I expected to see at least Craig, Kate, Sabella, and Tristan in the hall, but when we turned the corner, I froze at the crowd gathered.
“What’s going on?” Forrest asked as Craig reached him.
“Those who are willing to fight heard that we’re coming up with a plan, and they want in.”
“All of them?” I looked from one end of the hall to the other at all the warriors crammed inside.
Some of them appeared scared, but most were angry, determined. They’d become hardened by the war taking over their homes and killing those they loved. Nearly everyone who was able to fight was here to listen to what I had to say. Suddenly, I was more nervous than I’d ever been. I had no good news to give, well, not exactly. The good came with a ton of bad, and there was no more avoiding it or trying to hide how serious this situation was about to get.
How many lives were about to be put in harm’s way.
“You can do this,” Forrest whispered to me with an encouraging smile. “You can.”
“But what I saw, the outcome of the battle… ” I hung back, not sure what else I could say.
“I meant to tell you, out in that field? We weren’t alone,” he said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“Thorne, he appeared after the fight.”
My eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed in annoyance. “Wait, he appeared to you? Why would he not speak to me if he was alive and had a message? What did he tell you?”
“Told me it was time you stopped looking to the gods for aid.”
“And do what?”
He tilted his head as he frowned. “Trust yourself, Mori, trust you and me together. That’s what he said. We’re stronger together.”
I frowned. “And then he just what, disappeared? That old bastard.”
All this time I’d been calling out to him, and he finally made an appearance to tell Forrest nothing of use. We were stronger together; what was I supposed to do with that information? It led me nowhere. Just more cryptic messages to add to Sabella’s vision, the damned riddle, and what I witnessed just yesterday. I held my hands, no longer wanting to speak to anyone about what our next move had to be.
“Mori, take a breath,” Forrest said as he turned me around, resting his hands on my shoulders. “Thorne wasn’t telling me this lightly. He meant what he said, hinting that our darkest days are yet to come. He wanted you to understand you have the power to end this, you and all of us. Together. You just have to believe.”
“How can I, when what I’m about to say to everyone in there is going to rip them all apart?”
“It can’t be that bad, can it?”
“You said it yourself, our darkest days have yet to arrive, but they’re damned close.” I took another deep breath and bobbed my head firmly. “Right, let’s get this over with.”
I walked in with Forrest and Craig behind me, sidling my way toward the head of the main table. I didn’t feel like sitting so I moved the chair aside and stood, taking in as many of the gathered faces as I could. I cleared my throat, tapped my fingers on the table for a beat, finally figured I might as well just get it over with.
“As many of you have seen, from being in Baladon’s camp,” I started, “and many more of you have heard, there is an entrance into the abyss. A portal, so to speak, that is feeding the god of monsters, giving him added strength. Our mission to free all of you was successful, and we lost very few lives, but this next mission I fear will not be so simple.”
Worried murmurs started up around the hall, and I waited a minute, then held up my hand to have silence again.
“Baladon feeds off fear and darkness, off those he controls, but the abyss is where he was birthed. If we cut off his access to it, we will greatly weaken him.”
“Enough to kill him?” Phoebe called out from the back of the room.
“That’s the hope, but that’s also another issue altogether,” I admitted.
“And you have a way to close off this portal?” Keanu asked. “What do we have to do?”
I focused on the wood grain of the table, taking the few seconds to gather my thoughts. “The portal can be sealed permanently. By a god using blood magic, old blood magic.”
“Then you can see it done.”
“Why don’t we just throw Baladon in there?” Bear yelled.
A chorus of agreement sounded.
“We can’t,” I insisted. “If we lock him away, he’ll get free again. We have to destroy him, here and now.”
“But he’s a god. Where are the other gods? Why don’t they take care of him?”
This was the conversation I’d hoped to avoid with everyone left behind in this world, but there was no point avoiding it. “They are gone,” I announced loudly, and the room fell deadly silent. “They were all severely injured when Baladon captured them, and they have decided it was their time to leave the realms in our care. That our belief and our hope had become enough to sustain us and see us through. The gods… they can’t help us with Baladon. It’s down to us and us alone.”
I waited for the shouting to start, the yelling and cursing of the gods, but instead, the hall remained silent as they exchanged knowing looks. The air became charged with a new power I’d never sensed before. Not power of the gods, no, this was the power of a people fighting for survival. And they, we, would not go down without a fight.
“The only way to defeat Baladon is to use this blood magic then?” Danielle asked, getting us back on track.
“Yes, but the blood magic requires something else to make it work.” I started to say the word, choked on it, and tried again. “Sacrifices. Baladon had to have sacrifices to create it, and we will have to do the same to close it.”
Forrest rested his hand on my shoulder, giving me strength before I even asked for it. Or he was trying to comfort himself, either way, it helped keep me from losing what little control I had over my emotions right then as voices whispered and talked in disagreement and confusion.
“Sacrifices, you mean of our people?” Hank asked, his voice shaking, but his words silenced the crowd.
“No, which is what brings me to the plan. We need to distract Baladon, get him away from the abyss portal, and at the same time, we need to drive his own army into it at the exact moment the blood magic is cast.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a but?” Kate asked.
I nodded. “But, there’s a chance that whoever is near the abyss while it’s being sealed could potentially be sucked in and lost. Forever. And the blood magic may taint my starlight if I use it for too long. Essentially, we have a very narrow window to make this work.”
“Oh, is that all,” Sabella muttered. “Sounds like this is going to be a great mission.”
“I am not going to force anyone to go,” I added quickly, “but if I’m to have any chance at all of sealing the portal, we need a distraction.”
“You’re not going alone,” Forrest growled. “I’m staying by your side no matter what.”
“We’ll stand by your side at the portal, too,” Kate said.
Craig nodded in agreement.
“And we will cause a distraction,” Sabella said brightly.
“We will?” Tristan said confused. “How do you plan on doing that, Red?”
“I’ll think of something; don’t you worry about that.”
After she spoke, Danielle and Hank chimed in, saying they would go wherever their alpha led. The four pack leaders agreed.
Lucy said she would come with us, along with a few other elves and dragons to watch our backs while the ritual was performed. Keanu and Bear were already talking about making a dent in Baladon’s forces.
I wanted to turn them all down, worried about how many we would lose, but we would need the cover and a way to draw in those we were going to use for the sacrifice.
“And once this is sealed, how do we kill him for good?” Hank asked.
Forrest moved closer.
I readied myself for what I was about to tell them n
ext. “I was able to see one possibility of how Baladon can be destroyed.” I shifted my gaze to Sabella’s.
I didn’t even have to finish speaking when she cursed and hung her head.
Tristan snarled.
Craig reached for Kate, shaking his head. “No,” he snapped. “There has to be another way.”
“There still might be,” Forrest said.
I turned him, confused.
He raised a brow. “I told you what Thorne said.”
True, he had. “Stronger together? And?”
“And, that vision you saw of the final battle, you three fought him alone and you… you all died,” he managed to spit out. “I didn’t see the three of us anywhere.” He indicated himself, Craig, and Tristan. “If we’re with you, standing and fighting alongside you, there’s a chance that’s what all this means. The riddle, what Thorne said.”
“And what about my vision?” Sabella asked. “I saw us all die. And you three were with us.”
I sensed an argument coming, but this was not the time or place to have it. “What we need to focus on right now is our plan for getting the abyss sealed. I suggest we take some time, get some rest and gather our thoughts and then we can meet back here in a few hours with some ideas?”
There was a chorus of agreement, and the hall emptied out, but I remained where I was, finally taking a seat.
Craig, Kate, Sabella, and Tristan all remained where they were, too. We waited until the hall was empty, then Craig closed the door to give us a bit of privacy, so we could figure out the best way to go about sealing the abyss.
Except when Tristan opened his mouth that was clearly not the plan the guys wanted to discuss.
“The three of you are not to attack Baladon under any circumstances unless the three of us are at your side and the six of us come up with a plan, together,” he stated firmly. “Understand? Red? That means you, most of all.”
“We have to be the ones to fight him.” Kate looked ready to start throwing things.
“But nowhere does it say you have to do it alone,” Craig pointed out.
“We’re planning the mission for the abyss right now, can we focus on that instead of Baladon?” I suggested.
“We can, as long as the three of you understand without a doubt that while we’re going after the abyss, you three will not be rushing in to attack that damned god because he’s there.” Forrest eyed me as if I would be the one to lead the charge.
Which to be fair if Baladon showed up at the abyss, we would have no choice, but to attack him.
“We won’t plan to attack him,” I promised. “Good enough for you?”
“I want to say no, but from that look on your face, I’d say it’s the best I’m going to get.”
I shrugged. “I can’t predict what will happen. If Baladon catches on to what we’re trying to do, there’s a chance he’ll be coming right for us. If that happens… ”
Forrest grunted as he looked at Tristan and Craig. “If that happens, then we’ll be there to fight him with you, and we will take on the first wave, not you three. Got it?”
I lowered my head at his request. Sabella and Kate took a minute longer, but they gave in, too.
“Now can we get back to our planning?” Kate asked. “If we’re going to do this, I say we do it tomorrow, don’t give him time to catch onto what we’re up to.”
“The portal wasn’t protected when we last saw it, should be easy enough to get to again.” Tristan shrugged. “The problem for us is going to be drawing that horned bastard out from his camp.”
“I was thinking… fireworks,” Sabella suggested with a wicked grin.
“Fireworks? We don’t have fireworks,” Tristan said slowly. “What do you mean?”
She held up her hands, and they pulsed with white light. “If I can cause a massive enough explosion, it should be enough to draw him out, right? He’ll see my magic, realize it’s me—and probably you, tooؙ—and you know he’s holding a grudge for my kicking his ass the last time we saw him.”
“I’d say Lucy could probably whip up some more firepower too, with what we have on hand, but since her magic isn’t exactly here, doubt it would work,” Kate sighed.
I nodded with her, but I was looking at Forrest.
“What?” he asked, eyeing me, a curious look in his eye.
“Is there a way to bottle your fire you think?”
He started to shake his head, but stopped. “Crane managed to capture it when we were testing a theory against those damned skeletal demons during the first round of this war.”
Craig sat up straighter.
“Greyson probably knows how to do it. If we get enough, that would give the others with you some firepower of their own.” Craig was already on his feet. “I’ll go see if I can find him.”
“I might as well go with you.” Forrest kissed the top of my head, then followed Craig out the door.
If Greyson could do it, the firepower would add to Sabella’s blasts and even trick Baladon into believing Forrest and even Kate were with her instead of with me at the abyss.
“Once he’s out of the camp, we’ll start the ritual.”
“How long will it take?” Kate asked.
“As long as I’m not interrupted? Five minutes, ten tops, but that’s a long time to be sitting right on the edge of the enemy camp… in a trance.”
Kate and Sabella cursed at the same time as Tristan glared at the door.
“And yes, I waited until Forrest was out of the room to say that part,” I muttered.
“For good reason. Ten minutes, can you do it?” he asked.
I could see the gears turning in his mind, working out a way to keep Baladon distracted long enough.
“I have to, so yes, I can do it. There’ll be a moment,” I explained, turning to Kate, “when the temperature will drop, and the portal will begin to rumble and rupture. That’s your cue to drive as many of Baladon’s forces into it as possible.”
“Sacrifices to seal the portal,” she whispered. “If Forrest and I are there, the best way will be to drive them in with fire. And what about you and the others, all of you there, right at the edge of the portal?”
“It’s a risk I’m going to have to take, but no one else needs to. Once you start driving the sacrifices in, everyone else needs to get back. I’ll be fine.”
“Or… we tie a rope around your waist and attach it to another, or a tree, something.” Sabella shrugged. “Should be enough to keep you out of that shithole, right? We kind of need you for the final fight, so you can’t lose your life just yet.”
“Or at all,” I said quietly.
I wanted to believe Forrest was right and the answer was simple to defeating Baladon. Weaken him and then attack together, the six of us, but the foreboding had only grown and darkened in the back of my mind that the three of us were not getting out of this in one piece. Just like with closing the portal, my instincts told me a sacrifice had to be made in one way or another to take down a being as powerful as Baladon.
Tomorrow was going to be a long day, and we were not going to get out of it without any loss of life. This was a war and deaths were to be expected, but it did not make it any less tragic when our numbers were so few, to begin with. I stood, ready to go find Forrest and Craig, when a familiar dragon roar echoed through the fortress.
“He shifted inside?” I hurried to the door—the rest following me—and chased after the sounds. I worried minions or more of Baladon’s nightmarish creatures had gotten inside.
When we entered another, smaller hall, we found Craig and Greyson standing close to Forrest, who’d shifted into his dragon form.
“Can you do it?” I asked Greyson as we entered.
“I believe I can,” he said, his voice full of contentment. “Kate, we could use your fire, too. And though I would not let King Forrest hear it, yours might have an extra kick, since you’re a Darrah.” He winked as Forrest shook out his massive head, then hunkered down near me.
“We’v
e got this,” I whispered to him, running my hand down his snout.
He huffed in reply but winked at me.
I leaned closer. “Whatever happens tomorrow, I swear I’ll be careful, but you have to be too.”
He nudged me with his big head, and I smiled.
“I’m allowed to worry, too.”
“Forrest. Let’s get some fire bottled up and ready to go for tomorrow.”
He nudged me with his nose, then joined Kate. He could breathe fire in human form, true, Greyson explained as he worked, showing Sabella and me how to capture the fire with our magic, since like Lucy’s, his magic was not working. He explained that dragon fire in dragon form was much more potent. Every flame they created, we trapped within the drawn circle, and then sucked into bottles and vials, whatever we could find, making living bombs of destruction. These would burn Baladon’s forces and make one hell of a fireworks show.
Sabella had been right after all. When the table was filled with blue and orange flames, Forrest and Kate finally shifted back, and we called another gathering for everyone willing to go and fight in tomorrow’s battle.
The plan was mostly worked out, but we’d fine tune it once we had all the pieces laid in front of us.
This night, no one would sleep.
I knew I wouldn’t no matter how exhausted Forrest said I looked. Rescuing the prisoners had been the first small step, but tomorrow would decide the tide of the war. With any luck, this plan would work, and we’d have the upper hand.
I just hoped we could hold onto it this time and make it count.
19
Mori
I hadn’t expected to sleep, but once Forrest wrapped me up in his arms, I passed out in moments, snuggling close to his warmth. His steady breathing and the beating of his heart against my ear was soothing, and I dreamt of us, in a time of peace surrounded by flowers and a bright, blue sky.
I wanted to cling to that dream, but the yelling that dragged me from it was anything, but happy.
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