27
Ileave my younger body.
I fall onto the wet stone on my hands and knees, clambering around to see my younger self suspended above the cliff’s edge. I try to remember why I’m here, what’s going on, but my thoughts are jumbled with the pain I just felt—the pain that’s still reflected on my younger face.
The lightning had pinned me above the cliff for two hours, completely helpless. Two hours while I watched Baelen bleed out in front of me not knowing if he was alive or dead. The Storm didn’t let me go until the spellcasters finally arrived and cast a spell around me similar to the one in the Vault. I’d pounded my fists against the spell cage, screaming at them to help Baelen first—Help him, not me!When they didn’t listen to me, I threw myself against the cage so hard that I blacked out. I woke up in the Storm Vault. Baelen was gone, the nightmares began, and my future with him was over from that moment.
Now, I try to block out the sound of my younger voice screaming Baelen’s name over and over again. I cross my hands over my chest and try to breathe.
This isn’t real.
My thoughts finally come together to remind me: I’m in a simulation. True, it’s a simulation based on a very real memory, but it isn’t really happening again. It’s all a vision inside my mind.
Teilo Splendor had told us that the Heartstone Chest would create a simulation that was unique to each of us. For some reason, the chest brought me back to this time, to this night. Everything up to this point was a memory. A memory that I’d tried very hard to forget, but it was an event in my life that had burned at the back of my mind for seven years. The Heartstone Chest must have brought me back for a reason, but… why?
I wipe my eyes, trying to clear my vision. My younger voice mutes and the lightning fades. The image of my other self is still there, but it’s gauzy and transparent. Without the lightning, the cliff’s edge becomes dark and shadowy.
On the other hand, Baelen’s younger self remains perfectly clear, unmoving, stretched out over the rocks, right where he’d fallen and damaged his spine.
I clamber to my feet and race to his side. I couldn’t help him seven years ago, but maybe I can now. Maybe the Heartstone Chest is giving me a chance. Nothing I do in the simulation will change the real past. It won’t change what really happened, but maybe I can change how helpless I’d felt watching him die right before my eyes.
I reach for my cloak to use it as a bandage around his wound only to find that I’m wearing my armor again. Before I can cast around for something else to help him, a shadow drops over me.
It’s fleeting, but undeniable. I spin, crouching, and study the darkness overhead, waiting for the shadow to appear again. It flies over me once more and this time I follow its path as it circles overhead, gradually descending. The shape grows clearer and larger as a gargoyle soars toward me.
I glance back at Baelen. I may not be able to bind his wounds, but now I know why I’m here, why the heartstone brought me back to this place.
I'm here to protect him from the gargoyle.
Sebastian had told me I’d have to face my fears and this is it. This is my worst fear, because no matter how hard I tried to protect Baelen on this cliff seven years ago, all I did was hurt him. This is my second chance—a chance to save him like I couldn’t before.
I roar a challenge into the night sky as the beast thumps down onto the ledge, its wings outstretched. Instead of folding its wings to its sides, it keeps them aloft, ready to use the daggers at the pinpoints of its wings against me. This gargoyle is the kind the elves fear—glowing red eyes, horns stretching from two points on its stony skull, its teeth dripping as it growls. Its chest is broad and muscled, even larger than the gargoyle I faced on Scepter Peak. It doesn’t make any difference that I know real gargoyles don’t look like this. The real ones might be far more beautiful, but this one is just as dangerous.
I reach for my weapons, discovering that I have none.Damn. I’ve only got my fists and I’m pretty sure that’s not going to help. I cast around as the gargoyle circles me. Without taking my eyes off it, I pick up the nearest rocks, two palm-sized ones. Not exactly knuckle dusters, but they’ll pack more of a wallop than my bare fists.
Wait…barefists. My gloves are gone. My hands shoot to my veil. It’s gone too, but I’m still wearing the headpiece. It’s not metal and it’s blunt. It was only intended to keep my veil in position away from my eyes, but if I have to, I can use it as a weapon.
The gargoyle takes a glance back at the shimmery vision of my younger self, looking between it and Baelen, growling at him before turning its focus to me. It crouches, wing daggers pointed at me, and roars so loudly its breath gusts across me like a stormy breeze. Lightning flickers in the distance, a backdrop of crackling electricity illuminating the beast’s silhouette.
I don’t wait for it to attack. I take a running jump, knowing I’ll only get one shot at its head. The gargoyle braces as I leap but it doesn’t use its wings to defend itself. My rock-filled right fist connects against the side of its face with athwack. I’d intended to land the blow and use my own momentum to somersault over it, but the beast anticipated that. It twists, accepting the blow to its face, but swatting me at the same time in one forceful move as it follows me down onto the cliff’s surface. For a moment, its bloodied face hovers over mine, as if it expects me to yield.
I may be winded with a pounding headache on the way, but yielding is not going to happen.
One-two, I knock my fists into its face first and then follow with a two-footed kick, knocking the gargoyle backward and sliding myself out from under it at the same time. I jump to my feet and fly back at it, exchanging quick blows. It blocks and defends everything I throw at it, but manages to get in a few hits of its own before it circles me again.
The creature shakes its head, takes another assessing look at me, and I realize I’m in trouble. It was just playing with me before. It charges at me, its wing daggers ripping through the air, scant inches from my arms as I jump backward. I have no idea if my armor made of Elyria web will protect me. The gargoyle on Scepter Peak had shown me that the gargoyles and Elyria spiders live in harmony. For all I know, the wing daggers could be just as strong as the web. I don’t plan on finding out.
The gargoyle drives me backward, slamming me up against the side of the cave. One of its daggers grazes my face. I can’t let it pin me against the rock like the other one did. I scream out the pain, grab my wooden headpiece, and shove it right at the beast’s eyes. Wood can’t break that stony skin, but it causes the gargoyle to jerk backward, giving me a slim gap to slide through beneath its wing. As I do so…
A dagger! The beast is carrying a dagger!
I throw my hand back at the last moment and snatch the weapon, tearing it from the gargoyle’s hip. I slide across the ledge toward Baelen as lightning springs to life around me. Glowing blue light snaps around my body, hissing and crackling.
The beast turns, realizes its weapon is gone, and charges at me. At the same time, thirty black spots appear above me.
More gargoyles! For a second, confusion overwhelms me. The Elven Command said I’d only have to fight one, not so many all at once. All of the new gargoyles speed toward me, blurry forms, only seconds away. I can’t let them reach me. I can’t let them reach Baelen.
I draw on all of the storm’s wrath, vaguely aware that the first gargoyle has skidded to a halt, eyeing me with… surprise? It’s hard to tell, but right now I don’t have time to think.
