Greg put his hand on his chin. “How long did it take them to fly back here?”
“About an hour and a half, which means Kadon has already had half an hour attacking the veil.”
“It also proves it is quicker to get there on the winds than by foot. I suggest we get the fairy warriors to fly ahead. I will also lead the changeling army ahead as well. We can all transform into fast-flying birds.”
“I second that idea. Everyone in favour, raise your hand,” Den commanded.
Everyone raised their hand except Mellissa. Everyone looked at her. They were all probably wondering the same thing he was. His plan was sound. Why wouldn’t she back it?
“I can get there the fastest,” she said. “I will teleport straight to Kadon and stop him.” It was a statement, not a suggestion.
“Mellissa, are you crazy?” Greg asked. “You can’t go there on your own.”
“I won’t be on my own. Victoria and Harkura will be with me. Then the changelings and fairies will be roughly two hours behind. All in favour, raise your hand.”
Again, everyone raised their hand except one person, but this time it was Greg.
“No, you can’t. I am completely against this,” said Greg.
“I’m sorry, you have been outvoted.” Mellissa got up and left the meeting.
Greg stood up and stared at where Mellissa had just been. There was something different about her. She had changed. As a person, she was still the same. The only difference was that she was more sure of herself, which was good. To win this fight, she would need to go into it with confidence. Yet, he couldn’t shake this feeling of fear. The problem wasn’t her; it was him. He had also changed, and he was now scared of losing her.
Mellissa
I explained to Victoria what was happening. She was on board with my plan. So far, Greg was the only one that was against it. I understood why, but it was my life to risk. No one was forcing me to take this course of action. I had volunteered. I was done with waiting around to be attacked. I was sick of other people risking themselves to save me. What would be the point in surviving if I lost everyone I cared about along the way? It was time for me to step up. I was going to bring the fight to Kadon. I wasn’t going to be ruled by fear anymore.
Greg ran up to us. I knew he was going to try and change my mind, but he was out of luck. I knew what I had to do. I asked Victoria to bring Harkura up to speed so we could leave as soon as possible.
“Mellissa, if you insist on this course of action, I’m coming with you,” Greg said.
I shook my head. “As nice as the offer is, you can’t. You have to stay here and lead the changelings and fairies to battle. Greg, I know what I’m doing. This is what you trained me for.”
“No, this is not what I trained you for. I trained you to cast a sealing spell, not to go off and fight the leprechaun king on your own. Let’s not forget about the army he has as well.”
“I’m not alone. I have my guardians, and they are as good as an army. I also have this.” I showed him the crystal. “I think I’m finally starting to understand the Heart Crystal. I have to do this. We are out of time. Don’t worry. You can tell me about myself later.”
I turned to go, but Greg grabbed my arm. “Mellissa, be careful.”
“Aren’t I always?”
“No, you’re not. You are the clumsiest and most reckless person I know. You have almost gotten yourself killed at least twice since I met you. I just lost my dad. I need you to come back safe.” He was being very serious now.
“I’m sorry. I will be careful. I promise I will come back.” I gave Greg a hug.
He was reluctant to let go of my arm, but he had to. He knew I was the only one with any chance of stopping Kadon. I understood exactly how he felt. It was how I’d felt after losing Matt. Except I still had hope, Greg didn’t. Yet he had somehow gotten himself together to assist the healers and do what was needed before getting to this point—something I hadn’t been able to do. If I hadn’t been too busy feeling sorry for myself, I would have been here when Kadon attacked. Maybe less people would have gotten hurt. Going to fight Kadon right now was the best decision I had made in the last few days. I was finally thinking clearly and not being selfish.
I gave Greg a smile before running to find Harkura and Victoria. I found them making their way to me. Harkura was all caught up, and they were ready to go. I grabbed hold of both of them and teleported. I didn’t know where Freya’s castle was, so I focused on the dark energy of Kadon. We landed face-first in a field. I got up and dusted myself off. I jumped back as a car rushed by on a nearby road. We weren’t in the magic world anymore.
“Mellissa, where are we? Did you miss your target or something?” Victoria asked.
I didn’t know where we were. I shut my eyes. I definitely sensed Kadon’s presence here. I thought we would’ve materialised surrounded by a leprechaun army at an old-looking castle. However, we had somehow ended up back in the human world.
“I think we should follow the dark presence. I’m sure Kadon is here.”
We ran toward the darkness. The sky grew darker, and there was an overcast of shadow. My skin began to crawl. We were getting close.
“Maybe I should have asked this before we left, but does Your Majesty have a plan to stop Kadon?” Harkura asked. “I don’t mean to offend, but unfortunately, his previous prison is occupied.”
“It’s okay, Harkura. That’s a pretty good question,” I said. “I have done a lot of reading over the last week, and I realised something. Half of Kadon’s abilities come from the Moon Crystal. All the water attacks he does are because of it. All we need to do is separate him and the crystal. If we do, his powers will decrease dramatically. I’m pretty sure once he is weakened, a normal prison in the magic world will hold him.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” he asked.
“I didn’t get quite that far, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Hey, is that Stonehenge?” shouted Victoria.
“I think it is.” I paused, looking at the giant stones. Why would Kadon be here of all places?
Victoria’s eyes lit up. “Wow, I always wanted to see Stonehenge.”
I shook my head at her. Now wasn’t the time to stop and admire the scenery. I ran over to the giant stones. Kadon’s presence was strong here, but I couldn’t see him. The area was shrouded in shadows.
Kadon landed with a boom in the centre of the stones. “I’d hoped to bring down the veil before you arrived, elf-ling. This is better though. You get to watch as I send your beloved human world into chaos. Both worlds shall bow down to me.”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” I shouted.
“You think you can stop me?” He snickered.
I threw energy blasts at him. He rolled his eyes, and with a flick of his fingers, he threw me against a rock and bound me to it with shadow ropes. Harkura and Victoria charged at him. He rolled his eyes again, blasting them both back, trapping them in a shadow cage.
“Did you really think you could stop me? My power is at its peak in the light of the moon. You just got lucky last time, my dear little elf. Now, you and your guardians watch while I bring down this wretched veil from its original source.” He held his arms up wide as he circled us, with a smile on his face.
I wriggled, trying to escape my restraints. “I thought the veil was first created at Freya’s old castle.”
“Oh, you really are uneducated.” He put his hand against the rock I was tied to and ran his other hand through my hair. I tried to shake him off. He smirked. “I guess I have a few spare minutes to enlighten you before enslaving mankind.”
Kadon was just like all those stereotypical bad guys in the movies, who loved to chat and gloat over their enemy. He revelled in how clever he was and how dumb I—and the rest of humankind—was for not realising what Stonehenge really was. He informed us that the stones that made up Stonehenge were remains of Freya’s castle, which had crossed over when she made the veil. This was the only p
lace where the two worlds aligned perfectly, and it was the veil’s weakest point. His leprechaun army was on the other side of the veil right then, at that exact spot, setting up a bunch of magical energy bombs. He pointed out the line he’d already set up in the sky. All he had to do was put the last bomb in place and make the final blow on this side, and the veil would crumble to pieces. He thought his plan was extremely clever.
“As for you”—he had his hand round my throat in a flash—”you will get to watch me kill your guardians and see this world burn.”
“That is all so fascinating, but what I don’t get is why you don’t just kill me?” I asked. “The Heart Crystal will never work for you, and I will never stop fighting you.”
He stroked the side of my face. “Oh, I will kill you, just not yet. First, you will bear my heir. Then, my son will inherit the Heart Crystal, and I will rule this world with him by my side.”
I gagged. “Ew, no.”
He punched the stone I was bound to. “I’m not giving you a choice.”
I tilted my head and smiled at him. “Well, thanks for letting me know the details of your plan, but I will have to decline the whole producing an heir thing. Now, I’m going to stop you.” I shut my eyes and engulfed my body in light, blasting myself out of my restraints. Before my feet hit the ground, I sent a beam of light, cutting though the shadow cage trapping Harkura and Victoria.
All three of us charged him at once. His plan worked in our favour. He was separated from his army, and we could combine all of our powers to stop him. We struck him with fire, ice, and light. He had underestimated us. I might’ve still been new to magic, but I had a lot to fight for. We couldn’t let him bring down the veil. Humans wouldn’t be able to handle finding out about the magic world. It would be chaos—the exact thing the crystals were designed to stop. Channelling my powers through the Heart Crystal, and with Harkura and Victoria’s assistance, we had Kadon on the defensive. I still didn’t know how I was going to separate Kadon from the Moon Crystal, but I needed to get closer to him if I was going to try. We seemed to be overpowering him, but then his facial expression changed. He was smiling. Kadon multiplied. I spun around as copies of him started popping up all around us.
A deep laugh echoed as Kadon and his copies laughed. “It has been fun playing with you, but I’m getting bored now,” came the voice of the real Kadon, but I couldn’t tell which one he was.
They all moved at once, attacking us. They may have not been real, but their attacks were. We blasted our way through the duplicates. We had to find the real Kadon before he slipped away and set off the bombs. I grabbed the Heart Crystal, held it up above us and released a pulse of light energy, dispersing all the duplicates into water droplets. I looked around. All the Kadons had disappeared. So, where was the real one? Victoria pointed to the sky. Kadon was flying toward the veil. Altogether, we took aim and fired at him. He turned and redirected our attacks at the veil, then hurled the last bomb in place. All he needed was one blast to set the whole thing off.
Without thinking, I teleported and grabbed Kadon. I went to teleport away with him, but when I tried, a surge of dark power zapped through me. Kadon laughed. “Did you really think you could use that trick on me again?” He kicked me off.
I screamed as I fell toward the ground. Victoria shouted my name. I hit ice and slid to the ground. She had created an ice slide to catch me. While Kadon was distracted by me, Harkura had used his flames to hurtle himself at the row of pulse bombs. He grabbed one from the lineup, falling quickly to the ground. He called out to me, and I knew what to do. If we removed his row of pulse bombs, he wouldn’t have enough magical energy to bring down the veil. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of this earlier. Victoria began freezing the bombs. I teleported as many as I could to different locations. Kadon clenched his fists and tensed his muscles. The vein on his head began to pulse. The dark shadow around him grew.
“I have had enough of you pests,” he shouted, sending a wave of shadows to catch us. He got hold of Harkura and Victoria as I teleported away with another bomb. There was no way he could collect them all again easily. I went numb as a darkness grabbed me from behind. I froze on the spot.
“Did you really think I couldn’t follow you, elf-ling?” Kadon snarled. He had latched on to my teleport somehow. He walked in front of me as he wrapped me in his shadows. “As soon as I realised what your abilities were, I came up with a way to counter them. I even found a way to track your teleports and follow you.” He was calm again as he took back control of the situation. I tried to release a ray of light, but his darkness snuffed it out. The more I struggled, the tighter the shadows wrapped around me. He picked up the bomb I had taken and with a click of his fingers, we were back at Stonehenge.
Victoria and Harkura were both passed out trapped inside a shadow sphere. Kadon had already replaced all the bombs we’d taken. I had no idea how he’d managed it so quickly.
“Wait!” I screamed. “You can’t do this. You loved Freya once. This isn’t what she would have wanted. You can still turn back.”
He snickered. “You sound just like her.” He pulled me toward him by my hair. “Look just like her too. I will enjoy forcing you to create my heir.” He licked the side of my face, and I shuddered. My stomach churned.
He flew up with the last bomb and put it in place. I had to stop him, but the more I struggled, the tighter the shadows wrapped around me. I fell to the ground trying to break free, and I screamed for him to stop. This seemed to amuse him. Kadon blasted one of the bombs, and it exploded, setting all the others off. It was over. I had failed. The veil was disintegrating right in front of my eyes.
I stopped trying to escape my restraints and laid my head on the cold ground. It was hopeless. Kadon had won. Just as I was about to give up, I saw something that gave me hope. On the other side of the veil, the leprechaun army was battling the fairies and changelings, and the leprechauns were losing. I had to get up and fight. I wasn’t going to let Kadon have his way. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. The ground beneath me began to shake as I attempted to break out of my restraints. I was stronger than this. There was still so much I had yet to discover. It was time to stop thinking about the past and dwelling on the what-ifs. I couldn’t change what had already happened, but I could do something about the present.
The crystal glowed brightly in front of me. The light dispersed the shadows that bound me and continued to shine even brighter. It was like it was trying to tell me something. I grabbed hold of it, and it surrounded me in its light. The lights filled me with a warm sensation. I finally understood what the others had meant when they said a light appeared to them and told them they were guardians. It was like the Heart Crystal had come alive, and it was telling me what to do. I held the crystal close to my chest and whispered to it to transform. The crystal emitted another bright light, and a silver staff appeared in my hand, with the Heart Crystal embedded in the top of it. I had seen a picture of this staff in one of Greg’s books. I’d thought it was an old relic passed down by the crystal keepers to place the crystal in. I hadn’t realised that it was a form the crystal could take on itself.
I closed my eyes and listened to the earth around me, really listening for the first time. It was like nothing I had felt before. I could feel everything that was happening in that moment—every step taken, plants growing, any move an animal made. As long as they were on the land, I could feel it. As I exhaled, I stopped the tremors. I took a running start and launched myself off into the air by raising the ground beneath me. I knew I could do this because the Heart Crystal had told me so. I flew at high speed toward Kadon. He was too busy rejoicing in his success of destroying the veil to notice me. I twirled the staff around and fired lightning at Kadon. He was taken by surprise as he was hit by my newfound power.
“How is this possible? Freya’s staff,” he yelled. “Where did you get it?”
“I’ve always had it. I just never realised.” I attacked again.
He countered my lightning with his shadows. He came at me with his shadow sword. I dodged and blasted him with light energy. I had finally fully unlocked the Heart Crystal, and it was assisting me in this fight. It was communicating with me, giving me suggestions of attack and how to counter Kadon’s movements. I was overpowering him, but it wouldn’t be any good if I couldn’t separate him and the Moon Crystal. He was too powerful to capture while he was still fused with it. I was attacking from a distance for my own safety, but my safety didn’t matter anymore. With the help of the Heart Crystal, I located the Moon Crystal inside of Kadon. I had to take the plunge. I released a ray of light and returned the Heart back to crystal form. I teleported right in front of Kadon with my arm inside his body. His eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. I had hold on the Moon Crystal inside of him.
He clutched my arm. “I won’t let you take my power.”
My crystal glowed brighter, and I pulled the Moon Crystal from his body. Kadon lashed out at me, stabbing me in the stomach with his shadows. We both fell out of the sky. I hit the ground hard. I lay as still as possible. A flush of pain shot through my body. I turned my head to look at the gap in the veil. It was getting bigger. I had to fix it. Harkura and Victoria must have broken free, as I could hear them shouting to me. I took slow breaths. I had both the Moon and Heart Crystals in my hands. I gasped as Kadon appeared above me. All the colour had drained from his face, and his body was shaking. He narrowed his eyes at me. I tried to get up and run, but I collapsed back to the ground.
“I should have killed you the moment I laid eyes on you,” he shouted. He drew his claws and went to slash at me. I braced for impact. As he brought his arm down, his hands began to disintegrate. He looked just as shocked as I was. “No, what is happening to me?” he screamed, looking at his missing arms. His whole body started to fall apart. He screamed at the top of his voice as he turned to dust. The Moon Crystal must have been what was keeping him alive, and without it, his body crumbled.
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