Diamond Sky (Love Lines Series) Page 21

  “Looks creepy,” Amanda said. And she was right. It felt like I was in the middle of a bloody hell. The sky above my head was black. “Evan says you need to use the mestaphia and try to find the hidden spell.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Would you be so kind as to tell him to shut up? I know what to do!”

  “He says he can’t help himself.”

  “As always,” I muttered.

  “By the way, you guys said I would be able to see you. Where are you?”

  “We thought that it would be better if we keep following you through your mind,” Amanda said. “You don’t need any unnecessary distractions.”

  “Okay.” I nodded, taking the mestaphia from my bag.

  Holding it in my hands never felt good. But as long as it worked for breaking the most powerful spells, I didn’t care.

  “I think the spell is hidden there,” Melanie said, pointing to the darkness of the sky.

  “I think so too,” I said, as I threw the flower into the air.

  It hit an invisible barrier, and the ground under our feet vibrated.

  “Be careful, Eileen!” Amanda’s voice shouted. “Move to the right! Now!”

  The moment I did what she said, the ground on my left cracked, and a huge split appeared there, dividing the field into two parts. The roses on both sides of it turned black.

  “Damn it … what the hell has just happened?”

  “The protection of the spell is fighting your powers,” Melanie said. “It doesn’t want to be revealed.”

  “Too bad,” I said, as I threw the mestaphia up in the air once again.

  This time I heard music coming from the distance. I could barely hear it, but I remembered the song from one of my dreams and followed the sound. It led me to the river, the waters of which were crystal-blue and pure, so that even the grains of sand on its bottom could be seen through the water.

  “Don’t come too close to the water, Eileen,” Amanda said. “It’s singing to you, but the river is charmed.”

  “It’s like a sweet curse,” Melanie said. “The river attracts you with its beauty, but it will kill you the moment you touch the surface.”

  Amanda’s voice spoke again, “Use the water of this river to wash away the darkness around the hidden spell.”

  And so I did. I raised the stream of the water into the air, and it rushed so fast that I could barely react when the drops started falling back to the ground.

  “Watch out!” Amanda shouted. But it was too late. The drops were not drops anymore, but the meteorite fragments, that were rushing back to kill us.

  “Jump into the river! It’s safe now!” I shouted to Melanie, and we both jumped into the cold water.

  The moment our feet touched the bottom, the crazy rain stopped, and we found ourselves standing in the middle of the field of roses again.

  “Look!” Melanie said, pointing to the sky. I raised my eyes and saw the text of the old spell, written in gold. It shone as brightly, as if it were made of pure sun. And the words of the song I heard before came to my head again, “Let the sand protect you from the flames of sun.”

  “Oh, my God…” I whispered, reading the text. “Don’t look at it!” I said to Melanie. “It will blind and burn you!”

  Meanwhile, I kneeled and put both palms on the ground, making the grains of sand under my feet shield us from the flames of the sun. Even with my eyes closed, I knew we were safe.

  “Okay, the flames are gone,” Amanda said. Now the text was barely visible, but I could still see it. “What comes next?”

  “The storm,” I said, recalling the song again. “But it won’t start until we try to destroy the text. So we will deal with it later. Now, it’s time to meet our guests.”

  The moment we turned around, about three dozen people materialized, wearing long red cloaks and black masks.

  “Welcome to Hell,” I said, creating the protective circle around Melanie and me. It was big enough, as not to make us stand too close to each other.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “First you need to take these herbs and put them around you,” I said, giving her what Marion had prepared in accordance with the recipe of the spell to kill the Dragons’ leader. “I hope my father told you about our plan?”

  “Yes, he said that if I kill the leader, I will finally be free from darkness, and able to practice the white magic.”

  I could see how excited Melanie was about the last part. And I couldn’t blame her for that. We all had our own motives to be here.

  “Okay, let me know when you are ready,” I said, watching the strangers in the cloaks. Apparently they still couldn’t realize that the meeting they came to, wasn’t exactly what they expected it to be.

  One of the men took off his mask, and I recognized my so-called stepfather in him.

  “You!” he said, as if he couldn’t believe his own eyes. “What the hell….”

  “Good to see you again, Walter,” I replied, smiling, though everything inside me was screaming to kill him right away.

  “Don’t do this, Eileen!” Amanda said.

  “Don’t worry, Honey. I will leave him for dessert.”

  “What are you doing here?” Walter asked, looking around cautiously. Only now he could see that the whole brotherhood was there with us.

  “I sent you invitations to join me at my small party, and as far as I can see, you all accepted it willingly.”

  “I don’t know what game you are playing little girl, but I’m not going to play it.”

  Walter put on his mask that I guessed was supposed to help him go back to where he was. But of course, it didn’t work.

  “You trapped us?” he asked in disbelief.

  I smirked. “Bingo!”

  He moved so fast, that if I wasn’t protected by the circle, I would have been already dead. His spell hit the barrier he couldn’t see and banked, aiming back, straight at him. But the bastard was fast. He dodged and sent another spell at me.

  “Don’t waste your energy, Walter. You can’t hurt me.”

  His face turned pink. “Oh, trust me, Dear, I will get to you, and make you pay for everything you have done to me.”

  “But I haven’t done anything yet! And something tells me that when I do, you won’t be able to move.”

  The only thing that surprised me was that there was no chaos among other members of the brotherhood. They all stood still. And suddenly I realized why….

  “A Lord of Mind? Seriously? Come on, you dare-devil, show yourself!”

  Walter froze, hearing my words. “There’s no Lord of Mind here….”

  “You are so wrong, my dear Mr. Blake,” I sang. “I bet you don’t even know who he really is.”

  “This is impossible,” he muttered, looking at the people behind him. No one else moved.

  And then something else happened. I felt the vibrations in the air and turned my head to the right. Another figure in a red cloak materialized.

  The Dragons’ leader has finally joined us….

  Chapter 32. Fighting the Dragons

  I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but what I faced in reality was so much worse than my expectations. I couldn’t see the leader’s face, though I was sure I knew exactly who was hiding behind the black mask. Marion said that I shouldn’t hesitate, but there was something I needed to find out first.

  “I’m sorry, Amanda,” I said mentally to my friend, before I closed the door to my mind. She couldn’t read my thoughts anymore, which meant that I had some time before my friends would find out the truth about the person who betrayed us. The only feeling that I managed to catch before my bond with Amanda disconnected, was her panic.

  “I’m ready,” Melanie said behind me.

  “Give me a few minutes,” I whispered, watching the motionless figure of the Dragons’ leader.

  “Well, hello Eileen,” the melodious voice said. I recognized it. I had already heard the voice before.

  “I’m glad you joined us,” I said, trying t
o look calm, though every inch of me was on alert.

  “So to what do I owe the honor of being here?”

  I took one step forward, but never left the protective circle. “I wanted to meet you in person. And I bet you have been dying to meet me too.”

  “True. The rumors about your powers made me restless.”

  “You knew that my invitation was a trap, didn’t you?”

  “Of course I knew that you would never invite me for a cup of tea. But I never thought that you would be so brave as to actually ask for a meeting. I was impressed by what you did. And that you came here alone, except for … I’m sorry, what’s the name of your companion?”

  “Melanie. Her name is Melanie Clark.”

  “Did you say Clark?”

  “Yes, she’s my cousin.”

  I didn’t know if it was due to the protective circle, or because of the leader’s special powers, but I couldn’t see his aura, and I couldn’t read his reaction to my words.

  “I didn’t know you had a cousin,” the voice said after a pause that felt like forever to me.

  Score. You were not supposed to know about her, I thought to myself.

  “I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss my family tree.”

  “You are right. But if the girl was honored to accompany Frederick’s daughter, I bet she has some hidden talents. What is her major?”

  Before I could say anything, I saw a black cloud forming around the leader. And though I knew it couldn’t reach me, the darkness of the energy it radiated, made me sick. Where the cloud was touching the ground, the red roses were freezing and sluffing, turning into a black sea of death around the leader’s figure.

  “My, my! So the girl is a dark magiс user! Who knew your family, Eileen, was so blessed as to have two powerful magicians about the same age. Unbelievable….”

  I couldn’t but admit it — Melanie did a great job demonstrating her dark magic, but she didn’t do anything to reveal her ability to control the elements. And I knew we would need all of our talents to make it through everything that was coming next.

  But there was one more thing that I couldn’t leave unmentioned. Marion was right, it was always hard to leave my emotions at the door. And now I let them take control over my mind, because one of my friends deserved to know the truth about the person I was talking to.

  “Is killing me going to make you happy?” I asked the leader. No one else talked, and even Walter was watching us, speechless. None of the Dragons expected to see their leader. It was forbidden, like a taboo that had never been broken. And I was surprised to see Walter’s reaction. It looked like he didn’t know who their leader was, though being his deputy he had the right to know.

  “Happiness is a very relative term, Eileen. You and I understand it differently.”

  “But I’m sure there’s one thing that we treat the same way.”

  “Really? Well, that’s interesting. You think we have something in common after all?”

  “Yes, we do. And I think you know what I mean.” It was the first time I noticed the colors of the aura, surrounding the leader. It was just a fleeting moment, but I managed to see the fear. Finally, the leader realized that I knew who he really was. And it was kind of unexpected to see his fear, because I was sure that the person was as cold and senseless as stone. Could it be possible that I was wrong?

  “Well, I guess our desire to control the world around us is the only thing that we share.”

  I smirked. “If you say so.”

  There was a pause and none of us said a word, thinking about the next thing to do.

  And Walter was the one to break the silence. “The girl found the spell,” he said, pointing to the sky.

  Damn you, you son of a bitch, I swore mentally. You were not supposed to notice that! The words were barely visible, and I secretly hoped that it was enough to fool the Dragons. No such luck. Crap….

  “It will make our task even easier,” the leader said, deliberately dwelling on the words.

  “It’s time,” I said quietly to Melanie. “Start reading the spell.”

  The moment she read the first words, everything around us changed. The lonely figure of the Dragons’ leader froze and cried, “No!” Then other Dragons rushed to me and Melanie, sending different spells in our direction. But none of them could reach us, because just as my friends had predicted, the combination of powers that the two of us shared, was too strong to break through.

  Apparently the magic of everything that was going on, touched the old spell’s protective shield, because the storm started sooner than I expected.

  The sound of thunder shattered the earth under our feet. I could barely keep my balance. I turned around to check on Melanie, but she was fine. She was kneeling above the drawing with the spell, reading it aloud, with her palms pressed to the ground.

  “Don’t stop no matter what happens!” I shouted, turning back to the Dragons. Their leader was nowhere around, but I knew that he couldn’t run too far, because there was nowhere to run. We were all trapped.

  I looked at the sky, and the old spell was still there, shining brighter and brighter with every passing second. Suddenly my mental defense cracked, because I could hear Amanda again. And not only her….

  “The spell is made of stars!” Evan shouted.

  “Pull them to the ground!” Christian added.

  “Increase the circle around you! Melanie is too close to you!” Marion screamed.

  “Another Lord of Mind is here!” William said. “And he’s right in front of you, Eileen! Close your eyes! Don’t look at him!”

  I did what he said and raised my hands, palms up, trying to stop the hurricane around us all. I could feel the powers of water surrounding my circle; and the powers of the earth, trembling under my feet; and the powers of fire, licking the invisible barrier of my defense. But the strongest one was the power of the wind that I could barely stop from destroying me.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw my friends, fighting the members of the brotherhood. Thank God, they were well protected and none of the bastards in the red cloaks could hurt them.

  Apart from trying to keep the Dragons away from me and Melanie, they were helping me to control the flying into a rage elements. Darcy made the rivers flow in the opposite direction from where I was. Evan was trying to stop the earthquake, which was about to destroy us in seconds. Christian was a few steps away from me, trying not to let the fire touch me.

  I looked at the sky and pulled the shiny letters of the spell to the ground. But the moment the first of them landed, I realized that they were not made of stars….

  “The diamonds,” Christian whispered, taking one of them.

  But I saw something else. “They are all red.”

  “Because they symbolize the final step of the spell’s protection. They symbolize blood.”

  “What do we do with them?”

  “Make sure they won’t hurt you,” Christian said, looking straight into my eyes. “And I will burn and blow up the bloody diamonds.”

  “The moment you burn them, the illusion will disappear.”

  “I know. That’s why I want you to take care of the rest.” He smiled gently. “I will see you in reality, Eileen.”

  I nodded, took a deep breath and looked at the sky again. “It’s time to be done with the damn illusion,” I said, as I pulled the rest of the diamonds to the ground.

  When the shining rain stopped, Christian exploded the red ocean of blood surrounding us. The waves of heat hit me, and I fell to my knees, covering my head with my hands.

  Of course, the protective circle around me was still there, and Melanie and I were okay. The sun appeared from the clouds, and all the black roses, destroyed by the diamonds, became red again. We found ourselves standing in the middle of a beautiful summer field. And everything was perfect, apart from one thing. The illusion didn’t go anywhere….

  “What the hell?” Evan asked, puzzled.

  “The power of Melanie’s spell is
holding us here,” I realized. “We will be able to leave the illusion only when she’s done with the Dragons’ leader.”

  The moment a huge green dragon formed in the center of the rose field, the spell was over. The rest of the dark magic traces disappeared, taking away all the Dragons that fell to the ground unconscious and then vanished with the wind.

  But something was still wrong.

  I turned to the right and saw the bright blue light, coming from the sapphire ring of the Dragons’ leader, who to our common surprise, was still alive….

  “What have you done, Eileen?!” the voice behind the mask cried. “What have you done….”

  When the ring turned into smoke, the mask covering the leader’s face fell, and we all saw who had been hiding behind it.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Evan muttered, shocked. “Mom?”

  Chapter 33. Dead or Alive?

  Elizabeth’s face turned pale, but what surprised me most were her eyes, full of tears. She looked at me one last time and disappeared. And I could swear I read the words ‘my fault’ on her lips. What did that mean?

  When the illusion was destroyed, we were back to Dever’s Great Hall. Not a single trace of what had just happened was there. Everything was as usual: blue velvet chairs, the portraits of the founding families, the globular ceiling, and the pictures of the moon and the sun, decorating the walls. The only thing that was missing, was the hole where my father put the horseshoe before the crazy thing started.

  I looked into my hands and smiled at the horseshoe that was still there. Maybe it was the main key to the whole thing? Maybe it was the very thing that helped me to survive? I didn’t know. But the only thing that I knew for sure was that I would always be grateful to my grandfather, Steward Mitchell, for protecting me and my family from the dark and evil of the world we lived in.

  Warm arms locked around me, and I leaned into Christian’s embrace, relieved. We were all safe now.

  “You okay?” he asked, kissing my forehead.

  “I’m fine,” I said, tightening my grip on his shirt. I was so happy to see him again, I missed something very important — the silence around us.