by Megg Jensen
“This isn’t about Sebrina, Lianne. It’s about you. My chosen one.”
I rolled my eyes. More of that nonsense.
“There’s nothing special about me,” I said. “Just let Sebrina go and you can have me, okay?”
I knew she wouldn’t take the bait. If anything I was only stalling for more time until I could come up with a way to defeat her. She roared with anger, her voice echoing in the small room as she walked toward me. Her fingertip slid under my chin, her nail lightly piercing the skin on my neck.
“I would if I thought you’d follow through on your bargain. But, Lianne, you’re just like me. You’re out for yourself, doing what you think is the right thing – even if it’s only right for you.”
The flames leaped in my stomach. She dared to compare my intentions to hers. If I’d been more disrespectful, I would have taken the opportunity to spit in her face. Everything she’d done had been for her own gain, to manipulate people and their magic. I, on the other hand, simply wanted to be left alone.
“What do you want from me, Mother?” I hadn’t known her long enough to justify calling her that. No one in my life deserved that term of endearment from me. But maybe if I could convince her I was willing to hear her out, she’d make a mistake.
She pulled her finger back and spun around, her black cape sweeping out to the side like a storm cloud about to ravage the earth. “I don’t trust you, Lianne. That’s why your sister will stay where she is and you will be bound as well.”
“I don’t know how you tricked Sebrina into this, but you won’t be able to bind me. We both have magic. I can fight back.”
Her laugh, like the sound of a razor slicing through skin, choked my soul. Every instinct inside me screamed danger. A tiny flick of her wrist, followed by a gust of air, and I was hanging upside down, suspended in the air. My toes pointed toward the ceiling and my hair scraped the floor. My arms flailed to the sides and my knees bent in an attempt to kick. My struggles were futile, completely useless against her stronger magic. I reached deep inside for my fire, just like Chase had taught me, but I couldn’t touch it. The familiar heat was gone. Blocked. It was a sensation I’d learned living with Chase.
“Did you think I gave you all of Sebrina’s magic, Lianne? I gave you some, but I took most of it for myself. Why would I waste it on you?” She laughed again. The blood rushed to my head and the world started to spin. She sped toward me in less than a second, faster than any human should be able to move. I rose higher in the air, my feet now flat against the ceiling, my eyes were even with hers. “I gave you up for adoption, not to help my people, but to get rid of you.”
“Then why bother giving me any of Sebrina’s magic? Why not take it all for yourself?”
She walked away, crossing over to Sebrina. A fingertip ran along Sebrina’s shoulder, and our mother smiled, baring her teeth. “I wasn’t sure if I could hold all of it. I needed a place to store it until I was ready to claim it all for myself.”
Her arms raised to her sides. The midnight fabric draped down from her arms. Foreboding tingled down my spine. Or up my spine. I was too disoriented to know. Maybe this was the moment Chase had been trying to avoid all this time. I took comfort in knowing Bryden wasn’t in the room and wouldn’t die saving me. She had no reason to kill Sebrina, who’d essentially been rendered helpless. If I made it out of this alive, I would swear to Sebrina that she’d never be in danger because of me again. This was the second time she’d looked death in the eyes, all because someone wanted to kill me.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked my mother. “If you’re going to take my magic, then do it now.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I need another to assist me. He should be arriving soon.”
A knock at the door forced all of our heads to whip toward it. My mother flicked her hand and the door slowly opened on its own. A stranger, tall with jet black hair, strode in.
“Glad you could join me, Xaxier.”
He bowed his head, totally ignoring Sebrina and I. He must have known what to expect beforehand. Not a flinch, not one glance at either of us.
“Anything for you, milady.” He bowed to our mother. His black garments matched hers, except his were trimmed in dark purple. The scene sent new shivers through my body. I didn’t know what to expect from them. Were they only going to steal my magic? What would be left of me if they did?
Since the magic roared to life on my birthday, it felt as integral to my body as the blood coursing through my veins. I couldn’t fathom how it would be drained from me. They’d have to rip it from my very soul. Would anything be left of me when they were done?
“Let us begin the ritual,” Xaxier said. He turned to me, making eye contact for the first time. “Are you prepared for the end?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
A familiar glow filled the room. A portal. My heart pounded, my breath escaped my mouth in tiny gasps.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked, stretching for each mote of air.
She cackled again. “Us? It’s just you, dear. Sebrina can stay here. She has no power against any of us.”
Relief doused some of my anger. Sebrina would be left to live. I’d managed to save Bryden and Sebrina, the two of the people I loved most in the world. If I died at least I knew it hadn’t been in vain.
“If I thought you’d join us, I would spare you, Lianne. Sadly you’ve turned out to be a major disappointment. All of these morals. Who taught you those? Certainly not those filthy Fithians you grew up with. They were so wretched.”
“I developed them on my own.” My head pounded with the blood that was pooling in it. If they didn’t turn me upright soon, I feared I would pass out. “I chose to be a good person. I’m glad you gave me up or I might have turned out like you.”
My eyes flitted to Sebrina. She’d turned out just fine. Maybe it was our father’s influence. I’d still never met him. He was out to sea, commanding his ship. Or maybe Sebrina was saved from our mother because she’d lost her magic so young. Insignificance in our mother’s eyes probably saved her life.
“Knock her out, Xaxier.”
***
I awoke in a dark room. Dampness permeated the air and the smell of decay attacked my senses. My back laid flush against a concrete slab. Through the murky haze of awakening, I fought to regain full consciousness. My legs wouldn’t move and my arms remained tight at my sides, no matter how hard I tried to move them. Something covered me, maybe a blanket?
I lifted my neck, looking around as best as I could in the dark. I couldn’t see anything, other than a single candle flickering far in the distance. It drew closer, one small step at a time. If they were trying to kill me with anxiety, it was working. Shivers ran across my body, up my legs, down my arms, racing without a pattern, in neverending confusion.
“Are you waiting for a full moon or something?” I asked. “How long are you going to keep me here?”
The laugh came again. I had hoped it was anyone but my mother, unfortunately my hopes were dashed quickly.
“Lianne, that’s silly. We’re not waiting for anything in particular. We just needed to be alone in a place no one would disturb us. The ritual must be completed before the main Malborn army attacks. With your power and mine combined, I will be able to crush their army. Then I’ll have your father killed, marry Marek, who I’ve made sure already desires me, and then I’ll be the ruler of everything. No one will stand above me.”
“You’re mad!” I struggled again, but still couldn’t break free. The candlelight came closer, illuminating my previously dark body. I wasn’t being held down by magical bonds. Some sort of cocoon surrounded my body, the whiteness sparkled in the soft light. No wonder my arms and legs felt trapped – they were. I thanked whatever gods were out there that even though I was afraid of large bodies of water and heights, I didn’t seem to have a problem with enclosed spaces.
“She’s perfectly sane, I assure you.”
I jerked to the side. Xaxier’s words di
dn’t come from another part of the room. He was so close, his lips brushed my ear when he whispered. The shivers returned in full force.
“What do you get out of this?” I asked him.
“Someday you’ll see, Lianne. I will receive rewards beyond imagining for my part in this. I have been promised that and more,” he answered. I couldn’t imagine my mother would follow through with any lavish promises she’d made to him. He was a fool to trust her. Then again, would she have been able to recruit anyone other than an idiot to help her?
“Lie still, Lianne,” she said with a laugh. I still couldn’t believe she found any of this amusing. I was her daughter. Her flesh and blood. Obviously that meant nothing to her. I’d been so happy to discover I had a family out there. A sister, a mother, and a father. My sister was everything I’d ever wanted, but my mother had been evil incarnate. Just my luck.
“This will hurt,” he said. “A lot. But don’t pass out, or the transfer might not work. I need you to be conscious the whole time. You’re cocooned because I can’t have you fighting me, so don’t move. Xaxier is here to make sure you stay awake.”
His palms rested on my cheeks, fingers jammed into the underside of my jaw. They hadn’t even started and already the pain was too much to bear. Tears glistened in my eyes. I let go of any bravery I’d built up. The walls I’d spent my whole life building and used to protect myself crumbled in seconds. This was the end. I knew it deep in my soul. I couldn’t help myself. The only witness to my abduction had no magic to mark where we’d gone. No one would find me and I’d die in a cave at the hands of the person who originally gave me life.
His fingers dug harder into me, the pain nearly unbearable. My mother chanted under her breath in a language I’d never heard before. Her voice dropped an octave. The words became more menacing with every breath. I didn’t know their exact meaning, but I had a pretty good idea that it only meant more bad things were coming my way.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable pain she said I’d experience. The fear of the unknown paralyzed my muscles. Even without their cocoon, I wouldn’t have been able to move. I had no way of protecting myself. My magic still felt like an empty well. I knew it was in there, but I couldn’t reach it, no matter what I did.
Then I felt it.
My soul ripped in two. My fire morphed into a knife, ripping through my body, setting it ablaze. I fought to open my mouth and let the scream building inside me out, but Xaxier’s fingers held my jaw shut. I struggled against my bonds.
Tears flowed from my eyes, streaming down my face, running in tiny tributaries around Xaxier’s hands. He didn’t move, even though these tears were different. They burned everything they touched, setting my skin aflame.
A light burst from my chest, the color of a campfire. Reds and oranges joined hands, dancing around the blue and white flames erupting into the air. The tendrils snaked through the air, winding their way toward my mother in a rainbow of magic. My mind slid toward oblivion. It was the only protection I could offer myself in the final moments.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sharp nails dug into my neck, bringing me back to consciousness.
“Don’t pass out, Lianne,” Xaxier whispered in my ear. “You won’t want to miss what’s next.”
He tilted my head up, forcing me to face forward. Beyond the menacing candlelight the flames jumped from my chest, snaking into my mother’s slack, open mouth. Her eyes turned from bright blue to black. I squinted and could have sworn I saw flames jumping in the black river of her eyes. I didn’t know if they were really there or a reflection from the flames dancing around the room.
“No,” I whispered through pursed lips. Xaxier still held me too tightly for my jaws to move. I didn’t want her to have my magic. It wasn’t because I needed it, only because I wanted to stop her. Her plan to conquer the Malborn would only lead to more death and destruction. What was the point of all this war?
Pain scorched my insides, slashing apart everything from my toes to my forehead. The steady pressure from Xaxier kept me awake, agony that increased every second the ritual continued. She was right. I wouldn’t survive this.
My head fell against the concrete altar. Xaxier’s hands grazed over my face, his fingers undulating in the air like willow branches fighting against a storm. The pain stopped almost immediately. My eyes grew wider. I tried to piece together what he was doing. He certainly wasn’t stopping her. The flames steadily coursed out of my body and into my mother’s mouth. My heart sank as I realized he was only abating my pain to ensure I didn’t pass out again.
Then he flicked his fingers in a motion all too familiar to me.
A portal opened in the room. I shut my eyes, not wanting to know what horrors he was bringing into the cave. My mouth breathed in the dank air, slowly. In one breath. Out with another. I opened one eye, but nothing emerged from the portal.
Until one boot stepped through, then another, followed by another body, hurling itself behind the first.
My breath caught in my chest. Bryden and Chase. Both of my eyes popped open. Xaxier winked at me.
“Get me out of this cocoon,” I begged him. “Please.”
“I can’t, Lianne. If you move now, you’ll die. Your mother’s spell will rip a hole in your chest if you move even an inch. Let them save you. Just relax.”
Relax? He had to be kidding.
Chase’s hands moved through the air, turning circles around each other. The muscles on his arms flexed and retracted. A glowing blue ball emerged between his hands and grew bigger with each movement.
Bryden stood, his legs bent at the knees, his hands up in a fighting stance. It wasn’t a good stance, not remotely steady. He’d never been trained in fighting. He was a scribe and even though he’d learned to use his magic, I still didn’t know how powerful he was. He’d saved me once from a dungeon filled with idiot guards. Against my mother, he didn’t stand a chance.
A vise took hold of my heart as I remembered their earlier fight. Bryden had seen a picture of himself dying at my mother’s hands while trying to save me. I trembled inside, but my body didn’t respond. The cocoon was too tight.
“Let me out now!” I screamed at Xaxier.
“I am under strict orders from Chase not to let you go free.”
I’d learned everyone obeyed Chase. Everyone except me, that is. If Xaxier said he wouldn’t let me go because of Chase’s direction, then I was trapped. But it didn’t mean I wouldn’t give up.
“Go back through the portal!” I yelled to Bryden. “Please! You don’t belong here!”
He shook his head, without taking his eyes from my mother. She hadn’t noticed them yet, or she was too deep into the spell to do anything about it. Maybe like me, she couldn’t move or she’d die. That would explain why she’d moved us from the castle to a deserted cave. She needed no interruptions. She just hadn’t counted on her right-hand man betraying her to her enemy.
Her mouth, slack, still sucked in the flames pouring out of my body. Her arms spread wide to the sides. Not one muscle twitched.
My eyes darted to Chase again. The magical ball of light he was building in his hands grew larger and larger until it was the size of his chest. He looked over at me, only for a second. Our eyes made contact and in that moment I saw into his soul. He opened himself to me in a way he’d never done before.
Please don’t move, Lianne. You can trust Xaxier, he thought to me.
Make Bryden leave! I didn’t care about myself at the moment. I just wanted Bryden out of there. We were all so busy trying to save each other that not one of us cared whether we walked out with our own lives.
I tried. He won’t stay away. Close your eyes.
What?
CLOSE YOUR EYES!
I squeezed my eyelids together as hard as I could. Even through the blackness, sparks shot in the air, light filled everything. The rip in my soul began to mend. The flames bled back into my body, filling me with a fire so powerful I worried I would combust.
>
I struggled again, surprised to find my arms and legs free of the cocoon they’d trapped me in. Xaxier’s hands no longer held my head. My eyes snapped open. Except the one candle in the back of the cave, the room was dark again. I reached my arms out in front of me, my fingers grazing the air looking for someone, anyone, to hold on to.
Don’t move, Lianne!
Where’s Bryden?
Don’t move. Please!
Jumping off the concrete slab, I felt around in the dark air. I had to find Bryden. Protect him. I wouldn’t let him die for me. I would kill myself if he did. My arms and legs didn’t support me like they had in the past. Every part of me was too tired.
I kept quiet, just like everyone else in the room. Four against one. I wished she would just give herself up. There was no reason for her to fight. She had to know she was going to lose.
Fingers closed around my ankles, yanking me to the ground. Before I could figure out if it was one of my friends or my mother, an arm snaked around my neck.
She’s got me, Chase.
A light bloomed in the cave, illuminating it brighter than a cloudless summer afternoon. On the other side of the cave, Xaxier stood next to Chase. I didn’t see Bryden anywhere. I hoped with everything in me that he’d gone back through the portal. It was closed now, nowhere to be seen. If I knew Bryden was on the other side, I’d take every risk I could to get back to him.
“Let her go, Kiran,” Xaxier said to my mother. “It’s over.”
“I can kill her in seconds. Then you’ll kill me. You’ll kill me either way. Why should I be the only one to die?”
Her arm crooked tighter around my neck. On a normal day, I could have taken her down in seconds, but my body was too weak from the ritual. She hadn’t just tried to suck out my magic, she’d destroyed my energy too. I reached deep inside me, feeling the magic that had come back. Like a pool of molten lava, it shifted and stirred, not giving any clue as to when it would blow. I tried controlling it the way Chase taught me, but something had changed. It didn’t respond to me. I had the distinct impression it was actively ignoring me.
