Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4)

by Sarah Ashwood

  “Jackson…not…to—to Ciara,” he went on. Blood trickled from the corners of his mouth, soaking his beard. “Her cap…don’t…let her...”

  A weak cough choked off whatever he’d been trying to say, but Carter could guess the gist of it.

  “Stop,” he told Sean, who was still clinging to life. “You’re not going to die here.”

  Sean smiled, or tried to. “Carter…man c-couldn’t have had…better…like a son…”

  Like a son…

  Hot tears crowded Carter’s vision, but he angrily dashed them away with a knuckle, looking towards the Stones. He hadn’t been able to open them before. Maybe he hadn’t used enough blood. He’d slice the vein over his heel for Sean like he had for Ellie if it would work. He could try it. He could—

  “Carter.” His head snapped up at a familiar voice, a hand on his shoulder. Ellie stood there, a look of shock and horror and also a little sadness on her face. “You need this,” she said, carefully drawing the sword from his belt where he’d jammed it when the onslaught started. Earlier, he’d had to make a split-second decision, and that decision was that he could fight better as the Talos than trying to wave some magic sword around. He’d hastily secured it, then forgotten about it. Now Ellie tugged it free, placed it in his hands.

  “I get it now,” she said. “The Stones let you open them before because you had to get into that world to get this. To get the other Stone. Remember? The one the angel gave us that brought us back home? I have it here.”

  From her pocket, she produced the miniature Stone, an exact replica of the much larger ones. He’d left it at the detective’s house with her, not thinking much about it. Now Ellie offered it to him, along with the sword.

  “Also, the Stones opened then because that’s what you wanted—to save me. You didn’t really want to open them tonight. You were being forced to. That’s why the magic didn’t work. I think there was something else, though. I think these are the key pieces that you’ve been missing. The final two Stones that everyone’s been searching for. Only they’re not actually Stones, like people have believed for centuries. They’re these. That’s why the other two Stones were never found. They were still in the other world. Nosizwe was right that putting the Stones together and using your blood would do something. It did. It led to finding these.”

  He stared at her offering—the sword, the miniature Stone—trying to compute what she was saying while his brain was consumed with Sean lying there, bleeding out.

  “The blade has writing on it, the same writing as the Stones,” Ellie explained. She touched his chin, forcing his gaze to hers, forcing him to re-direct his focus. “I bet if we put it with the Stones we have here, it would be the final piece of the entire puzzle.”

  Hope lit a flame in his chest.

  “Take the sword and open the Stones,” she urged. She gestured towards Sean. “Maybe it won’t be too late.”

  That was it. That was all he needed. Carter sprang to his feet, grabbing her hand.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Where?”

  “I’m not leaving you here,” he growled, pulling her along. She didn’t resist, but they’d only managed a few steps before Nosizwe stepped into his path, intercepting him.

  “You’re not doing this,” she said.

  Carter resisted the urge to shift into the Talos and gift her with a haymaker. Send her reeling. Rip her head off. Tear her limb from limb. She’d nearly killed Ellie. Sean was going to die unless Carter could get help. She’d attacked the two people that he most cared about. There was not one ounce of him that didn’t want to see her dead. However, he also didn’t want to restart the battle Ciara’s song had stopped.

  Before his spinning brain could even form a reply, a voice spoke up, cool and self-assured.

  “Yes, he is.”

  Stepping out of the shadows was Detective Ewing. Her Glock was already raised, trained on a spot between Nosizwe’s eyes.

  “Let him pass, Elia,” she said calmly. “Don’t you think it’s time to end this?”

  The shifter queen didn’t look afraid, but her attitude had subtly altered from smug to cautious.

  “I am ending this by letting him die,” she replied, gesturing towards Sean on the ground. “Letting Carter get to the Stones prolongs the agony. What’s the point? He saves Sean and the war goes on? The carousel never stops spinning? Is that what you want, Detective? You’re tired of the killing and carnage, aren’t you? This is your chance for it to stop. You should be on my side.”

  “I’m not on either of your sides,” Detective Ewing answered calmly. “And it certainly wouldn’t hurt my feelings for you and Sean Costas to kill each other off. However, I’ve come to realize this war will never be over until this business with the Stones is complete. And it looks like it can’t be completed until he—” she nodded her chin towards Carter—“gets back into that other world.

  “So, let him go,” she finished.

  Carter waited, tense, for the explosion. For Nosizwe to shift and tear into the detective. She looked awful brave now, standing there with a gun barrel aimed at Nosizwe’s head, but how would she look with that same weapon trained on the mighty Impundulu?

  Nosizwe must have had something else in mind. She stepped back with a little bow and swept her hand towards the Stones.

  “Far it be from me to impede progress,” she mocked.

  Carter shoved past, pulling Ellie along behind him. He didn’t bother watching his back as he dashed towards the Stones. He figured the detective had it.

  Within the circle of Stones, he dropped Ellie’s hand and flicked his wrist of the hand holding the sword. The blade lit up, the mysterious etchings sheathing themselves in flame. He heard a soft gasp from Ellie. The etchings on the Stones had lit up too, as if in response. Excitement welled. Maybe Ellie was right. This had never happened before. He glanced at her, and she nodded, encouraging him.

  He knelt on one knee, twisted, and brought the blade of the sword around. A second’s wait as he assumed the Talos form, then he used the edge of the glowing blade to carefully reopen the vein. This time, when the blood oozed out, it dripped onto the sword and the blade soaked it up, causing the runes to glow bright and brighter.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Ellie pointing at the largest Stone, the one they’d always considered to be the centerpiece of the collection.

  “Look,” she said.

  The entire Stone was quivering, its etchings glowing brighter, the flame burning brighter. In-between the lines of runes something else appeared. A simple slit, several inches long, outlined by fire. Also, on the top corner of the Stone, a spot previously worn down and smoothed by time, was now revealed by fire to be a groove shaped roughly like the Stone itself, like that piece had been chipped off. Carter had never noticed either, because they hadn’t been there or else they’d simply appeared to be weathered areas in the Stone’s ancient surface. There was no mistaking now what they were. Carter rose, approached the Stone, and carefully worked the miniature tablet, the sliver of stone, into the groove on the corner, then slid the blade into the slot, tip first. It sank in all the way to the hilt.

  The flames flickered out. Darkness. Silence.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Maybe he’d done something wrong. My heart stopped when the flames wreathing the writing on the Stones died. I’d been the one who directed him to use the sword in the first place. Had I been wrong? Had I ruined the whole thing?

  Carter, as the Talos, stood there as the flames winked out. He didn’t panic. He didn’t even react. Honestly, he didn’t have time to. A second or two skipped by, seconds that felt like hours to me, before the world exploded in a blaze.

  All around us the night lit up with a boom. Fire, light, colors like fireworks going off, but these weren’t fireworks. Whatever magic the Stones contained had caused them. The shifters, the cops, even the animals behind us…they were all on their feet, startled, gazing around in awe. The light show lin
gered a moment and then passed away, leaving behind a familiar glowing portal.

  It was different this time. It was larger, and I could see inside, see through it, see the world on the opposite end. I recognized the city where Carter and I had spent the night. The city that had been empty, quiet and desolate. It wasn’t that way anymore. As if looking through a telescope, at the far end I could see people inside, people who were watching, waiting.

  Exactly like the people on our end.

  I think everyone was so stunned, including me, that we all stood there, frozen, waiting to see what would happen next and what Carter, the Talos, would do.

  He wasn’t much different from us, though. He was also stunned. Bewildered. The Carter I knew from the beginning of our relationship wasn’t somebody who had ever pictured himself as the key to unlocking other worlds or fulfilling ancient prophecy. He didn’t have the answers. He glanced back and forth from the city scene beyond the portal to me, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe it either. However, he knew what he wanted to do. He half-turned, gesturing over his shoulder to a couple of his people to bring Sean over. Three of them sprang into action, carefully lifting the wounded man, carrying him over to us. The Talos took him, lifting him effortlessly. I could see Sean was close to death. I was skeptical he’d even survive the trip, but I didn’t say that to Carter. This wasn’t my decision. I laid my hand on his bronze arm and said, “Go. But I think you should take that with you.”

  The sword. He retrieved it and stepped into the glowing portal. There was a brilliant flash of light, a surge of electricity like lightning, and then they both disappeared, the portal along with them.

  Darkness, lit only by the headlights, fell back over our group. Silence also fell. So deep and so profound that I could hear the chirping of crickets and the croaking of frogs at a nearby pond. The sounds of a typical Texas night, belying the fact that everything occurring here was as far from typical as possible.

  We all sort of stood there, enemies spilling each other’s blood minutes ago, now shuffling our feet and eyeing our neighbors, wondering what was going on and what to do next. Go back to fighting? Retreat to opposite sides of the field? Scatter? Disperse? Go home? Wait for Carter? How long would this take?

  Not long, as it turned out. As if in answer to everybody’s questions, we heard a rushing sound, like a strong wind. The runes on the Stones lit brilliantly, the portal reappeared, and there came the Talos, stepping through, Sean with him. My eyes rounded to see it, even though I’d seen it, lived it myself. It was still just as spectacular, just as mind-boggling.

  This time, Carter and Sean weren’t alone. Following them through the portal were two more people, a man and a woman. The light from the portal faded once they’d cleared it, but the portal didn’t disappear. Carter shifted back into his human form. Sean looked a little pale and wobbly. His shirt was still covered with blood, but his guts weren’t spilling out anymore. He took a few staggering steps to the side and the people who’d helped bring him to Carter sprang to his support, easing him away from the Stones and to a seat on the grass several yards away.

  Carter looked at me. Beneath his olive complexion, he was pale and drained. He lifted his arm in invitation and I came to him, sliding beneath his arm, resting my head against his chest, grateful he was alive and well so far. He clutched me close for a moment, unembarrassed, even bending to kiss the top of my head before straightening, looking around, making sure he had everyone’s attention.

  “I met these two in the other world,” he said. “They were waiting for me. You need to hear what they have to say.”

  He gestured, and the man and woman stepped forward. I didn’t know the woman, but the man was the same winged being that I’d met in the other realm who had given me food and helped save Carter’s life. The one I was certain was an angel, but Carter disagreed.

  Neither he nor his female companion looked very angelic now, aside from the wings, maybe, but there was still something austere and regal about their appearance that caused even angry shapeshifters, hungry for blood, to settle down and pay attention.

  The woman spoke first. When she did, it occurred to me to wonder how she knew our language, even if her dialect was archaic. On the other hand, with shapeshifters and magic and portals, who knew, really? A winged woman from another world speaking our language was pretty tame in comparison. I shrugged it off, chalking it up to one more part of the mystery, and listened.

  “I am Seriel,” she said. Her voice was clear and heavily accented with a flavor I couldn’t identify. “This is Vehuel. We have waited long for the Repairer of the Breach. Now he has come, and we thought to find a world where our people would be accepted instead of chased into hiding, as we have hidden lo, these many years. Instead, what do we find? We find our people, us, in conflict.”

  Her tone was reproachful. Her eyes flashed a unique silvery color. Beneath her gaze, even the staunchest shifter leaders like Nosizwe were silent.

  “Ages past,” she went on, “humans came against our world, against Atlantis. They made war upon us. We fought them, but humans have always outnumbered our people and always will. In the end, our rulers made the best decision they could—to combine the power of the Stones and use it to sink our island into secrecy and solitude, to shield our people in the other-realm. However, the combining of the Stones’ power in this unnatural fashion also led to their expulsion from our world into this one. They were taken by humans and scattered abroad, with no one to unite them. Until now.”

  She placed a hand on Carter’s shoulder.

  “This is the Talos, the protector, in whose veins flows the sacred blood. He has recovered the sword of the lake, an emblem of our magic, which contains the combined magic of the Stones. He has restored the lost piece of the Stone to itself. Through the magic of the sword, the blood of the Talos, and the power of the Stones, the breach has finally been repaired. See for yourselves…”

  She stepped aside and so did her companion. Behind them, the portal had changed from a glowing doorway to a mirror, through which we could see the world I’d visited with Carter. I could see the city whose streets I’d explored, but this time they were full of the people whose houses and belongings had remained despite their owners’ absence.Whatever that other realm was, the people had apparently been hidden away, while their belongings and the trappings of their lives remained.

  “When we were there the first time,” Carter said to me quietly, as murmurs and whispers circulated through the crowd of shifters, “I sensed these people. I couldn’t see them, but I could sense them. I could almost hear their whispers. It was like I knew somebody was out there, even though neither of us could see them. I thought at the time it was either ghosts, or I was going crazy. Now…”

  He trailed off as I stared up at him, my brain reeling with the implications of what he was saying.

  Seriel, the female speaker, continued.

  “Tonight, our world has been restored. The breach that was made has been repaired. However, this doorway between our worlds cannot exist forever. We have seen what happens when humans take too keen an interest in our affairs. They become frightened of our abilities and they covet our powers. They turn on us. They hunt us.”

  More murmurs, more whispers. I glanced around the circle of shifters. Saw nods of agreement from some.

  “If your world and all of you have been restored, then why don’t you join us?” spoke up one of Nosizwe’s people. “Let’s end the war, tonight. Carter’s got that magic sword. You have magic, right? Let’s use it. We could start a revolution, make humans afraid of us instead of us living in fear from them. We could…”

  “You speak folly,” broke in Vehuel, shutting him down. “You speak of what you do not know. You speak of starting a war whose cost would be incalculable, in both human lives and ours. Is that what you desire? Or is there a better way?”

  “There is, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do this whole time,” Nosizwe spoke up. “Humans have reached a p
oint in their evolution where they’re accepting of things they’ve never accepted before. Why not us too? This is the time,” she said, stepping forward, clenching her fist in her passion. “This is the time to reveal who and what we are and demand that they accept us too.”

  “With the power of the Stones to back you?” This from Sean, still visibly shaken, but now on his feet.

  “Yes!” Nosizwe shot him a dark look. “With the power of the Stones to back us and protect us. Look at all the other shifters over there.” She gestured towards the people waiting in the other realm. “Who knows what abilities they have that could help?”

  “But if humans won’t accept us, it’ll still be a war, which means most, if not all, of us will die, even with their help.” Sean chuckled and shook his head. “And we’re right back where we always were, Nosizwe. Nothing has changed.”

  “It has changed,” she challenged. “They’re here. He’s here.” She pointed at Carter. “He’s got that magical sword. It has changed. We’ve got more resources now than we’ve ever had.”

  “It hasn’t!” Sean protested, getting in her face.

  Tensions were spiking. I could feel it. Sean was pale, but he wasn’t withdrawing. If anything, his eyes were fierier than ever. Honestly, if looks could kill…

  Nosizwe had almost taken him out minutes ago. He looked ready to return the favor.

  “Listen to yourself!” he went on. “You keep saying we reveal ourselves to the world, using the powers of the Stones to protect us if they don’t welcome us with open arms. If they don’t accept us, it’s war to make them accept us. Which is exactly what I’ve been trying to prevent all these years. Which is exactly what they—” He stabbed a fingers towards Seriel and Vehuel—“are saying happened to them, thousands of years ago. They had the magic. They had the power. And they lost. They went into hiding. Do you see the problem with your logic?”

  “I see that instead of risking a war with humans, instead we’ve brought war to each other.” The beautiful shifter queen shook her head derisively. “We’ve done this all wrong, Sean.”