Page 99 of Magick and Lead
I glared at the bars, cursing under my breath. Then something caught my attention out the window. A burning plane, coming in fast.
“Shit. No…”
I drifted to the window, watching with growing alarm as the plane hit the tarmac, tumbling and sliding toward me. I threw myself back, hitting the deck as a deafening sound and impact seemed to shake the whole world. When I opened my eyes again, I saw the entire hallway I’d just walked through had been demolished. The stink of petrol hung in the air and flames crackled everywhere, racing along the walls, quivering along the floor, piling the ceiling with thick black smoke. I tried the cell door again. Despite the damage the hallway had suffered, it held fast. I tried the window again. The bars were solid as rock. I looked back toward the hallway. Flames licked along the walls, coming toward me fast. I was trapped in an oven with no way out. Nothing could break through these walls, these bars.
Nothing, that is, except maybe a dragon.
I fell to my knees and shut my eyes, using the simnal to reach out.
Essa. I’m trapped. The building is burning. I need your help. Can you hear me?
I listened for her response. Groped into the ether with my mind, seaching for her presence.
But she wasn’t there. Her mind was still closed to me.
“Dammit…”
Down the hall, flames quivered and hissed, coming closer.
I shut my eyes again, trying harder.
Essa, please. Please. Please…
45
ESSA
We winged our way through the nighttime sky, over a black ocean glinting with silver-tipped waves. Kortoi in the saddle in front of me, my dagger against his neck. Above, stars flickered in and out of existence as clouds passed in front of them. The only sounds I could hear were the rush of the wind over Othura’s wings and the fast, nervous thudding of my own heart.
I stared out at the point where both sky and sea were swallowed in darkness, feeling a terrible emptiness inside me, as if someone had opened me up, taken all my insides out, and sealed me up again, hollow. But it wasn’t because I was leaving Charlie behind, I told myself.
It certainly wasn’t that…
Or Kortoi’s vision…
Essa.Othura’s voice whispered in my mind.I hear him.
I knew exactly whohimwas.
I don’t want to hear him,I told her.
I think you need to?—
No!
This was hard enough without feeling his voice, or worse, feeling his emotions. Because that’s what the simnal connectionwas—not so much a transmission of words, but of inner feelings. I didn’t want Charlie to know what I felt. How badly he’d hurt me when he betrayed me. How much, in spite of everything, I wanted Othura to wheel around and fly back to him. How much I yearned to throw everything away for him, from my kingdom down to my very self-respect. But I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t throw myself away for a man who’d betrayed me. Lied to me. Killed my sister. Broken my kingdom. I was no little girl, to be jerked around by the kite strings of her stupid heart. I was queen of Maethalia. And even if I wanted to cast myself into the Cauldron for Charlie’s sake, I wouldn’t throw away the people of my kingdom. Not for him. Not for anyone.
He wanted to come and meet up with me in Maethalia. Here, in the starkness of moonlight, I saw just how impossible that was. He was lucky I hadn’t killed him. Reuniting with him would be madness. Even if… even if the vision I’d seen in the scrying bowl didn’t come to pass.
Essa!
The cry ripped through my mind, making me startle. Not Othura’s voice. Charlie’s.
“I told you not to let him through!” I was so upset, I blurted it aloud.
“What’s this?” Kortoi crooned.
“Shut up,” I said. “It doesn’t concern you.”
