I rushed to get to my feet, but there was her boot, knocking me upside the head this time.
I fell to the floor, gasping for air and wincing from all my wounds.
Mori. An image of her burst to life in my mind and I focused on it, letting her give me strength.
“Just stay down,” Agaris yelled and kicked out the swords I’d been using to support my weight out from under me.
My head slammed into the floor, but I moved to my elbows and knees, spitting blood from my mouth.
She snarled as she came at me again.
Weakly, I managed to catch her boot before it slammed into my face, but then she nailed with a punch instead, and I flew backward.
“I have orders not to kill you. Stay down!”
I rolled over and started crawling toward the door. Mori was in there alone, powerless. I had to keep going, keep fighting…
Agaris stomped on my back, and I flinched as her boot drove into my spine.
“You just had to make it hard,” she muttered.
The weight lifted, and I was about to start crawling again when her boot met with my face and everything went dark.
9
Mori
Agaris. The moment I saw her, my hopes rose that maybe, just maybe the gods had survived the assault after all. But then she’d started talking and drew her sword, a sword stained with blood. My heart had sunk to the floor, and I wanted to curl up right there. She’d killed her brothers and who knew who else. Was Thorne still alive? Were any of them left at all?
Or was I the last one of the gods still standing? I shook my head slowly, feeling Forrest nudging me with this leg, but I couldn’t get myself to move. All I could do was stare at that bloodied sword and imagine her finishing me off with it next.
And then time sped up as Forrest unleashed his fire against Agaris and I found myself in the air, soaring past Agaris and sliding to a harsh stop inside the room beyond. Fog covered the floor, and I squinted, trying to get my bearings, but there was no light, and my own was still too dimmed to be of any use.
I started forward, my ears ringing with Agaris’ battle cry as she went after Forrest. A glance over my shoulder revealed that she was attacking him, and he was stuck in dragon form. His wounds were already taking a toll on his body, but he hadn’t been able to shift back. Then the doors slammed closed, and I was alone. I could still hear their fight raging on, and I shut my eyes, to try and drown out the sounds of Agaris’ shouts and Forrest’s growls.
And then I opened them again.
There right in front of me was the orb.
It pulsed with a life of its own just as it always had. As I moved closer, it glowed brighter, pulsing in time with my heart as though it remembered me. I only had eyes for the orb, half-listening to the fight taking place outside this room and for any noise within it. But there was only the pounding of my heart as I inched closer and closer.
When I was in arm’s reach, I licked my lips nervously and stretched out my hands for it. My fingertips barely brushed against it when the orb flared an eerie, dark green and the blast sent me flying into the wall.
I smacked my head against the stone and sank to the floor with a grunt of pain as my vision blurred.
Fire sparked to life all around the room, and I had to roll out of the way before the flames grabbed hold of my clothing or hair. Their heat pressed in all around me, and I crawled backward, wincing at the ache in my head.
“You thought it would be that easy, did you?” Agaris sighed.
I looked around trying to find her, but the fire’s roared brighter, momentarily blinding me. Where was Forrest? The doors, they were still closed, and he was nowhere in sight.
“Why are you doing this?” I had to get up, but each time I tried to stand, my legs gave out.
“I got tired of fighting,” she spat.
I felt a brush of a blade close to my face but didn’t see her. She laughed darkly, and I felt another cold touch drag along my arm. I winced when the blade dug in deep and drew a dark rivulet of crimson that ran down my arm.
“Can you blame me?”
“Yes. You’re the one that told me to keep fighting, remember?”
I breathed in deeply through my nose and managed to get to my feet, staggering forward a few steps as the dizziness cleared from my mind.
Forrest, I had to find him.
I turned toward the doors, ready to rush to them and throw them open, get to him, but I barely made it a few steps before Agaris was suddenly there again. She kicked me backward, blocking me.
My heart skipped a beat as I gasped in pain.
Dead, was he dead? Had she killed him?
Her cackling surrounded me, but I ignored it and reached for the pull I’d felt toward Forrest since the day he rescued me. It was faint, but he was alive. I let out a heavy sigh of relief and kept my eyes closed as I tried to pinpoint Agaris’ location in the room.
“You should have just given in,” she mused. “So much easier in the end.”
“I was never one for doing things the easy way,” I murmured.
There was the slightest whisper of air to my right, and I turned in that direction. The sting of a blade slapped against my outstretched hand, cutting into my knuckles. I yanked my hand back. When she used to train me to fight, that was how she would punish me if I messed up a move. I reached out my hand again, purposely making my move obvious and the blade came down again on my hand.
“Don’t you ever learn anything?”
She was toying with me, but deep down, I sensed Agaris was still in there somewhere. If I could draw her out enough, it might give me the chance I needed to get the orb and Forrest, and escape before Baladon came for us.
“I do, and I learned it all from you.” I opened my eyes and blinked a few times as I adjusted to the bright flames lighting the space.
The dizziness was completely gone, and my vision cleared. Agaris stood on the other side of the room from me, the orb in between us. Her eyes were narrowed, calculating, as she tapped her sword against her open palm.
“You know what else I learned?”
“How to fail, because clearly, that’s all you know how to do,” she snapped.
I let the barb of her words slide off me and sensed Forrest coming to on the other side of the doors. “I learned how much you cared for the warriors who followed you. I learned that beneath the armor and the blood, you have a heart that’s filled with compassion and love.”
She yawned widely. “Is that so? Doesn’t seem to have mattered much, now has it? None of that compares to what I am now.”
“Agaris, please, I know you’re in there.”
“Am I? I could be, or I could not be. I would say you could ask your dragon out there, but he’s feeling a bit under the weather.” She winked, then burst out laughing as my eyes widened and terror gripped me. “I’m sorry, but that look on your face is just precious.”
“What did you do to him?” My fear shifted into anger for one that I loved as I reached for Forrest’s soul again. It was fainter than before. He was dying outside those doors. Dying. And it was all my fault.
No, I heard a voice whisper in my mind, but it wasn’t the dark one from before. Never your fault.
Forrest? It had to be him, and he was right. Baladon. He did this to all of us, turned us on one another. He used as his playthings and tormented us for his pleasure. I would not let him win this day. Though I assumed my magic was still weakened, I sensed it pulsing with life deep within me. I thought of the gods lost, of the innocents killed. I thought of Forrest lying wounded and needing me, and Thorne and all the others fighting for their lives still. I saw each one of their faces, and that magic grew stronger and stronger, taking my fear, and turning it into something tangible.
Something I could use to against the bloody bastard.
Agaris’ smile fell, and her sword rested, ready at her side. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t answer; instead I shut my eyes and drew on the magic filling
me.
I thought of Forrest and me, finally sharing that walk in the woods together, and when I opened my eyes, my light flooded the room, burning bright as the day I’d been taken from the night sky. I held out my right hand, and a silver and white glowing staff made of stars and pure white magic drew itself into being, twisting and turning around until it was a solid weapon in my hand. A single blue stone glowed at the top, and when I tapped it on the floor, the sound resonated deafeningly loud through the chamber.
Agaris’ lip lifted in disgust. She gripped her sword tighter. “You’re going to fight me?”
“I don’t want to, but I will not let you hurt anyone else.” Magic flooding my voice. “Stand down, Agaris. Let me take the orb and Forrest. Come with us and let me help you.”
She shook her head and started to move to her left, making ready to attack. “Not going to happen.”
“Agaris,” I tried again, but she screamed and came at me.
I met her attack, holding my staff longways across my body, and her blade bounced right off it, nearly smacking her in the face on the rebound. She came at me again, and again, but each time, I met her attack head-on.
She shrieked as I slammed the staff into her stomach and she fell backward. I spun around and hit her a second time before she could recover. She gasped for air, the green in her eyes flaring with her agony, but she didn’t yield. We moved across the floor, and I held my ground, taking a few hits to the face, but her sword never touched my skin again. I recalled all the training she ever put me through and used it, letting the power within me guide my moves.
When we were near the doors, I swung the staff low and took out her legs. She crashed to the floor, and I slammed the tip of the staff into the crack of the doors. They flew open, and as soon as I spotted Forrest on the floor, drenched in blood and not moving, the staff slipped from my fingers in shock.
I sprinted to his side and rolled him over, patting his cheeks roughly.
“Forrest, come on, please,” I begged, putting my hand beneath his nose. There was the faintest breath of air, but he’d lost so much blood. “Right, up you go.” If not for the magic giving me strength, I never would’ve gotten him off the floor. But somehow, I managed to throw one of his arms over my shoulders, and finally, he stirred.
“Mori?”
“Right here,” I promised. “You just have to hold on a few more minutes, okay?”
Together, we maneuvered back into the room with the orb. It was still on the pedestal in the center, but Agaris was nowhere in sight. I lowered us, so I could grab hold of my staff, eyes scanning for any sight of her.
“Where did you get that?” he murmured, eyeing the staff through his one good eye. The other was swollen shut.
“You,” I replied, unsure of how else to explain it. “We just have to get to the orb—”
Agaris’ scream came from above us.
I raised the staff to block her attack, but she tackled us, taking us to the floor in a heap.
Forrest grunted in pain, and I fought to get back up, but she yanked the staff from my arms and tossed it across the room.
“You will not leave!” she screamed, wrapping her hand in my hair and yanking me back.
I screamed, spinning to try and attack her, but she tugged harder and punched me over and over again, until my face was beyond merely bloodied. The magic within me wasn’t going to last much longer. I had to get us out of here, but my staff, it was too far away.
Then Agaris spun me around and slammed me face first into that wall of flames. Pain engulfed me, and I pitched myself out of them, crawling away, but Agaris’ feet appeared before me, and she hauled me up by my hair again. She shook me until my teeth rattled inside my skull.
“Baladon wants you, and he will have you both,” she swore. “And then he’ll go after the rest of your friends and cover the world in darkness. All of the worlds. There is no stopping him.”
“Agaris, please,” I pleaded, but she shook me again, and I winced.
“No! Agaris is dead! She’s not coming back, none of them are.”
A dagger manifested in her hand, and she drew it back, ready to plunge into my chest. It wouldn’t kill me, but it’d sure as hell paralyze me. I braced for it—
Suddenly, she shrieked and released me.
Forrest yelled and dropped to the floor behind Agaris, my staff in his hands, but he was too weak to lift it again.
I ran to him, grabbed hold of the staff and as Agaris whirled around to come after us again, I begged for her soul to forgive me, and drove the glowing blue stone into her chest.
The force of the blow reverberated down the staff and into my hands, but I held on.
The stone sank into her chest, and she screamed as light consumed her, until there was nothing left.
Her body vanished, and the flames died out around the room, replaced by soft, white lights.
Just like stars.
When the last bit of what had been the great war goddess Agaris disappeared, I fell to the floor, and the staff in my hands broke apart.
“Mori?”
Forrest’s hand touched my cheek, and I turned into it, pulling him to me as I kissed him fiercely. He held me close, but when he winced, I released him and stared at his battered body.
“We have to go before you bleed to death.”
“The orb, can you use it?” he asked.
“With you, yes, yes I can.” We had no other choice.
I left him on the floor and tentatively went to the orb again. I held my breath, stretching out my hands for it, but this time its glow matched the light from me, and I managed to get my hands around it. I was just turning around to take it back to Forrest when the entire mountain trembled.
Baladon’s roar filled the tunnels, and each thundering step he took brought him closer and closer to us.
I ran back to Forrest and sat down before him.
“Place your hands around mine,” I instructed, throwing a worried look over my shoulder.
“Mori, look at me.”
I did as he asked, and my gaze sank into those blue eyes.
His hands folded gently around mine.
I shut my eyes and focused on my realm, of returning home with both of us.
The orb started to hum and glow.
Baladon was closing in around us.
I sensed his presence, but scrunched my eyes shut.
Forrest’s hands pressed harder over mine, and I heard his growl as something heavy smashed into the hall outside the room. He cursed under his breath, and I felt him tackle me to the floor as I opened my eyes and saw the bolt of shadow strike the orb.
But Baladon was too late.
A half-second later and it sucked us out of his realm.
10
Forrest
I remembered grabbing hold of the orb with Mori as Baladon’s shout of rage erupted throughout the mountain. He was coming for us. I’d pressed my hands around hers, and just as he cleared the doorway, making to attack us, we were transported out of there. But that bolt of shadow, it had struck the orb, hadn’t it? I worried we hadn’t made it back and slowly opened my eyes.
I expected to find us back in her realm, or in Torolf, but instead, I looked around, confused to find us standing in a grove of trees. The moon and stars shone brightly overhead, startling me at the sight of them. Mori’s hands were still around the orb, and I let go.
She got a better grip on the orb, then her free hand found mine and held onto it tightly. It took me a few tries before I managed to get the words out, coughing to clear my throat.
“Mori,” I said quietly, worried I’d startle her.
She looked so lost all of a sudden.
“Mori, look at me, are you hurt?” I should’ve been, but for some strange reason, none of my wounds hurt. I took a hell of a beating, but I felt fine. Perfectly fine. “Mori?” I tried again, and she jerked as if waking up from a dream.
She shook her head and pointed. “Look.”
“At what… no
,” I whispered and stared in disbelief through the trees ahead of us. “Is that… it can’t be.”
But the proof was right in front of us. There through the trees were two figures walking hand in hand with only the moonlight pouring down over their heads. Mori, I recognized right away, but the other figure had me second-guessing and wondering if the two of us hadn’t hit our heads and were dreaming. But then the figures stopped, and he turned enough for me to fully see his face.
“Malcolm. You knew him?” I asked Mori, surprised.
“No, I don’t… I don’t remember this, but this is what I’ve seen with you and me.”
“And this is exactly what I dreamt.” I glanced around, searching for any sign of what we were seeing, but then Malcolm was talking, and I found us both moving closer to hear.
“How is it you came to be here with me?” he murmured softly. “These past few months have been more than I ever imagined.”
The other Mori leaned into his hand as he cupped her cheek and they shared a sweet kiss. “You called to me all those nights. You were so sad. I couldn’t bear it any longer.”
“And now you’re still here, and I don’t think I can go through with it.”
“Go through with what?” She ran her fingers over his forehead, smoothing out the frown lines. “Whatever worries you, everything will work itself out. You will see.”
He clutched her hands in his, kissing them both. “If only it were so simple.”
“I have come to love our nightly walks together,” Mori told him.
Next to me, Mori’s breath hitched.
I felt the same outpouring of love emanating from my past-life self and her.
“I will not lie, Malcolm. I care for you deeply, more than I ever imagined I could love anyone.”
“Then it’s settled, for I cannot deny the love I have for you either. I will deal with whatever comes next, but I cannot face a future without you in it. I won’t.”
She sank into his arms, and they held each other close for a long while until Malcolm seemed suddenly frozen in time.
Stars (Dragon Reign Book 8) Page 13