Chapter 69
Ryan McFlame ~
Even with Cassius supernatural healing which is of high speed, Ryan's flames were doing a number on him.
Ryan was running out of strength to keep the barrier up. He has to do something or else, Cassius would be free from the fiery prison.
"I coelestes carceres..." Ryan casted a spell and flames from different corners of the room surrounded him with great intensity of both light and heat.
The flames settled down almost as soon as they came and when it all went out, Ryan was gone with the flames. The flames surrrounding Cassius and the magic keeping them up dwindled until there was none left and Cassius healed with ease until he was without a burn or a single scratch.
"You can run, Elena! But you can't hide. Not from me you can't! Wherever you are, I'll find you! And I'll end you!!!" Cassius roared at the top of his terrifying voice. "I'll kill anyone that tries to protect you."
***
"What about Sofia and Elena's birth mother? They weren't in that chamber when I arrived. What happened to them in there?" Gar asked me with gasps as he ran out of the castle.
Commander Sam and the rest of his vampyres kept the pursuing lycans back we made our escape from the castle.
"Elena sent them to some place away from Cassius but I have no idea where. One thing is sure, they aren't within Cassius' reach." I reassuredhim with a confident tone.
"Prince Ryan? What do we do now? we can't keep running. Eventually those lycans will catch up and we'll be right where we started." Sam uttered running an appraoching lycan through by the belly and then kicking it aside.
The commander is right. The vampyre warriors are resducing in their numbers and the lycan don't to want to stop chasing after us. I have to do something about them because there's no way we are possibly going to out run them. They are far too many and have the advantage of speed.
"Yeah... Those lycans are going to tear us to shreds if we don't get them off our backs soon enough." Charlie addedtrying to catch his breath
Elena was being carried by Gar as he is in his lycan form. Elena is still unconscious from what Cassius was doing to her. I bet he was trying to milk her of her powes and make them his. The same psychotic plan he had for I and the rest of my deceased brothers.
"I'm going to try to get the lycans off our tracks. Before I do, you both have to cover your eyes. I don't want to hurt either of you with my flames." I instructed racing with Charlie and Gar by my sides.
By now, Cassius should be free from the celestial prison so if we don't do something urgently, Elena would end up back in his clutches. I stopped running and created a flaming sword. I increased the magic supply to it from me and the sword blazed intensely.
I looked at the approaching lycans and took a measure of their path then I thrusted the sword deep and firm into the ground. An incredible outburst of fire came out of it surrounding the region where I am the rest are. The flames created a barrier between the lycans and us.
"Hold on a second, you could have done that the entire time but you kept us running?" Charlie asked with a slightly-angered but tired arched brow.
"I was waiting for the perfect timing. The fire wall lasts as long as I want it to but if I don't gather enough strength before casting it, it'll be to weak to protect anyone." I defended myself still focused on the fire wall surounding us.
"What you said Ryan must be true." I heard Sam say examining the situation. "If Alessia or Sofia were still at the castle, Cassius won't have sent these lycans after Elena. Having the queen and Alessia in his custody is enough leverage to get Elena to run back to him. Don't you think so?" he added looing straight at me.
"For all our sakes, I hope I'm not wrong." I closed my eyes concentrating more magical strength in the flames making it increase in it's fiery intensity.
"Ad vampyre regiam.."
The flames came down not too fast and when they were gone, so were Elena, Gar, Charlie and the rest vampyres. Ryan had used his control over the element of fie to teleport them all out of the lycan lands and into the Vampyre's Royal Palace. The same destination Elena had sent Alessia, Sofia and those two witches a moment ago.
The lycans who had kept their distance from the flames, when they saw what had happened, returned back to their master.
"What did you do?" asked Gar as he laid Elena on a nearby couch in a wide luxurious-looking room. "Where are we?"
"Isn't it obvious? Ryan saved us from those lycans. I'm guessing he used his awesome powers to bring us to the beautiful place. But that's actually a nice question. Ryan, where exactly are we?" Chalie asked looking all around in observation.
"It's magic. My kind of magic. I'll explain how it works some other time but first, we need to take care of Elena." I said as I transformed back to my human self.
"Gar, Charlie, Stay here with Elena. I and the commander are going to get help." I said heading for the door of the room I had taken us to. "And by the way, you can relax your nerves.We are in the Vampyres Royal Palace. No one here wants to hurt Elena. We're all safe here."
I walked out and shot the door solid behind me. I and Sam walked in search for the throne room for a while but we couldn't it. We came in contact with some vampyres guards but that was it. No Frederick, No Alessia, No Sofia. All the guards say neither of them are in the palace.
A part of me started getting worried for Alessia and Sofia. What if Samuel was wrong and those two are still in Cassius' castle?
"You know this place more than I do. Where would the king be at the hour of the day? He's our only hope of..." I heard a voice that made me stop talking to find the source.
"Ryan? Is that you?" I turned in the direction of the voice.
It was Sofia. She raced up to me and gave me a hug. To our favour, Sam's suspicion was right after all. Sofia had made it out of the castle. Elena must've sent them here.
"Where's Elena? Cassius didn't..."
"No, of course not. She's safe. She is in a room by the corridoor." I said walking her back to the room. "There's just one problem." I added as I opened the door.
"What happened to her?" Sofia asked with a look of great concern on her face.
"I looked into the room and saw Alessia inside beside her daughter. She must've used her witch powers to get here in search of her daughter.
Alessia had Gar and Charlie at the other side of the room under a freezing spell. It prevented them from any sort of motion even talking. All they could do was breathe. Under that spell, they were living dolls.
"Alessia, you're here as well. Thank the goddess."
"What did he do to her? Why won't she wake up?" Alessia asked with the same look on Sofia's face on hers.
"I don't know. Remember when Cassius did that whole 'power sucking thing' on my brothers?" I asked walking towards Elena who now was laid on a long couch.
"Did he..."
"Let's just say he was in the process when I stopped him with my flaming sword. It freed her from the spell but she must've been in pretty deep. I'm certain he didn't take any of her powers or at least not enough to make her this way. If he had, I'm very sure that I won't be standing here with you both, He would've taken my powers as well." I replied walking towards Elena.
"What's wrong? Can't you wake her up with a spell or something?"
"I wish it was as easy as you asked Ryan, but a magic so dark can have unpredictable effects on a magic like hers. I know the dark spell Cassius uses to take the powers and abilities of magical beings. When a creature's magic is being taken away, It most times, usually, pulls the soul of the creature along with it." Alessia started eyes still on her daughter.
"That's why your brothers and every other creature Cassius has taken down for the past century loose their lives afterwards. As much as it pains me to say." Tears began welling in Alessia' eyes. "She might never wake up and I don't think I can do anything to change that right now."
Everything Alessia said made perfect sense but that couldn't have worked with Elena. Right? She's destined to put an end to Cassius' tyrany. This can't be the end for her.