“Breckin!” Emmy screamed, thrashing in Olwenn’s arms. “Breckin!”
His head moved around frantically to see where her voice was coming from, finally looking upward and seeing her. He kicked off, about to fly when the two of the men wrapped their hands around his ankles, pulling him back to the ground.
She screamed his name over and over as she got higher up into the sky until she couldn’t see him anymore. Emmy did everything she possibly thought of to do – she bit her captor, kicked her, hit her, tried to wriggle her way free – to no avail.
“Do you really think,” she whispered – Emmy recognized her as the hissing voice that gave the initial order, “that I would let you go? Thoreoux personally sent me, sweetie, I would never let anything happen to you.”
Between the vertigo and stark terror, it took everything in Emmy not to vomit. She was being brought back to Thoreoux. She would be dead by the end of the night.
And so would Breckin.
Olwenn flew over the treetops for several minutes before reaching a break in the green for a blue blob – a lake. It was the lake Persephone always used to trick her opponents to fall into during peacekeeping class. Olwenn swooped down, heading straight towards the frozen water, faster and faster with no intention of slowing down. Despite herself Emmy gripped her, somehow knowing what was about to happen.
Emmy took a deep breath as Olwenn dove headfirst into the lake. The water was such a paralyzing cold Emmy’s skin burned. They went deeper and deeper into the water, and for a horrifying moment Emmy thought Olwenn intended on drowning her, until she noticed a small light coming from the bottom of the lake.
No, Emmy thought. It can’t be.
But it was. The portal was hidden at the bottom of the lake. Olwenn tightened one of her arms on Emmy’s waist, and the other reached out to cup the portal. Emmy was frozen, helpless, as she wrapped her long fingers around the glass. As she always did when she traveled, Emmy felt herself being sucked into a vortex, the world swirling around her as she transferred.
When it was over, they landed on a hill, just on the edge of a small wood. Emmy was so cold she didn’t even fight as Olwenn gripped her wrist and dragged down the hill. A building entirely made out of black marble lay beneath, veins of white trailing along the stone in serpentine shapes. It was even bigger than the Crow mansion, and worse to look at. A trail of torches covered the front, as if to show off the building for anyone who passed by.
Olwenn took her through the front entrance, which didn’t have a door. She led Emmy through the front corridor into a circular, sky lit room, which, if it had been in another house, probably would have been used as a ballroom. There were no windows, the only light coming from the fire in the torches on the walls, but that wasn’t what Emmy paid attention to.
All along the edges of the room were men and women, smartly dressed, all staring at her hungrily. Emmy’s eyes followed the circle to the other side of the room. In the doorway across from her stood a man. Olwenn yanked on Emmy’s arm, pulling her towards the other side, towards the figure.
The closer they got to this man, the faster Emmy’s heartbeat raced. She could see his face now – aristocratic, handsome even. His dark hair fell to his shoulders, and his even darker eyes were fixated on Emmy. She knew who he was before they reached him.
Olwenn came to a stop right in front of him, and bowed. Emmy couldn’t move, but the man didn’t seem to be upset by this. He took one deliberate step toward her, reached out and brushed her cheek softly. Emmy grimaced, expecting him to hit her, but he didn’t.
“Hello Evangeline,” Thoreoux said. “It’s nice to finally meet you. You are a hard girl to get a meeting with, did you know?”
Chapter 25
The Portal in the Lake
If they had fought him individually, Breckin thought, he would have been able to take them easily. Unfortunately, with six men holding him down, he didn’t stand much of a chance. He thought of everything his mentor Oka taught him, but all his lessons seemed to have dissipated in his head. He couldn’t concentrate on anything but Lana.
“I command you to get off him!” shouted a voice from a few feet away.
The men did not oblige, but they did seem taken aback. Several of them looked up to see who had spoken, but this gave Breckin the opportunity he needed. He summoned a palewraith in the center of the scuffle and blew it up, sending the men flying in several different directions.
“I command you to stay where you are,” Breckin said, and this time, they listened. Breckin turned around for who had saved him, not expecting at all to see his stepbrother. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving you. Again. I saw you drag Emmy out here and you were out for so long I thought I’d come out and check on you. What the hell happened?”
“Thoreoux’s men took her,” Breckin said, the panic starting to set in. “They came out of nowhere.”
Cyrus paled but he did not, however, look surprised. “Oh, God. No. This is all my fault.”
“What do you mean?”
“He warned me he’d try to get her again if I didn’t kill her.”
Breckin swallowed his fury – he didn’t have time to yell at Cyrus at the moment. He could drop dead at any second.
“I’m going back to get Circlet,” Breckin said. He looked around at the men on the ground, seeing their faces tense in concentration, trying to move, and unable to. He knew his command would not last forever, and he had to face the fact another driver was standing right in front of him. “Can you watch them for a few minutes?”
Cyrus’s eyes nearly popped out of his head, which was an unusual sight. He wasn’t used to seeing him shocked. “Of course.”
Breckin nodded, not having time to dwell on whether or not leaving Cyrus alone with people who were his allies only months ago was a good idea.
With strapper speed he dashed back into the party, scanning the room for Circlet, and finding her after about half a second. She was in a lively conversation with a minister, which Breckin cut into.
“Circlet, I need to talk to you. It’s La – Emmy. They took her, she’s gone. Thoreoux took her.”
Rather than being upset, she just looked confused. “Crawford, I highly doubt it. There are guards all around the wall of Methelwood, don’t you think they would have picked something up?”
He threw up his arms in frustration. He didn’t have time for this. “Circlet, I saw them! They tackled me to the ground and took her! And that portal could be anywhere. Do you think the guards can keep track of the whole bloody orb?”
The minister she was talking to sidled off without so much as a goodbye. Circlet didn’t even notice – she had that look of denial on her face when something was simply too bad to be true and she couldn’t deal with it.
“I’m so sorry, Crawford,” she whimpered. “Oh, this is all my fault, thinking I could catch him by myself –”
“Catch who?” Breckin demanded. His patience level was the lowest it had ever been.
“Thoreoux. I thought if I gave him the opportunity we could catch him –”
“What are you talking about?”
“I knew. About Cyrus. I mean, I didn’t know for sure, but I hoped Rathers’s presence would bring him out of hiding and we could catch him once and for all.”
For a split second Breckin forgot about the goal, his panic replaced with disgust. “Are you saying you used Lana as bait? Do you realize you put her life in danger? Not to mention mine?”
“I did it for the good of Methelwood! For the orbs! It would have saved us all.”
He grabbed hold of her collar, pulling her up to his face. “You are going to fix this, do you understand me? You are going to gather up every guard in this orb and help me save her. I don’t care if I haven’t been initiated yet: that is an order from your Eldoir. Do you understand?” He had never, in their entire relationship, spoken to her this way; he had always been subordinate to her.
“Of course. I’ll get on it right away. But we don
’t even know where the portal to Thoreoux’s orb is –”
“I’ve got some of his men right outside the clearing. Get it out of them. Now go. If she dies, we’ll both be dead because of you.” He let go of her collar and made his way out of the clearing again. He was in the archway when a hand wrapped around his shoulder. Breckin jumped and turned around to see Jade and Persephone, their eyes wide in their faces.
“Hey, is everything okay?” Jade said. “With you and Emmy?”
“What?” Breckin snapped.
“We heard you shouting at Circlet from the other side of the party,” Persephone said. “And Emmy’s been gone for quite a while.”
Impatience bubbled up in him, needing to explain what happened all over again. He recapped a very short summary, explaining where Lana was and where he was going. Breckin left them gaping when he went through the fire archway and back to where he had left Cyrus, Persephone’s guard several paces behind them.
“Well, we’re coming with you!” Jade said when he was finished.
“Are you mad? I’m going by myself. Circlet will be there later but I have to go. They’ll kill her any minute now and I don’t have time to wait for them.”
Cyrus seemed to have caught the end of the conversation, just as Jade said, “You can’t do that! That’s what they’ll expect you to do!”
“Do you not understand what’s going on?” Breckin thundered at the three of them. “They will kill her. So what if I come barging in? I’ll be dead if I don’t, anyway.”
Cyrus sighed, brushing the hair out of his face. “Well then I’m coming with you. This is my fault, too.” Before Breckin could protest Cyrus cut him off. “I know the place better than you do, Crawford. I lived there for four years.”
Breckin hated to admit that he had a point.
“I’m coming as well,” Persephone said. “I know them better than you do.”
“So am I. I promised I’d protect her.” Jade.
Breckin wanted to argue with them, but he knew every second he wasted was just another second he could be using to break Lana out of Thoreoux’s orb. He thought it over quickly. All three of them – Jade, Persephone and Cyrus - were exceptional fighters with good technique. He had no choice but to believe they could hold their own.
He wished he could go back and say goodbye to the people he loved as well, but he had no time. He felt a twist in his gut at the thought of never seeing Noah, Gabe or Rozelyn again. But it was better this way, knowing if he told them where he was going, they would want to come too.
“Fine.”
“We weren’t asking your permission,” Cyrus said. “Anyway, they seem to be immune to my driving,” he nudged towards the six men still on the ground, “as Thoreoux seemed to have trained them to prepare themselves against a driver, but they don’t seem immune to you. It took me a few tries but it sounds like the portal to Thoreoux’s place is at the bottom of a lake. The one near the Morrison’s Spot.”
Persephone’s eyes lit up. “I know exactly where that is.” She began running in the direction of the lake, when she stopped, whirled her head around and glared. Breckin followed her eyes to her guard, looking beyond confused. Her stony glare flicked onto Breckin. “Crawford, would you please –”
“You services are no longer required,” Breckin said to the guard, knowing he should have said it weeks ago.
The guard’s mouth fell open. “But, Sir –”
“She’s not a threat. Go. Now.” He wasn’t used to being as domineering as he had been in the last fifteen minutes, but the guard, like Circlet, listened to him. Persephone stared at him, disbelieving, not entirely trusting. “Persephone, I owe you an apology.”
“I forgive you,” she said without smiling. “Now let’s go.”
After Breckin commanded the men to stay where they were and tell Circlet everything she needed to know, the four of them broke into a run heading into the woods. They knew the area so well finding their peacekeeping grounds was a fairly easy task, and once they were there, finding the lake was even easier. Breckin recognized it instantly.
He leaned his head over the edge. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s probably really deep,” Cyrus said. “That’s kind of the whole point in hiding it.”
“Alright well,” Breckin said, crouching down into a diving position. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
With all his strength he dove, feeling his blood vessels constricting as he did so. Even as a strapper, the water was freezing; he could see bits of ice straddling the surface of the lake. Still, his adrenaline and determination made swimming easy enough, and he saw Jade was about at his level. Cyrus and Persephone had a more difficult time, probably thrice as cold as they were, but they didn’t slow.
Sure enough, Breckin finally saw a light at the bottom of the lake. He swam faster, using all his strength to reach the ball, and finally, he was able to grab hold of it. Immediately the water around him disappeared, the world blurring, and eventually landing on dry ground. He was on the top of some hill, and with his legs stiff from the cold water, his knees buckled and he tumbled backward into the woods. A few seconds later the other three did the same, landing on top of him.
“Where do we go now?” Breckin said.
Cyrus didn’t answer, and instead climbed up the hill, poking his head up just enough to see over it. “There are some sentries,” he whispered, “guarding the front. I’m sure they’re expecting you.”
Breckin, Jade, and Persephone followed his lead, raising their heads above the top of the hill so they could see what was going on.
There was a horrible black marble mansion standing in front of them, and Breckin almost felt sorry for Cyrus he had had to live there. Sure enough, there were four sentries – two on either side of the arched entryway – each with a bow and arrow, waiting for him.
“If we attack,” Cyrus said, “we have to make sure not one of them gets away, or they’ll go straight to Thoreoux, and they’ll know we’re here.”
“Maybe you should attack,” Breckin said. “And I’ll go inside and get Lana.”
Cyrus glared at him. “I’m the one who lived here, doesn’t it make more sense I go inside? I know this place. Plus, you’re the best fighter. You attack them.”
“He’s right,” Persephone put in. “It sounds smarter.”
All three of them seemed to be in agreement. If this were any other time, Breckin would have argued, but he had to keep reminding himself they were in a hurry. So, without another word, he got to his feet.
“No, wait! Crawford –!” Cyrus called but he ignored him.
Breckin skidded down the hill and up to the main grounds. “Hey!”
Like robots, the four sentries, in synchronized motion, turned to him at the same time before they began to shoot at him. He glamoured himself invisible and charged. Now that he was prepared, these men were a lot easier to fight than the last batch. Although all four of them were strappers, and they were strong, they hesitated, and Breckin took advantage of it. He had been an obsession with this clan for ages, and they knew he couldn’t die, which was probably what made their movements more hasty and insecure. His speed had always been twice the asset to him his strength was – he thought and acted so quickly a lot of people thought it was instantaneous – and used every second for attack he could.
While he fought, he saw the trio out of the corner of his eye sneaking in through the front unnoticed. A tiny plume of hope burst in his chest.
Chapter 26
Meld
“Do we kill her now, Master?”
The voice came from the right of Thoreoux. It was a dark skinned man significantly older than Thoreoux, and Emmy knew the only person it could be was Rathbone, the right hand man.
“Not yet,” Thoreoux replied, not even looking at him. “I want to do this as respectfully as I can. I don’t like killing little girls.”
“I’m not who you think I am,” Emmy said, knowing how feeble this was. But she was too scared, t
oo tired, too cold. Her brain was fuzzy from the alcohol and numb from the ice water.
Thoreoux smiled at her, and she wished he hadn’t. “Sweetheart, I already know who you are. I am really sorry I have to do this, but I promise it won’t hurt.”
It was the finality in his voice that did it. She understood, the black knowledge starting to spread; she was going to die, never going to see her mother again, or her brother, and her father would get the message in a letter from Alex.
“Cynarra?” Thoreoux called loudly, his voice echoing in the ballroom.
A very tall muscular woman with a dark bob stepped forward from the line. Through the tears beginning to well up, Emmy could see something wrong with the woman’s eyes – they were a milky, pale blue.
“Evangeline, this is Cynarra Moulange,” Thoreoux said, waving at the woman. “She is probably the most talented strapper in the orbs. She is also blind, but I wouldn’t try anything with her – she is more perceptive than any of us are. Cynarra, please take our guest to Cyrus’s old room and prepare her.
“Montesquieu?” Another person stepped forward, this time it was a short, skinny man. “Keeper, I would also like you to meet Quincey Montesquieu. He is my philologist; he was the one that helped me translate the Book of Curses. He is simply a genius with languages. Now, since Clara Crawford has the Keeper’s Curse, wherever she may be, we have no way of reversing it. But Montesquieu has gotten about halfway with the words he was given and can break your bond with the Eldoir.”
Emmy didn’t understand. “W – what?”
“He cannot put the Eldoir’s soul back in his body, but he can at least break your telepathic connection, and any other side effects from the transfer. I can’t have Crawford making you stronger. Not now.
“Both of you go with her. Immediately.”
Cynarra zoomed over to Emmy’s side, gripped her arm, and walked with her out the back entrance. Montesquieu trailed behind. Emmy’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to the paper Montesquieu held in his hand, weird symbols on the top half and a phonetic translation on the bottom. She couldn’t believe how stupid she had been; it hadn’t even occurred to her to contact Breckin until then.
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