Chapter 12
The hours spent in the car riding back to Mari’s home were marginally less tense. Both Riley and Mari eased back into friendly banter as the topic of conversation shifted away from such serious things. They walked back to the main house and entered through the side door off the kitchen. They didn’t find anyone around, and decided to take a few minutes before they called to check on the others. Mari decided to go check on her sister, while Riley was in search of food.
Mari left Riley rummaging through the kitchen and headed off towards Rena’s room. Knocking lightly on the door, Mari pushed it open a crack. She peered around the door and was surprised to see the bed empty. A frown creased on Mari’s face as she pushed the door open the rest of the way and surveyed the room. Her eyes finally settled on Rena who was curled in a ball under her desk. Mari frowned in concern as rushed across the room to her sister’s side.
“Rena? What are you doing under there?” Mari asked with concern washing over her.
Rena looked like she had lost quite a bit of weight in the few days Mari had been gone. Rena’s face had a sunken appearance, her eyes glassy as they stared blankly at the floor in front of her. Her skin was almost grey it lacked so much color. She had thin arms wrapped tightly around her knees, clutching them as close to her chest as possible.
Mari reached out a hand and laid it on her sister’s arm, expecting some kind of reaction and was met with nothing. It was like touching a statue, the skin cold and thin beneath her fingers. Mari attempted to reach out and read her sister’s emotions, and was met with resistance like she had never encountered.
It wasn’t like Rena was just shielding herself, it was like an iron wall was between them. Mari bent, trying to search her sister’s eyes. There was no recognition, no emotion, and no light. Mari rocked back on her heels with concern flooding her.
“Rena?” She asked quietly, willing her sister to speak to her or just snap out of the stupor that she was in. Mari was sorely disappointed. Her sister continued to stare blankly, her eyes open but seemingly unseeing.
Mari rose with a pained sigh. She had no idea how they were going to help Rena. Her eyes traced the flat mat of hair, and her sister’s gaunt face with concern. She turned to leave the room but was stopped as she reached the doorway.
“This is your fault,” Rena’s voice trailed across the room, broken with disuse, “None of this would have happened if it weren’t for you and your dragon.”
Mari turned, a frown creasing her face. She felt the guilt like a punch to the gut. The thought had nagged at her mind initially, days ago, but since she could finally prevent the burns with the bracelet, she had felt so much more at peace with her connection with Blake. Hearing Rena say such a thing out loud struck her harder than any physical blow ever could of. She hadn’t realized how much she was giving herself over to those feelings until that moment.
“Rena, I’m so sorry,” she pled as she moved to step back into the room, but was halted mid-step as her sister’s eyes flashed up at her.
It was the coldest, most ruthless glare Mari had ever seen in her life. It was like her sister saw through every wall she had ever created, weighed her soul, and came up with the conclusion that she was severely wanting. The look left very little to the imagination of how she felt towards Mari.
“Get out,” Rena said clearly before turning pointedly back to staring at the floor.
Mari was emotionally shaken, and had no idea how to handle the reaction. She backed out of the room and closed the door behind her, staring down at the knob in disbelief. She had no idea how to process what had just happened. Tears stung at her eyes as she turned away from the door and moved towards her bedroom.
She walked down the hall with slow, measured steps, her body retracing the path she’d taken so many times. Mari’s mind swam with the weight of what her sister had just said. It was all her fault. While it had been easy enough to dismiss Riley’s concern as misplaced jealousy, Mari couldn’t quite shake the feeling that the outcome that Rena thought was Mari’s fault had to do with Blake.
Mari pulled her phone out of her pocket as she closed her bedroom door behind her. She desperately needed someone objective. She walked out on the small balcony that was off her bedroom, and laid on the bench in the sun as she dialed Ben. Her heart sank as she heard his voicemail recording.
“Hey, you’ve reached Ben. I’ve probably lost my phone again. Leave a message and send me a text every five minutes until I call you back. Later!”
The metallic tone sounded in Mari’s ear and she sighed, “Hey it’s me. I was just calling to see what you were up to. Hadn’t heard from you and needed your crazy, Zen, ninja-wisdom. I think I’m in over my head on some things. Anyway…find your phone. Call me.”
Mari laid the phone down next to her and closed her eyes. She knew Ben’s voicemail message was fairly accurate. He wasn’t the kind to not answer. Even if he was busy, he’d reject a call with a text message to let you know he was otherwise engaged. Ben was easily the most forgetful person she’d ever met, and she had always found it oddly endearing.
Her mind was set adrift as she was trying to process the hurricane that had descended on her life over the past few weeks. Her sister was a shell of herself and blamed Mari for what was happening to her. She was falling deep for someone she’d met once. Unfortunately, the same guy was also responsible for several, pretty awful things.
She had no idea where she stood with her best friend after she had apparently thrown herself at him while sleeping and dreaming about someone else. Riley was there, with all the odd things that seemed to come along with befriending Riley. Her uncle was hiding things, she realized she hadn’t seen her father in days. She realized they also hadn’t heard from Val and Magni since the night before when they’d split up.
So many things were just not making any sense. It all weighed on Mari, and she felt as if the burden of it all was simply going to bury her if something didn’t change, and soon. Her mind was clouding as stress gave way to exhaustion, and sleep took over.
˜
Strong arms were wrapped around Mari, anchoring her against a familiar broad, muscular chest and it felt as if they were soaring. She felt the weight of Blake’s smooth skin, and scaly hair against the back of her neck. There was nothing even remotely erotic about it this time, just simply him holding her. Mari felt her body melting back into his in relaxation as her mind drifted into peaceful stillness as they floated, wind soaring around her.
˜
The sweeping calm that overtook Mari had her in such a deep sleep, the sounding alarms took several minutes to register in her mind, pulling her up out of the surface of her dream. Her eyes snapped open as the sound finally registered. Fire alarms. The she jumped up from the bench grabbing her phone and saw she had missed calls from Val and a dozen text messages.
Where are you?
Pick up your damn phone! They are heading your way.
Magni is hurt, and we can’t stop them.
Get Rena, and get out NOW!
Mari sprang into action running back through her room and into the hall, but as she opened the door a wall of smoke swept against her into the room, choking her, burning through her nose and lungs. The sounds of breaking glass and shouts echoed up the hallway.
The acrid smoke lingered in her nose and mouth, as she coughed trying to clear her lungs. She scrambled looking for a spare tee-shirt to cover her mouth and nose with. She smothered the fabric against her face and attempted to make it out into the hallway again. Flames were licking at the walls to her left, she turned towards Rena’s room at as fast a pace as she could manage, with one hand out in front of her to guide her.
Mari heard more shouting behind her as she neared Rena’s door. She stumbled back as a large form burst forth from Rena’s room, cradling Rena’s small frame in their arms. Mari’s eyes widened as recognition struck her like a freight train to the chest. Blake. Her mind swam as her eyes watered and burned as the smoke was over taking her again.
He registered recognition of her face for a fraction of a second before turning away at a full run, his long legs carrying him away from her quickly.
She removed the cloth and called out after him and her lungs filled with the toxic clouds of smoke again, but he was already around the corner of the hallway. Not even stopping to turn back at her call.
Mari broke out of her shock and followed off after Blake in a daze through the halls. She couldn’t breathe and she coughed deeply, her body wracked with the soot forcing its way into her lungs. She was frantic, and dropped the fabric she had been using to help keep the smoke at bay. She gasped for air as the smoke was overwhelming her, heat from the flames billowing from the hallway behind her and she sank to her knees. Mari’s thoughts were fading as the smoke consumed her. She felt strong hands reach out, as her mind faded to black completely.
The sprinkler system cut on as Riley carried her over out into the courtyard. Mari’s head hung limp against his chest as she lost consciousness. Riley laid her down on the ground. He leaned over her to check her breathing. He’d never tried to help someone who had smoke inhalation, but he thought that perhaps he could help ease the burning.
He inhaled deeply, drawing icy breath deep within his chest, trying to temper it so it wasn’t too cold. He covered Mari’s mouth as he’d seen people do when resuscitating people, and exhaled slowly watching her chest rise. He pulled back and saw her eyes were fluttering open as she coughed she struggled to meet his eyes.
“Blake,” she coughed, “He was here. He had Rena.”
“I tried to stop him, but he shifted as soon as he cleared the house,” Riley explained with a pained look, “I couldn’t go after him. I still can’t fly.”
Mari collapsed back against the ground as another fit of coughing overtook her. She motioned to him to come closer. The cool air he’d been able to force into her lungs had helped, but was wearing off and remnant curls of smoke were catching in her lungs.
“Can’t…breathe…help,” she gasped in between coughs, pulling Riley closer to her as she fought to force the smoke out of her airways.
Riley repeated the breathing, hoping that it was enough to help cool the burns that had probably scorched her airways. He was glad there was at least something he could do to help. Internally, he was beating himself up for not being able to stop it all from happening in the first place.
Mari’s breathing calmed slightly, and Riley sat up on his knees surveying the damage. It was contained to one wing of the main house, and one large section of the exterior wall and a side building. Groups of Fae were scrambling around the courtyard attempting to help extinguish the last remnants of fire that were lapping at the exterior wall.
Illwyn and Mari’s father, Berengar, approached with Valentyn trailing not far behind. All three had bewildered looks on their faces. Riley could see the shock on their faces as they took in the damage, and Mari lying on the ground.
“I think she’ll be alright,” Riley assured them as they closed in around them, “I couldn’t get to her before she was out in the smoke though, so I think she was reacting to the smoke pretty bad.”
Riley met the eyes of each of them in turn and sighed deeply as he had to admit the next bit of news.
“Rena is gone,” Mari answered for him, pushing herself up off the ground, using her arms to prop herself up in the process. “It was Blake. He took her.”
The faces of all three men fell, and Mari could feel their emotions washing over her as her attempts to keep her guard up were failing. Her father was wracked with loss, her brother furious, and her uncle was overcome with guilt. Mari simply could understand what was at the root of it all.
“I’m so sorry,” Riley explained, as he placed a strong arm around her shoulders to hold her up as she swayed slightly. “It was already too late by the time I heard him approaching. I was trying to put the fire out, and realized the girls were still back inside. I saw him take off in flight with Rena just before I ran back in to find Mari, as I hadn’t seen her come out.”
Riley shifted his weight so that he was sitting behind Mari so she could lean against him, taking the pressure off her chest, his long legs stretched out on either side of her. He dropped his head feeling the shame overwhelming him at not being able to prevent or stop any of it.
“I don’t know that anyone here could have stopped him today,” Illwyn reassured Riley, “From what I was told, he was able to walk in the front gate, was welcomed in even as he was accompanied by Nyal who is able to mask appearances and powers at will. He’s something like a chameleon that way.”
“From what the guards said, it wasn’t until he was well within the compound that they realized the wards were dropped, and that’s when all hell broke loose,” Berengar explained with a devastated look permanently plastered on his face.
Val walked closer and sank to his knees beside Mari and Riley, looking deflated and exhausted. His shirt and pants had massive splashed of dried blood all over him. He looked up at Mari, his eyes distant.
“Not sure if Magni will make it,” Val replied quietly, “He’s lost a lot of blood and it took me a long time to get him to a healer. We tried to warn you but you weren’t answering your phone.”
Guilt was gnawing at Mari as she realized the implications of what everyone was saying. She could have prevented the attack. Val had tried to warn her they were coming. She could have locked down the compound to all visitors and this would have been avoided. If she had been more aware, if she hadn’t been asleep and dreaming of him. None of this would have happened.
Rena’s words echoed in Mari’s mind, “This is all your fault.” The words haunted her as she sat there trying to piece it all together. Mari couldn’t believe this was all happening. Everything she knew was crumbling around her and she was left with nothing but this guilt hanging over her.
“Sir!” A voice called from across the courtyard, “They’ve captured the fire dragon.”
All five pairs of eyes turned in shock towards the guard, who was approaching at a run. Hope filled them as they all waited for the rest of the news that they had found Rena, but found their hope was misplaced as the guard explained what happened.
“He came down just past the edge of the woods, when we were following from the ground. He landed in a clearing, shifted back to human form. He passed Ms. Rena off to a bear shifter who was waiting, who took off with her further up the mountain,” he explained, as he paused to catch his breath, “We split up at that point because the dragon passed out, unconscious and we needed more of us to retrieve him and bring him back. The other group headed after the bear, but they were flanked by a group of wolves and they lost sight of where the bear went.”
Berengar was fuming. His body bristled with power as his anger swept over all of them. He worked to get himself under control and think through the situation. His eyes slid to meet Illwyn’s with a slow shake of his head. They knew that there was no way they could let the dragon escape. He had to be contained.
“I want the dragon in the most heavily warded room you can find, with nothing in it. No bed, no water, nothing, you hear me? Lock it down,” he snapped, “And get whatever group you can together and get after the others while you can still pick up the scent.”
Mari’s heart was pounding out of her chest with the news. They’d caught Blake, but lost Rena. Her eyes stung as tears rolled freely down her face. She couldn’t believe she had let all this happen. Her body fell back against Riley’s, shaking as she cried silently staring at the ground in front of her.