The Hidden Crystal

Chapter 30

Iris didn't wait until nightfall that day. She couldn't. She hadn't recovered all her energy from the previous night's magical exercise, but she couldn't lie there, replaying that horrible scene with Char in her head while she waited. She had to find the crystal. Somehow, that would end this torment—for her, for Char, for the world crying and groaning in agony from everything going wrong.

Somehow.

The tears were still wet on her cheeks when she took hold of the amulet and launched herself into the sky. She directed herself east, refusing to allow herself even a glance to the west. The landscape below her flew by as the whispers trailed behind her, struggling to keep up with her hectic pace.

She couldn't wait for them. There was no time to waste.

Flashes of light lit up the sky ahead of her. She stopped, feeling hints of the telltale snapping and crackling in the distance. A battle. And Micah was using the magic he'd stolen from her and countless others to maim and kill.

She needed to find the crystal. She couldn't stop for this.

But she couldn't ignore it, either.

She redirected herself toward the battle, and there they were, five dragons she didn't recognize wheeling in the sky below her, unable to descend because of an unreal onslaught of magic.

At first glance, it seemed there had to be at least five mages down on the ground. Shields surrounding the archers, bursts of magic deflecting the dragons' fire, barrages of answering magical flames, multicolored lights coating arrows and empowering them to travel higher and faster than any normal arrows could—it was hard for Iris to keep up with it all.

But there was only one mage: Micah.

This was a losing battle for the dragons.

Most of the magic was blue. A good chunk of the barriers were white. Rare splashes of other colors sparked and glittered amidst the chaos.

But then a streak of white left Micah's hand, traveling at impossible speed straight for a dragon.

White. Iris' magic.

She dove in front of the dragon without a second thought.

No!

Just one word, and the white exploded into nothingness a few feet from its intended target.

The dragon didn't know what had happened. It swerved up to avoid the explosion, but she couldn't hear its telepathic communication, nor that of any other dragons. They didn't know she was there.

But when she looked down at the ground, she met Micah's venomous glare.

He knew.

Her heart quailed within her, but she couldn't back down now. She'd already intervened; it was too late for her to run. And if she didn't weaken him somehow, she was in for a world of pain.

She took a deep breath and held her hand out, palm up.

Come back.

White streaked from the barriers toward her hand, touching her skin and wrapping her arm in a spiraling sleeve as the magic traveled up to her chest. The first tongue of white reached the amulet and vanished, sucked back into the crystal, and the rest followed at ever-increasing speeds. Magic sparked and scattered across the battlefield, attacks withering mid-flight, barriers shrinking down to nothing as the white rushed back to Iris and the amulet, faster and faster, the force hitting her like water bursting from a dam.

She couldn't breathe.

She needed to slow it down, regulate the flow, but she didn't know how.

A powerful gust of wind knocked her in one direction, and then another hit her and threw her the other way. She was struggling to restrain the magic flooding her senses, a singing chorus of whispers and shouts and screams in her ears, a blinding white in her eyes, an exhilarating mixture of fire and ice she felt and tasted with every fiber of her being. It was beautiful and terrifying. She was losing herself to it.