From the Embers (The Born in Flames Trilogy) (19 page)

For a moment, I thought he was going to take my hand in his, but then Fenn placed his hands on my shoulders and started rubbing them, subsiding my worry.

“I guess we should go then,” Adam said as he walked up to the barrier. His hands were already on the hilt of his sword. He took a deep breath and stepped through.

Fenn grabbed my hand, and the three of us walked up to the barrier, careful not to bump into Zordon’s army that paraded through next to us, armed and ready.

“Remember what she said. We probably won’t be invisible on the other side,” Zane mentioned, his voice faltering a smidgen.

“Be ready,” I said, and then we all stepped through.

To say the other side was chaotic would be an understatement. It was unimaginable and indescribable.

Fenn yanked me towards Lexi who was huddled behind what was left of the forest near the cave. One smoldering tree stump.

“We have to get inside the cave,” she shouted over the screams of the innocent men and women being assaulted by Zordon’s army. The Shadows took to the skies, heading north.

The four of us grabbed on to Lexi, and she ported us to the inside of the cave. I must have been holding my breath because it whooshed out of me as soon as my feet touched the cool surface of the damp cavern.

“We have to do something,” I said immediately, my mind racing with doubtful thoughts.

“Yeah, but what? There are only five of us. We are so unprepared,” Adam said, cursing under his breath. “We should’ve told Astral and my father what we were planning. We can’t handle this.”

I chewed on my non-existent nails.

“Oh, hush,” Lexi shot out, waving him off with her hand. “The only way to fix this is to end Zordon, and we can’t deal with that unless Aurora is in the right frame of mind and knows that her family is safe. Would you let your father die without trying?”

“This could be a trap,” Adam countered. “I mean, would he really put this out there, knowing that we have Seers on our side that could relay the message?”

“It doesn’t matter to me if it is a trap or not,” I said, my voice shaking with anger and fear.

“Do you know where he is?” Fenn asked me. His eyes searched mine.

I closed my eyes, searching for Zordon’s darkness that was always there, lurking in the shadows of my soul. He was there, but he was far away. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where.

“I don’t know. He’s here, but I don’t know where. We shouldn’t have left her unprotected,” I admitted, trying to calm my racing heart. What if he was already with Mily? What if he took her from me?

Zane silenced the deafening thoughts. “What about your Oraculus?” he asked. He was squatting on the cavern floor, whittling another piece of wood in a hurried fashion. It had become a nervous habit.

I shook my head. “It won’t work. The pull isn’t there anymore. I think it went away when he obtained his.”

Fenn started pacing. “We should take it from him.”

“We will be lucky enough if we can get his blood, Fenn,” I said low enough for only us to hear. “Can you stop pacing? You’re making me even more nervous.”

He paused for a second. “We need to find Mily,” Fenn said, slowing his pace. The panic in his voice rose.

My mind scrambled with multiple possibilities. “Do you think she is still in California?”

“She has to be,” Fenn said, finally standing still.

Lexi looked at both of us for a moment, contemplating, and then shut her eyes. A heavenly white glow surrounded her body like a halo. She was pristinely beautiful, like Iliana.

Her eyes opened. “She is in California. Zordon is close by,” she said, terror replacing her cool composure. She wavered for a moment from the pull of power.

“We have to go now!” Fenn said, keeping me steady with my hand in his. I could feel his hand shaking. Zane was up and ready, his carving disappearing into a wisp of smoke.

“Take my hand,” Lexi said, extending her arms towards me.

“You sure?” I asked, worried about her use of energy.

She nodded so we all linked up. Without a second thought, we were transported. I just hoped that we made it in time. That taking Pyre Island out wasn’t coming back to bite us full force.

Chapter 17

We Meet Again

WHEN WE ARRIVED, MILY WAS on her back on the floor in the middle of a living room, blood draining from her ears and mouth.

In a heartbeat, I was by her side, rolling her over to face me. “Mily? Mily, wake up!” I said, shaking her shoulders. Dust snowed around us, tickling my nose. The roof was gone. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t be dead.

Liquid dread spread through to my limbs, leaving my hands shaking and what was left of my mental clarity crippled. Fenn fell to his knees on the other side of Mily in a state of shock.

I looked up at him, my mouth forming words despite the broken shambles of my mind. “The triplets,” I said, my voice surprisingly calm. He was on his feet and down the hall in the blink of an eye.

Lexi came up behind me and gently rested her hand on Mily’s chest. “She’s alive,” she said. She looked up at Zane and Adam who stood watching us, horror on their faces. “Go help Fenn,” she commanded.

I put my face next to Mily’s, trying to contain the tears that burned in my throat. “Mily?” She stirred, but her eyes remained shut.

I stood, scanning the room for any signs of Zordon’s whereabouts.
What had he done to her? Where was he?

“He hasn’t been here yet,” Lexi said. She was right. I couldn’t feel the taint that he always left behind. She had been attacked by something else.

Adam and Zane came around the corner looking frazzled. Catching the end of our conversation, Adam asked, “If he hasn’t been here, then how?”

Zane was all business. “Don’t worry about that. Take Mily back to the other realm before he gets here,” he instructed, bending down to pick Mily up. He carefully placed her in Adam’s arms. Adam exhaled sharply, adjusting his stance to better hold her.

Fenn came running back down the hall. “I can’t find them,” he shrieked, his eyes wild with fear.

“What do you mean?” I asked. His words didn’t register. They had to be here. Where else would they be?

“I can’t find them, Aurora. The other half of this house is completely caved in.” His ring was glowing brighter than ever.

The sound of a house being plowed through assaulted our ears, and we all dropped to the floor. Debris flew all around us, coating us in dust. I rolled over and looked up through the space that had once been a roof. A Cyclops. He had a huge chain with a ball at the end, swinging it through the row of houses next to ours.

My dragon Foresight told me that the chain would strike Mily’s house next. “We need to get out now,” I said calmly and quietly, trying not to rouse the Cyclops’ attention.

But then he turned to cross the street. A small sigh of relief rushed out, but I was left confused. My dragon Foresight had never been wrong before.

I shook my head. There wasn’t any time to worry about that right now.

Fenn crawled over to Adam and took Mily from him. During the exchange, Adam accidentally kicked the top of a coffee table that was lying on its side. I watched in horror as the legs of the table crashed into an old wooden grandfather clock.

At the sound, the Cyclops stopped mid-step, hurling his massive ball and chain behind him. We scrambled to our feet. One giant, brutal step in our direction, and the chain lifted fluidly into the air.

“Lexi!” I shouted in horror, watching Fenn crouch over Mily with his eyes squeezed tight.

Suddenly, the room filled with blinding white light. Lexi was spinning like she had in front of the Orient Lyceum on the day we returned. I watched her spin until the hands on the grandfather clock stopped. Time had stopped.

No one was moving except Lexi and me. I dared to look up. The heavy metal ball was inches away from us. “Grab them,” she said to me, nodding towards Adam, Zane, Fenn, and Mily. “I am going to port us out.” Her spinning had subsided, but her light was still blinding. Like The Fates.

I held on to the other four, and then Lexi touched the top of my head. I looked around. Time had resumed, but Lexi had only moved us across the street. The massive fist of the Cyclops slammed into the house next to Mily’s.

Concrete pieces and shards of glass rained down all around us. We clambered to cover ourselves from the downpour of debris. I felt the blunt force of a large piece of concrete falling on my back, knocking the breath out of me. My hands slipped out from under me, and my face smacked into the dirt.

Fenn reached out to me, wincing as the hot sting of glass sliced through his skin. I watched as he healed only a moment later.

“Lexi, we have to get out of here,” I yelled, watching the last remaining bits of Mily’s house shattering into millions of pieces. The Cyclops continued down the street, taking any hope of finding the triplets with him, swinging his chain through every house along the way.

Lexi was on her hands and knees, dry heaving. I rushed to her side, pulling her hair back. “I’m running low,” she said in between gags.

“The triplets,” Fenn said, falling to his knees and laying Mily on the ground. She stirred, her eyes fluttering open. A hot sting of tears blurred my vision. I quickly wiped them away and looked back down at Mily who watched me, clearly confused.

“Anela?” her hoarse voice croaked.

I left Lexi’s side and tucked a fallen strand of hair behind Mily’s ear. “Hi,” I said dumbly. How could I tell her that we had lost the triplets?

Fenn’s icy cold hand touched my shoulder. “Are you okay, Mily?” he asked, his voice straining to sound normal. She could see right through him.

“Where are the triplets?”

He looked away. And in that one moment, the innocence of our childhood that we had left behind, the last remaining bits of our simple happiness, was forever taken.

Mily’s sobs were enough to rip my heart out. Everything seemed to speed up and slow down at the same time. I couldn’t keep up. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

The next thing I felt was Lexi’s hands on my shoulders as my dulled reality slowly came back to life. She was shaking me, hard. “GET UP!” she shouted, her voice finally penetrating through the wall of pain. All at once, my senses kicked into gear. A flash of Zordon’s face crossed through my mind. He was here.

“Fenn!” I shouted. He was already on his feet, moving Mily out of harm’s way…if that were even possible. Zane and Adam came to either side of me, weapons in their hands. Lexi helped Fenn by weaving a portal they both disappeared into.

“Game plan?” Zane asked.

“We need to immobilize him to give us enough time to get away. We aren’t prepared for this.” It sickened me to say it, but it was the truth.

A slight smile appeared across Zane’s lips. “My pleasure.”

I felt him before I saw him. And then he was there, standing directly across the street from us. A row of five Warlocks were on his right, their imps jumping to and fro next to them, licking their wicked little lips. Five Necromancers stood on his left, each with two freshly risen corpses at their command.

I pulled the daggers from around my waist, dropping into a fighting stance.
Bring it,
I thought to myself, thinking of the triplets and all the other countless lives stolen by the hand of this cruel man.

Zordon’s hood was down, but his smile was obvious and gleaming in my direction. He had planned this all along. It was a trap.

I sensed his magic a moment before he threw it at us and jumped sideways, shoving Zane and Adam out of harm’s way. Zane caught my fall. He rolled me over and jumped up, shouting, “Nebulum!” A dark fog wove up and around the three of us, blinding Zordon.

“Attack!” Zordon yelled, his voice a guttural roar. Through the fog, I saw the cords of his neck straining with force. Footsteps sounded around us as his men rushed in our direction.

“We have to move,” Zane yelled.

My mind was a mess of thoughts, all bent from the desperate need for revenge and the dire need to survive. The line blurred between which was more important.

“Come on!” Zane shouted. He grabbed the back of my armor, hauling me up. I scrambled to my feet, running for cover towards the nearest house. If we could make it, we could port and possibly have enough time to cover our port trail.

Evil laughter filled the air as spells thrown from the Warlocks struck the house we ran towards. It happened too fast for any of us to counter. Too fast for my Foresight to register.

A second later, we flew backwards just as the house exploded in front of us. I slammed into the ground and rolled, grass filling my mouth. My head pounded from the impact. I blinked a few times, trying to make sense of my surroundings.

Lexi appeared alone in the front yard, walking away from us, straight for Zordon.

“Lex!” I shouted, jumping to my feet. I stumbled as I ran to her. I wrapped my hand around my amulet, pulling on it to heal me, and grabbed her arm. She yanked it free.

“Fenn took Mily back to the rift. He’ll be back any second.” She paused, seeming to struggle with her next words. “I have my father to deal with.”

Vengeance spilled from her tone. The fierceness in her eyes and in her stride was unlike any I had ever seen in her before. But this could be our only chance at escaping. We needed the Priests’ elixir before we could do anything else. She disappeared out of the fog.

Fenn came through Lexi’s portal and immediately found Adam. “Go back to your father. Tell him we are in need of assistance. Bring Astral.” Adam nodded and disappeared.

Fenn dusted off his hands. “She’s safe in the cave,” he told me, looking straight ahead.

Zane’s fog was dying down. It was time to do this. Zane followed behind Lexi, then Fenn and me. We were a united force, ready to fight back.

When the fog cleared, Zordon was standing there, his obsidian scales reflecting the smoke that billowed around him from the destruction of his army. Murder raged in his eyes.

He sent out his Warlocks first, pinning his eyes on me. The five Warlocks smiled with pleasure as they stepped off the curb and headed in our direction.

Lexi was the first to strike. Her glowing hand rose in a sparkling arc and then slammed into the ground, sending a wave of blinding light in their direction.

As soon as the light hit them, their imps disappeared in flames. The Warlocks dropped to their knees, clawing at their bleeding eyes.

We didn’t hesitate. Lexi grabbed one by the neck and twisted, letting the Warlock’s body fall with a satisfying thud. She moved forward while the three of us easily took out the rest of the Warlocks with our daggers.

The Necromancers had already been sent forward when we dropped the last body.

“I am here, Little Flame,”
Astral said in my mind. I sensed him behind me and relaxed a little knowing that help was here.
“Kaede is stringing together men as we speak. He sent someone for Mily.”

The Necromancers unleashed their pets. Ten lifeless bodies stalked towards us. Lexi tried for another fist to the ground but was stopped by one of the Necromancers who had been watching her.

While we had all focused on the corpses, he aimed his toxic green magic straight for her. She crippled over, her light sputtering in and out.

Mage magic didn’t work on Necromancers. Apparently neither did Celestial. I leapt into the air, knowing physical combat would be our only chance. Astral chanted behind us, the light from his eyes fixated on the Necromancer holding Lexi down. The moment she was let up, I swooped over and covered him in fire before kicking him towards the rest of the Necromancers.

Two jumped back in time, but the other two caught his flailing body, and the contagious fire covered them. Fenn signaled me as he and Zane ran for the three burning Necromancers. I commanded the fire to stop right as their daggers plunged into the hearts of the offenders.

Lexi set straight out for Zordon, leaving Astral and the rest to deal with the Necros. I had to get to him before she did. With regret, I left Zane, Fenn, and Astral fighting the remaining two Necromancers, and followed after Lexi down the street.

Zordon stalked towards the two of us, his wings flexing with power. Large claws on the end of each wing tip protruded, their sharp points threatening to spill blood. His black eyes stared me down. “Are you children ready to play now?”

“Who said anything about playing,
Father
,” Lexi quipped. She crouched into a feral position, ready to pounce. I moved forward and stood next to her. She wasn’t going to do this alone.

He cocked his head to the side, his eyes moving between the two of us. “You have your mother’s spunk,” he said mockingly. His eyes flashed over to mine. “And you are getting on my last nerve.”

Zane appeared in front of us. “Pulsecto!” he shouted, sending his red energy towards his father. Keeping his eyes on me, Zordon’s hand lazily lifted, deflecting the spell. The energy fizzled out with a pop.

He turned to Zane, resentment contorting his dragon-like features. “Such a weak spell. Is that all you have, Son?”