“Gavin?”
The voice came in his ear. It was faint, as if the magical enchantment was muted, but he could hear Wrenlow’s voice.
“Wrenlow, can you hear me?”
“Not very well.”
“Gaspar needs to head back. If you can reach him, call him back. The woman who hired me is a sorcerer, and she escaped from me.”
“What do you mean she escaped from you?”
“Only that. She attacked me with magic, and I realized she was a sorcerer. She got free of me. As I told Gaspar, we need to make sure Alex is safe. Erica’s going after her because she wants her dead.”
Even that might not have been completely accurate. It could be that she only wanted Alex removed, whatever that meant. He had to get out of here. Then he had to go and protect the Dragon.
Again.
Because of me.
Again.
Shit.
Gavin stabbed at the barrier once more, but his dagger bounced off the protection.
He didn’t have time to mess with this. Now that he knew where to find Cyran’s lair and that there were interesting things here, he could come back, assuming he could somehow escape it in the first place.
He pulled on the door. He hadn’t expected it to close and lock, but something sealed him inside. He jerked on it with all his strength and tried to pry the door open. Still, nothing changed. Taking hold of the handle, Gavin squeezed and focused on the reserves of energy within him.
He hated that he kept going toward that power, and at the same time, he could no longer deny that it was some sort of power. The more he accessed it, the more certain he was that it was tied to something within him.
It had to be related to magic. Magic he controlled.
Gavin yanked on the door while pulling on the reserves of energy within him. The energy built, and then it exploded out from him. The door came open. He stood there for a long moment, trying to understand just what he was seeing.
Debris was piled so high that he couldn’t possibly dig his way out. There wasn’t anywhere for him to go. He was trapped.
“Gavin?” Wrenlow whispered through the enchantment.
“What is it?”
“I think the sorcerer is here.”
There was a shout and a scream, and then everything from his side went silent.
“Wrenlow?” Gavin said.
There was complete silence.
“Wrenlow?”
He was gone.
Gavin looked out at the heaping pile of stone. Somehow, he was going to have to get out of here. The enchantment crackled again. Another scream came echoing through it. He couldn’t identify who had screamed.
Anger built within Gavin.
He stared at the obstacles before him.
He was the breaker of chains. Could he be the breaker of stone?
Chapter Thirteen
The pile of stones seemed impossible for Gavin to find any way through. He thought about how he had been taught to break through chains and the way he had been taught to hold onto that core energy within him to do so. The only problem was that this was something entirely different.
He leaned on the stones, pushing his shoulder against it. He used contact to break through bindings before, so he hoped it would work now. If he could use that, he could break free of the stone, then get out of here.
As he pressed his shoulder up against the stone and focused, he couldn’t feel anything change. Even as he attempted to dig into the core reserves that he knew he had, there wasn’t anything.
What about using the dagger?
Gavin had no idea if he could even push power out that way, but the El’aras dagger was magic. If he had it as well, he had to think it would work for him.
Gavin took a deep breath and focused on the core energy within him. In order to embrace that power, he was going to have to recognize that it was more than just energy.
He stabbed at the stone. The El’aras dagger was powerful, but as he slammed it into the stone, it sent some of the rock flying off to the side and raining down. It wasn’t going to be enough. He tried again, calling upon the core reserves of power within him, and he jabbed at the stone.
As before, it didn’t do enough—not nearly enough. It was possible it would work, but even if it did, it was going to take far too long for Gavin to get through. The silence from the enchantment left him unsettled. He had to get to his friends.
He needed a better way to focus this power.
The sword.
Looking behind him, he found the sword lying on the table.
What better focus of power would there be than that?
He darted over to the table and tried to pierce through the invisible barrier. Knowing Cyran, he would have prepared for someone to try using brute force. If that wasn’t going to work, then it’d have to be another type of magic.
Gavin pressed his hands on the barrier and pushed. At first, nothing changed. He continued to push and press down, bearing his weight on it. It seemed that the more he pushed, the more the barrier resisted.
Maybe he had to move more slowly. He held his hand above it. The barrier pushed back, but not nearly as firmly as it had before. He moved gradually, easing his hands down. The barrier started to shift. He simply rested his hands, not shoving them with the same force as before.
Then he was through the barrier. Gavin felt for the hilt of the sword and started to lift it, but he remembered how he had needed to ease through the barrier. He drew it upward gently, and it moved as if he were pulling it out through mud.
Finally, the sword was free.
He darted toward the stone and focused on the blade. It glowed with the same energy that suggested magic was all around, similar to