Worries of the day blended into my dreams.
I woke from a nightmare, but the screams did not stop.
5
ARIANA
Distant sounds in the night caused me to stir in my sleep. A peculiar scent filled the room, burning my nostrils. The smell familiar yet odd, as if misplaced. While I sluggishly woke, my mind was slow to think. It took me far too long to place the scent. In a mental loop, I just kept wondering what it was, for it did not belong.
When the door to my room flung open, my brain finally snapped awake.
I recognized the distant sounds as screams, and the smell was that of smoke.
Edda, dressed in her silver night robe, ran to me as I jumped out of bed. Her fingers wrapped around my wrist with iron strength, and she yanked me close. Her dark eyes were wild with a mixture of both excitement and fear. An odd buzzing energy surrounded her while I felt nothing but pure terror.
“Do not use your power unless it is absolutely necessary for you to protect yourself, and not for anybody else, not even me.” Her voice took a forceful tone. It was as if the chaos bred some sortof strange dark life into her. “They will likely take you with them. If they do, then they shouldn’t know what you are.”
It was difficult for me to hear her over the screams outside. My breath caught at the sounds. The cries continued to come, again and again, piercing my skull like needles.
I ripped my hand from Edda’s grip and ran to the balcony. The doors crashed open with force.
The sight below choked the breath out of me.
Chaos had been unleashed, pure and terrifying.
Instantly, power ran through me, ready to pour out with a single command fueled by an incredible need to protect. My will melted into the gift stirring deep within. There was a pulsing in my veins, strengthening with each beat of my heart.
Edda’s icy fingers wrapped around my wrist once more. She yanked me to face her.
“Donotrelease your power, child. If you hope to live to help your people, you must refrain.” Her hold was painful enough to leave marks.
For days, this moment was all I could think of. And now that it had finally come, I found it difficult to concentrate on anything but the chaos. Below, Lysians and Bavadrins were running all over in an unorganized mess. Bavadrin blades basked in red blood while Lysian teeth dripped of it. The intruders did not even trigger the city’s alarms. As a result, the Lysians got within the walls with terrifying ease.
I found Erik without even searching for him, for he was wholly impossible to miss. He towered above all others surrounding him. Power dripped from him as if it were too great to ever be contained. He moved with a lethal grace. Angry flames licked everything surrounding him, threatening the entire world, but not him.
I nearly threw up when I grasped what he was.
Fire danced across Erik’s fingers, brilliantly red and terribly violent. He was a conjuror.
A conjuror capable of wielding fire with complete control.
My mouth went dry as a tremble moved through me.
Conjurors were not common, and I certainlyneversuspected that he was one. The thought had not crossed my mind, not even once. What a fool I was. If anyone should have considered the possibility of it, then it should have been me.
Conjuring numbers had dwindled over the years. They were disappearing. Mostly only weak ones remained, a small remnant of the powers our ancestors once had. Yet I knew strong ones could exist, and I had not once considered the Lysian to be one.
The entire time that Erik had been in prison, he had been the one in control. The lashings he received were to ensure that the battle would break out and that his people would be on the right side of things. Fraser’s actions cursed our entire race.
My head spun, and my skin turned clammy.
Erik raised his hand, poised to strike and incinerate the person thrown to the ground before him. With a cold shock, I recognized the Bavadrin whose knees grew wet with blood-slicked earth, the one who raised his arm in a futile effort to protect his face from the angry flames. My heart nearly stopped in my chest.Landin.
Edda must have seen the same thing, for her hand tightened its hold on my wrist and her other gripped my shoulder. Bony fingers dug into my flesh and threatened to dislocate my shoulder if I made any move to use my conjuring gift. She was the only thing keeping me from diving off the balcony altogether. With Edda shackled to me, my only potential tool was my voice. So, without thinking it through or having a plan, I acted on instinct, hoping that it would be enough to spare the life in the Lysian’s hands.
“Erik!” His name was a roar on my lips. Though my voice waslost to most over the sound of the battle between us, his unnaturally keen hearing found it.
The Lysian conjuror stopped mid-assault, angling his head as if to better focus his hearing on me. The fire still danced in his hand.
