The illuminated, p.23
The Illuminated, page 23
But now it was day, and my power was back in full swing.
Daelon swept my hair behind my shoulders, studying me again like I would disappear at any moment. His hands stilled, frowning.
“What is it?”
His fingers brushed over my ear, and I winced at the sting. “Are these… teeth marks?”
“He actually bit me?” I reached for my ear, running my fingers over the dried blood. Sometimes what happened in the astrals affected the physical, and it seemed like that was Lucius’s intention.
Daelon bristled, his features twisting into something primal. “He’s dead,” he hissed. “Maybe not today, but soon. And I would love nothing more than to be the one who does it.”
“It’s a long line, but I’ll see what I can do,” I said softly, letting my hair fall back to cover up the mark of Lucius’s creepy games. “For now, I need you to be focused. Once we’re out of the forest we can jump, but I don’t know what’s going to be waiting for us on the other side in the King’s City.”
Daelon looked away, and I could tell he was internally cooling himself off with his best grounding techniques, just as he’d taught me. Then he effortlessly scaled the earthy side of the cave, pushing himself up and out with brute strength as he grunted from exertion.
It was rather hot.
“Hands, Áine,” he instructed.
I tiptoed, grabbing on to him as I awkwardly flailed my legs for footing on the tree roots. It wasn’t pretty, but I made it out. The light of day was blinding after our complete submersion in darkness, like the sensitivity of a massive hangover.
The forest was much different now that it was alive, no longer blackened and barren. It was mossy and green even under the cool bite of winter, thick with tall trees with huge branches that reached for each other, forming a canopy. It was alive with magick, with an aura of its own that was a beautiful collage of oranges, yellows, greens, and browns. It owed its life to me, and to Lucius it owed its death.
A branch reached down from high above us, pointing us in the direction we sought.
“Thanks,” Daelon said, grinning at me in childlike wonder. “If they can talk then they can hear me, right?”
“It would stand to reason,” I laughed. For a brief moment we were like kids living out a storybook fairytale, the magick of the realm finally presenting itself to us in all its glory. This was the world my mothers showcased in their bedtime stories. I’d always figured there were embellishments, but now I wasn’t so sure.
The moment was short lived. I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of a fallen guard, impaled by a spiky tree branch jutting up from the earth. Her mouth and eyes were wide open, her blood pooling in a circle from the middle of her back.
Daelon pulled me away before I could stare any longer at the gruesome scene, but we were next met with an equally disturbing image of a guard face down in a creek, and then another guard with a vine wrapped tightly around his neck as he sat up against a tree. His face was twisted in a grimace, nearly purple.
“Remind me not to piss off any trees,” Daelon muttered.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d walked, but it must have been hours. I kept my eyes glued to the ground directly in front of me, lest I see any more of the forest’s revenge killings. I also had to be careful not to trip over the impractical maxi dress I’d died in, grateful its long sleeves shielded me from the crisp air. Birds called and small animals made faint noises as they scurried across the ground and into the brush. I could’ve sworn I’d heard the sounds of high-pitched laughter, but it dissolved as soon as I’d tuned in.
Then a different kind of atmosphere permeated the air—that of a city—and the forest began to thin out as we grew closer. The collective energy of a land filled with witches was even more powerful than earthly metropolises, and the swarm of auras and energy hit me like a tsunami before I shut it all out. I needed to concentrate.
We turned in a silent goodbye to the ecosystem that gave us safe passage, and it wordlessly sent us the same. Trees shifted and bowed as we stepped into the open air. Before us now was a city that looked surprisingly European. Buildings were a mix of cream, peach, and blue tones as they reached up toward the sky. It all seemed a lot cleaner and more natural than that of earth, with stone and glass in their structures rather than steel or concrete. It wasn’t really the dystopia that I’d imagined either, at least not from our viewpoint on this grassy hill that sloped down into a tall, black fence that separated the forest from the city. I’d expected more smog, smoke, and palpable evil.
That wasn’t at all what I beheld. This eco-friendly, conquered capital of the witch realm seemed shockingly normal. In these early hours it was starkly quiet compared to an earthly city, with no cars, trucks, or ambulances cutting through the fresh morning air. I’d been so tunnel-visioned in Aradia, bound to the suffocating castle walls of my enemy, that I realized I had no idea how the majority of witches lived. I’d been given a snapshot of recent history in the Akashic, but even that hadn’t revealed much about the realm as it was now, not to mention the seemingly complex sociopolitical layout of Aradia before the Order rose to power.
Just like at the end of my stay in Daelon’s cabin, I suddenly felt very ignorant to the reality of the realm I was ordained to restore. As Daelon and I paused for a moment, catching our breath at the top of the hill, my heart clenched with the reminder that in a matter of minutes we would be free to learn everything—about this realm, about our parents’ coven, and about each other.
In Iciera. In our newfound liberation.
I reached for Daelon’s hand, and our eyes locked as my fingers brushed his before intertwining. I didn’t know what would await us down below, but for the first time since I’d arrived in the castle, I knew that we both actually believed that this was the moment we’d been waiting for. We could finally cross the barrier from hiding to fighting, and the thick smog of hopelessness would lift as the dark night of the soul gave rise to the light of day.
“You ready?” Daelon asked.
I nodded. I couldn’t help but smile even as so many things were left uncertain, and so many trials, battles, and losses lay ahead. All I could taste now was the sweet air of our victory, air that was wholly unpolluted by Lucius’s repulsive energy for the first time in ages.
Daelon grabbed me suddenly, pulling me in for a deep, breathless kiss as his hands tangled in my hair. It ended too soon, and I had to force myself to move my hand from the sharp curve of his jaw as he pulled back.
“We need to move,” he whispered, but I could see it in his eyes—that blind faith powerful enough to defy death.
We carefully maneuvered down the sloping hill, now standing before the iron fence that separated the forest and castle from conquered Thora. The fence was spelled with a powerful electrical field. Lucius couldn’t have angry peasants demanding his head on castle grounds, after all.
An overgrown dirt path beyond led to a narrow alley between two buildings. It was clear, as was the land as far as we could see. There was no sign of enemies waiting for us.
“Beyond this gate, the binding curse will be broken. Then we can jump,” I said.
“We need to be quick. I’m not strong enough to shield our whereabouts from Lucius, not when we’re still so close to the castle.”
I channeled, sifting through my currents of magick to find the kind of energy that was the direct opposite of the gate’s. I reached out my hands, and Daelon clutched my shoulder tightly.
“Careful,” he murmured.
I grabbed the gates, which should’ve emitted enough voltage to strike us both dead. Instead, I neutralized the electricity, reaching into the iron form and melting away at its rigidity until it was as pliable as a plastic straw. I pulled the bars apart, creating a circular opening big enough to step through.
Daelon looked at me in awe. “You’re incredible. I hope you know that.”
“Just bending the laws of physics. No biggie.”
We stepped through, and my smile faltered before it could fully take its shape. A figure manifested before us, and then another. I knew it was Lucius, but I refused to look. He was too late.
I grabbed Daelon by the shoulders and began to channel the winds of travel, ignoring the commotion and tapping into Tomas’s map to the people in the snow…
“If you leave, she dies,” Lucius said, and it was enough to pull me from my trance.
He held Santana in his grasp, his arm locked against her neck. She squirmed.
“Do it. Go, Áine,” she choked out. “He’s going to kill me any—”
Lucius whispered something into her ear, and her eyes went black and her body limp. I could feel her pain beneath her paralysis. It felt like she was being gutted from the inside out, like a thousand stabs to every internal organ.
I gritted my teeth, shutting off my clairsentient channel. “Looks like someone didn’t learn his lesson,” I hissed at him.
More bodies appeared, some of them dressed in black like the guards and others in light gray. The ones in gray seemed different, like they were less polished. I figured they were the soldiers of the city, not quite prestigious enough to reside in the castle. They continued to materialize everywhere, surrounding us.
I couldn’t just leave Santana, not after everything she’d done for me. Not after the way she’d held me as I lay crying, broken from the cruelty of the dungeons. Her part in the coven’s efforts to protect and help me, even as they risked their lives, bound me as an ally for life. I heard her laughter echo through my chambers, the way she looked at Amaya with such tenderness and devotion.
I was stronger now. I could save her. I knew I could.
Daelon stared ruthlessly at Lucius, and the energy between them grew volatile quickly.
“Did she tell you the story about how I came to uncover your affair?” Lucius asked casually, as if we weren’t in the midst of an impending battle.
I stepped into my magick, focusing on coming up with a plan while the men puffed out their chests in their useless rivalry games. The strangest feeling came over me as I glanced at some of the soldiers, who were looking right back at me. Their energy was different from the rest. Still dark, still rotting to my nostrils and sour to my tongue… but different. They weren’t powered by Lucius. I could feel magick that didn’t belong to them, swimming in their auras like stolen power that had been squeezed out unwillingly.
They were energy vampires, and they were licking their lips with anticipation. Did Lucius know he had vampires in his ranks? Or was I the only one who could see what they were because of my clairsentience?
“I thought you were above forcing yourself on witches,” Daelon growled, but I was barely listening. There were too many things going on, and I could feel the workings of magick as Daelon grew more and more unfocused.
Suddenly a guard struck, sending an object flying through the air. I reached out to stop it, but at the same moment a bolt of black fire shot toward my face. I blocked the fire with one hand, but what had been thrown—a torturous, iron chain—had slipped past me. It found its mark around Daelon’s neck, constricting all of his shielding magick and forcing him to the ground.
Lucius dropped Santana, where she lay on the ground in motionless torture. “Áine asked to touch me, actually. And I think she knew exactly who it really was.” He met my eyes. “Though she’d never admit it. She knows I’m the only one in the universe who could ever truly bring her to her knees.”
I lunged for him before he could reach Daelon, who struggled with the cursed chain around his neck.
I tackled Lucius to the ground, but his bodyguards were all around us. I forced my energy into his chest, letting it poison him just as his did to me. But hands were on my shoulders, on my arms, pulling me and breaking down my defense with their King-given curses. I broke a neck here and sent a shockwave there as Lucius writhed underneath me, but all I could think about was Daelon. All I could hear was his gasps for air, and all I could feel was Santana’s pain, like a slick, icy film around my consciousness.
Lucius recovered quickly, as I was too busy fighting off his guards to focus on keeping him immobilized. He grabbed my throat, and the men stopped their attacks.
“I think I’d much prefer you underneath me,” he said as I clawed my fingernails into his arms. I channeled heat, searing him with my power—the only thing that ever seemed to hurt him. He let go begrudgingly, allowing his men to resume their assault. Cool metal wrapped around my right wrist as the guards lifted me off their ruler.
I could feel the dampening of my magick begin with the application of the first spelled handcuff, just as I’d seen done to Amaya’s sister Seraphina when she was taken to the dungeons. I conjured wind, sending the guard to my left flying through the air before he could fasten the other enchanted cuff. However, as bodies continued to fall it seemed as if even more took their place.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a soldier approaching Lucius, something wild and strange in his eyes. His aura was marked by that of a vampire, like a lion in sheep’s clothing, and I was the only one in the crowd who seemed to see it.
Lucius stared at me as if he’d already won. “Just one word from me and the chain around Daelon’s neck will tighten enough to take his head clean off. For him, death will be gloriously permanent.”
As cool metal coiled around my second wrist, my power began to drain. The sun was long gone, obscured by heavy clouds as tumultuous winds flew around us like angered spirits.
Lucius made a beckoning gesture as I wrestled with the captors who held me firmly in place, and soon some of his men had thrown Daelon at my feet, who was still struggling for air against the cursed metal.
I could hardly believe any of this was happening. I yearned to wake up back in that cave and start the day over.
My power was fighting a war of its own against my binds. I knew I was stronger than this spell, but it was hard to concentrate as Daelon’s life lay in Lucius’s vengeful hands.
“Are you ready to surrender? If not, that’s okay. But your weak, ill-fitting lover won’t be around to witness when you finally succumb to the inevitable.”
I looked to Daelon, his face starting to lose its normal color as his supply of oxygen thinned. Did I have enough strength to break through the binds, kill the guards beside me, and also save Daelon before Lucius could murder him?
I couldn’t bear to admit the answer.
The disguised soldier that hovered close to Lucius met my eyes, his lips forming a smile. His eye was twitching, his energy hungry with the need of someone in the deep, dark pit of addiction. But there was more to him… something almost…
“Nah, cause fuck the King, man,” he said suddenly, laughing with a jarring kind of madness and bravado. In a quick burst of jerky, frenzied movement he reached a chain around Lucius’s neck from behind and pulled sharply as Lucius flailed in confusion and panic.
Soon the other energy vampires were turning on Lucius’s real soldiers. I didn’t understand why or how but I used the opportunity to channel like I’d never done before.
The world fell away, and all I could see was the rocking of waves against an ugly metal dam that spread across the ocean floor. I dove underneath the surface and saw my mothers swimming toward me. I saw the grandparents I’d known only from stories. I saw the High Priestess, reaching for me in billowing white. We all held hands and we chanted, and I could feel that our hands were connected to thousands. Thousands of witches who could never be silenced, could never be bound, and could never be rendered powerless by the shadows again. The metal groaned and braced, cracks growing in strokes of blinding white.
The dam exploded, and I rode the flood back into reality. Magick burst forth from my palms and melted the cuffs into nothing but clear water, and the droplets slid from my wrists and back to the earth from which they came.
I grabbed Daelon’s hand, forcing my power into him as his own binds melted away.
Leave me. Do not lose your second chance, Santana said.
In the commotion of fighting, I’d lost track of her, but her voice in my mind rang clear. It was firm and resolute even as she was consumed by indescribable agony.
I took both of Daelon’s hands in mine, and he somehow shielded us even as he gasped for the air he’d been deprived of for too long. My power flooded through him so vibrantly that I could see it through his shield.
I chanted in a foreign tongue, calling out to the waves to carry us away. Through the grunts and punches and bursts of magick and curses we held onto each other, letting ourselves become blind to all the rest.
The last thing I saw was Lucius slit Santana’s throat, her blood reaching toward us like a flood of its own.
Chapter 23
Tomas’s psychic map dropped us smack dab in the middle of a blizzard on a gently sloping mountainside. The shattering cold of the icy tundra was enough to halt my grief.
“Fucking hell,” Daelon summarized for us both through chattering teeth. He used the remnants of the power I had lent him to conjure warmth, pulling me to his chest as he channeled an invisible blanket to shield our skin from the elements.
I manifested us snow boots, but it was too draining of an act to make anything more. I crumpled into his embrace, tears sliding down my cheeks that felt like liquid fire in comparison to the cold.
“They keep dying… for me…” I choked out over the roaring wind.
“Not just for you,” Daelon said fiercely, grasping my chin and staring into my eyes. “We are all fighting for the future of Aradia. Those witches aren’t just pawns in your game. They’re doing this for themselves—for their own people and lands.”
I wanted to argue, to convince him that I might as well have slit Santana’s throat myself, but I had no more words left to say.
“Focus, Áine,” he said, soft but insistent. His eyes held mine in a trance, leaving nothing in the world but his voice. And that was exactly what I needed to snap out of it. “Take us to the witches of Iciera. Take us to freedom.” He wiped the tears from my cheeks.
