Izzy smiled. “He takes some getting used to, but he’s definitely worth keeping around, isn’t he?”
Axel’s eyebrows pinched in the middle again. “Yeah… he is.” He stepped out of the car and into the cool, crisp morning. Izzy followed, taking a deep lungful of air; as if it had been the first time she’d ever truly breathed. Her face was bright, her smile wide, her eyes shut and turned in the direction of the slowly rising sun. She was a vision of relief itself, her skin glowing.
It was good to see her like this; happy, for once.
He watched her rejoin her friends on the path leading up to Becket’s house. RJ threw an arm around her, escorting her through the gate. Karim hung back, lighting a cigarette on the sidewalk he intended on enjoying before heading back inside. Danvers, meanwhile, walked alongside RJ and Izzy, beaming about what had happened tonight, despite just how exhausted she must’ve been.
Axel started walking toward the house, but he stopped at the gate, just as his hand touched the wrought iron bars. Something had hit him, then. Not a physical object, but a psychic ping. Phades descended from out of the darkness; his cloaked, smoky form falling in beside Axel, his gaze fixed on the house.
No, not on the house; on her.
The psychic ping struck him again, harder this time; only this time, it was more than just a strange, sharp pain in the side of the head—a thought came with it, and more than just a thought. He saw fire burning bright and hot, roiling and shifting, roaring all around him; and in the flames? A face of fire, twisted with anger, and charging toward him.
It was a woman, but not a woman he recognized. She was screaming, like a demon, her hands stretched, her fingers splayed. He jerked back, trying to keep away from her, but she crashed into him like a fireball realizing at the instant of contact that the person screaming wasn’t this fiery demon, but Izzy.
“P—Ph—Pha…” Axel said, though the word wouldn’t manifest in his throat.
Karim exhaled a cloud of blue smoke from between his lips. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked, his eyes narrow, “Swallowed a fly?”
Concentrate, Axel, Phades whispered. Take control of your mind.
Through sheer force of willpower, Axel managed to snap out of the daze, sending the images and the feelings scattering away like that same cigarette smoke. Pain throbbed in his throat, his vision hadn’t quite cleared up yet, and it felt like he had water in his lungs. He coughed to clear his throat, and that caught the attention of Izzy and the others.
“No…” he said, staring directly at her.
The morning light slowly transformed Izzy’s bright, happy smile into a dark and sinister grin. “What’s the matter, Axel?” she asked, “Aren’t you joining us?”
All the pieces fell into place. Everything she’d said, her strange disposition, her lack of empathy at his having had to kill his own father.
With his heart slamming against his throat, Axel wound back his arm and hurled the strongest stunning spell he could muster at her, hoping to the Tempest it would take her down quickly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I clawed my way into consciousness, gasping for breath. My throat was hoarse and raw, and my lungs felt like they were full of water, but nothing came out as I coughed. Looking around I’d hoped to see all of my friends, but instead I found myself still in the ruins of the old temple where I’d battled the mad Queen.
Only… she wasn’t here.
Struggling, fighting through the pain, I got to my feet and dusted myself off. Ifrit bounded over to me, the little fire Godling bouncing on bits of fallen rock like they were stepping stones. A cold, ill wind howled through the open archways around the edges of the temple, and I knew, I was still in the Tempest.
“Are you alright?” Ifrit asked.
“Ifrit… what are we still doing here?” I asked.
Ifrit looked down. “I’m sorry. We were not successful.”
“What?” I shook my head in disbelief. “What do you mean?”
“She’s gone, Isabella. We’ve swapped places with her.”
“So, she’s in my body right now… pretending to be me?”
“I think so. I can’t sense her. I don’t know what she’s doing.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, trying my hardest to fight away the panic building inside of me. She’d gotten out. She’d gotten out, and she was in my body. I had no way of knowing what she was doing with me, or to me, or to my friends. No way of knowing what she was doing to Axel. She clearly hated just about everyone; did that mean she’d killed them all as soon as she’d gotten the chance?
No, don’t think like that.
I started pacing back and forth, avoiding bits of broken marble and fried octopus monster. “How could this have happened? We destroyed the throne!”
“I don’t know. I watched her attack you… she threw herself into you, and then disappeared. Then you fell to the floor, and I’ve been waiting since.”
The crown. “It’s gone. The crown is gone. Did she take it?”
“It’s how she got out.”
I started spinning on the spot, frantically looking around for a solution to an answer as if I’d find one written on the cracked and broken walls. But there were no answers there, no secret messages written by ancient hands on how to escape this awful prison, no in case of emergency, break glass boxes.
I was stuck here like she had been, stuck for thousands of years with no way out.
“How am I still alive?” I asked. “If she’s out there, and she took the crown… I mean, didn’t she want me?”
“I suppose she would’ve preferred that, but I think we have him to thank for your survival.”
Ifrit nodded across from where we were standing, the light from his fiery body intensifying to bring light into a dark corner of the temple. There, amidst the gloom, a black, shadowy shape existed that was thicker than the shadows around it. It almost looked human, with shoulders, a head, legs… but it was more mist than a person.
“Becket’s demon…” I said, sighing. “It saved my life?”
“You’re of more use to it alive than dead,” Ifrit said. “We should count our blessings.”
I wanted to approach the demon, but the creature pulled deeper into the darkness with a groan, like it was in pain. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s being slowly torn apart by the energies of this place. It isn’t meant to be here… it won’t last long.”
“Great. We can add feeling bad for a demon to the list of weird things that happened today.”
Lightning flashed just beyond the boundaries of the temple, filling the chamber with light for an instant. Thunder rumbled, rolling toward us and then falling away into the distance. I figured I’d better start getting used to that, seeing as how I was going to be stuck here for a while. I shook my head. No. You can’t think like that.
“There has to be a way out,” I said.
“I’m thinking as fast as I can, but I’ve never been in this situation before. I doubt if any Guardian has.”
I looked around again, scanning the inside of the temple while Ifrit put his mind to work on getting us out of here. I had a feeling he was on a fool’s errand, though. The mad Queen had been locked away in here for as long as she had, and she was way stronger than I could ever be—certainly stronger than I was now.
If she couldn’t find a way out of her prison, then what made me think I had a shot?
“It’s so quiet here,” I said, “So calm. I didn’t think the Tempest could be like this.” My eyes started to sting, tears threatening to well up inside of them. I didn’t want to die in here I definitely didn’t want to spend eternity in here. The calming quiet all around me was anything but soothing. It was heartbreakingly lonely, and I’d barely been here a heartbeat.
If the Queen hadn’t already been insane before she arrived in this place, spending her days and nights locked up in here would’ve definitely done the trick.
“I’m never getting out of here…
” I said, my words catching in my throat and trailing off. “Am I?”
Something touched my shoulder. Something light, and soft. I moved to the side, shrugging out from underneath the thing that had fallen on me because, knowing this place, it was something bad. But it wasn’t bad. It was a feather, black and long. I watched it float softly to the floor, then I picked it up when it settled.
“Oktos,” I whispered, then smiled. “You saved my life, and I’ll never be able to thank you.”
The feather whipped out of my hand like it had been plucked up by a stray wind. I followed it with my eyes and watched it join a large collection of feathers that were floating in the air. I couldn’t help but stare, transfixed, as the feathers merged together right in front of me. Tens of them, hundreds of them, flocking together to create something that looked almost human… almost bird.
Oktos exploded from the collection of feathers, his wings unfurled, his body tucked into itself. He turned his birdlike head to the side and stretched his limbs, cracking his neck to the side. “That…” he said, pausing, “Was the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced.”
“Oktos!” I yelped. “You’re alive?”
He patted his bony body down. “I was never alive to begin with, but I’m still existing.”
“Screw the semantics, you’re still here! How?”
“The hell if I know. First, I am… then I’m not, and now I am again. It’s so weird.”
“I thought the Queen killed you.”
“I did too, for a moment. But it looks like she didn’t have as much power as she thought she did. That, or maybe the Tempest has taken a liking to me. I am, after all, one of its champions, now.”
“Champion, huh?”
“You are too. Don’t be jealous.”
Oktos landed, checking himself for injuries. “Well, I’m still in one piece… but what the hell are you still doing here? And where’s the Queen?”
The light in my eyes dimmed. “We lost.”
“So, she got out? Oh, no… that’s not good.” Oktos started pacing. “We need to get her back here. If she’s out there, the Tempest won’t be able to contain her.”
“You don’t happen to know of a way out of the Tempest and back to the real world, do you?”
He stuck a bony finger up. “Firstly, this is the real world to me, and it’s realer than yours is. Secondly, there is no way out of here… at least, not unless you meet very specific requirements.”
“Like what?”
“Well, you need to be a soulless Mage looking for your Guardian. You already have your Guardian, but you’re still here. I don’t suppose you can open the door again, can you?” he asked Ifrit.
Ifrit shook his head. “No. I can’t feel the door. It’s as if it doesn’t exist.”
“There has to be a door…” I said, “There’s always a door.” I shook my head. “I need to get back to my friends, Oktos. She’s out there, somewhere, using my body… maybe even killing my friends. Dammit, I don’t even want to think about that, but I can’t think about anything else right now.”
“She’s not killing your friends.”
“How can you say that? You saw how powerful she is. How can anyone stand up against that in the real—in my world? There’s a reason she was pulled in here and not just left to run wild on the outside.”
Oktos nodded at Ifrit. “See that little fire Godling right there? That used to be her Guardian. Back when they were bonded, her power was immense. Sure. But now? She doesn’t have a Guardian, and as long as that’s the case—assuming your friends can figure out the Isabella out there isn’t, well, you—then there’s hope. Even if it’s slim.”
“Maybe someone’s figured it out. Maybe they already know. But if they don’t, I need to try and warn them.”
“Warn them?” Oktos scratched his chin, thinking.
“If they don’t know she’s not me, she’s gonna catch them by surprise. Guardian or no, there’s no guarantee she won’t kill someone. I can’t let that happen, Oktos. Please tell me you can help me get a message through.”
Oktos stared at me, and shook his head. “I can’t…” he said, then he looked at Ifrit. “But he can.”
“You can?” I asked.
“I suppose the door is closed,” Ifrit said, “But I always had a window I could reach you through… but I’d be reaching to another Mage.”
Lightning whipped and cracked high above the dome, sending a rumbling crash of thunder into the room it made my chest rattle. “Holy shit,” I said, “What was that?”
Oktos and Ifrit looked up at the ceiling, where a fresh, burning hole had appeared. It was as if the lightning had struck the ceiling and disintegrated some of the marble there, leaving an opening just wide enough for them to see the roiling clouds and shifting lightning up above.
“Would you look at that?” Oktos said in wonder. “I think the Tempest is offering a hand.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The spell struck true, and Izzy fell into a heap of herself between RJ and Danvers. They looked at Izzy, then they stared at Axel, neither of them understanding what had just happened or why. It was Karim, in fact, who summed up the way they were looking at him with just a few accurate words.
“Have you gone mental?” he barked.
“Yo’, what the hell did you do that for?” RJ yelled, echoing Karim’s concern.
“That’s not her,” Axel finally managed to say. His throat was working again, though for how long, he couldn’t tell.
“What do you mean it’s not her? Not who?”
“Izzy—that’s not Izzy!”
“Then where’s Izzy, and who is that?”
Axel opened the gate and started rushing along the path. “Get her inside,” he called out, “Right now! And get Becket! That’s not Izzy, it’s the Queen.”
“Danvers? Is it her?” RJ asked.
Danvers got to her knees and touched Izzy’s head with her right hand. “Shit…” she said, “Shit, shit! I can’t feel her Guardian!”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Axel is right, it’s not Izzy.”
“Dammit! I thought we dealt with this!”
“Clearly we didn’t,” Axel said, just in time to push the door to the house open.
RJ grabbed Izzy and carted her indoors. Karim followed the rest of the group inside, having tossed his barely smoked cigarette out onto the road. The house was quiet, and dark—but Axel knew that quiet wasn’t going to last. This was the calm before the storm, the true storm, the one they’d thought was behind them.
Becket came rushing down the stairs, stopping once he was within view of Izzy’s unconscious body. “She got her?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Axel said, nodding.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. We need to get her out of Izzy. Can we do that?”
“I don’t know. Bring her to my office, we’ll begin an exorcism ritual right away.”
“I’ll get the salt crystals!” Karim yelled as he bolted into the kitchen.
“Fuck the salt, where’s the Aetherglass?” Danvers said, zipping around Axel and RJ to go and look for the spyglass.
Becket moved out of the way so RJ could carry Izzy up the stairs and into his office. Axel, meanwhile, counted the seconds in his head. He had no idea how long Izzy would be stunned for. He’d gotten lucky, he thought. Lucky that she wasn’t expecting it, lucky that her guard was down. Had she been in the heat of battle, even if the spell had hit her, it probably would’ve worn off already.
Even still, they had seconds, here—not minutes.
RJ barged through the door to Becket’s office. The tables and chairs had already been pushed aside to make room for what looked like a large summoning circle. Axel had never laid eyes on it before, but he recognized the markings, the sigils. This was Demonologist magic. Old magic. Dark magic.
“Should I put her down in there?” RJ asked.
“In the center, yes,” Becket said.
> Axel waited by the door, helplessly watching while RJ moved Izzy through the room and toward the circle. Izzy’s head suddenly sprang up. She pushed herself off the much larger and stronger Vivimancer like he was a child, then kept rising until her back was flat against the ceiling. Izzy stared down at the gathered Mages like a spider, her eyes wide and alert, her long blue hair falling around her face.
“That was quick of you,” she said, “But did you really think you could hold me?”
“Qyhena Ophine, I presume?” Becket said.
“You call me by my real name. For that, I’ll kill you last.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be killing anyone today.”
“Why? Because you were going to throw me into that circle and incapacitate me? Your plan has already failed.”
“You’re outnumbered, and even you must understand what that means for your chances.”
“I brought the Tempest to its knees,” she hissed, “See what I do to its puppets.”
With a roar, Izzy launched herself off the ceiling and threw herself at RJ. RJ dug his heels in and tried to catch her as she fell on top of him, but she was too strong, too much. They both went down with so much force, the impact cracked Becket’s wooden floors. She struck RJ across the cheek with her right fist, a thunderclap exploding at the point of contact that left RJ seeing stars.
Becket whipped his hand around and hurled a bolt of light at Izzy, but she batted it away without having to look at him. Her eyes, now, had fallen on Axel. She had a hungry look on her face, not like a wolf, but more like a shark that had all but starved to death and had just smelled blood in the water. Axel backed up a step, preparing to deflect whatever magic she was about to throw at him, but she didn’t fire.
She leapt.
Axel jumped back to try and avoid her, but she crashed into him with all the might of a tidal wave and pushed through the open door and into the wall in the hallway. Axel groaned from the hit as pain rippled through his back.
“I could’ve given you so much more than she ever could,” she said, drawing her tongue up and along the side of his face, “This one is so fond of you, but she doesn’t know how to handle a man like you.”
Heir to the Throne (The Wardbreaker Book 4) Page 16
