AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The blue ones!” Manny said, waving his hands frantically.
It clicked, then, what Manny was trying to do. Killian reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of transportation potion, then offered it to Manny.
“Take us to her.”
Manny stared at the vial, all color draining from his face. “Me?”
Killian nodded. “It has to be you. You know where she is.” He forced the vial into Manny’s hand. “Just close your eyes and picture where she is, and then smash this bottle. I’ll handle the rest.”
Manny’s chest was still rising and falling rapidly, but he nodded and clenched his fist around the vial. Killian tried not to dwell on the way his friend’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the vial, or the terror that seized his own heart.
“Everyone hold on to Manny, and don’t let go until I say so,” he commanded.
Sera wrapped her arm around Manny’s elbow while Killian gripped Manny’s wrist. He met Jaime’s eyes. Elyse’s safety was the one thing they could agree on. Then two men exchanged a look of understanding, and Jaime clasped onto Manny’s jacket, holding the fabric tight.
“Three, two, one,” Killian counted down.
Manny thrust the vial at the floor, and they were gone.
Chapter 37
- Elyse -
Screams erupted all around Elyse as tourists ran for cover. She was still safe behind her shield, but she hadn’t been able to stop Ymaritis from hurting others. Three bodies lay dead in the street—three people Elyse had failed.
She’d tried to stop Ymaritis’s attacks, but he was too fast. He rattled off hex after hex with ease, barely flicking his fingers. Elyse couldn’t counter them all. She’d never seen anyone cast spells with precision and power that rivaled her own. Now utter panic took hold of her as she wondered if she’d met her match. She tried to shove down the fear, but the sweat soaking her dress and the roaring of her heart felt like a mockery.
Hysteria continued to rage around her. Most people had ducked into nearby taverns and inns, where Elyse prayed they would be safe. A few still fumbled around the streets, screaming for their friends and loved ones. Still others just gawked at Elyse and Ymaritis, either too drunk or too stupid to realize the danger they were in.
“Give me the rose or they will continue to die!” Ymaritis shouted from where he stood in the center of the street.
“I can’t do that,” Elyse snarled back, though it pained her. She was desperate for a way to keep the others safe, but giving him the rose would only wreak more havoc.
She lowered her shield for just long enough to send a stunning spell flying toward him, but he easily dissolved the white light. Her shield snapped back into place in time to block an incoming death hex.
Ymaritis wasn’t pulling his punches. He grinned wildly as he sent out nothing but death hexes with no care for whom they hit. Elyse couldn’t do the same. She would only use stunning spells as long as innocent people cowered around them.
“Then you leave me no choice,” Ymaritis growled. His mismatched eyes were doom incarnate as he extended his left hand with sinister purpose.
A woman began to scream—louder and harsher than the other screams—and Elyse scoured the scattered crowd for the source.
Horror struck her, dark and unrelenting. The woman hovered just above the ground, terror on her face. She rose higher and higher, her shrill screams intensifying as she continued to rise.
Ymaritis watched with delight as he levitated the woman higher, her legs kicking frantically to no avail. She crested the rooftops, and Elyse’s blood ran cold with dread. She knew what Ymaritis planned to do. He was going to drop her, and the woman would become nothing more than bloody pulps splattered on the street.
Elyse wouldn’t let that happen—but she couldn’t give him the rose. She shot from the ground, levitating herself up and over the buildings. She flew toward the woman, but Ymaritis kept going. Wind slapped her face as she climbed higher, clawing tears from her eyes. Below her stretched the deep blue expanse of the Staerion Sea and the vast buildings of De Vesalis, but she kept her sights trained on the woman.
The voices below began to fade as Elyse propelled herself higher, lured by the woman’s screams. She soared toward her, fighting to close the space between them and suppressing the bile-infused fear that clotted her throat.
The woman’s ascent slowed. Elyse could see how horribly pale she was, panic having drained her of all blood. She stopped rising altogether, hovering in the air for the briefest moment. It might have been beautiful, the way she floated in the air above a backdrop of ocean and stars, were it not for what came next.
The fabrics of her dress flew up around her, smothering her cries for help as she plummeted toward the ground. Elyse sped toward her, readying herself to grab the woman. She would have to lower her shield for a fraction of a second so she could take hold of her, and then they would be safe.
Elyse flicked her fingers, dropping her shield, and reached to grab the woman’s waist. Just as she made contact, a white light pelted Elyse in her chest, knocking her backwards in the air. She hovered for just a moment, her hair flowing around her, the world seeming to stop altogether.
And then she was falling.
Numbness encapsulated her. She couldn’t even feel the rush of air that assaulted her as she descended with harrowing speed. She could feel nothing except visceral, aching dread.
