Life Beyond the Temple Read online

  My head cleared, and I no longer felt sick. I saw the necromancer blink and take a step back. “These people need me, and I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else. I’ll find you. I’ll hunt you down. And then I’ll kill you. Don’t underestimate me, Necromancer. I am the most powerful mage since the Temple was built. I’ll see you soon.” I pushed him out of my mind and opened my eyes. Everything was blurry, and my head was aching now.

  I groaned and rolled over. “Regan?” I asked, my head pounding. All this Life Force was coursing through me, and my body was unaccustomed to it.

  “Thank God you’re okay. You were sleeping, and it looked like you were having a nightmare, and then you sort of… changed. I can’t explain it. You just felt different. Your temperature shot up. What happened?” Regan was standing across the room, watching me with a worried look.

  I sat up and groped around for a pitcher of water that had been there since last night when I was working. I poured some into a cup and drank it greedily. “I’m going to have to step it up a notch to beat this guy. A few years ago when I brought Martun back, the Council told me that I had too much Life Force and that it was dangerous when combined with my curiosity and my mind. I could do things that broke the Old Ones’ laws. So, I came up with an idea. What if something got rid of the excess Life Force to bring me as close to everyone else’s level as it could? I put something like a wall of Life Force that surrounds my heart, where all Life Force originates. This wall eats Life Force; it has no ‘real’ purpose. You can’t just get rid of Life Force, but if I had a constant spell that took up a large amount of this energy, then I wouldn’t have to worry about having an overabundance anymore.

  “Tonight he Dreamscaped me again, and he kept bringing up that I was weak. And he was right. His power was too much for my current state. It made me sick and gave me headaches when I wasn’t even the one who was performing magic. He was just too powerful compared to me. So I broke the seal on that wall.”

  “And that raised your temperature?”

  “It spiked, and I’ll always be a bit warmer now. My natural element is fire. I can use it more effectively than anything else. The extra Life Force raised my temperature a lot. It will go back down soon but never all the way. My body isn’t used to this amount of Life Force, so I’m probably going to be a little slower than I normally am for a bit. And sleeping more,” I mumbled as I poured more water.

  She shook her head and sat down next to me. “They always said you were powerful, but I never really saw it. You seemed like any other mage.”

  I drank another entire cup of water and sighed. “I didn’t want to do this. That was supposed to be a permanent solution. I don’t think I can put the wall back up again. It was attached to where Life Force originates, right over the heart, but now that my body knows it’s ‘dangerous,’ it’s going to stop it from building up again. It takes three weeks to build, and I was in bed for three weeks in pain and with a high fever, and it was just not fun. Now my body would stop it before it was completed.”

  “You needed to do it. You’ve got to beat him, and that seems to require everything you’ve got.”

  I nodded but didn’t say anything. Regan wrapped an arm around me, and I rested my head on her shoulder.

  I was practically asleep when Ston burst in.

  “Casey, it’s Liam.”

  Regan stood up and helped me up. I almost tipped forward, but my knight caught me. She wrapped my arm around her shoulders and her arm around my waist to help me.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Ston asked as he walked with us.

  Regan, trying to go as fast as she could with me falling down, answered, “Long story.”

  Finally, we burst into the room, and she led me over to Liam, who was lying on his bed, breathing short, shallow breaths. His eyes were closed, and he was sweating.

  Cam stood next to him, trying to figure out what to do.

  “Everyone, stand back,” I said as I pulled away from Regan. I stumbled forward to Liam and knelt down beside him. I touched the pulse point on his neck.

  “Fast pulse, fever, shallow breaths.” He coughed, blood splattering my cheek. “Bloody cough.” I wiped it off, unfazed. I’d been doing this for a week. Half the clothes I’d worn had blood on them.

  I looked over his body and mumbled quietly, “No splotches. There’s got to be one if this is it. Maybe it’s something else.” The idea made me hopeful.

  And then I saw his hand, dangling off the bed, a large black spot on the palm.

  Chapter 17

  I SAT on a smooth, flat rock and stared into the clear pool. The fish lazily swam along, but that navy blue one with a white star simply watched me. I wanted to scream, “What do you want? What am I supposed to do?” I was so lost. It had been a week, and already Liam was getting worse. Splotches ran up his arm, and he hadn’t left his bed, not that I would have let him if he could. Elves, including Ston, had been forbidden from entering. The only reason why I let Cam and Regan in was to help me. I was still weak.

  Either Regan or Cam was with me through the entire week. Cam didn’t really understand exactly what I was going through and didn’t see most of it, but Regan was there at my worst times. I’d shiver at night and sweat, and my knees shook when I walked for longer than ten minutes. I had been trying to gain control over my magic again, but with all of this Life Force coursing through me and my inability to stand for long periods of time, it was useless. Everything came out too powerful. There were scorch marks on the wall from my first attempt at a small flame.

  Regan walked me to the pond, but I told her to go. I needed some space.

  “Liam told me to say it’s healing water.” I turned to see Cam’s spiked blonde hair getting tousled by the wind and tried to ignore her ice blue eyes watching me closely. She was leaning against a tree by the path. Whenever she saw me lately, she’d had an intense look of concern.

  “I’m not sick,” I mumbled and looked back to the pond.

  “You’re not well,” she said and started walking up to me.

  She sat down beside me on the rock and I said, “I’ll be more than well in a few weeks.”

  She grabbed my wrist and put pressure on my wrist. “Your pulse is fast.”

  “I’m not used to all of this Life Force.”

  “You picked a bad time to do that.”

  I smiled weakly. “Spur of the moment decision. I needed to prove a point.”

  “Is Regan helping?”

  I nodded. “When I need help.”

  “Do you sleep okay?”

  “Yes,” I lied.

  “Don’t lie. I hear you scream at night.” She looked over at me. “What do you tell Regan?”

  “That it’s nothing.”

  “Does she believe you?”

  “Do you?”

  She looked back out at the pond. “No. Will you tell me what it is?”

  I shouldn’t, I didn’t want to bother anyone with it, but Cam was… one of those people that just made you feel like you could talk. Regan was too, but this was different. “Nightmares.”

  “About?”

  “Different things. Sometimes I feel like I’m on fire, but not fire I can control. It’s painful. It’s torture. Sometimes I watch people I know die. Most of the time it’s where I fail.”

  “Fail?”

  “Yeah. I can’t defeat him. Everything I know falls apart, and I can’t stop him. Those are the worst ones.”

  “You can’t fail.”

  “I can. I might.”

  “You’ve got the four of us. And Regan will die before she lets anything happen to you. I will too. Ston probably will. And Cinder? He’s like a part of you. He won’t let you get hurt, let alone fail. You won’t fail. Good guys always win.” She smiled over at me, and then her hand was over mine. She squeezed it gently, like she was comforting me.

  “I’m no closer to a cure than I was before. We could be here for months. I could watch everyone die.” That fish was still staring at me.

>   “You won’t. You’re smart, powerful, and you’ve got guts. You’ll find a way. And when you do, we’ll leave, and you’ll find that son of a bitch and make him pay. He won’t get away with this.” Cam’s grip on my hand was tight, and her jaw was clenched. “We’ll get this guy.”

  “I’m not going to find him. I’m not going to look for him. I’m going to hunt him down and kill him.” The ailing elf boy flashed through my mind, and I grit my teeth. “I’m going to tear him apart,” I growled.

  “I’ll help,” she said.

  I didn’t say anything after that. What was there to say?

  “I’ll be back later to help you back to the house, okay?” Cam said after a while. “I think you need some time. Try out the waters, it could help. Liam is convinced of that.” She let go of my hand and stood up. “I’ll see you soon, Casey. I hope you figure something out.” And with that, she left.

  I stared at the fish for a long time, and it stared back.

  “What do I do?” I whispered to it.

  I knew the answer. Liam told me to swim the first day I was here, and even in his weakened state where all he should be thinking of was himself, he told me to swim.

  There was something about this water that he wanted me to experience.

  I stood up shakily and stripped before stepping into the water.

  It was cool but not cold. It felt good against my heated skin, like a washcloth against my forehead when I have a fever, which I guess it was, just over my entire body.

  I sighed heavily and closed my eyes. I felt stronger, but it could be I was just in the water, and it took less out of me to stand.

  I spread my feet apart and took slow, deep breaths. I held my hands out and focused everything I had on controlling my Life Force. I pulled it through my body slowly and carefully, trying not to use too much.

  It suddenly became hard to breathe—in fact, it felt like I was choking, which I guess I was.

  I slipped under the water and went down to the bottom. The center of the pool was deep, perfectly clear, but deep. I crossed my legs to sit down on the sandy bottom, and I reached my hand up to touch the newly formed gills on my neck. It was a little too much Life Force, but a lot better than my previous attempts. All I’d wanted was to breathe underwater, and my body had pushed a little further into giving me gills like a fish.

  Fish swam around me, seeming to look at me as they passed but never stopping. Except for one. Dark blue with a white star.

  She hovered there, staring at me for what seemed like ages. And then, she swam even closer, halting just in front of me. And then, after another minute, she touched my forehead.

  I WAS gasping for air, like I had been holding my breath for hours. I wasn’t in the pond anymore, I was somewhere else. It was outside of the city, not far out, though. I remembered Liam taking me through there.

  Everything was too bright. Like the sun was shining too much or the colors weren’t right. It reminded me of an old movie or something.

  I spun around in a circle but stopped when I saw her.

  A young woman, an elf. She looked about twenty, but what does that even mean in elf years? She was sitting against a tree, a faraway look in her eyes.

  “Hello?” She didn’t answer. “Are you Liam’s sister? Elizabeth?” He had taken to saying her name in his sleep, well, the few moments he did sleep. She haunted his dreams. He felt guilty for her.

  She didn’t answer. Why wouldn’t she answer? She brought me here for a reason, and now she wouldn’t talk to me?

  A twig snapped behind me, and I whirled around to see a young man with light green eyes and light brown hair. He looked about nineteen. He had a dark purple shirt with a small V-neck and light blue jeans.

  “You’re an elf, right?” he asked.

  I turned to see the girl. I was standing in between them, and they didn’t even look at me?

  They couldn’t see me.

  This was a memory.

  This was the past.

  I stepped back and watched her. She had stood up when the twig snapped. She held her gun tightly, half raised at him. “Who are you?” she asked.

  “My name is Jaysun. Are you an elf?” he asked again. His voice was light, airy in a way.

  “I am. My name is Elizabeth, King Maarius and Queen Lilith’s daughter.”

  He grinned widely, like a young boy opening a present. “A princess? I’m a mage. I finished my Proving Journey, and I wanted to see the world. I heard Haven is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I thought I’d stand outside it for a while. I never thought I’d meet an elf.” He seemed shocked and excited. Like when I met Ston.

  How long ago was this? Forty years? I felt like him. Astonished, willing to learn, wanting to see the world, wanting to be a part of something bigger.

  “A mage?” She curled her lip.

  He smiled sheepishly. “Yeah. I didn’t choose it, of course.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky with a little smirk playing along his lips. “I love it, though. I like how it feels to create something.” His grin grew as he looked back at her. “Want to see something cool?”

  She looked skeptical but curious. She nodded, and he held out his hand. “What do I do?” she asked.

  “Just watch.” I watched eagerly as a rosebud grew from his hand and blossomed. He plucked it and held it out to her. “For you.”

  She took it and looked at it in awe. “What did you do?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “My natural element is earth. I’ve got a green thumb.” He chuckled. “I used magic to grow a flower. I can grow them anywhere, even on pavement. I love creating things. Growing them. It’s like making life in the palm of your hand. It’s truly beautiful.” He blushed a deep red. “But I talk too much.”

  “It sounds… fascinating,” she said, looking at the red rose.

  “It is. Magic is science, really, but it’s truly amazing.”

  They talked for a while; most of it was nothing important. But night was falling and Elizabeth had to go home.

  “Would you mind if I saw you again?” he asked.

  Elizabeth smiled and said, “Same time tomorrow?”

  Everything faded to black, and then I blinked and I was at the pond, but once again it was too bright.

  Elizabeth and Jaysun were sitting on that flat rock I had been on earlier.

  “So, he proposed?” Jaysun said, looking glum.

  She nodded slowly. “I’ve known him since I was a kid.”

  “Do you love him?”

  She didn’t answer for a moment. “I don’t know.”

  “Do you love me?” he asked, searching her face.

  “Of course I do! But…. Jaysun, it wouldn’t work. You know that. I’d outlive you by hundreds of years, my parents would never approve, we couldn’t have kids, you’d grow old, and I’d look like this. You know how I feel about you, but I don’t know if this can work.”

  He nodded. “I understand. You haven’t said yes yet, have you?”

  She shook her head. “No, I haven’t said anything yet.”

  He smiled. “Then I’ll just have to woo you some more.” He kissed her hand and said, “I’m not done with you, Elizabeth. I’m going to find a way for us, I promise. I’ll keep you close to my heart.” He plucked yet another flower from the palm of his hand and held it out to her. “See you tomorrow.”

  Everything went black and then came back again.

  They were sitting on that rock again.

  “I love him,” she said after a while.

  “You said yes.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yeah.”

  “It could have worked,” he said.

  “It wouldn’t have, you know it,” she said calmly, quietly.

  “So that’s it. We’re just done.” Again, he didn’t ask.

  “I still love you.”

  He stood up, staring straight ahead. “Save it,” he said, and just like that he stalked off.

  Black and then too
bright again.

  Elizabeth was by the pond again, this time alone.

  A twig snapped behind her, and she smiled weakly. “Hey, Jaysun. I didn’t think you’d come. It’s been a while.”

  “Your wedding is tomorrow, right?”

  “Yeah. It took some convincing to let you come, but I thought that you should be there.”

  “I won’t be.” He stepped forward. “There won’t be a wedding to go to.” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

  He grabbed her arm tightly and whispered, “This is the end. Not just for you, but for every elf.” He took his hand away, and I watched a large black splotch blossom on her arm. And then he vanished.

  I opened my eyes and found myself looking at the small blue fish again. The memory had looked like an old movie, but this disease was a new one. Perhaps elves saw differently than we did and when the memory crossed over, things became distorted. This was the start of the disease. A bitter ex-love interest. I had work to do.

  IT HAD been a month since I visited the pond. After the vision, I left as quickly as I could. While I didn’t get any closer to a cure in that moment, I saw the beginning. The vision looked like it was old, but really it was maybe a year old, if that. Probably a few months before I left the Temple.

  Jaysun perfected Clerstan and then decided to commit genocide because of a girl. I don’t know why he didn’t stop there. I don’t know if something else happened or if he just liked the feeling of having power over people, but I understood where this all started.

  For a month I’d been holed up in my room, Regan bringing me food and trying to comfort me when I was ready to punch holes through walls. She would walk up behind me and touch my shoulder and whisper something. I can’t even count how many times she would kiss my neck softly and whisper that she loved me. Cam and Ston would visit every now and then, but I think they realized I needed to work more than anything.