Chapter 28
Caelena’s command was still echoing in my head, and when reality started to fade back to me, I was only vaguely aware of what Caelena had used her whismerra for.
Memories Drustan had shared with her were shoved into my brain, becoming my own.
The information dump was instant, meaning time didn’t actually slow down at all.
I just blinked and suddenly had new information.
Bodies that were frozen started to slowly, slowly, move again.
Caelena was grimacing, targeting Audrey, who now had to focus her strength on fighting off our ally.
But the memories felt like they were too much. I couldn’t process all this new information. I desperately wanted to sit down and analyze every moment I saw. Every memory of Drustan’s I gained access to.
But I couldn’t. Because time was speeding up, and I was running out of it.
I shoved one last, disgusting, moist clod of dirt in my ears, silently praying to the goddesses of this realm that it would be enough to protect me from Ilia’s command.
“This is ridiculous,” Ilia spat, watching his sinndra control both Caelena and Sergei. How could Ilia’s sinndra possibly be capable of this? Sirens couldn’t manipulate other sirens, so why could Ilia? A theory hit me.
Sirens are connected. The king got his power from his people.
Strength in numbers, now used to weaponize that strength against those very numbers.
Sergei fought aggressively, years and years of combat training showing through as he focused all his strength to take down Liam.
Quickly, after flipping the fae over his large body, Sergei turned and raised his sword.
No!
He struck Liam directly in the chest, twisting.
“NO,” Audrey screamed, drowning out Liam’s own.
Her scream echoed an omen across the courtyard.
I was positive that if the dirt in my ears weren’t protecting my ear drums, that they would start bleeding from her otherworldly pitch.
Siren men and women momentarily halted their battles to register the sound of her torment, watching Sergei pull his sword from Liam’s heart.
Sergei looked tortured as he studied the fae prince at his feet.
Audrey’s wrath grew with the power of her agony, and light overpowered the entirety of her eyes.
“Drustan!” I yelled, hoping the sound of Audrey’s continued cries of agony hid my own enough from Ilia, “Drustan!” I shouted.
Audrey struck Caelena down, pinning her by the throat with thorned roots.
She turned her attention to Ilia, who just smirked at her.
The smirk of a man who would rather die than consider taking a woman like Audrey seriously.
The smirk of a man who should no longer exist in any realm. A fact Audrey had seemed to accept, based on the cold and lethal look in her eyes as she glared at him.
“Stop.” Ilia didn’t bother to project the word. He didn’t need to, because Audrey obeyed. Tears streamed from her cheeks, her teeth clenched in a grimace as every muscle in her body halted from the command of Ilia’s sinndra.
Drustan! I started chanting in my mind, struggling to amplify my mental cry. Drustan! Drustan!
“Call back your gift,” Ilia ordered next.
Roots, branches, and other greenery started to shrivel.
A sob erupted from Audrey’s throat as muscles in her neck tensed, desperate not to listen to the king.
I was reduced to only mentally calling Drustan’s name, because the eerie quiet of the courtyard as Ilia commanded his own people against their will, absorbed everyone’s attention.
Soon, the courtyard that was once overrun with fresh, thriving growth was nothing more than shriveled, dry, dead debris.
Caelena and Sergei stayed frozen, still under Ilia’s command.
“A siren’s sinndra cannot be used on one of our own,” a siren soldier muttered a few feet ahead of me. “It is unnatural.”
Ilia turned his head toward the sound of his soldier’s acknowledgement, before flicking his gaze to a nearby companion and muttering, “Kill him.” I gasped, fighting the urge to cover my eyes, as a nearby soldier charged him.
“No, wait,” Ilia chuckled to himself. “Let him live.” The soldier had his sword raised but froze.
“None of you are good to me dead. Listen to me.” Ilia’s voice boomed over the courtyard, making all sirens in the vicinity freeze.
They held their weapons and turned their full attention toward their king.
Even I could feel the power of his impulse wrap around my body, searching for my compliance.
It seemed as if the dirt in my ears was enough to protect me from his sinndra after all.
I needed to call Drustan, but shouting mentally wasn’t working.
Perhaps I didn’t even know how to properly shout at someone mentally.
How the hell did one project thoughts? But Drustan and I were now the only ones not under Ilia’s control.
But I couldn’t communicate to him, because if I called for him, Ilia would hear me.
Kill me, and then his son.
I needed a distraction. A sound barrier of some kind. I started frantically patting my pockets, desperate.
“I am tired of this foolery,” Ilia spat to his people.
“I am done with it. If you cannot be trusted to behave…” He shook his head, like a parent reprimanding a child.
“Then you are a threat to the peace in this realm.” Dread weighed in my gut as I shoved my hands in the pockets of my pants, the pockets against my calves.
My fingers folded over a small box.
A matchbox.
I stared at it in my palm before focusing on all the dried, dead foliage littering the entirety of the space. I toed a small branch curling nearby, and it shattered immediately.
I needed something to distract Ilia, so I could call for Drustan.
Do it, Caelena’s voice, weakly, called into my thoughts.
I whipped my head to look at her, but she hadn’t moved.
Her body was still under Ilia’s control, but her mind was completely hers as her golden eyes slid over to where I stayed hidden, and her voice rang louder, do it, Van. Before it’s too late.
I struck the match and dropped it on the nearby branch before running and hiding behind another retaining wall. Flames engulfed the space I previously stood, in a whoosh.
“Put that out,” Ilia spat. Soldiers marched forward and started to pound at the flames with the soles of their boots, but it was all too dry. Too dead. The flames spread rapidly.
I lit another match and dropped it, running.
“Stop—stop this!” Ilia spluttered. I couldn’t see him from my new hiding spot, but that didn’t stop me from lighting another match and booking it.
The flames crackling and consuming the courtyard grew to a threatening roar.
Ilia started shouting and other soldiers briefly broke away from the call of his sinndra to avoid the growing fire.
I made it near the front doors of the estate, knowing that Drustan was still trapped in the dungeon.
Get out! Get out! Get out! If the flames continued to grow unchecked, with all the fuel littered in this massive courtyard, the entire Shaw estate could be ashes within minutes.
I needed to light a fire under Drustan’s ass to break out of the cell, while lighting a fire to his childhood home. Then it hit me.
“Wait for me!” I called to Drustan over the roar of the flames.
“We’re not done yet, Dru!” I dropped several more matches, breathing a sigh of relief when my friends started to gain back control of their muscles.
Ilia was dodging the flames with wide eyes, but every time he tried to escape, new flames as tall as trees started to sprout.
I didn’t realize it until I paused my arson to take a breath, while air was still breathable, that Audrey was now crouching on the ground, her hands glowing as she fed the flames with more and more foliage.
Green leaves burned in seconds, creating a thick smoke in the air.
Flame and smoke and ash created the perfect camouflage.
I ran and tripped, landing face-first on the ground. I spat dirt out of my mouth to turn and see that I had tripped over Liam.
He was gasping, blood pooled around his body, as he held a hand on his chest where Sergei had stabbed him.
“You’re alive,” I breathed, reaching out to put more pressure on his wound. Liam couldn’t muster a response. Then Sergei was next to me, replacing my hands with his, applying more pressure to slow the bleeding.
“You can still heal Liam!” I called to Audrey, not knowing where she was, but hopefully close enough to hear me. I could hear her coughing in the distance, healing another siren woman, but she still managed to respond.
“I’m coming!”
“Listen to me, fae,” I pointed an accusing finger at Liam. “Audrey needs you. You can’t die yet, so hold on.” In response, Liam narrowed his eyes at me as he coughed more blood out of his mouth. With that, I left Sergei to tend to Liam and ran off.
I dropped another lit match. Another. The sound of destruction coated the entire courtyard. Hopefully, this immobilized Ilia’s weaponization of his sinndra against other sirens. The roar of the fire created a shield from the sound of his voice.
A large shadow approached me through the flames.
Shit.
I ran but landed in a corner. The exterior wall of the courtyard. I frantically brushed my hands over the stone, looking for some kind of escape. But the sound of Ilia’s chuckle behind me made me panic. I hoped that Audrey would at least make it out of here alive. That I was able to buy her time.
“You?”
I almost laughed at the sound of confusion coming from Ilia’s voice. I rested my head against the stone, taking a moment to accept my fate, before I turned around and unsheathed my knife from my belt that I stole off someone else.
His white hair was coated with ash. His beard was disheveled. His eyes were deranged as he smiled at me.
“I thought you died?” He hummed to himself as he studied me. Cornered.