Eyes of Ember (Imdalind Series #2) (15 page)

We were all shadows in a dream world. None of this was real.
I repeated the fact to myself, trying to stop the heavy waves of emotions from overwhelming me. I felt my lungs reaching for breath and my heart’s irregular beat speed up. I couldn’t look away from him, his bright blue eyes still burned into my mind.

“Oh and one more thing
,” Cail said from behind me, “if you don’t come in one month, you can give up hope of ever seeing Wyn again too. I will finish what I didn’t before.” He sliced his finger across his neck, his lips curled in a wicked sneer.

“You’ll never find her.” I tried to sound strong, but I knew the panic had seeped into my voice.

“Like I never found you?
Ryland’s bond with you was so weak we could barely track you across one little city. And if we were already in the city, what does that say about how safe you are? With or without Ryland, we can find you anywhere, Joclyn. It’s all about who you know.”

“Who do you know?
” My voice echoed around the otherwise empty clearing. Cail only laughed.

“Really? You think I am going to give away information
just because you ask? Tsk, tsk, that’s not how it works, missy.”

My magic surged uncomfortably
under my skin thanks to the raw anger that coursed through me. I didn’t second guess myself, I pulled the power together and shot it at him in a stream of fire, powerful enough to do some real damage. Shock crossed Cail’s face for a second before the attack hit him square in the chest.

Cail looked at the spot
on his chest before he began to laugh, long and deep. “Oh, Edmund’s going to be sad he missed this.”

I clenched my
teeth and raised my hands, ready to fire something at him again.

“Now you are going to fight me?” Cail said,
“Sure why not! After all, magic doesn’t work here the way you are thinking, you can’t hurt a shadow.”

I felt the blood leave my face and I looked at my hands.

“No,” I said, dropping my hands to my sides.

“Yes.” He pulled up his face into a half smile and I shied away from the wicked look.

“No!” I moved my hands behind me, making it obvious I wasn’t going to fight him anymore.

“You’re no fun
,” Cail pouted. “Kill her. I will tell my master it is done.”

I didn’t have time to register what he had said before I felt the blade plunge into my back. I could
feel the cold metal separate my flesh and grind against bones as it moved deeper and deeper into me, the pain only a moment behind. I screamed in agony as my body fell on top of Ryland’s lifeless corpse.

The pain lasted until I woke up in a panic,
my terrified screams bouncing around our tiny space.

Ilyan
’s arms were already wrapping around me, his hand moving to cover my mouth. I didn’t hear his comforting sounds, his song. I screamed into his hand, his warm skin muffling the sound.

I couldn’t calm down
. I couldn’t shake the feeling of the dream. My mind kept replaying what Edmund had done, what Cail had said, and the feeling of Ryland’s lifeless body.

Eventually, m
y screams died down, but my cries remained. Howls of despair broke from my chest as my breathing caught and shuddered. Ilyan held on until my sobs had stopped, his song finally seeping into my mind as he sang it over and over.

“
It’s okay, Joclyn. I’m here. The dream is gone.” Ilyan’s hand ran over my back, the touch triggering something in me. I pulled away from him in fear, wiping away the last of my tears. I looked beyond him to the large scorch mark in the wall and my insides turned to ice.

“They’re not dreams,” I gasped through the
remnants of my sobs. “They are something far worse.”

Fourteen

Ilya
n
pried the memory of the dream out of my head and replayed it twice before I made him stop. I couldn’t stand to see it anymore. I felt like my heart had been ripped open and filleted in front of me. Reliving every emotion, with Ilyan to see, we felt every pain, saw all of my reactions. In the end I had pulled his hand away and begged him to stop before collapsing on the bed, my head aching from the extended digging.

The exertion from the dream mixed with Ilyan’s brain
foraging had left me exhausted. I stared as Ilyan fidgeted in the small space, mumbling in Czech, his face twisted in anger and fear. I couldn’t even find it in me to ask what was going on. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know anyway. His reaction had made one thing very clear, Ryland remembered me, and I had one month to save him.

“Ilyan,” I spoke quietly hoping he would hear me, but he kept
speaking to himself.

“Ilyan!” He stopped in his tracks and looked toward me, his long hair swirling to lay against his face. He fixed me with a stare that scared me
. Not because I was scared of him, but because
he
was scared.

“How is...” I stopped, I didn’t want to know. “How do I keep them out of my dreams?”

“I’m not sure you can
. I am not even sure how they are doing it. The only thing I can think of is that they are using Ryland somehow, but how...” he faded off, and I looked down to my feet. Great, my connection with Ryland was causing more misery. Everything felt numb inside of me, frozen in place, as my mind processed what was being said. I loved Ryland. I loved the person Ryland used to be. The way he held me, sheltered me, protected me. But now when I thought of him, there was fear. I had yet to see the positive side to our bonding.

My pity
party was cut short by Ilyan’s finger dragging along the chain around my neck. I looked up, unsurprised to see him kneeling right in front of me.

“I need you to go to Ryland
. See if the boy will tell you anything. If something is happening, he should know something about it.”

“But what if he doesn’t tell me?
What if he pushes me out like last time?”

Ilyan gathered my hands in his, his look sympathetic. I fought the urge to
pull away.

“I need you to try, Silnỳ.” I hesitated before nodding in agreement.

“Will you call Wyn while I am gone? Make sure she is okay? Tell her I will call her in a few hours.” I pulled the chain out from under my shirt, letting the ruby settle on my palm.

“Of course. Tell Ryland
his brother says hello.” Ilyan smiled but it was strained. I nodded my head once and settled back down into the bed before closing my eyes and walking into the Tȍuha.

I opened my eyes to the kitchen
of the LaRues’ estate and gasped. It was the same kitchen my Mother worked in, the one I had first met Ryland in, except very little was recognizable about it. Yesterday’s deteriorating expanse had been replaced by the kitchen, but the same rot had taken over the once familiar space. The counters were dark and slimy looking. The sink was filled with dirty dishes and molding food, and chunks of marble flooring were missing. The once pristine cabinet fronts were burnt, or rotting, or worse – many were covered in molding food and hanging off of their hinges. I jumped at the large rat that I glimpsed running from one food container to another.

I wanted to scream
. This felt like a trick, a cruel joke, being stuck in the place where everything started. A place that reminded me so much of my Mother.

No one was in the kitchen,
and I didn’t hear any sounds. I looked hopelessly toward the door that would eventually lead me to Ryland’s room. The front was grey and seemed to be covered by what I could only explain as rotting marshmallow. I took a step and stopped, hating how everything affected me. Without thinking, I turned toward the black door, the door that would make me wake up. Everything thumped inside of me, begging me to run through it. I squared my shoulders and ignored my fears; I needed to find out what was going on.

I had been told that Ryland remembered
me. I just needed the boy to remember me too. I needed him to tell me what was going on. I walked across the kitchen and swung the marshmallow covered door open wide to reveal the little five year old boy I had grown to love on the other side. The hallway behind him was just as deteriorated and neglected as the space I stood in.

He looked up at me with
dark blue eyes and a hard set jaw. I had never seen any child look so angry.

“
You can’t have him.” He said, stronger than I would have expected him to.

“Have who?”

“Your friend. The one you are looking for. The man told me you knew he was here, but you can’t have him. I won’t let you.”

“My friend,” I couldn’t ignore the overdrive
my heart was experiencing right now. “He’s here?”

“You can’t have him,” Ryland spat, his little voice laced with hate.

“Why... why not? Ryland, you have to tell me...” I kneeled down to get close to him and froze, hate and anger the only emotions that looked back at me.

“You can’t have him. If I give him to you, then I die.” His eyes grew wide when he said the
last word. It looked more like he enjoyed it than he was scared of it.

“Who told you that?”

“The man.”

“What man?”
My nerves jumped once, something inside triggering me to run.

“The man with the black eyes. He told me you wanted me dead
. That’s why you want your friend. Because you hate me.”

“I don’t hate...”

“LIAR!” His yell rocked the air and I lost my balance, and toppled backward into the kitchen. “You hate me. And I hate you too.”

Ryland took one step forward and looked down at me. I cringed away from him, seeing what he was planning a second before he did it. His little
hand made contact with my cheek, his hit hard against my skin. I closed my eyes and turned away from him, knowing instantly that Ryland had pushed me out of our Tȍuha.

I opened
my eyes to dim light seeping through the blackout curtain that covered the tiny window. I could tell I had only been gone a matter of minutes because the light hadn’t changed. I could feel Ilyan’s weight on the bed and heard him talking on the phone.

“Tell no one where we
are, Talon. You cannot tell Wyn or Ovailia. This information is for you alone.”

I
twisted on the bed to face Ilyan who sat with his back to me. He turned at my movement, his expression dropping to see me awake. I am sure my face told the story of what had happened because Ilyan’s expression only dropped further.

“We will be here a week
. Then we will be moving.” Ilyan’s eyes dug into me as he silently asked me what had happened. “I will tell you our next location when we get there, Talon. The less information you have the better.”

Ilyan reached out with his free hand and moved
some hair that had fallen over my face, his hand resting against my cheek for a moment before he turned back to his phone call.

“I don’t care how much damage she causes, she is officially out of the loop, Talon.
She cannot be Ochrana on this. Call me if you find anything out. I don’t care what time it is, just let me know.”

Talon spoke for a few minutes before
Ilyan clicked the phone shut and turned to face me. I stared at him. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say.

“How bad was it?” he asked,
softly.

“Bad.” I pushed myself to sitting, cursing this tiny space
and wishing I could escape it. I looked away from Ilyan before I began to explain it to him, not trusting myself enough to look at him.

B
y the end of it, Ilyan had frozen in place. I could feel the waves of his energy ripple around the room, the kinetic anger of it scaring me.

“
First my dreams, and now the Tȍuha? I’m not… I’m not safe anywhere. How am I supposed to save Ryland and be of any use to anyone if I am a danger to them? How is he doing it, Ilyan?”

“I don’t think the question is how, I think the question is with who.”

“Who?” I asked. I didn’t like how he had phrased that. “What do you mean?”

“Ryland has made it quite clear he would rather die than hurt you, so I don’t see him letting them use the connection much. Cail made that clear in the dream
. He believes Ryland’s bond is weak, but I have seen how strong it still is. Ryland is masking it somehow on his end, which means they would need a blood connection to increase its strength.”

Ilyan paced as he spoke, his jittery
movements making me feel more on edge then I already was.

“What do you mean, ‘a blood connection’?” My stomach flipped
. I was not sure I wanted to know exactly what this could mean. Visions of severed hands filled my mind and I cringed.

“You’re an only child
, right?”

“Yes,” I said, my eyebrows rising in confusion.

“And you are sure your Mother is dead?”

My insides
froze at his question; I brushed away the pit of loss before answering him.

“She was crushed by a refrigerator and didn’t flinch, Ilyan. I am sure she is gone.” Ilyan sat down next to me on the
bed, his hand reaching to rest on my knee. I reluctantly looked at him, knowing he would wait until I acknowledged him to continue. His eyes were apologetic, but not for what he had said, it was also for what was to come. My insides seized.

“What?”

“They have your Father.” I narrowed my eyes at Ilyan, waiting for something worse, but there was nothing. My Father. The man had barely been part of my life.

“My F
ather? But how…” I stopped and exhaled, trying to find the right words to fit my confusion. “He disappeared before they even knew about my mark. How could they have him?”

“I am afraid they have him for a completely different reason, Joclyn.
How they found out he was your Father, I have no idea. I worried about what had happened after he disappeared, but I never imagined…”

“What
are you talking about?” I interrupted his rambling. “What would Edmund want with my dad?” Ilyan’s eyes locked with mine for a moment before looking away, his hand moving to drag through his hair. I reached out instinctively and grabbed his wrist, stopping him before he avoided me.

“No, Ilyan. You have to tell me now. I don’t care if you don’t tell me everything, bu
t you have to tell me about my Dad. You have to tell me this.”

The pause between us was deafening
. It dragged on and on as Ilyan looked deep into me. The blue of his eyes was shocking. I could see each fleck of gold move as he contemplated what to tell me. I kept my hand firm on his wrist, my resolve strengthening. I knew I wouldn’t want to hear what was to come, but I needed to.

“Please, Ilyan.”
I was surprised when my voice broke. Ilyan nodded once before turning away from me, his phone moving to his ear. He hadn’t even dialed. I saw the screen flick white as a call was connected, the system being overridden by Ilyan’s magic.