by S. D. Grimm
She let go; the lion let him up, and he gasped for air. Then Belladonna held up a ring and motioned for Kara to remove her blade from Ethan’s throat. He stood and grabbed his sword.
“Drop the sword,” Belladonna said.
Against everything that screamed within him, Ethan’s hand opened and his weapon fell. He stared at her as a shiver buzzed in his bones.
“Your strength is mine.” She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and unfolded the material to reveal the four tokens. The actual keys. They’d been with her all along. She tossed Kara the ring. “The army is yours now. Consider yourself rewarded. Keep the fight out of here until I can complete this.”
She headed behind him, toward the pillars. Ethan bent to pick up his sword. This would end now, with Belladonna’s head burned in the fire.
“Stop, soldier.” Kara’s voice was quiet, but Ethan halted. All of his muscles quivered as he tried to defy her orders. He didn’t move. His body wouldn’t obey him. With a fire in his eyes, he glared at Kara.
She shook her head. “I know you don’t understand. The only way to control those marked by the blood moon with compulsion was to develop this poison.”
“You didn’t cure them!”
“I did. But Thea knew it wouldn’t work on all of them.”
“Curse Thea!”
“No.” Kara shook her head. “This isn’t easy for me.”
“Looks easy from here.” Ethan tightened his grip on his weapon as Belladonna got closer to the pillars. “She’ll get the Creator’s power!”
“I know.” Kara’s eyes met his. “No one wants to be the traitor, Ethan. It’s a thankless job. Thea knew I could handle it.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“Belladonna needs to be alive for this. Enemy of my enemy.”
Everything inside strained to fight Kara, but her command still anchored him to his spot. He glanced over his shoulder to where Ryan and Jayden still fought, and a hollow ache spread through his chest. The Mistress! She was headed right toward his brother. He had to get to them. Again, he tried to move, but the black lion poison inside of him surged. His blood was on fire. He fell to his knees, gasping.
“What’s wrong with you? Oh.”
He spoke through clenched teeth. “Give me the antidote.”
Her eyes held panic. “I didn’t know you’d need it. Nothing in Thea’s note told me to save you some.”
“Kara—”
She stepped closer to him. “You believe I’m on your side?”
Did he? “I believe you can be, if you choose to be.”
“Then trust me.”
He motioned to where Ryan and Jayden fought the Mistress side by side. “Then let me protect them!”
Kara’s gaze swept the pandemonium around her, then landed on Ethan. She nodded once. “Go. Protect them. And kill the Mistress.”
Chapter 66
The Power Unleashed
Jayden breathed deep, and a trickle of her powers filtered back into her. It was working. Ryan’s fire was killing the poison! If she could get enough power back, she could stop the Mistress. Ethan would send her through Connor’s door.
She pulled at the power filling her, wishing it could be more, and scanned for the woman. There. She strode past fighters, shoulders squared and on a mission. Jayden’s eyes followed the Mistress’s path and her stomach jumped. Ryan. She headed right for Ryan!
Clutching her daggers tight and focusing on her returning power, Jayden fled to her brother’s aid.
Ryan stood, shaking, as the comforting heat of his spreading fire warmed his back. The Mistress walked toward him, burning coals for eyes.
Someone in a Feravolk cloak raced at her, and she swiped her arm to the side, not even glancing at her attacker. She didn’t even lay a hand on the Feravolk warrior. Her power lifted the attacker from the ground and slammed the warrior into a tree. All the while, the Mistress still continued charging toward Ryan.
His eyes widened. How could he hope to defeat that?
His knees rattled. But he stood his ground.
She stopped in front of him. “You are weak.”
That might be true, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was what he chose to do right now. This moment. He glared. Let a half-smile tug at his lips. And raised his hand. “And you don’t own me.” Fire spouted from his open palm and slammed into her chest.
He created more flames. Hotter flames. They turned blue, then white. He roared as his power coursed through him like thunder and pushed into her in a steady stream that made her stagger backward.
There was no way he could hold her forever. The stream stopped, and he tried to catch his breath. Her gaze turned to him, her white skin cracking like an overcooked clay pot. And then Jayden raced into view. She threw her dagger, and it sailed toward the Mistress’s chest.
But the dagger didn’t pierce her.
It fell at her feet.
The Mistress lifted both of her arms and flicked her wrist. Jayden flew backward and into a tree.
“No!” Ryan lunged for her, but a force slammed into him hard and thrust him off his feet. He sailed backward and rammed hard into an unforgiving surface that cracked like snapping wood. He slumped to the ground, his vision wavering as he blinked a few times to refocus.
The Mistress was closer. “And now you’ll pay for that mistake.”
Ethan’s heart nearly stalled as Ryan’s stream of fire stopped and the Mistress sent him and Jayden flying. He tried to push himself faster. The black lion venom inside him wanted to pull him to his knees, but suddenly new speed coursed through his veins. His speed was returning? His talents! Good job, Ryan! Please be okay!
If he had power again, could he access his shield? He tried to pull it to himself, closer now, as the Mistress stood over Ryan.
She raised her hand.
No! Ethan tried to create a wind shield, but he wasn’t close enough. Almost there! Come on, Ethan! Faster.
A flash of yellow light lit the entire sky and a crack—the sound of stone splitting—filled the air. Ethan flinched, ducking down, and spun around to see Belladonna standing on the foundation where the thrones were. Green light bathed her. She was taking the Creator’s power.
Everything inside of him felt heavy. Hopeless. They were too late?
He faced his brother—he might be close enough to shield Ryan now. He was, but the Mistress’s head had jerked up, staring at Belladonna. She glided toward the thrones as Ethan raced to his brother and Jayden.
“What happened?” Ryan stood.
Jayden didn’t.
Kara skidded to a halt next to Jayden. Ethan pushed her away and knelt. Red leaked out from Jayden’s hairline. His heart plummeted. “If that witch killed her—”
“She didn’t,” Kara said. “But in a moment, after Belladonna claims this power, the Mistress won’t care anymore if you live or die.” She touched Jayden’s head, and her eyes fluttered open.
Ethan pulled her into him. “Are you all right?” A burn shot across his chest. Such a familiar sensation. His talents. His need to protect Jayden fueled him, and he dove for his sword and stood, weapon in hand. The burn of the poison leeched mercifully from his body.
With inhuman speed, he let go of Jayden and pressed his sword to Kara’s throat. Shaking, he looked into her eyes. “Tell your army to fight the Mistress’s creatures.”
She looked over her shoulder at the soldiers. “You heard him. Fight the Mistress’s army. Keep them away from Belladonna.”
Belladonna’s laughter shot forth into the sky, and she rose above them on the top of a funnel cloud that fanned the flames all around her. “Now the power is mine!”
Ethan stared.
Jayden’s quiet “no” drained all the hope from him. A slight nudge from his talent told him to turn, and he did. His sword flew up to protect him faster than he thought necessary. He stabbed an abysshound through its skull and looked up.
Belladonna didn’t come for him or Jayden or Ryan. She headed right for the
Mistress. “I have your power now.”
“You have nothing!” The Mistress glared back at her.
Ethan’s heart raced. He scanned for Connor. Did he know? His talent told him to get closer to the Mistress.
“Ethan, do you have your powers?” Kara asked.
He nodded.
“Good. Go now. Kill Belladonna before the Mistress takes her powers. Softheart.” She touched Jayden’s shoulder. “Call your storm. This ends now.”
Ethan took off running, his returned speed a welcome friend. He raced through the battlefield, eyes on Belladonna and her funnel cloud. How was he supposed to kill her? What did he have besides a sword?
She looked down at him, a crazed glint in her eyes, and he put up his shield. A torrent of wind slammed into him. Too strong. He crashed to the ground, blowing farther away from her. When he stopped rolling, he scrambled to his feet. She still charged after him, but she’d left her back open to the Mistress.
Ethan covered his eyes and formed his shield as a bolt of lightning crackled from the Mistress’s fingers and zapped into Belladonna. A boom rocked the earth. The Mistress used the sparks of lightning to hold Belladonna in place and bring her to the ground. Then she thrust her hand into Belladonna’s chest and ripped out her heart.
Belladonna crumpled.
The Mistress laughed as she crushed the heart. “I have the power now!” A bright light filled her. Cracked her skin. Tiny holes and fissures spread throughout her body as if the power inside her ripped her at the seams.
“No!” Kara screamed.
The sky crackled again. Heat exploded in Ethan’s chest. The Mistress looked at Jayden. She’d kill Jayden.
Ethan scanned the battlefield for Connor. There. A three-legged, brown wolf launched itself at Gnarg.
“Connor! Now!”
Chapter 67
Calm the Storm
Jayden stared at the form of the Mistress as she rose above the smoldering forest on a funnel cloud just like Belladonna had done.
But the Mistress’s was stronger. Larger.
Ryan touched Jayden’s shoulder. “You ready for this?”
“My power is back, thanks to you.” She strode forward, toward her enemy, and called the storm. The roar of thunder coursed into her, and her power surged through her like a long-lost friend. She embraced every part of it. Whipping her hair and pulsing through her being. It burned with heat lightning.
The Mistress turned her face to the sky, basking in the stolen Creator’s power, and it seemed to tear her from the inside. Too pure and bright for her to hold.
And as Jayden’s storm rolled in, the Mistress turned her attention to Jayden. The Mistress’s eyes had become sickly red. Like dried blood. “You cannot best me!” She raised her hands. “Behold my power!” A storm rumbled in the opposite direction of Jayden’s.
She felt it. And it felt sick. But she reached out to it, and clouds parted around her probing talents. She smiled. The Mistress wouldn’t sense someone else’s lightning hiding in the storm she called. Jayden locked eyes with her enemy.
As the lightning sparked, wind whirled. Ash, from Ryan’s spreading fire, rained down around Jayden like snow.
Snow.
White that choked her. Burned her lungs. Ripped through her chest like a broken heart.
She would fulfill her purpose. And she would die here.
Her eyes found Ethan, fighting off monsters that raced toward her, dust and ash and blood covering him. He was protecting her for this moment. As a surge of love for him swept through her, lightning cracked in the heavens. No doubting his love. Not now. This was her purpose. He’d been born to protect her so she could save everyone.
As Ryan joined Ethan, sword spearing through an abysshound, Jayden opened her arms and let the storm take all of her energy. She felt the Mistress shoot a bolt of her power out across the land.
That would be her last.
Jayden opened her eyes. Looked at the Mistress. “That power doesn’t belong to you.” Then she pulsed her lightning at the Mistress. Straight from the sky. No redirection. No dagger. Just a bolt to the heart.
As the green leaves from Quinn’s tree headed toward Connor, he braced for their touch. Braced himself to open the door of death and claim the Mistress before she could hurt anyone. But the Creator’s power unleashed. He felt every bit of it in his fur. His bones. Power that was meant to create and to heal and to protect. Twisted inside something evil, it tried to break free.
A wind that bit like rock and fire spread out across the whole army, sweeping the leaves into a stream in the air. Gnarg stood at the opening of the airstream and opened his mouth wider than any natural animal could. And he swallowed every leaf.
Connor’s hope died.
Gnarg closed his jaws and his voice, like rock grating against rock, filled Connor’s head. “They call me the devourer of life. And now I shall devour you, Wielder!”
Gnarg leapt. He pinned Connor to the ground, and razor teeth bit into Connor’s neck.
“Now, Connor!”
Ethan’s voice preceded a crack of thunder, and Connor sank his teeth into Gnarg’s neck. Dust and maggots filled his mouth, and he ripped. Dead skin peeled from the Barghest, and it jumped off of him. Laughing, it paced in front of him. “You can’t kill me. I’m death.”
The Mistress’s voice surrounded him. “Oh, Wielder. If you had used your power for me, you could have been so powerful. Now look at you. You’re a dog. A creature of the light. Look around. The darkness is coming in.”
She sent a bolt of lightning at him, and it hit hard. Stunned him. He flew backward. His spine slammed into a tree and snapped. Ribs cracked. His lungs tried to get air. Every part of him screamed in agony.
“You can’t stop me now.”
He tried to stand, but his body disobeyed. Sound began to mute, except for the screams. Dark spots started to overtake his vision.
He was dying.
It had to be now. He had to hold on long enough. Long enough to keep the door open.
The bracer would fuel him. And it would kill him. Quinn wouldn’t be left behind to heal the damage he’d inflict. All of the Deliverers would die. All those who fought with them. Like the burning forest, they would perish in order to give new life a chance. His eyes filled with tears. This was his power. For this purpose. Meant to destroy this hideous evil. Maybe no one would forgive him for sacrificing so many lives, but they’d all come willingly.
Connor called on everything he could summon and opened the door.
His power bathed him in light as he lay at the base of the tree. Tore through him like a tempest. And he let it. It burned and cooled. It stretched his skin and made him feel as though a scream scratched his throat. And it shot through every dying vein unfettered, igniting him with life one last time.
Darkness, like the absence of anything light, filled the sky. Pulled at the evil creatures. They screamed as the door sucked them in. Black blood leeched up from the earth, and it groaned as the door extracted blood from its dying sands.
“You think you can open the door and order me in?” The Mistress laughed. “I have the Creator’s power now. You cannot order me to do anything.”
And lightning snapped from the sky.
Jayden’s lightning bolt sailed true and hit the Mistress in the heart. And the Mistress screamed. Turned toward Jayden. Hate ignited in her eyes. Hate so strong, it fought to push Jayden to her knees. She held her ground as more lightning built in the heavens, coursed into her waiting hands, and then zapped into the Mistress.
And the door.
Behind the Mistress, a door had opened. Pulling. Killing. Taking.
An arrow of pure fire and light flew toward Jayden. She’d be powerless to stop it.
Ethan’s chest burned. He looked up to see a gaping hole in the sky. Black like a tornado. And it looked just as angry. And the urging in his talent told him to protect Ryan, who fought by his side.
He turned to see Ryan clinging to a tree branch as s
o many were torn and pulled into the angry tunnel in the sky. Ryan’s hands slipped, and Ethan threw his shield at his brother. The evil wind buffeted him, pulled at Ryan, but Ethan sank to his knees and held tight.
Hold on.
A voice flowed from the forest, surrounding Connor, and he held on to life for a little longer. He only hoped it would be long enough.
Where two had fought, one screamed and clawed at the ground. And death followed. Gnarg became ash and smoke in the wind, sucked into the door. So many screams filled the air as animals and people flew though the opening. But nothing pulled at him. He wasn’t one of the ones being torn from this world. Why not?
What did he have left to live for but the knowledge that he’d destroyed everything? His Quinn had been turned into a tree. She’d burned like everything else in this wood. His tears had dried out like his heart. Like Quinn.
Hopefully Ethan would have enough power to push the Mistress through.
Maybe the pain would end.
The Mistress swirled like ash in the wind, and Ethan’s power swept her form through the door.
It was done.
They’d done it.
Connor closed the door.
And then he closed his eyes.
His body trembled. He couldn’t even move. Looked like he was going to die after all. It was better this way. If only he could trade his life for the Deliverers. Creator, if you would see fit, spare the Deliverers. Take me, but spare them.
Ethan dropped his shield. Wind died away, leaving behind an eerie calm. The hole in the sky closed, rendering sunlight so devoid of red, the brightness seemed foreign. Rays spread across the battlefield, bathing the aftermath in a quiet light. So out of place. All around him, men and women stood and stared in silence. Healers rushed through the masses of people, searching for those to heal. He needed to find Jayden, Serena, and Ryan.
He whirled around to make sure the shield had worked. “Ryan!”
Ryan was there. Ethan raced over to him and threw his arms around his brother. “Are you hurt?”
“You saved me.”