Chapter 10
1292 Words
The Dining Car was in chaos.
Aristocrats were screaming, overturning tables, and scrambling toward the rear exit. The magical candles had fallen, extinguishing themselves on the floor, leaving the car lit only by the sporadic flashes of spellfire from outside.
Lyra crouched beneath the booth, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
The wind howled through the shattered window, a deafening, freezing gale. The train was moving at over a hundred miles an hour. Malakai was out there.
‘He’s insane,’ Lyra thought frantically. ‘He’s going to fall.’
She squeezed her eyes shut, blocking out the screams of the passengers. She didn't need her eyes. She needed her mind.
She projected her senses outward, through the broken glass, into the slipstream.
The noise was blinding. The wind roared like a physical weight. But beneath the roar, she felt them.
The six raiders on brooms were circling the train like sharks. Their minds were sharp, focused spikes of adrenaline.
‘Left flank!’ one of the raiders projected to his squad. ‘Hit the coupling!’
They were telepathic too? No. They were using wind-talk charms.
Lyra cast her mind searching for Malakai.
She found him. He was clinging to the roof of the train, his body pressed low against the metal to avoid the wind shear. He was alive, but he was pinned down. Three raiders were swooping in from his blind spot, wands glowing green.
He couldn't hear them. The wind was too loud.
‘Malakai!’ she screamed into his mind. ‘Three of them. Six o’clock. High.’
She felt his surprise, then his grim satisfaction.
‘I can’t hear the approach,’ his voice came back, strained and tight. ‘The wind is deafening.’
Lyra realized what she had to do.
She couldn't shoot a spell. She couldn't fight. But she could change the battlefield.
She pressed her hands against the floor of the train car. She visualized the roof. She visualized the roaring wind that was battering Malakai’s ears.
‘Silence,’ she commanded.
She didn't just push the silence; she threw it like a net. She cast a bubble of absolute vacuum around the roof of the train car.
Instantly, the roar of the wind vanished for Malakai. The world went dead silent.
In that sudden, unnatural quiet, Malakai heard the faint swish of a broomstick behind him.
He spun around, firing a curse before he even fully saw the target.
CRACK.
A bolt of red lightning struck the lead raider. The broom snapped in half. The raider tumbled away into the night without a sound.
The other two raiders panicked. The silence disoriented them. They were used to the roar of the wind; without it, their flight instincts were off. They overcorrected, swerving wildly.
Malakai moved with lethal grace. In the silence Lyra provided, he was faster than them. He fired two more shots, precise, brutal takedowns.
Two more raiders fell.
‘Three down,’ Malakai projected. ‘Where are the rest?’
Lyra scanned the chaos. ‘Two are falling back. One is...’
She froze. She couldn't feel the sixth mind outside anymore.
‘One is inside,’ she projected, her blood running cold. ‘He boarded the rear car.’
"Looking for someone?"
The voice didn't come from her mind. It came from right beside the table.
Lyra gasped, scrambling back.
A man in a black tactical mask was standing over her. He had kicked the table aside. His wand was leveled directly at her chest.
"You're the girl," the raider sneered. "The silent one. The Boss wants you alive, but he didn't say you had to be unharmed."
He raised his wand. "Stupe"
"No," a woman’s voice said. Smooth. Velvety. Compelling.
The raider froze. His mouth stayed open, but he couldn't finish the spell.
Valeria Vane stepped out of the shadows of the booth across the aisle. She hadn't fled with the others. She was standing calmly in the middle of the wreckage, holding her glass of wine.
She looked at the raider. Her eyes were glowing a faint, hypnotic violet.
"Put the wand down, darling," Valeria said softly.
It wasn't a suggestion. It was a Voice Command.
The raider’s hand trembled. He fought it, his veins bulging in his neck, but the magic was too strong. Slowly, agonizingly, he lowered the wand.
"Good boy," Valeria purred. "Now... sleep."
The raider’s eyes rolled back in his head. He collapsed to the floor like a puppet with cut strings.
Lyra stared at Valeria, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
Valeria took a sip of her wine, then looked down at Lyra.
"Messy," Valeria commented, looking at the unconscious man. "I do hate violence before dessert."
Suddenly, the roof of the car thumped. A black boot swung through the broken window, followed by the rest of Malakai.
He landed in a crouch, his coat torn, his hair wild from the wind. His wand was raised, ready to kill.
He saw the unconscious raider. Then he saw Valeria.
He moved instantly, stepping between Valeria and Lyra.
"Vane," Malakai growled.
"Executor," Valeria replied, toasting him with her glass. "You really should keep a better leash on your pet. She almost got clipped."
Malakai didn't lower his wand. "Did you send them?"
"Please," Valeria scoffed. "If I sent them, you would be dead, and the girl would be in my trunk. These were amateurs. Hired muscle. Probably sent by the Council faction that doesn't want you digging up the past."
She set her glass down and smoothed her crimson velvet suit.
"I'm not your enemy, Malakai. Not yet, anyway." She glanced at Lyra, her violet eyes sharp. "But I am interested in what you've found. Keep her safe, Executor. The wolves are circling."
With a small, enigmatic smile, Valeria Vane turned and walked out of the ruined dining car, her heels clicking on the glass-strewn floor.
Malakai watched her go, his jaw tight. Only when the door clicked shut did he lower his wand.
He turned to Lyra.
He looked terrifying. There was a cut on his cheek bleeding sluggishly, and his eyes were wide with adrenaline.
"Are you hurt?" he demanded, dropping to his knees in front of her. He grabbed her shoulders, his hands shaking slightly. "Did he touch you?"
Lyra shook her head, staring at the cut on his face. ‘I’m fine. Malakai, your face...’
"I don't care about my face," he snapped. He pulled her into his chest, burying his face in her neck. He held her tight, crushing the silk dress.
"I couldn't hear him," he whispered into her hair, his voice raw. "I was outside, and I couldn't hear him get in. I left you alone."
Lyra hesitated, then wrapped her arms around his back. He was freezing cold from the wind, but burning up with magic.
‘You didn't leave me alone,’ she projected softly. ‘We were connected. We fought them together.’
Malakai pulled back, looking at her. The gold in his eyes was swirling.
"You silenced the wind," he realized. "That bubble on the roof. That was you."
‘It was too loud,’ Lyra shrugged. ‘I just... turned down the volume.’
Malakai let out a short, incredulous laugh. He touched his forehead to hers.
"You are terrifying, Lyra Blackwood."
The train whistle blew, a mournful sound in the night. The lights flickered back on.
"Come on," Malakai said, standing up and pulling her with him. "We need to move. The remaining raiders will report back. We can't stay on this train."
‘Jump?’ Lyra looked at the broken window. ‘Please tell me we aren't jumping.’
"No," Malakai said, wiping the blood from his cheek. "We’re decoupling."
He led her toward the door.
"We’re taking the cargo car. And we’re going off-road."
- Writer
