Life Beyond the Temple Read online

  I tripped over a root, barely catching myself before I fell, but never stopped running. Branches and twigs were whipping across my face as I raced after the quickly vanishing cinderwolf.

  “Cinder!” I screamed into the forest, still running after him.

  I tripped and everything went in slow motion as the ground came up to meet me.

  I hit with a thunk, and I felt pain shoot up in my arm.

  I rolled over, holding my arm up to my chest, too afraid to move it. “Cinder,” I groaned, my world filled with stars and black spots. I could feel myself fading; the pain in my arm was horrible. I cast a glance down, and all I could see was blood. A lot of it.

  The Old Ones punishment flashed through my eyes. This wouldn’t heal easily. Cinder! I screamed into my mind as my world fell away from me, and I passed out.

  “IT’S ABOUT time you let me in. Why did you let me in anyways?” Jaysun was leaning against the wall of our little Dreamscaping room.

  “I didn’t. I fell unconscious,” I snarled at him, standing up. He was still about five inches taller than me.

  “Right, chasing after your mutt.”

  “Purebred cinderwolf that could tear your arm off, you mean.”

  “Whatever.” He shrugged. “Compound fracture. I saw it. Bone coming out and everything.” He tsked at me and said, “Don’t worry, your friends found you. They’re fixing you up now. Your dog however, I don’t know where he is. Disappeared from my vision. I was too focused on you to watch him.”

  “What do you want?”

  “To congratulate you I suppose. I really didn’t think you could do it. And using the thing that gave me the power to create the disease to cure it? Brilliant really. Then again, what else should I expect from you? You still have some, don’t you? You keep it handy, just in case you need it. You won’t be able to defeat me, even if you do have it. I’m so close to having all the power I could ever ask for. So close I can taste it.”

  “We’re going to find you. We’re going to hunt you down and kill you. You better be ready, Jaysun, because you don’t stand a damned chance against me. I’ve seen what you do to people, and you’ve pissed me off now, and you don’t get to come back from that. You don’t get to kill and come back and act like it never happened. I’m going to kill you, Jaysun. I’m going to make these people safe from you.”

  “You should have let them die. Maybe I’d believe you, then. Maybe I’d believe you were truly going to kill me instead of you being relieved that everyone is alive. You have no idea, do you? Casey Kelley, this is where you die. You can’t go up against someone like me, even with the little power surge you had.”

  “You forget that the bad guys always lose.”

  “You’re living in a fairy tale world, Casey. When has a good guy ever really won? It’s time for you to wake up. Stories are for children, and you live in the real world now. I would say that we would make a great team, that I would welcome you with open arms, that you could be easily twenty times more powerful than you are now, but I know that you would never do it. A terrible shame really, a terrible waste of power and potential. You still believe in heroes and villains. It’s not that simple, Casey. It never was. It’s not good and evil. It’s the strong and the weak. It’s survival of the fittest. There aren’t morals. You’re trying to save people who treat you like an outcast! Who spit on you as you walk by! You’re saving people who want you dead. I wish you would see that, Casey, I wish you could see why I’m right.” He sighed heavily. “Until next time, Casey. I hope to see you soon. I’m so tired of waiting for you.”

  I SLOWLY blinked my eyes open, and I saw Ston’s dark purple skin and short, spiky, white hair. He glanced into my eyes for moment. “Hey,” he muttered before looking back at my arm. I could see a glowing mark beneath his white shirt. I wondered what the raised scar on his chest meant. Healing? Flesh? Bone? I didn’t know, but it made me curious. He would never tell, though. It was a language meant for the dark elves.

  “Where is he?” My voice cracked when I spoke.

  “We don’t know. Regan, Cam, and Liam are looking for him.”

  “Why didn’t you go? Tracking spell?”

  “I tried, but I couldn’t get a trace on him. Liam has expert tracking abilities. He might find him.”

  Might.

  Cinder.

  My spirit animal was just gone.

  The thought made me ache. We were one. I felt like half of me was missing.

  Cinder? I tentatively called out.

  Nothing.

  I felt a tear begin to slide down my cheek, and then I couldn’t stop it. My body shook with sobs, and I could feel hot tears streaming down my face as I cried.

  Nothing could hurt like this. Part of me was gone. I remembered how he terrified me at the beginning, how I doubted him, how I almost didn’t even want him, but now, without him, I didn’t know what to do.

  STON HEALED my arm perfectly after a few hours of working nonstop. He seemed so confused about why it was taking so long. I almost told him not to worry and ignore it, but I didn’t.

  It was dark, and I had started a fire and created a few sheltered areas made from freshly grown trees and wooden slabs. Magic. What would I do without it? Ston had come back a while ago with a deer and was currently cutting it up while we waited.

  The meat was coming off of the fire when Liam, Cam, and Regan walked back into camp.

  I stood up and looked at Regan, but I knew the answer before she shook her head. He wasn’t with them. I could see it in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Casey, we couldn’t find him.”

  I almost fell to my knees, and I wouldn’t have even cared, but Regan caught me. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “He’ll be back. He loves you; he wouldn’t disappear without a reason.”

  “What if he doesn’t come back?”

  “He will,” she whispered before helping me to a spot by the fire.

  Everyone ate in silence… except me. I only sat there staring at my food. Regan’s leg was pressed against mine, like that would help, and Cam was trying to show me how she was getting the concept of water. She wasn’t, but it was a nice try.

  Finally, Ston said, “Case, I need your help. We have to look over Cam real quick.”

  I nodded and set my food aside and turned to Cam. I took one of her arms, and Ston took the other.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “We’re trying to figure out if there’s a broken pathway. Then we’re going to find your natural element.”

  It took a long time, slowly pushing our Life Force into her and making it travel every pathway, trying to find a leak. And then we did. One, on a major pathway. She was losing a lot of Life Force there. We didn’t find any others, but that one was enough. Ston, being better at healing magic than I, took over while I placed my hand on her back, right behind her heart, and closed my eyes. A little bit of, for lack of a better word, “flavored” Life Force. Life Force, before it leaves the body, has to know what it’s doing, and that alters it drastically. By adding a bit of fire-intended Life Force, or water-intended Life Force, so on and so forth, you can determine the natural element of a person.

  Another hour later, the wound was healed, and we had her element.

  Earth.

  And then the most amazing thing happened.

  Cinder trotted into camp like nothing happened, a disgusting, gray, object in his mouth. He dropped it in front of me, a stupid grin on his face.

  I didn’t even look at it. I just pulled him into a tight hug and cried.

  Where the hell were you?

  I smelled something.

  You didn’t even tell me!

  I thought it would be dangerous.

  You just left!

  You would have gotten hurt, though. Look at it. There are more. Many more.

  I pulled away and looked at it. I gingerly picked it up and showed the group.

  Ston looked away, and Regan gasped. Cam and Liam looked confused.

 
“An arm?” Cam asked.

  “Looks dead,” Liam added.

  “It is. Jaysun is bringing back the dead. Cinder says there are a lot of them. He’s amassing an army,” I said, my voice catching. Not more of these creatures. The dead. I hated it. Regan hated it. I knew she was trying to look for some sign to see if it was her family or not. I wished I could tell her it wasn’t.

  “That’s dark magic,” Cam whispered.

  “It is. We’ve only had one encounter with these before, but it wasn’t good. And now he’s almost finished with his way to gain power. He’s been contacting demons. Who knows what he’s promised them in return for power. But now that it’s almost complete, he’s got more time to do this.”

  “An army? There’s only six of us!” Cam exclaimed.

  “Then we’ll have to work pretty damn hard. We’re not letting him win, Cam, and if you can’t handle this, leave. But I’m going into that city, and I’m going to find him, and I’m going to kill him. I don’t give a damn if I die doing it, but I’m taking him down with me. I’m not letting him do this anymore. This is where he stops. If you can’t take that, then go, Cam. I won’t hold it against you, this is dangerous, and there’s a good chance we all die, but you need to be damn sure if you’re staying. I don’t want any hesitations when it comes down to it. I want him dead, and if you’re going to get in the way, then go home.”

  “Of course I’m staying,” she huffed. “I’m just saying that it’s pretty unfair. You’re going to need me to kill that son of a bitch, right?”

  I grinned slightly. “I’m going to need everyone I can get.”

  “Good, then I’m in,” Cam said.

  “Me too, obviously,” Liam said with a smile.

  “I guess I’m in too,” Ston sighed heavily.

  “Of course I’m in,” Regan said.

  Cinder raised his paw slightly, and we laughed. I knew he was going. He didn’t have to tell me.

  “Good. We’ll sleep here tonight and be on the road again at dawn. Who wants first watch?”

  “I’ll take it,” Liam said.

  “I’ll take the second, then,” Ston offered.

  “Okay, then wake Ston up when you’re getting tired,” I said, walking to one of the two shelters and flopping down. Cinder was soon pressed up against me, and Regan was on my other side, keeping her distance slightly. Cam was on the other side of Cinder.

  I sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

  An army.

  An army of the dead.

  Did we even stand a chance?

  Whether or not we did, I was going to kill him. I didn’t care what I had to go through to do it.

  That little elven boy popped into my mind, and I grit my teeth.

  I was going to kill that bastard.

  Chapter 21

  WE WERE at the city by noon the next day.

  Liam wouldn’t have us sleeping in another shitty, dark-elf hotel, not that I didn’t like staying in the first one, but the place he got us… well, it was a lot better.

  He came back with four keys. “I’m assuming that Cinder and Casey will be together, and that you guys won’t let her sleep alone. I don’t care who she stays with, that’s up to you. The other three are for the rest of us.”

  “I’ll stay with Casey. That’s my job. If I go back to the Temple without her….” Regan didn’t finish her sentence.

  “You stay with her every time,” Cam said, “and last time you were keeping an eye on her, she left. Forgive me if I don’t just let the same things happen. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

  “Just like you did when she left? You knew she was leaving, and you didn’t do a damn thing. I was asleep. I would have tried to stop her!” Regan snapped.

  Ston stepped between the two women and glowered at them both. “Not this again. I’m getting sick and tired of you two playing the blame game. I thought that when we got her back it would end. Regan, you can stay with her. It’s your job as her knight protector. Cam, it doesn’t matter.” He pointedly looked at me. “She’s staying here now.”

  Cam scowled but grabbed a key from Liam’s hand and stalked off to find her room. Ston took his key, cast one more look at me, and walked away.

  Liam sighed and said, “Here you guys go. It’s got two beds, and it’s a bit bigger than the rest. We’ll see you in, what, two hours here in the lobby? Give everyone some time to settle in and all that?”

  Regan shrugged. “Sounds like a plan.” She took the key and started walking to the elevator.

  I followed her and waited until the doors closed and we started moving before I said anything. “What the hell was that?”

  “Cam. She let you go once, and I know you said you weren’t going to leave us again, but I just want to be sure. I don’t want her to be with you and then you end up disappearing again.”

  “And the fact we’d be sleeping in the same room?”

  “I don’t like that part either,” she admitted.

  I hesitantly reached my hand out and entwined our fingers. “I understand,” I said after a moment.

  She looked at our hands with a small smile and squeezed mine before letting go as the door opened. “Let’s go see our room.”

  Cinder was already waiting for us when we got to the door. Liam must have told him which one it was. I briefly wondered if he freaked out anyone on the stairs. This was a nicer hotel. The dark elves didn’t like him, but they understood that the hotel was a place where you would go if you had nowhere else to go. This hotel was different from the rest. This was where you went to escape the problems of the world. Cinder, while not really a problem, was a terrifyingly large cinderwolf, which most people thought didn’t exist.

  Regan opened the door, and we stepped into our new room.

  It was much larger than Liam had let on. It had a living room with a couch and coffee table, a kitchenette, a large bathroom, and a huge bedroom with two big beds, one of which Cinder immediately jumped on and lay down. He gave us this large, goofy smile, and I rolled my eyes. “I guess that one is ours.”

  I walked over and flopped down on the bed. After a second I felt Regan lay down next to me. I looked over to her and smiled. “Hey, you,” I said.

  “Hey, you too,” she said. I felt her fingers touch mine, and I closed my eyes.

  “Two hours to get settled in?”

  “I guess. Do you want something to eat?” She started to get up, but I pulled her back down.

  “No, I want to sleep,” I mumbled, rolling onto my side as I pulled her arm around my waist.

  She chuckled quietly. “Okay, we can sleep for a little bit,” she whispered and kissed my neck softly.

  I DIDN’T dream, but I was woken up by Regan.

  “Come on, Casey. We have to meet Liam and the others downstairs now,” she said, getting up and setting our bags, which we had left on the floor, on one of the chairs by the large window.

  I groaned but sat up anyways. “Come on, Cinder, we have to go downstairs now.”

  He slowly got off his bed and stretched for a minute or so.

  Damn, he was huge now.

  I followed Regan to the elevator while Cinder raced down the stairs.

  Cam was scratching Cinder behind the ears when we got there. “Hey,” she said, her ice blue eyes focusing coldly on Regan, but she was talking to me.

  “Hey. Did you get settled in alright?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Did you?” She turned her gaze to me and smiled a little, like she always did when she looked at me.

  “Yeah. These are nice rooms.”

  “Right? It’s got a kitchen and a living room. I didn’t know places like this existed,” she said, laughing a little.

  Liam walked up, Ston walking behind him with his hands in his pockets. “Alright, you guys, we need a plan.”

  “We can’t just expect to walk out of here and see him on the street,” I said. “We have to find people who may have seen something. We may even have to wait until something happens to find him. But something
will happen, probably soon. He’s going to want to test out the Life Force he’s recently obtained, to see just how much stronger he is. We’ll see something soon, and that will tell us who to start asking and where we should start looking.”

  “So, we can’t do anything right now?” Liam asked.

  I shook my head. “Not yet. I can keep training Cam today, but we can’t find Jaysun today. We need time for that.”

  Ston nodded. “Cam needs training. Now that we’ve patched up the leak and found her natural element, we need to see where she’s at. I think it’s a good idea for you to find somewhere to work with her. Take Cinder with you, just in case. We’ll start asking people in the hotel if anything has been strange around here lately. Meet back here for dinner?”

  I didn’t look at Regan; I didn’t want to see what she thought about this. I knew she didn’t like Cam, but this needed to happen. “Alright. We’ll go look around for somewhere away from people. We’ll be back for dinner. We’ll see you all later. Cinder, come on,” I said, patting my leg and turning to walk out of the hotel.

  IT TOOK a long time to find somewhere out of the way, but eventually we came to the dirty, less populated, avoided part of the city. Cam seemed uncomfortable here. I guess that’s because she grew up in a part of the city similar to this. She knew what a place like this was like.

  “Case, I don’t think you should be here,” she said when someone passed us, not even trying to hide the fact that he was undressing me with his eyes.

  “I can protect myself, Cam,” I said, looking for somewhere we could practice. “You need training, and we would be in a worse situation if someone saw us. They hate mages here, Cam. You know that. You’ve lived with these humans all your life. You know what they’d do to you if they found out.”

  “You don’t understand places like this, Casey. I know you can protect yourself most of the time, but if you get a bunch of these guys together, you don’t know what can happen.” She whispered that last part. “Case, you don’t understand what guys like that do to girls like… you.” She seemed like she wanted to say something, but she couldn’t.