Beyond the Stone, page 20
They watched together as a small pinprick of light started to brighten in front of them. The light began to move towards them and they watched as it grew brighter and more brilliant. Soon, all three of them had to shield their eyes as the light grew bigger and bigger the closer it got to them. Soon again, it was as if they were being swallowed by the light, as if it were taking them much as the wall and the darkness had taken them. Bane had to close his eyes completely and he held tightly to Eliza and Jackson’s hands.
When the light cleared, they were standing in another stone room. Bane could hear the sounds of the battle continuing to rage around them, but it was muffled. He knew that they had been literally pulled through the wall into another room altogether.
Sitting in front of them was Edwards.
He looked dramatically different. Gone was the simpering government employee. Instead, a man with cruel blue eyes and strong features sat in front of them. Bane could see the electricity running through his body through his eyes that were like a window into his soul. The eyes showed the chaotic storm within and Bane wondered how strong Edwards really was.
“Your people are losing,” Edwards said. Gone was the soft, limp voice. In its place was one of cold metal. “How long do you think they will survive?”
“They will survive because they are stronger than you give them credit for,” Bane said.
“Really? Already two of them have fallen. I’m sure they can’t keep it up much longer,” Edwards said, almost purring with glee.
“Why don’t you just end this?” Bane said. “Let the people go and we will take them and leave.”
“No, I don’t think we can do that. Each of them has a vital role to play, you see. You were foolish to come here and think you could best us.”
“We came to save the prisoners,” Eliza said. “That’s the only reason we came.” She spoke with conviction, even though Bane could see her shadow flickering with nerves.
“Really, Eliza?” Edwards got up from his chair. “Is that the only reason you came? Or was it to find your husband and other children?”
“Rustin is dead, and my children were burned to cinders in front of my eyes” Eliza said. Her shadow was shaking violently now, even though Eliza maintained her balance.
“Really? Oh, I think he is very much alive. As are Edgar, Gabriella, and Justine. If you leave now, we will return your husband and children to you. If you continue on this path that you’ve chosen, they will remain with us forever.”
“Don’t listen to him, Mother,” Bane said. “You know he’s lying. The patrol is full of lies.”
“And he speaks!” Edwards turned towards him and reached out to touch Bane’s chest. The stone on Bane’s skin hardened and pushed Edwards’s finger away. “You were always a pain in the ass. You’re the so-called leader? Call them off and we will let you go free.”
“What are you so afraid of?” Bane said, a rough edge to his voice. “The Clocktower patrol never keeps their word; why would we expect you to do that now? What are you hiding?”
Edwards laughed. “You think we’re going to tell you?”
“Well, how about you tell us why you’ve kept the mortals and supernaturals apart?” Jackson said. Bane knew that it was to keep him safe, that Jackson was trying to spare Bane being under Edwards’s gaze for too long.
“You,” Edwards said. “Fucking you. You have been a thorn in our sides, you know? Never documented, we couldn’t track you like the other mortals. You were able to fly under our radar for a long time, but we finally found you when you hooked up with this freak.” Edwards jerked a thumb at Bane.
“Why should I be a concern to you?” Jackson said.
“Why? Well, you’re the reason that there are so many mortals with magic,” Edwards said. “We’ve been trying to stop you for years now.”
“What are you talking about?” Jackson said. “I’ve never had children.”
“Magic doesn’t need a bloodline to pass down to other people. It just has to exist. The air you breathe out is full of the magic within you. Others merely have to breathe it in or be around you to absorb part of your power. It’s part of the reason you are so powerful. A clairvoyant that can travel like a virus, like an airborne plague. Why do you think we have to keep you all apart? You are one of the most magical mortals there are.”
Edwards stepped towards Jackson and touched his face. “It’s a shame that you’ll have to go. It has been an honour catching glimpses of you and how strong you’ve gotten, especially after your creation. But I’m afraid you can’t continue. I’m sorry it has to be this way.”
Stepping back from him, Edwards pointed a finger at Jackson and shot a thick tongue of lightning at him. It arched out from the tip of Edwards’s finger and struck Jackson in the chest. Bane thought that Jackson would be able to teleport, but Jackson didn’t do anything but writhe in pain. There was something about the power of Edwards’s electricity that kept Jackson in place. Bane watched millisecond by millisecond, and the light that was in Jackson’s eyes began to fade.
“No!” Bane yelled out, and he pushed Jackson out of the way. Eliza caught Jackson before he could fall, and Bane took the brunt of the electric storm that Edwards was unleashing.
Bane stood his ground, stretching his arms out, trying to talk to the stone as he had before, willing it to keep him strong, to make him stronger. The stone listened to him, let Bane’s spirit edge its way into the stone itself, so that Bane was inside all the nooks and crannies of the walls and the floors.
The stone along his body began to thrum, having so much electrical magic flushed into him. When the stone on his skin thrummed, so did the building. It thrummed once more and then Bane’s body broke apart.
He was light and he was fire, red-and-gold energy flowing from him and around him and through him. It filled all the nooks and crannies where he had been able to stretch himself, all the holes he had filled like Jackson had filled in his spirit.
Bane’s body let out one more thrum and he felt the vibrations of it sweep from him to the building around him. He could hear it breaking apart, could hear the stone singing to him and urging him onward.
With one last thrust, he directed the fire at Edwards and Bane knew that the building, the whole of the Clocktower, was going to crumble. He heard the warning in the song that the stone was singing.
Gathering his mother and his lover into his arms, he went to the window and flew out of it. The air was glorious and was like the very heart of magic. He saw the ground below him and it was filled with the broken pieces of the building and the glass fell through the sky like diamonds and jewels that made him wonder if he had ever seen anything so beautiful.
The ground rose up to meet him as if it had been waiting for this embrace. When they landed on the ground, Bane let go of his mother and his lover and let himself fall into blackness. When the darkness claimed him, he could hear the crackling of fire, the tinkling of glass and smell the sweet scent of flame.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Do you think he’s okay?”
Bane wondered who they were talking about.
“I can’t believe he didn’t hurt himself.” This was Anika’s voice. “He flew from sixty-one floors!”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.” This was Orville’s voice. “I told him that he wasn’t done becoming.”
Who were they talking about? Bane wondered.
“My brilliant Asher, prince of ashes.” His mother. “I always knew that he was so very special. Look at him still smouldering.” She sounded proud.
Him? Were they talking about him?
“He must be part immortal.” This was Romilda. “No one could have withstood that amount of electricity and lived. There is much we don’t know about our friend. I think his path of becoming has just begun.”
Bane opened his eyes.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Bane asked.
There was a sound of joy and then Jackson’s arms were around him, holding him close. Bane kissed him and felt his heart soar. A warmth enveloped him, and he pulled Jackson closer.
“I thought you were gone, I thought that Edwards had really hurt you and had taken you from me.”
“Your mom healed me.” Jackson pulled away from the embrace. He pulled up his shirt and showed Bane his chest. “All that I’m left with is this scar. See?” Jackson showed him a scar that was shaped like lightning that ran across Jackson’s chest.
Bane stood with Jackson’s help. He looked around him and saw that everyone was there: Myko and Claude, Madison and Darcy, Lucille and his mother, Eliza. Orville had his arms around Anika and Remus had his arms around Kerkus. Romilda stood close by, almost as if she were standing sentry over all of them.
“You’re all here,” Bane said. “But Edwards said that two of us had died.”
“Well, they kept killing me,” Romilda said. “One got me by running a piece of rock across my throat and another with an electrical blast.” She shrugged. “I guess they just didn’t know how to count. They had no idea that I was immortal and I’m a hard woman to keep down.”
Bane looked around him and saw that they were a little way away from the fallen Clocktower. It was a pile of rubble and glass and metal. He watched as the magic that had been contained within the building swirled above the rubble and around them. Indeed, Bane watched as the magical cloud that had been around them was absorbed by everyone. He didn’t know how this would change each of their magics and wasn’t sure he was looking forward to finding out.
He saw no other people there.
“We failed then,” Bane said. “The one thing that we came here to do, we failed.”
“What are you talking about, Bane?” Madison asked.
“The prisoners!” Bane almost yelled. “Why do you think we came here?’
“You’ve been out of it for a few hours. Did you really think we wouldn’t do anything and everything we could to take them away? Orville found them. They were in the room with the cells.”
“But you looked and didn’t see them,” Bane said.
“Defensive spell of the Clocktower,” Orville said. “Thankfully, when I was mist, I could see them plain as day. We all kept them safe as the building came down around us. Jackson teleported them to safety.”
“Where are they now?”
“Where else?” Myko said. “The black market. It goes for miles in both directions and goes deeper into the ground than even you know. They are safe there. Soon, they will be returned to their families.” He said. “We even made sure that the people that working in the building got out. It’s not their fault that they work for an evil corporation.”
“Hey, we work for that evil corporation!” Bane said.
“I’m pretty sure we’ve kind of handed in our resignation,” Madison said.
“So everyone is safe? Really?” Bane said.
“Really,” Jackson replied. “But we have something else that we need to talk about now.”
“What?”
“Well, look at yourself,” Jackson said.
Bane did so and saw that the stone that had covered him for so long was gone. It had been replaced by what looked like tattoos of flame that ran all over his skin. Looking at the flames closely, he saw that they weren’t still. They moved as if they were an actual fire.
He looked back at Jackson with worry growing deep in his gut. “What am I?”
“I think the more important question is what have you become?” Orville said.
“Then what have I become?” Bane said, trying not to let the worry he was feeling leak into his voice. He wasn’t successful.
“Why, isn’t it obvious?” Eliza said. His mother came to him and took Bane’s hands in hers. “You have always been my prince of ashes, now you really are reborn from the ashes every time you become.”
“What are you talking about, Mother?” Bane whispered.
“You are a phoenix, my son,” she said. “Made of fire and magic and always becoming.”
Bane looked down at his hands and thought of the flames that had been around him as he jumped from the window of the Clocktower. As if in answer, he watched as tongues of flame came alive all over his body, colouring the sky in hues of ruby and gold.
End of Beyond the Stone
The Clocktower Book One
Acknowledgements
There are a few people I’d like to thank for breathing life into this book:
My beautiful husband Michael. Thank you for believing in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. Thank you for always being a great sounding board when I came to you with a plot point that I couldn’t see my way past. Thank you for your love and making me realize that true love does exist and that I am deserving of your love.
My Wonder Parents and Wonder Mom in Law and Bev. Thank you for being an amazing cheering section and for asking when the next book was coming out. Thank you for being a constant source of support and for showing faith in my work. That means more to me than I can ever say. You have my eternal thanks and gratitude.
My family of the heart: Meaghan, Karine, Christine, Kimberlee. You are my soul sisters, and I can’t thank you enough for your guidance and the light you bring into my life. Thank you for your love and your presence in my life. You make it shine all the brighter. Thank you to my family, you mean more to me than I can say.
Last but not least, thank you to Renaissance Press for giving this book a home. Thank you breathing life into Bane and Jackson’s story. Thank you for all you do.
About the Author
Jamieson is an award winning number-one bestselling author—he likes to tell people that a lot—and writes in many different genres. Jamieson is also an accomplished artist. He works with acrylic and oil paints. He is also a Tarot reader. He currently lives in Ottawa Ontario Canada with his husband Michael and their cat, Anakin who they swear has Jedi powers. You can find Jamieson at www.jamiesonwolf.com
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