End of the Line

by N. D. Roberts

  Kain watched her for a long moment before speaking. “Are we going to ignore whatever this is between us?”

  Sarah Jennifer took a deep drink before replying. “Suits me. I’m not looking to get involved.”

  “Me either,” he told her. “But you can’t tell me there isn’t something there.”

  Sarah Jennifer lifted a shoulder. “Didn’t say there wasn’t.”

  Kain’s eyebrows met in thought. “What are you saying?”

  Sarah Jennifer leaned over the table to fill Kain’s tankard. “I’m saying nothing. Drink up, Player. This night is almost over, and duty will be calling all too soon.”

  “Fuck duty.” Kain laughed at her scowl. “Fine. Have it that way.”

  Sarah Jennifer smiled. “Are you looking to join the pack?”

  Kain’s smile faded. “Unlikely. I had a pack. The politics of fuckheads fighting for supremacy wasn’t my scene.”

  “I don’t appreciate poor language,” Sarah Jennifer told him. “However, knowing what pack life can be like without a worthy Alpha, I’m inclined to let it slide without discipline just this once.”

  Kain’s grin returned. “Sweetheart, I say fuck a lot. If you want me to stick around, you’re gonna have to get used to it.”

  Sarah Jennifer met his stare. “If you want to stick around, you’ll be joining the pack, and your ass will be mine to command.”

  Kain raised an eyebrow, a sly grin appearing on his face. “Thought you didn’t want my ass?”

  Sarah Jennifer raised her tankard. “Touché, Player.”

  Kain bumped his tankard against hers. “Anytime, Princess.”

  A commotion outside the tavern forestalled her reply. Their heads snapped to the door as Curtis burst in, sweating and panting heavily. “Major! You’re needed at the rift!”

  Chapter Twenty

  Esme wished she had the juice to translocate. She’d left the mountain when she sensed the surge in energy from the rift and was running as fast as her legs could carry her toward the valley, her radio dangling from her belt to keep her hands free.

  Her worst fears were realized when she reached the valley.

  The Skrima were here.

  Six of them had made it through so far.

  Esme grabbed her radio and thumbed the button. “Enora, where are you?”

  A kinetic impacted the valley floor, taking out two of the Skrima in a spray of dirt, ichor, and body parts.

  “You’re going to need more than kinetics!” Esme yelled into the radio. “Fire your Etheric cannons on that rift and make sure no more of those ugly bastards get across to our side!”

  “On it,” the AI replied.

  Twin beams of energy lanced the darkness as the airship came about, and Enora let rip on the rift with her Etheric cannons.

  Esme heard screams from beyond the rift and sighed in relief. Enora would hold the rest back. She could deal with those that had already crossed the tear in reality.

  She pulled on the Etheric and called fire from the air, encircling the valley. It wasn’t enough to contain all of them.

  One Skrim vaulted the ring of fire and crashed into the forest, heading away from New Romanov.

  Esme had no choice but to focus on the remaining three. She dodged their attempts to crush her under their feet, darting between their legs as she called on the land to trap them.

  Thick roots burst from the ground and twisted around the lower limbs of one of the Skrima. It fell with a roar, writhing to free itself as the roots wrapped its body and squeezed.

  Esme had more skill than available energy. She needed Ezekiel and Sarah Jennifer. She called with her mind for them both as she continued to fight. The move cost her.

  One of the Skrima kicked her, sending her flying across the valley. A handy tree halted her progress, dislocating her shoulder in the process.

  Esme screamed to release the pain as she dragged herself to her feet. She slammed the shoulder into the tree trunk to realign her joint and ignited her magic as the Skrima came for her. “Ye’re not getting past me so easily,” she yelled, releasing a torrent of white-hot flames.

  The Skrim she hit screamed as it was burned alive. Esme sagged against the tree trunk, drained. “Two down, just the biggest, baddest one to go. Enora, where’s my backup?”

  “I’m reading the major two minutes west of your location,” the AI replied.

  Two minutes was a lifetime. Esme picked up her courage and charged, screaming, “FUCK IT!” as she pushed the flames ahead of her.

  At ten feet tall, the final Skrim was impervious to her attacks. It shrugged off the flames and tossed its horned head as it shrieked at her.

  Esme felt her magic running low. Her draw on the Etheric was a trickle, her well almost empty.

  She sensed Sarah Jennifer was almost at the valley and redoubled her efforts to keep the remaining Skrim occupied until her backup arrived.

  At last, her magic failed. Esme ran for cover, screaming, “ENORA!”

  Two blinding bolts of energy knocked the Skrim back before it could crush Esme.

  A keening screech came from the rift as another two Skrima forced their way through, now that Enora wasn’t there to hold them back. The AI’s voice came over the radio, “Do I take care of the Skrima that are here, or prevent more from coming through?”

  Before Esme could reply, Sarah Jennifer and Kain came crashing out of the tree line, Kain in his Pricolici form.

  He didn’t slow, gouging the smallest Skrim with his claws and teeth as he tackled it to the ground.

  Olaf and Mika were the next to arrive. The warrior woman and the werebear flew out of the forest, Olaf roaring with fury.

  Next came Ezekiel, followed by Caitlin.

  Sarah Jennifer took charge. “Ezekiel, Esme, do what you can to seal that rift,” Sarah Jennifer commanded as she called ice from the clouds above. Her eyes glowed red as the weather responded to her command. “The rest of you, drive those Skrima toward the mountain.”

  It began to rain hard. The temperature dropped, and the rain turned to hail as Sarah Jennifer reached deep inside and pulled on her connection to the Etheric.

  She didn’t want weather.

  She wanted the ground to open up and swallow the Skrima whole.

  As if it understood, the ground began to shake.

  “GET CLEAR!” Sarah Jennifer screamed as a yawning chasm opened in the valley floor.

  The Skrima vanished into the earth, their angry screeches shaking rocks loose from the mountainside. Olaf, Mika, Caitlin, and Kain dodged the rolling boulders as they ran for the safety of the mountainside. The Skrima were swallowed whole.

  Beneath the rift, Ezekiel and Esme held hands and channeled their magic into the darkly malevolent tear. Sarah Jennifer ran to them, clasping Esme’s free hand to add her energy to the effort to close the rift.

  Esme’s jaw was clenched, golden light surrounding her body as she pulled in the gifted energy.

  “We can’t close it!” Ezekiel screamed, sweat streaming down his face.

  Evil laughter rang out, amplified by the Etheric energy pouring out of the rift.

  “YOU’LL NEVER DEFEAT ME!” Laughter screamed, her voice filled with pride.

  “We’ll just see about that.” Esme grunted, dropping her head as she pulled energy through Sarah Jennifer and Ezekiel and forced it to repair the tear in reality.

  Sarah Jennifer felt herself being drained as the crack in the sky began to shrink.

  Ezekiel dropped to his knees, maintaining his grip on Esme’s hand as the energy she was pulling through him burned him up from the inside. “It’s too much! Esme, you have to stop!”

  Esme continued to fight through the pain. She sensed Laughter attempting to rip the rift wide open and countered with every ounce of her hardheaded determination to prevent the Kurtherian from getting her own way.

  She pushed aside the pain of more Etheric energy than her body could handle running through her.

  Sarah Jennifer collapsed to her
knees at the same moment Ezekiel lost consciousness.

  Esme released them and opened herself fully to the Etheric, consequences be damned. She became a conduit, the only hope they had to repel the evil on the other side. She rose into the air as the energy took her over.

  Sarah Jennifer was still on her knees, her stomach heaving and her body wracked with burning pain. She missed Esme’s ascent toward the rift, too late to do anything but watch as the witch’s body was lost in a nimbus of golden light.

  Laughter’s taunting continued. “SILLY HUMAN. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU CAN DO AGAINST ME?”

  Esme’s voice shook the valley. “I CAN DO THIS, ABOMINATION.”

  Her golden light exploded outward, pushing back the dark energy spilling from the rift.

  Laughter screamed in pain, the sound lost among wild screams as Esme’s light penetrated the rift and drove back every Skrim waiting on the other side.

  Sarah Jennifer could only watch in stunned silence. Esme’s voice spoke into her mind, Don’t let this hold you back, Duckie. I’m always with you.

  The rift receded, shrinking to a thin line as Esme fell to the ground and lay still.

  “NO!” Sarah Jennifer screamed. She tried to stand, but her knee failed and she pitched forward, skinning her hands and face on the exposed ground.

  She forced herself to crawl, her body refusing to allow her to do more than drag herself to where her best friend in the whole world lay in a broken heap on the blackened grass.

  Her nails broke as she tore into the burned earth in her desperation to reach Esme. She threw up again, not caring that she was on the verge of passing out. She wiped her mouth and forced herself to keep moving, pulling herself hand over hand, her knees scraped by rocks.

  After an effort that was beyond superhuman, she reached Esme and pulled her limp body into her lap.

  The witch’s eyes were blank.

  Sobbing, Sarah Jennifer pried Esme’s mouth open and attempted to breathe life back into her.

  It was all for nothing.

  Esme was gone.

  Sarah Jennifer tipped her head back and screamed as grief consumed her.

  Kain’s heart was torn in two by the sound. He shifted, his instincts taking over. Caitlin’s hand on his arm unfelt, he tore across the valley—and found he had no enemy to fight.

  He found Sarah Jennifer cradling Esme’s lifeless body, begging her to come back, to open her eyes and tell her she was just spent. Ezekiel was still unconscious. The rift was barely there. Kain hesitated. He could not fight death for her.

  His body returned to its human form, and he slowly approached the keening, red-eyed woman his heart belonged to. He sank to his knees beside her and put an arm around her shoulders, saying nothing.

  There was nothing to be said.

  Ezekiel woke as Olaf, Mika, and Caitlin joined them, each finding a space near Sarah Jennifer and kneeling to form a protective circle around her. They surrounded her with love, which was all they could do. Ezekiel was unable to contain his shock and grief. He sobbed along with Sarah Jennifer, unashamed of his tears for the woman who had taught him how to access his magic.

  Olaf shifted and voiced his emotions in great roars as Mika stood guard and let her tears fall in silent stoicism.

  Even Caitlin, who hadn’t known Esme well, was moved by her loss. She maintained a watch on the outskirts of the group, gazing at the rift with tears in her eyes.

  Sarah Jennifer cried until she was sick again, then she cried some more.

  Eventually, her tears refused to come. Her heart empty, she struggled to get to her feet without letting go of Esme’s body.

  “Let me help,” Kain offered in a low voice.

  Sarah Jennifer clutched Esme tighter to her breast. She felt so slight, her light weight somehow disrespecting the huge personality she had projected in life. “No. She is mine to take care of.”

  Kain nodded. “Then let me help you.”

  Sarah Jennifer looked long and hard at his extended arms before acquiescing to his support. Together, they began the long walk back to New Romanov, with the others forming an honor guard around them.

  Kain held Sarah Jennifer up as she walked, lending his strength to her. She refused to let go of Esme’s body as she leaned into him, and by the time they reached the foot of Lilith’s mountain, he was almost carrying them both.

  Ezekiel walked beside them, lost in his memories of everything Esme had done for him during the years he’d lived in Salem. Every kind word. Every time she’d accepted his failures and followed her inevitable pithy comment with the encouragement to keep reaching for his full potential.

  He was going to miss her earthy sense of humor and her short temper.

  Olaf and Mika went ahead as they climbed the path that led up the mountain.

  When Sarah Jennifer stumbled into Lilith’s cavern, she found that the werebear had cleared the main workbench and laid out a huge, thick fur to lay Esme’s body on.

  Lilith’s voice was filled with sadness. “Olaf told me what happened. I felt the energy shift but had no idea.”

  Sarah Jennifer shrugged Kain’s arm off and limped to the bench. She lifted Esme onto the fur and drew the sides over her body as though keeping her warm would make a difference. “She didn’t die for nothing. Laughter can’t send her army of monsters through the rift. She sacrificed herself to make sure of it.”

  She turned and slid to the floor, her back against the workbench. “Lilith, we need to make sure what Esme did sticks.”

  With that, she gave in to the exhaustion and pain wracking her body and closed her eyes.

  Her dreams were fleeting, her perspective switching from the battle she’d just left to half-remembered conversations with Esme. One moment they were in the old cottage in Lynnwood drinking tea, and the next, Esme was burning in front of her, and she was helpless to do anything.

  The pain of losing her all over again shocked Sarah Jennifer into wakefulness.

  Her eyes snapped open. The cavern was dark, the lights dimmed.

  Someone had wrapped her in a blanket. Despite the darkness, she knew she was not alone.

  A gleam of yellow caught her attention.

  There was Theor, standing guard over her from the doorway.

  He inclined his head when he saw she was awake, saying nothing.

  Sarah Jennifer slipped back into her fractured dreams, knowing she was safe.

  The next morning, the people of New Romanov came to pay their respects. Sarah Jennifer accepted their condolences in a daze, disbelief clouding her responses.

  Olaf had left the mountain during the night. Ezekiel was inconsolable. He stuck by Sarah Jennifer all through the day, saying little.

  Everyone understood. Even Irina was gentle with them, sheathing her sharp tongue for once as she made sure Sarah Jennifer and Ezekiel ate the hot food she’d brought up from town.

  Sarah Jennifer refused to leave Esme’s side until the last of the townsfolk had departed. Then she went to tell Enora they would be leaving for Salem the next day.

  When she returned to the mountain, Caitlin was waiting for her with the German Shepherd.

  Jaxon padded over and pressed his head to Sarah Jennifer’s leg, licking her hand.

  “How are you holding up?” Caitlin asked.

  Sarah Jennifer was numb. “I’m… I’ll be okay. I have to make some calls. Arrangements need to be made.”

  Caitlin nodded and stood aside to let her pass. She touched Sarah Jennifer’s arm lightly. “We’re going to stay with you until you get back to your pack. You need friends right now.”

  Sarah Jennifer nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

  Ezekiel was kneeling by Esme’s body, his head bowed and his lips moving in silent pleas.

  She tapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, kiddo. We need to let everyone know what went down here.”

  He looked up at her, his eyes red-rimmed with crying, and nodded slowly.

  Sarah Jennifer led him to the comms room and took her se
at at the radio. Her hand hovered over the transceiver.

  “Where do I start?” she murmured, her heart constricting.

  She called Salem.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Salem, MA

  Even the sky showed its grief on the day of Esme’s funeral. Clouds tinged blood-red from the light of the BYPS grid released a steady, cold drizzle that matched the landscape of the mourners’ hearts.

  Sarah Jennifer walked through the rain at the head of the procession. The bier holding Esme’s body was carried through the heart of the city by those closest to her.

  The band came behind, playing a mournful tune that perfectly encapsulated the sadness of everyone present. They entered the cemetery, where chairs had been set out for dignitaries from around the world who had been flown in for the funeral.

  Sarah Jennifer saw the pale glow in Amelie’s eyes and understood that the rain was falling in response to her emotions.

  The procession stopped at the mausoleum raised by Linda and the rock mages, and the bearers placed the bier on the raised plinth inside. Annie and Lenore broke away from the others as the pallbearers went to sit with the mourners.

  Sarah Jennifer took Ezekiel’s hand as the band ceased. “We’ll get through this,” she told him in a murmur. “You and me.”

  Ezekiel choked back his tears. “I still can’t believe she’s gone, Sarah Jennifer. I keep expecting her to wake up and yell at me.”

  Sarah Jennifer’s heart hitched in her chest as she pulled him close. “Me too, kiddo. Me too.”

  Lenore gave her a nod, signaling it was time to begin. Sarah Jennifer released Ezekiel and walked in front of the mourners. She looked out across the sea of sad faces. “Esme was loved,” she began, then paused as emotion stole her voice.

  She swallowed hard and forced herself to keep talking. “Esme was loved, and she was loved because she gave love. There isn’t anyone here whose life she didn’t touch. I could talk about her contribution to the rebuilding of the world, but I won’t. I could scream and rant and cry because she gave her life to prevent aliens from destroying everything we’ve fought to fix, but I won’t. I want to tell you about my friend, the woman who was there for me when I was broken.”