I gripped the Sword tightly against my chest. It wasn’t an easy movement, considering how my hands were still bound. “Rowan?” It was an effort to force out every word. “Do you remember me?”
The strong lines of his face melted into a massive smile. “Elea.” He gripped the cords around my wrists, tearing the heavy ropes apart like they were paper.
My heart soared with joy. My Rowan was back.
Tossing the Sword aside, I leapt up and wrapped my arms around Rowan’s neck. He gripped my waist, pulling me against him. We shared a feverish kiss that somehow gathered together everything beautiful in my life. Passion. Joy. Trust.
Lowering my arms, I laced my fingers with my mate’s. My soul craved us to share power. It was the most natural process in the world to pull fresh Necromancer energy into my body and then press it to Rowan’s. We quickly formed a loop of magick, the power swirling though both of us, brightening our skin with purple light as our mouths tangled in a deepening kiss. It was a perfect moment and I wanted it to last forever.
The ground shook once, then twice, as a pair of massive somethings landed nearby. Rowan and I broke our kiss to find Mlinzi and Walinzi towering over us. They were just as I remembered them: massive, tall, and orange.
“He looks delicious,” growled Mlinzi. “Can we have him for dinner?”
Walinzi swatted her brother on the shoulder, a movement that caused the nearby jungle trees to bend into the resulting wind. “Quiet now,” scolded Walinzi. “We’re about to be free from the threat of those two itsy bitsy tyrants.” She leaned down until her nose holes were inches from my face. “You have the Sword and your mate, along with some new knowledge. Tell me. Don’t you think your parents deserve death?”
I bit back a groan. In all the commotion, I’d forgotten how Mlinzi and Walinzi wanted me to murder the Sire and Lady. I turned to Rowan. “Meet Mlinzi and Walinzi. They’re rather intent on killing the Sire and Lady.”
Rowan wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “I know who they are. Now, I can remember everything that happened after these two took my memories. As for the request to kill, I don’t think we should do anything they wish, let alone commit murder.”
“Come now, little one.” Walinzi leaned back on her haunches. “We’re tricksters. We wanted to help you, but we had to do it in our own way.”
“Now you kill for us,” cried Mlinzi. “Kill!”
“You’re in no position to demand anything,” I said. “You still haven’t kept to your side of the bargain. Back at the Meadow of Many Gateways, the Martyr’s Comet is about to disappear.”
Walinzi pretended to be very interested in grooming her fur. “What of it?”
“My world is about to be destroyed. You promised me two things: the Sword of Theodora and the knowledge of how to heal the gateways.”
Mlinzi grinned, showing an impossible number of blade-like teeth. “You want to know how to cast spells with hybrid magick.”
“That’s right,” I said. “That was our agreement.”
After scooping up the Sword from the jungle floor, Rowan pulled me against him once more. I knew my mate. He was prepared to fight for this information, if needed.
Walinzi rocked on her haunches and laughed. The sound was so loud, a flock of tangerine-colored birds flew out from nearby trees. “She wants to know how to cast hybrid spells! Cast!”
Mlinzi hopped up and down, making the ground shake further. “She wants incantations! Ha!”
“What do you…” The words stopped in my throat as my mind reeled through everything I knew about hybrid magick. I’d noticed how Kila Kitu never used incantations to cast a spell. And based on how hybrid magick corrupted, everything about it seemed to work on intent. I focused on Rowan. “When you cast those cords with hybrid magick, how did that happen?”
“You mean back at the Skullock Passage?”
“Yes, when you saved me.”
Rowan’s eyes glazed over as he searched through his own memories. “I simply thought how much I wanted to save you.”
“That’s it. Hybrid magick works based on will. It’s an energy all to itself—its own life force”
Rowan nodded slowly. “So the magick decides how to execute the mage’s commands.”
“Yes, and when the power is corrupted, it can only cause damage. That’s why the Sire and Lady can’t heal the gateways on their own. Their hybrid magick has turned against them. It’s the same thing that happened to Viktor. His power soured as well.”
“So we can go back and simply ask the magick to heal the gateways.”
“I think so.”
Rowan beamed. “Let’s make the journey.”
“Not so quickly,” said Walinzi. “We can’t leave before we know your full plans.”
“Kill!” Mlinzi cried. “Kill! Kill!”
“We got that part, dear.” Walinzi waved off her brother. “You two mortals aren’t leaving our realm until I have your word that you’ll murder the Sire and Lady.”
“No,” I said.
“Maim them?” asked Walinzi.
“No.” This was getting repetitive.
“Maybe frighten them a little, then.”
“I will keep to our previous agreement. You will not be subject to their rule.”
“No kill?” asked Mlinzi. We all ignored him.
Walinzi lowered her voice to a whisper, which coming from her massive form was no whisper at all. “Fine. Kill them or don’t, I’m not a particular monkey. Just set us free from the threat of those two puny terrors or we’ll destroy you both slowly. Understood?”
“We understand,” I said. I still didn’t know exactly how I would free the tricksters’ realm, but Rowan and I had a few minutes to scheme. We’d figure something out. Hopefully.
“Good,” said Walinzi. “Now, off with you. Back to the meadow.”
With that, the totem rings on our fingers flared once more with orange light. Rowan and I became encased in a haze of power as we were wrenched back to the Meadow of Many Gateways…And without any time to come up with a real plan.
Mlinzi and Walinzi had tricked us again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
A moment later, the transport spell ended. Once again, Rowan and I stood on the Meadow of Many Gateways. The Martyr’s Comet flared with crimson light, casting everything in a blood red glow. Five armies still waited on the checkerboard ground, ready to attack. I counted the warriors of the Lady, Sire, Viktor, Petra, and Rowan. Thousands of eyes were now locked on Rowan and me. Waiting.
The Lady broke the silence. “You’ve come back to us. Are you ready for your sacrifice?”
I turned to Rowan and lifted my arm, palm forward. The request was there but unspoken. Let’s share hybrid power so we can attack.
Rowan curved his full mouth into the hint of a smile. “My brave mate. It will take some time to pull in enough magick.” Which made sense. We’d never attempted anything so huge with hybrid power before, and it took time to pull in our energy and transform it.
“In that case, we better get started.”
Rowan rested his palm against mine. Both of us pulled in our respective magick. Then the power moved between us, sending beams of violet light up our arms and across our chests, spinning through each other in great loops. Rowan still held the Sword of Theodora in his right hand. He raised it high until the light of the Martyr’s Comet reflected off the blade.
At that sight, all the Casters broke out into a massive cheer. Evidently, they’d all regained their memories and knew precisely who I was. They seemed beyond thrilled that Rowan and I now had the Sword. I wouldn’t be surprised if they left the field of battle to start yet another celebration.
For their part, the Sire and Lady frowned. Viktor’s face flushed with rage. The Sire stepped forward, his face tight with anger. “You see the armies arrayed before you, daughter. You are our flesh and blood, and we don’t want to send our forces to attack you, but we will.”
The Lady glanced over toward Petra. “Or perh
aps some mortals will do so for us.”
My mouth fell open with shock. My parents never liked killing their children themselves, but they weren’t above ordering someone else to do their dirty work.
Across the meadow, Petra understood exactly what the deities wanted. She began shrieking at the Necromancers. “Attack Elea! Save yourselves!”
One of the Necromancers stepped forward. I recognized him as Quinn, someone I’d raised from the dead after the battle with Viktor. He was a tall man with skull-like features, even before he’d received the bone markings on his face. “Our Tsarina is trying to save us. Don’t you see?”
Petra rounded on him. “She’s supposed to sacrifice herself, not cast a hybrid spell or whatever it is she’s doing. Her death is what the Sire and Lady want. We can be part of that history.”
“I won’t hurt her.” Quinn gestured behind him. “Neither will the others. Our Tsarina raised us all from the dead.”
I could have shouted for joy. Despite Petra’s urgings, the Necromancer army would stay in place. This gave Rowan and I critical time to pull in more power. Hybrid energy zinged through my limbs, but there was still more room in my soul for magick. Rowan and I would need every last bit we could gather.
Petra turned to Rowan’s Casters, who still stood beside her on the meadow. “This witch has entranced you! Don’t you want her gone?”
Kade stepped forward. “Didn’t you hear our cries of joy? We’ll protect our king and his mate until the end.”
Amelia stood at Kade’s side, her face streaked with tears. She called to me across the meadow. “Kade told me what happened. I didn’t know what I was doing, Elea.” Her bronze robes were torn at the neckline. “We’ll fight for you now. I swear!”
Rowan shook his head. “Stay where you are, all of you. Elea and I will end this. No bloodshed.”
The Lady grinned. “I knew you didn’t want a fight. You’re summoning hybrid power for another reason..”
“They’re trying to heal the gateways for us,” said the Sire. “But that’s not how we want it done. You’d be too dangerous afterwards. Hybrid power always corrupts.”
In other words, they fear having a couple around who was stronger than they were. More hybrid energy built up in every corner of my being. My parents would have to learn to live with disappointment. Soon, there would be a stronger pair of mages in this world.
“Please, just sacrifice yourself willingly.” The Lady raised her arm, and the Sword of Theodora flew into her palm. “Allow me to ease your passing. I’ll deliver the blow myself, that’s a great honor for you.”
“We’re not going to heal the gateways,” I said.
“Good.” The Sire’s face turned into a mask of calm once more. “Go to your mother now.”
“We’re going to blow them apart, just like we did to the Skullock Passage.”
“What?” The Sire’s normally calm face twitched with rage. “You can’t mean that. This empire is ours.”
“Your empire is over,” I said. “Welcome to the end of the Meadow of Many gateways.”
Viktor waved to me from the spot with his army. “So you’re gifting me this realm? Thank you.”
I knew what my brother meant. By closing the gateways, I’d lock my parents here, right where he could kill them. After that, Viktor would rule this world.
But I didn’t have time right now to worry about Viktor and his scheming. My parents had rallied together. Standing side by side, they called out the same word in unison.
“Attack!”
The armies of black knights and leather clad warriors raced toward us. The ground rumbled with their footfalls. One again, the skies darkened with airborne fighters. I turned to Rowan. An eerie sense of calm washed over me. My body felt so crammed with power, it seemed ready to burst.
“Are you ready, my mate?” I asked.
Rowan nodded. “Let’s send these armies back to the Eternal Lands.”
We didn’t need to speak an incantation. Our intention was enough for the hybrid magick. All of a sudden, purple cords wound down our arms. The ropes gleamed with magick and power, and they wanted to be set loose. Like the pull of a magnet, the ethereal ropes summoned us to stop pressing our palms together and instead face out toward the oncoming army.
We weren’t so much casting a spell as having a conversation with magick.
Rowan and I both turned to face the oncoming forces.
The cords of light and power burst forth from our arms, multiplying as they shot out across the open meadow. From the corner of my eye, I saw Petra screaming at my Necromancers, urging them to join the battle. None of my people moved into the fray.
My people? Since when did I think of them as this?
The answer appeared in a flash. The Necromancers became mine once they decided to fight for me. I would never back down from an ally. After all, I was casting this hybrid spell to keep faith with a pair of tricksters. I could do no less than for my fellow mages.
The magickal ropes tied themselves around every warrior. Cords wound around waists of fighters. More entangled about the legs of horses. Thousands shot into the sky, tying up the wings of flying creatures. Others bound the hands and feet of the Sire and Lady.
Meanwhile, the palace mages had cast spells to contain the Changed Ones. Kade was standing around idle; he’d ordered the Caster mages to help. Now, all the Changed ones were restrained in a great Orb of Holding. It essentially looked like a great glass container that kept them all in place.
Good work, Kade.
Without words, the hybrid magick told me that it had everyone from the Eternal Lands in its grasp. I turned to Rowan. “Do you sense it?” I didn’t need to day that it was the fact that the magick was ready to send everyone back. Rowan could hopefully sense it as well as I did.
Rowan nodded. “It’s time they went home.”
After that, the magick knew exactly what Rowan and I wanted. Instantly, the violet cords snapped loose from our arms. After that, the free ends sped into different gateways, lighting them up with violet brightness. Moving in sync, the magickal ropes yanked the warriors through the arches. As each fighter passed on, the gateways flared with purple light.
My heart soared. The hybrid magick was working. Soon, the only people left on the meadow would be the Caster and Necromancer armies. The Changed Ones were still secure inside the Orb of Holding. Petra kept screaming at my people, but they weren’t heeding her, despite the fact that her arm blazed with Necromancer power, ready to cast a spell. That didn’t bode well.
I focused on my hybrid magick. “Go after Petra.” The cords of power didn’t respond.
Rowan added his voice into the mix. “Get rid of that Mother Superior.”
Closing my eyes, I connected with the new energy inside my soul. Rowan and I had pulled in a lot of power, but I could tell that the hybrid energy had enough to do with dragging off the Sire of Souls, Lady of Creation and all their minions. Petra would simply have to wait.
I looked to Rowan. “The magick needs more time.”
“I sense it as well. Once the hybrid power is done with the residents of the Eternal Lands, it will focus on the rest.” His emerald gaze held mine, and all things confident shown in his eyes. “We can do this.”
“What about Viktor? I haven’t seen the cords grab him. The magick might see him as a resident of our world, not the Eternal Lands.” There was also the fact that our world was about to implode and there were gateways to heal, but I figured we needed to pace out our worries.
“Good point,” said Rowan. “I’ll keep an eye out for Viktor. You watch Petra.”
“Agreed.”
There was no sign of Viktor, but Petra was easy enough to find. Her arm still glowed blue with power as she berated my Necromancers. The sight made blood boil. That is, until another scene grabbed my attention entirely.
My parents were being pulled through the gateways. All the other residents of the Eternal Lands had already vanished, but the Sire and Lady remained an
d fought against their bounds, twisting, writhing and fighting every step of the way. The cords stayed wrapped about their hands and waist, but the two dug their heels into the meadow. Mauling them into the gateways was slow going.
“Do you see that?” I asked Rowan.
“Hard to miss.”
“We need to send in more power.”
“Right.”
Focusing deep within our souls, Rowan and I delved into every corner of our consciousness, heaving forth every last scrap of hybrid power we could manage. Before, my body had felt so jammed with hybrid magick, I thought I might explode. Now, my limbs felt empty and hollow. Even when my blood had been drained by Kila Kitu, I hadn’t felt this woozy.
Our efforts soon paid off. The violet cords around the Sire and Lady turned thicker and stronger. Suddenly, the ropes flared more brightly than ever before. The cords turned taught and whipped my parents out of this world and through a gateway. Light flared as they disappeared.
Seeing that, something in my soul broke. I’d wanted to know my parents so badly, thinking there was a hole in my heart without them. Now, I realized how much I already had. Rowan, Amelia, Jicho, Rosie…I’d had a loving and full life indeed. My parents were better off where they were, in their own realm while I stayed in mine.
For a moment, the meadow was silent. The Caster and Necromancer armies looked to us expectantly. The Changed Ones were still sealed inside their Orb of Holding. Above us, the red light of the Martyr’s Comet burned more intensely than ever.
That’s when Viktor struck.
My brother had hidden himself inside the Necromancer army. It was easy enough to do, considering how he was already wearing hooded Necromancer robes.
Now, Viktor leapt out from the ranks of death mages. In all the excitement of dispelling the other armies, somehow the Lady had dropped the Sword of Theodora. Or perhaps she gave it to her son. In any case, Viktor now held the Sword in his fist.
And he was racing toward Rowan and me.
The Necromancers and Caster armies roared with rage. That’s when Petra got into the battle as well. She released the magick she’d been storing up and quickly cast a skeletal wall. This was a massive structure made of thousands of razor-sharp bones, and it blocked the Caster and Necromancer armies away. The Changed Ones were left outside the wall, however. I assessed the Orb of Holding that kept them back. They Changed Ones were pounding against the clear walls. Cracks had already formed in the sphere. It wouldn’t last much longer.
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