by D. N. Hoxa
Now would be a good time to raise that number.
My magic shot out of me from everywhere. It tore from me in waves, making me feel like it was taking all of my skin and flesh with it. It left me naked—I didn’t hold back a single ounce for myself. I moved my fingers to better guide it, even though it was the only sense I had at the moment. I couldn’t see, but I didn’t need to see. All I needed was to get it done.
When I pulled at my magic and it wrapped around every Guild employee in that room at the same time like a rubber band snapping into place, I cried out. My body was being torn apart. Even my heart refused to beat. My mind was blank and my teeth gritted, but I held onto my magic with every bit of strength I had.
I held on until everything inside me felt broken.
“Open your eyes, Elo. Stand.”
The familiar voice knitted my soul together. Hiss was there. His voice was whispering in my ear.
Stand, Elo. Stand.
Hands wrapped around my arms and pulled me up. It was a little while before my eyes allowed me to see anything but darkness. My friends were all around me, and Hiss was on my lap. I cried harder. When had I become so attached to the wisdom collector? I couldn’t remember, and I didn’t care. I just wanted to be thankful for a moment that he’d returned.
The moment was very short. A look around and I saw all twenty-two people on the floor, their eyes closed.
“We should kill them all,” Lola said as she searched for something under a soldier’s body on the floor by the doors. Her swords. All the weapons they’d taken, including Faceless’s violin, were there.
“No,” I whispered.
“What were you thinking?” Julie said, taking my face in her hands. “What the fuck were you thinking?!”
“You shouldn’t have come here by yourself. You left us at a disadvantage,” Daredevil said, staring at the room full of unconscious bodies. “How in the world did you do that?”
“There’s no time,” I said. “The sidhe went through. I saw them.”
They all fell silent. I raised my aching arms up and took Hiss’s small head in my hands. I planted a kiss in between his eyes. “I have to go now.”
“We’re all going,” Julie said reluctantly and looked at the others. “Are we not?”
“The deal was to help me stop the sidhe from going back to Gaena,” I reminded her.
“And we failed,” Faceless said. “If they went through, we failed.”
“You didn’t.” I made an attempt to stand, and by some miracle, I managed. I looked at Mandar, who was walking around the room with his hands on his head, grunting. “Can you get those doors?” I asked him. More soldiers were going to come here any second now. Mandar nodded, and with a lost look on his face, he went to close the white doors. “I’m sorry for having put you in this position, but you still have time to get out.”
“We’re coming with,” Julie insisted. “Not another word about it.” She walked over to the glass wall and looked up. “How do you open this thing?”
“Let’s go. The others aren’t far behind,” Daredevil said.
My heart swelled. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, we’re coming with,” Lola said, grabbing my hand to pull me forward. “I’ve always wanted to see Gaena, anyway. It’ll be fun.”
But it wouldn’t. “Mandar, I—”
“You heard her,” he cut me off, pointing at his daughter. “She’s the boss.”
Lola grinned proudly.
“Let’s just get going already,” Charlotte said. Her cheeks were flushed, and she couldn’t stop smiling. She’d always wanted to see Gaena, too.
I looked down at Hiss, sitting next to my feet, while the others went to get their weapons back. “What are you waiting for, Elo?”
Nothing.
I was done waiting.
My body still ached when I grabbed two swords from the floor and stepped in front of the glass wall. But it was easy to ignore it now, knowing what I was about to do. Where I was about to go. Home. I pressed my palms against the glass surface and called to the Shade, giving it my magic. It was reluctant to leave me. It was almost completely spent, but it was still there. It wouldn’t fail me.
The Shade let us through seconds later. The glass moved to the side, as if it were folding on itself, and the Gateway was right in front of me now. The tears kept on coming. My heart was heavy but not nearly as much as I thought it would be. I was no longer alone.
The darkness of the Gateway swallowed me whole. Mace had told me once that he programmed it through the Shade, and that was what I’d done on my way to Earth.
That’s what I did now, too, on my way back home.
When we crossed to the other side, I expected the sidhe leader to be there, waiting for me with a smile on his face.
Instead, there was only emptiness, and small blue Shade lights floating in the air.
“Are we…is this…” Charlotte couldn’t finish her sentence.
“We’re in the Winter Shade in Gaena,” I said with a nod. I recognized the cave. It was right beneath Mace’s castle.
We made it down the narrow bridge and onto the grey rocks of the cave’s floor, and I turned to the others again. As right as it felt to have them here, I needed to make sure that they knew what they were doing first.
“I appreciate your willingness to come here with me,” I told them. “But I don’t know what’s out there. We’re in fae territory, and I have no idea how many soldiers there are here. You can go back, right now, and no harm will be done.”
“I swore to help you, and I will,” Faceless said.
When I’d first met her, she’d said she would help me only while I was on Earth. Something had changed. I didn’t know what, but I was thankful for it.
“And I’m getting my kingdom back, one way or the other,” said Daredevil. “We’re adults.” He looked at Lola and Charlotte. “Most of us. We know what we’re doing.”
“Yeah, I’m going to shift now, just in case,” Mandar mumbled, and he moved to the left, his jacket already on the floor.
“Happy? Can we go now?” Julie said, and without waiting for my reply, she walked around me and disappeared into the cave.
I was not happy, but I was hopeful. “Care to ride with me?” I asked Hiss, and he eagerly moved up my leg. The sound of flesh tearing and a growl made shivers wash down my back. I didn’t look at Mandar because I wanted to give him some privacy, but the pain he was in told me more than enough. He was falling apart, just like I had in the control room, but he would be whole again.
Maybe I would, too.
There was no gas lamp waiting on the ground, but Charlotte and Lola had their phones in their hands. Their flashlights made enough light to show me every inch of the cave. Grey rocks surrounded us. We walked slowly, at first, until Mandar in his wolf form joined us. His thick brown fur looked soft to touch, and his yellow eyes shone even brighter in the darkness. He took the lead and guided us because he didn’t need light to see. His nose was more than enough.
Eventually, we made it to the mouth of the cave, and nobody attacked us.
The air smelled of magic. It was warm outside, and the night was angry, the moon barely visible from the dark clouds. The forests were ahead, and to our back was the hill, and the castle atop it.
Mandar’s wolf growled, and his head lowered to the ground, as if he were preparing for an attack. He was looking to our left, where the castle’s entrance was.
“What is it, Dad?” Lola whispered, but Mandar only growled louder. My heart hammered in my chest. The wind blew, only slightly, but with it came the voices, the shouts, the cries. It could have been my imagination, but my body was already moving. I ran as fast as my legs carried me, desperate to see, and terrified at the same time.
Five seconds later, my suspicions were confirmed. There were people screaming and shouting, and swords clashing with one another close by. White lights blinked against the darkness of the night every few second.
The face of
the sidhe leader flashed before my eyes. Had he started battling already? How many men had he taken with him after I’d lost consciousness in the Gateway room? The swords I’d borrowed were in my hands. The closer we got to the front of the castle, the more we saw.
I had no choice but to slow down. The others, even Mandar, stopped with me. We couldn’t see half of it from the fence that surrounded the castle, but we saw enough. We saw the blood and the bodies and the fight.
The sidhe fought with weapons, all of them with swords, and with their magic. The Winter soldiers fought the same way.
And they were losing.
“How many are there?” Julie whispered from my side, but I shook my head. There were too many. A lot more than the Winter soldiers. The pain that came from them brought my magic back to life. I let it loose to search and to heal fae. My hands shook.
“Find Elid,” I whispered to Hiss. His head was on my shoulder, so he heard me perfectly. “Find him, Hiss. Make sure he’s okay.”
He knew where House Heivar was. He’d been to my home, in my room. He knew Elid, too.
His tongue licked my chin before he began to slither down my body. I watched him turn right to avoid the battle and disappear into the darkness lightning fast. I instantly felt lighter. Hiss would find Elid.
For now, I could focus on the sidhe.
“For the last time—” I started, but it was Daredevil who didn’t let me speak this time.
“I’ll climb the castle. Let’s spill some purple blood,” he said, and silent as a ghost, he started going back toward the hill and the rocks that would let him climb up to the castle fence with ease.
“Remember what I taught you,” Julie whispered to Charlotte and kissed her forehead.
“Don’t worry about me, Grandma. I’m Gaena. It will watch after me,” the girl said.
Her courage was to be envied. I hoped Gaena would watch after all of us.
We all ran forward together.
Adrenaline pumped the blood in my veins. I was ready to spill some purple blood, too, and my magic was recharged. My body was weak, but for now, the thrill would borrow strength from tomorrow—and the day after—if need be. I wasn’t going to stop.
My magic led the way, latching onto the hearts of the first two sidhe fighting Winter soldiers. As soon as it touched them, they slowed down and their arms fell. We were still far from them, and the fae soldiers were initially surprised, but they didn’t waste time. They cut through the necks of the sidhe, who wore no armor, and only turned to us when we were close.
More confused than before, they raised their swords toward us but didn’t attack. We passed by them and shot into the line of sidhe who were trying to get to the castle gates.
From then on, it was slaughter.
My magic took everything it could. It was more alive than ever with so much pain surrounding us. I felt it all and took everything I needed before I recharged it onto the sidhe. I slowed them down with magic before I cut through their heads or stabbed their hearts or their eyes. They died just as easily as everyone else—except their leader. He would be harder to kill, and I still couldn’t see him anywhere.
And I couldn’t see Mace.
From all that magic use, I had no doubt that I looked like me again. Signora Vera’s potion had long worn off. The way the fae soldiers looked at me while I fought beside them confirmed it. I looked like an elf, and if Mace was here, he would recognize me. Would he come to kill me again?
Better yet, would I have the heart to stop him this time?
“They’re retreating!” Julie called from my side. I thought she meant the sidhe, but a look at her face covered in blood and I realized she was pointing her sword back at the castle. My heart fell when I realized that it was the fae. What was left of them, maybe less than fifty soldiers, were slowly backing away toward the castle’s gates. What were they doing?
They were my army, were they not? Fidena said I would need one to fight the sidhe, and they were already here. I needed them.
“Stop!” I shouted with all my strength, and the sword of the sidhe that had been coming for me missed my face by an inch. His hands lit up, taking away my vision, and my magic, that had begun to retreat from his body, attacked him again. The light dimmed, but dots of it remained in front of me when I opened my eyes. He raised his sword again, but he was far too slow now, on the brink of unconsciousness. I cut off his head before calling my magic back inside me.
“I’ll cover you,” Julie said, stepping in front of me, to give me a moment to run back to the soldiers. She was covered in blood, but she didn’t look like she was about to stop. Whatever Faceless had done to her with her violin, it had reset her entire body. It had expelled the death spell completely from her system.
And where were Faceless and the others? I couldn’t see any of them, but I trusted they could handle themselves. I hoped so with all my heart.
When I reached the Winter fae soldiers, they were almost to the gates of the castle. They could barely stand and most of them were wounded. I sent my magic to search their bodies, to heal, even though they all had their weapons raised my way.
“Where is your commander?” I shouted, afraid they wouldn’t hear me through the sound of the battle behind me.
“He’s dead,” one of the soldiers said. He wore his helmet, but I could still see the desperation in his eyes.
My heart all but stopped. “Who was your commander? Was it Prince Mace?”
“No—Commander Astin,” said the soldier.
I had never felt more thankful for someone’s death than I did in those moments, and I didn’t care if it made me a monster. Mace wasn’t dead.
“Have you sent word to the Winter castle?” I asked, but the soldier shook his head.
“They came out of nowhere and attacked. There was no time to—”
“Go!” I shouted. “Take a horse and go back. Mace needs to know—go!”
“We’re all going,” said another soldier, and he turned around and started running for the castle. “Retreat, soldiers!”
“No, wait!” I shouted, but it was too late. All forty-three soldiers were running for the castle, and there was nothing I could do to stop them.
I turned around and looked at the battlefield, at the bodies dropping on the ground, and the flashes of light blinking in and out of existence. Mandar’s wolf was the biggest creature there, and I could clearly see him jumping from one side to the other, taking down sidhe with his paws and teeth. I thought I saw Faceless’s mask flash somewhere to the right, but she moved too fast for me to be sure.
“Will you help us?” I asked the Shade and kneeled to the ground, pressing my fists into the soil. I couldn’t let go of my swords yet. I let out my magic until my arms began to shake. It was too much. I was more than exhausted.
“They’re going to win,” a voice said from behind me, breaking my connection with the Shade. It was for the better. If I gave it any more of me, I was going to collapse.
Daredevil stood next to me, watching the battle, a mace in one hand, a sword in the other. “We have no hope of stopping them. There’s at least sixty of them still standing, and only ten of us.” He flinched. “Nine.”
I jumped to my feet, heart in my throat, when he added: “A fae soldier.”
“The Shade will help us,” I said, even though I couldn’t feel the ground shaking at all like it had back in New Orleans.
“Most of them are outside the barrier,” Daredevil said, pointing his sword forward. “And the Shade here isn’t big. It’s not as powerful.”
“We have to try. I can weaken them. I can—”
“Then do it, Pain Seeker. I’ll be right behind you.”
I ran forward, knowing very well that there was a good chance I was running into my death—even if it was temporary death. Daredevil was right, we were going to lose this fight. But I was going to fight it until my end.
The sidhe were getting closer. I spread my magic out as far as I could, aiming it first toward the four
that were coming for me. Their hands were wrapped in white light, but I’d already fought them enough times that I knew not to count on my sight. Keeping my eyes to the ground, I shut their minds down enough so that they lost control of their magic, and when darkness was in front of me again, I turned to my swords.
My arms were heavy, my legs heavier. They no longer obeyed my brain’s commands as they should have. I no longer had the strength to drive my swords all the way through sidhe necks. And my magic was the same. It was slower, lazier, reluctant to be guided into new bodies, exhausted. When a booted foot slammed on my side, I couldn’t keep my balance. I fell on the ground on my side and tried to kick away whoever was dragging me by the ankle, but it was no use. One of my swords slipped from my hand because my fingers no longer cared to hold on to the handle, and before I knew it, two bodies were over me, holding me pressed to to the ground. Light blinded me. It was everywhere. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t feel anything but the knees pressing onto my back, the hands holding my face against the ground. I could barely breathe.
Please, I whispered to the Shade, but the ground didn’t shake. My magic didn’t do nearly enough damage to whoever was holding me down. The screams around me reached my ears in an echo.
I could do nothing but wait.
It wasn’t long before something hard slammed onto the back of my head, shaking me to my core. Thoughts of Elid and Mace and every soul I’d condemned by bringing them here shut down for good. Not even hope remained in me when I slipped into unconsciousness. Only fear and desperation that I was never going to wake up again.
Chapter 23
Chapter
* * *
Voices whispered. Someone called out my name. I couldn’t focus. It hurt so much. My head, my chest, my…everything. Why wasn’t my magic healing me?
It was trying. I could feel it slithering inside me, much like Hiss did when he wrapped himself around my torso. But Hiss was heavy, and my magic was not. It was light as air, and every time it tried to heal me, it hurt me more. It had energy, so much it buzzed, but I had no physical strength to endure its release.
