by Leia Stone
“Carson!” I shouted.
The ground rolled, and I seized the confusion to drop to the earth. As Reyna army-crawled over to me, she whispered, “If something goes wrong and you have to sacrifice one of your shields—or all of us—to defeat the queen, you mustn’t hesitate. The blood mages will never stop coming for us as long as she’s alive.”
What was she saying? I blinked as the meaning of her statement settled. That even if my plan to kill the queen meant I’d be dealt a lethal blow that would take out one of my shields, I should still proceed. But … Reyna was the last to take the oath, so any mortal injury would go to her first.
I stared at her in horror. “Reyna, I can’t—”
She grabbed the sides of my face and glared at me. “The time for sentimentality is gone. This realm will never be safe again until the blood mages are all dead. Make it happen. No matter what.”
With wide eyes, I nodded at her, but the idea of causing any one of my friends’ deaths made my blood run cold. Putting those thoughts from my mind, I focused on what I needed to do right now. With Honor, Reyna, and Kaja surrounding me, I exhaled and let my spirit slide from my body. It was the only way I could think of to find the queen again. The cliff was bathed in moonlight, but still, I needed to get closer to the blood mages to see where she was.
My spirit form raced forward into the melee and immediately spotted Kalama in a copse of trees near the edge of the steep cliff. The moon cast creepy shadows over her face. I crept closer, and their voices became distinguishable.
“If we jump, some of us will be able to escape,” a female blood mage said. Her voice was familiar, and as she turned, I recognized her as Cara, the mage who’d held Kian down while the queen sucked him dry. “Then we can build our force anew.”
I 1000.9% could not let that happen!
I tried to make out Kalama’s response, but she spun and put her back to me, and my attention all went to the queen. Queen Banpiroa stood next to her daughter, no longer wearing a muumuu and no longer looking like she needed a nap. She looked feral and beyond terrifying. Strange tattoos crawled along the side of her face like souls begging to be freed. Inching forward to better hear, I watched in horror as the queen nodded to her daughter, and Kalama picked one of the nearby blood mages and threw her over the cliff. I froze, and my jaw gaped as two more went over the side.
“We’ll have an answer in a few minutes,” Kalama laughed. “If they can respond to my voice, we’ll know they survived, and we’ll make the jump.”
“Sometimes, the best way to discover if something is viable is to give it a try,” Reece said, stepping out from between the trees by Kalama. His gaze then snapped to me. “Wouldn’t you agree, Spirit Walker?”
Crap. He held one of those spirit crystals again, so he could see my translucent form.
I started to rise, and at the same time, he threw something with the force of a bullet. His weapon glinted in the moonlight; I had no time to dive out of the way. Searing pain sliced my abdomen as his blade struck me in the belly, lodging in the middle of my spectral body as if it were flesh. Agony tore through me as I tumbled backward and landed on the ground. I waited for the pain to be absorbed by one of my shields, but the pain never receded. It was constant, sharp agony. I felt like I was going to die.
Wait. How could I be feeling this in spirit form?
Glancing down at the weapon, I saw it was celestite, same as had grazed my spirit-arm and injured me before. Grabbing for it, I discovered my spirit couldn’t hold it, but somehow, it was stuck in me. The urge to bring my body here slammed into me, but to do so would surely mean my death, wouldn’t it? Was my body somewhere, bleeding out? I couldn’t focus enough to snap my attention back to my physical self. Everything hurt … and my brain was muddled.
The blood mages hovered around me, and Kalama tsked, clicking her tongue to the roof of her mouth.
“Mother! Dinner has arrived,” she trilled in a singsong voice.
No!
I frantically tried to remove the crystal blade, to no avail.
Before Kalama’d even finished her statement, the queen was here.
Her ghostly white hair writhed in the wind, and her eyes, flooded black, were pools reflecting her soul’s darkness. She wore all-black battle armor fit for a queen. As she circled my struggling soul, her lips curled in a vicious smile. Blood dripped from her fangs, and when she spoke, her teeth were tinged red.
“Give me the shards,” she hissed.
Shards? Like there was more than one of these soul-killer stones? My fear jumped to panic.
‘Rage?’ I called, but my voice bounced around the nothingness, and I realized he couldn’t hear me in this form.
“There’s only one left, My Queen,” Kalama said. “But her soul is bound here until we let her go.”
“Which will never happen,” Cara snickered.
Think, Nai.
‘Zia!’ I called for one of my ancestors. Spirit could still talk to spirit, right? I had to hope the celestite dagger didn’t cancel out all my powers.
Zia appeared beside me, but her expression of surprise turned to horror as she absorbed my predicament.
‘You need your body to pull that stone out,’ she said, shaking her head.
‘Is that the only way to get it out?’ I asked. Please say no.
She just looked aghast—which was the worst kind of answer.
What could I do?
And then Reyna’s words came back to me. Don’t hesitate…
But if I brought my body here and merged it with my spirit, Reyna would be the one to absorb this agony when it traveled through my shields. She might even die because of it. My awareness somehow found my body and bounced between my body and my soul, and I forced my body to look at Reyna. I had no idea how, but she turned to me—as if I’d called her name. I was clutching my stomach, agony on my face, and then she shifted into her wolf form and howled. Honor howled, and then Kaja too. She’d already shifted into her wolf, and now the three of them darted into the battle. Instinctively, I knew they were coming for my spirit.
If they arrived, they’d all be killed by the blood mages!
This was not how my plan was supposed to go!
I needed to put my body and soul together to get this dagger out, or … but I couldn’t even consider that.
Mother Mage…
Letting the beacon of my soul pull my physical body across the space, I crossed the rocks in human form, stumbling and clutching at my stomach, and let the two halves of myself merge.
I sat up with a gasp of pain, hands clutched around the hilt of the knife, ready to yank it out.
“Ah … here you are,” the queen said. She was a blur of action as she zoomed into my space and raked her claws over my face.
Pain sliced along my cheeks, and I screamed, but the agony evaporated as well as the wound as my shields absorbed it.
‘Nai!’ Rage’s voice came through our bond. ‘Where are you?’
‘Get the teams off the cliff!’ I shouted at him.
He shouted something back, but it didn’t register because, at the same time, I ripped the shard of celestite out of my stomach, and white-hot agony exploded in my mind. The pain disappeared once again, and then I lunged for the queen. She darted away, a mere blur of movement, appearing once more in front of me.
The realization hit me; I couldn’t outrun her, not without canceling her magic. I reached for the last of the bombs Jakko had made … but it was no longer tucked in the band at my waist. The carefully wrapped powder bomb now lay ruined in the mud where that damn celestite shard had pierced through!
Time for a new plan.
My mind raced, and my only thoughts were those of desperation.
‘Rage!’ I shouted into his mind. ‘Tell Carson to tear the cliff from the mountain, and let it go into the water. Now! Trust me!’
If Rage responded, I missed it as a vicious growl demanded my attention. I spotted Reyna closing in on the queen and Kalama. She snapped a
nd lunged for the blood mage rulers, providing the distraction I needed to execute my cobbled-together plan B. I was pleased to see her wolf was still alive, though bleeding from the stomach and muzzle from my wounds.
Once more, I pictured a location for a portal. This one, I’d been to only a few times before, and I could only hope the owner wouldn’t mind. Much. I was out of options, and the queen and her daughter were going to be nearly impossible to kill and just as hard to contain. If we didn’t get them before they jumped off the ledge…
My spirit slid from my body, and I opened my eyes to find my spectral form standing next to the Adonis-like figure of the Keeper of the Dead.
“Nai?” He narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
In my physical form, I brought my hands together—and then buckled forward as something struck me from behind. My physical body was being attacked back on the cliff, and I could feel it in my spirit.
“I’m … going … to … open a … portal,” I told the Keeper.
He pursed his lips and then shook his head. “Well, you’d better hurry, or your physical body will be dead.”
I glanced at my hands, my spirit hands, and saw they were covered in blood. What the…? How? I looked further down, to my chest and my stomach, and both were sinking in—which meant my body…
Please, Mother Mage, let Rage and Carson be helping my plan come to fruition.
Thunder rumbled, and I looked up to the Keeper. “What … was … that … noise?”
“I hear nothing,” he told me. “Whatever sound you hear is where your body resides. And if you can hear it there, your spirit and body are merging.”
I couldn’t let that happen until the portal to the Realm of the Dead was opened.
So with every last shred of energy still coursing through me, I yanked my hands apart.
The explosion was like a bomb going off.
Chapter Nineteen
“Nooo!” The queen’s shrill scream tore through the air as my soul and body merged again. The second my spirit slammed into my body, I was falling. Everything was moving too fast to know if my plan worked—the world around me a mere blur. I slammed into the ground. Dust kicked up in a plume, and I blinked up into the pale lavender sky of the Realm of the Dead. Groaning, I rolled to my side; the blood from the wound in my abdomen saturated my shirt and covered my hands. I coughed, propping myself up, only to find the wound on my stomach was healed. My head snapped to the right, and I gulped.
Well. My plan had worked. Mostly.
Like 89.5%.
Kalama and the queen now lay on the Keeper of the Dead’s front lawn, their bodies twisted at odd angles. Chunks of rock from the cliff had become giant boulders at the entrance to the gate that led to the Keeper’s castle.
“Really, Nai!” The Keeper snapped, stepping to my side in nothing but his gold speedo. He waved at the mess I’d just created and said, “You’ve ruined my beautiful garden.”
I winced and climbed to my feet. Sure enough, the cliff face had crushed innumerable trees and shrubs, and a fine layer of dust coated the rest of the plants. Grimacing, I turned to face him. Yikes.
He was furious, red-faced, and nostrils flaring angrily. Not only that … I was here in human form. Again.
“But I brought you a present,” I said, waving to the blood mages. “A couple presents.”
His eyes moved past me to the two women, also in their physical forms, and the Keeper’s anger evaporated.
“Kalama, you little snake,” he hissed. His expression morphed into one of triumphant glee. “Come to join your sister, have you?”
I looked at the blood mages as they stood, their bodies bleeding and bruised but otherwise alive. Kalama nervously brushed the dust off her pants, her eyes going wild as she looked around the Realm of the Dead. Her gaze flicked to the sky where the portal I’d created was now closed. She was trapped.
Well, we all were.
“Keeper, good to see you…” she said, her voice cracking.
“Let us go back, Keeper. Surely there is something you want—something we could give you? Something we could get for you?” Queen Banpiroa looked at him with an expression that I think was an effort at pleading, but she just looked constipated. Her gaze darted to me, and her lip curled. “Someone we could kill for you?”
Legit? She was trying to bargain with the Keeper of the Dead—by threatening me?
The Keeper followed her gaze to me, and instead of jumping on her let-us-kill-Nai bandwagon, he grinned. “Well done, Nai. Now, I have the entire set of the ruling blood mages for my collection.”
A giggle—equal parts relief and euphoria—burst from my lips. “You’re welcome.”
“No!” Kalama exclaimed, her voice warbling. Her gaze bounced from the Keeper to me and then back to him. “Please, let us go!”
“Got a soul stone?” He held out his hand, his lips pursed, but the corners twitched as if he was trying not to laugh.
The soul stones in my pocket almost felt like they were burning a hole through me, but I kept quiet and acted natural.
Both women scowled at him, and their eyes flooded black.
“You know we haven’t,” the queen snarled. “But if you let us go back—”
“Nope,” he said, popping the p. “That’s not how this works, my bloodthirsty fiends.” He pushed his lips out into a mock pout. “So sad … for you. I guess you’ll spend eternity in the darkness of the outlands. But not to worry,” he added in a rush as their expressions turned to panic. “You’ll be with Surlama.”
“But—” The queen and her protest disappeared when he flicked his wrist. A gust of wind picked up the two women in a swirling tornado. Their screams tore through the air and then faded as they flew across the lake and into the darkness on the other side of the water.
Phew.
I blinked, stunned that my crazy plan B had worked. “Are they really gone … forever?”
The Keeper of the Dead nodded.
We’d done it. Destroyed them. Forever.
“Uh … thanks for that.” I offered the Keeper a tentative smile as my insides crawled with trepidation. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
The Keeper surveyed the rocky cliff I’d portaled into his realm and the damage to his garden. “Next time, a little more warning would be nice.”
I nodded. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a next time. “Well, I’d like to get back…” I fumbled with the pouch that held my soul stone. “I understand now that I need to make a payment, so I’m fully prepared to offer my soul sto—”
He waved me off. “You brought me several souls, including the blood mage royalty. To be honest, that’s a bargain.”
Relief flooded through me and I nodded. “I won’t come back in my human form again. I promise.”
He just stared at me, and I wondered if he was reconsidering.
“I’m ready to go now.” Actually, I was ready five minutes ago, but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful.
The Keeper raised his hand, and then, biting his lip, he paused before lowering his hand to his side once more. Frowning, he said, “Oh … I’m feeling generous. How about I give you five minutes first? To say goodbye to your friends?”
My what? His gaze flicked to something behind me. Spinning around, I came face to face with Reyna and Julian.
Not in their human forms…
They were … dead.
“No!” The horror of what had happened tore through me. All that blood, my shriveled chest and abdomen—oh Mage. I’d killed Reyna. My knees buckled, and I fell to the ground, covering my eyes to the truth of how I’d failed. With a desperate gasp, I broke into sobs.
“Oh, Nai,” Reyna’s voice came from right beside me. “Stop being so dramatic.”
I peeled my hands back to look at her. She was glowing with happiness. I grimaced, completely confused. Why was she happy? She was dead.
“I’m so sorry,” I choked out. My mind raced, trying to come up with a plan to make this right. “I’ll�
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“Stop.” She shook her head, still smiling. “You did it, Nai. You beat them. It was an honor to serve as your shield. An honor to protect you. I’m right where I want to be.”
I shook my head, tears streaming down my cheeks. All the triumph of success drained out of my chest, leaving it hollow as I stared at my friend. She couldn’t mean what she said, she was just being stoic—strong. She was just being Reyna. “No. You don’t understand. I can bring people back from the dead. I just have to give the Keeper my soul stone, but for you, I don’t mind.”
Reyna reached out and grabbed my hand. “No, Nai. You don’t understand. I died with honor, doing what I love, protecting. Don’t take that from me. I’m happy with this. I promise.”
What could I say? Reyna had never lied to me, and I didn’t think she’d start now. I wanted to resist her, to force her back into her body, but instead, I threw myself into her arms, and we held each other tightly.
“Thank you,” Reyna whispered. “For letting me be your shield. For letting me choose my own path.”
“I’ll miss you,” I said, pulling away, tears streaking down my face.
She snorted. “Then come visit. You’re the freaking high mage of spirit!”
I chuckled and then nodded. “Right.”
“Will you watch out for my brother, Blake?” Julian asked, suddenly joining us. “He’s … he’s better than me. Kian pretty much ignored him, so our mom … she did a good job with him.”
“Yes, of course,” I said with a nod as my throat constricted with emotion. “Thanks … thanks for all you did out there today.”
He shrugged. “It was long overdue. I should’ve seen what Kian was sooner.”
The moment stretched, and then there was motion behind me, and it pulled my attention.
Gramps, my mom, and bonus dad were here.
“Oh Mage! I see my mom,” Julian shouted in excitement, and then he took off running. “Thanks again!”
“Sorry!” I called after him and winced. He didn’t seem to mind being dead either, but I still felt a little bad.
Reyna embraced my grandfather, both of them wearing giant smiles, and a resurgence of guilt welled up within me, filling me until it became too much. This was the first time I’d seen him since he died, and I dropped my head. So much sacrifice … for me. It was a lot to take in—a lot to accept.
