“No, I won’t. We’re going to trade, my parents for your son. It’s as simple as that.”
François was so mad that his face was almost purple. Alix continued to talk.
“Twice I’ve captured your son François. You only found him last time because I allowed it. I can take him away from here and you’ll never see him again. He’s under your Sleep of Death and if I don’t remove it, he will slowly die. So, it’s your choice, give me my parents and you get your son back, or you’ll never see him again.”
Alix watched as rage swept through François. This was what she had been counting on. She wanted to throw him off his game and it was working. Finally, several minutes later he calmed down enough to talk.
“Fine,” he said, with anger in his voice. “Your parents in exchange for Victor.”
“Okay. You and I will stay right where we are. Your people bring my parents halfway and I’ll have my guy do the same.”
François nodded, but Alix could tell he wasn’t happy. He told his men to bring her parents and she did the same with Kris. She watched as the Grynn put them on the ground and take Victor. Ben and Shay ran to help Kris get her parents away from them. Alix knew it was only a matter of time until François’s rage came back and she was going to be at the center of it.
Kris, Ben and Shay were still too close for Alix’s liking. “Please, take them away from here,” she told them.
Ben was about to argue when Kris whispered something to him. He nodded and did as Alix asked.
“I think it’s time that you and I settle this for good,” Alix told him. “I’m tired of looking over my shoulder and worrying about my friends and family. I want this over.”
“The only way this ends is with you dead or joining us,” François sneered. “Right now, I don’t really care which it is.”
“It’s not going to be me that dies François,” Alix said. “I’m done letting you spread your evil throughout this world.”
“You can’t honestly believe you’re going to defeat me,” he said looking right at her. “Oh wait, you do. Like a little girl is going to best me, the greatest of the Grynn. This is going to be fun. NOW!” he yelled.
With that word Alix felt the number of Grynn increase by hundreds, but it was exactly what she was expecting.
“It’s going to be hard to defeat me with my army at my back while you only have a handful of Warriors with you.”
“Are you positive about that?” Alix asked him.
He was about to answer her when she saw him stop and think.
“What have you done?” he asked.
“I told you this was going to be over between us, but I didn’t just mean me and you. I meant the Nykara and Grynn. Did you honestly think I would try and face you with just a few Warriors? I brought my own army and they are backed by the power of intense Nykara energy. You don’t stand a chance.”
“You’re bluffing,” he said. “My people have been all over this area for the last few hours. There’s no way you’re hiding an army. Nice try though.”
Alix wasn’t going to wait for him to make the first move. She took a deep breath and concentrated on the barrier that surrounded Stonehenge. It had been in place for thousands of years so trying to make it go away was going to take everything she had at the moment.
She didn’t want to take her eyes off François or any of the Grynn for that matter, but she was going to have to. Seeing them wasn’t allowing her to fully concentrate. She knew Gordon was still cloaked behind her and Kris wasn’t far away so she trusted that they would have her back if François tried anything.
Blocking everything out, she searched around the entire barrier with her magic. It seemed completely impenetrable and appeared to surround Stonehenge like a sphere. She felt like she was searching it for hours, but it was probably only seconds. She was at a loss until she heard a voice in the back of her head. “Believe you can do it.”
It was as if a light when off in her head. She realized she was still doubting herself and that’s what was holding her back. Alix gathered her doubt in her mind and closed it up in a little box. She immediately felt like a different person and could see the solution to her problem. All she had to do was will the barrier to be gone. As soon as she did that, she felt a huge wave of energy being released. Her body automatically took in as much as it could, and she felt more alive than she ever had.
She opened her eyes to see a look of shock on François’s face.
“I brought an army too,” she said, with confidence. “Now, we end this.”
Chapter 42
It only took moments for the fighting to start. Alix knew everyone on her side would be shielded and she had a feeling that those who’d been waiting within Stonehenge had absorbed a lot more energy than they were used to.
She looked over to find François, but he had disappeared. Her only goal at the moment was to get to him. She took off running in the direction where he’d last been. She felt energy balls hitting her, but they felt like a fly landing on her, more annoying than anything.
After running around for far too long, she realized she was going about it all wrong. She was never going to find him in the hundreds of people surrounding her. Flinging out her magic, she focused on François and found him almost instantly. He was in the parking lot.
As quickly as she could, she got out the tiny metal bird that she’d originally gotten from the hidden box at the center of Stonehenge. Focusing on François she tried to magically bind him, but her magic bounced off of him. Confused, she cloaked herself and ran to where she had felt him.
When she got there, she saw he was surrounded by a small army of Grynn. Each one of them had an energy ball ready and as soon as they saw her, they started firing them. Her shield was so strong that each one simply exploded and dissipated on impact.
Alix started firing her own energy balls back and within a few minutes the Grynn that had been protecting François were all laying unmoving on the ground. When she looked up from the fallen Grynn, she saw François was kneeling by Victor and had his hands-on Victor’s chest.
Something made her look at Victor’s face and she was shocked by what she was seeing. He was awake and his face was morphed into a silent scream. She could see the color draining from his face like he was dying. Then she saw something that scared her to her bones. Victor’s blue aura was getting lighter and lighter while François’s was getting darker and darker.
This would have been the perfect opportunity to take out François, but she was too stunned to move.
“What are you doing to him?”
“Victor’s life was always about serving the Grynn and now he is giving me the greatest honor he ever could, his life force.”
“You’re draining the life out of him? You’re killing your own son? You’re even more evil than I realized.”
Alix was horrified as she watched the last of Victor’s life flow into François. It’s not like she thought there was any good in Victor, but no one deserved to die like that.
François’s aura was almost black now. Alix was so shaken by what she’d just witnessed that she didn’t see the energy ball he created until it was too late. It hit her with such force it knocked her back several feet. No one had ever been able to do that before.
It took her a few seconds to figure out what had happened. By the time she got her head back on straight François was standing over top of her. She immediately sent an energy ball into him, but it had no effect at all. Quickly she sent three more, but nothing happened to him.
“You should have killed me when you had the chance little girl,” he said. “I’m unstoppable now. You’re going to regret standing there like a fool.”
The next thing Alix knew she was being lifted into the air and thrown across the parking lot. Just before she landed, she had enough of a thought to use her energy to cushion the landing. The last thing she needed was to be knocked unconscious.
François started walking toward her with an evil smile on his face.
She knew she had to get up and move or things were going to go very badly for her. Getting to her feet she had an idea and started running back towards Stonehenge. She knew François was behind her, she just hoped she was faster than he was.
Alix ran with everything she had. Being right in the middle of the fight she saw people lying all over the ground and knew at least some of them were dead, but she couldn’t think about that right now. Her only goal was to get to the center of Stonehenge.
Someone crashed into her sending her flying. She got to her feet and started running again. Weaving through both Nykara and Grynn she continued towards her destination. She could tell the instant she was at the very center of Stonehenge. A power surge went through her that was so strong it almost brought her to her knees.
Knowing she was going to need every bit of help she could get, she took the Power Stone out of her pocket and placed it on her tattoo. She could feel her energy increase even more, she just hoped it was going to be enough to finally stop François.
She could see him walking towards her like he didn’t have a care in the world. Alix gathered her courage; she knew this was it. Only one of them was going to survive this encounter.
Chapter 43
“So, you finally decided to face me,” François said, as he stopped just a few feet from where she stood. “I was sure you were going to run and hide.”
“No François, I meant what I said earlier. It’s time to finish this. The war between the Nykara and Grynn has to stop. Too many innocent people are being caught in the middle. I will do everything in my power to end this.”
While Alix was talking, she had been putting up a barrier around her and François. She knew there was some very powerful magic about to be thrown around and she didn’t want anyone to get caught in the crossfire. When the barrier finally closed around them, she felt an unexpected boost of the power within her. That gave her the extra little bit of confidence she needed.
Without giving him any warning, she sent an energy ball straight into François. He obviously wasn’t expecting it because it flung him backwards and Alix could tell it stunned him a little. He got up laughing.
“So, the little girl has some bite to her. Good. That’s going to make it so much more fun to watch you fall.”
In an instant there was an energy ball in François’s hand. He threw it at her but this time she was prepared. When it hit her, she directed the energy straight to the ground and was completely unaffected. Once the first shots were fired, they both started firing energy balls almost continuously. It looked more like a firework show rather than a fight.
Alix lost count of how many she threw at him, but he seemed as unaffected as she was. She knew she was going to have to find another way to get to him. Cloaking herself she dropped to the ground as quickly as she could and watched as the next one, he threw at her went right over her head.
“Nice move,” he said. “But I’ll find you.”
She was sure he thought she was trying to get away from him, but the truth was she wanted to get closer. Alix crawled right to him and put her hands on the ground at his feet. She made the dirt turn to quicksand and watched as he sank to his waist.
What Alix wasn’t expecting was that as he was sinking, one of his flailing hands would hit her. Somehow his hand went through her shield and made contact with her arm. He grabbed onto her with such strength it caused her to yelp in pain.
“You will always be just a weak little girl. The Nykara were stupid to put their trust in you and it will be their downfall.”
All that did was make her mad. She thought back to everything Ben and Shay had told her and how her fellow Nykara treated her.
“The magic never chooses wrong,” she told him, and kicked him hard enough that he let go of her.
She got up and moved far enough away from François that he couldn’t touch her. The next thing she knew she was surrounded by a dense fog. It was so heavy she couldn’t see anything at all. She moved in what she hoped was the opposite direction of François, but when she ran into something solid, she knew he had managed to free himself.
Alix created a wind and the fog lifted but it was too late. François grabbed her and he was so much stronger than her. She struggled but it wasn’t doing any good.
“Why isn’t my shield working?”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet? Any power you’ve ever used against me or Victor is useless after the first couple of times.”
Alix paled. What was she going to do?
François turned them in a circle and made the barrier dissolve with the flick of his wrist.
“Nykara,” he said loud enough for almost everyone to hear, “I have your leader at my mercy. The time has come for the mighty and powerful Grynn to take our rightful place in this world. We’re done hiding in the shadows. The human race is going to be ours for the taking. Watch the Chosen One die before your very eyes.”
“NO!” Alix heard Ben yell and come running toward her.
She tried to tell him to stop but François acted first. He threw a powerful energy ball at him and Ben went flying through the air. When he landed, he wasn’t moving. Alix stared at his body until she saw Shay run towards them.
“Shay stop,” Alix yelled, but she wasn’t fast enough.
François used his magic and Shay fell to the ground and didn’t get back up.
Alix had no words for what was happening. First, they killed Sonya. Then kidnapped her parents and now she didn’t know if two of the most important people in her life were dead or not. She squeezed her eyes shut. Her thoughts and magic were swirling around her and it was like she couldn’t contain everything within her any longer.
She felt like she was at the center of a very powerful explosion as her magic spread out further than she ever imagined. All she could think about was how much the Grynn had hurt the people she cared about and how many families had been ripped apart because of them. All she wanted was for the evil to stop.
Once she could think again, she realized that François no longer had a hold of her. She opened her eyes and it took a minute to figure out what she was seeing. It seemed like half of the people who had been fighting were no longer even standing. She gasped when she understood what had taken place.
“What have you done?” she heard François say to her.
“I wanted to stop the evil, so I guess I did.” She really didn’t know what to say other than that.
“You just killed all my people,” he said, with his voice raising in anger. “You are going to pay for this.”
François started moving towards her, but she was no longer scared of him.
“No François, it’s you who is going to pay for the atrocities you have committed over the years. Evil no longer has a place in this world. You are about to join your son.”
Alix knew what she had to do. She gathered all her love for her parents, Ben, Shay and everyone she cared about and filled her body with it. When François got to her she touched him, and he screamed like he was being burned.
“What are you doing to me?” he yelled.
“I’m using something against you that you don’t understand. It’s the one thing that has kept me going but you know nothing about. Love.”
Alix poured her love into François and watched as his aura went from black to nothing. Sending one more surge of her powerful love into him his body exploded into a million points of light and were blown into the wind.
When she went to turn around everything started turning black and she felt herself falling to the ground.
Chapter 44
The first thing Alix saw when she opened her eyes was the ceiling in her room in Fox Hollow. She tried moving and it felt like she’d been hit by a bus. Then it all came flooding back to her, the fight at Stonehenge. Tears started rolling down her face when she remembered what had happened to Ben and Shay. She laid there quietly for a few minutes and let the sadness wash over her, but then she heard the most wonderful sound in the world.
; “Ben, it’s my turn to pick,” Shay said.
“No, you picked the last show. I would never pick one about fashion,” Ben argued.
“Fine, but can you at least try to find something better than some boring cars.”
Despite the pain Alix jumped out of bed and ran into the living room area. “Oh my God, you guys are alive,” Alix yelled. “I was so sure you were dead.” She gave each of them the biggest hug she could. “What happened? Is everyone okay? Are the Grynn really dead? Where are my parents? Did you find Sharon and Sean? How did you survive? How long has it been since the fight?”
“Stop,” Ben said gently. “This is a much longer conversation than we can have right now. Before anything else I need to know if you’re okay.”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t really know what happened after I killed François and I feel sore all over but I’m fine I think.”
“That’s good. Everything will be explained, but first you need to come with us.”
Ben took her hand and the three of them went over to the room her parents had used when she was there to join the council.
Alix gasped when she walked in. Her parents were lying on the bed, but she could tell they weren’t just asleep.
“What’s wrong with them?” she asked, walking over to the bed.
“No one is sure. They’re alive but none of the Healers have been able to fix whatever the problem is,” Ben told her.
“Even Shelley?”
“Yes, even Shelley. I saw tears in her eyes when she couldn’t wake them up.”
“Shay, can you please get me the pearl that I used on you in Brazil,” Alix asked her.
“I already have your little bag of things right here,” Shay said pulling it out of her pocket and handing it to Alix.
“Thank you,” Alix said and set the bag on the nightstand beside the bed.
Before she did anything she was going to try and figure out what was wrong with them. Putting one hand over her mom’s heart and the other on her head, Alix sent her magic into her mom. She searched every part of her body but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. There was no Sleep of Death, no Grynn magic and no sign that they were in a coma.
Believe Page 24
