“We’re getting off track, ladies,” Lucas said. “These are all things we can discuss when we’re back at home safe and sound, right?”
“Oh of course,” Jordan said. “Evil dark magic user to beat before we traumatize them with stories of dragons, vampires and hellhounds.”
I wasn’t even going to ask if what Jordan said was true. I hoped it wasn’t, but it likely was. I shivered and peered over at Kane. His face was pale and he was shaking his head no. Poor guy didn’t seem to like the sound of that either.
“One thing at time,” I said. “Let’s open our books and find out if the Fates have anything to say today.”
Everyone was quiet as they opened their books and looked for a new entry. There was one in mine so I assumed everyone else had one as well and I began reading.
Damien is a dark soul now. Your lightness will be a beacon to his darkness and he will try to take that lightness away from you. Stay connected to your Meraki and do not let the darkness in.
There is more lightness inside you than any other Guardian before you and if you can beat the darkness, you will succeed in your mission today. If you let the darkness in, even the smallest amount, you will fail and Arvata will be no more. You have the knowledge needed to defeat Damien and you will need all eight of you to succeed.
Remember lightness will always win if you have faith in it.
I glanced up to see if the others were done and by the look on some of their faces, they received similar entries as mine.
“I’m assuming we all have similar entries,” Oliver said. “Stay connected with your Meraki. The darkness is coming for us and if we can’t fight it and let lightness win then Arvata will fall. Think that about sums it up.”
“While I like to joke about most things and make light of the situation,” Jordan snickered. “No pun intended, dark magic is to be taken seriously. I’ve fought dark magic in the Otherworld and it’s easy to fall victim to it. It’s a mental war, you must know what is real and not real. I don’t know how Damien will use his dark magic against us, but be prepared for the worst.”
“What if Damien has already been using dark magic on Tiana, Lela and Ryan?” Kane asked. “Will they be okay?”
“Strix said they were fine,” I said. “Damien won’t hurt them if he thinks he can use them to his benefit.”
That still worried me though. We had no idea how unstable Damien was at this point, or how powerful he might have become after draining the magic from the Falls for the last few days. I was trying to trust the Fates, but it was hard when there were so many lives on the line.
“Kali, does that go along with what you found?” Oliver asked. “Or did you find something different?”
“It goes along with it,” I said. “I found more information about Clara and Samuel and it’ll help us, but with this new information, it won’t be as easy as it sounds. We don’t connect our powers with the eight of us, but we need to only connect with our Meraki’s. We’ll need to have the four pairs surrounding Damien and deflect any dark magic he throws our way. Once we are set up around him, we will suffocate him in light magic.”
I paused to take a deep breath. That sounded a lot easier than I knew it was going to be.
“Damien’s soul has turned so dark that he won’t survive the lightness,” I continued. “It will literally destroy him from the inside out just like it did when we defeated the beast in the forest.”
“How are we going to get the others out?” Oliver asked.
I looked to Lucas, I really had no idea and I didn’t want to tell Oliver that, but it was Jordan that spoke up first.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “I’ve trained in shields my whole life. I know their ins and outs and how to manipulate them. If someone can cause a distraction, Kane and I can swoop around to where they are and I know I can break into that shield.” Jordan let out a heavy sigh. “I just need enough time to do it.”
“Strix,” I said out loud. “Damien already knows I’m the Arelia, so why don’t we come in guns blazing? I could hit him with water and cause the distraction Jordan needs.”
“I’m not sure what guns blazing is, but yes, the water distraction would be a good idea.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed so hard. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. I probably was insane. My life was certifiably crazy now.
“Sorry about that,” I said. “Strix said that will work.”
“Okay then,” Jordan said. “Let’s get moving before Kali has another outburst of crazy.”
I laughed some more because if I didn’t, the reality of all this would crush me. I would not allow this to break me. I would not fail my friends and family.
“When Jordan and Kane get the others out, we need to position ourselves quickly,” Lucas said. “Like a compass surrounding Damien. Kali and I will be in the North corner, Jordan and Kane in the South, Lela and Ryan in the East, and Tiana and Oliver in the West. For us to be most effective with the light magic attack, we need to stay like this.”
“If even one pair is disabled,” I added. “we won’t be able to win. Focus on defensive strategies until we are all ready and then we can turn on the full power.”
“If you are connected to your Meraki, it will be a lot harder for Damien to manipulate you,” Lucas said. “The benefit of Damien trying to attack us with dark magic is the more he uses it, the weaker he will get.”
I looked around at the others. There was a fierceness and determination in all their faces, but there was also worry and doubt. They were right to worry. This wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but I hoped they also believed in our strength enough to know we could do this.
All of us needed to believe we could succeed. Otherwise, we would all fail.
“Remember what the Fates wrote,” I said. “Trust that they would not lead us in the wrong direction. Recall that determination we had earlier when we didn’t want to lose this new world most of us just found. We can do this.”
“You’re right, Kali,” Jordan said. “What we’ve learned only helps us be more prepared. While the information may be intimidating, it’s more useful than anything else.”
We grabbed our bags and put our books away as we got ready to leave. This was it. There was no turning back now. We would save Tiana, Lela and Ryan and then defeat Damien. I was ready was to be done with this.
“Strix, can you do one last fly-over and see if Damien is by himself?” I asked out loud. “If Abram is there, that changes our plan a little bit.”
I learned from Strix earlier that he had the ability to shield himself differently than us. Neither dark nor light magic could sense him. He could become invisible whenever he wanted, which made me feel better knowing I didn’t have to worry about him as well.
Strix flew off and disappeared into the sky. A few moments late,r he let me know Damien was by himself and he would stay there hidden while we made our way to him. I wasn’t sure how he was going to help us beat Damien yet, but I was glad to know he’d be in our corner.
“Strix said Damien is by himself for now,” I said to the others. “He’s standing in the water that pools beneath the Falls and the Falls only has a slight trickle left. Strix will stay hidden there until we need him.”
“Let’s head out then,” Oliver said anxiously.
I walked over to Lucas and we connected our powers. Oliver looked at us longingly and I knew he was missing Tiana. I felt for him, but I was grateful I wasn’t in his shoes either. We’d get Tiana back soon. Oliver turned and marched away from us.
Jordan and Kane connected as well and we followed Lucas. Things were getting tenser the closer we got to the Falls. I hoped Oliver could hang in there a little bit longer. We couldn’t afford for him to lose his cool right before we got to the others.
I squeezed Lucas’s hand a little tighter and asked the Fates to please make sure we all made it out of here in one piece.
Nobody talked on the rest of the walk to the Falls and the silence was be
coming heavy on our morale. I was about to say something when Jordan piped in first.
“Are we walking to a funeral or are we getting ready to go defeat the asshat who tried to destroy our home?” Jordan asked. “This is too depressing. We need a pep talk or something to get riled up, like those football players do in the locker room before a big game.”
“Should we make a war cry and paint our faces?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yes! Let’s find some mud and line our faces and give at least one good hoorah!”
“I was kidding,” I said. “I’ll gladly give you a quiet hoorah. If you wanted to do a war cry we should’ve done it when Damien wasn’t so close. We don’t want to risk him sensing us any earlier than necessary.”
“Sorry Mom,” Jordan said. “Should have thought of that earlier. What was I thinking?”
Everyone laughed quietly and that was all it took for the depressing mood to be broken. We kept going along with our heads held a little higher. Every minute or so, I’d hear a quiet hoorah coming from Jordan and the laughter would start again.
“I recognize this area,” Lucas said quietly. “The Falls are right around this corner. Is everyone ready?”
Everyone nodded and took an extra moment with our Merakis. Lucas reached for me and brought me close.
“Are you ready for this, blue eyes?” He asked while holding my face in his hands.
“As ready as I can be. I’m worried for us, but I’m mostly worried for Tiana, Lela and Ryan. What if we can’t save them?”
“Don’t think like that,” Lucas said. “Believe in the Fates, believe that each of us serves a purpose, and believe we can do this. Together. I love you and I won’t let anything happen to us.”
He was right, I couldn’t think about the what-ifs. I needed to go into this knowing that we could do this.
“A part of me still wants to go back to before my birthday when I was clueless to all of this,” I said. “Live in my little cottage with Jordan and finish school, but then I wouldn’t have met you and now that I have, I can’t picture my life without you.”
“While I can’t promise it will be easy,” Lucas said. “I can promise that everything will work out exactly how it is meant to be. I feel it in here.”
Lucas placed my hand on his chest above his heart and I felt it beating fast. I concentrated on his heartbeat and grounded myself again. Everything happened for a reason and if we didn’t win today, it was never meant to be.
“Sorry for being a negative Nancy,” I said. “I just wish we were more prepared.”
“It’s called on the job training,” Lucas smiled. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
He slid his hands down my arms and kissed me with everything he had. I felt his love for me in every swipe of his tongue as he kissed me senseless. Every time we connected like this, our bond grew stronger. I knew without a doubt that we could get through anything together.
Jordan cleared her throat loud enough so we would know it was meant for Lucas and me.
“Alright, love birds,” Jordan said. “Enough sucking face. Let’s go kick some ass.”
“Yes Mom,” I said using Jordan’s earlier word against her.
Lucas and I separated and the five of us started walking again. We came around the last corner before the Falls and my heart sank. There was nothing that could have prepared us for the amount devastation we saw surrounding the Falls and man who was causing it.
Chapter Fifteen
Everything was dry and colorless. I’d never seen the Falls up close before, but I knew the damage I was seeing here was severe. The vines that ran up the side of the Falls were leafless and cracked. The water was a murky gray color instead of the vibrant blue I remembered from my dream. Trees drooped with no life left to them at all.
Next, I saw who I assumed was Damien standing in the pool of water beneath the Falls. He had his back to us and I could see mist rising from the water. He was pulling the magic right out of the water that sustained Arvata.
I looked to the left and Tiana, Lela and Ryan were standing under a dead tree. It didn’t look like there was anything there at first, but then I saw a shimmer around them like they were stuck in a globe. I nodded to Jordan, and her and Kane went behind the trees to go to them.
“Hello Damien,” Lucas called out.
I was surprised when Damien turned around. For some reason, I had it in my head that he’d be old and wrinkly. Damien was neither of those things. He had piercing black eyes, soulless eyes that likely starred in many nightmares, and long brown hair that was tied back with some vine. His skin was smooth and pale white, almost translucent.
“I was wondering when the Elders would send someone to attempt to stop me,” Damien said. “I must say I am disappointed. Did they think me so weak from the years of imprisonment that they sent children to do their job?”
Good, he didn’t know I had figured out I was the Arelia already, but he’d know soon enough. I knew I had it in me to destroy him and I was happy to let him think he had the upper hand for now.
“You’re missing at least two of you though,” Damien looked around. “I sensed eight of you in the forest.”
“Use the distraction Kaliah,” Strix said to me.
I pulled water from the air around us so I didn’t accidently drain the Falls more than Damien already had. I swirled the water around and funneled it like a tornado around Damien. His long hair whipped around as the water moved faster. He shot a dark orb from his hands, but it was swept up in the current of the water.
I kept the tornado going fast while adding more water to it until we could no longer see Damien. I watched Jordan and Kane working at the shield. I didn’t know how long I could keep up with this current of water. I could feel the well of magic within me slowly depleting.
Strix flew down and was helping Jordan with the shield. I could hear Damien’s shouts and saw more orbs flowing through the funnel of the tornado as Damien tried his hardest to break through the water.
“Jordan’s almost done,” Lucas said beside me. “Keep Damien confined for a bit longer if you can.”
I nodded to him and then glanced toward Jordan and the others. I saw a small opening in the shield finally. Strix flew back up in the sky and Tiana stepped out of the shield first.
Oliver ran to her and swooped her up into his arms. I could see tears streaming down Tiana’s face and couldn’t help but have some of my own tears gathering in my eyes. Lela was next and then Ryan. Once they were all out, they ran toward Lucas and me.
I slowly let up on the water and we could see Damien again. His face was red from the obvious agitation I caused him. He didn’t expect me to be able to do that and I was pretty happy to have caught him off guard.
“Nice to see you, Arelia,” Damien smirked. “I hope you had a nice transition.”
“It was quite pleasant, thank you.” I smirked right back. “How did you like the water show?”
Damien scowled and turned as he realized there were more of us there.
“Impressive, but not enough,” Damien said. “I’m almost done here and then there will be nothing you can do to stop me. A few of you might even join me.”
“If you’re so confident in that statement, why don’t you come out of the water and show us how superior you are?” Jordan called out.
I hoped she knew what she was doing because I didn’t think it wise to poke the bull.
“Are you that eager to join me, child?” Damien asked as he walked out of the water and toward Jordan and Kane. “Maybe I should start with you then.”
I finally saw what she was doing. Jordan knew she had the strongest shield and by making him come to her, we could position ourselves around him. She was a genius, a crazy one, but genius nonetheless.
As Damien got closer to Jordan and Kane, I nodded to Tiana and Oliver to move behind him.
“If you’d like to live a longer, more fulfilling life, why don’t you join me?” Damien requested sweetly to Jordan. “I alw
ays did like the feisty ones.”
“When hell freezes over,” Jordan spat out. “I already have a long, fulfilling life ahead of me. I won’t be needing your offer.”
Damien stepped back and saw that he was surrounded. His stare lingered on each of us for just a moment before deciding his next move.
Mist started spreading out from his skin and heading in each of our directions. I had no idea what he intended to do, but I knew it wasn’t good. That mist was black and I had no intention of letting it touch me.
“Shields now!” I called out and hoped it would be enough to stop the dark mist from harming any of us.
I saw the dark mist attempt to hit Oliver and Tiana, but all it did was surround their shield without touching them. I just hoped the other shields continued to hold.
Next closest were Lucas and I and the same thing happened. The dark mist couldn’t penetrate our shield. I looked over at Ryan and Lela, and cried out. Lela was safe, but I could see the dark mist seeping into Ryan. This could not be happening.
“Lela stay connected to him,” I called out. “We can’t lose him, keep sending your light magic through him to counteract the darkness of the mist.”
“Ryan, can you hear me? Don’t you dare leave me here alone,” Lela said to him with a sob. “We had a deal and I’m not letting you back out now.”
Ryan was laying on the ground with Lela leaning over him. He had to fight his own battle now and we could only hope the lightness won. Lela could try to help bring him around, but nobody could truly do this except Ryan.
“Jordan, do not leave them unprotected,” I said. “We need him.”
Jordan nodded with understanding and I watched as she concentrated on Lela and Ryan. Her shield was now extended to them and that would have to be good enough for now.
“Why are you here, Damien?” I asked. “What is the point of all of this?”
“I’m here because of revenge, plain and simple.” He shrugged. “Your ancestors took something away from me and now I shall repay the favor. They had no right to take away my magic and lock me up.” Damien’s eyes narrowed at me. “Now I will take all of the magic from Arvata and use it however I see fit, and nobody will be able to stop me.”
To the Falls Page 12