Tower of Fire (Parallel Magic Book 3)

by Emma L. Adams

  Not that I had the faintest idea how to respond to his question. Alarm flickered inside me when Adair recovered first and swaggered towards the other elves, speaking fluently in their language. “No. I’m here on behalf of the Family. I want to talk to your Elders. You’re going to take me to them.”

  “Don’t—” I broke off as the elves closed in around him. Doing, in fact, the opposite of what he’d commanded. Had his abilities somehow not worked on them? The language barrier couldn’t be responsible. Adair’s powers worked no matter what language he spoke.

  “Get out of the way,” said Adair, his voice wavering a little.

  Instead of moving an inch, the elves spoke to one another, too fast for me to make out the words. Then one of them grabbed Adair by the arms and dragged him out of sight in a blur of movement, vanishing down a nearby path.

  Holy shit.

  I stared at the remaining elves for a moment, too shocked to move, until they turned to me next. “Ah… I’m not with him. He’s not my ally.”

  I hoped I’d remembered the right words, and my chest tightened when the male elf in the green armour stepped towards me. “You’re Vetren?”

  “I’m what?” I echoed.

  “You speak our language,” he said. “But you’re not…”

  He and the other remaining elf exchanged glances and more words which I didn’t understand.

  “I’m not with him.” I pointed in the direction Adair had been taken in. “He’s here to make trouble, but I’m not. I can leave. Or I would, if I knew how to get out.”

  “You’re Vetren?” said another elf, this one female. She spat out the word as if it meant something unpleasant.

  “Sorry, I don’t know what that means,” I said. “I’m half-elf, if that’s what you mean.”

  “No,” she said. “Vetren means you belong to them.”

  “The Family?”

  The male elf lunged at me without warning, and his fingers clenched around my arm. I bit back a startled yell of pain, but I couldn’t break out of his grip. He was too damn strong, pulling me across the clearing and down a path between the trees, the same way the other elves had removed Adair from sight.

  “What are you doing?” I couldn’t break his grip no matter how hard I tried, but he didn’t deign to answer my question.

  The female elf from earlier walked alongside us, while I struggled to force down my panic. If I could get him to understand why I was here, I might have a chance of making sense of this situation. I’d explain that Adair had come here on an ill-advised mission to prove his superiority and got himself captured for it, but that I hadn’t condoned his plan. I might have to skip over the part where I’d goaded him on, but how was I to know he’d had a genuine way of getting into the elves’ realm, much less that he intended to use it?

  Damn that trader. He was the one who’d given Adair the information he needed, yet the elves had got the upper hand on him anyway. If they were ready to pay him back brutally for his intrusion, I only hoped I didn’t end up suffering the same punishment as he did.

  The elves quickened their pace, then slowed as we reached another clearing surrounded by short trees. Between each tree, interlocking branches formed cages.

  “Hey,” I said, as the female elf seized my other arm, too. “Listen to me. I’m not your enemy.”

  Ignoring my words, they pushed me towards the nearest cage of interlocking tree branches, all of which were the same bone-white colour as the surrounding trees. When they stepped away, the branches closed over the entrance to the cage, leaving no way for me to climb out. Somewhere nearby, I heard Adair yelling, presumably from a separate cage to mine.

  I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that wasn’t how he wanted things to turn out.

  The two elves departed without a word, while I paced on the spot, estimating that the cage was bigger than the cell I’d had when I’d been locked up in the House of Fire… but that didn’t make it less of a cage.

  I sat down on the forest floor, unable to believe I’d got myself imprisoned in the elves’ realm of all places. What was Miles doing right now? Had he managed to help the elves in the warehouse get to safety? He’d been gone for so long that the Spirit Agents might have been worried enough to follow him, but they’d never find their way here. Even the Death King and the Elemental Soldiers wouldn’t know how to reach us.

  As much as I wanted to talk to the elves and find out how they’d survived this long without anyone being able to reach them, I needed to get back home. Did the elves even know who the Family was, much less the horrors that threatened the Parallel at the moment?

  They called me Vetren, whatever that means. They said it meant I’m with them… the Family… but they can’t have met them before. Can they?

  Several minutes passed before my captors returned. This time, they brought a third elf with them. He looked surprisingly old for an elf, with shoulder-length dark grey hair and deep green eyes the crisp colour of the kind of forest I’d only seen in pictures.

  “So this is the one.” He looked at me with an odd curiosity in his gaze. “The Vetren.”

  “I’m Bria,” I said. “I’m half elf, and I came here by accident. What is a Vetren, anyway?”

  “Do you have any idea what you are?” said the older elf. “I don’t think you do.”

  “I get that it means something to do with the Family, but I’ve never heard the word before,” I said. “What does it mean?”

  “It means abomination,” he said. “It means they gifted you with our skills using something they stole from us.”

  “What?” My blood iced over. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What did they steal?”

  The elf’s gaze flickered to my pointed ears. “They stole our artefacts and corrupted our magic to make themselves immortal. And they used the very same magic on their children.”

  I shrank away, numb with disbelief. “No…”

  “Yes.”

  Then… then Lex and Roth had already been here to the elves’ realm. They must have found the elves a long time ago, taken away their artefacts, and used them to give themselves the unique powers they’d always pretended to have come by naturally. I’d known for years that they’d experimented on Adair and me, but I’d assumed they’d used cantrips. Not that they’d stolen from the elves and used their magic to turn us into abominations that even the elves would never accept.

  “I didn’t know,” I whispered. “I—it’s not like they told me. I thought I was half elf, and that’s where my magic came from.”

  I was half elf, but that wasn’t where all my magic came from. With the obvious exception of my fire magic, which I’d inherited naturally, my magic had been pushed upon me at the expense of others. A fuzzy sensation settled in my chest as though a scream rattled inside my lungs, demanding to escape—but what would be the point? While I was stuck in this cage, I couldn’t do a damn thing.

  The group of elves turned around and walked away without another word, leaving me with no company but the sound of Adair’s shouting. I ought to be grateful that they’d imprisoned us separately, or else it wouldn’t have been pretty. Neither of us could kill the other, not permanently. Another quirk that came from the elves’ stolen artefacts.

  No wonder the elves thought we were both abominations.

  I sank into a sitting position and buried my head in my hands. I couldn’t stay here and accept my fate, but the elves’ anger towards my family was justified. Even towards Adair, though he hadn’t been responsible for what Lex and Roth had done, because he’d come here looking for a fight. It was safe to say he hadn’t foreseen being bested by the elves himself, but what if Lex and Roth followed him, searching for their son? They’d come here before, and I was willing to bet they hadn’t left without blood on their hands. If Adair knew how to get into this realm, then it was a safe bet that they did, too. If they had another working Akrith, it was only a matter of time before they figured out where he’d gone.

  Adair’s shouting
dimmed and I heard the three elves’ voices in the background again. Adair’s indignant grumbling followed. So they’d gone to speak to him, perhaps to confirm his reasons for being here. I rose to my feet and paced in circles around the cage, fighting the urge to shout and draw their attention.

  When they stopped talking to Adair, I heard their footfalls coming towards my cage again. As the three elves came into view, I faced them through the interlocking branches.

  “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say. “I didn’t know the Family stole your artefacts, but I’m not working with them. I never have been.”

  “What makes you think we’re willing to believe a word you say?” said the younger male elf. “The other man in the cage over there meant to dominate us. He admitted it.”

  “Can’t I speak for myself?” My voice cracked. “I know what you think of Lex and Roth, but I’m not their biggest fan either. They raised me to be their soldier and they used me to further their ambitions to gain power over the entire Parallel. When I found out, I ran away from them and tried to kill them, but they can’t die.”

  “Yes, they can.”

  My mouth went dry. “They what?”

  “They can die,” he repeated.

  No way. The elves knew how to kill Lex and Roth?

  “If they can die, then why hasn’t anyone killed them yet?” I asked. “I thought they used the artefacts they stole to make themselves immortal.”

  The older male elf gave me an appraising look. “You really don’t know.”

  “Of course I don’t,” I said. “Lex and Roth killed my birth parents, burned my home, and raised me to believe they were the only family I had. They lied to me for years, but the moment I realised what they were doing, I incapacitated them and had them imprisoned by the mages. I’ve done nothing but try to avoid them since then, but they’re cunning. They broke out of jail and came after me, and now they’re after you, too.”

  “If you’re telling the truth, then why did you come here with him?” queried the female elf.

  “He was threatening my friends and boasting about how he knew how to get here,” I said. “I didn’t know he’d found one of your trees. I thought he was lying. He proved me wrong.”

  “Really.” The older male elf’s voice was flat, disbelieving, but the other two exchanged whispers behind my back which sounded more curious than angry.

  Despite myself, a flicker of hope stirred within me. They know how to kill the Family. Too bad they hated Adair and me so much they’d sooner leave us both to rot in these cages than offer us any help. How could I possibly prove I was on their side? I didn’t even know how to get back to the world I knew from here, much less contact Trix or someone else who might speak up for me. Besides, I didn’t know what they thought of the elves in the Parallel who’d been left behind. Maybe they hated the lot of them. I’d have to try another route instead.

  “I need to get back,” I said to them. “My friend Miles and I—we freed a group of elves the Family had imprisoned in a warehouse, and if we don’t go back and make sure they get away safely, the Family will kill all of them. They’re the reason I was trying to divert Adair’s attention.”

  “You freed a group of elves?” said the older male elf.

  “Yes, I did,” I said. “That guy in the cage over there used his mind-control abilities to force the inhabitants of an elven town to carve magical cantrips for the rest of the Family to use. My friend and I set them free, but I had to distract Adair and I didn’t expect him to open a way into your realm.”

  I’d smudged the facts a bit, but it wasn’t like Adair could challenge my accusations without making himself look even worse than he already did. Besides, all I’d done was attempt to fix the damage he’d done.

  The female elf looked at me for a moment. “I’ll be back. Don’t move.”

  As if I could go anywhere. Still, I forced myself to stay calm, waiting for her return. When she strode back into view, she addressed the other two elves. “The other man seems to back up her story. It seems she was trying to free a number of other elves from that man’s control when he opened the way into this realm. He used the magic of the Vetran on the elves to force them to do his bidding.”

  “Is that true?” asked the older male elf.

  “It is,” I said. “My friend and I were trying to help the elves get out of the warehouse before Adair showed up, but I’m worried that the rest of the Family might have caught them while we were gone. They killed the last people to defy them. I don’t know what they did to you, to your realm, but I promise, I’m not on their side.”

  The older male elf gave a slow nod and gestured, causing the branches to part in front of me. “Come with us.”

  Relief spread through me. They believed me, at least partly. As I stepped out of the cage, the younger male elf jabbed me in the spine with his weapon, urging me to walk in front of him. Okay, maybe they didn’t all trust me, but I was willing to work with that.

  13

  The elves led me deeper into the forest of bone-white trees. It hit me that if I got away, I’d have a hell of a time finding my way back to the path I’d originally come from, but that was assuming the elves would ever let me go. Firstly, I had to convince them of my innocence.

  Our group came to a halt inside another clearing, where the older elf took a seat on a carved tree stump, joining a second elf, this one female, who sat on an identical stump. A waterfall of silver hair fell to her waist, and her pointed features were similar to the man beside her, suggesting they were the same age. Then it hit me that the twin carved tree stumps they sat on looked awfully like… thrones.

  “You’re the elves’ leaders.” Was I supposed to bow or curtsey or something? It wasn’t like I’d been prepared for this moment, especially after my capture.

  “We are the Elders,” said the female elf. “I am Elder Datra, and this is Elder Veksis.”

  Elder Veksis studied me from his throne. “I have confirmed she is entirely ignorant of our kind, which puts us in a difficult position.”

  “Really?” said Elder Datra, addressing me more than the man at her side. “Explain to me why you are here.”

  “I was raised as human,” I began. “By two people who wanted me to forget I was anything other than theirs.”

  “My guards told me of your enmity with that man who accompanied you here.” Elder Veksis said, indicating the other two elves who’d accompanied us here. “Yet you have the same magic he does, and I recognise its source.”

  “I didn’t know,” I said. “Until you told me, I had no idea where my magic came from. I assumed it came from being half elf and half human, but I didn’t know the Family stole anything from you. They told me nothing about the elves at all, nor that they’d ever been to your realm.”

  “Yet you found your way here anyway,” said Elder Datra. “Why did you come here, if not to finish the work those two despicable individuals started many years ago?”

  “I came here to stop Adair—he’s the other man who was with me—from attacking you,” I explained. “He came here for the purpose of either killing you or recruiting you to help him and the rest of the Family take over the Parallel.”

  “From what I’ve heard from that man, she’s right,” added the female elf who’d accompanied me here. “He came here to threaten us. She followed in an attempt to stop him. But she’s still his kin.”

  “She claims to have reneged the Vetren’s claim on her and attempted to take their lives,” said the younger male elf from behind me. “I have yet to see any evidence to back up her word.”

  “I apologise for what the Family did to you,” I said. “I want to stop them in their quest for domination over the Parallel if I can.”

  “What is it you want from us, then?” said Elder Datra.

  I hadn’t said I wanted anything, but perhaps she’d read the desperation in my face anyway. Present dilemma aside, they’d hinted at knowing how to kill Lex and Roth … permanently. I wasn’t likely to find a m
eans of ridding the Parallel of their depravity anywhere except for here.

  On the other hand, I had a more pressing matter at hand. “The Family captured an entire town of elves in the Parallel and forced them to make weapons for them to use. I was in the middle of helping my friend to free them before Adair caught up to me, but I’d be grateful if you could let me go home.”

  “They captured other elves?” Anger rang through Elder Datra’s voice.

  “They did,” I said. “My friend and I tracked down their hiding place and set them free. Adair forced them to work for the Family, since he has the ability to mind-control anyone…”

  But not the elves in this realm. His powers hadn’t worked on them. Why? Because they were stronger than he was? Trix had mentioned the elves’ magic was stronger in their own realm, which made it a logical conclusion to draw, but I didn’t quite dare hope they might be able to fend off Lex and Roth’s magic in the same manner.

  “He will stay caged until we devise an appropriate punishment,” said Elder Veksis. “And you…”

  “I need to go home.” I fought to keep the panic from my voice. “I didn’t lie. I need to help those elves, and afterwards, I want to take a stand against the Family. As for whatever they stole from you, I might be able to figure out how to get it back if you tell me what it is.”

  “That’s not possible,” said Elder Veksis. “The Vetren would have seen to it that nobody could steal it back.”

  “Elder Veksis.” Elder Datra turned to him. “Our Akrith must be intact. They wouldn’t be able to retain their immortality otherwise.”

  My heart began to beat faster. “If they do still have it, then I know the way around their hideout. I’ve been there before. Is the Akrith they stole the same as the others of its kind?”

  Elder Veksis gave me an appraising look. “The Akrith they took belonged to the Elders—that is, to Elder Datra and myself—and is to my knowledge the strongest of its kind. When it was removed from this realm, the consequences were vast. Our other artefacts began to lose their power. Our trees were reduced to a dormant state. I imagine the impact was even worse for the elves who lived outside of our realm, but since our Akrith was taken… we have been unable to return to the Parallel.”