Nire should have been afraid, but instead she was confident. I could tell by the deep purple shimmer in the air around her. Nire had forgotten fear, along with reason and measured concern. There was little left of a once splendid being, and her madness was a sad thing to behold.
“Brenden,” she murmured, switching back to English and her more casual human voice, trying to fool his heart. “Okay, you have a crush on this girl, but she’s not worth our fighting. If it will make you happy, I’ll simply put her in the dungeons with the rest. Now, step aside and let me speak to her.”
Every fiber in my body screamed in protest as I forced my fingers forward. My nails brushed Bren’s back, and—ah!
I felt the electric snap of our connection.
So did Bren. He jerked, but thank the Goddess, he didn’t speak. My eyes drifted up and down as I let my knowledge and power pour into him, joining our hearts as surely as any wedding bond. My golden glow blended with his silvery essence like a deep and intimate kiss. He pulsed silver, then gold. Silver, then gold.
I was failing, losing everything, yet winning at the same time. My mother never could have understood such a paradox, but I did. It was a messy, disordered, yet wonderful surrender.
I felt Bren close to me, body and spirit, and I knew it would have to be enough to sustain me in the between-time when I finished, and when I eventually passed from the world.
In seconds, Nire witnessed the change in Bren’s aura.
Her scream split the air like a whistling axe, but Bren held his position. I don’t believe he fully understood what was happening.
“Step away from her!” Nire shrieked, though already her voice was becoming dull to my ears. Everything was becoming dull.
“Brenden, break the connection. Jasmina is trying to kill you!”
Bren shuddered, and my cold throat tightened.
Would he believe her?
His legs shifted. He leaned forward slightly, but he didn’t move away from my hand. My heart flooded with a warmth that almost drove away the growing Shadows within me. He trusted me. Bren knew I wouldn’t hurt him.
Nire screeched again, and her robes billowed as she swirled forward. Her Shadow minions followed like a filthy cloud.
“Stop,” Bren said.
The command tone was unmistakable. I could almost hear my voice mingled with his.
Nire froze, her expression bewildered. Around her, Shadows fell to the floor like stiff refuse. I saw the Shadowmaster’s teeth clench as she fought against the spell and rose above it, lurching toward us.
But it was too late.
The last of my essence drained into Bren. The powers and knowledge that were essentially me were now his forever, given freely of my love, and accepted freely because of his love for me.
My hand fell away from him, and he stood. His sword was firmly in hand, and he glanced over his shoulder, locking eyes with me.
With the last ounce of outward strength I possessed, I smiled at him.
That seemed to be all he needed.
Bren whirled on Nire, and as he had several times before, he seemed to grow. Larger and larger. Tapping into the pool of his incredible powers—and now, mine as well. The silver that once glittered around him flared. Shadows exploded or shimmered and disappeared, released from bondage, thank the Goddess.
Nire’s screams of frustration filled the air.
The Shadowalker’s voice was deep when he spoke, and his words echoed from the cold chamber walls. “I’ll tell you one more time, Mom. Back away. I won’t kill you, but I won’t let you touch Jazz or me.”
My blurred vision caught the purple streaks of Nire, swaying in place. She seemed to be weighing her options. Deciding. If any but her own favored son had stood between the Shadowmaster and me, such a being would have no doubt perished in some horrid fashion. But Nire cared for Bren. She had plans for him. That was obvious, even as she risked another step toward him.
Bren’s gaze took in our surroundings in one sweeping glance. Understanding lit his handsome face, and I knew that everything from his countless hours of training with Rol and our discussions had fallen into place.
With a bellow that caused the remainder of the Shadows to flee or disintegrate, Bren raised his sword and brought it crashing point first into the false spell-floor in front of his mother.
Nire’s Sanctuary rocked as the spell-binding cracked. Fissures snapped in every direction, the sound like gunfire.
But the spells did not break.
The Shadowmaster swayed again, this time because the unnatural floor bucked and twisted. She raised her hands, the purple sparks growing between them until a ball of energy formed. But then the floor bucked so hard the Shadowmaster lost her footing and stumbled back. The energy ball dropped to the floor and burned through it until it vanished.
The Shadowalker was steady on his feet. His stature and his glow only grew as he held his sword in both fists and hacked at the false walls, the spelled ceiling—at the very core of Nire’s dark energy, her binding spells. The origin of the dark chains enslaving the Path.
He moved so quickly Nire didn’t have a chance to regain her composure or her footing. The stone hiding the essence of the walls and ceiling split and crumbled, turning to dust, revealing more and more bands of Nire’s dark magic. Her containment spells shone like sparkling obsidian, woven through the glittering gold threads of the Path my father and I had established.
Bren didn’t hesitate. His face reflected an intense concentration as he raised his sword, ready to slice into the fabric of the Path of Shadows.
“Stop!” Nire commanded in oldeWords, but her spell had no impact on her son. Just as my commands had never affected him when he was concentrating, her command struck him and fell away, useless.
Without a flicker in his focus, Bren raised his sword higher still, and with a single mighty stroke, his blade met Nire’s bonds.
The crack of thunder rocked the room, and a stench like charred flesh attacked my nose. Bren’s sword wrenched out of his hands. A force flung him backward and he landed on the buckling floor.
All went still.
The spells were intact. Shaken, but intact.
Goddess save us.
He failed to free the Path of Shadows.
My eyes closed, but my heart felt strangely at peace. We had failed, but we had failed with our best effort. Who could ask more of us than that?
And Bren.
Brave Bren.
Every flaw, every fault, every imperfection—he was splendid.
Bren was the truest champion I had ever known.
***
Chapter Twenty-Seven
For a fraction of a second, I was too stunned to move. My muscles still vibrated from the impact of my sword slamming against the containment bonds holding Nire’s hideout to Salem and to the Path.
As the room shuddered to a stop, Mom-Nire held out her hand. She summoned my sword with a purple rope of power.
It rose from the floor and shot toward her.
“No!” At the same time I scrambled to my feet, I commanded my sword to return to me just as I had practiced with branches and rocks in my hideout. The weapon halted in midair, our magic battling for it.
Thanks to years of physical training, I had one thing Mom-Nire didn’t—athletic ability. With the force of my magic, I mentally held the sword in place while I leapt toward it and snatched it from the air.
Mom-Nire shrieked. Purple energy grew around her, pulsing so strong that a few stray rocks falling from the ceiling simply bounced off the glow. “Very well, Brenden. I have given you many chances to prove yourself to me. I shall contain you with your father and brother until you realize your destiny.” Her voice lowered, and she added, as if it pained her to say it, “If then you still fail to join me, I shall be forced to slay you.”
“Mom?” My heart clenched, and a part of my soul withered and died. “You would kill me?” I hadn’t really believed it until that moment. My own mother.
; Stones rained from the ceiling as the spell-room’s covering started to collapse. Mom-Nire’s eyes filled with misery as she raised her hand and spoke in that ancient language I somehow understood. “I do not wish to. I love you more than I have loved any of my sons. But I cannot allow you to stand in the way of what must be done. The decision is now yours, for I have no other choice.”
Gripping my sword hilt tighter, my eyes rested on Jazz’s beautiful face as she lay unconscious at my feet. I knew there was never a doubt of what my choice would be. I might fail, but I wouldn’t give in. And I wouldn’t stop trying.
I swallowed past the pain lodged in my throat as I looked back to Mom-Nire. “I love you, Mom. But I could never do what you’re asking. I can’t murder innocent people. These witches and others have a right to live, just as much as you do.” Begging with my heart and soul, I said, “Please. Stop this now. There’s no reason why we can’t all live together in peace. Join the witches, Mom. Please.”
Her body visibly shuddered with the force of her sigh. “I am truly sorry, my son.” She splayed the fingers of her hand and shouted, “Cease!”
Everything around us went still. Rocks stopped falling from the ceiling. The room stopped shuddering. All was completely silent. Only I remained untouched by her spell.
When Nire saw that I was unaffected, her eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise. Like with Jazz, her commands had no power over me when I was focused. But I knew she could use her magic to hurt me in other ways if I wasn’t careful.
Mom-Nire’s face darkened as she screamed, “Bind!”
Purple ropes of her power streamed from her just like they had in my nightmares, and then they began to swirl around me. In a reflexive movement, I swept my blade through the cords. They dropped away, writhing on the floor like jeweled snakes.
“It can’t be. Your powers—” Nire straightened, her face hardening, no longer the soft features of my mother. For the first time, I glimpsed the ancient being that lived inside the youthful shell—the creature who truly belonged nowhere in the modern world.
Mom-Nire lifted both arms and held her palms outward. Purple bled from her fingertips, hovering before her hands.
My heart pounded, and I readied my sword as dark light condensed and grew into a glittering fireball. This one grew much bigger than the one she had dropped before. With a flick of her finger, the ball raced toward me.
I swung my blade. Sparks exploded and bits of the fireball landed on my skin. It burned like acid, and I shouted from the pain.
I didn’t have time to dwell on it. Mom-Nire flung another fireball at me, and another. They sizzled through the air, the sound like frying bacon, the smell like burning electronics.
Years of baseball training and weeks of swordplay with Rol made my actions automatic. My magic intensified as I batted away one fireball after another, sending them careening around the room. Power filled me, and my focus magnified. But the fireballs were coming faster and faster.
A fireball slipped past my blade. It caught me on my right cheek. Intense pain rocked me, searing my skin. My eyes watered, and I could smell my own burnt flesh.
I barely managed to deflect the next fireball. This time I swung the broadside of my sword and knocked the ball straight back at Mom-Nire. Her robes caught fire. The room filled with the acrid odor of burning cloth.
“Damn the fates!” she shrieked.
My face was in so much pain that it was almost enough to drive me to my knees. I forced myself to ignore it as I watched my mother use magic to put out the fire on her robes. I never lowered my sword, no matter how much my arms ached.
It was then that I noticed the Shadows. They had crept so close they were within just a few inches of me. Had Mom-Nire’s order to cease worked on them? Or were these new Shadows, come to replace the ones she had commanded and I had destroyed?
I pushed all thoughts away and swung my sword in a disciplined arc. Silver burst from my weapon and seared every Shadow I could see. Screams filled the room and their stink intensified.
I didn’t take time to think about anything. I squared off with the Shadowmaster, ready to take on whatever she threw at me.
Smoke swirled within Mom-Nire’s purple glow. She clenched her fists and stared at me, no doubt thinking of what else she could do to contain me.
Or kill me.
Nire’s blue eyes turned to ice, and I was sure she was going to hurl some kind of death spell. “Your father is right,” she said after a moment of silence, sounding very much like my human mom, the one from my memories. The one who wasn’t real. “You’re irresponsible, Brenden. You’ll never change.”
My gut twisted to hear my mom say those words.
“You always react.” She took a step forward. “You’ve never learned how to respond.”
I sucked in my breath and clenched my sword hilt until my knuckles ached. My cheek burned from the fireball wound, but I blocked out the pain until I felt nothing but my power humming through my veins.
“Look around you.” Nire swept her arm before her, waving to the shattered remains of the room. The bands of her containment spell still glinted through the brown of Salem’s dirt and the gold of the Path. It was all woven together in a big twisted knot. “You’ve caused all this destruction.”
I gritted my teeth as she stepped within several feet of me, but I forced myself to remain quiet as she continued.
“How could you possibly think you could be anyone’s champion?” Her voice had grown cold and cruel, her face twisted. A stranger was approaching me. A person—a being—that I didn’t know. “You do not belong in today’s world, any more than I do.”
Nire, the Shadowmaster, finally came close enough. My blade flashed as I raised the point and put it to her chest. Over her heart.
She gasped as I gently pressed the tip of the cold metal into her robes.
I kept my eyes locked with hers. “If you take one step closer, if you try anything, I’m prepared to defend myself and all witches.”
Nire shuddered and flinched as my silver glow brightened at the conviction in my words. I wouldn’t actually kill her, but she didn’t know that.
No matter how much I loved my mom—or rather the creature I had known as my mother—I couldn’t let her murder anyone else. I wouldn’t let her force me to follow in her footsteps.
“You’re a failure, Brenden,” Nire croaked, her voice harsh and bitter.
“I used to believe it when people told me I was a failure.” My self-confidence grew as I fully understood who I was inside. I had been that person all along, too. Just trapped and twisted by doubt. “Now I understand that no matter how many times I might fail at something, I will never give in. That’s what makes me alive, and what makes me belong anywhere I choose to be.”
“But you have failed me, my son.” Nire’s fingers trembled at her sides, as if she intended to raise them.
“Don’t even twitch.” My voice was calm as I pressed my sword point deeper into her robes. “The choice is yours. Do as I say, or this ends now.”
Nire winced as I moved the tip tighter against her flesh. My senses were so attuned I could feel the pounding of her ancient heart through my sword.
Before I could react, Nire spun away from me and shot a purple fireball at Jazz.
The fireball slammed into her neck. Jazz cried out, and I smelled her burned flesh and clothing. And then she went limp again.
Rage powered my magic as I swung my sword and flung bolts of silver power at the Shadowmaster.
The magic struck her like a fist to her gut. It threw her from her feet against the far wall. Her head smashed against cracked rock. The Shadowmaster dropped. She landed face-first on the squirming floor. Nire went completely still.
I wanted to run to Jazz to see if she was all right, but I knew what I had to do.
Before it was too late.
Kneeling beside Nire, I laid my sword beside me. My soul twisted as the Shadowmaster moaned. I yanked her arms behind her back and bound
them with her own spell ropes that still littered the floor. I used my own magic to keep them tied.
She moaned and flexed her fingers and tried to move. I pushed her head back down to the floor. “Don’t move.”
When the Shadowmaster’s hands were secure, I grabbed my sword from where it lay beside me. I strode toward the center of the Path of Shadows, where I could see the containment bonds squirming.
Nire struggled to her knees as I raised my weapon. “No!” she screamed.
I had no doubts left in my heart. No fear of failure. I could almost hear Jazz’s voice, telling me she believed in me. Saying that she loved me.
Power bubbled up from my core, hot and molten. My skin and my sword flamed brilliant silver. Nire shrieked and fought against her bonds as she staggered to her feet.
With confidence I didn’t have the first time I tried, I swept my blade downward with all my strength, all my magic, all my belief.
My sword connected with Nire’s containment spells. An electrical charge swept through me as I hacked into Salem’s dirt, Nire’s dark bonds, and through the Path itself, slicing it all in two.
***
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Flashing light pierced my eyes, once more rousing me from my stupor. I felt so very weak, and yet I knew what had happened.
Praise the Goddess. Bren freed the Path of Shadows.
Nire’s false Sanctuary had been cut from Salem and the Path like a foul tumor. Smells of dirt and mold spilled throughout Nire’s chamber, which started to pitch and buck once again. My neck burned, no doubt a wound from Nire’s magic, taking yet more of my strength.
“Fool.” Nire gnashed her teeth as she straightened, her hands still bound behind her. “We have no choice but to flee into Salem. We’ll be trapped here, in this time, this place, forever!”
But Bren must have already thought of this, remembering what I had discussed with him at Shadowbridge. He came to me. I saw a bleeding slash across his cheek, and my heart cried out for him. But the wound only made him more beautiful to me.
He lifted me from the trembling floor, and though his clothing was still damp, his arms felt powerful and warm against my near-frozen skin. As he held me close to his right shoulder, his sword still in his left hand, I could tell he was being careful.
L.O.S.T. Trilogy Box Set Page 23