by Black, Tasha
And that was just fine by her.
She swung the glowing sword and it stepped backward, dodging the blow.
“You remember the last time we fought, huh?” Though she was afraid, her voice was cool, steady. “This time you’re not going to get away.”
If she managed to wound its pride, maybe it would be distracted and easier to kill.
Predictably, it snarled and lunged wildly for her.
Grace sidestepped and struck, managing to hit the monster.
It moaned and pulled back.
Its skin was so thick she barely scratched the surface, but it was a start - a thin line of blackish blood oozed from the scratch. Grace stepped neatly aside to avoid its retaliatory strike.
She swung again, managing a glancing blow on the side of its head.
But the cut on its arm had disappeared entirely already. It shook its head, fluttering its leathery wings, then came at her again.
She danced out of its way and struck a wing.
Again, the thin line of blood disappeared almost instantly.
She went after it again and again, until her muscles ached and her eyes were strained from searching for its form in the darkness. But each time she managed to score a hit, the thing retreated and healed itself before she could catch her breath.
Javier was still limp on the ground, and Cressida was nowhere to be seen.
There was no help, no one coming, no way out or end in sight.
And Grace was tiring. She couldn’t do this forever. Even if she drove it away again she would have to keep following it, thwarting it at the next portal, and the one after that.
Was this how she wanted to spend the rest of her days?
Besides, her life would be short, compared to the moroi’s. All it really had to do was wait her out. If it couldn’t finish her, time certainly would.
No.
She needed to end this. Right here Right now.
The only thing strong enough to do real damage wasn’t in her or in the shifters with her. The real source of power lay beneath the portal in the floor.
If Grace could access that power, she could really do some damage. But accessing that power meant opening the portal, freeing another moroi.
Which was exactly what the beast wanted.
It had already tricked her once.
“Give me the key, human,” it snarled in a voice so deep it was almost like an engine.
“Come and get it,” she replied. “If you think you can.”
“Maybe you are ready to die.” It inclined its head. “But what about your friends?”
So fast its movement was a blur, the thing scooped up Javier and pulled him close. For an instant Grace was reminded of the children’s book about the monster in the closet, holding a teddy bear.
There was a squawk and a flutter as Cressida dove at the moroi from the shadows.
But of course it had anticipated this. Quick as a thought, it snatched the crow from the air in its hoary claws.
“I could consume them,” it said to Grace with a horrible smile. “Use their power against you. Or perhaps I will just crush the life from them, and feed on your suffering?”
His hands turned inky and began to elongate, wrapping around the trapped animals like tentacles, squeezing them tightly.
Cressida shrieked and shifted into a snake. Before it could react, she had lashed out, striking its eye with her slender fangs.
The moroi howled in pain, dashing her against the stone wall.
Cressida slumped silently to the floor.
Grace willed herself to take the opportunity and worry about her friend later. She charged, hacking at the thing furiously.
It dropped Javier unceremoniously to the ground to defend itself.
Grace drove it back, hope finally arriving in her heart.
She hit it again and again.
It dropped to the ground with a thunderous crash.
She raised her sword above her head to strike the killing blow and looked down to see an odd expression on its face.
It was smiling.
In that instant she realized she had made a fatal error.
In her haste, she had stepped off the portal.
Her connection was broken, as if she had been unplugged from an outlet.
The moroi had been baiting her all along.
The gnarled hand flashed up, seizing hers like a vice. It gave a brutal twist, breaking the bones of her wrist with a sickening crunch.
The sword clattered to the floor and vanished, leaving the small shard of crystal in its place.
The moroi loomed over her, tendrils of dark shadow caressing her body like tiny fingers, leaving painful chills in their wake.
It was over. She had failed.
I’m sorry, Julian.
There was a flash on the floor and she looked back at the crystal.
It was pulsing, as if to direct her toward the portal. A pointless exercise.
But then a whisper of light issued from it, sliding through the damp air, unfurling into a human shape made of pure light.
Grace’s jaw dropped as she realized that something about the form was familiar, there was something in the sure posture, the slight incline of the head…
“Julian,” she whispered.
Of course.
All her visions of him had him behind a wall of glass.
But it hadn’t been glass. It had been crystal.
It was no wonder that she could never contact his spirit. He wasn’t dead. He was trapped in the crystal.
The thought that she had been carrying him close to her heart the whole time filled her with joy.
There was a growl and a sudden streak of silver fur as a wolf leapt through the air and landed beside her, its teeth latching onto the hand that held Grace.
Cressida.
The moroi’s grip loosened enough for her to slip free.
She dove for the crystal, landing hard on her shattered wrist.
The pain was so agonizing her vision blurred. A piercing scream rang in her ears. She realized it was her own voice, but she didn’t stop. The image of Julian dissolved before her eyes as her hand closed around the shard.
Above her, the moroi struck at the wolf.
Cressida managed to dodge again at the last instant. Grace was always amazed at how fast Cressida could be.
Grace. Julian’s voice was in her head. You know what you need to do. Use all of the power left in the crystal. Finish what we started.
The crystal? But you…?
Remember what I told you. You need to let me go. You don’t have enough power on your own to kill the moroi. But if you use mine, together, we can end this.
Cressida was still keeping the thing occupied. But Grace knew she didn’t have much time.
Julian, she pleaded.
You need to act quickly, Grace.
I know. But, why didn’t you and your order kill the moroi in the first place?
We weren’t strong enough, he said.
But if there were more of you?
An idea was forming in her mind, an idea she had to explore. If only there were more time…
Maybe…
And this was hundreds of years ago?
Yes. Please, Grace…
Do you know what has happened to the population of the Earth in that time, Julian? How many more witches and warlocks do you think are out there now, cut off from the magic they deserve?
He didn’t respond to that.
We know there are the exact same number of moroi, she continued. One for each portal. But if we open the portals - not just this portal, all of them - they would be no match for us today.
But, Grace, my order…
Your order did what it had to back then. It bought us time. Time to grow strong enough to finish these monsters for good, and take back our magic.
Grace didn’t wait for his answer. She knew what she had to do.
She threw herself onto the center of the portal and thrust the crystal into t
he lock.
Chapter 6
Grace pushed the shard of crystal into the center of the portal.
A key in a lock.
There was a resounding click and then a thunderous hum as if a thousand rock stars had just turned on a thousand amps.
Grace was shot through with brilliant light. She could feel it pressing through her pores, radiating out of each strand of her hair. She floated in it for a moment, like a star in a vast galaxy.
Then she began to feel the weight of the portals, each of them pushing down on her like the corks in a thousand wine bottles.
She coiled her magic inward. Instinctively, she knew that if she could flood the portal with her own energy, she could expand the volume inside fast enough to make the barriers pop like corks.
The portals would open. All of them.
Somewhere, the moroi cackled with glee, the sound echoing madly off the wet walls of the chamber.
Determined, Grace compressed her power further, then expelled it with all she had. Her body trembled. She felt the pressure swelling against the sealed portals.
It wasn’t enough. She couldn’t do it by herself.
A warm hand wrapped itself around hers.
She turned to see Julian at her side.
He flickered like an image on a screen.
She squeezed his hand back.
He gave her his dear smile that crinkled those piercing blue eyes.
She watched as he went from transparent to translucent and into full flesh and blood before her eyes.
“Julian,” she whispered.
“We’ll do it together,” he said.
Grace closed her eyes again, ignoring the tears of joy that streamed down her face, putting aside the confusion.
It was time to save the world.
She could reunite with her boyfriend later.
Together, they pumped as much energy as they could into the portal.
Their shared power was far greater than Grace’s had been on her own. She could feel the gateways shivering in their places. They couldn’t hold much longer. Something would have to give.
Grace hoped it wouldn’t be her.
Her body shook as if she were holding a live wire. Magic erupted out of her haphazardly, no longer just the bright blue light she had always summoned but purple sparks of grief, burning red hatred and a green hum of love, as if she were giving every part of herself to open the world to the magic, as if there might be nothing left when she was finished.
She was so bound by the power of her own efforts that she almost didn’t notice when the squeeze of Julian’s hand around hers grew weaker.
She looked over to see his face contorted with emotion. Pure white magic blasted out of every pore and made him look like a furious angel. His body had begun to flash and fade again, as if he were a candle about to wink out.
At the same time, she felt the portals all wiggling like a mouthful of loose teeth. They were so very close. They only needed one more push.
The moroi leered at her through Julian’s now translucent form.
One final push might be too much for Julian. Whatever had brought him back to her seemed so delicate.
For all her fighting, she was going to end up losing him anyway.
“It’s okay Grace,” he whispered to her as if he heard her thought. “I’ve already had more time than most. My time with you was worth it.” He closed his eyes. “Now, my darling,” he whispered.
She thought about just letting go. Giving up on this insane quest. She could be with Julian. They could be happy. Even if it meant the rest of the world had to suffer.
She thought of her dreams - the wall of water rushing down.
This was what she had been dreading all along.
The thing she wanted most was right beside her. All she had to do was choose.
She could save Julian. But she would have to doom so many others.
It would be so easy. She only needed to let go.
Why did the choice have to be hers?
She was frozen. Locked in place by her grief. Wallowing in her self-pity.
Grace Kwan-Cortez doesn’t wallow. She gets shit done.
Grace tightened her grip on the crystal and gave Julian one final look. He beamed with pride and she felt her heart breaking. No matter what happened, she would never forget that look.
She closed her eyes, and together they released a final surge of energy. The magic sang through her, carrying with it all the hopes and dreams she had held for the two of them.
She could feel his warm hand on hers, and then she couldn’t.
The portals gave way at last, exploding into nothing.
Grace reached out with her consciousness, trying desperately to cling to any part of Julian as the portal beneath her feet gave way.
She was able to fling herself to the stone floor, just as the moroi that had been trapped beneath stretched out of the open gateway, looming above her, a shadow the size of an elephant.
There was an empty moment of despair.
And then the magic flooded back into the world.
A geyser of stardust seemed to explode out of the floor.
It filled Grace until she was as effervescent as a shaken bottle of seltzer, the magic bubbling up inside her, lifting her broken spirits.
As the light faded she stood to face the moroi, her eyes crackling with energy. She had never felt such power.
Every spell she had ever done had been a pale imitation of real magic.
Not anymore.
Cressida was still fighting the Tarker’s Hollow moroi, which laughed as it dodged her blows, its horrible high pitched giggle ringing in the stone space.
The new one, the Fletcher’s Cove moroi, was heading straight for Javier. It was freshly released and badly needed to feed.
“Not so fast,” Grace said, the magic in her own voice like a waterfall of sound to her ears.
A blast of blue energy shot from her hands, wrapping around the creature like a net.
She brought her hands together, squeezing.
The net constricted.
The moroi struggled frantically, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
Grace made a fist and the net tightened, squeezing the life from the trapped moroi.
The first moroi stopped laughing.
It tried to slip away, its corporeal form melting into shadow. It had seen what she was doing to its brother.
She held the Fletcher’s Cove moroi in place with one hand, and lashed out effortlessly with the other, trapping the other beast.
The Tarker’s Hollow moroi had fed on Lincoln Monroe. It was stronger. It wrenched itself nearly out of her grasp on its first try. She would not be able to keep a grip on both.
“We’re losing him,” she moaned.
“No we’re not,” said a familiar, confident voice from behind her.
Another beam of light shot out, joining hers...
Julian.
She must have managed to hold on to him after all.
He stepped forward and she glanced over wonderingly.
He winked at her.
They turned to face their enemies together.
In a heartbeat, both moroi were pinned to the wall again. Their screams were horrible in the confined space.
The Tarker’s Hollow moroi twitched and shifted into Ophelia Winters.
“Please, Grace,” she said in her throaty voice.
Cressida hissed in a breath.
Grace tried not to be affected. Instead, she tightened the coils of her magic around Ophelia’s form, like a boa constrictor.
Ophelia’s face turned purple and she convulsed, then jerked in and out of focus.
One more jerk and when she refocused she was Lincoln Monroe.
“Cress,” he said with a wicked smile. “Come on, don’t you want to go for a walk with me?”
Cressida snarled.
“Tighter, love,” Julian said.
Grace focused on her magic, and felt the crack when Linc’s bac
k snapped.
“Good girl,” Julian murmured.
Linc’s form twisted and shivered, then slid out into shadow.
Grace pushed hard and felt the magic spiral out of her.
One moment the shadow was unfurling like a flower.
The next, it evaporated into a shimmer of dust.
The Fletcher’s Cove moroi went up in a similar puff of ash.
And then it was all over.
The room was silent but for Cressida, panting lightly.
Grace spun on her heel.
Julian Magie stood before her. He looked so real. His eyes began to crinkle, the beginning of a smile.
“Are you a moroi?” she demanded.
His eyebrows shot up.
She circled him, so amped up she could hardly think.
“Are you about to turn into a crystal or a shadow or something?”
“He’s real,” Cressida said in a low voice. She had shifted and was tending to Javier.
“How do you know?” Grace asked, still stalking her prey, unable to take her eyes off him.
“I can smell him,” Cress said simply.
Julian opened his mouth.
He might have been about to tell her he loved her, or make a compelling argument for his humanity. Grace didn’t really give a good goddamn.
She was on him before he could speak, knocking him to the stone floor, her mouth seeking his with the desperation of a diver coming up for air.
Chapter 7
Magic flooded into the world from the newly opened portals like a dam bursting to fill an empty river bed, churning over the dry landscape and uprooting everything in its wake.
For a moment, the universe seemed to whisper. Ordinary people found themselves pausing on the street to remember their first kiss or to wonder if they had left the stove on.
Then the magic found its level and they walked on, the world back to normal for them.
But for the extraordinary few, life would never be the same again. All over the world a tiny, but not unsubstantial number of the population was discovering powers they’d never known they had.
On a school playground, a small shy girl with dark braids cowered as a group of boys called her names.
Frantically, Lana tried to catch her friend’s eye, but the other girl slunk away.
And Lana couldn’t blame her. These boys were mean. Sooner or later words wouldn’t be enough and they would throw a rock.