Chapter 24 Zadyn
ZADYN
This better work.
I mean it should, but then again, I don’t think a single one of us has ever attempted to burn off magical shackles.
There’s a massive pit in my stomach as we make the preparations. The heat of the fire mixes with the thick humidity, turning the air oppressive. It’s an effort not to take a step back, but I know what Serena is about to face is going to be ten times worse.
Yes, this is an insane plan.
I would stop her if I truly believed there was another option short of marching straight back to that bastard and asking him to kindly hand over the spell. But if this starts going south, I’ll put an end to it. I won’t let her mutilate herself just so she doesn’t feel like a liability.
I stuff a few dampened cloths under the chains, spreading them out over Serena’s wrists and forearms, her palms and delicate fingers.
“I need you to keep going, even if I pass out,” she says to Mar, who nods grimly.
“Here.” Jace holds out a thick twig. “You’re going to want something to bite down on.”
She opens her mouth and he places it inside. Moving in front of her, I cup her cheeks, earning her wide-eyed stare.
“I’m going to ask you one more time. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Please just say no.
She nods, her lavender eyes determined.
Fuck. My chest deflates and I drop my hands. Here goes nothing.
Mar squeezes between us, bumping me behind Serena as Jace comes around her other side. He brings his eyes to the fire and the wild flames are tamed into a narrow column, like they’re being contained inside some invisible tube.
“When you’re ready,” Mar says, bracing Serena’s bicep with both hands.
Without hesitating, Serena sticks her hands into the line of fire.
I cringe. It takes mere seconds for her to start whimpering. The whimpers turn into cries then into screams that will haunt my dreams until the day I die. Each one rips through me, spearing me straight through the heart.
I know, sweetheart, I know. It will be over soon.
I hope.
I brace her hips, sending my magic through the point of contact, but her wrists are burning faster than Mar and I can heal them. Her skin is hot to the touch, crocodile tears streaming down her pink cheeks.
Come on. I fix my gaze on those damned cuffs. Fucking melt already.
“It’s taking too long,” I snarl, panic edging my tone. “The fire isn’t hot enough to do this.”
I watch as the flames eat away at Jace’s margins along with the wet towels. Sweat is beading along his forehead and not from the proximity to the flames.
“I’m healing her as we go,” Mar forces out, hands still braced on Serena’s arms.
But she’s in pain! Every fibre of my being is straining against this, begging me to intervene.
Jace is concentrating harder than I’ve ever seen, trying to contain the fire and also keep a barrier between the shackles and her wrists. Meanwhile, the cuffs don’t look like they’re even close to liquifying.
“It’s not enough,” I breathe. “It’s not enough!”
Serena’s screams intensify and her pain becomes this tangible thing, hitting me from all sides.
No, this is over. Finished.
“Take her hands out. Now,” I snap.
I can’t take it. I can’t stand the sound of her muted screams, can’t take knowing what this is doing to her. When no one moves, I drag her back, away from the fire. She collapses into me, and I take her down in the sand between my legs.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jace shouts.
“We can’t do this,” I pant as Serena’s tears soak my shirt. She’s shaking like a leaf, moaning, her eyes squeezed shut.
“Well, we’ve got to do something!”
Think, Zadyn.
“Mar, can you burn them off any faster than the fire would?”
She looks stunned by my question. “I—I can try. But I won’t be able to heal her as we go. The pain will be—”
“I can’t watch her slowly suffer like this. If you can do it quickly then we can heal her afterward.”
At this point, I don’t know which is the lesser evil. I just know that the sooner this is over with the better.
Gods, I hope I’m right.
Mar lowers to her knees before us. Serena nods her head as much as she can.
“I’ve got you,” I tell her, shifting us onto our knees and propping her up against me.
I hold her arms out in front of her so as to not burn her legs.
Mar hovers her hands above the two cuffs.
They turn white within seconds. Serena writhes, slamming against my chest, but I don’t so much as teeter behind her.
I’ve got you.
Her heart-rending screams as the white metal begins to drip from her wrists along with her skin, are the stuff of nightmares.
I’m going to fucking kill Kylian for this.
Jace is full-out crying at this point, tears of anger and frustration streaking his cheeks as he grits his teeth and sends a cool, soothing breeze to wrap around her ruined wrists.
The shackles are all but molten pools mixed with her blood on the sand as she goes lax against me.
“Lay her down. Now,” Mar says, immediately shifting into healing mode.
Serena’s face is leeched of color. Mar makes fast work of replacing skin that a second ago was not there, until the whites of her bones are no longer visible.
I watch in horrified awe as the skin regrows, sealing in the leaking veins and tendons.
The skin looks new, but her forearms and the tops of her hands are bad—bubbled and red.
“Jace,” Mar signals. He sends another wave of air to kiss her extremities.
Serena’s head lolls against my thigh as she dances on the edge of consciousness. Smoothing her hair off her clammy forehead, I send out my energy to help Mar heal her. The blue in her blood makes her healing abilities ten times what I can do. But there’s no way I can sit here doing nothing.
“I need a second,” Mar breaks off, gasping for air.
“Mar?” Dover kneels down beside her a second before she falls back into the sand, nose leaking blue.