by Jaymin Eve
They were here for Callie.
“Maya should have gotten back to the guys by now,” I said, fear lacing my tone. If Laous was here … where were our guys? There’s no way they would have let him just walk away from them without a fight, especially when we were out of sight.
Emma didn’t say anything, but her grip got tighter on my hand and I knew she felt the same worry.
“Callie!” I shouted, praying with everything I had that something would get through to her. “Fight him, Callie, you are stronger than Laous.”
Her footsteps slowed, but she didn’t turn back to us.
Emma joined my chorus. “You got this, Cal. There is no one tougher in this world. You can fight him.”
Her footsteps slowed again, and she shook her head more than once.
“We’re getting through to her,” Emma cried, picking up the pace, her breathing heavy and gait uneven. But she didn’t slow down or stop, she kept powering along.
“Come to me!”
That voice boomed unnaturally across the land, and I looked past Callie to see Laous standing on the top of the stairs, his hands raised to the sky. Whatever small part of Callie had been trying to fight was lost then. She started to full-on sprint, the stone held out in front of her.
More of the land lit up in her wake, and the heat and smoke from the fire was starting to get to me. My breathing turned into a series of coughs. Emma was in the same position. The next time she tripped, both of us went down in a heap, barely managing not to land in a bush blazing with flames.
The fire moved fast, so I rolled to the right, dragging Emma with me. My skin screamed as I scraped it across the ground, but hitting the fire would be much worse, so I just gritted my teeth and kept moving.
The air was a lot clearer down here, and both of us sucked in deep breaths when we got out of the main path of the flames. Cool wind brushed across my skin, and I looked up to find Lexen in the sky above. I could have cried as he zeroed straight in on Emma, diving down for her.
She was on her feet in an instant, screaming and pointing toward Callie—who was almost to Laous. Lexen’s fury washed across the sky in a rush of dark clouds and lightning, and when I peeked around the corner of our bush I was relieved to see strikes slamming into the area where the bitch and quiet creep had been. We needed to take out Laous’s backup. Then we would only have him to deal with.
“Avalon!”
I swung my head around to find Xander running so fast he was almost a blur. Daniel was close to his side, moving just as quickly. The moment Xander reached me, I was up and in his arms, his chest heaving as he held me close. “What the hell happened?”
Daniel didn’t wait for an explanation, storming past in a rush of heat and growling.
“Laous is controlling Callie somehow,” I said, already tugging him out into the open so we could follow.
“It’s from the Soulstealer goo,” Emma added. “It has to be.”
Xander swore, then the three of us were sprinting. Xander had to slow down to keep pace with us—we had no chance of catching Callie at this stage. Even Daniel and Lexen looked like they weren’t going to make it in time.
“Are Chase and Maya okay?” I asked, wondering why they weren’t here.
Xander nodded. “Yes, we had a little trouble with some of the locals right after you left. The timing was conveniently good. I’m guessing Laous and his guys used the distraction to slip away and get the aircraft. Maya and Chase are just cleaning up the last of the trouble.”
Xander didn’t sound worried, so I tried not to stress about it either. They’d be here as soon as they could.
“We’re not going to catch her in time,” Emma cried.
She was very right. “Go ahead,” I said to Xander. “Your friends need your help, and our human legs are too slow.”
He hesitated for a beat, then kissed me hard and sprinted away in a flash.
“Come to me,” Laous shouted again, his flames warding off the worst of Lexen’s storm.
“No!” I screamed, seeing that Callie was only a few feet away now. We were too late!
Out of nowhere—or so it appeared from my angle—a figure raced in from behind Laous. A tall, bulky man. For once his head was held high, scarred face filled with determination. He ran at full speed toward Callie, tackling her down to the ground.
She immediately started screaming, kicking and fighting.
“Rao!” I gasped, wishing we were closer so I could see better.
Emma choked on her next words. “He’s … trying to stop her. He’s giving our guys time to get there.”
Callie’s flames rose higher then and I couldn’t see her anymore. She had completely covered herself and Rao in fire, and I hoped Rao was immune to Imperial flames. Otherwise he had just sacrificed his life to save the stone.
Callie
Darkness held my mind, the same way it had when I’d been trapped in the concrestia goo, the Soulstealer, running through an endless land of nothing, screaming, desperate to get back to my family. The only positive this time was I knew what was happening to me. I knew it, but I couldn’t figure out how to fight it. My bond to Daniel flickered on and off, but I could never hold on to it long enough to actually free myself.
Words flashed across the darkness again, one of the few differences to last time. It reminded me of a computer doing an update, where the script would appear on the dark screen, scanning down the page.
Some of the words were in English too. I’d catch glimpses of familiar phrases, but they moved too fast for me to read them. My stupid fucking brain was useless.
Calm, Callie. Breathe and calm your mind. You’ll never be able to read when you’re trying this hard. Your brain is stressed.
Emma’s words came back to me, something she’d said often in the hours we’d spent learning together. She was so patient, never getting upset or frustrated by my shortcomings.
Her voice wasn’t the only one I had heard. There was Ava’s too, calling me back to them.
“Help me,” I screamed.
Why was I back here again? What had happened to the starslight stone?
“Come to me.”
That insidious voice slithered inside of me and my legs picked up speed, moving even faster than before. Toward what, I had no idea, because there was only darkness around. When I tried to stop myself from moving, I found that I had lost all control of my body. It didn’t run because I wanted it to, it ran because someone else did.
Laous? Could he have had done this to me again?
I couldn’t rely on Daniel this time. I had to figure out how to save myself, because I sensed that this was bad. Time was running out for us all. I would be strong enough. My mom didn’t know me as well as she thought when she called me stupid and weak. I would be more than she’d ever dreamed for me.
Words appeared across the sky again, and I found myself focusing on the first word. One word at a time, Emma always said. Don’t look ahead or you’ll get confused.
“Sto-ne,” I said slowly. “The stone.” Moving on to the next word, I sounded it out, one by one. Each time the words disappeared, I came back to where I’d been up to, just like Emma had been drilling into me.
“The stone will … set … you … free.” I sobbed. “I read it. I actually freaking read it.”
The stone will set me free? What did that mean? The starslight stone? Or another completely random one? The words faded out again. I was trying to stop my legs again, because there was no way I could find a stone sprinting like this, when something hit me hard from the side.
I got my wish to stop, because the heavy weight knocked me right off my feet.
“Come to me!”
I began to scream, kicking and fighting and thrashing to be freed from whatever held me. Sweat dripped down my brow as the heat kicked up a notch.
“Callie, stop fighting me.”
It was another voice, low and thrumming with pain. “Just let go,” he said. “Don’t fight any longer.”
> I wanted to stop so badly.
“Callie.”
The low, stilted way he said my name … I recognized it.
“Rao!” I shouted back to him, knowing he wasn’t here in this world, but wondering if he might be in the physical plane. With my body.
A scent of burning flesh hit my senses hard. I thought of his burned face. The fresh burns. The old burns. And now … there was so much heat around us.
No! Oh, my gods, no. Please … no. Please don’t let me be the one burning him this time. He’s already been through so much. Too much.
I was praying and screaming and crying, trying to figure out how to wake from this nightmare. All the while the heat grew stronger around us.
“Let … stone … go,” he choked out.
Stone. Until that moment I had not noticed the weight in my hands, I had not felt the burden I carried, but the second he mentioned it, I remembered the words and opened my hands.
And let the stone go free.
Avalon
Lexen reached them first, followed closely by Daniel and Xander. Callie and Rao were not moving, flames roaring up around them. Daniel waded right into the flames, the only one of us able to touch them.
“You can’t go in?” Emma asked Lexen when she reached his side.
“No.” He shook his head. “These are Flames of Ether, right from the justices themselves. Daniel is the only one who can touch them.”
With a growl, Lexen pulled away from us and stormed toward Laous. Xander followed close behind him. Emma looked like she was about to follow as well, but I grabbed her arm.
“He’s fine, Em,” I said. “Look…”
Laous, who was covered in flames as well, was not fighting them. He was crashed out on the ground, like he’d used all his energy and now he was slowly fading away.
Lexen reached down and hoisted Laous up. The smaller man found a second wind and started to fight him, his flames shooting out. Lexen and Xander didn’t appear to be fazed by the fire, but Emma lurched forward, and I wondered what she had seen.
Then I saw it too. Laous’s flame was zooming across the ground, like an accelerant lit its path. Right toward the huge aircraft.
“Xander!” I screamed already moving. Emma was screaming for Lexen as well.
Our guys turned their heads toward us a microsecond before the world lit up and we were thrown backwards with the force of the explosion. Everything went white and then dark for a moment, my ears ringing. I groaned and tried to pull myself up from where I’d been thrown, shaking my head as I crawled forward.
My eyes zeroed in on where the guys had been standing last, but there was nothing except a giant crater in the ground. I screamed until my throat burned, tears pouring down my cheeks as I continued dragging my injured body forward. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d hurt, but my legs weren’t really cooperating with me. My arms still worked though, and slowly I got closer to where I’d seen Xander last.
He couldn’t be gone. He was strong enough to survive an explosion like that. He had to be.
I collapsed as gut-wrenching sobs ripped through me. We might have saved the stone, we might have stopped the worlds ending, but what had we lost in the process?
I twisted at a noise beside me, only to find Emma half crawling, lurching toward me. She stopped by my side, hand scraping along the ground to clutch mine. “Can you see them?” she choked out.
“No,” I sobbed, my throat closing so no more words could escape.
A breeze brushed over me then, lifting the loose strands of my braid so that my hair was flying around me. Emma and I managed to roll over, sprawling on our backs.
A helicopter was closing in on us … more than one, actually.
There were dozens on the horizon, coming closer and closer. At first I thought this was more of Laous’s people, and I was already saying my goodbyes, because we had nothing left to fight them with. Then I noticed two of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen in my life.
One was the American flag etched on the side of the closest metal beast in the sky. The other was Lexen, soaring in between two choppers, Xander holding on to one of his arms. They flew in like angels, maneuvering so that they could land right by us. The helicopters started landing as well, but my focus was on Xander, on every perfect strand of golden hair on his head. On the beautiful eyes that were locked on me. The gentle hands that stroked my cheeks, taking the tears with them.
“I thought you were gone,” I said, my head pounding as I fought to hold on to consciousness.
Xander fitted one of his hands under my head; the other he gently slid under my butt, and he lifted me up to cradle me in his arms.
“Laous was determined to take us out with him,” he said huskily. “But I managed to counter with water; it formed a barrier between us for long enough so that Lexen could fly us out of the main blast zone. Laous wasn’t so lucky.” His lips pressed to my cheek, chasing the tears as they fell. “I will never leave you, Avalon. You’re stuck with me for life.”
In that moment, I let myself believe his words.
A loud wailing drew our attention. Xander spun with me in his arm, heading straight for the spot Callie’s huge fire had been. It was gone now, but three bodies remained sprawled there, the starslight stone on the ground beside them.
Callie was wailing, screaming, holding on to the body underneath her. “It’s not fair,” she sobbed hysterically. “He never had a chance. He never had a life.”
At first I thought it was Daniel, then I remembered that their souls were tied together. If Daniel had been dead, Callie would be too.
It was Rao.
His body was burned beyond recognition. Ash covered Callie from head to toe so that she was almost unrecognizable.
“I killed him.”
More screams ripped from her and I wanted to run away and hide, because her pain was hurting my heart so badly that I couldn’t breathe. I wouldn’t be a weak-ass bitch like that, though. She needed me.
“We have to go closer,” I said to Xander.
His eyes were hard, jaw rigid as he nodded. We were all mourning, all of us sharing Callie’s pain. Especially Daniel, who had just lost his second brother in a matter of a month.
“Put me down with her,” I said, needing to be even closer.
Xander didn’t argue, and Lexen followed suit, placing Emma down as well. Daniel shifted to the side from where he had been holding her, allowing us to crawl through the blood and soot and wrap our arms around her. I don’t know when Maya joined us, but there was a new thrum of energy from our bond when she arrived.
It took a long time, but eventually Callie’s sobs died off. Her body still shook, but I held her tightly, kept her together as best I could. There were voices all around us, but I never heard any of it. Later they’d tell us that the stone was back in the hands of the humans and the council. The bond between us and the stone was gone, but somehow we didn’t lose the bond between the four of us. Colita said it was soul deep, that nothing could break it.
We took a helicopter to a private field, a plane to somewhere else, and then another helicopter to take us right to Daelight Crescent. I barely remembered any of it. The guys let the four of us stay close while a healer fixed up our physical injuries.
It wasn’t until we landed back in Astoria that I was able to focus enough to listen to the conversations around me. “Gonzo is gone,” one of the military men at my right was telling Lexen. “We managed to take out a large percentage of their numbers. The rest fled. We’re ferreting them out as we speak.”
“They placed too much of their trust and manpower in Laous,” Chase said quietly. “It was their greatest mistake.”
It was a silver lining from a really shitty day. Daniel still hadn’t spoken a word, he was simply holding Callie’s hand like it was a lifeline. She lay across his lap.
When the chopper finally touched down in Daelight Crescent, Callie, wearing a haunted look on her face, stepped out first. She seemed to need the space, runn
ing as soon as her feet hit the ground. She headed toward one of the mansions on the street and Daniel followed right after her.
“That’s their home,” Xander told me. He swept me close and I let myself rest against his strength, needing this one moment before reality returned. Some of my hair spilled across us; it was almost black. “I really need a shower,” I whispered, a morose chuckle escaping me. I was covered in death, literally.
One side of his lips quirked up; he brushed my hair back. “I’m going to take you to my home here. I’ll have to come back and debrief with the overlords and council for a short time though. Are you okay to be alone?”
I nodded, even though I really just wanted to hide away with Xander for a few hours. He had responsibilities, and I had to respect them. “I won’t be gone long,” he promised. “I need to be with you, and only you, right now.”
“I need to be with you as well,” I told him.
He swept me into his arms, and I protested. “I can walk now. I’m fine.”
“I know. This is for me. I need to hold you while I can.”
“While I can” was not a phrase I wanted to hear from him, but I was not worrying about the future in this moment. The present was already too raw and painful.
When Xander stopped at a massive metal and wood gate, I just stared up at the impressive and intimidating structure. “Trying to keep the riffraff out?” I joked.
He laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. “My mother likes to make sure everyone is suitably intimidated whenever she does something.”
“I’m starting to see that,” I returned, as we waited for the gates to open.
When he stepped inside, I gasped. The house was set quite far back on the massive property, all white and glass, stunningly pretty. But the part that was my favorite, by a million, was the pool. It basically filled the rest of the land, water as far as I could see, even drifting in and out of the lower levels of the house.
“Bedrooms are on the next level up,” Xander said, pointing toward a row of windows beside pearlescent pillars. “The pool is filled with legreto from home.”
