Seven Wardens: Books 1-4

Chapter 2-2

Lightning and water didn’t really mix. It almost sounded kind of deadly, and Macey wasn’t completely keen on finding out how so.

“You’ve finally come to kill me then?” Amber met Macey’s eyes with a strange mix of resignation and determination in her gaze. As broken as she looked on the inside, this girl was still standing, and still fighting. Just not in the most obvious of ways.

“Why would I want to kill you?” Macey frowned, genuinely confused about what she could mean. She’d never really wanted to kill anyone. Not until the Voice anyway. She’d quite happily carve his heart out with a rusty spoon if she got the chance. If he had one. A heart that was. She was sure finding a rusty spoon would be reasonably straightforward.

“My dre-”

ENOUGH!

Amber flinched alongside Macey. Interesting. The Voice was talking to them both then. That was particularly interesting given their stays here.

The echo of his words faded away, but Amber continued to flinch. He must still be talking to her then. Poor girl.

“No… don’t make me… no… please… no.” She started clawing at her face, as if to get the Voice out. Macey wondered if that was what she looked like when the Voice was in her head. If so, it made sense why her men were always so worried after she’d come around.

A pang of loss shot through her heart. She wanted them with her so badly. Not because she’d need them to escape, but just because they made her feel more complete.

ENJOY, LITTLE KELPIE, the Voice taunted.

Macey braced herself as best she could, wishing her wrists weren’t still shackled. She wasn’t quite sure what the Voice had in mind, but given everything she’d heard and witnessed so far, likelihood was that it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

She wouldn’t scream though. She had to keep that promise. Giving him the satisfaction would be the worst possible torture.

“No, no, no, no, no.” Amber glanced down at her hands with an expression of horror on her face.

Macey looked down too and gulped. The girl’s hands were covered in sparks of electricity. She guessed she really was about to find out what happened when electricity and water mixed. She was scared. Actually, no. That was an understatement. She was petrified. But still determined not to let the Voice see that. He’d be far too satisfied, and she’d love to wipe the smug expression out of his tone.

“I’m sorry,” Amber whispered, meeting Macey’s eyes again.

“I know,” Macey replied, trying to tell her it was alright. And failing badly. They were just two young women in the courtyard of an unknown place, and in the grasp of a sadistic… something. How did she still not know what the Voice was? How was she going to defeat a mystery?

The electricity began to build, and storm clouds rolled overhead. What the hell was Amber? Or was it even her causing this?

“Please forgive me,” the redhead begged.

“Always,” Macey responded, before lightning crashed down from the sky, landing just feet away from where she stood. Despite herself, Macey flinched away.

“No,” Amber tried again, tears beginning to stream down her face, and her mouth set into a determined line.

If Macey had to guess, she’d have said that the Voice had the other woman in her grip, and the fact the lightning had missed her at all, was simply testament to Amber’s sense of control. Most likely due to being locked up for so long.

Macey had to admire that. If they both got out of here alive, then she was going to have to ask. Maybe. Or maybe not. She was already looking forward to forgetting her own time here after all.

In front of her, Amber dropped to her knees, screaming in anguish. This was it then, the moment she lost control. Macey closed her eyes, thinking that not seeing it coming would make the pain easier to bear.

It didn’t. The waiting was almost worse than the pain.

The crackle of lightning coming had her on edge, and she could almost feel it approaching. Thinking of Flint, Jared and Cam as hard as she could, Macey managed to distract herself.

But only for a moment.

The electricity hit her skin, and a singed hair smell surrounded her. But oddly, not as much pain as she expected. Hardly any at all in fact. It was as if the lightning was one with her, though she couldn’t quite wield it.

She opened her eyes, meeting Amber’s surprised face, before smiling slightly. The other girl picked up on what was happening quickly, or she had if the echoing smile was anything to go by. Even so, she stayed on her knees. Hopefully the Voice either couldn’t tell what was happening or couldn’t do anything about it.

Macey felt another surge of electricity as the lightning strike grew stronger. She was even more impressed with Amber now. Even though the Voice had managed to make her use her powers, she’d still managed to hold some back. That must take a lot of mental fortitude.

Twin prickles around her wrists, followed by two loud cracks, had Macey smiling maniacally. The copper restraints were gone, fallen to the floor in pieces, and allowing a surge of her own magic to join Amber’s.

NO!

The Voice seemed to have figured out what was happening. Too bad it was too little, too late. Macey directed their combined powers around them, knocking the Voice’s men to the ground with the combined lethality of water and electricity.

They probably didn’t survive, but she also didn’t really care. She’d heard and seen enough, both in person, and from what Luch had said.

It wasn’t until the surge of magic began to fade, that she noticed the slight stinging sensation on her lower back. This time, she didn’t wonder what it was about. It was more painful than the marks she’d received from s*x, but she was hardly complaining. Izban hadn’t seemed like the sharing type anyway.

Her clothes were wet and the courtyard ground had turned into one giant puddle. She hadn't even noticed she'd summoned that much water.

Now what? Her shackles had gone and she was free to run, but where to? There were two doors leading away from the courtyard: one was the door her jailor had brought her, the other straight opposite. It looked more inviting. Wherever it led, at least it wasn't to the dungeons.

Macey began to run towards the door, expecting Amber to follow - but when she reached it, there was no sign of the redhead behind her. She looked back and saw Amber standing still in the same spot, tiny bolts of lightning flashing around her wrists. She was wavering, reaching for something in front of her that wasn't there.

Then she collapsed.

Macey ran back, cursing herself for not checking on Amber first. The girl had been in captivity for far longer than herself; of course she wasn't well. The exhaustion of using so much magic at once must have been too much for her frail body.

Luckily, Amber hadn't passed out completely. She was lying on her side, her eyes open, but obviously too weak to stand.

"I'm sorry," she whispered faintly, but Macey shushed her.

"Do you know the way out of here?"

"I think so." Amber groaned. "But it's hard to know what was real and what wasn't."

"It's better than randomly running around this place. Imagine running as fast as you can, how long would it take?"

"The main gate isn't far from here. Maybe two minutes? But I can't walk, let alone run."

Macey ignored that last statement. "Do you think you'll be able to hold onto me?"

Amber frowned in confusion. "You don't look strong enough to carry me. Better leave me here and get out while you still can. I'm sure the Voice will be back soon."

Macey chuckled. "Believe me, I'm strong enough. But don't tell anyone. And be quick, I can only hold my breath for so long."

Amber looked even more confused now, but Macey didn't have time to explain. Instead, she showed her. She shifted.

Shifting outside of the loch was hard, but there was enough water on her clothes and the ground for her to manage. It was painful, though, but she couldn't think of any other way of getting Amber out of here.

When she had fully shifted into her kelpie form, she knelt down beside Amber, nudging the girl to climb onto her back. This was the first time anyone who wasn't a kelpie was going to ride on her. It was a shameful thing to do; kelpies were incredibly proud creatures. But this was an emergency and if she was lucky, nobody in her family would ever find out.

That's when she remembered her brothers. If the two men in the dungeons even were her brothers, but it was too much of a coincidence.

She huffed. Get Amber out first, that was the priority. Then go back and get her brothers. Somehow. A problem for a later time. Right now, her problem was that she was having to hold her breath and already felt a slight sting in her lungs. Kelpies weren't made to be out of water for long. That's why the legends of kelpies pulling humans underwater to eat them were bollocks. Kelpies couldn't keep their heads out of water for long enough to first find and then attack a human. Besides that, they were vegetarians.

Amber climbed onto Macey's broad back and clung to her mane. As gentle as she could, the kelpie got to her feet and began to move towards the door. When she was sure Amber had a good grip on her, she broke into a run, following the girl's whispered directions.

From the courtyard they entered a long, dim corridor that led into another, even dimmer one. On and on they ran, around corners, through doors. There were no people to be seen anywhere. Macey found that very strange, but she didn't have time to ponder on that, nor on the fact that the Voice wasn't talking to them anymore or trying to keep them in his grasp.

No, she was focused on not breathing.

Her kelpie lungs were better than her human ones, but by now she was quickly running out of oxygen. Finally, they exited the building they were in and entered another drawn out courtyard. At the end was a gate.

It was closed.

Nonetheless, Macey continued to gallop towards it. Freedom was so close.

Suddenly, two guards stepped out of a small door beside the gate. They held out their hands, intent on stopping the girls escape.

Mages.

Oh waves, what was she going to do?

"I can break down the gate, but I'll pass out after that," Amber whispered.

That meant the guards were Macey's responsibility. She whinnied in response to show her rider she agreed with her plan.

Her lungs were burning, she knew she had less than a minute left before she'd have to shift back. Summoning her water magic, she threw two balls of water at the guards without warning. One of them deflected his, but the other was hit hard and slammed against the wall behind him. He sank to the ground, unconscious.

Only one to go. Macey readied another water ball, but the guard was now on the offensive. He threw a fire lance at her and she just about managed to jump to the side to evade it. However, it gave her the opening to thrust her own watery missile and hit the mage before he could create another lance. Just like his fellow guard, he slumped to the ground.

Lightning tore from the sky and into the metal gate. Electricity fizzled through the air and the gate's doors sprung open.

Using the last of her energy, Macey ran through the open gate and along the drawbridge that was leading away from the castle.