Quintessence (Statera Saga Book 2)

by Amy Marie

  Talbot’s empty voice of terror snaps me from my reverie.

  “Enough. It is time.”

  Lilly gives a feral smile, empty and hollow. Talbot has always frightened me with his emotionless Terminator-like demeanor, but Lilly is equally frightening. The emptiness behind her false expressions reminds me of a doll come to life.

  Darcy and I huddle together and brace ourselves for a fight. Looking down, our clasped hands begin to glow with the combination of our powers.

  We won’t go without a fight.

  The power builds from just below my ribs. The flow of energy courses up and out, radiating through me and channeling into my hands.

  I know Darcy is feeling the same thing. Our linked hands give me a sixth sense access to his power. But there’s also hesitation. From both of us. Facing the original souls that harnessed our power has opened up the knowledge to what can happen if we are consumed by that power.

  The moment’s hesitation is our biggest mistake.

  The destructors attack first with a striking blow of their shadowed powers.

  Our bodies are thrown back, but my defenses jump to alert and a shield of light forms a barrier against their channeled powers.

  They split up, flanking each side of the barrier. I’m unable to guard both sides at once. Darcy throws up his hands and a dark stream of light knocks Lilly into the fountain.

  “Split up. Keep her down. Talbot is mine,” Darcy roars.

  A quick nod and I’m racing to the fountain.

  Light and water?

  My mind races for a way to keep Lilly incapacitated.

  Can my power of light create a thermal energy and heat the water?

  With one hand, I create a light shield over the surface of the water. With the other, I radiate a stream of light into the pool to heat it to boiling point.

  Lilly’s screams bubble up from under the surface as steam fills the air from the scalding water. I can see her struggle below, but the light shield holds her under to endure the burning heat.

  Grunts of pain remind me that Darcy and Talbot are battling behind me, near the fireplace.

  After a few minutes, my energy is fading. I’m not sure how much longer I can hold Lilly under.

  There’s a scrape of metal against stone, and then a squishing sound followed by a scream of agony. Darcy’s scream.

  Forgetting myself, I let go of my power and pivot towards him.

  Another scream reaches me before I can turn completely in his direction.

  Talbot has pierced Darcy through the chest with a metal poker from the fireplace. He’s lodged the poker into the wooden fireplace mantle at Darcy’s back, pinning him in place.

  Although his open wound attempts to heal, he struggles to remove the poker and free himself, preventing it from healing. With every twist and pull, he reinjures himself. His face is red and contorted in pain. But he’s screaming at me in warning.

  Only then do I hear the splashes from behind me.

  I twist around as Lilly emerges from the fountain, steaming and blistering from the burning water. She screeches in frustration and shoots a dark stream of energy into my body, sending me across the room in a fit of blinding pain.

  Darcy’s screams increase as his struggle against the poker becomes a frenzy to free himself.

  “Tie her up!” Lilly yells to Talbot. Her skin is just starting to heal from the burns.

  A knee is jammed into my back as rough hands grab my arms, pinning them behind me. My wrists burn from the scrape of a rope as it’s tied into a tight knot to hold me in place.

  My body is slammed down onto the ground at Darcy’s feet, taunting him in his inability to move.

  “Nora,” my name comes out in a croak from Darcy’s skewered form.

  “Something is missing. Ah yes, I know!” Lilly cackles.

  She dances around me where I lay on the floor. She then moves close to Darcy’s incapacitated body and pats him down seductively while looking to me for my reaction.

  Unable to control my emotions, I snarl at her in rage. The more emotion I show, the wider her smile gets. I’ve never despised anyone more in my life.

  Lilly finds what she was searching for as her hand pulls out the golden rose-hilt dagger that Darcy carries from his curse.

  “You will not be needing this anymore, I think,” she coos into his face.

  Darcy’s weak response still manages to come out in a growl.

  “Now,” Lilly says, moving back toward Talbot. “How shall we dispose of the light?”

  “Fire is her biggest weakness. Let her burn.”

  “NO!” Darcy and I both scream in unison. The memory of Eleanor’s scorched skin has me shaking in terror.

  Lilly is unfazed by our reaction, but turns to her fellow destructor.

  “Oh, my dear star, that is not what I meant.”

  And with those words, she takes the dagger and drives it straight into Talbot’s heart.

  Chapter 28

  When skin burns, it doesn’t melt away. Instead, the cells scorch and singe. The top layer disintegrates in the flame and the bottom layer chars and splits. Fatty oils leak through these cracks and feed the fire. That’s how bodies catch fire. I’ve watched my own limbs light up like torches in my dreams, time and time again.

  That’s what must be happening to me now. I must be burning. I’ve been left to die and my mind has simply checked out and imagined an alternative ending.

  It’s the only logical explanation.

  I close my eyes and wonder what scenario my mind will come up with next when they open again.

  But, no. My eyes open. And there is Lilly’s hand still gripping the rose-pommel dagger that has sunk deep into Talbot’s chest.

  This can’t be real.

  Talbot is immortal. He can’t be killed by the dagger.

  Can he?

  That’s the first of many questions flooding my brain, and drowning my logic.

  As if hearing my thoughts out loud, Lilly turns to me with a wicked grin.

  “Only pure darkness can put out this kind of light. Luckily, I am as dark as they come.”

  For the first time in any of my memories, Talbot’s face holds emotion. His eyes look up to Lilly and his expression conveys a bitter betrayal. He makes two gasps for breath, but is unable to form any words.

  A shadowed glow pours from his chest wound, but grows more and more dim until there is no glow at all.

  And then, nothing.

  Whatever part of the emptiness that occupied Talbot’s body is now gone.

  My breath catches in my throat as new realization dawns on me.

  “Darcy! Your curse!” I maneuver my bound body around to look up at him. Fear grips my heart in a pounding panic. If his curse is broken with the poker stabbing him, he’ll die.

  “His curse belongs to me now,” Lilly’s voice interrupts my thoughts.

  I turn back to see her holding the golden dagger.

  “Why did you help us?” I ask, bewildered.

  Lilly scoffs at me. “Help you? For being such a shining light, you are not that bright. I did what I had to do. Destroying the light is the final step in reaching total destruction, and that means all light, including the traces of shadowed light left in him. Everything that was balanced must be disrupted, including our empty shells.”

  “You sacrificed your other half to achieve destruction?” Darcy spits out in disgust.

  “He would have done the same to me when the time came. Sacrifice holds greater power than we are capable of knowing.”

  “How could you do that to the other half of your soul?” I ask, appalled.

  Lilly tilts her head at me again.

  “What soul?” she sneers.

  The past few hours have been the most terrifying hours in my life, but I’ve only dreamed of absolute dread until this moment. She really has no soul. Lilly is going to destroy existence as we know it.

  Her hollow laugh mocks me.

  “I can see it,” she hisses.
/>   “See what?” I ask, hypnotized by fear.

  “The hope leaving you. Your light is flickering. You know what is coming.”

  She’s right. I can feel myself crumbling inside. My draining hope has left a hollow ache behind.

  Lilly slinks over to Darcy’s side, petting him. “I have plans for us, my dark one. But it is time to snuff out this last bit of light,” she whispers, kicking at my side.

  Her hand weaves a spell of dark magic in front of Darcy’s eyes and he slumps over unconscious, held up by the poker speared into his chest.

  “What did you do to him?” I cry.

  “I will need his powers of darkness to bring the final destruction. Do not worry, light one, he will not suffer while I have use for him,” she continues to caress him to provoke me. “I cannot say the same for you.”

  I’m struck with an idea. Where Talbot always spoke as little as possible, Lilly has been more than eager to explain her destructive plans, almost fanatical. She’s as bad as any secret agent movie villain.

  Keep her talking.

  “What did you mean, when you said Darcy’s curse belongs to you?”

  Lilly smiles while twisting the golden dagger in the air in admiration. “This kind of magic is very tricky. When my star transferred his powers of immortality into this dark one, he was not expecting to be cursed with his dark powers in return. He was unable to go into the light after that, cursed by the darkness and weakened by the source of his old powers. In taking control of the curse without being part of it, the dark powers will only make me stronger. Now I will have total control. There is no weakness.”

  “What will you do with him?” I ask.

  Lilly’s smile is feline, like a cat on the prowl. “I have plans. Nothing that you will ever get to see, but you may prefer it that way.”

  “There’s one other question I’ve been meaning to ask,” I say to Lilly, hoping against all odds to keep her distracted.

  “And what is that?” she finally starts to show signs of being bored. My time is running out.

  My hands warm behind me, but I do my best to keep my glowing eyes averted from Lilly. I can feel the ropes at my wrists slacking under the quiet power of the burning light that my hands are creating.

  I roll in motion and jump to alert, free from my bonds.

  “Have you always been envious of the power of light?” I taunt her. With a flick of my hand, Lilly is thrown across the room by a stream of blinding light. In seconds, my glowing hands remove the poker from Darcy’s chest and he falls to the ground, his wounds healing.

  Lilly bounces back with her dark eyes glowing, and her own wounds healing.

  “You are quickly learning what you are capable of. Pity it is for nothing. Darcy, it’s time to show your darkness.” She raises her hands, and his body pops up like a puppet, jerking to the movement of her orchestrating fingers.

  “Darcy,” I say, backing away from his menacing approach.

  “He cannot hear you anymore, he is lost to the darkness. My power combined with his through the curse is now stronger than ever. He can’t fight me,” Lilly laughs.

  “Darcy, please,” I whisper, praying that my plea reaches his ears. But his body acts as if it’s now an empty shell, moving under Lilly’s command. She now controls his curse, and she now controls his darkness.

  I move my glowing hands up against him as he grabs my arms, but I cannot bring myself to use my power on him.

  Would I rather die and sacrifice the chance of saving humanity than destroy Darcy?

  My hands drop to my sides as I let out a sob. I can’t fight him.

  “Come,” she says to Darcy. “Let her burn.”

  And with that command, I’m blasted with the full force of Lilly’s dark power into the wood pile gathered by the fireplace. Darcy splits the gas pipe that feeds the fire, and knocks me in the head with the metal piping. The only thing I register in the haze is the smell of sulfur, to give warning of natural gas filling the air.

  I’m too weak from the blow to move from the pile. I roll over in agony to see Darcy toss my cell phone on the ground next to me.

  “I’ll be giving you a call in a few minutes. The phone ought to be enough to trigger a decent blast.” Lilly turns to Darcy. “Secure all exits and lock her in.”

  As Darcy moves from room to room to block the hidden exits, Lilly crouches in front of me. “I once was attracted to the light. Entranced by it. I fell under the spell and yearned for it. But it was too much. It led to our downfall. It led to this cursed existence. And now darkness will end it. There’s nothing more you will need to remember now. Your light burns out for the last time.”

  She raises the golden dagger and stabs it into my lower abdomen. White hot pain burns my gut. I’m left in shock, but Lilly’s not through with me.

  My hand is then lifted up and pierced through into the side of the wooden mantle, trapping me into place. Standing, she directs Darcy out the kitchen exit and seals me into the sanctuary that will now be my tomb.

  Breathing comes with a painful struggle, as the movement triggers searing pain in my torso. I’m unable to scream, and don’t believe anyone would hear me if I did.

  I stare at the phone in fear of the call to come that will ignite the final blast of this existence for me.

  I glance around the broken remnants of the sanctuary, remembering one last time how close we came to restoring the balance and filling the void.

  Flashes of my element friends, as well as my guardians – one now fallen – flicker through my mind as things tend to do near the end. Both my birth and adopted parents come to mind, and I give their souls a final salute, hoping they’ll greet me soon. The beautiful face of my sister fills my thoughts next, and I grimace in the combination of physical and emotional pain. Most excruciating of all, Darcy is the last ghost to visit me in my pain-induced delusions. Every memory we shared here, every hand-kissing goodnight, every argument, every revelation is relived in seconds, and it all pours out of me in a bitter heart-wrenching sob.

  My eyes follow the ghosts of each memory throughout the space and they fall on the door of the storage room. The gleam from the copper tub catches my eye.

  Resilience.

  My soul is made of more than this. I won’t lie down in the flames.

  Copper is a fire-resistant conductor. I can hide under the tub during the blast, as long as I don’t touch the sides. The vents will bring in fresh air. I can find a way to escape. Is hope powerful enough to help me survive this time?

  I turn weakly to my impaled hand. Raising my free hand with determination, I pull the blade slowly from my wounded palm and wrap my bleeding hand in my shirt, while putting pressure on the hole in my stomach. Deciding the dagger is worth keeping, I secure it into my belt and crawl weakly over to the storage room.

  Curiosity causes me to foolishly glance back at the phone and I pray the delay doesn’t cost me my life.

  I drag the tub and use what’s left of my strength to tilt it on its side. I see the light of the phone before I hear the ring that heralds the coming blast. Just as the phone sparks in ignition, the tub falls over me in a cocoon and destruction discharges outside, ringing the tub like a church bell.

  I lay in my shell of protection, numb with pain, and slowly losing consciousness. I’m only half certain that I can survive the blast. But it’s possible, as I slip into the darkness, that maybe I won’t be woken by the light.

  Chapter 29

  If the emptiness had taken over, I wouldn’t be trapped in a dream.

  But here I am, though I’m not sure where here is.

  Perhaps it’s not even a dream, but something in between?

  I’m alone, but I feel as if something’s not far away. A comforting feeling, that unknown presence.

  Light fills the darkness, as I move into a familiar form. I can feel my limbs again. I know this. I’ve been here before.

  My feet are moving and I’m walking along a pathway. Beautiful lush gardens are at my sides, but for
some reason, I don’t stray from the path.

  The garden path leads me to a break in the trees and a large white manor fills my vision.

  I recognize this. I’ve been trapped in this dream before.

  But this is something else. Not a dream. Not a memory. Something new, yet something very old.

  I enter the white manor, but don’t recognize it as the same one from my dreams and memories of life. This is something new, but built from what I know is familiar.

  Thousands of clocks line the walls. Clocks of every shape and size. Elegant and antique. I zigzag through the corridor, stopping to gaze at each masterpiece in awe. Looking down the hall, the maze of clocks seems to go on forever.

  Part of me knows the clocks are important. They represent something big, but I can’t grasp the vastness of the mystery, just a vague knowledge of their importance.

  “Beautiful aren’t they, my dear?” a voice behind me asks.

  A gentleman’s voice. A familiar voice.

  The smiling face I turn to is recognizable, but not what I was expecting.

  “Gabriel?” I ask in fantastic disbelief.

  “Of course. Who were you expecting?” his eyes twinkle.

  In truth, none of this is what I expected, but I’m pleasantly surprised.

  “I’m sorry, it was just your voice. It sounded so much like Uncle–”

  “Ahh. Yes, my dear,” he nods in understanding.

  “But you’re not the same, are you?” I ask, still unsure in this alternate reality.

  “Well, it’s difficult to say, and even more difficult to grasp. We are not the same in the way you might think, no. But we are connected. We are your guardians.”

  “But what are you doing here?” I ask.

  “I could ask you, my dear. I am here for you. All of this,” he waves his arms, “this is your creation.”

  “My creation?” I’m stunned.

  “Not creation in the way you might understand. You are a powerful soul, but not that powerful. No, I suppose the more suitable explanation is: this is your interpretation.”