by Kristen Pham
It was an effective communication system, and Valerie saw Conjurors forming rings around the leaders of Arden.
“I should have thought of that earlier,” Valerie grumbled to her father. “They are some of our most powerful allies, of course they need extra protection.”
“It is impossible to anticipate every variable,” he replied, his eyes flicking over the battle as well.
As if to prove the truth of his words, Valerie heard a strange sound, like something being unzipped. Above her, dozens of Reaper’s portals opened in the sky.
“What the heck?” Cyrus said, not registering what he was seeing.
Fractus dropped through the portals onto the decks of Arbor Aurum. The answer to how the Fractus would break into the cities in the trees if they couldn’t climb the trees was answered in a way that Valerie hadn’t anticipated.
The People of the Woods released battle cries, and Valerie raised Pathos, ready to fight. She couldn’t help glancing at her friends. Their faces were determined, not terrified. She wondered if they were hiding it, or if they had more courage than she did.
The Fractus who dropped onto the decks were mostly unknown to Valerie, and they all carried weapons that were utterly black, as if they’d been dipped in ink. The hum of magic emanating from those weapons confirmed what she had already guessed—they were laced with magic.
“Their weapons bear the magic of my people, but it is twisted with darkness,” a warrior from the People of the Woods exclaimed with horror.
Valerie remembered that the Fractus had kidnapped several of the People, and now she knew why.
“Henry, Dasan, let everyone know that the black weapons will rip away their powers. Our first priority is to destroy them if we can, but to avoid contact at all costs,” Valerie commanded.
Before they could confirm that they heard her words, Valerie was set upon by two tall Fractus. One wielded a spear and another a sword. Magic shot through Valerie’s veins without her having to call it forth. The tug of the magic from their weapons pulled at her power, but the light from Pathos kept it at bay.
Her focus narrowed to the fight at hand, and she dodged the swipe of a black sword, rolling onto the ground and sweeping her feet beneath the Fractus wielding the spear. He tumbled, and she smashed her blade into his weapon. Cracks of light appeared in the spear, and then it shattered before her eyes.
She barely registered her victory before a sword came hurtling toward her head. She raised Pathos to block the blow, which glanced off her blade. She leapt to her feet in a single move and parried with the Fractus who held the black sword.
His eyes had an almost maniacal gleam as he battled her. He was clearly hand-picked by Reaper, because Valerie didn’t think she’d ever fought anyone who was this close to being her equal with a sword until now.
Valerie’s magic was strong and her aim true, and it wasn’t long before he was on the defensive. Disbelief marred his almost handsome face, followed by resignation. Valerie slashed at him, and he dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, baring his chest. She came within a hair’s breadth of slashing him open and ending his life from the sheer momentum of her thrust.
Instead, she diverted Pathos’s path and slammed it into his sword. It shattered like the spear she’d destroyed before it. It was chilling to realize how close she had come to taking this man’s life. Like the Fractus at the Black Castle and Reaper himself, her enemy wanted her to slay him. A shiver ran through Valerie as she tried to guess why Reaper wanted her to kill someone so badly. Her instincts told her that it was more than a desire to kill her.
Valerie pinched a nerve in her enemy’s neck, and he fell limply to the ground. He wasn’t a threat, at least for now. His body had barely stopped moving before she was set upon yet again.
The next two hours were a blur, and Valerie disarmed and disabled enemy after enemy. As the battle progressed, she and her friends gravitated together so that they were fighting in a circle, covering each other’s backs. Around them, Fractus, People of the Woods, and Conjurors fell. Some of them didn’t get up.
Valerie refused to consider now, in the middle of battle, how many were dead. The People of the Woods had a contingent dedicated to rescuing the wounded and drawing them away from the worst of the fighting.
Cyrus left the battle to work with them, helping the wounded that had been touched by the black weapons by injecting them with some of his light. He didn’t give all of his power to any one person, and no one knew if small amounts of light would help anyone heal.
During a slight pause in the fighting, Valerie saw Cyrus dragging an unconscious Conjuror away from the battle. He stopped to infuse him with light. Valerie saw a bright flash, and then Cyrus collapsed on the ground. Valerie raced to help him, but before she could make it to his side, she saw Thai sling Cyrus over his shoulder and take him to the relative safety of a group of the People of the Woods who were protecting the wounded.
Thai gave her a reassuring nod, but it took all of Valerie’s inner strength not to leave the battle behind to make sure of Cyrus’s safety herself. But too many people were depending on her to divert her attention now.
Valerie’s gaze traveled to the battle on the ground, which appeared to be going better than the one in the trees. The Fractus had been beaten back, and those who remained were glancing behind them as if they were considering making a run for it. But a few rallied around a determined Mira, including Hoel and Lyonesse, and Valerie also caught a glimpse of Ani gathering a group of Fractus around her. They all had dark weapons, and those in her army who hadn’t been equipped with weapons from the People of the Woods were no match for them. It was clear that the fight wouldn’t be over for anyone soon.
Juniper was deep in combat with Claremont, and the two furiously sparred with each other, fighting with more skill and speed than Valerie had ever guessed they possessed. An unlucky branch hit Claremont in the head, giving Juniper the moment he needed to raise his arms and unleash his power. He had the ability to bind his enemy’s magic, and Claremont turned red with frustration as her grip loosened on her weapon.
Skye and the other Grand Masters were in a tight knot near the base of the tree that led up to Arbor Aurum, their faces gray from expending so much magic.
Around her, in Arbor Aurum, Thai fought back-to-back with Kanti, and they made an effective team. Kanti used her power as a diversionary tactic, and Thai cut their enemies down. When a Fractus was too powerful for Thai to take on alone, Kanti whipped out her staff and helped him finish off the opponent.
The Fractus gave Henry and the Empaths a wide berth, and Valerie suspected that was because the Empaths were messing with their minds and deliberately keeping the fray from hitting their ranks. However, when any of the Fractus got too close, Oberon personally took them down, often with lightning he called with his magic, but sometimes with powerful blows from his own staff, which was twice as large as Kanti’s.
The number of Fractus pouring through the portals in the sky had slowed, and Valerie began to hope that Reaper was running out of warriors to send. She had yet to see him in person, and not knowing where he was made her anxious. Whatever he was up to, she needed to be the one to find and stop him.
Henry’s mind touched hers with an image of Elden fighting desperately with a group of the People of the Woods against a pack of Fractus. They were considerably distanced from the heart of the fighting, which was where Valerie was.
She raced along the path that Henry sent to her mind toward Elden, already guessing why he was apart from the fighting. He was protecting the Byway, and she had no doubt that the Fractus had found him. After twenty minutes of running at her maximum speed, she saw Elden and about a dozen warriors from the People of the Woods. They were fending off more than twenty Fractus, and the fight had an air of desperation.
The golden sheen had almost faded from Elden’s skin, and Valerie guessed that he’d been nicked by one of the black weapons. With a battle cry, Valerie launched herself into the fray. Her
earlier exhaustion vanished, and she tapped into the well of magic that she built within her every day. She silently thanked Oberon for his training as she slashed her way through the Fractus toward Elden.
Even with her help, Valerie could see that this wasn’t a fight that they would win.
“We have to destroy the Byway,” she shouted to Elden, but he didn’t stop fighting to answer.
Oberon appeared in the corner of her vision, and she had never been more grateful to see him. He fought by her side, and they moved as fast as their magic would allow. From the stories she’d heard, she thought that her fighting ability came from her mother, but seeing her father in battle made her realize that she could just as easily take after her father.
Despite their best efforts, Valerie saw Elden drop to the ground with a grunt, and the Fractus made it past the last line of defense. The Byway was exposed, lying innocently on the ground where one of the People of the Woods must have dropped it in battle. Valerie ducked beneath the blow of a mace and pushed past a Fractus slashing at her with a long, curved knife.
She’d made it to the Byway and even had it in her grasp when a change in the atmosphere let her know that she didn’t need to wonder where Reaper was any longer. He was standing right behind her.
Chapter 32
Valerie instinctively ducked and rolled, holding the Byway close to her body for protection. In one smooth move, she rose up to her feet, spinning around to meet Reaper’s scythe with Pathos’s blade.
She put every ounce of her force and magic into the blow, but Reaper’s weapon didn’t shatter, as others had when she’d hit them that hard. Maybe Pathos needed another infusion of light, or maybe Reaper’s weapon was stronger than the others she’d encountered that day, but she knew in her gut that it was one weapon that even Pathos wouldn’t be able to destroy. She’d have to disarm him instead.
It was only after a few minutes of fighting that Valerie realized that Reaper wasn’t giving her his full attention. He kept her at bay as if she were an annoying gnat, but his focus seemed to be elsewhere. Even the Byway, which she’d shoved into her jacket, didn’t hold his gaze.
Right before her world turned upside down, she understood who Reaper was interested in—Oberon. Valerie and her father stumbled as Reaper used his power to shift their perspectives. Up was suddenly down, and left was right. The effect was dizzying. Reaper grabbed Oberon in a headlock and raised an arm.
A portal appeared in the air and Reaper yanked Oberon through. Valerie leapt with every ounce of strength in her body and followed Reaper and Oberon through the portal. There was no way she was letting Reaper disappear with her father again. The last time that had happened, Oberon had been very lucky to escape.
The three tumbled into the throne room of the Black Castle. Valerie wasn’t yet on her feet when Reaper attacked her father.
“I’m sorry it has to come to this, old friend,” Reaper said, the fierce set of his features in sharp contrast to his mild words. “It’s time for you to die, like your wife. Do you know she begged for her life before I killed her?”
“Lies. You may have killed her body, but her spirit was stronger than you are capable of comprehending. She’d die before she bowed down to you,” Oberon spit out.
“And die she did,” Reaper said. “Ready to join her?”
Oberon’s face was thunderous as he dodged the first blow from Reaper’s scythe.
Valerie tried to fight by her father’s side, but Reaper kept reorienting the room. She would turn left only to find herself moving to the right and trip as she crashed into objects that appeared where she least expected them.
With the part of her mind that wasn’t focused on orienting herself, she questioned why Reaper didn’t use his magic to dissolve them both, like he’d done when he killed Midnight.
It was possible that his powers were weakened. The last time she’d been in this room, she’d activated a strange orb that was hidden behind one of the stones in the wall. Azra said it would dampen the powers of any Fractus within a certain radius.
But if Reaper’s powers had deteriorated, Valerie couldn’t tell from watching him wield his scythe, his lips compressed in determination. A trickle of sweat dripped down Valerie’s back, and she couldn’t stop the picture of herself as a hamster running in its wheel, getting nowhere.
Stopping her frantic attempts to move to her father’s side, she forced herself to remain still. She breathed as Gideon had taught her, and reached out with her magic instead of her physical senses. With all of the speed she could muster, Valerie lashed out with Pathos.
She thrust upward, hitting Reaper’s scythe squarely. Her blow caught him by surprise, and it slid up, almost out of Reaper’s grasp. His blade came close to tearing her open in the process, but instead, it ripped her jacket and sliced through the delicate flower inside as if it were nothing.
At the touch of the scythe, the Byway disintegrated into dust. Valerie knew that Elden and the People of the Woods might never believe that she hadn’t purposely sacrificed the flower, but she didn’t care. Unless Reaper could summon enough power to activate Earth’s Byway on its own, Earth was safe from an army of Fractus. Now she and her father had to escape.
Valerie followed up with another powerful blow to Reaper’s scythe. His grip was still loose on his weapon, and the force of the impact sent it flying across the room. It was an incredible advantage, but Valerie was distracted from immediately following up with another attack by the satisfied grin on Reaper’s face. He’d lost the Byway and now his weapon—why was he so confident, as if he’d gotten exactly what he wanted?
She followed his gaze and saw Oberon on the ground. A deep gash ran from his shoulder to his hip. Surviving such a wound from a regular weapon was unlikely, even if a Healer were nearby. But it had been done with Reaper’s scythe, and Valerie knew that her father would be lost in a matter of moments.
“Turn around and fight,” Oberon commanded her, his eyes still holding the fierce glow of battle. There was no tenderness in his voice, and Valerie knew it was on purpose, so that she’d hold herself together. His tactic didn’t work.
Valerie dropped Pathos and threw herself on top of her father, calling on her power as a vivicus.
“Daughter, no,” Oberon said, but already the strength was fading from his voice. “It’s what he wants.”
“I won’t lose you. I won’t!” Valerie said.
More magic than she’d ever summoned in her life crashed through her, her power mounting with her desperation. She’d drown in it, lose her mind like Darling had, or die in it, if it would save her father. Without Henry’s help to stem the tide, that was a real possibility, but she didn’t care.
Once her power had fully welled in her, she sent it hurtling into Oberon, and she hardly noticed the pain that exploded from every molecule of her body. It should have hit him with a force that lit him up, but it didn’t. Instead, something diverted the flow of her magic to another location. Now that her power was gushing out of her in a torrent, there was little she could do to direct it or control it.
She was helpless. Oberon struggled to rise only to collapse back down on the ground. It took all of the effort Valerie could muster to turn her head. She saw her power flowing past Reaper. His body was taut with strain as he guided her magic into a dark void behind him. The sustained effort of redirecting the flow drained his face of color, and he swayed on his feet.
Valerie frantically tried to stem the flow of her magic, or aim it at her father as she’d intended, but it was like trying to fight a rip current that was tugging her under water. She’d never been more powerless in her life, even when she’d been human.
Shapes moved in the blackness behind Reaper, and Valerie could make out the shadowy form of someone standing there, his hair blown back, struggling to remain standing.
Then something that the man was holding lit up brightly—a key. The light from the key illuminated the man holding it. Zunya’s yellow eyes bored into hers, and she couldn’
t look away.
“Earth’s Byway,” Oberon whispered. “Reaper is channeling both of our powers to activate it.”
Reaper was opening the portal between the worlds. He’d never needed the Globe’s Byway. Maybe he didn’t even know how to activate it. He just needed enough magic to power the one on Earth from the Globe. By stealing Oberon’s magic with his scythe and channeling Valerie’s vivicus power, he had what he needed.
Oberon’s words brought Valerie’s focus back. “You must let your power go, Daughter. You must let me go.”
The thought of giving up on saving her father’s life was unfathomable, even though she knew that she’d expended most of her power already, and there wasn’t enough left to save him, even if she could redirect it.
“Knowing you are alive will bring my final moments comfort,” Oberon said. It was the first thing he’d ever asked of her. And the last.
Valerie shut her eyes, and stopping the flow of her power was as easy as turning off a light switch. She couldn’t understand why it had ever been difficult for her before. Maybe because hope powered her vivicus magic, and right now, she didn’t have any.
Her magic stopped, and Reaper collapsed, unconscious. Whatever he’d done had drained him of his power, at least for awhile. The void behind him collapsed, and Valerie worried that the portal between the worlds was open now. When she met her father’s eyes, she knew the answer. The damage had been done.
“I failed everyone on Earth,” she whispered. “I failed you.”
Oberon clenched her hand with his own, and she laid her head on the side of his chest that hadn’t been torn open.
“I’d rather die with you than watch you go,” she whispered.
“You are my daughter, and you are made of sterner stuff than that,” Oberon said, but the power of his words was undermined by how weak his voice sounded.
