I raised both hands, and a burst of starlight struck his staff, ricocheting off.
He staggered back a step, growling in warning.
Sabella hit him next.
Again, he had to react fast to keep the white magic from reaching him. The light recoiled harmlessly past us, exploding into a line of his hellhounds. He gnashed his jaws, glaring at Sabella, but it was Kate who attacked next. She rammed right into him using her shield, and he was too slow to block the hit.
The force of it threw him across the field where he landed in a heap, the ground quaking from the impact.
The six of us formed a half-circle as we moved in. Stars danced at my fingertips, and I sensed Forrest pulling on his fire, ready to shift and unleash it.
Baladon was slow getting up, but when he did, his face had contorted, and he roared, appearing more as a wild beast than the god he was.
“Enough of this. You will not defeat me.”
He brought his staff up, then slammed the tip into the ground, a massive shockwave rocked the entire battleground.
Dirt and grass blinded me as I flew backward, and my ears rang. My head slammed into the ground, making my vision go blurry.
All around me, the battle seemed to come to a sudden stop.
Baladon’s army dropped dead, one by one, as he held his staff aloft, the red stone glowing as it came to life.
Shimmering life forces left the bodies and entered the stone, giving him strength.
“The staff,” I yelled, but it came out as a croak. “We have to destroy it.”
Forrest shifted, taking off into the sky. He circled once, and as he dove downward, his jaws opened, and flames engulfed Baladon.
I moved in, ready to continue the attack when that staff swung out of the flames and struck Forrest in the side. He roared in agony, and his body hit the ground, leaving a crater where he landed.
His head half-lifted, then it crashed back down, a shudder washing over him as he shifted back. His whole right side was drenched in blood.
I tried to get to him, but that staff appeared in front of me as Baladon sneered, clicking his tongue.
“You will not save him, Mori, you will not save any of them.”
Not thinking, I grabbed the staff in both hands, forcing my starlight into it, toward the stone.
He tugged hard, but I held on tight, cursing as he grabbed my throat in one hand.
I had no choice, but to let go. His grip tightened, and I decided I was getting bloody tired of being strangled.
My hands found his and he yelped in pain as my fingers seared his skin.
I tumbled to the ground.
“You insolent bitch.” He came after me.
A blast of white magic from Sabella stopped him.
His attention turned to her and Tristan, who was by her side.
That staff, we had to get it from him…
As he turned, I spotted something that gave me the slimmest bit of hope.
The staff was cracked, right down the middle, almost to the stone.
I rushed to Forrest, tapping his cheeks to get him to open his eyes. “Look at me, damn it.”
“I am, aren’t I?” he muttered, cringing.
I checked his side, my stomach clenching at the extensive wound. There was no way to patch him up, but I could at least stop the bleeding.
I pressed my palm against the wound, and he snarled as I cauterized it, his fangs gnashing.
“Done. Can you walk?”
He sat up. “If it ends this war, I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
I helped him to his feet, and we were about to turn back around when that staff slammed into my back, taking us both down again.
We rolled, head over heels, and I felt a fresh slash dripping blood across my back.
We couldn’t get close enough to him to do any damage, but the staff was what gave him his power. If we broke the damned thing, it would weaken him even more, and then we stood a chance. If we could all hit him at once.
It would be like my vision, except this time, the three of us would not be alone.
The staff struck the ground nearby. We rolled to the side as it came at us, again and again.
“I am going to tear you all apart,” Baladon raged.
“You first!” I yelled and pressed my hands to the grass.
The ground lit up a bright path as my starlight shot through it and aimed for Baladon. It surrounded him, blinding him and trapping him in its brightness.
I looked around. There she was. “Kate. The staff.”
She sprinted across the field, and using her shield, bashed straight into Baladon.
I heard the clash his staff and her shield, but the staff held on, and my light was fading fast.
Baladon backhanded Kate away from him, then charged after her.
Craig’s Executioner blade stopped the staff from killing them both, but Baladon pressed down hard. Craig growled as he fought to stay upright, but it was a losing battle.
“I am a god. And you are nothing to me. Nothing.”
He let up the staff and swung it around, creating a whirling storm of shadow and ash. It spread out further and further, threatening to engulf us all as we rushed to get out of it.
All around us, the battle had picked up again, but our side was holding on, barely.
“We have to finish him,” Sabella muttered. “That staff, we can’t get past him while he has it.”
“And he’s taking more life force,” Kate snapped, pointing toward the shimmering souls aiming for the storm. The storm was so thick we could no longer see Baladon.
I glanced at the stream of life then at the dead bodies, then at Kate and Sabella. “Shit.”
“What? What are you looking at?” Kate asked, trying to see what I was doing. “Mori?”
“It’s the life force… that’s what will destroy him,” I whispered, remembering what I saw in the vision I had with Abby’s help. “It’s not just our powers, it’s what we’re willing to give up to stop him. I know how to kill him.”
“How?” Sabella kept glancing at the shadow storm that was growing larger and larger the longer we stood there doing nothing.
“What you saw, I don’t think it was our lives we lost,” I explained in a rush.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I can’t really explain it, but I need you to trust me, and just do as I do. Forrest? When the moment’s right, I want you to place your hand on my shoulder. Craig and Tristan, do the same to Kate and Sabella.”
“I don’t like this,” Forrest growled. “You need to tell us what’s about to happen.”
“No time.” I motioned around the battlefield, even more of our number had dropped just during the last few minutes. “I love you.” I pressed my hand to his heart. “Trust me, please. This is the only way.”
He hesitated, but then nodded solemnly. “Always.”
“Kate? I need you to focus all your Vindicar power into that shield. Sabella and I are going to aim our power at it and throw it back at Baladon.”
“But our hits aren’t doing any damage,” Kate argued.
“Because after we draw him in, we have to let him think he’s killing us, have to let him use that damned staff of his to drain us.”
“No. No way in hell!” Craig blurted. “That will kill you.”
“No, I don’t think it will,” I replied.
Kate nibbled at her bottom lip and shrugged. “I trust her.”
“You’re serious? This is the plan? Let him try to kill you? How is that going to stop him?”
Forrest grabbed his arm and pulled him around. “Have faith, remember?”
“Have faith, that’s what you’re going to tell me?”
The storm spread out further, whipping my hair around my face. Black and violet lightning lit it from the inside out, highlighting Baladon’s form. “Now or never.”
Kate planted herself in the middle and motioned for Craig to stand behind her. He did so, but glared at me as he passed.
He could be as pissed at me as he wanted to be. There was a chance I was wrong, and this would indeed kill us, but my gut said this was right.
Sabella and I took up our places on either side of Kate. She held up her shield. Sabella and I exchanged a nod, then our power built in our hands and the shield glowed a deep blue.
I counted down from three, and we combined our god powers with that of the shield. They bounced off as I hoped they would and struck at the heart of the swirling storm. Just as it happened at the house when I felt my mind join with Sabella’s and Kate, I felt them do the same now.
The moment the connection hit, I sent out a thought to them all, that they needed to understand about this moment.
This was not about our dying, it never had been.
It was what we were willing to sacrifice in order to save those we loved. And we’d been willing to give our lives, but not just our lives. The parts of us that made us who we were.
The beam of power penetrated the storm. Baladon’s enraged shout rose above all other sounds as the storm collapsed around him, barely keeping up the wind. The power struck his staff right at the center as the red stone grew.
“Fools! This ends here and now.”
“Don’t let up,” I urged Kate and Sabella. “Remember why we’re here.”
I felt my starlight begin to weaken, but I couldn’t call on Forrest just yet.
Baladon raised his staff high overhead, scornful, thinking he’d won.
The red stone grew so bright it was blinding, but I refused to look away.
He aimed the stone, and a bright red flash shot out, surrounding the three of us.
Behind me, Forrest yelled, but we had to time this just right.
Baladon’s energy tugged at my center, ripping at my god power, my starlight, and my very soul. I dug my feet in, grinding my teeth as I swallowed back the scream needing to burst forth.
It felt as if he dug around in my body with a dagger, searching for something. Kate and Sabella twitched and cried out. I waited, crossing my fingers that I was right…
A shimmering substance started to separate from all of us.
“Mori!” Forrest yelled.
I held up my hand, stopping him.
Just a bit longer… our essences, what Baladon had taken from us, made their way to the tip of his staff. His smile widened, and his eyes closed, ready to accept such power into his being…
Just a bit further…
A bit further…
“Now!” I yelled.
Forrest’s hand landed solidly on my shoulder.
My light tripled in brightness. I gasped at the influx of power, heard Kate and Sabella do the same.
The shimmering of our essences pulsed with a life of their own as they made contact with the rest stone in Baladon’s staff. It grew dim, then a high-pitched shriek filled the air and his eyes opened wide in confusion.
“What—what have you done?”
The staff visibly vibrated in his hand, overloaded with our power, combined with that given to us by our soulmates. It flowed from the staff and straight into his being, even as he tried to stop it. He screamed as the staff seared into his hands, making it impossible for him to get rid of it.
The crack we created in his weapon grew larger as did the screaming.
“Attack him. With everything you’ve got!” I held up my hands.
Starlight poured from me, blasting through the air to hit the god of monsters and darkness.
Sabella’s light combined with mine. Blue lightning flames crackled as Kate spewed them at him.
Baladon could do nothing… or at least, so I thought.
He raised his arms over his head, the staff stuck in them fast, and with one final glare our way and a roar that echoed like thunder across the lands, he slammed the staff down into the ground and blasted everything within several miles.
Forrest’s hand gripped my shoulder, as we crashed into the ground.
Then there was utter silence, and my body lost all feeling.
I vaguely wondered if I’d been wrong after all, and this was the end, but then I was floating, and my worries no longer mattered.
23
Forrest
The blast filled my vision with a bright red light, and then I was on the ground.
I spat grass from my mouth, failing to get up on the first attempt. My head throbbed as did the rest of me, but I had to rise so I could see. Smoke covered what remained of the battlefield, and others rose slowly, groaning and muttering curses.
Baladon, I had to see if he lived.
I made it to my feet, leaning against the stump of a tree, and stared straight ahead. There, in the center was nothing but a burnt hole in the ground.
Baladon, the god, was gone. Not even his staff remained.
“Forrest!”
“Craig, over here,” I called, waving my arm over my head.
He stumbled his way to me, limping and holding his right arm. It was bent at a funny angle, and we helped each other walk until we came across Tristan, lying face down in the mud.
I gave him a nudge, and he jerked up, flailing around until he realized it was us.
“You alive?”
He patted his hands down his front. “Think so... ouch! Damn, broken ribs.”
I offered him a hand and hoisted him up. He took the other side of Craig, and we walked as quickly as we could, scouring the ground for survivors. No minions or monsters remained. Not a single one, and many of those who marched into battle with us were breathing and talking, waving at each other and laughing in stunned disbelief that it was finally over. Even the clouds were parting, and sunshine shone onto the land, lighting the green grass and trees and flowers. All were coming back to life.
But what I did not see was any sign of Mori, or Kate and Sabella.
With each step, my anxiety grew, desperate to find Mori. And to find her alive.
I saw what happened, saw their life forces being sucked into that staff, but I also saw what happened afterward. So much power had been too much for Baladon. He might have been a god, but he had taken on too much at once, and it destroyed him. Tore him apart.
“There,” Tristan growled and pointed. He took off a second later, running toward a glimpse of red against the dead ground.
Craig and I limped along a bit faster until he spotted Kate a few yards away.
I urged him to go to her, my eyes widening as I looked and looked for Mori. She had to be here, she had to be…
A glimmer of starlight reflected the sun’s rays, and I sprinted to her side, not caring about the pain I endured. “Mori!”
I fell to her side, dragging her close, but her body was still, too still. Her hands were limp, and her eyes remained closed. I waited for her to breathe, but there was nothing.
“No. Please wake up,” I begged, shaking her gently. “You can’t do this to me. I trusted you, alright? I trusted you to do what had to be done and come back to me. You have to come back.” I hugged her close, willing her to twitch, do something—anything—to show she lived.
There were no stars in her hair and no light dancing at her fingertips.
A furious howl and a pained yell told me Kate and Sabella were in the exact same state.
None of them had lived. It was like Sabella’s vision was coming true. And all we could do was sit here and watch.
“I refuse to believe this,” I stated firmly, swallowing back my furious shout. “I won’t. You are going to live, do you hear me? You are going to make it. You have to!”
“Forrest?”
Keanu and a few other dragons hobbled over and clustered around me. One by one, they sank to one knee and bowed their heads.
No. I wouldn’t let what they were saying, even with their actions, be true.
Mori wasn’t dead. No. I wouldn’t accept that. I wasn’t going to let this be the end of it. I couldn’t. My heart shattered bit by bit the longer I held her body in my arms. A tear slipped down my face and landed on her cheek.
&nb
sp; I hung my head, curling myself protectively around her and couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Mori… she was dead…
“Forrest,” Keanu breathed, “look!”
I lifted my head and looked to where he pointed. “She’s dead,” I mumbled, reality sinking in slowly and painfully. “She’s gone.”
“No, she’s not. Her fingers, they moved.”
I wanted to growl at them all to go away and leave me be, but then Mori’s hand twitched, and starlight flickered at her fingertips, if only briefly. I held my breath, waiting for it to happen again. When it did, I shook her once more, but her eyes remained firmly closed. Her chest rose and fell, though, and I hugged her to me.
“She’s alive.” Lucy clapped her hands as she stood beside Kate and Craig.
“Sabella, too!” Hank bellowed. “They’re all alive.”
“We need to get them and the survivors somewhere safe,” I told Keanu, tears streaming down my cheeks. And I didn’t give a damn at all who saw. “Her realm, we can go back there. Make camp just outside it.”
“I’ll take care of everything,” Keanu promised. “Take her home, Forrest.”
Word was passed along and slowly, those of us who lived made our way back toward Mori’s realm. I worried when we reached it, it wouldn’t let us in, but stopped, shocked to find an official entrance awaited us. There was a stone archway and a welcoming garden waiting on the other side.
I walked in, the sun shining down brightly, almost like it was welcoming Mori home. The stone maze parted as I started to walk, stone grinding as the pillars shifted and moved, giving us a straight shot to the temple.
“We’re home,” I whispered to her, feeling her twitch again in my arms. “We’re home for good.”
Every day for two weeks, I woke up in Mori’s room and checked to see if she was awake. And each morning that she wasn’t, I had to tell myself she was recovering from what happened.
Kate and Sabella were the same way.
Tristan, Craig, and I wandered the stone garden, no longer a maze, and helped those who survived to heal. We had talked about rebuilding the strongholds in Gregornath, Boshen, Torolf, and the Darrah lands, but none of us was ready to leave this place, not yet. The garden gave us a comforting sense of calm and peace as we waited for our other halves to come back to us.
Realms Page 17
