by Kristen Pham
She had one foot on the bottom step when she heard Thai’s shouts. Ani and the other Fractus were divided now, as several turned to combat the new threat. She could tell that Thai hadn’t come alone, and soon, she was only battling two Fractus by herself. She jabbed one in the neck with an elbow and sent the second one stumbling backward with a powerful kick to his shoulder.
The way up the stairs was clear, but she couldn’t wrench her gaze from Thai, who was fighting a Fractus with two dark knives. Her self-control almost crumbled, when she remembered the look on the faces of the Fractus who were glancing up at the tower of the History Guild. Even Reaper’s own soldiers were afraid of what was up there.
She hurried up the stairs and stopped at a large, heavy wooden door. Kicking her way in, even with her magic blasting through her veins, was no easy feat, but she managed it after a few tries. The shelves of the room were lined with books, and a giant desk was next to the window.
It could have been the ordinary office of the History Guild’s Grand Master, if the Grand Master wasn’t Reaper, and there wasn’t an orb hovering in the air in the middle of the room.
The ball was made of glass. A hollow place inside held a gas that had a faint grayish color to it, like trapped cigarette smoke.
Valerie plucked it out of the air at the same moment that Reaper stepped through a portal that immediately collapsed behind him.
His motions were unhurried as he examined his scythe. “I thought my plans for Earth could not be achieved without your brother’s power, and that killing you would destroy him. But last night, I fully harnessed the power of the Carne, and I have another option. You and Henry are now disposable, and now I can do what’s best for everyone, for the greater good of two worlds.”
Valerie was gripping her vial of sand from the Atacama Desert in her hand so that she could escape with the orb, but nothing happened.
There was a faint buzzing around her, and Valerie knew that Reaper was manipulating the rules of magic, not letting her leave. She tucked the orb under her left arm and raised her sword with the other.
“No more theatrics. You want what’s contained in that orb? You can have it,” he said, his tone vicious.
The orb dissolved, and the gas inside spread through the air. One breath was enough to know that it was more than smoke. The bitter taste of ashes filled her lungs, making her cough and her eyes water.
“These particles of Carne will eat away at your power, and then your life,” Reaper said. “If you’d waited another day, I’d have perfected it to work quickly. But since you sought to surprise me, you will suffer for hours before the gas is finished with you.”
Reaper threw open a window, and the rest of the particles flew through it, poisoning the world.
“You’ll kill them all!” she said.
“Only those who do not bear one of my weapons. And a culling must take place so there is room for a new order.”
Was it her imagination, or did her magic already have holes in it? Still, she packed enough power into her punch to crack Reaper’s cheekbone when her fist connected with it.
Despite knowing that she had likely lost the war in this tower, the blow gave a deep, angry part of her complete satisfaction, even when Reaper retaliated with a burst of magic that singed her arms, dissolving the top layer of her skin.
Thai burst into the room with four soldiers of the Fist, including Mira and Claremont.
At the sight of the Knights who had betrayed him, Reaper’s expression turned into a snarl. “Take a deep breath. Your punishment for your betrayal is already in place.”
Reaper paused, as if he was listening to something that she couldn’t hear. Then his eyes assessed the four soldiers of the Fist before him, as if he were gauging how much time he’d need to kill them. Valerie’s heart beat fast, but steady, ready to fight him. She didn’t have the chance. Reaper stepped through a portal back to the Atacama Desert.
“If he returned to the desert, then I need to follow,” Valerie said, but Claremont yanked her by the arm so she was forced to stop.
“What’d he mean about us already being punished for betraying him?” Claremont demanded. She was a little pale, and her eyes were dilated.
Valerie knew she couldn’t let her soldiers lose focus with panic. “He released a poison into the air made from that black sludge in Plymouth. If we survive this battle, we’ll find a cure.”
“Some part of me knew following you would kill me!” Claremont spat, though Valerie knew her former enemy had joined the Fist because she’d thought it would give her a better chance at survival.
“No one’s dead yet,” Thai said.
Mira nodded his agreement. “What’s next?”
Valerie’s mind worked fast, assessing her options. “Reaper considers his victory in Silva assured now, and maybe he’s right. He’ll send his forces to the Atacama Desert. I’ll rally as many of our soldiers as I can to follow him, starting with the People of the Woods.”
Claremont stuck out her lower lip, and Valerie was glad to see her fear transforming into her usual resentment. “So much for the element of surprise keeping us a step ahead.”
Valerie met her gaze. “Now we’ll have to rely on skill, passion, and knowing that right is on our side. Now get back down there and direct your rage where it belongs—at the Fractus.”
Thai followed Valerie to Arbor Aurum as she snuck out of the History Guild and raced to the woods. In preparation for the battle, another entrance to the cities in the trees had been created closer to The Horseshoe, so they didn’t have to run far. When they ascended the tree, Elden and his People were in their armor, awaiting her signal. A nervous Juniper was present, as well, screwing and unscrewing the canister with Valerie’s poppy.
“Whither wander we?” Elden asked, his extra-formal speech the only sign of his own anxiety.
Valerie saw his daughter unsheathing her blade so that Leo could check it one last time. He ran his finger along its edge and nodded. How many more would fall today?
Valerie called Leo over and quickly explained Reaper’s poison to him and Elden. They listened without changing expression, and she was grateful for their calmness, as her own heart beat in double time.
“Do you think this trick of Reaper’s is as powerful as he says?” Thai asked.
Leo pricked Valerie and then Thai with a sharp needle and took some of their blood. “I cannot say. I will work with the lightweavers on an antidote, but you must send Cyrus as soon as he can get away. No one uses light magic as creatively as he does.”
“Cara is in the People’s hospital, and her lightweaver powers have grown since you saw her last,” Elden said, and dispatched a messenger to find her. “What of the rest of the People’s soldiers?”
“We all go to Earth,” Valerie said. “We have to accept that Silva is lost. I don’t know how far Reaper’s poison will spread, but the People of the Woods are safer on Earth, and we must seize that victory if we still can.”
Elden left to deliver Valerie’s orders to the People, and Valerie shut her eyes, allowing herself a minute of escape.
“I’m not leaving your side,” Thai said, gently gripping her arms. “I know you’re thinking that I belong with Cara and the Healers, but I don’t. If you’re going to use your vivicus power, or Cyrus wants to blast people with fireballs, or Henry launches some kind of mental attack, you need me to amplify your powers.”
“I’m not going to fight you on this. Selfish or not, I want you at my side. Even if we win, we might end up dead, anyway. Might as well be together.”
Thai laced his fingers with hers, and she gripped her vial of sand.
Chapter 40
Grunts of effort, shouts of triumph, and screams of pain made a gruesome soundtrack to the battle that raged in the Atacama Desert. Valerie’s eyes scanned the scene, and the horror of it all overcame her. She threw up on her shoes.
Thai held her hair, and she was grateful when he didn’t say anything about it. There were no words of comfo
rt for what was happening now, all under her direction. She could tell herself there was no other way, that this was all in the name of keeping Earth free, but a part of her couldn’t justify the carnage.
Henry’s mind touched hers, and her gaze flew to a glassy dune to the north of where she stood. She saw Kanti’s swan flag first, a rallying point for her soldiers. Nearby, Henry and Kanti were fighting back-to-back. Kanti held her staff, but it was more of an accessory than a weapon, since she was using magic to conjure up thorny branches that pricked her enemies with light.
Henry wasn’t using his light-infused machete much, either. Valerie peeked in his mind and saw that he was using his psychic powers to confuse the Fractus’s minds, like his fellow Empaths were on the Globe. Valerie wished that she’d had the foresight to have a contingent of Empaths on Earth.
“To Henry,” she said to Thai, and together, they entered the fray.
With their hands clasped, Thai and Valerie became a powerful force. If Reaper’s dark particles were chipping away at the magic within her, she couldn’t tell while touching Thai.
Even fighting one-handed, she had to rein herself in so that she didn’t cause fatal damage to the Fractus she encountered. Thai’s hand was tense in hers, and she knew that he was also struggling to wield the immense power they created together.
Though they were holding back, they slammed through the fighting like a freight train, leaving a path of unconscious bodies littered on either side of them. In her peripheral vision, Valerie thought she saw Reaper’s dark scythe cutting through her soldiers, but when she turned to verify it, he was gone.
They were still a distance away from Henry and Kanti when Valerie saw Ani walking through the crowd. Valerie’s guess as to Reaper’s tactic was apparently correct—he was sending his best soldiers to Earth.
Ani’s sweet voice worked its magic. The soldiers it touched dropped to one knee, heads bowed, creating a path for her to walk down unhindered. Her gaze was sharp and focused on one thing—Kanti.
“Look out!” Valerie shouted, her voice lost in the battle sounds.
But Henry’s mind was connected with hers, and he spotted Ani when she was a few yards away. Ani’s eyes went black, and Kanti’s staff and Henry’s daggers flickered as darkness descended around them like a fog.
Both of their weapons had been embedded with Cyrus’s new light treatment, but it was no match for the power Ani was wielding.
Ani spared a glance at Valerie and then shouted an order that Valerie couldn’t hear. Quickly, she and Thai were ringed by a dozen black-eyed Fractus.
Valerie was forced to focus on the battle in front of her, and she only saw snatches of Henry and Kanti’s vicious fight with Ani. She saw Ani strike Kanti, sending her reeling, and Henry’s ineffective swipe with his dim weapon. She made out the screech of frustration when Ani sprang on Kanti, and Kanti’s vines wound around her arms and threw her off.
Valerie didn’t see the blow that killed Ani. She and Thai broke through the circle of Fractus and saw Kanti’s white face and bloody staff. Ani lay still, her skull dented, at Kanti’s feet. Henry’s arm was around Kanti’s waist, but he was concentrating on diverting the attention of any Fractus near them so they didn’t attack while Kanti was stunned.
Kanti’s eyes connected with Valerie’s. “I killed her. I’ve never killed anyone before.”
“You were defending your life, and making the world safe for people with no magic,” Valerie said.
Kanti nodded once, and she seemed to shake off her stupor. “I knew one of us had to die, and I’m glad it wasn’t me. But she was my friend, once.”
Thai squeezed Valerie’s hand, and she jump-kicked an approaching Fractus. She hit him in the chest, and he flew twenty-five feet.
“We have to get to the tent with the Carne,” Henry said. “I saw Cyrus and Sanguina go in there a while ago, and I don’t know how many Fractus they had to battle once they were inside.”
Kanti sucked in a breath and dashed away a stray tear. “I hope my soldiers didn’t see that. Not good for morale to see your princess crying like a teenage girl.”
“We are teenage girls,” Valerie said. “Ones who save the universe.”
Her words had the desired effect of eliciting a little smile from Kanti, and the four of them began making their way to the tent with the pool of Carne inside.
Valerie didn’t know if the Fractus were actively avoiding the four of them, or if they simply fought together efficiently, but battling their way to the tent only took minutes.
Valerie pushed her way into the tent, which was partially shredded on one side. Inside, she heard a strangled scream and saw Sanguina writhing on the ground. Reaper stood over her, his eyes glazed and his body humming with power.
Cyrus had his arm in the black pool up to his elbow, and all of the light that usually surrounded him was gone. He was pale, and his face was covered in sweat.
“I couldn’t alter it,” he said, his voice weak.
Valerie yanked Cyrus out of the pool, and Henry threw himself on top of Sanguina. He moaned as his body took the brunt of Reaper’s punishing magic.
“No,” Sanguina said, and she heaved Henry off of her. “Do what you came to do. Follow the plan.”
Juniper and Elden stumbled through the tent, a half a dozen Fractus on their heels. Valerie saw Reaper’s eyes flicker over the group of them and land on the glowing poppy in Elden’s hands.
Reaper raised a hand in the air, and Sanguina’s scream reached a higher pitch, and then ceased. Her body dissolved before Valerie could reach her side. She didn’t have time to react to what had happened to her friend before the Carne crawled out of the pool and surrounded Reaper. This time, it covered his entire body and disappeared into his pores.
As Valerie stared at the space where Sanguina had been, her grief choking her, one of Reaper’s Fractus landed a blow to her skull. She fell, releasing Thai’s hand.
Before the Fractus could follow up with another attack, Kanti smashed him in the chest with her staff. Henry gave Valerie a hand to stand up, and their power joined, giving her a jolt of energy.
Valerie examined Reaper, and even wreathed in Carne, she could read the fear in his eyes. All four of the pillars were in one room, and Thai was there to amplify their powers. Somehow, they’d all made it to this spot, alive, as she’d planned.
She stood, gripping Henry’s hand, and Henry reached for Kanti, who reached for Cyrus. Valerie staggered to Cyrus and grasped his other hand, creating a circle with Juniper, Elden, and the poppy in the middle. Their shared magic flowed between them, and Valerie shuddered at the sweet burn of it within her. Then Thai laid a hand on her shoulder, and the sensation peaked as it ignited the power embedded in the glass dunes that surrounded them.
Her friends all gasped at the same time she did, and their heads snapped backward. Valerie was blinded by the light pouring out of them all, lighting up the circle they formed like a star. The tent surrounding them crumbled, and the Fractus near them were blown back like they were at the epicenter of an explosion.
Even Reaper staggered backward. He struggled to come closer to them, but it was like he was fighting a strong wind. Inside the circle, though, everything was warm and calm. The dark particles of Carne had been eviscerated by the light.
Their combined magic settled in her core, and her friends’ trust poured into her mind. It was hers to wield, to steer, as she willed.
She turned their magic on the remaining Carne in the pool, and it started to bubble. As it boiled, the color changed to something molten, and when it flowed toward Reaper, he grunted at its touch. With all this power, they could end his life, turn the Carne in his pores to lava that would burn him alive.
“It’s not enough,” she whispered, knowing that her friends could hear her. “We end this for now, but for how long? We have to use this magic for something greater than a victory today.”
The solution she had searched for had been behind a door in her mind that now sprang open.
Her friends’ magic surged in response to her own at the realization of what had to be done.
They sent their magic out, out into the world in an ecstatic burst of power, exploding like a nuclear bomb. But instead of ending the world, they would save it. Their magic rippled out, igniting the spark of magic within the first human it touched.
Soon hundreds, thousands, millions of people were touched by the burst of power, their magic awakened, and it continued to spread until it encased the planet in a glow.
As quick as a thought, they were in Arden, in the middle of The Horseshoe, and their combined light detonated again. The pulse was less powerful than the one on Earth, but Valerie knew that it was enough to drive out the poisonous particles of Carne that Reaper had released into the Globe’s atmosphere. She caught a glimpse of Skye and Jack’s twin expressions of surprise before they flicked back to Earth.
In its sheath at her side, her sword trembled, as if the soul of Pathos was sending her a message. Without reading the words on its hilt, Valerie knew that its promise had come true today. The Balance was restored. Humans would never be under the thumb of Fractus or Conjurors, because now, they were all united by magic.
Juniper gripped the poppy, ready to bind Earth’s magic. She smiled. They didn’t need it now.
“It’s okay. Don’t—” Valerie began, when a movement at the edge of her vision distracted her.
Before she could turn to face Reaper’s raised scythe, Cyrus shoved her, hard, and she fell to the ground. Abruptly, the light, the connection, the pool of magic within her vanished.
The absence of her link with Henry, Cyrus, and Kanti was so disorienting that her brain didn’t process what happened.
She touched something warm and wet and red. Reaper had cut through Cyrus with his scythe, slicing him cleanly through his torso. He’d been aiming for her, and Cyrus had saved her. Again. Without pausing, even to gloat, Reaper stomped on the flower that Juniper dropped when he raised his blade.
Valerie hardly noticed. She could think of nothing except saving her best friend. But when she gripped Cyrus’s hand, she couldn’t release her power into his still form. He was gone.
