Divine Illusions

by Alix Sharpe

  Hale crashed out of the trees and unleashed a desperate attack. He couldn’t even process what he saw in front of him, all he knew was he couldn’t miss. His comet of blue careened into the ball of flame knocking it from Soren’s claws. A darting shadow on the ground. A flash of silver. Then Soren fell to the dirt, a massive thud surrounded by smoke and blue haze.

  Hale leapt into the clearing, palms raised, ready to launch another attack. His whole body shook with adrenaline as he approached the fallen Salamander.

  Soren clutched at his leg with both hands, a crimson trail trickling down, spilling in a dark pool beneath him. He feebly released one hand, orange sparks jumping back and forth between his fingers.

  Hale flicked his wrist and sent Soren’s amulet up over his head, clattering to the forest floor 10 feet away. The sparks died instantly.

  “Fuck you, Draven,” he said, teeth chattering in his pale head.

  Hale spun, clarity finally snapping him from his trance. Keira lay in the dirt, knife gripped tight in her bloodied fist, chest heaving, coughing.

  Hale dropped to his knees beside her, wiping her hair off her sweaty forehead. “Are you okay?”

  “No. But we don’t have time for that,” she said, forcing herself upright with a wince. “A dozen Elves are almost here. Soren’s working for them. We won’t outrun them, I’ve Seen it. I See a fight… but nothing after.”

  “He’s with the Elves? Fucking traitor,” Hale growled, shoving back to his feet, blue pulsing at his wrists.

  “Hale, stop,” Keira said behind him, “help me up. I’ll read him.”

  He scrambled back to Keira’s side and ducked under her arm. He clumsily lifted her, his legs still shaking from the shock of making it there just in time.

  “What’s the fucking point?” Soren laughed, wheezing. “She even Saw it, nothing after. You won’t survive.”

  “You won’t either, if I don’t seal that artery for you,” Hale said, glaring as he set Keira down at Soren’s head.

  “I don’t need you,” Soren said. “You won’t get anything from me anyway. The Elves have magic of their own. Why do you think your Diviners can barely See them half the time?”

  Keira placed a palm on Soren’s clammy forehead.

  “He’s not lying,” she said, scrunching her eyes, “He’s got some kind of block.”

  “Keep trying,” Hale said.

  Keira brought her other hand up and placed it against Soren’s sticky temple, dotted with droplets of sweat. She squeezed her eyes tighter.

  Hale had to tear his gaze away from her. If he was about to die, he desperately wanted to spend his last few moments memorizing every little detail of Keira Clearwater, but if there were any chance he could save her… Hale bit back a small laugh and shook his head. More like she’d find a way to save him.

  What the hell. Why was he laughing? Was his impending death making him insane? Yeah, he was still a little buzzed, but luckily most of it had burned off tracking down Keira and Soren. No, it wasn’t the alcohol. It was her. The laughter wasn’t mirth, it was sheer emotion, pouring out of him raw. Being around her set him free. If he died, he wasn’t dying as a soldier, he would die a man.

  “Keira, I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have told you sooner about the Captain—“

  “The. Captain,” Keira said, oddly slow. She cocked her head sideways and pressed harder against Soren’s skull. “The Captain. And Hale.”

  “Yes,” Hale said, turning his eyes back to the edges of the clearing, “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I need you to know I’m sorry. And Jessa—“

  “We don’t have time,” Keira said, voice suddenly soft, “they’re here.”

  Hale turned his gaze towards Keira’s line of sight. Twelve dark masses stepped out from the shadows, blades drawn. Though he could hardly see them, Hale instantly knew something was wrong. The hairs on his neck prickled with electricity. They weren’t charging.

  The largest of them took several slow, cautious steps forward, yellow eyes glowing in the dim light of night, ragged teeth fixed in a demonic grin. It stopped and pointed its blade toward Keira.

  “Diviiiiner,” it hissed, voice more monster than man, “come.”

  Hale was about to let loose a string of dissenting profanities when Keira rose to her feet, her blade still clutched in her hand.

  “Why?” she asked, voice steady.

  It simply stared back, gaze narrowed.

  Keira closed her eyes for a moment, a small smile tugging at her lips. “Why?” she repeated.

  “Wrong sssside,” it said, tapping the point of its sword against its head. “You shall Seee.”

  “I told you, you fucking skank,” Soren sputtered from the dirt. “Okay. I brought her to you. Now help me dammit.”

  Hale caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, a half second before the spear sailed through the air and landed in Soren’s gut. The light in Soren’s eyes dimmed before Hale even had a chance to blink.

  “Not worthyyy,” the leader said, a strange lilt to its voice. It almost sounded amused. Did Elves have the concept of amusement?

  “You need better recruitment tactics,” Keira said, shaking her blade in the air.

  What the hell was she doing?

  “He helped you for how long and you just killed him?” Keira said.

  Oh. A diversion. No way she felt sorry for Soren.

  Hale scanned the line of Elves at the edge. They stood spread too far apart to hit all of them, but if he was careful, he might be able to take out half in one blow.

  “Why would I join you?” she shouted.

  “Earth is oursss,” the Elf said, scraping its blade across the dirt. “We shaaall take it back.”

  Back?

  “You’ll never get across The Veil,” Keira yelled, pointing her knife menacingly.

  “We already haaave.”

  One here and there had slipped through…

  “And we stopped all of you,” she said.

  “Not allll,” it grinned, cracked, black lips peeling away to reveal those jagged, yellow fangs. “Girl talksss much. Girl shaalll die.”

  A spear zipped past Keira as she leapt out of the way.

  “She Sees,” it growled back at the Elf who’d launched the spear. “Use sssword.”

  The foot soldier stepped forward, hand on its hilt.

  This was Hale’s chance.

  The moment the monster unsheathed his weapon, Hale unleashed his own. His streak of blue magic exploded across the clearing and ripped the sword from the beast’s claw.

  His mind instantly melded with the steel. Hale sent the blade shredding into the dark toward his targets. Then the razor edge sank in, sailing along that first throat. Steaming, putrid Elven blood sprayed the dirt. Hale felt every drop as if he’d flayed the flesh up close. The demon fell to its knees. Then the next. Then the next.

  Five black shadows fell before the sword was knocked from the air. The recoil shot up Hale’s arms, cracking his shoulders with a white-hot pain, his beam of magic vanished. He reeled backwards, panting heavily. Seven sets of yellow eyes turned. And one set of grey. Then all Hell broke loose.

  CHAPTER 21 – KEIRA

  Shit. Keira threw herself to the ground. Red flashed behind her eyes. The danger pulsed immediate and lethal. She didn’t need her amulet to tell her that much. Another image flashed. In 1.5 seconds: a volley of spears sailing overhead, toward Hale.

  “Five right!” she screamed, praying for Hale to understand.

  He leapt five feet to his right and ducked. The spears clattered to the ground on either side of him.

  A garbled gasp of gratitude slipped past her lips as she spun back to face their assailants. Focus. Watch their bodies, just like Hale taught her. She could see their forms, but it was too difficult to make them out in the low light. She closed her eyes and opened her Sight. Four had drawn their swords. Two had drawn their bows. Fuck. Could Hale catch arrows?

  “Hale,” she screamed, “archer
s, 11 and 2.”

  A bolt of blue and the cracking of wood. Vengeful snarls. He’d snapped their bows.

  Where was the leader? She whipped around. Nothing. It didn’t matter. She had to help Hale. She turned and bolted towards him. A red glint caught her eye.

  Not a vision this time. Soren’s Amulet. Could Hale use two?

  “Hale, amulet. Fire!”

  A massive blow slammed into her side knocking her feet from under her. The air spewed from her lungs as she spun and tumbled to the ground, blade sailing from her grasp. She scrambled to get upright. Something invisible closed around her throat anchoring her to the spot. She writhed against the force, straining her eyes to watch Hale, clawing at the unseen restraint, slowly constricting.

  Hale turned and lunged towards Soren’s amulet, 10 feet away on the dirt, halfway between him and two Elves. Their jagged swords glinted in the corner of his eye as he dove past. He landed on top of the amulet and threw up one hand. A blast of orange and blue shot into the black. The magic flames shot up vertically creating a wall in front of the monsters.

  It gave Hale just enough time to get back on his feet, Salamander amulet in hand. Then the howls and clanks of steel barreled through the fire.

  Keira kicked at the air as the veiled hook yanked her from the ground, spinning her away from the fight. Demonic screeches rattled behind her as she flailed for breath. Black patches began to coil in the edges of her vision. No, she wouldn’t go out this way, not like this.

  She squeezed her eyes closed, but all she Saw was black. Her Sight was wide open, but nothing came. She was blind.

  She had to keep trying. For Hale. For herself.

  She strained to focus on the battle but she couldn’t even hear correctly now, everything sounded blurred and muffled. She wouldn’t be able to yell to him even if she did unlock a vision. She had to do something. Anything. She slipped deeper into the pit inside her head, everything going dark. The world disappearing.

  No. Not everything. Memories. Those could not be touched. She fought against the edges of darkness and summoned the light from within. Shining moments, where she could simply be, with Hale Draven as her guide. That first day, that first laugh. That unexpected kiss. The quarry. His hand between her shoulder blades. That yellow-green of his eyes that brought her back. Those eyes that locked on her face while they lie naked in the cave, those eyes that saw more than skin deep. Those eyes that saw her.

  That was it! She just had to look deeper too. Not the physical, but a level lower. She couldn’t See what was attacking her, but maybe she could See how. Time to focus on the fundamentals.

  She stopped struggling and focused on the crushing pressure at her throat. Five flickers of energy. Five points. Fingers. The leader. He’d rendered himself invisible.

  She clutched at her amulet, grappling for more. A hazy patch beamed 3 feet below and to the right, like dust motes shimmering in the sunbeams, contaminants revealed by the light. She wrapped her fingers around her amulet and ripped it from her neck, snapping the clasp at the back. She whipped the chain down toward the cluster of energy and watched as the ball of light cracked and shattered.

  A guttural howl pierced her ears as the vice around her neck released. She tumbled to the ground and scrambled backward, away from the Elf as he flickered back into being. Black blood dripped from its eyes as it screeched, claws flailing in thin air.

  She searched the ground frantically, hands patting around in the low light, eyes straining. A flash of blue and orange sailed above, casting just enough light to illuminate the silver glint of her blade four feet away. A hellish scream rattled her bones as the flames roared at the corners of her eyes. She didn’t stop. She lunged and seized the hilt of her knife, flipping over to plunge it deep into the Elf’s throat just as it fell upon her, flames of orange and blue engulfing them both.

  The fires vanished as the Elf sank deeper onto her blade, eyes going dark as the black blood poured down her shaking forearms, coating the front of her shirt. It collapsed on top of her, and moved no more. She heard another thud behind her. Craning her neck under the weight of the monster’s corpse, she saw Hale facedown a few yards away, covered in puddles of black and red. The last six Elven shells lay unmoving, smoldering, in the dust.

  Keira turned back and shoved against the slick, massive carcass crushing down on her. Her oxygen starved muscles strained under the deadweight as she wiggled out and let the body drop in the black sanguine pool.

  She crawled over to Hale’s limp form, fear rolling in her gut, leeching up her throat.

  He moaned softly as she flipped him over.

  Her breath fluttered in her chest. He was alive.

  “Hale, you did it,” she whispered, her heart dropping as she stared down at his face in the glow of the dying fires. A fresh cut from nose to chin lay flayed open, oozing blood. Another wound slit him from cheek to jaw.

  He tried to smile but winced instantly at the effort. “Keira,” he rattled.

  “Shh, it’s okay,” she said, scooting his head onto her lap. They weren’t too far from camp. Someone had to have seen the explosions.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, feebly attempting to open his eyes. His lids parted just enough to see her. “About the Captain.”

  “Hold still. We’ll talk later,” she said, brushing his matted hair from his sticky brow. She wanted to tell him about the strange thing she’d seen in Soren’s memories, to figure out what it could mean. But not yet. Now wasn’t the time. She needed to keep him calm. She needed to take stock of his condition.

  With one hand cradling his unmarred cheek, she began to pat down his torso with the other. Each dab caused her palm to come away damp. She began to shake as she searched for even one dry patch of him, some spot that wasn’t covered in blood, Elven or his own. His shirt. She needed to get it off and check his wounds. She began shifting beneath him, heart throbbing in her throat.

  “Stop,” he wheezed. “I’m not going to make it.”

  “Yes, you are,” she gasped, tears instantly falling from her lashes, landing on his dirty cheeks.

  “Keira,” he said, reaching up to grasp her hand on his chest, “I need you to know--”

  He sucked in a heavy breath of air.

  “Know what?” Keira said, eyes going wide in fear that he may only have a matter of seconds.

  “Read me.”

  “Hale, I can’t. There’s no need.”

  “Read me,” he whispered again. “I need you to.”

  His eyes started rolling back in his head.

  “Okay, Hale, I will,” she said, shoulders shaking, “but you can’t go. I need you to teach me…”

  She slid her palm from his cheek to his forehead. “I need you to show me…” He couldn’t go. She needed him. She needed that smile, that light. That sunny meadow stare.

  He wasn’t responding now, his chest rising and falling weakly.

  She forced her eyes shut. “I need you to show me how to trust, to look beyond the shadows…”

  He went limp in her arms.

  With a shuddering breath, she opened her Sight and let the last light of Hale Draven pour into her soul.

  CHAPTER 22 – HALE

  When Hale Draven awoke in the Castle infirmary, bandaged from head to toe, his first thought was of Keira Clearwater… quickly followed by the thought of how much he hurt. In the few minutes he took to acclimate, and realize he was alone, the pain became far more than just physical. Keira wasn’t there...

  What happened to her? He winced and sank deeper into his pillow. Dark fear bloomed in his chest like oil on water. He hadn’t had a chance to tell her, he remembered that much. He remembered the Elves too. And Soren.

  His fingers drifted to his chest. No amulet. It didn’t matter. The piece missing from inside his chest stung far worse. Where was she? Last thing he remembered was firing his magic at the Elf, the one chasing her. He squeezed his eyes shut as the blackest thought washed over him. What if he hadn’t been enough?


  “Hale.”

  What if she wasn’t just gone? What if she was gone, gone?

  “Hale.”

  She was gone and never knew the truth.

  “HALE.”

  The spiraling stopped. He opened his eyes.

  “Do you want a spoon or a fork?” Keira said, holding a tray above his lap.

  “Is that…”

  “Beef tomato onion soup. Your favorite, right? I Saw it in the back of your mind,” she said, casting her eyes to the floor.

  “My mind?”

  She grimaced and looked out the window. “I knew you wouldn’t remember. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  When did she…? Smoke in his lungs, face slick with blood. His head in her lap. Her palms, hot on his skin. Then freedom. “No,” he said, “I wanted you to. I remember.”

  “I should have just trusted you,” she said, setting the soup down on the side table.

  “I never gave you a reason to,” he said, “but at least I could show you. Did you See what happened with Jessa?”

  “Yeah,” she gasped, “I’m so sorry, I was so stupid. I made it happen, I created the nightmare I was so afraid of.”

  “No, you didn’t,” Hale said, smiling softly. “Jessa did. If she didn’t kiss me right then, she probably would have on some other occasion. She’s… bold.”

  “That’s one way to put it,” Keira said, shaking away the look of regret in her eyes. “Still.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Hale said, “Ever. Sometimes things happen that we don’t understand. Sometimes it’s things happening to us, sometimes it’s things we do to ourselves. But we can’t go back and change what happened, only how we move on from there.”

  “When did you get so enlightened?” Keira said, grin peeking at the corners of her mouth.

  “Probably when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, wincing. “Dancing with death will do that.”

  Keira nodded thoughtfully. She reached over and brushed a swatch of hair from his forehead. “I Saw something else. About the Captain.”

  “That was stupid of me to keep it from you—“