Dawn of Ash (47 page)

Then the pile itself began to disband, one body after another rising from the dead, their heads lolling to the side as legs jerked and twitched below them, pulling them forward. Pulling them toward us.

“Beautiful,” Sain whispered without even looking away from where we stood, our focus glued to what was happening. “It’s something Edmund never mastered, no matter how hard he tried. Him and all those beating hearts he devoured … He never understood the full depth of that magic. Keep the magic alive and you can use it. You can mold it into whatever you want.”

I could feel Ilyan shake in fear beside me, his thoughts moving into overdrive as he tried to understand what he was seeing, tried to understand what was happening, tried to understand how this was possible.

Magic this powerful shouldn’t be possible.
It was a desperate hope that was destroyed by the gleam in Sain’s eye. The way he looked at us made it clear magic this powerful
was
possible. Magic this powerful was in him.

And if it was in him, then it was in me, as well.

Don’t forget that, Joclyn. You must defeat him.

I will.

“Go get ‘em, boys,” he sneered as he stepped toward me, his magic sparking as it pushed Ryland and Ilyan away from me, their bodies soaring through the air as he separated us.

My shout was loud as I reached for Ilyan, realizing too late that, no matter how hard my magic tried to reach him, I couldn’t. A wall lay between us, keeping me from him and him from me.

I could hear their screams and feel Ilyan’s fear, but my magic couldn’t reach him. I couldn’t pull him back to me.

Sain looked at me as the world around us shimmered, a dome covering our two bodies, keeping us in and them out, trapping me with a man intent on killing me.

Swallowing in pure feral fear, I looked at my father, the warning of his smile increasing as his eyes dipped to black.

Ilyan and Ryland’s shouts rebounded around us, distorted, as if they had come from a tin can. I might as well have been trapped in a glass tank.

Joclyn,
Ilyan yelled through my mind, his thoughts making it apparent he was still trying to find a way back to me. I could see him run around the perimeter. I could see him bang on the wall as magic sparked from his fingers, but I knew it was no use. Besides, a different enemy had already reached him.

My focus darted to his as he fought the disjointed corpses in front of him, his hand pressing against the invisible wall before he turned away. His magic coursed through me, his fear and worry traveling right along with it.

“Ilyan…”

I am here, mi lasko,
he whispered with dread, the words filling me as I turned back to my father, his face still blank, his eyes still black.

“How sweet. I certainly hope you get to see each other again,” he mocked, his head twisting to the side. “Now, let’s see if you are as powerful as the sight predicted you to be.”

He gave me no warning before he attacked. Violent spells streamed toward me one after another, his body moving fast while he continued to look at me with black eyes, his hands barely moving as he fought me.

I moved without question, dodging, countering, my hands flailing as I tried to deter him, but the powerful forces kept coming. In the end, I just threw up both hands, a wall flying from me in a desperate attempt to do away with his endless onslaught.

It was something I already knew would not help.

“
There is one among us who seeks to change the magic
.” His voice growled through the colorful smoke that surrounded us, his words swirling in darkness as the prophecy that had been embedded into my mind was repeated, the verses sounding even darker as they were spoken by the one I now realized they were referring to. “
Someone who seeks to kill the magic. He seeks to kill the magic for his own personal gain. We see him as he fights, as he sheds the blood of us, as he sheds the blood of others. We see him as he stops the reign of magic, as he stops the time of ours
.”

He smiled, an attack flying toward me as the smoke fell to the ground, the lingering smell of sulfur and death strong in my nose. “Do you see now, child? Do you see what is to happen?”

“It was your sight, Father. That first sight, the one that showed everything: about me, about Ilyan.
She is the most powerful. She will be The Silnỳ, the one who protects us all
,” I snapped as I attacked him again.

His eyes widened as the violent stream of magic narrowly missed him, fear glossing over his eyes for just a moment before the smile returned, the glare enough to make anyone flinch. I stood still.

“Do you doubt it now?”

His eyes snapped back to black, digging into me as he smiled.

A ribbon of yellow flew toward me, and I swung out of the way, only to be hit by a jolt of attack, a powerful wave jerking through my spine, freezing me in place.

“I doubt nothing that is based in truth,” he mused as he stepped toward me, his magic still riddling through me, freezing and burning in a confusing agony I couldn’t shake. “Sight, however, is not based on such ridiculous atrocities.” With one more step, he fired again, another attack, the same as the last surging through my body as I screamed.

Ilyan’s yell of fear echoed in my head as he tried again to break through the barrier, tried to reach me in order to kill Sain, to protect me. But the barrier didn’t so much as budge, no matter what attack Ilyan threw at it.

The sound of Sain’s laugh ripped through me as his eyes faded from black to green. “You say your power is free, Joclyn, and I can feel that. Yet you do not use it. You are going to make your death the easiest one yet.” He sighed, his magic leaving me as I fell to the ground in a gasping heap.

Ilyan’s shout continued to rip through me, his worry filling my mind.

“I guess I shouldn’t complain,” he continued. “Once you are gone, everything else will fall into place. You are the last thorn in my side.”

Fight him, Joclyn.
Ilyan’s voice filled me as I looked up at my father, looked up at that sly smile, the hatred I felt for him flowing, Ilyan’s magic swelling in me as I pushed myself to standing, my jaw tight as I faced him.

“I knew you weren’t worthy of the magic the mud gave you. No one is. No one but me.” His eyes faded to black as he moved, the attacks coming again in a torrent that, no matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to break free from.

Ilyan’s thoughts plunged through me as I fought, his centuries of expertise infecting me, training me as I moved. Still, no matter what I learned, no matter what I did, it was useless.

Everything I fired at him was deflected without so much as a thought.

“Pathetic,” he barked, his magic shooting right to where I was about to dodge, hitting against a small pile of trash and sending it into flames, as though he knew where I was going to go.
Because he does
, I realized with a start.

I did, too. After all, I had seen this before. I had done this before. I had watched the world move in a wave of sight and reality. I had battled Wyn, seeing her move before she did it.

Knowing what to do.

Just as I knew now.

With one blink, my eyes plunged to the black of sight, my magic swelling as the vision overlaid reality in a seamless prophecy.

Sain moved from point A to point B moments before he actually did, and this time, I was ready—my magic was ready.

With one surge, I attacked. With one surge, I hit him.

“Wonderful,” Sain crowed the moment I glanced at him, my heart thundering in my chest while the reality of what was about to happen increased. “Don’t hold back now. I want to feel justified when I kill you.”

“If I let you.” I attacked as he did, streams of color and magic, walls of fire and smoke. Everything shifted and shuddered around the dome he had trapped us in, the magic moving so fast I was amazed I was able to keep up, my magic and mind both in the present and future in perfect harmony. Everything worked seamlessly.

The shadows of two realities were moving one right after another, my magic moving to mimic what he was doing, what he was going to do, just as he did to me.

He stuttered effortlessly from inside the dome, his body disappearing and reappearing so fast that, if I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed it. Instead, I turned, deflecting his attack as he moved back to where he had started, his grin wide.

“Good,” he sneered. “Perhaps you do have the ability, after all. But it takes more than seeing to know what to do.” His smile spread for the briefest of moments before his attacks began again, the complicated motions increasing as Ilyan’s screams of fear and pain moved through my mind, mine moving to join his.

Desperately, I turned toward Ilyan’s shout, toward his pain in a need to help him. That one move, one misstep, caused me to miss Sain’s attack as it moved into me.

A burn plunged through my body like water on ice. I gasped at the sensation, turning to him as I stumbled back, my attack moving toward him in a pathetic attempt to counter.

He only laughed as he side-stepped, another attack moving toward me as a shadow of myself appeared behind him. I watched the movement of my future self, not sure I had the strength, but I followed unquestioningly and stuttered from one point to another, appearing behind him as I had in sight. Jerking my hand forward to attack, he turned, an attack of his own moving right into my gut. His magic flared as he, too, stuttered. This time, he moved away from me, leaving me standing, heaving as my magic tried to dispel the pain.

As my magic began to fade.

“Joclyn!” Ilyan screamed. His magic moved through me in vain as his own pain filled me, the sounds of magic attacking the barrier rumbling around us.

“Oh no,” Sain tsked, the sound reverberating as I watched him through watering eyes. “You were doing so well, too. You just forgot one thing: sight is a guide, not a road map. In fact, didn’t you say that a few minutes ago?”

Without warning, he attacked again, magic slamming into me and throwing me into the air and against his barrier. I tried to fight the hold, to fight his magic, but his attack still raged through me, everything weak and sore as he easily took control.

Sliding down the firm surface like an egg against linoleum, I cringed, still trying to fight before I crumbled against the ground.

“Don’t trust it,” Sain growled as he walked toward me.

“Joclyn!” The sound of Ilyan’s fist against the barrier became a loud, hollow pressure inside my head.

I knew I was done for. Judging by Sain’s smile, he knew it, too. He wasn’t going to hold back.

I could hear Ilyan and Ryland as they fought in vain, their mad attempt to defeat an undead foe ending at nothing.

We were cornered.

Squaring my shoulders, I stared at my father, trying to pull through his attack to gain enough power to attack just once. I wasn’t going down without a fight.

It couldn’t end like this.

It wasn’t supposed to.

“What?” Sain sneered, his magic pushing against me. “Aren’t you going to beg?”

“Girls don’t beg.” The voice came from behind me, loud, angry, and stronger than I was certain anyone else could manage at the moment. “We kick ass.”

As though someone had opened up a flamethrower inches from my face, Wyn’s magic erupted from beside me, breaking through the barrier like a needle to a balloon. The translucent prison fell away as fire exploded inches from Sain’s feet, the flames licking around his ankles in what was obviously meant as warning.

Sain’s eyes widened at the sudden change, his demeanor shifting. For a moment, I swore I saw the sniveling father I had known for the last few months—a rat cornered by a cat.

“But you can beg if you’d like,” Wyn said as she came up beside me, her hand still raised before her, the powerful heat of her magic emanating around her like a space heater. “Not that it would do any good. For you, Sain, I would show you what my magic can really do.”

Like someone had turned on a switch, Sain straightened, the weakness in his face leaving, though his eyes continued to dart around in fear.

“You should be dead, Wynifred! I saw you die,” he snapped, his voice harsh and loud before he vanished into a stutter, leaving us staring at an empty street, at the hoard of corpses surrounding Ilyan and Ryland.

“Ilyan!” I screamed the moment Sain was gone, the moment the barrier had left, my mind registering what he was facing and the danger we had all been left in.

Without a word, Wyn and I ran, ready to join the impossible battle, ready to get them out of what they had been surrounded by and make our escape.

However, before we could make it more than a few steps, the bodies around them collapsed like dominoes to the ground with thuds, the lights that had engulfed the street extinguished right along with them, leaving us standing in a dark so pitch I could see nothing but black.

Standing in the dark, I listened, my magic stretching from me as I searched for who was here, for Sain.

With a spark of magic, I let my power flare, an orb of golden light floating above my hand, everyone around me following to do the same. Blue, orange, and grey, they blazed, leaving us standing in an arena of strangely mutated light, bodies still littered around us.

“Where is Sain?” Ilyan rumbled as I ran into his arms, my magic connecting with his as his did with mine, both of us feverishly searching for injuries. Luckily, there was nothing other than a deep cut along his cheek. Although his body was covered with dirt and blood, I could tell none of it was his. “Where did he go?” His voice was broken by the desperate gasps of air he was still attempting to take.

“Stuttered,” Wyn announced, her voice far too light considering the situation we were in. “Didn’t seem too happy to see me. Although, I can’t figure out why you three took off without me.”

“You are still on probation.” Ilyan’s voice was positively acidic now, his hands dropping from me as he took a step toward the woman in question.

Her eyebrows were already attempting to disappear into her hairline. “What am I, twelve? And besides, since when has that stopped me?” she asked, her tone rising as her own temper did.