Everblaze by Shannon Messenger
His smug smile was the only answer he gave.
“What do you want with Silveny?” she demanded, wishing Grady hadn’t used up all the rocks to throw at him.
“A creature the Council will do anything to keep alive?” Brant asked. “Whatever would I do with that?”
Before Sophie could reply, Brant’s fist flew up, punching himself in the face. He stumbled backward, crashing into the wall—and when he righted himself there were red streams dripping down his scarred chin.
“I wouldn’t do that again if I were you,” he warned Grady.
“Or else what?” Grady asked, making Brant elbow himself in the stomach so hard he doubled over. “You’re not fooling anyone, Brant. I’ve seen the madness you’re hiding beneath the surface. I’ve watched you clawing at the walls and slithering on your belly and collapsed in a puddle of your own drool.”
Brant’s teeth were smeared with red as he smiled. “Or maybe I just wanted to see if you’d mop up my spit!”
That earned him two more self-punches to the face, but the pain only made him laugh.
“Does that make you feel better, Grady?”
“Nothing will ever make me feel better!” Grady snarled. “You’ve stolen everything—”
“EVERYTHING WAS STOLEN FROM ME!” The outburst left Brant panting for breath, and he clutched his chest, staring at the pale, empty sky. “All I ever wanted was to take my rightful place in society. But the Council wouldn’t let me. Because they were too scared of this.”
He snapped his fingers and red-orange flames sparked across his hand, crawling over his skin.
“Look at you both cower!” he said as held his palm out to them. “Can’t you see the beauty of it? This is a gift.”
“Fire destroys everything it touches,” Sophie reminded him as she watched the flames flicker and dance.
“Not me.” He waved his hand, showing how the skin wasn’t melting.
“Yes it did. I saw the letters you wrote Jolie. I know how much you loved her.”
“I did.” He curled his fingers into a fist, snuffing out the flames. “But the Council and the Black Swan poisoned her against me.”
“She wasn’t against you,” Sophie told him. “I read her journal. She defended you—even at the end, when she knew what you were.”
“What I am,” Brant said calmly, “is a visionary!”
“No—you’re a murderer!” Grady shouted. “And I won’t let you get away with it anymore.”
“I’d like to see you stop me.”
Before Sophie could blink, Brant curled his fingers at the sky and hissed some sort of word, drawing down a basketball-size sphere of Everblaze.
“Enough,” Grady told him, his voice unnaturally calm as Brant froze like someone had just hit the pause button.
The Everblaze hovered above Brant’s palm like a tiny burning star, bathing him in the flickering neon yellow glow.
“Put it out,” Grady demanded.
Brant managed a crooked smirk back at him. “I’d like to see you make me.”
“Oh, I can.”
Brant’s smirk morphed into horror as his free arm rose in a slow, deliberate motion and shoved his hand into the center of the ball of Everblaze.
“Stop!” Sophie shouted as Brant screamed.
“He can stop it himself,” Grady told her. “He just has to put out the flame.”
“Never,” Brant spit through gritted teeth.
“THEN YOU CAN BURN!”
Brant’s screams grew louder and Sophie covered her ears—but she could still hear the agonizing wails echoing off the rock face. And the rotten, sickeningly sweet smell of burning flesh was inescapable.
“Please, Grady,” Sophie begged.
But Grady didn’t so much as flinch.
It wasn’t until she squeezed his arm and whispered, “Jolie wouldn’t want this,” that he lowered his head and Brant’s screams faded into muffled whimpers.
“You should go, Sophie,” Grady told her as his whole body started to shake.
“Not without you,”
“I have to finish this first.”
“How?” she asked him. “If you don’t stop now, you’ll end up just like him.”
“Listen to her,” Brant mumbled, slowly pulling himself to his feet. Sophie avoided looking at his hand—not wanting to see the damage the Everblaze had done. “She’s such a smart little weapon.”
“I’m not a weapon!” Sophie snapped.
“Not anymore,” Brant agreed, whipping his arm and launching the Everblaze at her head.
Sophie dropped to her stomach, feeling the edges of her hair singe from the heat as the fireball streaked above her—missing her by inches.
She covered her face, preparing for a second attack, but Brant had gone quiet.
Everything was silent—except the tongues of yellow flame licking across the jagged rock wall behind her, spreading into a wild blaze.
“Grady?” Sophie shouted, realizing he was no longer beside her.
She pulled herself to her feet, squinting through the thick smoke to spot two figures standing near the edge of the cliff.
“Stop!” Sophie screamed, racing to Grady’s side.
He froze her before she could reach him, stopping her midlunge, like she’d been grabbed by an alien tractor beam. “You don’t want to do this, Dad.”
“No,” he agreed. “But I have to. It’s the only way to keep you safe.”
Brant inched another step forward, sending a shower of pebbles toppling over the edge.
“Stop!” Sophie screamed again. “Just let the Council take him away.”
“So he can end up like Fintan? They’ll never do what needs to be done. And he’ll find a way to burn again.”
“I can burn now!” Brant hissed a command and Everblaze snaked to his side, swirling into a massive fireball above them. “Let me go or I’ll make it rain on all of us.”
“You’ll never get the chance,” Grady promised.
“Oh, I will.” The fireball sank lower, making Grady duck. “Just give me a reason, Grady, and we all go up in flames—and moving Sophie counts,” he added, dropping the fire lower still, forcing Grady to duck. “If she goes, we all go. Or you can admit you’ve lost and let me go free.”
“I can make you want to surrender,” Grady snapped back.
“Can you?” He laughed as Grady gasped and rubbed his head. “Looks like you can’t. Guess that’s an advantage to having a few cracks in the old brain.”
“I will never let you go, Brant.”
“Well, then you can sacrifice another daughter. The choice is up to you.”
No—Sophie realized. It was up to her.
If she let Grady kill Brant she’d lose him in the process, and that was a risk she wasn’t willing to take. She had to make him change his mind, and she was pretty sure she knew how—assuming Bronte was right about the heart being the secret to inflicting.
She closed her eyes, trying to tune out the chaos and focus on her memories of love. Her brain didn’t want to focus, but she let her heart swell with feelings, the warm burst when Grady and Edaline had told her they loved her, the trust and faith she’d felt the day they adopted her, and the sweet relief of the moment she’d first called them Mom and Dad. She felt her love for her human family, too, all the smiles and kisses and late-night back rubs to help her sleep. She could feel the last hug she gave them before she said goodbye forever. And the gentle strength of Fitz’s shoulder as he’d held her and let her cry and promised her everything would be okay. She could feel herself clinging to Dex as they escaped together, and the pride and gratitude she’d felt as she watched Keefe fight to protect her outside the dark, treacherous cave. She even felt the calm respect for Biana, who always came back, no matter how much they’d fought, and the comfort and happiness Silveny and Iggy had brought into her life.
Each feeling rushed through her like a summer breeze, and she swirled them together, letting them spin into a mental storm. The energy was
So powerful.
It was the most powerful force she’d ever felt. And as it surged inside her mind, she knew nothing could hold it back—certainly not a silly circle of metal.
She took a deep breath, readying her body to grab Grady as soon as his mesmer was lifted. Then she opened her eyes and shoved the warm energy out of her mind.
Grady groaned as the wave hit him, and Sophie tackled him, rolling him away as the fireball crashed down beside them.
She lost sight of Brant in the wall of flames, but she had bigger problems to worry about. Grady had gone limp in her arms, and his cloak was already burning.
She tore off the flaming fabric and tossed it away, then grabbed Grady’s arms and dragged him as fast as she could move him. The Everblaze was spreading, but the winds were in her favor, and she dropped him behind a giant boulder, checking his pulse and making sure he was still breathing.
“You should’ve let him kill me.”
Sophie spun around to find Brant standing behind her, his blood-streaked face as wild as the fire behind him.
One of his hands was gone. The singed stump was wrapped in orange cloth he’d torn from his robe. The other hand controlled another burning sphere of Everblaze.
His scarred, bloody lip curled with a smile as he told her, “Now I get to finish this.”
SIXTY-FOUR
IS THAT REALLY WHAT YOU want?” Sophie shouted as Brant raised his arm to hurl the Everblaze. “Your own parents abandoned you—but Grady never did. Is this how you repay him?”
“It’s how he repaid me,” he said, showing her his blackened stump. “But maybe I should let him live. Then he can wake up every day knowing he lay there useless as I killed another of his daughters.”
Sophie’s hands curled into fists, feeling cold metal bite into her fingers.
Her ring.
She pressed the panic switch, not sure how Dex was going to help her—if he could even find her. But she was too drained to inflict again. Calling for help was the only play she had left.
Well, she did have one other—but it might be the stupidest thing she’d ever done.
“You don’t want to kill me,” she whispered, taking a slow step away from Grady to keep him safer.
“No, I really think I do.”
“You don’t. If you did, I’d already be dead. You had plenty of chances when I was your hostage.”
“I had orders not to kill you.”
“Orders?” Sophie asked, stunned to realize Brant wasn’t the leader. “From Fintan? Or was it the ogres?”
“Nice try. And stop trying to distract me—it won’t save your life.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Sophie asked, hoping she was right about why he was hesitating.
She held out her arms, fighting the urge to cower and close her eyes.
Brant didn’t move.
“You can’t, can you?” she asked, lowering her arms back to her sides. She took a shaky breath as she asked, “It’s because I remind you of her, isn’t it?”
“No!” Brant shouted, but his face said otherwise.
And for once Sophie was glad she reminded someone of Jolie.
“I know you didn’t mean to kill her, Brant. It was a horrible, tragic accident. Don’t make the same mistake again. Let me live this time—like you wish you could’ve done for her.”
For a long second Brant looked tempted.
Then he whipped back his arm and screamed, “If she doesn’t get to live—no one does!”
“That’s what you think!” Dex shouted, charging out of the smoke and tackling Brant before he could launch his attack.
They rolled across the uneven ground as the fireball crashed behind them, igniting the rocky soil and forming another fire line.
“Dex, get out of there!” Sophie screamed as she grabbed Grady and tried to shake him awake.
Whatever she’d done with the Inflicting had really knocked him out, leaving her no choice but to drag him as far from the fire as she could—which was only another hundred feet. Then she reached the sheer edge of a cliff.
“I’m serious, Dex, we have to go—now!”
“Do you?” Brant asked, parting the wall of Everblaze so he could walk through—and dragging Dex by the throat with his good hand. “Lovely gift you’ve brought me. A chance to take care of both the kids that got away. Remember me, boy?” he asked as his hand turned red-hot, searing Dex’s neck.
Dex eyes watered and his body shook from the pain, but he didn’t scream.
“So here we are again, Sophie,” Brant said, shoving Dex in front of him. “What is this—the third time today? Are you as weary of the games as I am?”
“No—I just got here,” Dex answered for her. “Let’s keep playing.”
Brant rewarded him by burning Dex’s cheek, leaving a finger-shaped blister.
“Ready to lie down and die yet?” Brant asked him.
“Not even close.” Dex shifted his feet to steady his balance. Then he spun around and punched Brant.
It was a solid punch—square in the jaw. Still, Sophie was surprised when Brant toppled backward, rolling head over feet into the neon yellow flames.
“Grab his arms!” Sophie shouted, hardly believing she was saving Brant as she ran to the fire line and tried to drag him free.
Dex stumbled over, and together they pulled Brant’s thrashing body from the flames. He wasn’t as scorched as Sophie thought he would be—but he didn’t look good. His skin was covered in blisters and boils and he could barely breathe from all the coughing and wheezing.
So the last thing Sophie expected him to say was, “Will one of you hand me the leaping crystal from my inner pocket? My arms are a bit immobilized at the moment.”
Dex snorted. “Like we’re going to do that.”
Brant laughed, the same breathy, haunting laugh that had filled Sophie’s nightmares for weeks. “I think you will. I have information you need—and there’s only one way I’ll share it.”
“There’s nothing we need to know that badly,” Sophie promised. She was dying to find out if he knew about the ogres or the missing dwarves—but that information could wait.
“Even if it’s about your friends?” Brant asked. “The ones who think they’re setting up an ambush for us today—if you’re wondering who I mean.”
“How do you know about that?” Sophie shouted, pressing him harder into the ground.
Brant coughed and wheezed in her face as he told her, “First, give me the crystal.”
“He’s just saying that so you’ll let him go,” Dex argued as Sophie bit her lip.
“Yes, but it’s also the truth,” Brant promised. “And if you hurry, you might still have time to save them. But only if you let. Me. Go.”
“You can’t trust him,” Dex warned her, and Sophie knew he was right.
But the fact that Brant even knew about the ambush proved he knew something—and she couldn’t waste any more time thinking about it. The ambush was happening now, and the Everblaze was closing in around them.
“Pin his wrists,” she ordered Dex, making sure Brant couldn’t grab her or toss her into the flames as she peeled back the scorched fabric over his chest, revealing a tattered pocket with a slim wand crowned with a green crystal.
“You could’ve used this the second we got here,” she realized, studying the strange pathfinder, wondering where the crystal led. “But you stayed to face us.”
“I wanted revenge,” he growled, triggering another round of coughs and hacking.
“And it cost you your hand.” She leaned closer, so her face was directly over his. “I will find you again—and next time you won’t get away.”
He coughed a wheezy laugh. “Where I’m going you’ll never be able to follow. Now. My crystal?”
Dex tightened his hold on Brant’s wrists as Sophie placed the pathfinder in his blistered palm. Before she let go, she ordered, “Tell me what you know about the ambush.”
B
“How do you know that?” Sophie demanded.
“We have many ways. Just like we have many dwarves hiding in the mountain—far more than the Black Swan will be bringing. And they have orders to kill everyone waiting for them.”
The words were still on his lips when he bucked his body, throwing Sophie and Dex backward. He groaned in agony as he raised the crystal to create a faint path. But his lips were smiling as he rolled into the light, vanishing in a vivid green flash.
“Come on,” Dex said as he offered Sophie a helping hand. “We have to get Grady out of here.”
“No—I have to go warn the others.”
“Then I’m going with you. We’ll drop Grady at home and then—”
“There’s no time. You heard him—we might already be too late.”
“Okay . . . then . . . tell me where to find them and I’ll go while you—”
“I’ll have to teleport there—if I can even remember what the cave looks like. I don’t know if I ever saw a picture of it and I—wait.”
She patted her pockets, never so happy to feel her iPod. And when she touched the screen it sprang instantly to life.
“Green Boots Cave,” she whispered as she punched the letters into a search and dozens of pictures of the disturbing scene scrolled across her screen.
“This is all I need. I’ll teleport there while you take Grady home—actually, no, go to Everglen and tell Alden . . . what?” she asked when she caught the look on Dex’s face.
She realized what she was forgetting before he even said it.
“Right. I can’t teleport.”
Dex reached for her forehead, but Sophie backed away.
“You can’t Dex—they’ll know.”
“You have to go, right?”
She gave herself five seconds to accept that it was the only way. Then she nodded.
Dex nodded too, closing his eyes and whispering something she couldn’t understand as he reached up and pulled the circlet off her head.
Instantly her headache vanished and the world clicked into focus. Her mind raced through a dozen different thoughts and sensations, like her brain was stretching its weary muscles after being closed in.