Page 86 of Enchantment of Silver and Sea
The knowledge of what it was settled into my brain like a comforting hug. Larimar’s magic.
And finally, the pounding of my boot-clad feet against the pavement. The stabbing in my joints at each lunge forward. The cramping, constricting ball of pain that was enveloping my chest as my lungs fought for air. The roiling beast of a headache, approaching migraine level, that was circling my head in laps. None of it mattered. Kieran was no longer a prisoner, and we were going to rescue our friends.
The corners of my mouth twitched in a sad smile as I observed my train of thought. Beginning with the gardens, and then steadily drifting right back to Kieran. To Larimar. To the others. I couldn’t separate myself from them, even for a few moments. They invaded—no, they werewelcometo enter my every thought.
A gap was forming between me and Kieran by the time we reached the entrance to the Knowledge Center, but he paused to hold the door. An opportunity for me to catch up.
“You. Don’t. Have. To wait. On me,” I managed to call out between gulps of air.
“I’m not leaving you behind,” Kieran called back. “If you get captured, I don’t think we’re going to be able to pull some amazing stunt to break out of the wards again.”
I wanted to remark on how unfair it was that he wasn’t more winded, but I couldn’t afford to waste my own breath. I ran through the door, and then we were both racing through the Knowledge Center.
I had guessed this was where we were going to be noticed. I was right. The atrium was mostly empty, but there was still a cluster of people standing around, faces pressed to the glass on theopposite end of the atrium. Every one of them jolted to attention at the sound of our feet slamming against the linoleum floor.
After taking in a few shocked expressions, I trained my eyes on the exit beyond them. There was nothing to do but keep running.
We were almost there when a woman shouted, “Don’t go out there! Something is—”
We were already shouldering through the doors, leaving her warning to echo uselessly behind us.
We tore through an area that I had only visited a handful of times in my life. On the eastern side of the Knowledge Center, rather than smooth pavement that was easy to traverse, the doors opened onto hilly, uneven ground that forced us to slow our step. Contrasting against the aesthetically pleasing gardens of the courtyard, this stretch of land was not only not fussed over, but didn’t give the appearance of being tended at all. It was a mixture of gritty sand, clusters of rocks, yellowing grass, and unexpected dips in the terrain. Packed with potential pitfalls. It wasn’t long before we were half-running, half-hopping to get to the other side.
To the wall.
Except even from a mile out, I could see that it was not a wall. Not anymore.
If I wasn’t already gasping from running, I would have gasped at the sight of the wall caved in. Massive chunks of concrete jutted up from the ground as if it had been quite literally blown apart. Suddenly, the loud noise I thought I had dreamt or hallucinated earlier made sense.
The hole must have been at least a quarter of a mile wide. Beyond, the terrain dipped down into a pristine beach. The sunwas peeking over the horizon, turning the ocean a soft shade of turquoise and transforming the sky above into a rainbow of pastels.
A peaceful backdrop for what could only be described as utter chaos.
Swarming around and over the hole in the wall, like ants protecting their hill, wereEnforcers. No, not justEnforcers. All clad in similar outfits, which even from a distance I could see were the waterproof coverings made from the marsh wolf pelts, were the Strangers. As we approached, I heard the clang of metal against metal and could begin to make out clusters of people engaged in combat.
But there were also other noises…grating, roaring noises. And flashes of light. Multi-colored lights, some of which resembled flame. My brain raced to understand what I was witnessing.
The distance between me and Kieran began to grow again as he launched into a full sprint, sailing over the dips and holes in the field, practically flying. Spurred on by horrors that he could make out in detail even from this distance. Horrors that were slowly but surely coming into focus for me.
There was blood. So much blood.
That unmistakable, ominous red was splattered across the craggy edges of wall that were still standing. Morbid shades of red, brown, and black covered the shattered chunks of concrete that, I observed as we got closer, were littered across the field even more thoroughly than I had first realized. People, some one-to-one and others struggling against each other in groups, were covered in gore.
Panic detonated in me. Before I knew it, the burst of adrenaline had me running right alongside Kieran.
Where was Nya? Were Cecil and Xiomara here? Surely Rubi, Wren, and George had stayed back…right? There were so many of the Strangers here. Way more than had gone on the mission to take down the Leviathan. And then there were theEnforcers. Was Zander out here somewhere?
Then the worst realization of all hit me. Not just figuratively, but literally, as my foot bashed into something solid and I sailed through the air. My arms and legs flailed for purchase, but my momentum had me careening. My arms and legs scraped across tiny rocks, sand, and the jagged edges of the straw-like grass. When I finally tumbled to a stop, I looked back immediately to see what I had tripped over.
A person. A person, who was not moving. A corpse.
A man, probably in his early twenties. Wearing that familiarEnforceruniform, under armor that I had only seen theEnforcersdon a few times in my life, mostly for ceremony. His arms and legs were sprawled limply on either side of him. His eyes stared unseeingly up at the lavenders and pinks of the breaking dawn.
I hadn’t seen a dead body up close since Leon killed my sister. I wanted to scream, to cry, to vomit again, all at once. But all I could do was stare in horror.
Something whizzed past my face. Something so hot that my skin stung even after it had passed.
Tearing my gaze away from theEnforcer’s body, I looked to see where the fire had landed. It was a few feet away, and it wasn’t fire. Not exactly. Smoke coiled upward from tendrils ofstrange light. From a blaze that was at once purple and yellow and red and somehow also green. Like it was cycling through new colors every second.
