by W. J. May
The explosion echoed so deep in Kallie’s bones that she fell, crying out at the cut of rocks against her body. She could feel Caleb’s pain echoing in her head, a thousand voices crying out, and there was no way to know if it was real or imagined, true or false. The echoes went on and on, and Kallie huddled, wrapping her arms around herself. It had to stop or she was going to go mad. She could not withstand this, she could not bear it, she could not—
Silence.
Blessed silence.
Kallie slowly picked up her head. The others were pushing themselves up off the ground, and she could see Caleb and—her heart betrayed her—Liam as well. It was as she got to her feet at last that she heard a sob. Turning, she felt her breath catch in her throat. Her parents stood together, rocking back and forth, arms wrapped around one another.
Kallie smiled, feeling the weight of the past weeks lift slightly—just enough. Then, with a heavy heart, she started up the hill to the cave.
Chapter 16
Kallie crawled back into the cave with Caleb and Liam at her heels, and all three of them stopped at the same time.
“Where is she?” Caleb asked finally. He looked at Kallie then at Liam, bewildered enough to wonder if they might know.
“Gone,” Kallie said softly. She walked to the diagram on the ground, looking at the bloodstains, and swallowed softly.
“Dead?” Liam was at her side. Tentatively, he reached out to touch Kallie, and she swayed against him for a moment.
“Not dead.” She shook her head. She was sure of it, suddenly. “But she did it. The spell worked.”
“James will want to find her,” Liam said quietly. When Kallie froze, he dropped his voice to a murmur. “I would say only, perhaps, that she’s gone. I would show him the blood, and the scorch marks. Don’t tell him that you think she still lives.”
Kallie turned, frowning. There was protectiveness in his voice.
“I heard you,” he confessed. “The two of you, talking before Petra did the spell. She wanted you to pick one of us—just like James did. She wanted a sacrifice, and you wouldn’t let her do it.”
Kallie hunched her shoulders, looking down.
“Kallie, please understand. I lost my family to monsters, and those monsters killed them with Petra’s blessing. I knew, deep down, why you did what you did back in the forest. I understood, even then. But I couldn’t stomach it—couldn’t forgive you for pardoning the woman who killed the ones I loved. My parents didn’t deserve that. My siblings…should have had full lives.
“But you’re not Petra. You weren’t willing to stab a woman in the back for a spell that might work, and today you said what I’m willing to bet you said to James, as well: that if anyone was going to be sacrificed, it was going to be you.”
Kallie nodded. She could not seem to speak.
“If you want me to go, I’ll go.” He shook his head. “I know I wasn’t there for you. I shouldn’t have—”
“I didn’t stay. I gave up on you.” Kallie shook her head. “I was afraid, deep down, that you’d always have more loyalty to James than to me. He was twisting my words and I…I couldn’t…”
“You shouldn’t have had to,” Liam told her seriously. His eyes focused on something behind her—Caleb, she remembered—and he cleared his throat awkwardly. “If you want me by your side, I’ll never leave again.”
The silence in the cave grew uncomfortable. Could the three of them be together? Could she actually love both of them? She didn’t think she’d ever be able to choose if she had to.
“Where’s Kallie going?” Caleb asked suddenly. “You make it sound like she’s leaving.”
“I don’t know; she just has that look about her.” Liam stared at Kallie ruefully. “So, Kallie? Want to tell us?”
She grinned suddenly. Her heart was skipping. There’d be no choosing today. “We have to go do this spell all over the world,” Kallie told them. “You heard Petra. I’m not sure these are connected anymore. We need to find them and recreate what she did. We need to make sure that this same war doesn’t play out all over the world.”
“We?” Liam’s smile was very warm.
She only hesitated for a moment; she wanted not to smile back, but she couldn’t help herself. “Yeah. We.” She turned her head to look over at Caleb. “You’re coming, too, right?”
She couldn’t let them get too comfortable, after all. She left them staring at one another and almost laughed as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and took photos of the diagram in the dirt Petra had made. Part of her wondered if Petra was running away or running to find more ancient orbs to stop the war. Kallie had a hard time believing it was the second… but she couldn’t be sure. There was nothing wrong with hoping.
The three of them slowly climbed out of the cave. They would forever protect her. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
What was coming up was going to be difficult, she knew that, but one look at her parents at the bottom of the mountain told her that it was worth it.
She turned to look at the peak, studying the cliff face, but nothing moved. With a small smile, Kallie turned back to the group below. Maybe someday she would find Petra again.
Or Petra would find her.
She didn’t doubt it.
Hopefully before she grew greedy with power and lost sight of what she had once been after.
Kallie pressed her lips into a tight line. She definitely needed to find Petra before then.
THE END
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