Soul Blaze (19 page)

I needed urgent medical attention, but would that call
off the duel? If so, I couldn’t take that risk. I needed to win
this fight for the future of this country. I wouldn’t have
been called to duty if there wasn’t a need for a ruling
monarch.

Thunder boomed overhead again, and suddenly I could
feel the energy of the storm all around, just like I could
sense magic in the air. With sudden inspiration, I stood,
took my bloody hand away from my shoulder wound, and
summoned the lightning.

~Chapter Seventeen~

Griffin hadn’t been expecting it, nor had anyone in the
crowd. The bolt of pure lightning would’ve hit him square
in the face had he not shielded in time. Even so, he was
blasted back off the pretty courtyard and into the muddy
grass. He lay still as his second ran over to him. My
bleeding wound forgotten for a few glorious moments, I
watched as they pronounced Griffin decidedly knocked
out. I’d won.

In stunned silence, the courtyard knelt as one. I
trembled for a second before stumbling.
Strong arms caught me before I could hit the ground.
“You can bow and scrape later,” Yasmin was yelling at
the kneelers. “Dustin, help me get her into the palace.”

Dustin picked me up, one arm under my knees and the
other supporting my head and neck. Rain had pulled her
tunic off, leaving her under shirt on, pressing the wadded
up material against the knife wound. I was dimly aware of
crying out in protest as the pressure made the pain even
worse. She ignored it, though I felt Dustin’s arms tremble
below me.

I was dimly aware of being put down a short time later;
I must’ve passed out as I was being carried in. I looked up
to see Dena rolling up her sleeves before reaching down
and removing the tunic from my shoulder. I felt dizzy as I
saw how much of my blood was on it before she dropped
it on the floor next to her.

Without saying a word, she lit a ball of blue fire in one
palm and pressed it against the wound. I watched as
though from a distance as the flames sunk inside my skin.
Blood trickled out in rivulets, down my arm and onto the
desk Dustin had laid me on. I could see him standing just
behind Dena, arms folded with the knuckles of his right
hand pressed against his lips. He saw me looking at him
and turned away.

I looked up at Dena again, who was moving her hands
in a manner than looked like she was conducting an
orchestra. I could
feel
the blood vessels sewing themselves
back together as my flesh began to knit over. There was an
uncomfortable tightening in my shoulder as the scar tissue
began to develop but for some reason I wasn’t overly
bothered.

“Dena, you’re really pretty, you know that?” I told her
in a slurred voice.
She barely paused in her healing.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” she said. “Dustin, get over
here. What blood type are you, Sky?”
I thought furiously for a few seconds, but was saved
answering by my mother’s arrival.

“She’s AB+,” she said, suddenly appearing in my view.
She had that worried line down the middle of her
forehead. “Take the blood from me, Dena.”

“It won’t make any difference, not if she’s AB+-”

My mother was already rolling up her sleeve. Dena
shrugged, wiping her hands on the bloodstained tunic.
Though she was blurry, I managed to follow her
movements as she picked up what looked like a hand
pump attached to a pipe. I saw, rather than felt, the needle
she fed into my arm.

“What’s that?” Mum asked, but didn’t stop Dena from
threading a needle into her vein.
“Not all healing is magical.” Dena replied, beginning to
pump the blood from my mother’s arm to me.

I lost track of time, but after what felt like an hour I felt
strength returning to my limbs. Dena had stopped
transferring the blood a while ago and had set to work on
the shallow cut on my cheekbone from where Griffin’s
first throwing knife had hit me. Dustin had left, but my
mother stayed in the corner, watching the healing. Dena
had sat me upright on the desk so I could look around. I
watched as Jett burst through the doors, and prepared my
‘I’m ok, Dad’ speech, but before I had a chance to deliver
it, he and my mother had a hasty exchange in the corner,
before they both left without so much as a backwards
glance.

Dena saw where I was looking and patted my cheek to
make me look at her again.

“I’m sure it’s important,” she said, holding my chin in
place so I couldn’t move again. She went back to healing
my face. “They’ll tell you soon.”

I wanted to reply, but she was holding my mouth
closed. With one hand, she picked up a small jar and
smoothed some balm down the half-healed cut. The
coolness of the ointment felt amazing on my skin. But
even so…

Dena saw my questioning look.

“I’m back at the hospital tonight, in the emergency
ward. Last night we had a guy brought in who’d been
crushed by a horse. Knitting bones back together takes it
out of you. I’m afraid healing your shoulder wound
magically is all I can spare for today,” she smiled
apologetically. “I mean, you could order me to use up the
rest of my magic on you to heal you back to 100%.”

“Why would I do that?” I asked, as she replaced the
balm in her kit.
She glanced over at me and then made a mock curtsy.
“Your Majesty.” Was all she said.
My blood ran cold as those simple two words reached
their full implications.
“Where’s Phoenix?” I said, trying to hide the fact that
I’d begun to tremble.
“He’s upstairs still. Dustin went to get him. I expect
he’ll be down here very soon.”

As if on cue, the doors opened and Phoenix strode
through them, pale as the moon. When he saw me on the
desk, a bandage wrapped around my shoulder, the balm on
my cheek and the blood on my clothing, his jaw
tightened. His eyes were searching mine for something.

“I’m going to head downstairs and see if Griffin needs
assistance,” Dena said smoothly, picking up her kit and
trotting to the doors. She paused at them. “Be careful with
her, Phoenix.” She pulled the doors closed behind her and
left the room.

Phoenix reached me, and carefully traced the cut on
my cheek.
“What happened?” he asked softly.

“Two throwing knives,” I answered, looking away. I
couldn’t stand to see that look in his eyes. “I’m fine
though. Dena patched me up.”

He nodded almost unconsciously.
“And... what was the outcome of the trial?” he asked
finally.

I paused before answering, knowing that I’d just
changed both of our lives as well as the history of our
country as well. I took a deep breath and looked him in
the eye.

“I won,” I said steadily. “I’ll be accepted as Queen now.”
He exhaled in a rush, and dropped to one knee by my
side.
“I pledge my fealty to you,” he murmured. His hand
sought out mine. “My Queen.”
“What are you doing?” I asked, snatching my fingers
away. “I won, Phoenix. You are King. I choose it.”

He couldn’t meet my eyes. He must’ve known this was
coming, surely? Fear sent chills down my spine. Was he
going to renounce any claim to the throne and leave me to
rule alone?

“I wasn’t sure,” he whispered.
“Wasn’t sure about what?”

He finally looked up, his eyes meeting mine. My breath
left my body in a hushed exhale. Every time he cornered
me with that intense stare, I felt myself physically react.

“I wasn’t sure, if you’d still want me.” He finished
finally, dropping his gaze to the floor again.

The words hung between us silently as I tried to
understand them. When I was certain, I swung my legs
over the side of the desk and stood before him. Carefully, I
leant down and took his chin in my hand, making him
look at me again.

“Still want you?” I repeated quietly. “Phoenix. I have
wanted you since the moment I first laid eyes on you.
Since the fire of our magic ignited when we touched for
the first time,” I pulled him gently to his feet, making him
face me. “You are my soul mate, Phoenix. You are it. You
are my home, my heart. Literally, the other half of my
soul.” I gripped him by his lapels. “You are written into
my DNA and you ask if
I stillwant you
.” I let him go and
smiled. “The answer is, and always will be, yes.”

He kissed me fiercely, pressing me into his body. I
ignored the twinge of my knife wound and kissed him
back as I felt the fire in my soul begin to awaken once
again.

~Chapter Eighteen~

When we finally emerged from the office, I had my
hand on Phoenix’s arm that he had graciously offered me.
I felt like I was walking on clouds; I was going to be
Queen, Phoenix my King, and no one could stop us from
being together now.

“Where are we headed?” Phoenix asked.

“Ryman’s office,” I replied, steering us in that general
direction. “I need to have a few words with the
Governor.”

However, it wasn’t Ryman that answered my not-sotender knocks on the door, but my father. He took one
look at me before sweeping into an elegant bow. I
removed my hand from Phoenix’s arm so I could shove
Jett.

“Excuse me, I’m showing respect to my monarch,” he
complained, rubbing his arm where I’d hit him. I smiled;
for a moment, he sounded like my friend and tutor rather
than my father.

“I’m first and foremost your daughter,” I told him,
reminding us both simultaneously. “Where’s Ryman?” I
asked, finally noticing the man’s absence in his own office.

My parents exchanged glances.
“What?” I demanded. “What’s going on?”

“We’ve lost him,” my mother finally answered, sitting
in Ryman’s chair behind his desk. “He fled shortly after
you blasted Griffin to high heaven.”

“Why?”

“We suspect that he feared repercussions,” Jett said,
perching on the desk’s edge. “Specifically the way he
treated you and your friends.”

“Are you serious? He’s worried about the way he
treated me when he’s been suppressing the non-magi
using mages? He’s almost single-handedly driven a wedge
between two factions of society and he’s worried about

that
?”
They looked at each other again.
“What?” I sighed, trying not to let my frustration show.

“Well, the thing is... you can persecute him for it,” Jett
said finally. “If you feel it necessary, you can order the city
guard to track him down and bring him back to the palace
for trial.”

“We’ll need to pass laws,” Phoenix said, his voice low.
“If we’re going to bring him to trial, we need a law that we
can claim violation of.”

I was nodding, but Jett cut me off before I could say
anything else.

“We can get to passing laws after your coronations,” he
said, and my stomach did a funny little wiggle at the word
‘coronations’. “In the meantime, we’ll have people out
looking for him. However, there is something more
pressing at hand.”

“Which is?” I asked, impatient at their stalling.
“You conducted lightning,” my mother said. “Was that
pure lightning?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did it originate from you?” Jett asked. “Did you
fashion your magic to look like it?”

“No... it was... from the clouds, I guess,” I replied,
puzzled. “I think I was just a conductor, but I could
control where it went.”

Jett exhaled and lifted a shaking hand to his face. My
mother was staring at me as though seeing me for the first
time.

“You controlled lightning?” Phoenix asked, and I
turned to him, desperate for some comfort, as I’d started to
panic at Jett’s reaction. “Are you sure?”

I thought back to the moment the bolt had hit the tip of
my finger. I’d felt the energy soar through my body and
then emanate from my outstretched fingers towards
Griffin. I’d used the lightning as a weapon, but I hadn’t
conjured it.

“I’m sure,” I said in a small voice.
“We need to stop word of this leaving the palace,” my
mother said, stony-faced.

“It’s too late,” Jett snapped uncharacteristically, finally
taking his hand away from his face. He looked as though
he’d aged in the space of half a minute. “Half the city
already knows. There were guards at the duel. They’re
spreading the story.”

“Why is this a bad thing?” I asked frantically.
“No one can control lightning, Sky,” Jett replied. “It’s
never been done in over three thousand years.”

“Well that’s not true,” I said, relief flooding through
me. “Last year, Professor Watt used lightning to zap Nero
in our first class.”

“Actually, Professor Watt’s magic is just a very pale
blue. She shapes it like lightning for the effect.” Jett told
me.

The ice returned to my veins.
“So, just normal magic then?” I asked in a little voice.
“Not the real deal?”
“No, sweetheart,” Mum said from behind the desk.
“And here you are, pulling bolts down from the clouds.”

“I had to win,” I whispered. I clenched my fists, my
fingernails digging into my palms. “Griffin was going to
beat me. I had to win.”

“You were cocky,” Jett said, and it was my tutor talking
to me now, not my father. “You thought that because you
had the Queen’s power on your side, you could beat him.
He almost proved you wrong.”

“I know,” I snapped. “You don’t have to rub it in; the
knife in my shoulder did that for you. I know that Griffin
was better than I was, and I knew that I shouldn’t have let
my confidence cloud my judgement. I
get
it. I know that
now. And trust me, it’s not going to happen again.”

Jett nodded slowly.

“I think you should go down to see him,” my mother
said. “Safe to say, I think you’ve scared him into
submission.”

I’d been wondering if it would be appropriate for me to
go down to see my competitor. With my parent’s
recommendation, I headed from Ryman’s office, Phoenix
hot on my tail.

“I wish I could’ve been at the fight,” he said from
behind my left shoulder.

“I don’t,” I responded, striding down a majestic hallway
lined with tapestries. “To be fair, I really sucked. Griffin
almost mashed me into a little pulp.”

He went quiet, and I didn’t dare glance back at him
until I reached the entrance to the guard’s medic ward. I
paused, my hand on the doorknob.
“Maybe you shouldn’t come in,” I said uncertainly.