by Amy Alward
Bubbles of lava rise up to the surface, sizzling and acquiring a grey crust as they come in contact with the cool air. There’s a path of rock leading to where Raluca is standing, but it’s narrow: it could crack at any moment, and then we would be stranded.
‘Come on,’ Stefan says to me. ‘We have to get down there and stop her.’
‘But how?’ This volcano is at the centre of everything – if the streams of magic are like veins, then Yanhuo is magic’s beating heart. If Raluca manages to use the veins to spread the drain around the world . . . there will be no stopping her.
‘I don’t know. But we’re not going to figure it out up here.’
‘There.’ I point to the path that Arjun and I climbed up. The rope from our ascent is still there. Stefan nods and rushes over to it.
There’s a flash of light, and the rope disintegrates in front of us. Raluca’s hands are spread in our direction.
‘How can she do that? I thought magic didn’t work here. Not that accurately.’
‘It shouldn’t.’ My eyes open wide. ‘It must be because she was born ordinary. It’s a potion that’s changed her. Ordinaries have a different relationship with the Wilds.’
‘I don’t want to hurt you, Stefan,’ she says, her magically amplified voice rising up above the noise of the cracks and shakes of the volcano. ‘Nor a spectacular ordinary soul like you, Samantha. I am close now. Then there will never be a divide between people again.’
‘You can’t do this, Raluca!’ Stefan turns to me, and I see tears shining in his eyes. ‘There’s only one way out of this. I know what I have to do. So please, take this.’ He slides off a ring from his forefinger – a heavy gold signet ring with the new Novaen crest on it – and places it in my palm. Then he stares down at Raluca, takes two steps and follows them with a flying leap to the crater floor.
‘Stefan!’ I scream. He’s going to kill himself.
But his magic works enough to keep him steady.
‘I told you not to try to stop me, brother. I don’t want to have to hurt you.’ Raluca emphasises her point by flinging her arm out in his direction and pulling, her hand closing into a fist. Stefan reacts like a ragdoll in the air, and in the smoke of the crater I can see a stream of gold-flecked magic drain, the Talent she is pulling out of him. Whatever immunity he had – whether by virtue of being her twin or from the serum Emilia made – is now gone.
When he drops to the ground, he is unable to cushion the blow. By the grace of the dragons, he lands on a patch of rock, missing the rivers of lava. But I don’t know how he could survive an impact like that. Especially with his restricted magic.
With coldness that turns my own blood to ice, Raluca turns her back on him, focusing back on the lava lake.
‘Sam!’
I spin around as I hear my name being called from behind me. Three figures I recognise are powering up the side of the volcano. Trina, Ani and Arjun.
‘We saw the commotion from the crater and then your FollowMe location signal started buzzing that you were there, too. We had to make sure it was real and not some kind of joke,’ says Anita.
I’ve never been happier to see familiar faces in my entire life.
Trina’s face is red with sweat and exertion. They look like they’ve sprinted up the side of the volcano, crampons and all. ‘Sam, you have to hurry. The Palace is not only visible now, it’s falling.’
‘What?’ I cry out.
‘Something must have happened over the past few hours. Every Talented in the city is lined up, pointing their wands at it, trying to stop it from happening. Your grandad and parents are handing out potions to keep people strong. But everyone is weakening.’
‘Oh my god. Since Raluca is awake, she must be draining Talent faster than ever.’
Trina nods. ‘Kirsty and the ORA are organising the evacuation. They’re so grateful for the Talented help that they’re working together to stop it. And you know who’s leading the charge on the Talented side?’
‘Who?’
‘Zain.’
‘Oh.’ My mouth sets in a firm line. Everyone I know is doing their part to save the world. Now I have to do mine. Because my home – my city – is about to be demolished.
‘We’ve bottled up the cure,’ says Anita. ‘We all have vials in our backpack.’
My heart leaps, and Anita turns around so I can grab a vial for myself. But when it’s in my hand, it looks so small. A tiny bottle against now the most Talented person in the whole world. ‘I don’t know if I can get close enough to Raluca to use it. She has to drink it,’ I say.
‘There’s another option,’ says Arjun.
The realization dawns on me. ‘You’re right. We need to summon the phoenix again. This time it’s urgent. PHOENIX!’ I shout, but my voice cracks.
‘It won’t work from here. We have to get down there,’ says Arjun, loosening the rope from around his waist.
‘Raluca’s too powerful. She’s already destroyed one of our ropes. She drained her own brother!’
As evidence to my statement, Raluca sends a ball of fire in our direction, sending us flying backward. Her voice is all around us. ‘Oh you. The girl who claims to have a “cure”. The girl who has been sharing videos around the world. Well, are your cameras rolling now? Come down, and I’ll let you show the world who they are facing.’
I exchange fearful glances with Arjun and Trina, but Trina nods. I turn on the FollowMe. I walk to the edge of the cliff, and Raluca’s power picks me up, flying me across the crater floor to her feet at the lava lake.
The ground cracks and sizzles beneath my trainers, but I try to hold on to my composure. The vial is my hand, unstoppered, and I need to be able to use it at a moment’s notice.
‘Look at me,’ she says. A second later, Raluca is on fire with power, magic pouring out of her, surrounding her, a beam of glittering light extending out into the sky as high as the volcano’s column of smoke. This is no simple stream of magic – she is an ocean, the owner now of all the Talent in Gergon and almost all of it in Nova. My sister’s power. The Princess’s. The King’s and the Queen’s.
‘I feel it,’ she says, her eyes ablaze. ‘All around me there is power, there is Talent, there is magic and it is flowing through the cracks in this ground. Here beneath our feet are the currents of magma that lead all around the world. Can’t you feel it? Samantha. You are ordinary. Soon you will have the respect you deserve. There will be no one to laud their Talent over you and make you feel lesser.’
I shake my head, squeezing my eyes tightly shut. ‘I don’t feel lesser,’ I say. ‘I am ordinary, and I have power too. I don’t want to be Talented.’
But she grabs my chin, forcing my mouth open.
‘You don’t? Why not try? My brother . . . his Talent is there for the taking. I resisted draining him because he was the only one who ever cared for me. And now look. He’s opened the whole world of magic to me. So why don’t you try it?’
She forces a liquid down my throat just as I open my eyes, raising my hand up so I can get my cure between her lips. But she is faster than me. The vial of cure tumbles from my hand and smashes on the ground as I stretch, arch my back and recoil, trying desperately not to swallow the liquid.
But swallow it I do. When she sees it, she lets go of me, stands back and waits, a huge grin on her face.
At first, nothing happens. Then, slowly, warmth begins to creep through my veins, starting at my fingertips and spreading through my body. It almost . . . hums, the cells of my body vibrating. Singing.
Connecting. Molecules of magic in the air connecting with the cells of my body. Is this what it’s like? Is this what Talented people feel every day?
I almost weep at the unfairness. That I will never get to experience it. To live like this.
But then I realise that I do experience it. Whenever I’m mixing a potion, the buzz that I get. It’s not just magic. It’s creativity. It’s passion.
I stare at my hands, thinking they should be glowi
ng by the way they are feeling.
Opposite me, Raluca smiles. ‘Take the rest of his power,’ she says. ‘Do something with it.’
I feel the power settle in my palm. One dose of it. My first thought is to use it against Raluca. But I know she would be able to throw up shields before I’d made a move. And besides, it was such a small amount.
So instead, I use it to float the FollowMe. My eyes go wide as I make it lift and spin. I hope it’s capturing everything.
A shot rings out, echoing around the caldera. There’s a flash in front of me, and Raluca shrieks in anger. I whip around, to see Arjun and Trina have made it to the floor. Trina’s arm is extended, her stance wide, her aim absolutely perfect for the gun in her hand. The bullet thuds into the ground at Raluca’s feet. A warning shot.
‘You messed with the wrong Princess, Princess,’ Trina says.
‘You are almost too late,’ Raluca replies. ‘I feel the power accumulating from all parts of the world. Soon there will be no Talent left except what I have, and there will be no one else to fight.’
Trina fires again, and Raluca blocks it with a sweep of her magic. ‘Suit yourselves,’ she says. Raluca turns her back to Trina and raises her hands towards the lava lake. Out of it – and all along the rivers of magma that spew through the cracks in the caldera floor – crawl monsters made of fire and brimstone, lava demons with amorphous bodies that ooze into existence. Arjun is prepped with some of the icy-powder from the Waidan, throwing handfuls that freeze the demons in their place, but there are so many of them. They converge on Trina, who races and ducks their attacks like a pro, keeping Raluca distracted.
Distracting me as well. I shake myself into action. I sprint towards the phoenix nest, hopping from island to island across the rivers of lava as fast as I can while watching my feet. ‘Phoenix!’ I cry out. ‘Please come! We need you!’ I stop beneath its nest, my legs shaking with fear. I try and get enough breath to call it properly. But every breath I take is choked by the adrenaline and the smoke.
‘What are you doing?’ In an instant, Raluca is next to me. She grabs my collar and drags me at superhuman speed back to the centre of the crater. ‘I’m bored of this,’ she says. ‘If you won’t join me, it’s no loss.’
Then she shoves me backwards into the lava lake.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Samantha
THE HEAT IS SO INTENSE, IT FEELS LIKE it’s going to sear the clothes off my back. I close my eyes and think of my family.
But my life doesn’t end there. There’s a screech as loud as a thunderclap in my ear. I fall onto a bed of flames. Except it’s not flames. It’s feathers.
A phoenix. Red and gold and orange and yellow and bright as the lava itself. It’s huge – far larger than I ever could have imagined. It’s bigger than the dragons I’ve seen.
My hands instinctively claw for purchase. They find it, amidst the barbs and vanes of the phoenix feathers. My heart soars as we fly up, away from the boiling lava. I’m on the back of the phoenix. It came to save me.
It lets a burst of emerald fire seep from its pores, which washes over me – painless and cleansing, like bathing in ice-cold water. Whatever vestiges of Talent I might have left from the potion leave my system thanks to the phoenix’s flames, and I couldn’t be happier. It didn’t feel natural to me. Whatever envy I might have had for my sister, for Zain, for the Princess . . . it’s gone. I’m happy being me. And it assures me it’s exactly what we need for Raluca.
Clinging on for dear life with one hand, I dare to adjust my position, rotating around so that I’m lying on my stomach, looking over the phoenix’s wing at the ground below. It’s chaos down there, with Anita, Arjun and Trina back-to-back, battling Raluca and the lava demons. I know that none of them will have much ammunition left – bullets or potions. We only prepared for a hike – not for a battle.
They need to get out of there. ‘Phoenix, over there,’ I say, pointing over its wing at Raluca. ‘She’s the source. You have to help me stop her.’
I don’t know whether the phoenix understands, but there’s another ear-splitting screech that I can only hope means it does. It takes a swooping dive in her direction, and I brace myself against its body for the burst of fire. But it doesn’t come. Instead, the phoenix flies over the Patels and Trina, and I feel the phoenix sag under their sudden weight. It’s picked them up in its talons. We soar up and over the caldera, where with a heave and shiver of its feathers, it throws me from its back and onto the hard ground.
‘We have to go back!’ I say, scrambling to my feet. But the phoenix looks at me with sad eyes, before exploding into a fiery inferno. Its body disintegrates before my eyes – along with our chances of stopping Raluca. All that’s left in the end is a tiny chick, naked and pink against the black lava floor. But I can’t bring myself to be anything but grateful. It saved my life – and the lives of our friends. The last effort proved too much.
There’s a cackle from inside the crater that raises the hackles on my back. Raluca has won. But determination solidifies in my body and turns my passion into marble. I’m not going to stop. Even if we have to spend every day trying. Track down another phoenix in another volcano in another part of the world. Capture as much fire as we can in bottles. We will take her down. I won’t let her take my sister. Not for good.
I step to the edge and force myself to watch.
Raluca is hovering above the lava lake, her power suspending her. She feeds her energy down into the magma. I can’t reach her from here with any weapon. I can only wait, helpless, letting the FollowMe capture it all as the plan we constructed unravels in front of our eyes.
There’s movement from nearby – and it’s not one of the lava demons, which are all just pools of magma now that her energy is not feeding them. Instead, it’s Stefan. He’s moving slowly, trying not to draw attention to himself. He’s edging closer and closer to her.
At any moment she’s going to spot him. ‘Trina,’ I say. ‘I need to distract Raluca. Quick. What can we use?’
‘I’m out of ammo,’ she says, tossing her useless gun to one side.
I have to use the only weapon I have left. A bluff. I grab an empty jar from Arjun’s belt and hold it high in the air. ‘We have the phoenix flame!’ I shout. ‘I will use it on you.’
Raluca’s attention jumps to me, and the snarl on her face sends shivers down my spine. ‘You’re mine,’ she says. I brace for her to use her immense power to smite me.
But behind her, Stefan gets to his feet, and even from this far away, I see his tiger eyes settle on mine. Then, in a burst of speed and energy, he runs at the lake, jumps and tackles his sister.
She throws out her hands, rope exploding from the air in front of palms, trying to save herself as she falls. But the momentum is too unexpected, too forceful, too sudden.
They both fall. There’s a flash of green light and the ground beneath our feet begins to shake.
Trina grabs me by the arms. ‘Come on!’ she says. I turn to make sure Arjun and Anita are following – they have tears streaming down their faces and so do I; the gases are too much.
‘How are we going to get back to the Palace?’ I ask.
‘What’s that? On your hand?’ asks Trina, pointing at my finger.
‘It’s Stefan’s ring. He gave it to me just a few moments ago.’
Trina’s eyes light up. ‘It’s a Royal ring. I’ve seen it before on Princess Evelyn. It can get us back to the Palace. Ani and Arjun, hold Sam.’
They grab my hand, fortifying it. Then I take the ring. I see that it has a catch on the side, right underneath the giant ruby. I flick it open, and that’s where I see a tiny notch. I turn back to the crater one more time – in case there’s a chance . . .
‘They’re gone!’ whispers Anita.
I know that. I don’t waste any more time. I put my finger over the notch.
And in an instant everything – including the volcano – disappears.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Samantha
THE RING FLINGS US INTO THE FLOATING Palace of Nova, and I land skidding on my knees on the polished ballroom floor. I take the briefest moment to compose myself, but before I can get my bearings the floor tilts again and I’m sliding the other way. I collide into Anita and Arjun, who are in crumpled heaps on the floor.
‘We need to wake everyone up!’ I shout to them. ‘I’ll call Zain.’
Trina tosses me her phone and I dial Zain’s number as quickly as I can. ‘We need to wake everyone up!’ I say into the phone as soon as he answers, not even giving him time to say hello.
‘I’m on it,’ he says, without questioning me. ‘I’ll meet you in the ballroom in one minute.’
We hang up the phone. ‘Did you hear that?’ I ask the others. ‘We need to get to the ballroom.’
Trina looks up and down the hallway, then gestures to the right. ‘This way.’
‘We don’t have long before the Palace is going to fall!’ I scream, as the floor beneath us lurches ominously to one side.
‘Then come on, we’ll need every ounce of Talent if we’re going to stop it.’
We race down the hallways – or as fast as we can with the force of the tilt pushing against us. The ballroom doors loom before me, and Trina slams her way through, bursting the lock with her shoulder.
The ballroom is oddly the calmest place in the Palace. It’s eerie the way everyone is asleep, blissfully unaware of what’s going on outside. I sprint toward where the Princess is. But that’s when I get another shock. ‘Dragons!’ I shout.
‘What is it?’ Trina asks, but the words die in a choke. ‘What on earth?’
The Princess’s bed is empty.
‘I’m here!’
Silhouetted in the light streaming in from the balcony at the far end of the ballroom, her hair streaming out behind her in wild blonde tangles, is Princess Evelyn. Her ice-blue eyes are crazed with power. Her hands are splayed as far as her fingers can stretch. ‘I’m keeping the Palace up – but I can’t do it on my own for much longer.’
