I squinted against the bright outline of the god before us. “Devon?”
“Devon, what’s wrong?” Thorne asked, getting to his feet.
But Devon didn’t respond. He breathed in and out heavily, and when he took another step closer, I was able to make out his face, pinched in raw fury that was unlike the peaceful god of prophecy.
Thorne’s body stiffened, and I scrambled to get to my feet beside him.
Devon’s glowing green gaze shot from Thorne to me and he grinned madly. A dark cackle slipped through his lips, and two swords appeared in his hands. They were writhed in shadowy flames, and I gulped at the sight of them, having seen them before in the hands of Baladon’s minions.
A scream cut through the garden, and I heard Agaris yelling for Devon’s head, but she wasn’t going to get here in time.
Devon flew forward, aiming straight for me, but Thorne blocked his way. He shot out his hand and Devon was thrown backward, clattering to the ground.
He didn’t stay there long and was quickly back on his feet. I expected him to go after Thorne and was readying myself to defend him, but his green gaze was only for me.
“Give me the star,” he snarled in a guttural voice.
“Devon, you are not yourself,” Thorne insisted loudly. “Look inward! Find your soul again, you must cast out this darkness!”
He gnashed his teeth together like some wild beast and raised those swords again. It was only then I saw the wet blood on the blades, running down the edge. I gulped, wondering who had just been killed in the gardens.
“The star, give her to me,” he demanded again.
“What is this?” I hissed to Thorne.
“The shadow within Devon’s mind, it’s taken him,” he replied, and put his arm out to protect me as we took a step back. “Mori, you have to go. He’s after you.”
“What? I can’t just leave you!” And why the hell was he after me? What more could Baladon want? He stole the orb from me, and the power to use it. Why would he need me unless… unless he wanted to make another one? For what? There wasn’t time for me to decide his motives, Devon was moving closer and Thorne’s hand reached out for my forehead.
“I’m not giving you a choice.” His hand began to glow, encasing me in its light.
“No! You’ll weaken yourself.”
“You are our hope now, do you hear me,” he muttered. “The path is yours to find, as is the truth. We will always be with you. Remember that in your times of weakness.”
Devon had taken a step closer for each we took backward. Agaris. Where was she? We needed her to fight. I clung to Thorne’s robes, not ready to let him face this evil alone, but then my body was glowing and disappearing before my eyes.
“No! Thorne, please! I won’t lose you!”
“Go, child,” he whispered, and cast me from the realm.
Devon bellowed in rage and attack Thorne again.
I screamed as I soared through the realms, the ground rushing up to greet me. I touched down hard, hearing gasps of alarm around me.
Two hands reached out to steady me. The second they closed around my arms, I knew who it was without having to look.
Forrest.
I looked around frantically, willing myself to go back to Thorne, to save him, but nothing I did worked.
I yelled in frustration before collapsing to the ground again, taking Forrest with me.
“Mori? What happened?” he asked, alarmed.
“Baladon,” I whispered harshly, and Forrest growled at the name.
“He attacked you?”
“No, not him directly, but yes. The gods he had captive, the ones you saved… they’re turning.” I let him hold me as I hung my head, fighting back the tears of anger and sorrow, of not knowing what would become of Thorne. Or Devon for that matter. “Thorne. Devon attacked Thorne, but he… he sent me back here and I… I can’t get back now.”
What was I going to do? I was cut off from the gods, no way back to them. I was too weak to make another orb, and without one of them summoning me back… I had no way to know what happened, if Thorne would live.
“Come on, let’s get you inside at least,” Forrest said gently, and helped me to my feet.
I leaned against him, barely nodding in reply, and let him lead me inside the castle. We were still in Torolf, and I saw the worry growing on the shifters faces as I passed. What hope could I give them now?
“Mori?”
Tristan and Sabella turned to face us when we reached the hall, the latter hurrying to my side.
“What’s going on? You’re shaking.” Sabella took my hand and helped me to a chair.
“The gods are not safe, not anymore,” I whispered. “We’re much shorter on time than we originally thought. Devon, he was one you saved, but… but being with Baladon so long poisoned his mind. He turned, he turned, and he came after me and Thorne.”
I repeated exactly what happened and willed them not to ask me anything else just yet. The darkness Agaris warned me about had taken over Devon in just a few days. I had not been drained like the others, but that same shadow crept through my mind. How long until I succumbed to it? Turned on and attacked those here? And Devon said he wanted me, just me. I kept that part to myself, too. Once I had an answer, I would let them know, but telling them that now would only turn all their worry toward me, and their focus needed to be on stopping Baladon. Not on keeping me safe.
It was going to be hard enough to keep them safe from me if I wasn’t strong enough to stand against the shadow looming in my mind.
“We can speak more of this after you’ve had a chance to rest,” Forrest said firmly. “Tristan?”
“Of course, there’s plenty of room. Please, Mori, take your time.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled.
Forrest offered to lead me to a room. I wouldn’t sleep, but some time alone with my thoughts would help. Or so I hoped.
He said nothing as we walked through the castle until we finally came to a stop at a small chamber with a balcony overlooking the river in the distance.
“Do you need anything before I leave you?”
I almost said I needed him to stay but stopped the words before they could come out. It was true I felt better around him, but I remembered how terrifying Devon appeared when he came after me and Thorne and did not want Forrest near me until I felt more secure with myself.
“No, no I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
“If you do think of anything, or want to talk, just call for me. Please.” He paused at the door, seeming reluctant to leave.
I was torn between asking him to stay and reassuring him again he could go, but then he made up his mind and pulled the door shut behind him.
Slowly, I wandered out onto the balcony and stared up at the blackness overhead. “Thorne, give me a sign here, anything. Please,” I begged.
But the sky gave nothing away, and I sagged against the railing. Alone, I was utterly alone now. No gods, no way back to them. I was weakened and filled with an anger that threatened to consume me. Add that to the range of strange and curious emotions coming to life because of Forrest, a dragon I could have sworn I knew, and at the same time had never met before; I was a wreck.
How did the gods expect me to get through this without falling apart?
Perhaps they don’t, the voice replied, and a shiver raced down my spine. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you. Not ever.
I gulped, willing the voice to go away, but it laughed inside my mind even as I sank to the stones and pulled my knees to my chest, feeling the despair close in.
4
Forrest
I stayed outside Mori’s door until I spotted Craig lingering at the end of the hall.
“She alright? Tristan and Sabella just told us.”
I shrugged, my gut yelling at me to go back in there and talk to her, but what was I going to say? She watched one of her family turn just like that, and now had no idea who was alive or dead. Thorne, she said, sent her here before she could be harmed. “Ho
w would you be?”
“Stressed, worried, but she’s not alone.”
“I think she believes she is.”
“Then it’s up to you to change her mind,” he said with a wink. “I suggest you don’t let her be alone too long in there with her thoughts. We all know how much certain dark thoughts can torment a person. What it does to them.”
Yes, sadly. Our small group had far too much experience with facing down the inner darkness of our souls. We’d watched Kate be turned and nearly kill everyone she loved because of it. Nearly killed herself. Then Sabella, lost in a world of visions that almost destroyed her, too. I would give Mori some time to herself, but Craig was right. Too long alone and she risked doing harm to herself. I would not let her give into the darkness after just rescuing her from Baladon’s clutches.
We walked together toward the council chamber where Tristan, Sabella, and Kate sat, having a heated discussion about what this new development meant for all of us. From the way it sounded, Sabella and Kate were in favor of making a move against Baladon quickly, but Tristan was the one putting his foot down. Craig was right there along with him.
I leaned against the wall, content to listen for now.
“We can’t get back to them,” Tristan reminded them both.
Sabella waved her arms over her head. “Hello, do you see me standing here? Remember what I did already?”
“You are not strong enough to make another one,” he argued hotly. “And if you have forgotten, the last time was a trap! Baladon let us into his realm, let us get to your mother so he could try and take you away from us! There has to be a reason he wanted you.”
“Yeah, to make another orb!”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it! I was there, too, Sabella, I heard him talking to you. I saw the look in his eyes.”
“Fine, then what did you see, huh? What?”
“Fear!” He yelled so fiercely the word echoed around the room.
His outburst shocked her into silence. Even Kate and Craig looked confused. I pushed off the wall and joined them at the table. “Fear? You saw fear in his eyes? Fear of Sabella?”
Sabella glowered at me.
I shrugged.
“Really?” Her glowering intensified.
“You know what I mean,” I muttered. “Tristan?”
“I saw fear, and I can’t explain why, but it had to do with you. He was trying to get you out of the game, and if you attack him again, you risk him getting what he wants.” He ran his hands through his hair as he growled, annoyed. “Just stop for five seconds and think it through. Think about your visions, what you’ve seen. Is there a chance, however slim, that Baladon knows what you’ve seen?”
She started to shake her head, but stopped. “I don’t know.”
“Which gods did he have in his keeping all these years?” Craig pointed out. “There’s a chance he absorbed their powers, right? Maybe even picked up someone who also had visions… someone like your mother for instance.”
Sabella’s face paled, and she sank into a chair. “Shit.”
“If he knows the vision you had about the five of us and one other, or even the riddle… he’s going to be coming after us.” Tristan looked at me first, then Craig and Kate. “We have to find out for sure if that’s even possible.”
“And if it is? What then?” Because this war wasn’t complicated enough, now there was a chance what we thought was an advantage against Baladon might not be anymore. If he knew we had the key to defeating him, he would do everything he could to stop us. “Do we even know what the riddle means yet for sure?”
“Eh,” Sabella said, tilting her head back and forth. “Working out a few more… more minor details, but yeah, think we’re getting there. Sort of.”
She was still acting weird and hiding something from me. No one else seemed to be annoyed at her sudden lack of sharing of information. She stood and started walking toward the door, mentioning something about checking in with Lucy and Greyson. That they were creating some sort of warning system in case Baladon decided to attack here.
I was going to call her out on it, tired of being left out of the loop when Tristan growled and sprinted to her side.
A second later, Sabella gasped, and her eyes glassed over as her whole body went rigid in Tristan’s arms.
“Red?”
She sounded like she was choking and the rest of us closed in, worried she was being attacked, but then the words started pouring out of her mouth.
“Three must rise from the ashes of defeat. Three must claim the mantle thrust upon them, and three… three will meet their deaths in the end… three… will… three will…” She coughed harshly and then collapsed against Tristan’s chest, cringing and breathing hard.
“Sabella? Can you hear me?” Tristan asked softly, smoothing the hair back from her face. “Red?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good,” she mumbled. “What… what did I say this time?”
Kate was rubbing her hands over her face vigorously. “Well, pretty sure the death you saw in that first vision means our actual deaths.”
Craig and Tristan exchanged a dark look of concern.
“What, why?” Sabella looked at Kate, then Craig, and finally, Tristan.
“What you just said,” Tristan told her. “Three will meet their deaths… I think there was meant to be more, but you seemed to cut your vision short somehow.”
“Damn it.” She tried to stand, but her knees wobbled.
Tristan scooped her up in his arms.
“I can walk, really.”
“You can, later, when you’re not trembling. Did you see anything?”
“Three figures in a shroud of fog,” she murmured, shutting her eyes as if seeing it again. “But there were no features, nothing to say who they were.”
“You sure?” I pressed.
Tristan growled. I held up my hands.
“Stop growling,” she snapped at him, then turned to me. “And if anything else comes to me, I’ll let you know. Swear it.”
“Right then, you’re going to rest for a while,” Tristan said decisively, then carried a complaining Sabella from the room.
He argued with her until they were out of earshot leaving the three of us behind to stare at each other.
“This has turned out to be an interesting day, to say the least,” Kate exclaimed in a fake, cheerful voice.
“Interesting, that’s what you have to say about it?” Craig said quietly.
“What? You’re just upset about the whole possible death thing.”
“And you’re not?” he yelled, his face shifting in anger, his demon flashing in and out of view. “Damn it, Kate! I’ve watched you nearly die enough times already. Can we not add another? I don’t think I can take it, love.”
“Hey, not like I’m voting for dying here, but if it saves the realms and kills Baladon—”
“Not going to happen, you hear me? I don’t care what she sees or what any damned prophecy says, I am not going to let you sacrifice yourself! Not again and you can’t ask me to let you so don’t even try,” he snarled and stormed from the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
I whistled loudly in the sudden silence.
Kate glared at me.
“What? He’s got a point.” I shrugged.
“And I’m supposed to just ignore my destiny? Act like we don’t all know what’s going on here?”
“No, but you could at least act like you care enough about your own life to save it, instead of just accepting what’s happening to you.”
She stomped away from me to stare out the windows. “Not like I want to die, but… aren’t you just a little tired of constantly fighting against fate when all fate seems to want to do is kick you back down again? I’m happy, the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, and no, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to leave Craig behind… but if I have to lay down my life to save everyone, then I will.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re being dramatic, just a bit.”
She whipped around. “No, I’m being a realist.”
I bit back a growl. “He doesn’t want you to be a realist. He wants you to fight for what you have together!”
I could’ve strangled Kate right then for not understanding why Craig was so pissed, or Tristan, for that matter. The minute that riddle and Sabella’s other vision came along, it was like the two of them were ready to throw in the towel and give up trying to find any other way to stop Baladon, or even to explore what else those visions could mean. They jumped on the idea that it would end with their deaths. Why couldn’t they see that?
“The love you two have, it’s not something you should throw away so lightly,” I told her. “I was there when it started between you two. I’ve felt it. And no matter what might actually happen in the end, you must see how much Craig is killing himself to stop you from rushing headfirst into a fight you know you can’t win.”
“I’m not… I just…” She growled in aggravation, but I saw her eyes darken with worry as she glanced toward the door. “Damn.”
“Yeah, damn. You and Sabella lately have been acting like you’re accepting your deaths.”
“We’re not—it’s just… we talked about it, you know?” she told me quietly. “And we both thought if it came down to it actually happening, the readier to accept it we are, the less hurt and pain Craig and Tristan would be left with.”
I understood her point, but at the same time after watching how badly Sabella’s first “death” affected him, no matter how they tried to prepare their husbands for their possible demise, it would kill them in the end.
Hell, losing Kate would almost kill me. She was a dear friend, and I loved her in my own way.
“He’s so mad at me right now,” she muttered with a wince.
“Can’t blame him.”
“No, no, I can’t.”
I waited for her to go after him, but figured she was giving him a few more minutes to cool down. “That’s an interesting development, with Sabella and Tristan.”
“First time I’ve seen it, but he mentioned it to Craig yesterday. Said it was the strangest sensation. He felt like she was pulling him to her with a rope and the second he got to her side, the vision hit.”
Stars (Dragon Reign Book 8) Page 4