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Chapter Sixteen

C inaed:

T he wind across the prairie carried the usual scents of the open plains, except something made my phoenix instincts recoil.

I shifted my weight against the rough ground, trying to find a position that didn’t make my leg cramp.

We crouched behind a cluster of stones, waiting for the other team to begin their attack.

Bart had hidden us, but I didn’t want to test his magic by moving more than necessary.

Rod’s thumb traced gentle circles over my knuckles. The simple touch anchored me, but it couldn’t block the sickening pulse emanating from the medicine wheel. Dark energy had poisoned what had once been a sacred site. My earth sense urged me to flee from the corruption.

“Are you OK?” Rod asked. “I feel it too, but you and Cael seem especially affected.”

After the caves in Transylvania, I thought I understood what Blackstone was capable of, but the depravity of this place… “I’ll be fine,” I said, trying to convince myself it was true. “This was more than I expected.”

“It’s hard to square this version of Blackstone with the man who led Utrecht for all those years,” Rod said. “We thought his standoffish nature was arrogance. Now we know it was to avoid anyone getting too close. I mean, he was still an arrogant asshole, but that only told part of the story.”

Father appeared beside us, his aura dulled by the evil in front of us. “How did he hide something this large?”

“The wheel sat here for a century,” Rod said. “Blackstone corrupted it after he abducted King Ailpein. We were too occupied to notice the gradual creep of darkness over the sacred site. He accelerated his plans after the fight in Transylvania.”

“Hopefully that haste led to mistakes,” Father said.

I didn’t share his optimism. If anything, Blackstone was always steps ahead of us.

A terrible thought crept into my mind. Were we doing exactly what he wanted?

Other than Bart surprising him in the caves, we never outplayed Blackstone.

Before I could voice my concerns, Avie’s presence appeared in my mind.

“Get ready. We’re about to start the attack.”

I pushed past the revulsion coming from below to watch. Magic concealed both sides, but Avie said they’d been able to find Blackstone’s mages. She also said Blackstone most likely wanted us to find them. Inside the circle, glyphs covered the ground.

“How long have they been there?” I asked.

“Hard to say,” Rod answered, knowing exactly what I meant. “All I can say is they’re not new.”

I didn’t respond and let the silence linger between us. During the drive to this remote corner of Nebraska, I’d tried to prepare myself for what we’d find. Blackstone had held Grandfather for days. Even he had limits when confronted with demonic energy.

The anger and resentment I’d felt for decades gnawed at me. It hadn’t been my grandfather, it had been Blackstone’s influence. I wanted a chance to return to what we’d had before things changed.

“Stop chastising yourself,” Rod’s voice whispered in my head. “We’ll free him.”

His certainty pushed back some of my fear, but not all.

Before I could respond, my perception changed.

Clean earth magic, ancient and powerful, rose from beneath Blackstone’s poisonous influence.

This was a new sensation. The planet reached for me, offering its strength.

A network of energy that ran beneath the corrupted wheel in places Blackstone’s magic couldn’t reach.

There was a deep, steady pulse of life that refused to be silenced.

“Cinaed?” Father’s voice cut through my wonder. “What’s happening?”

I stared blankly at him. How could I explain what I didn’t understand?

“I feel it too,” Cael said. “The Earth understands what’s about to happen and is giving us its strength.”

“After all the Earth has done to protect itself and all life, why are you surprised?” Eldwin asked. “This was never one being’s fight.”

Pressing my palm flat against the stone, I allowed my consciousness to follow the threads of energy downward.

The corruption’s reach was superficial, like an oil slick on the surface of a deep, clear pool.

Underneath the darkness, I sensed places where the Earth’s natural magic flowed.

Sometimes it was strong and clean, other times it fought to reach the surface.

One of the struggling offshoots had a familiar feel.

“I found Grandfather. He’s alive.”

“Where?” Father asked.

Tracing the path, I pushed through layers of stone and soil and into a small space. “As we expected, there’s a cavern beneath that bluff.” I pointed to the opening near our position. “He’s bound tightly, and the room is well below the surface, but he’s still self-aware.”

Before I could dig deeper, the area around the circle exploded in brilliant flashes of light. Magic erupted in response, and both sides were visible. In terms of numbers, Blackstone had a slight advantage, but our mages were among the most powerful in the world.

The sound reached us a heartbeat later. Cracks of magic collided with stone. Shouts tainted by fear filled the circle. A scream of pain before an enemy collapsed into a heap.

“It’s too much,” Roderick hissed next to me. “We don’t want them to retreat.”

As if on cue, Avie’s team slowed, and their attacks had less effect.

“Your sister’s got this,” Cael said.

Below, Blackstone’s mages pushed back and held their ground. They rallied, but their counterattacks sputtered against our side’s defenses.

“They’re selling it well,” Father said. “Can they maintain the delicate balance without overwhelming the defenses?”

“Avie and Dad understand what’s at stake,” Rod said. “They’ll wait until we’re inside before bringing down the hammer.”

“Time to move,” Bart said, his stone bathing us in purple energy. “That will hide us, but if we get hit with a stray burst of energy, it will reveal our presence.”

Rod led us behind our friends and family toward the cave opening. Before we reached the entrance, three new mages burst out and tried to punch a hole through our line. Roderick’s mother met the trio head on with a ferocious assault.

Her spells were so powerful I worried the enemy would retreat. After a blinding flash, two of the three were prone, their clothes smoldering. The third, visibly shaken, faltered during his spell, and Miriam made him pay for that mistake.

We reached the entrance, and the wrongness had grown stronger. The others surmised Blackstone would gather a vast pool of dark magic wherever they held Grandfather. It appeared they were correct.

Since I had a link to Grandfather, I took point.

Rod stood beside me, his diamond mage stone lighting our path.

Memories of happy times rose unbidden in my mind.

Grandfather teaching me to fly when I was barely old enough to shift.

The way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he laughed, a rare sight in recent decades.

Darker images tangled with these good ones.

His cold dismissal when I’d tried to explain my connection to Rod.

The spell that kept us apart for decades, causing pain in both our lives.

“Your emotions are all over the place,” Rod whispered into my thoughts. “I can feel your anxiety rising.”

His concern helped me center myself. There’d be time to address these feelings once we saved the Great Ward. “I’ve been angry at him for so long. Justifiably upset, but it was still hard. Now, knowing Blackstone manipulated him, I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to reach him.”

“The pain was real, even if he wasn’t fully responsible for causing it,” Rod said gently. “You aren’t to blame.”

Everything he said was true, but it didn’t make it better. “It complicates everything. I wanted to hate him because it was easier to believe he was cruel and selfish, rather than that he had legitimate reasons for keeping us apart.”

“We can deal with this after he’s free.” Rod slid his fingers around mine. “Your feelings are valid, and you don’t have to resolve decades of complicated emotions in the next five minutes.”

A faint pulse of phoenix energy—my grandfather’s unique signature—brushed against my senses, growing stronger as we moved forward.

With it came another realization: beneath the anger and hurt lay a bedrock of love that had never fully disappeared.

The bond between us had been damaged, but not destroyed.

“I just want a chance to understand what really happened. And hopefully rebuild what we lost.”

“Then let’s make sure you get that chance.” His grip tightened.

A few paces into the cave, a tendril of clean earth magic wrapped itself around me. It called to me in a new way. Not the gentle invitation I was used to, but more personal. Like it recognized me as an ally and had joined us as a full partner.

It also thrummed with a warning. I held up my hand. “Hold.”

I knelt in the passage and pressed my palm to the stone. Guided by my guardian, I identified invisible threads of dark magic crisscrossing our path.

Rod knelt beside me, his hand on my shoulder. Our bond wasn’t complete, but that didn’t matter to the Earth. The moment Rod saw the magic, he recognized what I’d seen.

“Detection spells, followed by almost a dozen concealed attacks.” He paused and closed his eyes. “They’re varied and powerful. If we tripped them all at once, it might overwhelm our defenses.”

Cael and Hro put their hands on the walls.

After a few seconds, Eldwin made his way toward the front.

“Most of the spells are minor and can’t harm us,” he said.

“But they’re staggered in such a way that we’d be defending against nuisance spells when the major assaults hit us. An excellent catch, young prince.”

I wanted to tell him it was the Earth, not me, but it didn’t matter who got the credit. “Can we neutralize them?”

“The short answer is probably.” Rod pointed his stone toward his uncle. “Do you want the nuisance spells or the stronger ones?”