by Kaitlyn Hoyt
“Are you ready?” he asks me. I bring my attention back to him. “I’m not going to take it easy anymore.”
Yeah, cause he was taking it easy on me before. Cocky jerk. I keep my shield up and continue pushing magic into my arm, but I don’t answer him. When Zahtri takes a step toward me, I step back mirroring his stance. I can move my arm again, so I know my magic is working. It’s not working as fast as I want it to, but I’m not complaining.
“How do you think your soulmate will react to your death?” he asks me. I stop pushing my magic into my arm and start calling it around me. He wants to do this my way. I’m about to show him what my way really means.
Zahtri takes another step forward, so I do the opposite. I just need a few more seconds and then I’ll be able to fully go up against him.
“What made you change your mind?” I ask in an attempt to stall him. “You could have easily ended me when I was lying on the ground. You had your opportunity. You had a weapon, and I was injured. Why’d you change your mind?” I ask again.
“There’s something about you,” he says. “I like you.”
“You’re just prolonging the inevitable. One or both of us is going to end up dead. There’s no way to change this scenario.”
“You could join me,” he suggests with a wide smile.
“That’s not an option,” I tell him. I’d rather die than work with him. He keeps suggesting that because he already knows what my response is going to be.
“Didn’t think so,” he says, “which is why you’re going to die here. Look around. This will be the last thing you see. I’m going to be the last man you see before your eyes forever close. Not your soulmate. Not your protector. Me. You’ll never see that soulmate of yours again. He’s going to be so guilt ridden after your death that it’ll make killing him that much easier. You’ll have your own little Romeo and Juliet story. Isn’t that what all you girls want? A romantic story?”
I feel my magic strengthening around me at the mention of him killing Colton. That’s not going to happen. If I’m going to die here, I’m taking Zahtri with me. He can’t come out of this alive.
“After your soulmate, I’ll move onto his Uncle. The old man won’t last very long. It’ll be easy. In his heyday, he may have been a good fighter. Maybe even one of the best, but he’s getting old. He hasn’t been training as often. It’ll be easy. One simple swipe of a blade and he’ll be a goner.”
My magic is bubbling to the surface. I can feel it moving around me waiting to heed my command. He’s not going to kill Tom. I just need a few more seconds to gather enough magic. I push my shield around my mind. I don’t need Zahtri reading my thoughts. He already knows I’m planning something, but hopefully he doesn’t know what. Surprise has to be on my side for this.
“Then, I’ll move onto that protector of yours. Little Liam. He’s tough, I have firsthand knowledge of that, but when a mage finds their soulmate, their focus changes. He’s determined to protect you and her. He can’t do both. With you out of the picture, his focus will be entirely on her. Soulmates are a weakness. Hurt her, I hurt him. It’s a domino effect.
Zahtri continues moving forward.
“He’ll grieve her death and like your soulmate, it’ll make him easier to kill. It doesn’t matter how good of a fighter they are. When you hurt someone they love, they become weak. They become easy kills. It’ll be a breeze. Killing Liam, I’ll get my payback for this,” he motions to the scar running down his face and neck. “I’ll enjoy watching him struggle. I’ll enjoy seeing the anger for me leave his eyes as he dies next to her. It’ll be fun.
“You’ll set it all off. They all love you,” he says. “In the end, it all comes down to you. You, Ryanne, will be responsible for their deaths.”
“You cannot pin this on me, Zahtri. You cannot blame any of this on me. If it didn’t happen tonight, it would have happened eventually. You cannot say that all of this is surprising. You can’t tell me that you didn’t see this coming. You are responsible for all of this. You are the reason that there is a fight here. Not me.”
I’m about to push my magic out when I’m hit with an unforeseen force and am sent flying backward. Sometime during Zahtri’s taunts, I must have dropped my shield. My back slams into the trunk of a tree and I fall limply to the ground. I attempt to slow my fall, but the magic took me by surprise and I fall like a ton of bricks to the ground where I remain.
I need to get up. I need to fight.
But I can’t.
Colton
Any ideas? Liam’s voice speaks in my mind. I hear a collective gasp around me, and it takes all of my willpower not to turn around and look at Ryanne. I know something is going on. I want to see that she’s alright, but I can’t.
Do I have any ideas? There has to be something.
I’m about to reply to Liam when a man barrels into me, knocking me to the ground. The air is knocked out of me when I land on the hard grass. Rolling onto my back, I get a good look at the man that ran into me. Jedrek rolls to the side with a grimace on his face. I push myself up and move toward him.
“What did you do?” I whisper to him.
He reaches down and pulls a small dagger out of his side. Blood starts oozing out of the wound. “You…you didn’t see it….coming. It’s,” he gasps and lies on his back, trying to take deep breaths, “tainted with d-d-dark magi…” he trails off.
“Jedrek where is the antidote?” I can’t let him die like this. He just saved my life. He saved Natalie’s life earlier, and even though Ryanne doesn’t know him well, she does care about him. I have to do something.
“N-no more. Used all of…it,” he sputters. “Now, you can…stop D-d-ravin.” He rests his head on the ground. I push myself up into a seated position. His normally pale skin is turning an ashy shade of gray—the color of death. There’s literally nothing I can do to save him. Jedrek is going to die, and all I can do is watch.
“Ssssave her, Colton. Don’t l-let her go,” he says as his eyes slowly close. The blood is still pouring out of the wound on his side, but his breathing stops.
“Jedrek?” I stare at his chest, waiting for the subtle rise and fall. “Come on, don’t do this.” I hit his chest. He can’t just save me and then die. It’s not supposed to work like that. The good guys are supposed to survive.
“Larkin,” I say quietly, knowing that he’ll come.
Larkin transports in behind me. I can see the anger in his expression. I saw what happened to Kyril, and I know that Larkin and Kyril were really close. “Can you move his body?” I ask him. “I want to give him a proper burial when all of this is over.”
Without saying anything to me, Larkin bends down and touches Jedrek’s shoulder and leaves the clearing. Jedrek died saving my life. Ryanne’s father saved Natalie and me today. Who knows how many people he gave the antidote to while we were fighting—how many people he saved. I stand up and look back in Dravin’s direction. I don’t know where his body was moved to, but I can’t focus on that. Liam needs my help right now.
Turning around, I find Liam and Dravin very much concentrated on their fighting. Unsheathing my sword, I slowly move behind Dravin. It looks like Dravin has stopped the mental attacks and is just focusing on his fighting. Liam has a split lip and blood dripping down his arm. Even though he has a larger sword on his back, he is only fighting with a dagger. I see blood sliding down Dravin’s forearm and blood oozing down his throat from a cut on his cheek. Both of them are injured, but neither one is wavering. They’re not going to stop until this is finished. I can help finish it.
Liam moves forward and thrusts the dagger into Dravin’s side. Dravin grunts, but doesn’t stop fighting. Hastily removing the weapon, Liam steps back and blocks Dravin’s punch. Blood starts soaking Dravin’s shirt and spreading down his torso.
If I can move without being noticed, I may be able to end this right now. Liam’s eyes quickly move in my direction, but they continue moving across the clearing as if he doesn’t see me. He can’
t make it obvious that I’m coming. My cover could be blown.
As Liam continues to fight, I move forward, little by little, keeping my eyes on Dravin, but my ears open to the crowd around me. I don’t need to get stabbed with a dagger right now. This could be what we need. Liam moves to the right and deflects Dravin’s punch. He’s fighting in a way that keeps Dravin’s back to me, giving me the outing I need. The shot I need to finally end this. I hear another scream behind me, but it’s not Ryanne’s. I’m unsure of who it actually belonged to.
I take another step further. Liam ducks to avoid Dravin’s arm. While down, he punches Dravin in the gut. When Dravin doubles over, Liam stands up and nods at me. Dravin looks over his shoulder at the same moment as I swing my sword around and using all the force I can muster, I sweep the blade through his neck. Dravin attempts to move, but it’s too late. My sword pushes through flesh and bone and makes a clean cut all the way through. His eyes widen and mouth opens as his head rolls off his shoulders and bounces on the ground. His body falls to its knees before it lies down and blood begins pooling onto the grass beneath. Panting, Liam looks up at me and nods. We did it.
Without knowing it, Jedrek saved my life and helped us stop Dravin.
One down…how many more to go?
I turn around and look at the clearing where Ryanne and Zahtri are supposed to be. Zahtri is moving toward Ryanne…who is lying unmoving beneath a tree. The wood is splintered at the base which tells me Ryanne was forcefully thrown into it.
Without giving me any advance notice, my invisibility takes over. Seeing that, Liam turns and looks in her direction. She’s supposed to be doing this on her own, but she really could use some help.
“There’s nothing we can do Colton. I want to help her too, but we can’t,” Liam tells me.
“She’s unconscious, Liam!” I can’t just let her get killed while she’s unconscious. I can’t lose her like that.
Hearing another scream to my right, I turn and see Emma brandishing a medieval spiked flail against a few Gadramicks. She’s having too much fun with her conjuring power. It wasn’t her who screamed though. It was Natalie. She’s fighting next to James, but James is busy with two Gadramicks and Natalie is trying to fight a man much larger than her. Liam tenses beside me and attempts to make his way over to her, but there are too many people in between us.
I scan the clearing. Larkin should be back by now. He wouldn’t skip out on something like this. He wants to avenge Kyril’s death. I see him transporting back and forth a few feet behind us. He’s moving between two larger groups of Gadramicks. He’s going to get himself killed at his rate.
“Larkin!” I call.
Larkin’s eye move away from the men he’s fighting and connect with mine even though I’m invisible. I blink and suddenly he’s in front of me. Again, he doesn’t speak.
“Can you go help Natalie?” I ask him. Liam points across the field to his soulmate. Larkin’s eye move in that direction and he disappears. I look back over there and watch as Larkin appears behind the man. I don’t keep watching to see what happens. When Liam relaxes beside me, it’s safe to assume that Natalie is okay. I look around the clearing again looking for anyone that needs help.
I seriously hope this is almost over. I’m not sure we can handle much more. Seeing Tom, Vincent, Colin, and Chris fighting in the middle of the field, I start to make my way over to them. Liam moves to the right to try and get to his soulmate. Lucky. As I take a few steps forward, I glance back across the clearing in Ryanne’s direction. She and Zahtri have disappeared. Where did they go? Damn it. Why am I always losing her?
With renewed vigor and my invisibility, I push through everyone. I wipe the bloodied sword on my black pants and push it back into the sheath. I don’t want to kill any more people tonight. Too much blood has already been shed. Too many lives have already been lost.
Throwing a punch to the side, I knock an unsuspecting man to the ground and continue moving forward. Tom and his group are now only a few feet ahead of me. No one attempts to touch me as I progress the last few feet.
“Tom, did you see where Ryanne went?” I ask as I stop beside him.
“No,” he answers even though he can’t see me, “but she disappeared before Zahtri got to her. I’m hoping her magic kicked in and helped her. She was unconscious last time I saw and Zahtri disappeared shortly afterwards.” He reaches out and punches the man in front of him. “He’s probably searching for her.”
Ryanne is gone, and Zahtri is searching for her. I suppress my groan and focus on the fight around me. The sooner this is over, the better. The sooner I know what happened, the better. I see Liam fighting alongside Natalie. With Dravin gone and Zahtri missing, the Gadramicks have no one to follow. I can see a few of them looking around confused. Everyone they looked up to is gone.
I try to push my invisibility away. It is helpful, but right now I want these guys to see me. I want them to see my face as I fight them. I want them to see the person they are fighting and see my anger for what is going on. I’m tired of seeing death, and I want this all to end.
Before all my invisibility has disappeared, I start to fight one of the Gadramicks who had moved toward Tom. Tom has always been there for me growing up, and I don’t plan on having that change anytime soon. Like the guys around him, I’ve got his back.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see fire dancing around. Turning in that direction, I see two trees completely engulfed in flames. That has to be Bragden’s or Incendia’s work. They’re creating a distraction, but for what?
Chapter Thirty-One
Ugh, my whole body aches. Keeping my eyes closed, I roll onto my back. I don’t feel like anything is broken, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t broken at one time. Where am I? Opening my eyes, I look up and see…trees. A canopy of tree leaves is all I can see. I’m in the middle of the forest? I push myself up, ignoring the dull pain that spreads through my body from the movement and get a good look at my surroundings. I’m in the middle of the forest. What happened to the battle? I was fighting Zahtri. Where is he?
Standing up, I spin in a circle looking for anything that can tell me what happened or where I am. There’s absolutely nothing. How did I get here?
I stretch out my muscles, and I don’t even try to keep in my pained cry as I move. My back is killing me. What the heck happened to me?
I pause. Zahtri. Zahtri did this to me. He…what did he do? He did something.
I was calling my magic to me. I was going to attack him, but he got to me first. He hit me with some form of magic, but how does that explain how I got here? How did I get to this part of the forest…alone?
Why do I still have more questions and no way to find answers?
Well, this just sucks. How long was I even unconscious?
I push my magic through my body, trying to heal the rest of my injuries before I attempt to go back to the clearing. I don’t know what I’ll find back there, so I need to be prepared. There’s a multitude of scenarios that could play out or are already playing out.
I take a few steps forward. There’s literally nothing but trees around me. The forest is quiet. Like so many other times I’ve been in a forest recently, it’s too quiet. I don’t hear any birds chirping or flying around. There are no animals scurrying along the fallen leaves on the ground. The sound of insects flapping their wings and buzzing through the air is nonexistent. There isn’t a breeze rustling the leaves together. It’s silent. A forest is supposed to be full of life. Not silent.
I walk over to a fallen tree branch and sit down, letting my magic run its course. I can feel myself being healed as I wait. I’ll remain here for a few more minutes and then I’ll go back. No matter what, I need to get back. I need to see what has happened while I was out.
While I heal, I continue to scan the forest. I have a feeling that my own magic brought me here, but why this spot? What is so special about this area? The ache in my body is slowly dissipating. It doesn’t hurt to move anymore, but I kn
ow that fighting or continuous use will cause it to return. My eyes move to the right and linger on a rather large oak tree.
I push myself off the log and slowly walk toward the tree. As I get closer to it, I see something carved a few feet off the ground into the bark. Stopping in front of it, I see a heart. Though faded, it looks like the letters SW and LW. I wonder who carved them there…what was their story?
I’m about to step back when an unfamiliar warm feeling spreads through me. Love and…happiness? This is different from the feelings I’m usually around. This is an old feeling. I feel all the pain leave me. All the unease and uncertainty is gone. I feel confident. I feel prepared.
I don’t know who those people were, but they have definitely helped me. They gave me courage. I’m finally ready to end this.
I’m ready to fight.
I’m now confident in my abilities and know that I can do this.
Closing my eyes, I focus on the clearing. I think about Colton and Liam. I think about my family. I don’t know if this will work. I’ve never attempted to actually transport myself somewhere before. Usually my magic just…takes me where I need to be.
I push my magic out and spiral it around me. I don’t know how much magic it’ll take to go back there. I close my eyes and concentrate on the magic as it moves through the air. Creating a vortex around me, I start raising my hands. For some reason, extending my hands seems to work for me.
Thinking about my family, I feel a shift in the air. Pushing more out, my body tenses and starts to tighten as my magic tries to listen to me. Transportation is not one of my powers, so I have no idea how long this could take. A familiar sharpness spreads through my torso. My airways constrict as if someone has reached into my chest and squeezed my lungs. My legs and arms feel like jello and I feel myself being pulled backward. I keep my eyes closed as I move through the air. Concentrating on the clearing, I wait until I feel myself stop moving.