The pain made it difficult to think as it pushed against me, insistent and irritating. Something inside me fought through it, rising to the forefront of my mind, even though I couldn’t put it into words. A sharp stab in my shoulders elicited a groan. It wasn’t just my head. Fire raced up and down my back and shoulders, and my hips were sore. I tried to stretch my legs, but I was tangled up in something.
With a start, my eyes flew open, and I remembered. Lakvas had taken me and tied me up somewhere dark, and when I tried to break free with magic, I’d been burned and blacked out form the pain. I remembered the sudden sound of breaking glass…
“You’re awake?” Joy exclaimed, her voice in my ears instead of my mind.
“Joy?”My breath caught in my throat as I reached out to her magic and found nothing.
“Our connection broke,” she said, sadly. I tried to look for her, but only saw a hazy image of her face, my eyes refusing to focus. “I can’t untie you. I just…” her voice trailed off, and I heard her sigh.
“What happened?” I asked, trying to clear the roughness from my throat.
I felt a gossamer-light touch on my forehead, and a small flow of magic soothed the pounding in my skull. I blinked rapidly as my vision returned and Joy’s glowing face came into focus. My mouth dropped open when I saw her violet eyes. Her white irises and pupils were replaced with a steady, gentle purple. She was more solid, too, looking as real as anyone without the usual ephemeral glow that always seemed to be a part of her.
“Our connection broke when you loosened your hands and passed out. I was forced out of the stone,” Joy said unsteadily. “I don’t know how or why.”
She looked down, frowning.
I flexed my fingers. The bonds on my wrists were still wrapped tightly, but the knot was gone, and the ropes came loose the more I wiggled my wrists. I worked at it until my arms were free, and though they protested with each stretch, I quickly started working on the knots around my legs.
I paused when I saw the opal ring. It was whole, but blackened. Without Joy’s spirit to light it up, the stone was completely dead. I’d never seen a dead cairn before, and something in my heart twisted. When I had dragged Drekvic through to the Beyond, the force of my power mixing with Joy’s had broken her stone, but Fate had helped me put it back together. Joy’s soul was safe. This was different, and I didn’t know what it meant.
“It’s weird, not knowing what you’re thinking,” Joy muttered, reaching out to brush the hair off my forehead.
“If you’ve been awake, why didn’t you untie me already?” I asked, avoiding what was really on my mind. If Joy was no longer in the cairn, did that mean I was no longer in transition to be a goddess?
She grimaced at me and reached out to touch the rope on my ankles.
The bright light hurt my eyes and I flinched back, squinting at the sharpness of it. There was a loud electrical pop before the smell of burnt flesh made me want to gag, but I was too worried about Joy to care. The moment I could see, I reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her fingers up for me to examine.
“It’s nothing,” Joy said. “I heal quickly.”
I frowned at the blisters that covered her fingers, then at her.
“You could have just told me.”
“This seemed faster. Now untie yourself so we can get out of here.”
Sighing, I complied. Lakvas’ knots were tight and difficult to work out. My fingers felt raw by the time I managed to free myself and stood up slowly, my feet tingling as blood rushed back into my limbs. I wondered how long I’d been out of it. Joy showed me her blister-free hands. Whatever she was now, she really did heal fast.
“Ellie?” she asked, concerned.
I looked at her, a question in my raised eyebrows.
“I thought so,” she muttered. “Your eyes are completely purple now, like mine.”
It felt like I’d been doused in ice water. Too many things were happening all at once, and the changes to my body weren’t something I wanted to deal with. I pushed it to the back of my mind. I had other things to focus on, like getting free and calling for help. I was afraid to touch the tether that connected me to Chester. The last thing I wanted was him coming to save me with a damaged aura.
“I don’t have time to worry about it,” I told her, taking my first good look around the room.
It was small and completely empty. Round, with no straight walls aside for the small door, I could have been locked in a tower. The floor was a dark red soil that clung to my clothes. I brushed it off as best I could while leaning against the rock wall, an uneasy heat slipping through the stone and into my skin. It felt like the rock was alive.
Noise echoed in the distance, indistinct voices and the loud clang of someone dropping something metal. I listened at the wooden door, hoping to hear something that would let me know what to expect on the other side. There was no handle on my side of the door, but I wasn’t concerned. I’d been unlocking doors with magic since I was a kid. It was like riding a bike—impossible to forget.
Remembering the powerful surge that had knocked me out, I tested the door before trying anything. The faint hum of a spell ran through it, but it didn’t feel malicious. Whatever Lakvas had done to the door, he’d made sure I couldn’t coerce the magic to work the way I wanted. What Lakvas didn’t know was just how powerful a kind request could be.
“Look,” I whispered, reaching my magic out to touch the spell. It seemed to turn its nose up at me, curling away, but I followed it. “Please, let me out, I have to go home.”
The moment I said please, I felt the spell relax. My magic swirled around it, and I gently pulled it off the door. It was a simple twist of magic to turn the tumblers. Lakvas’ spell swirled around my shoulder, settling in to wait. It was strange for a spell to be so aware, but assuming I was in the spirit world, magic acted differently than what I was used to.
“Leave it on the door,” Joy said, harshly.
I turned to her, catching a quick glimpse of the empty hallway. “Why?” I asked as she regarded the spell with a wrinkled nose and curled lip.
“If it’s back on the door and Lakvas walks by, he won’t realize you’ve escaped,” she replied, breezing past me and into the hallway.
Conceding her point, I coaxed the spell back into the wood of the door, struggling for a moment to pull it away from the warmth of my body that attracted it. Once in the hallway I used magic to lock the door again and weighed my options.
The only way to go was down a dark tunnel with no lights or any hint of what might wait beyond the stillness. The walls were the same rough stone, and the red dirt sent up small puffs wherever I stepped. We would leave footprints, but considering there were so many already in the dirt, I was confident Lakvas wouldn’t be able to single mine out.
There was another loud clang that reverberated through the hallway. Joy’s glowing skin was a beacon in the darkness, and I wondered how we would get anywhere undetected.
“I’ll go first. You follow a little bit behind,” Joy said. “Hopefully they won’t see you and you can slip past them.”
“I wouldn’t leave you,” I chastised, and she gave me a withering look I hadn’t realized she was capable of.
“It’s not like they’ll be able to catch me; I can buy you time to get away. Let’s keep moving.”
Trusting her judgment, I nodded. I wouldn’t leave Joy, but if they did see her first, I might be able to disable them while they were distracted. I tried not to draw too much power from my sapphire ring while escorting souls, so I still had enough power to defend myself. With Joy, I could probably fight off anyone long enough to get away. Since Lakvas’ memories wouldn’t bleed into me if he touched me a second time, he couldn’t incapacitate me again.
I followed behind Joy. The noises were getting louder, and I felt the low vibrations of machinery in the wall as I ran my fingers along it to keep my balance. With only Joy’s glowing form to cast light, everything seemed high contrast, and it was hard to p
ut my feet in the right places. When the wall suddenly curved and fell away, I paused. Joy still inched slowly forward, but her near-silent footsteps sounded different.
We entered a much larger room, Joy’s steps no longer echoing off the walls of the narrow hallway. Realizing I’d stopped, she turned to look at me.
The attack came from behind her, too fast for me to warn her.
I watched in confusion as her face turned from impatience to pain. Her body jerked forward, eyes turning glassy as she fell to the ground. I lunged forward to catch her, ignoring that I might be attacked myself, but she never hit the ground.
Joy’s body exploded in a flash of silver glitter that pushed me backwards and clung to my skin. I felt her magic dive into my chest as the impact knocked me into the wall. It dug into my own power where it pooled, and meshed into a singular force.
“Joy?” I choked.
She never answered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The silence and was overwhelming. Joy’s magic was mine, and it settled into my core without hesitation. If Joy could no longer hold her magic, where was she?
An angry growl vibrated through the room, and even though my heart felt like it might fall to pieces in my chest, I scrambled to my feet. Joy’s…explosion… had forced my shoulders against the wall, and I winced in pain as the movement pulled on my muscles. I couldn’t see, but that meant my attacker probably couldn’t see me either, and a light would just give me away.
“You can’t hide, little witch,” Lakvas snarled. He was closer than I wanted him to be, so I stepped out into the empty space, backing up slowly. I strained to hear any type of movement in the darkness.
“Your eyes—light up like a beacon,” he purred, and I whirled to the right, following his voice. I didn’t know if he was bluffing or if Joy had been right about the changes to my body being more obvious. Joy lit up the darkness like a flame—it was possible that my sight betrayed me.
Joy? I asked again frantically, unable to help myself.
“Your aura is so bright, I could find you with my eyes closed,” he laughed, his voice on my other side. I turned once again, my annoyance growing.
“If you can see me,” I said, letting out my own growl, “then it’s time to even the odds.”
With one swift dive into my power, I created a large wave of magic that clung to the objects surrounding me and gave them forms in the darkness. I regretted the decsion almost immediately, but at least I knew what I was up against.
Ghosts were lined up along the walls of the cavern, their hollow eyes and gaunt cheeks reminiscent of the boy in the antique shop and the woman in my home. Their eyes were haunted and sad and it was all I could do to stop myself from reaching out to them. Lakvas had managed to circle behind me, his pale blue eyes piercing me as I turned to face him.
I squared my shoulders and readied myself. I had no idea if he would send his shades after me, but without Joy, I was afraid I couldn’t fight even one, much less the dozens in the room. I clenched my hands into fists, refusing to give up before anything had even started.
“You are more trouble than you’re worth, creating a shade to deceive me,” Lakvas muttered, pushing off the wall toward me.
I couldn’t let him get too close. He was huge and would easily overpower me if I was within his reach. I thought of the sword Chester could make with his magic, but without Joy, I wasn’t sure I could make anything hold form long enough to defend myself.
I took another step back, trying to hold the distance between us.
“What happened to the woman that attacked me with a chain and cut off her own hair?” he crooned, and I snarled at him.
“If you want a fight, you can have one.”
I pulled on the power from my sapphire ring, gathering enough to make my blue aura visible. The electricity caused my short hair to stand on end as I pulled and pulled. Lakvas was still stalking forward, his own dark magic getting closer. I could sense it in the air, an oily blanket that seemed to dim my light.
Fate had said I was already a goddess, that all I needed to do was accept that. I remembered her overwhelming power and how I’d felt like a toy boat in the ocean standing inside of it. If I was capable of that kind of power, then Lakvas couldn’t hurt me.
He stopped in front of me, eyes glowing with malicious energy, but I met his gaze without hesitation. I held my hand out, expectantly.
He hesitated, staring at my open palm. I kept my face neutral and made my voice as flat as possible.
“I will accept your surrender if you are smart enough to give it.”
Lakvas’ laugh echoed back in the open space. He doubled over, hugging his stomach. I stood with my hand outstretched. If he didn’t accept my offer, I would throw everything I had into my next charge. I would crush him into submission and drag his sorry soul to the Beyond where it was supposed to be.
With that thought, I felt the connection to my magic strengthen, as though a muscle I’d never really noticed before was suddenly showing under my skin. A new path had opened into my center, filled with magic that was mine and was not mine. The vast pool of it within me was as wide as the sky, and the immensity of it made my vision tilt. I had to blink sharply to bring Lakvas’ laughing face back into focus.
He had no idea what had just happened, but as he wiped away his mirth, he paused to study me.
“I don’t know what you’re doing to make your hair silver, but I’m not afraid of a witch’s magic. I’ll offer you a deal,” he said, grinning. “In exchange for not using your soul like a battery, you can become my pet. I will feed you and clothe you and we will have many sleepless nights together. How does that sound?”
“You’re turning down my offer? This is the only chance I’m giving you,” I replied, ignoring his words. I was never going to make a deal with a siekewa again.
“I like your spirit, girl,” he replied. “Once I own you, I will make you writhe for me.”
“Very well,” I said, twisting my hand to the side and snapping my fingers.
The sound was accompanied by an explosion of white light that shoved Lakvas away from me, widening the gap between us. The blue glow of my stored power was rapidly swallowed by a new, silvery aura that appeared around me. The strength of my own magic surprised me, and I reached further into the well to trap Lakvas with me until I could take his soul to the Beyond.
I felt something move in the pool of my psyche, almost like a shark swimming under the surface of the water. It was the dark side of the balance, the side I couldn’t see. The well of power I tapped into wasn’t mine at all. As the goddess responsible for keeping the world balanced, my strength came from the duality of that light and darkness, and for the first time, I was able to access it. I recognized it from the vision Fate had shown me of her and Hope. The darkness belonged to Drekvic, and while I could draw magic from it, touching that other part of the balance wouldn’t be good for anyone until my power was balanced.
Ellie! Where are you? Drekvic’s voice echoed from somewhere, the worry in it as he searched the ruins was almost overwhelming. I wanted to reach out to him, but I need to focus on the opponent in front of me.
Lakvas backed away from me even further, his eyes wide. His skin looked pure white in my newfound silvery glow. I could barely see the outline of my hand as I raised it. The room was completely visible now, my light illuminating the poor ghosts chained to the walls by magic. There was a blackened circle on the ground surrounded by a dark spell scrawled in blood. I conjured a shield to trap Lakvas inside the room with me, stopping his slow stalk to the door.
It manifested as a bright wall that should have hurt to look at, but I kept my eyes wide open. The heat of the magic was practically intoxicating, and the need to use the building energy inside of me was so strong I almost released my hold just for the relief.
“What the hell are you?” Lakvas snarled.
“You had a chance to surrender,” I said, feeling a wicked grin spread across my cheeks.
His gaze hardened, and he charged. His magic hit me first, a blunt force meant to knock me to the ground, but it felt like feathers tickling my face. I brushed it away and side-stepped his charge. My body felt alive, all my nerves tingling with energy. With magic enhancing my every step, I flew to the side, my feet barely touching the ground.
I went much farther than intended and had to put a hand up to catch myself on the wall. I found myself beside a ghost, his sunken eyes looking at me with exhaustion. Everything inside of me wanted to set him free, but I couldn’t just leave him to wander. He would have to wait until I could take him to the Beyond.
I looked away, turning toward Lakvas when the ghost reached out and clamped a hand on my wrist. His icy skin sent a shock of darkness into me. My magic recoiled at the feeling, and for a moment I lost the support of the balance, and the brilliant light flickered.
I desperately pulled away, reaching again for the magic. I couldn’t risk losing it while Lakvas had fight left in him.
Sensing the ghost’s interference, Lakvas grinned, a devilish glint returning to his eyes. With a wave of his hand, the chains that kept the ghosts tethered fell away, and as one, they all turned towards me. Their hollow eyes seemed to suck the magic from my core.
I clamped down on my connection, refusing to let go. If I had to take these souls to the Beyond before I could deal with Lakvas then so be it, but I might not have another chance to stop him without hurting anyone else in the process. I would not lose.
The ghost that had grabbed me reached for me again. I grabbed him instead, getting a handful of his wispy shirt, and jerked him towards me. He was light as a feather, but his rage was fierce. He dug into me, trying to take over my body and push me out.
Wayward Hope Page 14
