Chapter 25
Something had gone very, very wrong.
I knew it the moment Maren entered the cave.
As soon as she disappeared inside, it felt like the volcano…
came alive. That was the only way to describe it.
Suddenly the lava grew brighter, beginning to ripple and move as if it were water and not magma.
It made strange bubbling noises, and the ground trembled ever so slightly.
It was impossible for Mount Kharos to erupt because of the curse, so what was happening?
An urgent, overwhelming feeling that I needed to get Maren out of the cave, away from the volcano, consumed me, but I was too far. Why hadn’t I gone with her? The magic of the curse prevented me from going inside the cave, but nothing would have stopped me from walking around the lake with her.
I should have expected something to go wrong. This was a dying, angry land after all.
I never should have left Maren’s side.
Now she was on the other side of the volcano, too far for me to reach. With my magic mere wisps in my veins, there was nothing I could do to help her.
Rhydian, you fool.
If my magic hadn’t been fading, I would have simply Flashed over there in a single breath, but the closer the Magmara came to dying, the more my magic died with it.
Anger swelled in my blood. I was a Prince of Eroth with the magic to go with it—and yet I could only access a fraction of it. It was pitiful and disgraceful.
The curse had done this.
Letting out a disgusted breath, I started to run toward Maren.
My Fae legs enabled me to go fast, but would it be quick enough?
She’d been in the cave for too long. The lava continued to bubble and gurgle, swells breaking as they moved in the direction of the cave. What if something had happened to her?
It should have been easy. The relic was the only thing in the cave. All Maren had to do was find it, grab it, and then get out of it. Though the volcano itself was plenty dangerous, there was nothing else that should have been a danger to her.
But with the way the hairs on my arms stood on end and an eerie tingle filled my bones, I knew I had made a terrible error. Something was wrong, and Maren was now in grave peril.
And it was my fault.
The moment I thought the words, a nightmare came to life, bursting from the sea of lava with a great, terrible shriek that had me covering my ears.
When the high-pitched roar finally went silent, I opened my eyes and sucked in a breath.
There, in the center of the lava sea, emerging from the flames itself, was a giant creature I had believed to be extinct.
It was enormous, towering above the ground, its long torso and clawed hands reaching forward, huge spikes lining its spine.
Lava dripped from its mouth between fangs easily as long as me.
Glowing red eyes glared in the direction of the cave that Maren had gone in, the rumbling of the ground growing more pronounced.
Lavawraith.
As I stared at the creature emerging from the volcano itself, and saw Maren run out of the lava cave, pale-faced and gaping at the monster in front of her, something shifted in me.
I couldn’t explain it, and I didn’t understand it. All I knew was that I suddenly cared whether she lived or died and it had nothing to do with whether she was my cursebreaker or not. I felt it in my bones that I had to keep her safe from this monster.
I needed to save her like I needed air to breathe.
I had to get to her.
“Maren!” I shouted across the lake, but her attention was entirely fixed on the creature. How was I supposed to get to her in time when my magic wasn’t at its full strength? How was I supposed to save her?
With no other option, I forced my legs even faster, hoping and wishing in vain that she would survive long enough for me to make it to the other side. The creature shrieked again, and I fought the urge to stop and cover my ears, the pitch making my ears pound in time with my footfalls as I ran.
“Hold on,” I said, though there was no way she could hear me.
Her long hair whipped in the warm breeze that had begun blowing atop the volcano, the lava itself spitting into the air.
Her face was white as a ghost, but there was a fierce light in her eyes that I could see even from a distance.
Something strong—defiant. She would face that monster or die trying.
Not if I can help it.
Had she been a Fae with magic, she would have stood a fighting chance.
But I supposed that was what made this task so dangerous for a human.
Had the queens known when they laid the curse?
A part of me believed that they did—for how would a human ever face that and live?
It was just another safeguard to make sure no one ever managed to free me.
We’ll see about that.
The creature lunged toward her, and my heart stuttered in my chest as I watched her jump out of the way at the last second.
Maren winced as she rolled, her shoulder meeting the ground, and kept rolling until she was hidden behind a boulder.
I sucked in a lungful of air and willed my legs to somehow speed up.
Exhaustion curled at the edges of my vision.
I might have been Fae, but with the curse weakening me, I was reaching my limit much quicker than I ever had before.
“Come on,” I muttered, watching the creature search for her, lava still dripping from its maw.
From where its eyes were situated on its long head, it appeared to be having a difficult time locating Maren, for which I was momentarily grateful.
Maren’s reddish-brown hair peeked up over the edge, her gray eyes meeting mine for a split second before another roar had her ducking once again.
I studied the monster, looking for any weak areas that I might be able to attack.
It was covered in thick black scales, and my heart sank as I remembered that they were impenetrable.
I hadn’t even thought of bringing a weapon with me.
I was a fool. Had I known this creature still dwelled in the volcano, I never would have sent her to the cave defenseless. I should have stayed by her side.
The only way to defeat it would be magic.
But mine was almost gone.
It seemed like the only option we had was to run—but there was no way I could carry Maren and run fast enough to get away from the creature before it devoured us whole, not when my legs were already slowing and I hadn’t reached her yet.
I was halfway to Maren when the monster started growing taller, growing impossibly larger. Then I realized why. It was coming out of the lava, walking on all fours right toward Maren’s hiding place.
“No no no,” I said, instinctively reaching for that golden light, reaching for speed, reaching for something to save her.
It figured that when I didn’t want my magic to kill, it did so of its own accord, and yet when faced with something that needed to be killed, it remained dormant in my veins.
“Come on, you infernal magic,” I scolded in between panting breaths. Only quiet whispers answered me. It wouldn’t be enough.
When I was three quarters of the way to Maren, the creature lunged toward the rock she hid behind, breaking it into pieces with a mighty clawed fist. Maren screamed, and the sound felt like knives slicing under my skin.
“Maren, run!” I roared, begging her to hear me, to know that I was coming for her.
I allowed myself a momentary breath of relief when she popped up from behind another rock and started sprinting toward me. Even at a distance, even with a lava monster bearing down on her, Maren’s gray eyes met mine, full of terror, begging for help.
And in that moment, I felt the resolve snap into place.
The creature shrieked one last time, spitting droplets of lava before it looked straight at Maren, who was running as fast as her human legs could carry her, opened its mouth, and dived for her.
I wasn’t close enough.
In a frustrated, angry scream, I pulled on every tiny ounce of power left in my veins, yanked until all of it was within my grasp, forcing it with all my will to do what I asked. I didn’t care if my magic was dying, if its strength was a fraction of what it once was.
None of that mattered—only saving Maren did.
As my scream ended, I pulled on that golden light.
One blink and I was watching as the creature reached for Maren, his claws inches away from grasping her.
Two blinks and everything went momentarily black.
Three blinks and I found myself standing between Maren and the monster. My eyes met the creature’s, and it didn’t hesitate, continuing its descent, only this time I was its target. I barely registered Maren calling my name. If I didn’t kill the creature, we would both be dead.
Magic was fading from my veins, slipping away like sand through a hole, but I pushed it one more time, harder than I ever had before. I lifted my palm toward the creature, and golden light burst forth, brighter than I’d seen it since before the curse was laid.
As the golden light encompassed the monster, it let out one long, blood-curdling screech, and I was forced to close my eyes against the pounding it set alive in my head. But still, I did not lower my palm, did not release it.
And then everything went silent.
Slowly blinking my eyes open, I half expected to find myself staring down the maw of a monster, waiting to feel its fangs crunch through my body.
But instead, I stared in awe, my mouth hanging open, as the only thing left of the monster was little golden shards, similar to feathers, fluttering slowly to the lava below.
My knees protested as I collapsed to the ground, every part of me exhausted.
What I had just done…I had done nothing like that since before the curse, and there was no way I should have been able to wield such magic this close to the Magmara’s death. How did that happen?
Though I had no strength left, my entire body trembling on the ground, I felt elated, a familiar rush in my blood that I hadn’t felt in decades.
Somehow, I had accessed more magic than I was supposed to be able to, and it had saved our lives.
I doubted I’d be able to do it again. I couldn’t even feel a trace whisper anywhere inside me. Would it replenish? Or did I use up every last drop? I couldn’t help but wonder if the Magmara would die quicker now.
“You know,” Maren’s voice broke the silence behind me, her labored breathing chopping up her words, “those golden death rays come in handy sometimes.”
Despite almost dying and feeling like I was close to passing out, I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.
I nodded with a huffed laugh. “That they do.”
It was several minutes before we both stopped gasping for air, for the terror of the creature’s attack to slowly seep out of our bones.
“Were you able to find it?” I asked her, referring to the relic. It shouldn’t have been the first thing on my mind after all that, but I couldn’t help it. Without it, there would be no second task.
She patted her pocket. “Safe and sound.”
Relief swept through me like a wave. But then Maren’s gray eyes turned on me.
“Why didn’t you tell me there was a dragon in the volcano?”
A snort was my first response. “That wasn’t a dragon, Maren.
The Avalean dragons died off long ago. No, this was a Lavawraith, a creature I didn’t even know still existed.
They were supposed to be extinct. I’ve heard tales of a similar creature you humans call a Cherufe.
It lives in the magma, protecting the volcano, sometimes causing eruptions.
” I paused, considering what would have happened had it truly been an Avalean dragon.
“No,” I breathed. “If this had been a dragon, you’d be dead. ”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“The truth can hurt.”
Maren scowled for only a few seconds before relief swept through her features.
She pushed to her feet and walked over to me.
My legs groaned as I tried to stand, and Maren was suddenly right there.
All thoughts of the monster, of the frigid air that had descended once more, disappeared as her eyes met mine, as the heat from her body filled the space between us. And then her arms were around me.
The same elation I often felt when using my magic swept through me at her touch. Nothing had ever made me feel the way my magic did. What is this strange feeling?
“Thank you for not letting me get eaten,” she said, her face pressed into my chest.
Though I couldn’t recall ever hugging anyone in my entire life, my arms wrapped around her of their own accord. How could such a foreign embrace feel so right?
“I told you I wouldn’t let you die.”
She cocked her head to look up at me. “Yet.” Her face was so close to mine, it would only take a shifting of my weight to—
No. She is a means to an end. You’re caught up in the emotions of all that just happened. She is nothing to you.
I swallowed hard. “Yet,” I confirmed because I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her after the Lavawraith attack. I wished it was a lie, but it was the reminder I needed as I forced myself to take a step backward, out of her arms and away from her.
I needed to remember. I couldn’t allow myself to forget.
At the end of this, broken curse or not…
Maren would be dead.