Sebastian’s hand braced against the magical wall, and with no more effort than one would brush away a fly, he obliterated it. Sky’s fog spilled into the wood, and the banished army who had been waiting for Sebastian to destroy the only thing stopping them from entering the Kingdom of Nautilus, spilled into The Gallows.
Sebastian discarded Lindey and she fell to her knees, clawing her way toward us as Sebastian rushed toward River.
Every witch within earshot hit him with everything they had. Fire raged from palms, followed by hurricane gusts and torrents of water. Earth witches bound him with thorny vines and tree roots tugged him into the soil, but Sebastian laughed. He made the roots wither and die, breaking through every attempt to slow him.
The ominous shadow that loomed over us chose that moment to attack. River issued a guttural scream as he clashed against foes no one else could see. His clothes were shredded, his skin torn. With a battle cry from Sable, the Guard loosed their arrows on the banished folk pouring in through the obliterated boundary.
Sebastian quickly subdued the elemental witches, cries of terror rending the air. Stripped of their affinities, without the aid of their magic, they took up the arms the Guard had armed them with – just in case.
River
Omen was in danger. Sebastian had fooled us all. He eradicated the border wall and was leading the banished into Nautilus, even as The Shadowed attacked me. But I couldn’t be on the plane of the living and that of the dead, and someone had to fight The Shadowed.
Mom…I had to trust her to keep Omen safe, and trust Omen, Lyric, and Sky to protect our people.
Cyril stood proudly amidst The Shadowed. Her dark eyes locked onto mine and she ordered the souls to find me and bring me to her. They tried.
Fate, infuriated that the souls were attempting to overtake him by overtaking me, lashed out. But instead of absorbing the dark creatures, he filled me with a dazzling, cleansing light. With every Shadowed I touched, they vanished in a blink. I pulled them toward me, a brilliant flame to a thousand shadowy moths, and watched as Fate ended every soul within The Shadowed horde. Fate destroyed those who sought to destroy him.
“Sebastian!” Cyril cried out, vengeance shining in her eyes as she gazed at me.
The undead realm was filled with murky tones of gray and black when Sebastian appeared in front of me. He smiled, grasping my throat, but I struck first. I poured darkness into him, drawing menace from Sky’s stygian clouds above, from the forked white lightning she pulled to the ground to strike our enemies. I pulled power from the stones hovering in midair around us, stones I knew were Omen’s. I drew power from Lyric’s song, a melody so powerful, I could hear it from the realm of the dead. And I drew power from Fate himself.
Sebastian sought to trap Fate’s power within me. To cast out my soul. But fueled by the very power he wanted to usurp, I plucked his spirit from his body and watched as he slumped to the ground in a heap of flesh and blood and bone.
Cyril tore at her hair, a guttural cry leaving her parted lips. “No!”
She clawed at him as his wicked soul writhed in my grasp, and I smiled at her as I killed not only his body, but his vile, corrupted soul. She watched as a Fate witch, her grandson, killed the witch caster, erasing her only hope for winning a body and another chance at life.
When he was gone, Cyril looked toward the bloody woods with its crimson sky and white lightning, with pines whose bark was as black as the needles drooping from the limbs. She was going to spirit away, but I used my magic to hold her in front of me.
“What are you doing?” she screeched. “You stupid boy – don’t you know that the witch caster you just killed was the only one who could bring back the balance of things among witches? Among the dead and the living? He could have restored equality! He could have restored me! He was the most powerful witch to be born in five thousand years!”
“Actually, he wasn’t.”
Because I crushed him. I was a spirit tongue.
My Goddess…why didn’t I realize what I could do before now?
Fate had placed my power in the title he bestowed me. Spirit tongue…I only needed to speak. “Cyril.” Fear flooded her eyes and wobbled in their depths. “You are nothing.”
As soon as I spoke the words, they became true. Cyril vanished, as did the infuriated cry that echoed through the wood.
I left the realm Sebastian had conjured, in search of my soul-mated.
I only had to think of her, and I reappeared in the garden behind the House of Fate.
Omen
We were losing. We would lose. There were too many banished and they were far too determined, intent on destroying everyone in their path. They filled every space between the trees in the forest surrounding Thirteen, thick as the beetles that swarmed and fed on the bark, stripping everything bare in their wake.
The Guard that still fought were being cut down. Guttural cries came from every direction. Screaming. The clanging of metal meeting metal. Even the choking sound of death and the ponderous sound of silence that followed.
But now, the pounding of feet came closer. The Guard left in the forest would die. As would anyone in Thirteen. Unless... I stared at the mountain.
My bones felt brittle, my muscles like liquid.
I’d been calling stones from the earth, striking the enemy from every front, pushing too fast, pulling my power from incredible distances, but it still wasn’t enough. I wasn’t convinced I could do it, but if I could save the Guard who hadn’t fallen by pulling the mountain down on our enemy, I could end this.
My knees wobbled. I raised a shaking hand to my forehead.
I had to try.
Magic on this scale would demand a price. It always did. I would pay with my life. I wouldn’t drown in the river, as prophesied. I would claim my own fate and save my soul-mate. I would die for him. I’ve always known it.
I used my power to tug on the guards remaining, bringing them to me. There were only a handful that I could see. And so many banished, anger-fueled, ready to kill, running toward us.
Time slowed.
A tear slid down my face. It was the only way. I’d seen some North villagers, and some from East that I knew among the warriors, poised to attack. But if any were left, even if they chose not to fight, what I was about to attempt might kill them.
I focused on the rocks and stone, the shale and striations jutting from earth to sky, peaked with ice. They began to hum and then rumble. I had them. All of them.
Something warm slid from my nose.
The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth.
I raised my hand and commanded the stones to obey.
They roared approvingly in response. They were mine. Mine to do with as I pleased.
River appeared in the garden just beyond the House of Fate and stared at me as I stood on the porch. One of the banished rushed toward him. I screamed his name just before bringing the mountain down on top of them, on top of all the banished.
The great rock heaved, then tumbled over like a tower of blocks, decimating everything in its path. My breath caught as River turned to look at the source of the roaring noise coming up behind him.
The one who targeted him was close, too close.
River
Omen stood on the back porch, shaking violently as blood trickled from her nose from the exertion of her magic. The banished army was larger than anyone realized. Their numbers quickly overwhelmed the Thirteenth Sector’s forest, and as the banished began approaching the Houses, Omen did the only thing she could. She used her power to recall our Guard, saving them before they were cut down. We were so outnumbered, even our most skilled soldiers didn’t stand a chance.
“River!” Omen cried. She was looking behind me.
The earth roared and shook underfoot, slowing our enemies down. But it did not stop them. One of the banished soldiers, ey
es shining with hatred, rushed toward me.
In that moment, Omen lifted the great mountain and brought it down on our enemy. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I stood rooted to the spot as boulders tumbled through the wood, plowing over anything in their paths. Slabs of rock flattened trees with deafening cracks and stifled the sounds gritted cries, halting the pounding feet behind me.
As a great dust cloud settled over the land, all I could hear was a ringing in my ears. Through the haze, I watched Omen crumble.
I spirited to her side just as she fell. “Omen!” I caught her in my arms as my heart thundered. I was exhausted, every muscle in my body spent from fighting in the other realm, but I eased her down gently on the porch planks.
“Omen?” My breath was trapped in my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. I could no longer feel her through our bond.
Lyric and Sky rushed to her side as Lindey limped toward her daughter. “Omen, no,” she sobbed.
“Get her to the river,” Sky instructed, locking eyes with me. “In the river will she die,” she recited. “I think she has to die in the water, River, in order to live. You have to take her there, and when she dies, you have to put her soul back. You bring her back, River. Only you can save her.”
I gathered Omen in my arms.
“Go!” Sky shouted, pointing toward The Wilds. Breathing in the sweet scent of her hair, I spirited to the river, begging Fate not to take her. Omen groaned weakly, a rivulet of blood trickling from her mouth. The mountain’s plummet had leveled the tri-villages and covered most of the riverbed with rubble, so I brought her downstream, spiriting here and there until I found a spot with water deep enough to cover her.
“Stay with me,” I begged as I stumbled into the tranquil, cool waters that parted around our entrance. “I didn’t leave you; don’t you dare leave me, Omen. Not before I can save you.”
Her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went still and limp in my arms. I placed a palm over her heart. Its beats drained away like water to the ocean. “Please,” I cried, desperate tears falling. I laid her in the gentle water. Her eyes found me. They were unfocused, her pupils fixed as they slid to the sky. Her chest rose and fell once more. And then stopped.
It felt like someone had torn my heart from my chest, ripped my soul from my body.
I cried as her spirit rose and hovered above the river, the water bubbling and gurgling contentedly.
“River?” Confusion swam in her eyes when she realized her lifeless body was cradled in my arms. “What happened?”
Tears stung my eyes. “You brought down the mountain when Thirteen was overrun, but your magic…” I choked. “You paid a heavy price for saving us. And now, I need you to come back to me.”
Anguished, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t,” she sobbed.
I braced her head against my shoulder so her body wouldn’t go under. Her legs bobbed up and down with the swirling current. The water dragged her pale dress downstream.
My fingers began to tingle.
Fate, guide me. I need her to live. I need her to breathe. You’ve brought us this far. Please, don’t leave us now.
We didn’t have much time. I reached for her soul with my free hand. “I need you to trust me. I need you to take my hand.”
I was trusting Fate, hoping the tingle wasn’t just an after effect of exertion. Hoping he would stay with me and Omen when we needed him most. Hoping this wasn’t her fate, and that she would be my future.
My vision blurred before the tears began to fall. “Please,” I begged her, holding my hand out. She had to want this. She had to take the step or this wouldn’t work.
Her will was much more important than mine.
I held my breath and waited as she gazed between her body and my hand.
She took a tentative step forward, sinking down into the water. But she didn’t take my hand. “The stones…they’re so calm,” she marveled as her feet touched the smooth river stones polished by the water’s current.
“Fate is content because we fought and won, thanks to you,” I praised. “Omen, do you want to come back? Do you want to live?”
I didn’t want to live to see the future unless she was in it. She took another step forward, but again, didn’t take my hand. Was she content to die? Was she afraid of what it would feel like to return? My heart ached, the pain spreading with every strong beat.
She brushed a feather-soft hand down my cheek, streaked with tears. “My soul-mated.”
I closed my eyes to revel in her touch, shocked when her hand settled in mine. I thought she’d decided not to come back.
She smiled as I led her closer and begged Fate to restore her soul. With a sigh, she stepped into her body. A long moment passed. Nothing happened. Omen drew no breath. Her chest remained still. Death clung to her pallor and her legs swayed lifelessly in the current.
An anguished cry tore from my chest. I gathered her in my arms and began to rock. “No. No, this has to work! This has to work…” I repeated. “Fate!”
Fate gave me this power. Why won’t he allow me to save her?
All at once the stormy clouds parted, a beam of sunlight breaking through the gray and landing on Omen’s upturned face. As if she felt the shaft of light, her hand flinched, splashing against the water. And then, she took a breath.
She gasped raggedly as her body curled in on itself and she coughed in sputters, her eyes watering from the force of her soul reuniting with her body. She fisted the back of my shirt as I held her tight to my chest and threaded shaky fingers into her damp hair, feeling the comforting weight of my heart beating in time with hers once more.
The weight of a thousand stones seemed to lift from my chest. “I was so afraid I’d lost you and wouldn’t be able to bring you back,” I admitted.
Raising her hands from the water, she clasped both sides of my face and quieted me with a kiss. A kiss I wanted to drown in. Her lips moved over mine with increasing urgency, and when she moved to get closer, knocked us both under the water’s surface. Resurfacing with a splash and a splutter, we laughed for a second, then she threaded her legs around my waist and pressed her body against mine, settling her lips on mine again. Suddenly she pulled away an inch, just far enough to look into my eyes.
“The stones are still quiet.”
“Fate is quiet,” I amended.
She reached into her pocket and withdrew the hag stone she loved, holding it up for me to see. Testing her power, she sealed the holes and made it whole. “Nothing is missing from me anymore,” she said softly.
“Nothing is missing from me anymore, either,” I breathed, kissing her once. “I never knew it was, until I found you.”
She smiled and looked behind me, up to the riverbank where Mom, Dad, Lindey, and Omen’s sisters Sky and Lyric stood.
Sky smirked and gestured toward us with a raised brow. “Please, don’t let us interrupt. We just wanted to make sure our sister was alive.”
Lyric loosed a quiet giggle.
Omen’s eyes locked with mine, a thousand words swirling in their depths.
“Omen?” Lindey choked, struggling to make it down the bank and splashing into the water to fling her arms around Omen’s neck. “But…you died. Didn’t you?”
Omen swallowed thickly and nodded. “River brought me back.”
“She was born in the river, and in the river will she die,” Lyric recited. “There should be another line…and with River, shall she live – her soul-mated.”
A feeling of rightness slid over me.
Lyric smiled as Lindey released Omen and hugged my neck so tightly my vertebrae popped.
“Sorry,” she offered sheepishly, freeing me and returning to Omen. “I’m just…overwhelmed.” Tears streamed down Lindey’s freckled cheeks and Omen consoled her as only she could, rubbing circles on her back and crooning that she was fine.
That now, everything was.
Dad crouched down and gestured for me to come over. “Knox found Judith Smith,” he murmured.
My brows rose. I turned to see if Omen heard, seeing by the stiffness of her spine that she had. She pulled away from Lindey and speared us both with a sharp glance.
“I want to speak to her.”
Suddenly, the stones in the riverbed trembled.
33
Judith
The King’s brother promised that he would inform the others of my capture, so I knew it was only a matter of time before one came to interrogate me. I wouldn’t tell them a thing. Unless…Unless they agreed to spare my life. I’d been caught. There was no doubt I’d hang unless somehow, I could negotiate a deal. I needed time. Time for Sebastian to find and free me. He would come for me. “He won’t let them hang me,” I whispered aloud.
My thoughts drifted to that fateful night…
Illana cried out across the riverbank as her sisters dragged her toward the water. For days, they expected her labor to begin. I’d camped near the river to watch and wait, then listened gleefully to Illana’s desperate screams as the pain tore across her body.
Served her right.
The witch was getting no less than what she deserved. If her disgustingly disproportioned body didn’t teach her a lesson, perhaps the pain of childbirth would deter her from ever bewitching any more of the village men.
Their pace slowed and Illana staggered, her sisters the only thing keeping her upright. They supported and comforted her, Isla on the left and Jenna on the right. They told her she would be fine, insisting they would make it to the water.
We never should have let them into our village, even for trade. It was almost unheard of for a witch to be turned away from their precious Thirteenth Sector, yet their own kind had tossed these three out without an ounce of remorse. Then they stumbled upon our fledgling village and in no time, the three sisters had completely shredded our moral code with their strange customs.
Hand-fasting was ridiculous. Here, we married for life. We honored our vows and commitments. Here, covenants were made and covenants would be kept.
The Omen of Stones Page 27
