up.
Get out of my head, old man.
“I do have to pee,” I snapped, ignoring the rising panic to face Nastya. “It’s what happens when you drink water. Eat food. You have to go to the bathroom. So, a little help?”
I looked right at her, screwing my face up in all the defiant sass I could muster and shook my handcuffs.
“Leave Katenka,” Nastya snapped, the woman high-tailing it out of there so fast she was a blur.
“Bye Katenka! Thanks for your help!” I called after her, wishing that there was something more I could say. Some code she could give to whoever else was in handcuffs to let them know that I was here. She was gone before I could think of anything.
Nastya didn’t even turn, she just stepped forward, raising her hand in a command that sent the guards against the wall. They moved so smoothly they looked like robots, the sleek black uniforms were only enhancing that illusion. They each had a massive golden sunburst on their chest, and I half wondered that, if I tapped it, would it open up a control panel?
“Now, you gonna help me pee, then?” I asked in all my smartass glory as I turned back to Nastya, the woman still smiling.
“Why, so you can try to overpower me again?” She clicked her tongue, she actually seemed amused. At least one of us was, I was actually starting to panic.
“Well, I mean, yeah, that was the plan.” Honesty was always the best policy.
“Well, let me introduce you to my plan.” She snapped her fingers again before she turned, strutting out of the room as the guards raced to either side of me. I half expected them to unchain me and drag me out of there, but no, they just rolled me out of there, bed and all.
Okay, so this was actually working to my benefit.
I howled in feigned panic, fighting against the handcuffs as the guards led me down the hall after a still smiling Nastya.
Idiot. She clearly thought she was scaring me.
I fought harder, playing my role as I pressed against the binds, doing my best to get a good look at the hospital that was clearly doubling as a prison.
Guards were everywhere, weird guns held before them as they stood in front of every door. There weren’t nearly as many nurses as I expected, but the few that I saw were all wearing the same deep green scrubs as Katenka had been. They plastered themselves to the wall and darted down halls as we moved, all of them racing as fast as they could to get out of Nastya’s way.
I tried to keep track of where we were and create a map of this place in my mind, but there were simply too many turns. Too many flickering lights and cracked walls for me to be able to keep it all straight.
That was of course until we took a left turn and we all descended into hell.
The cracked and stained drywall was like a palace compared to what they had just taken me into. Broken bulbs swung on single wires, casting monster-like shadows on cement walls that dripped with blood.
I had seen this before.
I had lived this before.
Anyone else might have recoiled, frozen in panic and turned into a vegetable. Not me, this was familiar.
This was home.
I stopped fighting, there wasn’t any point, because laying there, feeling all of that buzzing determination swell through my veins, I noticed there was something behind it.
The tiniest hint of my magic.
“It’s okay to be scared,” Nastya said from somewhere in front of us as a door swung open. “Everyone always is.”
Once again she was misreading me. Whatever. If she was going to keep underestimating me I could just use it to my advantage.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, letting my voice shake probably a bit more than was necessary. She didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m going to have some fun.” Well that was cryptic and horrifying, especially seeing as the bed I was laying on was now lifting, electric gears buzzing as I was moved to an upright position and all those straps suddenly made sense.
“I’m excited to play with my new toy,” Nastya continued, grabbing two metal disks off a dented metal table, the surface so covered with rust I was amazed I recognized it as a table in the first place.
She grinned as she stepped forward. The wooden box buzzed to life and she tapped the disks together, sparks flying between them.
Oh, shit.
I really was in a mental institution, one right out of a horror story.
Nastya tapped the disks again and I cringed away, fighting against the restraints for real now as those same sparks flew between them, illuminating her face like the psychopathic doctor she was.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I snapped, still fighting against the restraints as that tiny spark of magic inside of me grew, flooding right to the tips of my fingers.
It wasn’t enough to fight her, and it sure as hell wasn’t enough to get me away from this mad woman. I was trapped as she placed the disks against my temples.
“I told you, I’m playing with my new toy,” she crooned in a singsong voice as
the electricity sparked again, but this time it went right through me.
I screamed as I shook, as my bones rattled and burned. I couldn’t escape it, but part of me didn’t want to.
I didn't know what she had intended to happen, but those damn disks were the shock to my system I needed to wake my magic up.
That I needed to attack her.
If only it had been enough to fight back right then. I had just one option.
I had to take it.
4
Míra
And we were back in the hospital room.
I woke up with a headache possibly worse than the one I had on the train, which made sense considering that Ms. Nasty Pants spent who knows how long running thousands of volts of electricity through me.
I was actually kinda amazed I was alive.
Actually, I probably would have died if Nastya and her little ‘play time’ hadn’t woken my magic up. Getting electrocuted had hurt like a mother, but I forced myself to stay conscious through all of it, if only so I could keep my magic restrained.
Keep it alive.
Keep me alive.
My magic healed me after each bout with her machine and had continued to buzz through my veins as they wheeled my sweating, sobbing ass back to my hospital room.
And now, laying here, I could still feel it. I could already feel it rushing to my head to heal the throbbing ache from the battering it had taken.
It was just as powerful as it always was. Just as strong, even with that needle still in my arm.
I don’t know what was in the medicine they were using, but it sure as hell wasn’t working on me.
“We have five more countries that have reported a hostile takeover--” the voice from the TV mumbled as I blinked, focusing my magic on the button on the front of the ancient set and turning it off.
The screen popped to black, leaving the room in relative silence. I could still hear the guards outside my door talking about the same thing the reporter had, still hear the scuffing of rubber on linoleum as the haggard nurses shuffled around.
Flare of Villainy: The Imdalind Series, Book 10 Page 2
