“It matters not. Clearly, Sabella has found a way to create her own orb. I will simply have her do for me what Mori refused.”
“And why would I help you?” she snapped.
Baladon aimed his staff at me, the stone glowing red. I readjusted my grip on the hilt of my sword, waiting to throw myself out of the way. “If you want him to live long enough to see the end of the realms, you will tell him and your friends to leave without you.”
“Not happening,” I muttered. “Never going to happen.”
“I am not talking to you.”
“Deal,” Sabella said suddenly.
My heart dropped to the floor.
“What?”
Baladon grinned that nightmarish smile again and lowered his staff. “Well now, this is interesting. You really are lovesick for this pup, aren’t you?”
“Let my mother loose, and you have a deal,” she stated.
“Sabella, what the hell are you doing?” I growled, but she ignored me.
I went to take a step toward her, but warmth flowed up my legs, and I stilled.
Baladon’s full focus was on Sabella, not on me or the light that was slowly surrounding my feet and moving up within me.
Sabella was moving closer to Farrah, and in doing so, Baladon showed me his back. I doubted I could kill him this easily, but it might be enough of the distraction she needed to get Farrah free and make a run for it.
The fighting was growing worse back in the main tunnel. Several screams reached my ears, and the ground shook again from whatever magic Greyson or Lucy were throwing at the minions.
“If you let Farrah go, at least from these restraints, Tristan and the others will leave, and I’ll stay.”
Baladon’s claws clicked on his staff as his fingers rhythmically moved along it. “Agreed, but if you attempt to leave, I will find your wolf and slaughter him and his entire pack. Do we understand each other?”
Sabella nodded. “I won’t try to leave. Free her.”
Baladon bowed his horned head. “Very well.” He waved his hand over the tendrils holding Farrah.
She slumped forward in her chair, and the moment Sabella had her arm around her mother, she screamed.
“Now.”
There was a blinding flash, and I felt myself given an extra boost as I launched myself through the air and buried my blade to the hilt right where Baladon’s heart would be.
He bellowed as I released the blade, glowing with a light that could only come from Sabella, and hit the ground hard. He thrashed, spinning around, trying to snatch me in his claws, but I was already running out of the room, following Sabella who was struggling to get Farrah to move faster.
“You will not escape me!” Baladon’s roar followed us.
I caught up with them and picked up Farrah in my arms, yelling at Sabella to keep going. Her mother’s head lolled against my arm, her eyes fluttering open every now and then, but the light within her was so dim, she didn’t have long.
“Tristan. We have to go,” Kate yelled as we reached the main tunnel where Agris, two other gods, and Craig fought to push back the minions; they were no longer fighting, just holding the line.
“Kate, go,” Sabella ordered. “Get everyone out.”
I handed Farrah over to Craig. He and Kate retreated. Sabella and I took their place in the line, the light blasting from her hands shooting through the minions of darkness.
“Agris, get them and get out,” she yelled as she blasted another row backward, her eyes shining as bright as her hands. “You have to go, now.”
Agris cursed, but yanked the two gods back by their collars and they took off.
“You, too,” she said to me as she backed up, using the light as a shield to block the advancing minions from reaching us.
“Not leaving your side. How long can you hold the shield?”
“Long enough to get to the others, I hope.”
I rested my hand on her shoulder, ready to give her whatever strength she needed, and we worked our way back down the tunnel, retreating to the gods we managed to rescue and those few fighters we’d brought with us for the fight. They weren’t without injury, but so far, they were all alive.
Sabella winced, and the light flickered, letting two minions through.
I shifted and lunged at them, biting through bone and shadowy flesh, tearing them to shreds before they could reach Sabella. She grunted as she reinforced the shield and then Craig was there to help me fend off the few getting past her.
“We’re here,” I said as I shifted back. “Sabella, the orb.”
“Take it from the pouch. As soon as I let this fall, they’ll be on us. Get everyone gathered up—”
Her words were cut off when a bolt of shadow struck her in the right shoulder, cutting through the shield of light. Her arms fell, but Agris was there, supporting a partially conscious Farrah and the shield held. Barely.
“Sabella?” I pressed my palm against the blood flowing from the wound as she blinked furiously. Trying to stay awake.
“I’m fine, get… get them ready.” She pulled the pouch from her hip, handing it to me.
Then she was back beside her mother, taking Farrah’s hand. The shield flared bright white and with a furious growl, knowing this was our only way out, I carefully pulled the orb free, yelling for everyone to huddle as close together as they could.
Baladon yelled as he drew closer.
A second bolt of shadow burst through the light, striking Farrah in the chest. She gasped, collapsing to the ground and nearly taking Sabella with her.
I was already moving to block her when a third came, but I took the hit in the leg, snarling in pain.
“The orb.” It was in my hands, and I held it out for Sabella. “Take it. We have to go.”
Blood covered her whole right side, and her eyes widened as she looked behind me.
She shoved me down and then she screamed as another strike caught her left shoulder. She held onto the orb with shaking hands, and I closed mine around hers. The shield was faltering, and any second now, Baladon was going to be there to finish us off. But then the orb started to glow with power and Sabella lowered her head as the light pulsed outward.
“I can’t hold on,” she whispered, and I bent my head to hers, lending her the strength I had left.
The orb warmed, but the light from the shield suddenly vanished. I glanced over my shoulder.
Baladon.
His minions parted for his massive form, the sword I’d stabbed him with gone from his body.
His lip pulled back, revealing rows of sharp, fanged teeth as he lifted his staff. The red stone flared to life, and as he slammed it down, Sabella yanked her hand free from the orb and my grasp. With a yell, she thrust her hand outward, and a flash of pure white light exploded from her body, in a head-crash with the red one that was on a trajectory to kill us.
The resounding explosion made me deaf and blind as we were thrown every which way.
And then there was nothing.
I felt Sabella collapse beside me, but couldn’t see, couldn’t hear anything.
Someone was yelling and then nothing but utter silence.
18
Sabella
I expected to be on my ass after Baladon’s attack, but I was standing, and everywhere I looked was a warm, soft light like the sun. The sun I’d missed so very much.
When I spun back around, Farrah stood before me, smiling softly and it hit me.
The blast from Baladon, our being thrown out of his realm…
“Shit, I’m dead aren’t I,” I surmised.
Farrah laughed lightly. “No, Sabella, you are not dead.”
“You sure?” I reached up to feel both my shoulders, expecting to find blood on my hands, but there was nothing. And I was dressed in a white gown of silk. “Yeah, this feels like I’m dead.”
“This is where every soul goes before they find their way to the afterlife, including those of the gods,” Farrah explained as she took my hands and cl
asped them in hers. “My daughter, all these years you’ve suffered, and now that I finally get to see you, talk to you…” Tears shone in her eyes, and my heart broke.
“You’re dying,” I whispered.
She nodded.
Tears threatened. “No, that’s not… we came to save you. You can’t die now. I need you.”
“I will always be with you, even though you can’t see me.”
“It’s not the same. Crane’s dead. And now you? And you know this is kind of that time in my life where I could use a mother figure. I just got married, and there’s a war going on, and I’m not exactly sure where I fit in with all of this.”
She hugged me, and I buried my face in her shoulder, breathing her in.
“You have nothing to fear going forward. Tristan will always take care of you. You just have to trust in each other to see this through to the end. I would not have found a way to bless your union if I did not believe his love for you is genuine.”
“Even if that end is with us dying?” I said, pulling back. “My vision… that’s what it means, right?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. But I can tell you, you will only grow strong because of the sacrifice you were willing to make. Your true self will be unleashed and that my dear, is what matters most.”
“Why the hell can’t you tell me more?”
She laughed again, kissing my forehead.
There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, conversations I wanted to have with her, but I felt her slipping away from me already. “If you know, just tell me.”
“This is a journey you must take without my direct influence. Trust in yourself, Sabella.”
“Not so easy when you’re half mad.”
She cupped my face in her hands and stared at me. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t be there for you when you needed us most, but we are so very proud of you.”
“We?” I asked, and she turned me around.
A man in a robe matching the one Greyson wore stood nearby. And his eyes, his eyes were just like mine.
“Crane?”
“Sabella.” He held out his hand.
I ignored it and went to hug him instead. He held me close, and Farrah joined us, finishing off our small circle of family. I wanted this moment to last forever but felt myself pulling away as Farrah and Crane released me from their embrace.
I clung to their hands, but the light was fading.
“What’s happening?” I asked, worried.
“You must return and finish what you started,” Crane told me.
“How?”
“You have the key, now use it,” he said.
And then they were walking away from me.
I tried to go after them, but there was a bright flash of light, and my parents were gone.
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I called after them, but I was alone as the darkness continued to move in, but this wasn’t Baladon.
I glanced down at my white dress and saw the blood stains on both shoulders, and more on my midriff. Whatever power allowed me this short moment with my parents was taking me back.
My body screamed in pain, and I gasped as I was thrown back into my body just in time to witness my light striking and intercepting Baladon’s attack again.
Then my body left the ground, and cold marble floor was beneath my cheek.
Chaos reigned around me and I felt a hand fumbling for mine before it went limp.
I tried to reach, but the agony was too much, and I collapsed.
19
Tristan
He’s hurt, watch his leg.”
Hank? I grunted in pain as someone pressed a bandage to my right thigh. “Damn it.”
“Tristan, can you hear me? Tristan?”
“Yes, yes, I hear you,” I mumbled in reply and managed to pry my eyes open. “Where are we?”
“Silver Valley, you’re back,” he said, but he wouldn’t look at me, and his voice was strained. His skin was pale, and when I said his name, he shook his head subtly. “I have to stop the bleeding on your leg. Just hold still.”
I looked around, propped up on my elbow.
Greyson and Lucy were being tended to by Hansi not far.
Craig and Kate were holding each other up, bloodied, but alive.
Forrest was bent over a glowing figure on the floor… Mori. We’d gotten her out after all.
More glowing figures moved about, all the gods we managed to rescue. Those who weren’t too weak seemed to be helping those of us wounded in the fight to save them.
Drake and Ashan were there, calling out orders, but there was a heavy sadness in their eyes, in everyone’s eyes.
“Hank. Farrah, and Sabella, where are they?”
He hunched his shoulders, biting his bottom lip as he quickly tugged a bandage around my leg and tied it tight.
“Hank,” I growled and grabbed hold of his arm. “Where are they?”
“You should rest for a moment, get your breath back, alright?”
I shook him hard, and he grunted.
“Where is she.”
“Tristan,” Boris called out, and before I even glanced his way, I knew.
My body went numb. I released Hank and pushed roughly to my feet. The pain in my leg was nothing compared to the hurt I felt now as I walked then stumbled my way as fast as I could to Boris’ side.
“Hey, furball,” Sabella whispered, wincing as Boris and Danielle put pressure on the two wounds at her shoulders.
“Shh, don’t talk right now, just… you just have to hang on. We’ll get you patched up.” I smoothed the hair back from her forehead with a trembling hand. “Farrah?”
Boris shook his head once, and I followed his saddened gaze to the body of the goddess a few yards away. No light shone from her now. Nothing at all. Just a dead body.
“I want you to know… I don’t regret… anything.” Sabella fumbled for my hand.
I caught hers, kissing it fiercely.
“Not a second.”
“Just hush, you’re going to be fine.” I choked the words out.
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Tears slipped from them instead, and she shuddered when Danielle went to move aside her leather chest armor to examine her. She sucked in a breath.
I leaned in. The slash cut right across Sabella’s abdomen and the bleeding… there was no way to stop it.
“I’m tired,” Sabella whispered, and her eyes started to close.
“No, you have to stay awake. Sabella? Look at me, damn it.”
Her eyes opened, and she reached up a bloodied hand to hold my cheek. “I love you… have… have faith, Tristan… promise me… promise you won’t…” She gasped her words out.
I pulled her into my lap, cradling her head as I pleaded for her to come back to me. But then her whole body stilled, and one final breath escaped her mouth.
“Sabella,” I pleaded, feeling for a pulse, waiting for her chest to rise and fall. “No, you can’t leave me, not yet.”
“She’s gone,” Boris said stunned, and a hush fell over the hall.
“She’s not.” I laid her back and breathed into her mouth before I started compressions, needing to feel her pulse, get her heart going. “Don’t you dare die on me. You can’t, alright? I can’t… I can’t do this without you.”
“Tristan,” Boris said and tried to pull me away, but I threw him off with a snarl. “Sabella is dead. She’s not coming back.”
His words were a slap in my face, and my hands stopped their movements as sorrow, unlike anything I’d ever experienced before welled in me. Tears seeped from my eyes as I drew her close to me again, willing those empty eyes to show any sign of life.
But the longer I stared, the more the harsh reality set in. A reality I hadn’t prepared for because I trusted in the vision she’d had that her time hadn’t come yet. She’d been wrong, so terribly wrong.
“No,” I whispered, not caring we were surrounded by the gods we saved. Not caring how many she saved from Balad
on, or how much that final attack might’ve hurt him in turn. Sabella, my Sabella, was dead.
“Tristan,” one of the gods said and rested a hand on my shoulder.
I felt the rush of his power, but I shrugged it off with a snarl. “Get away from me. You… you all did this. You took her from me.” I tapped her cheeks again, kissing her cold lips, but her eyes remained firmly closed, her body limp in my arms. “Please… just wake up. Please, Sabella.” Tears of pure rage filled my eyes as she stayed lifeless.
The wounds she sustained in saving the gods were too much. They’d killed her. It was all their fault, Baladon’s fault… mine, for not keeping her safe. I lost her. I failed her. I swore I wouldn’t let her vision come true, but here was the cold proof in my arms: fate sometimes could not be changed.
“Tristan,” Boris said this time, kneeling on the other side of Sabella’s body. “You have to let her go. There is still a war to fight. It’s not over, and there will be a time to mourn later, but right now, your pack needs you. Your friends, we all need you.”
I sniffed hard, hating the second I did it when all I smelled was lilac. Hank and Danielle nodded at Boris’ words. Craig and Forrest, Kate, they all were there with me, tears ran down most of their faces, but they couldn’t possibly understand this pain that was eating away at me. My heart had been torn from my chest and obliterated.
I rested my forehead to Sabella’s cold one. She wasn’t meant to die this way. Not like this. I remained there for a moment before I glanced straight into Boris’ eyes.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
He hung his head. “We need you,” he tried again.
I set Sabella’s body gently on the floor and placed her hands over her body, so she looked like she was sleeping.
I straightened and felt the rage of my wolf swell until I could no longer fight it. I threw back my head with a yell until I shifted, and it turned into a mournful howl that shattered the night.
I shook out my head, staring at my pack one last time. The curse was taking hold of me no matter how hard I fought it. Sabella’s loss was too great. Even as I backed away, names and faces blurred in my mind and I was no longer certain who stood around me.
Visions (Dragon Reign Book 7) Page 16