The Evensong (52 page)

“
Omar, stop it! STOP IT!”

He was deaf to anything I said, staring at Linden’s shirt as it turned bloodier. I bit my lip, drawing blood from the old wound, and cursed myself for not keeping up my strength. Then another sound brought me to look at Linden again; it was no longer the sound of pain. I could see he was smiling, baring his teeth, which looked different than normal. Then I realized he was laughing.

Omar paused for only a second to stare at him. Then he raised the knife, aiming for the chest, and just pushing in the tip when Linden grabbed his wrist. He buried the knife deeper into himself.

“Keep trying,” he said.

Both of them might have kept going, but I threw out my hand, again willing to break a rule. It was a barely conscious thought for me, and I felt the moist air shift as I used my will. Omar’s body bent with the force of it, and he hit the opposite wall hard. He’d dropped the knife halfway, and it lay in pieces on the rocks.

I was pushed back as well, and I took a huge breath, feeling the buzz of it in my body. What had just happened? My hands were shaking, and I lowered the one I’d used. It was tingling as if it were asleep. Linden—now Morcant—looked at me with equal surprise, and then smiled slowly. He mouthed my true name as I stood and stumbled towards him. I just wanted to hold him, to make sure he was all right. Across the room, Omar bellowed as he stood, and I rounded on him without thinking. Again I used this foreign amount of will on him, holding him in place as I approached. He stared at me with a mixture of fear and surprise, but I didn’t plan on using this on him. I had no control, and I didn’t know what I was about to do. I acted on what I felt like doing. My fists seemed small, but against his face they did enough damage.

I took out what anger I had for him. It wasn’t much with the condition I was in, but I stopped and grabbed his hair, forcing him to look at me.

“Why did you have to do this?” I whispered fiercely. “You just—you ruined
everything.
For everyone.”

“I know,” he mumbled past his swollen lip. “I know . . .”

The loud splash of water behind me caught my attention first, and burning hands closed on my shoulders, wrenching me away. Besides the loud hissing all around me, I heard a cracking voice roaring.

“
I’ll burn you like the rest of them! You’ll burn at the pyre by my hands!”

I could feel his hands burning any place he touched me, and I only tried to shield my face as he clawed at me. Another effortless thrust, and I let my power loose on him. He shrieked as he was thrown off me and into Morcant as he pushed away from the wall of rock. Even with blood flowing from most of his chest, he moved as if nothing was wrong.

I pushed myself up off the ground, turning to watch. Omar and I both remained still as we stared. There didn’t seem to be much movement coming from the two Elementals; they were partially hidden behind a whirl of water, flames and steam. I blinked the stinging water from my eyes, unable to look away. Aidan’s arms were consumed with flames as he lashed out. Even the constant downpour of water over him didn’t help. Morcant moved less aggressively, throwing his arms out as water followed. Aidan’s shirt had burned away and the debris was quickly washed off. He never burned, but I could see some of Morcant’s skin turned red, and some of his clothing was charred. He was throwing punches that came with hard waves, and I braced myself when I saw the water rising. Aidan yelled, sounding almost inhuman, before his voice abruptly stopped. The ocean rushed up towards me, and I instinctively held my hands in front of me. I didn’t mean to do anything, and I heard the rush of water around me rather than over me. I opened my eyes hesitantly to see the water bending around me. When I dropped my hands, I was instantly soaked.

I was fine, but beside me, Omar was spluttering and holding his arm while the ocean receded. I looked back towards Morcant, immediately noticing Aidan had fallen. Morcant held him by the shoulders as he shrieked.

“They’ll come after you! No one wants the line ruined by your
filth!
” His blood splattered over his chin as he bared his teeth. They were like Morcant’s, and a thrill of fear shot up my spine.

“Maybe they will,” Morcant growled. “Who cares? They want you dead anyway.”

Aidan barked out a shrill laugh, earning him a heavy blow to the face. I heard his nose crack, and his complexion was marred with more blood.

“They don’t want witches. They’ll start another trial—1692 all over again,” Aidan went on, his head lolling. “My family will find her—they’ll burn them all. You can watch her screaming on the stake and do
nothing
to stop it.”

Morcant put a hand on Aidan’s forehead, about to push him down, but he somehow slipped. Aidan dodged out of his way, hands extended towards me across the cave. I saw the rapid change from human to Elemental in a second. With yellow eyes wide, teeth bared, and red-charred, he was nothing but vulcani with all his attention focused on me. I briefly wondered if this is how he had appeared to Alysana. While his skin seeped fire, I wondered how this would feel. Would I really die right away, or feel nothing until later?

His normal aura was broken along with his façade, resulting in a dizzying burst of power. It continued to shoot towards me, along with a bright cloud of flames. I just sat there, frozen and oblivious to Morcant yelling under the roar of fire. He had a grip on one of Aidan’s arms, and he jerked as hard as he could, nails leaving deep scratches. It wasn’t enough. I closed my eyes for a moment, feeling the heat on my face and a hard shove against my side. I couldn’t keep my balance, and I fell over with the force. Omar’s hand just left my arm when I glanced up. The fire was inches from his face, and I shielded my eyes.

I saw nothing but the bright flames behind my eyelids. I couldn’t force myself to look otherwise. I only felt the heat increase, and I heard Aidan’s strange mix of screaming and howling. There was another thud behind me and a heavy, disturbing smell. I peeked between my fingers at Aidan. He clawed the ground, trying to escape Morcant’s grip. He wasn’t afraid of him, just livid at the sight of me. Morcant didn’t let go, and he reached over Aidan’s shoulder to clap his hand over his mouth.  It muffled the sound for a moment, and then it was stifled completely as Aidan’s mouth filled with water. Morcant kept such a tight grip on him, he couldn’t get away. I could see his throat working as he swallowed, but not fast enough. Water came from his nose, and his eyes reddened. His body thrashed and flailed repeatedly until he was barely jerking, and then he was completely still. I watched his body slowly go limp, and the yellow of his eyes was doused to a dull gray.

Morcant held him for a few seconds longer, and then let go. Aidan fell heavily and didn’t move. Morcant stood and stared at the body for a moment before looking at me. He suddenly shuddered as if remembering his pain, and started to stagger my way. Carefully, I began to push myself up, and I glanced behind me.

“No—” Morcant tried to stop me, but I had already seen. I pressed my hands to my mouth, wanting to be sick and wanting to scream at the same time. Omar’s body lay there—just his body, because he couldn’t be alive. Every part of him was burnt black; had I not known he was behind him, I wouldn’t have recognized him.

I tasted the bile in the back of my throat as Morcant tried to block the sight from me. I couldn’t figure out why my eyes were filling with tears. I hated him, didn’t I? Still, seeing him like that made my stomach clench, and I choked on my own sobbing.

“Talise—Talise, listen,” Morcant was saying quietly as I broke down. “I’m sorry . . . I’m so sorry. I did what I could to stop it.”

Of course I didn’t blame him, and I hoped he didn’t think that, but I couldn’t even speak at the moment. I was staring at his bloody shirt and the burned clothing, the reddened skin underneath, and the ash blowing off of the body in the corner. It was too much.

I stood and pushed by Morcant, going towards Aidan. I wanted to do something—anything—to kill off this feeling. I kicked at his body even though it hurt to do it. I wanted to revel in the sight of his crooked nose and the blood on his face. Crouching next to him, I weakly beat my fists against him.

“Talise, stop,” Morcant said from behind me. “He’s dead.” I knew that. It still didn’t stop me. “Riley, he’s gone!”

Hearing my own name grounded me a little, and I stopped moving, just hunched over myself. I felt Morcant’s hands at my back as he pulled me to him. I buried my hands in his hair and held on.

“It’s all right,” he said quietly. “We’re done.”

Those were the last words I heard from him as my eyes rolled back into blessed darkness.

IN
LIFE

I fought off consciousness as long as I could. My sleep was dreamless, which I preferred to the cold white world I kept waking up to. It was hardly being awake; I could barely see, and everything was muddled and confusing. It was when the worst of it passed that I was slowly beginning to wake.

I squinted against the bright light, trying to raise my hand to my eyes. I was weaker than I thought; my arm felt like lead, so I stopped. When I could focus properly I saw I was lying in a bed I didn’t know in an equally unfamiliar room. Certain things about it hinted to my whereabouts: the very clean sheets, the gown I was in, and the IV in my arm. This was a hospital.

Panic set in after a minute and I tried to sit up, gasping when I felt the pain in my ribs. I tried to relax, and I was just looking around for a buzzer when the door opened. The nurse in purple scrubs looked at me with wide eyes as she clutched a chart to her chest.

“Oh! Oh sweetheart, you’re awake,” she gushed.

“Where—” I tried to speak, but my throat was so dry. The nurse hurriedly grabbed a plastic cup from the counter and filled it with water from a nearby pitcher. She handed it to me and urged me to drink, though slowly.

“How long have you been awake, Riley?” she asked while I tried not to guzzle.

“A few minutes,” I replied when I could.

“Feeling okay?”

“Kind of weak,” I admitted. She said that was expected after what I’d been through. I wondered what exactly she knew . . .

“Um . . . is there anyone here that knows me?” I asked after a second.

She laughed heartily as she wrote on my chart. “You didn’t think your hubby would be here for you?”

I looked at her in complete confusion, and glanced down at my hands. No ring; so I hadn’t missed an important detail. I decided to play along for now.

“Oh—oh, good,” I said.

“He just ran down to the cafeteria for coffee. I’ll let him know you’re awake,” she beamed as she backed out of the room. I nodded, smiling meekly. I hoped I hadn’t made up all that had happened recently. I didn’t even know how long I’d been here.

I waited in extreme impatience, continually sipping my water. If I hadn’t made everything up, I wondered what had happened. When the memories of what I assumed came back to me, I closed my eyes for a second, willing them away. There were some things I didn’t want to think about.

I heard his voice before I saw him. My heart picked up speed as I looked towards the window facing the hall. The shades were down, but I could still see shapes moving between the lines. A darker figure passed, and as the doorknob turned, I mentally prepared myself.

It was almost strange to see Linden as just Linden. I half expected him to have the pinning gaze and the long nails, but he didn’t. He looked the same in a beat-up old hoodie and the multitude of belts. When I remembered the last time I’d seen him, he should have been dead.

“Hey,” he smiled as he put his cup of coffee down. He held another one, and he brought it to me along with a small bag of saltines. “They said you couldn’t eat much else, but it’s something right?”

I stared at the bag and the cup full of a pale blue liquid. I set it all down on the table next to the bed and pulled Linden down beside me. He sat there as I held him tightly.

“You aren’t dead,” I said, looking up at him.

He laughed and shook his head. “Nah, that happened once already. I’m fine.” He sobered a little, his fingers trailing down my cheek. “I’m just glad you’re okay. Everyone said you would be, but still. It was . . . it was scary.”

I just stared at him, looking closely at his face. There was no sign of any kind of fight for him, and here I was planted in a hospital. Still, I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down, kissing him as hard as my lips would allow. He returned it just as fiercely for a moment, and then pulled away.

“Sorry—need to be delicate,” he said, referring to my injuries.

“How did you heal so fast?” I asked quietly.

He glanced at the door before going on. “I let auctorita do its thing. When we were in the cave, I mean. So I was able to heal pretty fast after that.”

I nodded vaguely, remembering the events that took place. “What did you do with—with the bodies?”

“The other vulcani took care of Aidan,” he replied darkly. “And we took Omar to Rene.”

The mention of the name made my eyes prickle, and Linden immediately hugged me. “Don’t think about it right now. It’s taken care of. Just know that he was buried the right way.”

Right or wrong way, it was still a blow I wasn’t ready to handle yet. I let the grief hit me for five more seconds, and then I tried to forget it for now. We could discuss everything later.