Scorched Treachery (14 page)

“I have.”

“What?”
I moved to face Dramin, his words still melting into my crude understanding of what was going on.

“I have seen something like this.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, and he took a quick step away in expectation of my anger.

“Where?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level, the anger and regality seeping out without me wanting it to. “Was it a sight, Dramin, or at some point in your living life?”

He hesitated, and I instantly knew why. Last night he had spoken in his usual guarded way about being needed; it was his reason for consenting to come to the Rioseco Abbey with Joclyn and me. I hadn’t thought twice at the time, how could I? For hundreds of years, guarded words and cryptic answers had been his way. I had no reason to think that would have changed. I felt Thom’s magic surge dangerously as his temper rose.

“You have
vidět this, haven’t you, Dramin?” My voice was level, the regal tone I had tried to keep restrained for most of my life seeping through.

Dramin didn’t answer. He simply extended his hand toward me, his face pained as he gave me permission to use the full extent of his recall.

I placed Joclyn on the cold stone floor of the cave to grab Dramin’s hand and place it against my forehead. My eyes closed to blackness for only a moment before the vision filled me. I could see myself, standing over Joclyn, the stone walls of the Rioseco Abbey clear in the background. Her body was still, limp, and yet I was yelling at her, panic evident on my face and in my voice. I watched as Dramin walked into the room, his face calm for only a moment before he too panicked. Before I could see any more, Dramin removed his hand from my head, the vision leaving with it.

There was no sign of her waking up in the sight, only her limp body and my pain and panic. That sight could be in a week or in five years – I had no way of knowing. I re-ran the vision in my mind as I inspected every aspect: different clothes, my usual shorter haircut, the Rioseco Abbey.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Dramin?” I ran my fingers through my hair, pulling hard on the long uncomfortable strands.

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me what would happen! That something was wrong, something is…” I stopped, not knowing exactly what was going on. I was unable to put my lack of knowledge about what was happening into words. “We could have stopped this.”

“How?” Dramin’s voice was deep and accusatory. I could already hear the regular rebuttal of his kind on his tongue – the lack of knowledge, the inability to interfere with things to come.

“You could have told me,” I said, knowing my reasoning would be lost on him. “I could have stopped her from going into the Tȍuha…”

“How was I to know it was Tȍuha?” Dramin asked his voice raising. Anyone else would have recoiled, but I straightened in front of him, my height and heritage meant to terrify him. He, however, was so used to me he didn’t even move.

“I showed you all that I have seen, Ilyan. There was no way to know…”

“Zastavit,” I said loudly, prickling agitation moved up my body in a ripple. I let it take over for one weighted minute before I released it. Unleashing my temper against Dramin would solve nothing.

“Does she wake?” My voice was a whispered breath.

“Yes.” My head snapped up at Dramin’s answer, hope running through me.

“Then we will wait,” I said, when a small feminine moan behind me pulled all of my focus away from Dramin and back to Joclyn. I spun around, part of me desperate to see her eyes open, her bright smile. But, she was the same. I dropped to my knees, pressing my hands against her arms as my magic flowed into her.

“Ne,” I gasped when I found it. She had a broken bone in her leg. The break was clean and ran right through her tibia, and I was sure she had not had it when we entered the training room.

“What?” Thom had moved up to kneel next to her head, and strangely, the anger in his voice was leaving, concern seeping through in a slow trickle.

“Her leg is broken,” I said, not willing to accept it myself.

“Broken?” Dramin leaned down next to me, his hand moving against her head. I could feel his magic move into her alongside mine, the heavy tendrils of the Drak magic cold against my own. He gasped when he felt it and withdrew his hand, his magic leaving with the loss of contact.

I wrapped the bone in a hard layer of my magic, giving it a strong internal cast to help heal it. I didn’t know how long it would take with her strangely vacant magic unable to do most of the work itself.

“What is he doing to her, Ilyan?” Thom moved away as he spoke, his fear at the power of our father obviously affecting him.

Edmund was torturing her, hurting her, intentionally. He had done the same to me more than a dozen times – every time he had somehow managed to capture me. It was his favorite game, causing pain.

He had tortured and killed mortals in front of me, hoping to break me or drive me mad. The only contact I had ever received from him had been meant to hurt me. Now he was doing the same to Joclyn, the only one my heart called to, the person I would protect with my own life.

Edmund had been hurting her, through Cail, for months in the nightmares, and I had held her as I took away the fears and wiped the anxiety from her mind. I had protected her in a way no one else could until I was able to find a way to make them stop. But now, Edmund had found a way to hurt her, really hurt her, in a place I could not follow.

Or could I?

“I need to get in there.” I stood quickly, ignoring the gasps from the men on either side of me, my focus only on Joclyn’s body.

“What do you mean ‘get in there’?” Thom asked.

“I mean, go into the Tȍuha and get her out. Wake her up.” I squared my shoulders, still unwilling to look away from her.

“Is that even possible? You can’t find the bridge.” Dramin’s voice was quiet.

“I will find it when I join my mind with hers,
nemyslíš?” I clenched my jaw, my mind working in preparation for what I was suggesting.

“This is ridiculous, Ilyan,” Thom pleaded. “’
Jít tam. You would only be stuck in there. Dramin has seen her wake. We just need to wait.”

“Wait?” I scoffed at Thom’s reasoning. A few minutes ago, I had been content to do the same. But I could not stand by while she was being tortured. I couldn’t let that happen to her.

“Two hours there for every twenty minutes here. She has been trapped in that prison for six hours. They have broken her leg and hurt her enough to make her bleed internally. I can’t leave her in there. Who knows what else they have done, or are going to do? I don’t have time to try…”

“I can’t let you do this, My Lord.” I turned at the sound of Dramin’s voice, the desperate plea catching me off guard.

“I don’t know what else to do. You are her brother, Dramin. As her brother, what would you have me do?” I didn’t need him to understand, I could do it on my own. He was one of the first of his kind and Joclyn’s blood.

“He’s her brother…” Thom said just as the thought crossed my mind. I could see what he was thinking, I knew where this was going, and I didn’t like it.

“No, Thom,” I said sternly, hoping to stop the thought in his mind before he found his voice.

“It’s what our father is using to control the nightmares, correct?”

“Yes, but...” I began, but Thom swiftly cut me off. I could feel my spine prickle at the lack of respect, but I ignored it.

“Then it must be what he
is using to control the Tȍuha.” Thom’s face was growing in maniacal intensity. I watched him closely, knowing I would have to put a stop to it soon.

“Using a blood connection is not an option,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“I don’t see why not, Ilyan. It’s what Edmund is using against her. So, we can use the same technique to save her.”

“No, Thom. I won’t let that happen, not ever. It’s wicked, evil. Do you understand?” I spoke deeply. Blood magic was dangerous. The cutting open of hearts and souls to create stronger ties or to strengthen the bonds of what was once a simple magic was inhumane. She had already worn dark magic around her neck for months. I wouldn’t let her be objected to any more, not if I could help it.

I knew Thom wouldn’t understand, he had lived under our father’s rule for centuries, his viewpoint would always be somewhat skewed.

“It’s just a blood connection, Ilyan. It is how Edmund is able to control Joclyn’s dreams. They have Sain, but we have Dramin…”

“No, I will never allow you to cut open my heart or sever my soul in an attempt to save her. This is madness, Thom.” Dramin’s voice was panicked and scared. He knew what was involved in blood magic. There was a reason it was never done; a reason it was so terrible that Edmund had used it against Joclyn, that he had used his own son to perform it.

“It’s the only way,” Thom begged, his energy fading, if only slightly.

“No, Thom. You would mutilate her soul and mine and destroy Ilyan’s heart for only a minimal chance to save her. I can’t let you do that.” Dramin placed his hand on Thom’s arm, but Thom pulled away.

“It is not futile. I have done it before,” I balked at Thom’s words, this fact about Thom disgusting me. To willingly use a blood connection... it was despicable.

“It’s the only way.”

“No.” I spoke hard, my power flowing over him as he sunk away.

His shoulders sagged, my magical barrier freezing his logic in place and allowing his better logic to finally be able to take over. I drew my magic away from him when he had obviously calmed, my jaw clenching that it had come to that in order to control him.

“Then what do we do?” Thom whispered, and I relaxed.

“We wait,” I said, knowing there wasn’t another option. Not anymore.

We looked at each other, each one knowing it was the only option, but none of us willing to say more than that.

I nodded once before moving away from them, my body taking me right to Joclyn’s side without a thought. My fingers ran over the lines of her face as my magic swelled through her, my touch moving over eyes, her cheeks, and across the soft skin before her ear. I lay down next to her, my body pressing up against hers, as it had only an hour before. The warmth from her skin counteracted the chill from the stone and caused my muscles to tense at the differing temperatures.

I pushed my magic into her, confident that I would not hurt her. For the first time in my life, I would not kill someone by filling them with my ability. I felt her magic push against mine, but the strength of it still seemed to be missing. It was still a substance within her, and the substance was healthy and alive, but there was not much more than that.

“Come back to me, Jos,” I whispered to her, hopeful that my voice would flow to her as hers had to me. It wasn’t fair what fate had planned for us – to take us from one hell to another, to tear us away from each other, to tear her away from her mate.

I let my magic settle inside of her for a minute before I moved it toward my target, fusing parts of myself with her
, my magic connecting with nerve endings in an attempt to contact her. I let my finger slide down to connect with her mark, the jolt rocking through me as it always had, every day that I had touched it from the first. Even when she had felt nothing, I had always felt it. I sighed at the sensation and closed my eyes, letting my mind fuse with hers.

I would have yelled at what I found, but I was too scared to see the emptiness of her mind.

There was a reason I could not sense her power, her emotions, or her soul. Nothing was there. Her body was an empty shell. I gasped internally at the emptiness, at the confusion and loss I felt from being inside of her like this and finding her gone.

There should have been memories, dreams, and visions, but I saw nothing but blackness, the velvety color clear and dark.

If she had left to join her mate in some expanse of eternity, would it leave an empty shell behind? I was foolish to think that this would work. That even a blood connection would work. It couldn’t work because there was nothing here to attach to. There was no bridge to bring her back.

Edmund must have attached himself to Ryland before he used the connection. That’s how he gained control. For us, it was too late.

I let my mind linger inside the black realm that Joclyn had left behind, searching for any way to bring her home.