8
“R-Ren?” I pulled back, still straddling the man underneath me but no longer trying to strangle him. “Is it really you?”
“Dandelion weed,” he greeted with a firm, teasing tone, coughing as he did. “I see you’re still annoying and showing up in places you’re not wanted.”
It wasn’t how I imagined our gallant reunion to happen—him cloaked in the glamour of someone I’d once hated and scolding me for following him into the underworld as I teetered on the edge of becoming someone’s toy and being reduced to ashes by a raging fire around us.
But even if it wasn’t his true face or his husky voice, his presence soaked deep within my bones, relief washing over me.
Hearing Ren call me his dandelion weed again nearly brought tears to my eyes.
I rolled off him, right on top of a burning patch of grass that singed my palm. I recoiled, hissing at the sting while fanning it out as a red welt formed. “H-how—”
“Later,” he said as he jumped to his feet and pulled me up with him. “Why are you still wearing these stupid things on your wrists? Get rid of them.”
“They’re suppressing my magic. I can’t.” My eyes bulged as I glimpsed over Ren’s shoulder.
Sensing a threat, he wrapped his arms around me, a rippling dome of magic surrounding us.
A projectile hit the barrier, electricity sizzling across it and fizzling out as he turned around.
Through the rising flames, a female rift warden stood with two fingers raised, stretching a glowing magical thread between them like a slingshot as she fired shimmering projectiles in our direction.
Ren’s hand clenched around my shackles, the metal crumbling to dust beneath his touch. My magic roared to life, flooding my veins with heat, burning away the weakness that had weighed me down.
“Later,” he said again, knowing the list of questions I wanted to ask him was growing by the second. “We need to go.”
Through the haze of smoke, the rift warden turned her attention elsewhere.
She poured the contents of a bottle into her hands, forming another projectile out of liquid magic that floated before her.
Her eyes narrowed, her fingers pulling back the glowing thread once more.
Her magic shimmered, tension building before she released it.
The magical projectile tore through the fire, a streak of light slicing the smoke, and struck its mark.
A piercing cry cut through the roar of the flames, a sound so raw and desperate it froze me mid-breath.
“Jordan!” I shouted, but my voice was drowned out by the crackle of burning canvas and the echo of his pain.
“Ren, we can’t leave without Jordan or Alex.
” I pointed toward my friends. Alex was barely conscious and trapped in the spell circle with those silver chains locking her in place.
“And there are more people still being kept hostage. We need to free them.”
A crowd of witches, spellcasters who no doubt set up the array to begin with, surrounded her, attempting to rescue their precious asset before she burned along with everything else in this tent, but Jordan was right there, feebly attempting to prevent them from reaching her.
Blood tricked from a gash on his forehead, soot covering his face and neck like black veins crawling over his skin.
He was pushing through the pain, but years of being secluded in that prison cell had left him weak, the chains cutting off his magic.
Would he actually die if he wasn’t cut free?
“Theo, wait!” Ren’s fingertips grazed my shoulder, but I was already bounding toward Jordan.
Flames licked at my ankles as I lunged forward, the fire roaring between us.
I had no particular spells for protecting against fire, so the only thing I could do was accelerate my speed and burst through it as fast as I could.
I thrust my hands out, palms down, fingers pressed tight.
The magic pulsed through me, propelling my legs like pistons.
The rift warden’s thread snapped again, a silver streak of light soaring toward Jordan. I lunged at him, tackling him to the ground as both our bodies twisted, sparks hissing past my shoulder.
We hit the edge of the fire, rolling onto scorched grass.
My chest burned, sweat stinging my eyes.
One hand dissolved the chains sealing his magic, the other reached out to the rift warden’s life force.
She dropped to her knees as I unleashed the purple necrotic bolt of magic directly at her chest. It wasn’t lethal, but it might as well have been.
She pitched to the side and face-planted directly into a wall of fire.
“Are you okay?” I panted, spitting out a wad of grass from my mouth.
“I’m fine.” Jordan’s gaze snapped to his left. “But she’s not.”
While I had bounded toward Jordan, Ren had thrown himself toward the spellcasters, trying to release Alex. He was locked in a brutal struggle with Leon, every movement sharp and desperate, but unable to break through to reach her.
I sucked in a ragged breath, smoke clawing at my lungs, and I knew we were running out of time.
Choking on the soot, Jordan and I tore through the chaos, weaving between flames and collapsing debris, my heart hammering as we zeroed in on Alex.
While Ren distracted Leon, Jordan and I focused on the two men who had their hands on the ground, pulsing magic into the flickering magic array under Alex.
The glowing chains restraining her faded, and with a barely audible thud, Alex collapsed onto the ground.
“Michael, get her out of here,” a squat, chunky man ordered. His hands were still glowing with magic. “I’ll finish up here.”
“On it, Casey.” A brown-haired man covered in ash hauled Alex up from the ground like she was nothing more than a trash bag and slung her over his shoulder.
“Oh, hell no!” I raised my hands to cast a spell, but Jordan beat me to the punch. Like a raging bull, he plowed into Casey, but he didn’t have much power behind him. Still, as Casey took a step back, he tripped over a fallen piece of debris and fell to the ground.
“Go rescue Alex! I got this.” He picked up a red-hot piece of metal, screaming against the excruciating pain as it sizzled against his skin, and smacked the guard across the face with it.
I risked a glance at Ren. He had his magic and should have been easily able to overcome Leon.
However, that obsidian blade appeared to be troublesome.
Without knowing what ability it possessed, Ren was keeping his distance while still trying to attack.
I wanted to rush over to help, but Alex had to come first.
Alex was barely aware of what was happening as she hung over Michael’s shoulder.
The witch pointed a hand toward the ground as his lips moved and a dark green circle of magic formed at his feet.
Alex’s mouth opened, her eyes pleading. No words escaped her, but her hand reached toward mine with a silent plea for help.
Caspian’s magic roared to life in my chest, fear flooding through it as Alex slipped farther out of reach.
My two hands shot out, fingers loose and palms facing down.
Magic gathered in my fingertips, and the moment my hands turned rigid, the man holding Alex froze as well.
I grabbed Alex’s wrists, tugged her forward, and gave Michael a swift boot in the ass as he fell through his own portal.
“Alex!” I screamed out as we collapsed to the ground.
She clung to me with white-knuckled fear, as if letting go for even a moment would leave her exposed to the raging flames around her.
Her frail body had been protected by the spell array surrounding her, but she shook violently, her eyes wide and unfocused as they darted around and tried to make sense of what was happening.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” I tried to console her, but the fire had now completely consumed the far side of the tent, licking up the canvas walls and sending sparks raining down like deadly embers.
Smoke twisted through the air, thick and choking, making every breath a battle.
Wooden tables toppled and cracked, papers igniting in instant bursts of flame, and metal cages warped under the heat as they melted.
With a powerful punch, Ren’s metal fist struck Leon square in the chest. He crumpled to the ground, right on top of a burning heap of wood.
“Follow me,” Ren called out as he left Leon behind.
As I stood up, I could feel the heat burning through the rubber soles of my sneakers.
Jordan approached beside me, helping me carry Alex out of the tent as I trailed Ren through bursts of flames and scorched wood.
Finally, I stumbled out into the open field, dropping to my knees with Alex in my arms as Jordan lost his grip.
She gasped, coughing and clutching me, smoke curling from her singed hair.
“What do we do now?” Jordan panted. There was chaos forming all around us.
The crowd from earlier demanding their merchandise still in that tent be saved and others running around trying to find a way out.
“There’s a magical barrier surrounding the auction area around this tent.
Not to mention, even if we did get out, we can’t leave this hidden city either. ”
“A-and Marin!” I pleaded with Ren. “We have to rescue Marin the others.”
“Now’s not the time to be a hero, Theo,” Ren seethed. “If we go back and try to rescue the others, we’ll lose our chance to escape.”
“But …”
Emotions wrestled within me. Ren was right, but how could I escape knowing that I’d be leaving others behind to continue enduring the Syndicate’s torture?
Alex slowly lifted her head, raising her hand to point toward an area off in the distance. I didn’t know what she was thinking, or what she was pointing at, but I trusted her.
“Over there,” I said, pointing toward the same spot Alex just had. “We have to go over there.”
With no time to question, the four of us stumbled as quickly as we could until an invisible barrier smacked Ren in the face.
He analyzed it for a minute, the magic separating us from the stalls on the other side, before flattening his palm and releasing a jolt of magic. It shot back at him in retaliation.
Behind us, I could hear footsteps pounding like a stampede of horses. The remaining Syndicate members, including some guests from the auction, were storming right toward us with an injured Leon leading the charge.
“Uh, Ren …”
“I know!”
“Theo.” My name slipped out on Alex’s breath, barely a whisper.
She caught my hand and pressed it to the invisible barrier, then laid her own over mine.
Her skin was cold at first, but warmth blossomed beneath her touch, the subtle magic threading into me as something faint, fragile, but undeniably alive.
Something stirred inside me and I felt the urge to push my own magic toward hers, letting them intertwine.
The barrier was more of a cloudy haze now, and the air in front of us began to fracture.
Thin blue lines of distortion spider-webbed outward like cracks in glass.
With each steady pulse of our combined magic, the cracks deepened and the space trembled as the barrier of magic finally began to give way.
The shield shuddered then finally split open with a sharp, breathless snap.
We didn’t hesitate. We bolted for the gap, running as fast as our soot-filled lungs would allow us. But Jordan was right. This place was controlled by the Syndicate, and no one was allowed in or out without their permission. We couldn’t run forever. We had to fight back.