Wilde's Fire (Darkness Falls #1) (31 page)

A hound made it past Arland and me. Standing on all fours in front of her, fur raised on its haunches, the daemon sniffs her skin and snarls.

It’s going to kill my sister.

“Arland!” I call, ready to run to Brit.

He stabs his sword through the chest of a coscartha. “You cannot go to her. They will kill you both. You have to find the magic.”

My little sister’s face is soaked with tears, bottom lip quivering. Flanna and Cadman release arrow after arrow into the daemons. My mother whispers to the trees. My love is nearly overrun by daemons.

God, my family needs you—
I
need you—please, help us.

Confidence blankets me, warming my skin from head to toe. I see each daemon as a target, and somehow I hear their horrible thoughts. They are eager to kill us.

I’m now aware of how each one is going to die;
I’m
going to kill them.

Energy pulses at my fingers. My body ignites in uncontrollable blue flames, different from the golden flames when I kissed Arland, more powerful, more willing to fight … more willing to kill.

“Stop,” I yell again.

Everyone pauses—the daemons, Arland, Brit, Mom, Flanna, and Cadman—and sets their attention on me. Above our heads, a patch of Darkness breaks open, allowing the sun to shine through and illuminate the trees and underbrush. The drooping leaves and bushes spring to life, as they did between the training facility and the base, earlier. My friends, family, and enemies stare at the light in the sky.

Mom smiles and nods.

The daemons growl.

Everything buzzes with the electricity of life. Little sprite-sized beings peel themselves from trees and rise out of the ground. They come out of everything—everywhere—and fill the air all around us with bright lights. The beings are small and have little wings on their backs. All of them are different shapes; some are like the bark of trees, others like blades of grass, leaves, and they are all translucent.

They fly through the war-torn forest and bump into each other as they wake from what was certainly a very long nap. Some of them swirl around our bodies, as though trying to protect us. No one moves, other than the little beings. I get lost in their beauty, the magic of it all, and reach my finger out to touch one. A human-like face appears in the brightly colored leaf in front of me.

I hold my breath.

My finger warms as it nears her light.

She smiles, but moves away and fades back into the leaf before I reach her. Swarms of them gather in front of me, and they glance at each other, then me; they seem to be begging for direction.

I point toward the daemons. “Go, attack them … use fire!”

The beings transform from pieces of the forest into brilliant forms of blue fire. They dart around us, strike through our enemies, and light them in flames. The smell of burning flesh filling the air is almost impossible to inhale, but I push through.

I walk toward the hound still dazed by the magic, yet still snarling at my sister. Raising the hilt of the sword over my head, I gather all my strength, then stab the blade into his back.

He falls and lets out a loud growl as he dies.

Brit and I meet eyes.

“Get back on the horse.” My voice resonates with confidence.

I rush back to Arland, then take his hand in mine. “I love you, too.”

From the corner of my eye, I see him smile.

Our flames burn even brighter. I’m surer now than ever that we
are
going to be okay. I let go of Arland’s hand, so we can march side-by-side into the next wave of daemons. Together, we strike and kill them with ease. The golden light swirls around us, but our bodies glow blue. The fire from our swords transfers into the daemons, allowing us to advance deeper and deeper into the army.

Every single one of these monsters will die tonight. I no longer fear them. I feel no urge to retreat, just the urge to kill the beasts that have destroyed my world, my father, Arland’s mother, and so many others.

Big, black hounds lunge at us from all directions, teeth as long as my fingers protruding from their foaming jowls. The sprites take down most of the hounds in mid-air, before they can attack us. The few that get through the magic, Arland and I slaughter with our swords. More arrows fly over our heads and aid us, but they are not as efficient as Arland and I are together.

I slay the last daemon with my sword, slicing straight through its neck. I stand looking, listening for the next beast to attack, but the coscarthas have stopped shrieking from the fire, the hounds have all stopped jumping at us.

Arland and I are left standing in the middle of the forest, in a single patch of sunlight, among hundreds of burning daemon carcasses.

“We should leave now,” Arland says, triggering my vision again.

I push him behind me as a hound lunges out of the tall grasses to attack us from the right. My sword impales the creature’s rib cage from underneath as it tries to kill Arland. Fire erupts inside the hound, effectively taking its life.

I turn to Arland, proudly. “Now, we can go.”

He cups my face in his hands. “You have now saved my life twice. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.”

“As long as we’re both safe, does it matter?”

Everyone stares at us, mouths open, eyes wide.

Arland helps me onto Mirain’s back, then pats her on the hindquarters. “Take her home, girl.”

Brit wraps her arms around me. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” she says.

I grasp her hand and squeeze. “As soon as we get somewhere safe.”

Fighting something so evil, so vile, and knowing we overcame it, is exciting. No one was injured or killed, other than the creatures that needed to die.

I look over my shoulder to the scene of my first battle; the patch of daylight turns back to Darkness.

We have a lot more fighting to do.

rland and I steal glances at one another while we ride in silence. I’m happy my mom and Brit are here, but right now, I want nothing more than some alone time with him.

We stop in front of what appears to be more woods.

“Where are we?” Brit asks, teeth chattering.

“Nochtann.” Flanna mutters the magical word, causing the stable doors to swing open.

Looking over my shoulder, I watch Brit’s eyes widen.

She sucks in a breath. “Cool.”

I return my gaze forward. “That’s just the beginning.”

She hugs me tighter.

We ride the horses into their stalls. I help Brit down, then slide from Mirain. “Thank you, Mirain. Next time, try not throwing my sister from your back.”

Brit brushes Mirain with me. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

My sister takes my hands in hers. “For loving me enough to save my life.”

“Killing the daemon was nothing.” Although it
was
something; it was scary, that’s what it was.

Tears well in Brit’s bloodshot eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. “I’m not talking about right now, but thank you for that, too. I’m talking about weeks ago, when you didn’t know what you were saving me from. You willingly gave up your life to save me.”

“I would do it again.” I wrap my arms around her.

“I love you, Kate.”

“I love you, too.”

Arland walks into Mirain’s stall, then stands next to me.

Sniffling, I step back. “Brit, this is Arland.”

She wipes her cheeks, but tears keep falling. “Hi, Arland. You better be good to my sister.”

He smiles at her. “Of course, I will be good to her.”

Arland puts his arm around my waist, his warmth radiating through me. “Kate, I will take care of the horses. You should spend time with your family.”

I turn from my sister into Arland’s embrace. He rests his hands on my lower back and clasps his fingers.

“Thank you for doing this,” I say.

He squeezes me against him. “You are welcome, but I did not have much to do with it. The magic was all you.”

I stare, deeply, into his emerald eyes. “You had everything to do with it.”

Arland laughs, kisses my cheek, then we separate.

It’s hard to walk away from him, but I do.

The onslaught of hugs, laughter, and tears my mom and Brit have for me seems never-ending. The three of us don’t speak; we just keep our heads buried on each other’s shoulders.

There are tons of things I need to ask my mom—things I’m upset by—but I’m just so happy she’s here.

She wipes her red nose, looks at Arland in the stalls, then at me, smiles, then hugs me again … Mom’s a bigger wreck than I’ve been.

Arland finishes with the horses, and our eyes meet. He joins Flanna and Cadman in an acknowledgment that my reunion will not end soon, and they begin a conversation.

Now that he’s seen
why
Arland protects me, I’m sure Cadman has about a million questions. Arland doesn’t protect me just because he’s my Coimeádaí; he protects me for love, and for my magic.

He is more than likely instructing Cadman not to tell the others about what he witnessed this evening, which reminds me … .

I step back from Brit and Mom. “Arland?”

He stops talking and hurries to me. Taking my hands in his, Arland wears a look that says he’d desperately like to run away with me right now. “Is everything okay?”

“We were glowing when we passed the guards at the perimeter. Should you speak with them, too?”

“I will have Lann send them a message to speak to me as soon as they return from their posts.”

Brit wraps her arm around my neck, interrupting Arland and me. “You were on fire, Kate, not glowing!”

“She wasn’t on fire.” Mom shakes her head. “Her essence was filled with an old magic that’s been sleeping for a long time. In all my months researching what it was the Seer meant about you being Light to Darkness, I never dreamed you would actually
be
Light.” She clasps her hands in front of her, her voice full of pride.

Without releasing Arland’s hand, I turn to face my mom. “Arland said something similar, but I don’t think I am the Light, Mom. For some reason, the Light has chosen to listen to me.”

Her gaze darts between Arland and me. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. I’m very happy to see you have met Arland, son of my dear friend Kimball. The two of you were impressive out there. Now, where is Brad?”

My moment of happiness is gone; my shoulders slump. “He’s not well, Mom. The coscarthas attacked him.”

A crease forms in the center of her forehead. “Tell me what happened.”

Mom’s facial expressions range from anger to concern, compassion to intrigue, and finally to love while I explain the events from the time I’ve been here. When I finish, she remains quiet for a few moments, then snaps her fingers. “We’ll have to try healing him using old magic. It’s not going to be easy, if you don’t know how to control it, but we will do everything we can.”

In the few minutes she’s been listening to me, she comes up with a plan to heal Brad’s wounds and get him home. I understand why Arland said she was one of Encardia’s greatest Healers. “I hope it works, Mom. You know, the first morning we were here, Brad said he didn’t believe we’d traveled into a different world, and he wanted to escape back home. It’s funny how he knew we had to escape here, but he didn’t really believe we had gone anywhere.”