Chapter 44
Under the Starlight
ANNA
Istared at the crumbling piece of charred gray soot in his hand. He was right. There was ash falling all around us now.
“Why don’t we smell the smoke?” I asked.
“It is the Anienlasator,” he muttered. “It overtakes the sense of smell.”
Flashes of lightning streaked horizontally through the sky like veins of silver.
Blake went still, his skin pale as he watched another flash sear through the sky. It was silent, and there was no thunder or wind.
“What is it?” I asked, sensing his everi rapidly coming to life.
He moved so quickly I didn’t see it. I saw him standing on the water with a blade in his hand. I marveled as I watched him. While I understood the possibility of such a thing as walking on water by using everi control, it was still hard to believe seeing it before me.
“Nightfall’s barrier has been breached,” he said. “We need to get back.”
As he reached for me, mist began to rise from the water. A chill came over me and I shivered. The creatures were no longer singing and the glow of the ivy was lost in the mist.
An alarming crack sounded around us as the lake froze beneath us. Blake broke the layer that tried to freeze his shoes to the lake’s icy surface and pulled me from the boat. Once I was in his arms it sank into the water and froze over again as if it were never there.
“What’s happening?” I whispered.
Blake’s everi cloaked me like a shield as shadows formed in the mist.
They emerged in black robes, fully cloaked and masked, their faces covered by black cloth that concealed their mouths and noses.
We were surrounded. Blake set me down on the ice, and his everi flowed into me.
“Who are they?” I whispered. “Are they from the Realm?”
Blake pulled me against him, back-to-back, my body trembling.
“No. These are wannabe blood mages from this world,” Blake whispered. “Anna, there’s something I need to say to you.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah? Now?”
“Yes, now. Through all the times in my life when darkness prevailed, there was no light to guide me out. I now face the darkest part of myself. But somehow, in those depths, you have turned on a light and I can see better than I ever have before. You are my light, Anna, and I will protect you from whatever may come.”
Foreboding clenched around my heart.
“Why are you talking like that?” I whispered, my hand reflexively tightening around the phantom hilt of my sword.
“Just in case you never want to see me again after this,” he said, stepping forward.
“What is your purpose here?” Blake called, his voice low and snarling.
One of the cloaked figures in the mist stepped forward.
“His Royal Highness, Prince Rykiren Drake Ryth’enir, Lord of the Falls, Heir to the God of Fire,” called a deep voice.
He bowed deeply before rising.
“Please come with us,” he said.
“Why would I do that?” Blake asked, his sword gripped tightly in his hand.
“Your presence has been requested,” he said.
“Fine, but she stays with me,” Blake said, nodding at me.
“Only your presence was requested,” said the cloaked man in a calm, smooth voice.
I sensed the others closing in around us. The ice was cold on my bare feet and Blake held me tightly against him. There was no way we had a chance against this many, especially when I didn’t have a weapon. Blake’s everi was raging, his body rigid.
“She stays with me,” he said, his voice low and definitive.
Everything was still for a moment, then they all moved at once.
A terrible sound filled the air as warm liquid sprayed my face.
I blinked, feeling it in my eyelashes. I wiped my hand across my face, but it just smeared like warm syrup.
I squinted, trying to see what was going on, and stared at the body of one of the cloaked mages before me.
I could see his eyes, wide open and still—they were bright red.
Blood mages.
I shuddered, fear gripping me as I saw the horrible rips in his clothing where his raw and bloodied flesh was revealed.
What was this? What happened to him? The raw wounds of utterly destroyed flesh were all over his body. There were more, all with the same marks, and blood spattered across the ice like a morbid modern art scene.
Tremors ran through every muscle in my body. I slowly turned, looking over my shoulder at Blake.
He was breathing heavily, mist forming from his breath.
Before him were several more bodies, as well as the ones around me.
Blake was covered in blood.
“It’s alright, Anna,” he said. “It was me.”
I couldn’t speak or move but my everi was flowing rampantly as I tried to process what he was saying. Had he done this? Had he torn these blood mages apart all at once?
“Impressive,” called the only blood mage that still stood—the one who’d spoken to Blake before. “But you can’t sustain that kind of power for long and we outnumber you by far.”
More cloaked blood mages emerged through the mist.
Panic wracked my body as I called to one of the swords that lay abandoned on the ice. It shot through the air and into my grip as they descended upon me.
Whatever terrifying curse Blake had used seemed to be a one-time thing. As the first blood mage neared me, Blake’s everi wrap around me tightly again. My blood was flowing erratically as I braced myself for the coming blow.
“They’re powerful,” Blake muttered to me, “but they are not skilled. They are new and poorly trained blood mages. Disarm them and strike to eliminate.”
My eyes narrowed as I realized this was real. This was no sparring match. I had to commit with each attack—if I didn’t the cost would be death.
I nodded, steeling my nerves, and charged to meet them head-on.
I struck the first one’s blade, deflecting it with everi enforced steel and sliced at the next one, making a clean cut across his midriff, but not before he reached for my neck.
His hand narrowly missed my throat but grasped my amulet into his fist.
As he fell, his face lost in shock, the jewels of the necklace scattered across the ice.
I stood, my lungs working overtime as I scanned for any immediate threats.
There were too many and their brute force was felt in every attack I countered.
I summoned another blade, blocking what would’ve been a deadly blast of red and fiery everi by crossing the blades and shielding myself from the flames.
My dress was being torn to shreds, and before I recovered, there was a dagger at my throat.
“Ruthless,” the voice muttered, the same as before. “But not enough.”
The hilts of the swords were burning in my palms. I gasped and dropped them. They clattered loudly on the ice and the blood mage wrapped his arms around me like a clamp was being applied to my everi.
“What are you doing to me?” I asked, straining against his hold, but it was useless.
“Invading your essence,” he said.
I searched for Blake, seeing a trail of blood mages before finally seeing him be taken down by three of them.
They kicked him into the ice; his skin covered with smeared blood and sweat.
A strangled scream paralyzed me as black thorned everi vines wrapped up his arms as a blood mage twisted his arms behind his back.
“Let him go!” I screamed, but he only held the blade to my throat tighter.
“Quiet,” he said. “You will come with—”
His voice cut off abruptly.
The chill in the air began to ease and the mist began to lift. The blade at my throat loosened as the blood mage’s hold on me lessened. The resounding crack of his body as it struck the ice made me wince. I looked down at him seeing no visible marks or sign of life.
What was happening? I rushed to Blake; my feet numb as I skid through the blood across the ice. The three blood mages around him had fallen as well.
“Blake!” I cried, as he sat up, his expression twisted in shock and panic.
The ivy was glowing again and I could hear the creatures singing in the night as I kneeled at Blake’s side. I looked for wounds, finding several cuts, but nothing life-threatening.
“Blake, what happened to them?” I asked, trying to get him to look at me, but he was focused on something over my shoulder.
I whipped around, my everi flaring and panic flooding my being as I saw someone emerging from the mist. I must have lost too much blood or got caught in some illusion.
Because there was no way I was seeing who was standing there at that moment, admiring the fireflies that floated around as if there were not dozens of bodies atop the frozen lake.
No.
Perhaps I needed to go back and see my old therapist again. Because without a doubt, before me, standing on the ice in the finest retail polo and cargo shorts money could buy, was my best friend.
And that was impossible.
Wasn’t it?
“Eiryn?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
He slowly settled his gaze on me. He blinked a few times and smirked.
“Hey, Anna,” he said, hands in his pocket, strolling over to me before stopping several paces away. “I waited to see if you two had it under control but then it seemed like you didn’t, and then it seemed like you did, but then it really seemed like you didn’t, so I intervened.”
He stared at one blood mage on the ice and his lips twisted in disgust.
He flicked a look of sheer irritation at me and sighed emphatically, “One moment.”
Eiryn closed his eyes.
The moment he did, steam rose across the lake, and the body of every blood mage began to sink. Blake and I shared a wide-eyed glance as the ice melted and reformed over the dead, leaving nothing but red streaks of blood captured in the solid surface of the lake.
Eiryn clasped his hands loudly as he looked about the ice. “There! That’s better. Still messy, but whatever.”
Turning his attention to me he glanced at Blake, who was on higher alert than a junkyard dog.
“Seriously, Anna? The Falls Prince? Way to bag ’em,” Eiryn said, raising one eyebrow and nodding in approval. “I always knew you’d do better than Justin. He was so dull.”
I shifted to stand but Blake gripped my arm tightly.
“Anna.”