by Sarra Cannon
“But it’s always true,” she said. “So, if you leave without my help, someday, the two of you will sit in this garden as King and Queen, your child playing in the grass like one big happy family.”
She placed a finger to her cheek.
“On the other hand, without my help, Harper may never get home,” she said. “She’s trapped in the past now with no portal back except through the dungeon of the amethyst priestess. That’s if Priestess Black allows her to live at all. So, what do you do? Do you walk away and trust that you’ve interpreted this vision correctly? Or do you risk it all for the chance to save her yourself?”
She handed the drawing back to me, and I ran my thumb along the image.
How many times in the past few months had I looked to this drawing for hope? How many nights had I stayed awake, dreaming of this future?
Giving it up seemed impossible.
But at the same time, what if Sabine was right? What if I had misinterpreted this vision all along? What if, like my nightmare here in the swamp, there were shadows surrounding us even there?
I had always imagined this would be our life once the Order was defeated. I thought it was promised to us.
But what if I was wrong? What if we were only guaranteed this one happy moment before it all disappeared?
Was I willing to give up the guarantee of that one moment in time?
But then I thought of the assassins hunting her down. Torturing her. Even if I managed to save her in some other way, what more would she have to endure just so I could hold onto a moment I didn’t even fully understand?
My entire life, my visions had been a part of me. When the rest of my magic had been taken from me by the Order and placed in the statue, these visions were the one thing I still had that were mine. To part with them would be like giving up a piece of myself.
I folded the paper again and handed it back to Sabine, my decision made.
“Are you certain?” she asked. “There’s no going back once the transfer is complete.”
“I’m certain,” I said.
I didn’t need a piece of paper to tell me that Harper and I were meant to be together. That we were meant to live a happy life beyond the darkness of the Order’s tyranny.
All I needed was her.
Sabine climbed down from her cloud and placed a hand on my forehead. My eyes closed as she whispered words in a tongue I didn’t recognize. Something tugged inside me, pulling and stretching as it flowed up from my core. It didn’t hurt. Not exactly. But it pained me to lose something I had held so dear.
When the transfer was complete, Sabine stepped away and nodded.
“Thank you for this gift,” she said. “Once the portal is opened, you will have twenty-four hours to return before it disappears.”
“The amethyst priestess has a head start on me by nearly a day,” I said. “What happens if they’ve already taken her?”
Sabine smiled. “To make it interesting, I’ll send you back to almost the same exact moment I sent them,” she said.
“Almost?” I asked.
“It wouldn’t be as interesting if I didn’t give them a tiny head start,” she said. “Let us see if love truly does conquer all.”
My heart raced, but I would not complain. She was giving me a chance, and that would have to be enough.
“I wish you strength and good fortune on your journey,” she said. “You have a good heart, Jackson. I hope we meet again someday.”
She stepped back and removed a single rose from her dress. She held it in her hand and whispered into it. When she set it down on the grass at my feet, a light shone forth, rising into the sky before feathering out to form a perfect oval made of shimmering light.
“Your twenty-four hours starts now,” she said.
I nodded and stepped through the portal, determined not to come back until Harper was at my side once again.
The Dream Slipped Away
Lea
I raced down the steps of the arena’s prison, Ezrah’s keys jingling in my hands.
Aerden lay sleeping on a small bed in the farthest cell, some restless dream tensing his features. He opened his eyes as the cell door swung open, and I rushed into his arms.
“What’s going on?” he asked, holding me tight against him.
“We’re leaving,” I said. “Ezrah’s getting your axe. He’ll be waiting for us in the arena. Andros is on his way here right now with half the Resistance Army.”
He shook his head. “Please, tell me I’m not still dreaming.”
I smiled. “You’re not dreaming,” I said. “Let’s go.”
I grabbed his hand, and together, we raced through the long hallway of the cell block and up through the ready room to the arena’s beyond.
But the moment we stepped onto the battlefield, I stopped cold, the smile wiped off my face in an instant and replaced with a gasp of horror.
Kael stood in the center of the dusty floor, a large sword in his hand. At least twenty guards stood behind him, one of them holding Ezrah in a set of thick chains. Another was holding Aerden’s axe.
“I warned you, Princess,” Kael said. “Betray me again, and I would make you watch everyone you ever loved die before your eyes. Why don’t we start with him?”
He pointed his sword toward Aerden, but I stepped in front of him, my head held high.
“I know who you are,” I said. “You’re nothing but a thief. A lapdog for the High Priestess, sent here to do her dirty work and hold my father prisoner. Let us go, or you will die here tonight. I promise you that.”
The guards behind Kael backed away from him slightly, their eyes full of questions. Beside me, Aerden’s mouth hung open in shock.
“See? Deep down, even your guards know the truth about you,” I said. “No one rises to power this quickly without some kind of deception. You and your priestess preyed on my father’s love for me and for his people, twisting it and manipulating him. You stole his power, and you made me doubt him. But I know the truth now. After tonight, the entire city will know what you are. Do you think they’ll still want you for their king?”
Kael’s eyes flashed with a strange white light, and he turned on his own guards.
“Do not believe her lies,” he said. “Seize them. They are both traitors to the crown, condemned to death by the council.”
But the guards made no move toward us.
“Do you really think they would trust you over their own princess?” Aerden asked.
“Was I talking to you?” Kael asked, pointing his sword toward Aerden again. “You will speak when spoken to, prisoner.”
“I am no prisoner,” he said, stepping forward, his eyes seeking out those of King’s Guard. Without their strength, Kael would never be able to defeat us. “I am Aerden, Son of Walther. I am The One Who Returned. I spent a hundred years as a slave to the Order of Shadows, and I returned to this city only to be labeled a traitor and forced to fight here in the games. Those of you who were here for the tournament this morning saw the true nature of the demon who stands before you, claiming to be your future king. He commissioned these games so he could watch me die. When I won the first round, he slipped illegal potions to my opponents. Is this a demon you would call your king? Or will you believe the princess’s words and see him for the traitor he is?”
Some of the guards lowered their weapons, their eyes wide with fear and confusion.
“When I trained to become a member of the King’s Guard as a shadowling, it was a title given with honor,” he said. “Only the truest, most fearless warriors won the right to protect this kingdom. I know you are honorable men with strong hearts. I know you hear our words and recognize their truth.”
“Enough,” Kael shouted. “I command you to take these traitors into the dungeons. If you do not obey this command, I will have each of you beheaded. If you have families in this city, I will seek them out and parade them through the streets so that everyone can see their shame. I will have them thrown from the gates of the city
where they will no longer be under the protection of their king.”
I put a hand on my bow, bringing it down by my side. If I could just convince the guards of his treason, I could take my shot.
“This man is no king,” I said. “He rules with threats, just like the Order of Shadows. He is the one who should be put in chains.”
Two of the guards near the front exchanged looks, but no one moved.
Kael turned on us, his eyes again flashing with that strange white light. I had never seen a demon’s eyes do that before, and it chilled me to the core.
“Fine, if I can’t trust my guards, I will seize them myself,” he said.
“Don’t move,” a woman’s voice said, stopping Kael in his tracks.
I looked toward the prima cavea to see my mother and father standing near the thrones, the light of two moons shining on them.
“Mother?”
She looked at me, an apology in her eyes as she ripped the golden chain from her neck and threw it into the dust below.
“Guards, as your king, I command you to seize this demon and have him brought to the lower level of the castle’s dungeons until he can be brought to trial for these accusations,” my father said.
Kael’s face wrinkled in horror. His chest rose and fell with heavy, labored breaths.
“You?” he asked. “After everything I have done? This is how you reward me?”
The king did not respond. His eyes turned to the guards, and they raced forward, chains in hand.
Kael gripped his sword tighter in his hand, an angry roar sounding deep in his chest. His eyes exploded with light, and the ground at his feet rumbled.
I grabbed Aerden’s hand and stepped back as the demon’s body transformed.
Terrified, I shouted to my parents. “Run! Get back to the castle. Now.”
Kael’s hands solidified into pure stone that traveled up his arms and neck, down his torso and legs. He expanded, rising into the air like a mountain. His clothes ripped from his body, and there, standing before me, was the Stone Guardian Andros had warned us about, a towering creature with stones for eyes and a glittering diamond for a heart.
Those Unspoken Words
Aerden
With a single sweep of his hand, the Stone Guardian took out half a dozen guards, their bodies crushed and motionless on the field of battle.
“Get your axe,” Lea shouted to me.
“I won’t leave your side,” I said.
She conjured a set of three arrows and let them fly toward the guardian. The arrows seemed to bounce off its hard skin, and she cursed.
“Aerden, if you don’t get that axe right now, we’ll both die,” she said. “I’ll keep this thing distracted.”
There was no arguing with her when she spoke in that tone, and despite our current situation, I realized how much I had missed seeing Lea, the warrior. I thought of all our training sessions in the woods late at night back at Brighton Manor, before everything went to hell. This would be just like old times, only with a much more terrifying opponent.
As she conjured another set of arrows, I shifted and flew toward the place where my axe had fallen in the chaos. The guards were doing their best to fight, but several more had fallen to the guardian’s blows. I searched for any sign of Ezrah, but I didn’t see him anywhere. With him bound in chains that prevented him from casting magic, he was useless to us anyway. I only hoped he had made it out of here safely.
I wrapped my hand around the hilt of my axe and shifted just as the Stone Guardian’s foot stomped down on where I had just been standing.
When I reformed at Lea’s side, I shook my head. “Yeah, great job keeping it distracted,” I said. “That thing almost crushed me.”
“So, pay more attention next time,” she said, the flush of battle on her cheeks. “My arrows aren’t hurting it. Not even my armor-piercing spell seems to make a dent.”
“Watch and learn,” I said, raising my axe in the air.
I shifted to smoke and flew around the guardian’s back, reforming just as I let the heavy axe swing. I aimed for the back of its knee, sure that a strong swing would at least do some damage to the creature.
Instead, the blade hit stone and reverberated back toward me, flying out of my grip and out of reach.
The guardian reached back with one mighty hand and swiped me to the side. Pain exploded behind my eyes as I flew across the field and slammed into the wall of the arena.
“Aerden,” Lea shouted.
I raised my thumb to let her know I was okay, but I was going to need a second to regroup. This creature was far more powerful than I could have imagined. If our weapons were doing nothing against it, the only option we had was to try our magic.
The last of the guards still standing screamed as the Stone Guardian lowered its foot onto the demon’s back. I stared in awe. These were the best fighters in the kingdom. Heroes. And they had been crushed in minutes.
Across the field, Lea flew out of the guardian’s reach and reformed near me, a stack of six flaming arrows nocked and ready to fly. “I’m going for that diamond,” she shouted. “If we can damage that, maybe he will fall.”
She let go, and the arrows all soared straight toward the creature’s heart. He managed to deflect three of them with his hand, but the other three met their mark. Still, the arrows seemed to do no damage.
“Shit,” she said. “What do we do?”
The guardian ran toward us. Each footstep shook the floor of the arena like an earthquake.
“Run,” I said.
We both shifted and flew in opposite directions. Thanks to the guardian’s massive size, he was too slow to reach us in time, but how long could we keep this up? We couldn’t simply shift and run every time it headed toward us. Eventually, we would have to figure out a way to hurt him if we ever had any hope of winning this fight.
When I reformed on the other side of the arena, I summoned my magic, surprised to find it strong and flowing through me as if I had never lost my connection to it. My hands exploded into flames that rose high against the night sky.
I inhaled, drawing the power deep into myself before thrusting my hands toward the ground. A line of flames travelled over the floor of the arena toward the Stone Guardian. When the fire reached him, I stood, lifting my hands high into the air. The flames roared to life, consuming his body.
The Stone Guardian stepped out of the fire, soot darkening its alabaster skin, but there was no sign of a wound.
The creature smiled, taunting me.
He raised his hands into the air and slammed them down, hard and fast. The ground split in two, the earthquake knocking me off my feet and nearly sending me into a deep chasm that formed in the center of the battlefield. I pulled myself up, and reached for my axe.
Maybe this would crack that stone in its heart.
“Pelt him with arrows,” I shouted toward Lea on the other side of the chasm.
“It won’t do any good,” she said. “They’re totally useless against him.”
“It will keep him busy for a second,” I shouted. “Just don’t hit me.”
She nodded and took a deep breath, nocking her first arrow and letting it fly toward the guardian.
He lifted his hands in defense and started running toward her, all his attention on Lea for the moment. I took my chance, shifting and flying through the air toward the beast. I kept my eye on the diamond in its chest, and when I got close enough, I spun three times to build momentum and reformed during the final spin, putting all of my strength behind the attack.
The blade of my mighty axe chipped a tiny piece off the guardian’s heart, and the creature wailed, slamming its shoulder into my side. I fell to the ground, pain rolling through me in wave after wave.
My vision blurred, and for a moment, I was terrified I might lose consciousness, but somehow, I managed to fight it, shifting just as the guardian brought his foot down.
I reformed near the wall, holding onto it to steady myself. The guardian reached do
wn and scooped a chunk of earth from the arena floor and threw it at me before I had time to shift, knocking me back down.
My ears rang, and I struggled to stay present. My stomach rolled and tightened, but I tried to stand. Instead, I took one small step and fell to the ground in a heap of pain.
I had to get up. Lea couldn’t fight this thing on her own.
I blinked, watching as the Stone Guardian placed its fingers end-to-end, a bright light forming between them like a globe. I forced myself to stand. The buzz of the guardian’s energy made my teeth rattle, and I squinted against the light.
I reached for my magic, focusing on creating a shield around my body, but before the guardian unleashed its spell, he smiled and turned, hurling it toward Lea.
Time slowed as the spell flew through the air. I saw every chance I’d ever had to tell her how I felt pass before my eyes. Every day we trained out on the Black Cliffs, the sun on our faces, our hearts open to the wild possibilities of an endless future.
Every breath of every moment leading up to the days of her engagement, when she would be promised to another.
The endless nights at Brighton Manor as we trained, two broken souls searching for something to live for.
That night by the fire, my hands in her hair as it fell around her face, the truth a whisper on my lips.
I stretched my hands toward her now, the thought of losing her tearing down the walls of fear I’d hid behind for more than a century. All those unspoken words burst from my heart, ripping me open as I screamed her name.
Her eyes widened as a being made of pure, golden light formed before her, its hand reaching out to crush the guardian’s spell. The being stepped forward at my command, towering over the battlefield with the strength and brilliance of a thousand stars.
It grabbed the Stone Guardian by the throat and slammed it onto the ground, pinning it down. I took my axe in my hand, walked over to the creature who had threatened the one woman I would ever love, and with a single, swift movement, I broke its diamond heart into a million pieces.