He shook his head. “You won’t hurt me, I’ve been with you for hours and you have not lost control once. Did you call up this power?” I nodded, and he shrugged. “See, you already have great control. You’ll have gotten that from Daniel. He has better control than almost anyone. The only time I’ve ever seen him lose it, in the last many years, is when they took you from the school.”
The truth of what he was saying penetrated. Yes, I was now a deadly weapon, but a weapon did not kill on its own. I would just have to work extra hard to always control myself. To always keep the people I cared about safe.
“Can you move now?” he asked me, and I nodded, able to step back from him and stand straight. My breathing and heartrate slowly returned to normal, but I still couldn’t look at the piles of ash. Chase nudged me forward, toward the other side of the platform.
“Where is Marsil?” I asked as we turned to run toward the land of Leights. I had killed the Imperials, but there were still three other houses which should be attacking. So where were they?
I got my answer when we stepped past the bright lights of the transporter and I saw the single Daelighter going up against a large group. Marsil was fighting fiercely, sending out bursts of power that looked like lightning and wind, just managing to hold them off.
When we were a few steps away, someone hit Marsil in the side of the head and he went down. I swung my leg out and cracked that Daelighter across the face, knocking him off Marsil. Chase let out a low vibration of anger; I felt a crackle of energy, and heard … splintering wood, maybe … and when I looked at Chase again, he was gone.
In his place stood a … creature – ten feet tall, four feet wide, with roughly-textured skin that was brown and barky.Hybrid.Okay, now I knew what they meant by hybrid.
I stared and stared as his arms whipped out, turning into a long vine that cracked into nearby Daelighters, knocking them down. His legs did the same, shifting into ropey roots that tripped and tied up the resistance members.
“Leave now,” he roared, nothing like the calm warrior he had been five minutes earlier, his voice deep and sinister, echoing through my body and into the metal sheet I stood upon. It was scary. I found myself staring into his tree face, which no longer resembled anything human. It was golden brown; his eyes were the same color. A barky nose, slash of mouth, and terrifying eyes. It was singularly the coolest, and also scariest, thing I had ever seen.
Marsil joined him again. I hovered near the back, kicking out and hitting anyone who got too close. I knew I had my fire power to draw on, if needed, but I wasn’t sure I could handle more deaths on my conscience. Not unless there was absolutely no other option.
“Why would Laous send you all here?” Marsil was trying to shake answers out of a Darken member. “None of you are of overlord blood. Your energy is nothing to ours. What was the purpose?”
I caught a glimpse then of a familiar face, but before I could see if it was who I thought, the figure disappeared off the side of the platform. In my distraction, I missed the next attack, turning back in time to see one of the Royales flinging something at Marsil. The object moved faster than I could track, like a bullet. One minute it was in the blond female’s hand, the next it was in Marsil’s chest.
A scream ripped from my throat as I dived forward and caught Marsil just before he hit the ground. He was too heavy for me to hold up, but I managed to keep his head from smashing into the metal. Chase went crazy behind me, his vine-arms and root-like legs snapping back and forth in a rapid succession.
Resistance members tumbled down across the platform, and I saw more weapons appear in their hands. “Chase!” My voice was hoarse from shouting, but I tried again. “They have more weapons,” I told him, my hand on Marsil’s chest as I tried to stop the bleeding.
Just as I turned away, I saw Chase sweep out with his vines, and throw the remaining resistance members into the trees of house of Leights. The Galinta wrapped their branches around them, holding them in place.
Focusing on Marsil, I tried to figure out how to save the Daelighter bleeding to death right in front of me. My hand dropped to the long cylindrical, silver object that had pierced deep into his chest. I wrapped my fingers around the part still sticking out of him, but it felt so fragile as I tried to tug it out that I had to stop, afraid I would break it off.
“Legreto …” Marsil choked out.
I flung my head up from the object to meet his eyes. “Water? How will water help?” I asked frantically. I didn’t understand what he was saying.
A body dropped down at my side and I swung a fist without thought, cracking it into the side of his face. “Ommph,” Chase growled, knocked back onto his butt.
He rubbed his face and worked his jaw for a minute, while I profusely apologized. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”
He just shook his head, already at my side again, his eyes on Marsil. There was so much more blood now, it seeped out of the wound, pooling around his body. I reached out to grasp the weapon again, but it was now no more than a small nub above his shirt. “What’s happening?” I cried, my voice breaking as more color faded from Marsil’s cheeks.
He was still conscious, but there was a glassiness to his eyes that worried me.
“Do you know how to save him?” I asked Chase, who had both hands clenched at his sides, gaze locked on the man before him. “He said ‘legreto,’” I tried again. “Help him!”
Chase shook his head. “I can’t…” He sounded devastated. “This is a weapon we have no defense against. It’s water weaponized using starslight stone. It forms a crystal, and if you don’t remove it immediately, it burrows into the chest and shatters, sending shards throughout your entire body, tearing you to pieces internally. It’s a practice that has been outlawed for hundreds of years. The knowledge of how to make this was lost. I don’t understand how...”
Emma’s necklace. That one piece of stone was giving Laous an entirely new arsenal to attack us with – the very reason I’d taken the risk to try and get it off him when he lured me from the school.
It was too late now, though. Too late for Marsil. The need to scream and cry rose in my chest. Pain was building within me, choking me. I reached forward to take Marsil’s hand. “It’s going to be okay,” I whispered to him, holding on as tight as I could.
I felt him squeeze one last time, and then his body bucked, straining as he opened his mouth and bellowed. My hand was being crushed, but I didn’t care. I held on, sending whatever comfort into him that I could. Marsil’s struggles and suffering lasted for far too long, until eventually his eyes closed, and he went limp. Blood slowly leaked from his nose and the corner of his mouth, and I cried out, my chest feeling like it had been crushed as tears tracked down my cheeks.
Chase let out a roar. Animals rose from the trees in the Leights’ land, looking like a mix of bird and fluffy bunnies. Whatever they were, they responded to his pain, and I started to cry harder, snot and tears running down my face, choking me. I didn’t care, though.
This couldn’t be happening.
He couldn’t be dead.
