Читать книгу Wandfasted - Laurie Forest - Страница 15

Chapter 7: Affinity

Fain rips open my clothing and pushes his hands hard against my chest as I thrash my head back and forth, desperate for air, my eyes bulging out, straining. Teeth gritted, he increases the pressure and murmurs a spell. A cool current of his water magic flows through me, loosening the net of fire, briefly opening up my lungs.

I greedily breathe in what air I can, panting shallowly in desperation, wondering if Jules is still alive. Anguish rips through me at the thought of him dying, and the fiery net takes hold once more.

Fain leans in close as I fight for breath, terrified.

“What’s your name, love?”

“Tessla,” I rasp out. “Tessla Harrow.”

“Your brother,” he asks me, deadly serious. “How old is he?”

“Eight,” I mouth as my chest heaves and hot tears course down my trembling, fevered face.

“He needs you alive, hmm?” His voice is calm and controlled, his eyes locked hard on mine.

I gasp and nod, my eyes fixed on him.

“Don’t think of anything but him,” he orders. “Can you do that?”

I nod again.

Fain pushes his full weight down onto me as he hisses out the spell through clenched teeth, flowing more of his cooling water magic around my scorched lungs.

Vale runs out of the woods down toward us, his boot heels thudding hard. His expression is one of deep urgency.

I can feel his fire the minute he gets close, and my magic responds with a mind of its own. All the tendrils of power within me orient themselves toward him like a flock of birds, then rush out in a wave of heat.

I cry out as a searing pain scorches the side of my ribs closest to Vale.

Fain holds his palm out stridently. “Stay back! Your affinities match.”

Vales halts, his eyes gone wide, his gaze fixed on me. He swallows, looking rattled. “I know. I can feel it.”

Sweet Ancient One, such fire in him!

His cold visage is a lie. I’m clear now on what lies underneath it—the same molten landscape that lives under my skin.

“She’s Magedrunk,” Fain observes, shooting Vale a grave look. “I don’t know how she’s done it, but she’s layered spells. There’s a river of fire trapped in her. I’ve got to purge her. Now.”

I’m suddenly all too aware of my exposed chest, and a hot, nauseating shame washes over me. As if sensing my discomfort, Vale whips off his cloak and thrusts it toward Fain.

“You care about modesty?” Fain gapes. “Right now?”

“Get it on her,” Vale orders. “I can restrain her then, without inadvertently killing her.”

Fain pulls his hands off me, and my lungs immediately begin to heat and seize up again. I throw my head back, gasping, painfully jostled as Fain hoists me up to slide the cloak around my body. I look at him in desperation, able to pull in only a thin sliver of air, as if from an impossibly narrow straw.

“Vyyn’ys’en’ar,” Vale says, teeth clenched, pointing his wand at me.

Black vines—the same he bound Jules with—flow from his wand and cinch tight around my upper body, holding the cloak in place and restraining my numbed arms as my rearing affinity fire drives the air from my lungs. Fuzzy black circles explode chaotically in my vision as Fain settles my weight against him, pressing his wand into my limp hand, his own hand coming around mine to point the wand toward the woods.

“Scyy’yl’ar,” Fain grinds out, his cheekbone pressed tight against my shuddering face.

Sensation blasts violently through my wand arm as a torrent of flames bursts from the wand’s tip. With a turbulent roar, the fire slams into the edge of the forest, shattering the trunks of two trees, which crash to the ground with the snapping of a thousand branches.

“Sweet Ancient One’s bollocks!” Fain gasps.

Air rushes into my lungs. Steam follows the fire and chugs out of the wand like a kettle at a furious boil. I take in great gulps of air and flex my hand around Fain’s wand as the steam lessens. My vision clears for a moment, but searing heat advances on my lungs again, like a thousand small battering rams, spearing me, straining to destroy me.

Fain clasps his hand around mine and points the wand once more toward the crackling trees.

“Again?” I force out, my voice a scraping, frightened hiss.

“I’m sorry, but yes,” he replies, his voice steely. “I need to force out the rest of the trapped fire with quite a bit of water.” His voice turns grim, his head turning toward mine. “Are you ready?”

I grow afraid at the question. “It hurts,” I tell him, my mouth a trembling grimace.

Another orange explosion from the mountains shatters the air, and I recoil against Fain, a terrified whimper escaping my lips.

“Do you like chocolate?” Fain asks me, his voice gone suddenly gentle.

Vale whips his head toward us to gape at Fain, his face incredulous. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Look at me, sweetling,” Fain says, leaning to the side and locking his eyes on to mine. “I have some lovely chocolate. With cardamom and Ishkart cinnamon. I will make it for you and for your brother. We will sit under the stars and sip it. I promise you. Can you think on that and only that?”

I know how badly this is going to hurt, but I find myself nodding in assent. Fain smiles faintly, then grips my hand like a vise and repeats the spell.

There’s a rumbling whoosh deep in my core. Like a blockage about to be released.

The breathless moment just before an avalanche.

A flood of fire rips through me, and I scream, my body convulsing. A stream of white-hot flame explodes through the wand and ignites several more trees, destroying them. I cry out again as a thousand red-hot swords stab into me, hot knives slashing at my legs.

And then it dissipates, the heat rapidly fleeing. Cool water comes in on its heels. Then colder water. Winter cold. I start to shiver.

“I can move my other arm,” I marvel, pressing it tight against the vines, then shaking out my legs as Fain guides me up, the vines still tight around my torso. “And my legs. I can feel my legs.” I’m dazed by the throbbing echo of pain and the rising cold, hollowing me out. “But I’m getting so cold.”

Fain shoots Vale a worried look.

“Go,” Vale tells him with a glance toward the mountains. “They’ll need help reinforcing the shield.”

“Don’t touch her skin,” Fain warns Vale as he gets up. “And keep her bound. If she reaches your fire, her affinity lines will devour it and she’ll burn out from overexposure. It could kill her.”

“Thank you, Fain,” Vale snipes. “For stating the patently obvious.”

And then Vale lifts me clear off the ground and starts around the left side of the barn at a fast clip, Fain striding off in the opposite direction.