The dragon throws back his head and shakes his body in a manner I’ve seen Dray do many times before. Then it stomps closer, clearly wary of this strange aberration in the air. When it comes close to the wall, he lifts one of his great paws and attempts to slice his talons through the magic. Just like the rest of us, it pushes him backwards and he whines and lowers his head, big golden eyes focused my way.
“I’m guessing that’s a no then,” I say. “There has to be a way. There has to be a way for us to go back in. Fox?” The professor is studying the wall of magic, palm hovering right in front of it.
“The spell’s been altered,” he says. “I can feel it.”
“Can you find a way to un-alter it?” I ask him.
He frowns, concentrating hard, and I have to admire him. He wasn’t born to this magic like the Princes were. He’s learned it all since then through study and hard work, practice and patience, and yet he’s as powerful as any of them.
“What if we combined our magic like we did before with all those demons?” I say to Thorne.
“We could try,” he suggests.
I let my light hover in the air before us and Thorne removes his glove and sends his shadows racing towards mine. They twistand combine round and round – a glittering display of light and shadow sparkling and shimmering like starlight.
I peer over at Dray and Beaufort. “What are you waiting for?” I say.
The two of them don’t need to be told twice. Soon their shadows are racing to join ours. They crash into our twisted rope and it only seems to brighten my light further. The magic seems to vibrate in the air with excitement, and the same excitement races all the way back to my fingertips and into my blood. It makes me feel stronger, more powerful.
Our magic twists and twines until it’s hard to see where my magic ends and theirs begins. But it’s not complete yet. There’s one thing missing.
Fox’s.
I call his name.
His eyes are wide and he stares, transfixed, at the magical display brightening this gloomy place in which we find ourselves.
“Fox,” I call again.
He snaps out of his trance and turns his head so that he’s looking at me.
“We need your magic too,” I tell him.
“Mine?” he says in obvious surprise.
“Yes. You’re my mate too. I think if all our magic is combined...”
He doesn’t look convinced, but nonetheless, he raises his hands and soon his magic – that cold magic, although not as cold as it once was – comes creeping through the air tentatively. I don’t know if he half expects our magic to repel his, to push it back like the wall at the border had done. But it doesn’t. It gladly accepts him into the fold and as it does, there is a loud booming sound that shakes the ground and the magic magnifies tenfold,so bright, so intense, I’m forced to turn my head away from it, blinded by its radiant power.
“Do you feel that?” I say in absolute wonderment; even the dragon’s eyes are wide as he watches, his pupils reflecting the magical light. “Do you feel how powerful that is?”
“It’s amazing,” Dray says in awe. “But how do we make it work – work for us? How do we control it?”
I don’t answer that because in my heart I think I know. I’m the one holding the five of us together – the five of us plus one magnificent dragon. And though I can’t quite bring myself to say it out loud, I think I’m the one in charge. I am the one in control.
And so I send this rope of powerful magic crashing towards the wall. I don’t know if it will work. I don’t know if we’re going to send a powerful display of magic right back at ourselves. But I do it anyway.
The magic hits that barrier with such force, I feel the ground beneath us shake again and the very sky seems to tremble. And then that barrier is cracking. I see fine lines of fissures running in the air, disturbing that calm plane of magic. The cracks run left and right, up and down, and for a moment nothing changes. Our magic pushes against the barrier and the barrier holds, but then in the next moment it’s cracking and breaking and bits of barrier come crashing to the floor, exploding into fire as they hit the earth.
I push on regardless, pushing our magic through the barrier until I feel it break through altogether. The whole thing seems to shatter into a million pieces, fire and smoke blinding my eyes and then it’s gone. Just like that, our magic, a combined line of shadow and light piercing through the air in an arc like some brilliant colorless rainbow.
I let it hang there. Something so beautiful, it’s hard to describe. Something so powerful, it’s impossible to contain. I’m not sure anything – not even Madame Bardin and all herdemons, not even the Empress and all her guards, not even all the shadow weavers in this realm – could meet us, could beat us. An overwhelming sense of optimism fills my heart. Nothing can stop us. I’m sure of it. Nothing will.
Then finally, I let my arm drop. My magic races back to my hands and the shadows retreat back to my four mates.
“Fuck,” Dray says. “Fuck, that was awesome!”
“Yes,” Thorne says. “But the barrier. We broke the barrier.”
