Page 6 of Sky on Fire


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But instead of thinking about how to find Carlyle, Tyne had been obsessing over Meyer.He knew that the two of them needed to be in harmony if they wanted a chance to defeat Carlyle.It was going to be tough anyway, but it would be near impossible if they were still wary and didn’t trust each other.That meant that Tyne needed to let go of his resentment, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do that.

The most obvious way would be to talk to Meyer.Tyne was dreading that.He’d never wanted to tell anyone what Peyton had done to him.When he’d agreed to move in with the mages, he hadn’t thought they would ever find their dragons.They hadn’t even known if the dragons were dead or alive.They’d been gone when they’d woken up after the fight with Carlyle, and all their attempts to find them had failed.Tyne had been sure they were dead, and he hadn’t wanted to be alone.He couldn’t go back home after what had happened, so he’d stayed.He was glad he had, even now that the dragons were back.He was happy for the other mages.

He couldn’t be happy for himself.

He couldn’t allow himself to fall for Meyer like he’d fallen for Peyton.Of course, there was no way for him to know if he would.Like everyone—especially Penley—had pointed out, Meyer wasn’t Peyton.Maybe Tyne would hate him once he gave him a chance and talked to him.

He snorted.He doubted that would happen.

He glanced at his desk.He’d never been one of the mages who sat behind a desk all day and worked on their magic.He felt much better doing so in the courtyard, but he couldn’t spend the entire day outside.Jarvis wouldn’t like that and would send him back inside to rest, so instead of waiting for Jarvis to complain, Tyne had been reading up on location spells.They weren’t his specialty, but he didn’t think it mattered when they still needed to find Carlyle.

He’d gotten nowhere.He couldn’t understand some of the magic, but even the magic he could understand felt complicated to him.When he tried the spells, he had to work way too hard for no results.It was like his magic didn’t like that kind of spell, which wasn’t a surprise, but it was frustrating.

His phone vibrated on the desk.He snatched it up, relieved to have a distraction.He was especially happy when he saw that it was Jarvis because, as their unofficial leader, he was bound to have something interesting for Tyne to do.

Tyne opened the text.He wasn’t surprised to see that Jarvis was asking him to come to his office.He probably wanted to talk about Carlyle or what their next step would be.As far as Tyne knew, Emory hadn’t found Carlyle yet, but he would eventually.He might be spending most of his time grumbling that it would be easier if he could visit people, but Jarvis had put his foot down.Emory had to use the phone and the Internet.He wasn’t leaving the castle until Carlyle was taken care of.

Tyne smiled as he reread the text.He finally had something to do.

He abandoned the book he’d been reading on his desk and hurried out of his office.The castle was almost completely silent, and the offices he walked past were all closed.He had no doubt that the other mages were working hard on ways to defend themselves and the people they loved and on even more ways to defeat Carlyle.Tyne was pretty sure that unless a dragon beat him to it, he’d give Carlyle the final blow.His magic was offensive, and he wouldn’t risk any of the other mages getting so close to Carlyle.They had too much to live for.

He didn’t.

Jarvis’s office was just down the hallway.Tyne paused in front of the door and knocked before opening it and peeking in.Jarvis was behind his desk, a collection of jars and containers in front of him.He didn’t look up when he waved at Tyne to come in.Tyne realized he had his phone in his hand, so instead of asking what was going on, he sat in front of Jarvis’s desk and waited.

Jarvis typed a message, sending it off before putting his phone down.“I need you to do me a favor.”

“Anything.”Tyne wasn’t kidding.He needed something to do, and waiting for Carlyle to pop up wasn’t what he had in mind.

Jarvis grimaced.“I’m not sure you’ll feel the same way when you find out what the favor is.”

“I’m not kidding.I’m willing to do anything you need me to do.”

Jarvis stared for a moment before nodding.“All right.I need you and Meyer to go to your old clan.They offered to give us some ingredients we desperately need.”

For a second, Tyne struggled to make sense of the words.He’d heard them, but Jarvis had never sent him to his old clan before.Even though Tyne had never told him what happened, he’d known something had because Tyne had never gone home.Even when his mother had tried contacting him, he’d refused to talk to her.

And now, Jarvis was sending him there.

“Send someone else,” Tyne said.

“It’s your clan.You know they’ll make it easier if you go, and the clan leader asked especially for you to go.”

Tyne snorted.“It won’t be easier.”But if Tyne’s mother had asked Jarvis to send him, Tyne knew he wouldn’t get out of there in one piece.His mother would never hurt him physically, but emotionally and mentally?She’d destroyed him once in the past.She could do so again, especially if Meyer was there, too.

“I know you don’t feel comfortable telling me or anyone else what happened, but this is important.These ingredients might be the only way for us to beat Carlyle and protect the castle.You know we need them.”

Tyne did.He’d done as much as he could when he’d restored the protective spells on the castle a few days ago, but his magic couldn’t do everything on his own.They needed cornerstones and ingredients to anchor it, and Jarvis had been talking about expanding the protective spells so that part of the lake was covered, too.The forest was too vast to do anything about it, but all of them remembered when Carlyle had set it on fire and had almost destroyed it.That wound was still fresh.

“Maybe if you tell me what happened, we can find a way around it,” Jarvis suggested.

Tyne was already shaking his head.“I’ll go.”He didn’t have a choice.

“I’m really sorry about this.I can only guess how painful this is for you, but I really feel we don’t have a choice.I contacted the clan leader.I didn’t realize she would latch onto your name the way she did.”

“It’s fine,” Tyne reassured Jarvis.“Really.I’ll do it.”Tyne wanted to suggest taking another dragon, maybe Emory, but he’d never flown with anyone other than Peyton.Maybe flying with Meyer wouldn’t be the same, but Tyne couldn’t leave him behind, no matter how much he wanted to.They were still mage and shield, and that meant that Meyer’s job was to protect him.

Even though Peyton hadn’t wanted to do so anymore.