Page 93 of Ruby & Onyx

I feel the deep, rousing flood of power pushing out, out, out…

And then I hear it – the sound of bodies smacking against the stone steps like roaring thunder.

I keep pushing, mentally navigating the staircase, and forcing the power to immobilize any enemy standing in our way. I feel it coursing up the stairs like a flood. The noise continues to grow as bodies topple over, one after the other.

Once my power clears the way, it returns to me, leaving only silence in its wake. My fingers tingle as the heat of power pulsates around me, swaddling me in its warmth until it shrinks back inside. I crawl out of my mind space and then, only then, do I open my eyes.

Everyone is as still as the dead.

Bas and Amin are both staring at me with their mouths hanging open, panting heavily and covered with blood. Even the invisibles wear a look of shock and awe. Guylita is smirking back at me with an all-knowing twinkle in her eyes.

“What just happened?” There’s no way I did this. I couldn’t have wiped out those guards. I couldn’t have… could I?

“I was going to ask you the same thing, love,” says Amin with a stupefied grin.

“You’re incredible,” Bas says with a twinkle in his eyes. “Let’s talk about this later, shall we?”

“Or never?” I refuse to believe that I did this. There’s just… no way. There were enchantments that not even the invisibles could break.

“Don’t be shy, Radya. You’re a badass!” Amin shakes my shoulder excitedly.

“Let’s go before they wake up!” Bas yells.

We continue up the stairs, climbing over an entire army of incapacitated men. I try to count but lose track at fifty-six once my breathing grows heavy and my thighs begin to burn.

When I stop to catch my breath, I stoop over to see if one of the fallen guards is breathing. And, sure enough, he is, which means that he could wake at any moment. The fear of having to attempt that magic again quiets the burning in my lungs long enough for me to keep moving.

Sir Magis wasn’t kidding about how far down these stairs go. It seems endless. And with every step we take without finding the end, I lose another shred of hope.

The fatigue burrows deep until my limbs turn limp, and I collapse onto the steps. No, I can’t give up. Not yet, not here. The guards lying unconscious on the steps could wake at any moment and send me right back into that cell. I don’t think I’d survive on my own down there. The demons of my mind would eat me alive.

With little strength left in my arms, I pull myself up the steps. Slowly, too slowly.

Guylita drops down beside me, sweat glazing her silver hair and soaking through her tattered dress, and says, “Do you want to know how I know that we’ll survive?”

“How?” One more step. I can make it one more step.

“Because the prophecies declared it long ago. You will be the one to unify the continent under a reign of peace.” She huffs, crawling along beside me with all of the strength left in her frail body. “Your story doesn’t end here.”

“She’s right.” Bas turns to find me lying there, weak and useless, and scoops me into his arms as easily as lifting a book from the shelf. “You have a destiny to live up to.”

The nations will bow to you. Gods, it was true. Paul and the lady in the market were speaking of prophecies. Could I be capable of uniting the continent?

Yes, my heart sings. Deep in my bones, I know it to be true. Somehow, it’s written in the very fabric of my being. I am capable.

“You can’t carry me the whole way,” I tell him, having made up my mind. I will conquer these steps on my own.

“I would crawl into hell and fight the demons of the pit ten times over to make sure you’re safe. No pain could compare to that of losing you again.” He hugs me tighter into his chest, and his words – raw with yearning – clang through me. “If I must carry you all the way to Umbra, then so be it.”

My body folds naturally into his, as if we were carved from the same slab. Where his body begins and mine ends becomes a blur, entangled together by an invisible thread. It makes no sense. But now is not the time to understand how it’s possible for me to feel such things with a stranger – a “Mad King,” no less.

“Take Guylita. I’ll walk.” I stare into his eyes, mentally pleading with him to understand as he grips me tighter. Guylita has to make it out of here. If it weren’t for me, she wouldn’t be here at all. The least I can do is make sure that she survives it. “Please.”

He lets me down gently and moves to collect Guylita from the steps without saying another word to me. And somehow, I find the strength to keep moving.

* * *

The door at the top of the steps might as well be painted with a halo of golden light for how majestic it seems at this moment. I let out a cry of celebration that’s nearly eclipsed by my gasps for air.

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