A smile tilted up my lips, and it kept growing as my happiness filled every empty and broken crevice in my soul. Reece closed his eyes for a moment, breathing in the emotions I was spilling all over the place, and when I felt like literal light was about to burst from my skin, I released the power. Finally, I’d found the peace that I’d been looking for during my blessing in the Honor Meadows.
Turned out that, all along, my restlessness had nothing to do with the two sides of my reborn essence needing connectivity. It had been about Reece and our unfulfilled bond.
Feeling stronger, I looked down to see that my skin was glittering with golden energy, which usually only happened when I pumped myself up with layers of my land. This time, though, I was filled with a combination of Reece’s power and my own. Together, we were the strength that Tsuma was going to regret going up against.
By the time we reached the middle of the deep between the Guardians and the Delfora, the ship was surging higher than ever. Behind and below us, a desert storm raged and built, set to destroy everything in its path. For now, though, it was helping to push us at a much faster pace, and hopefully, we’d have enough time to make it onto land before the full force hit.
Flexing my fingers on the railing, I fought to control my buzzing energy that came from a true mate bond, fae seed, and the elixir we’d consumed. By the time the power moon rose, I’d be fucking glowing like a gold statue.
When the Delfora came into view, Darin’s ship had fallen back, but we’d all made great time. The new-moon was bright above us, its heat expanding my energy as well, but the power moon had not split the sky yet. It was building, just like the energy below us. I couldn’t see the power at this point, but I felt the impending explosion.
As the ship surged higher than ever, I tightened my grip, riding out the swell as my gaze landed on the flat planes of this land. The very land where I’d lost my sister. This was the first time I’d been back here, and it hit me as hard as I’d expected. The memories… their insidious dark tendrils tried to wrap around me… to remind me how it felt to lie in those black sands and clutch her lifeless body. But for once, I was strong enough that they couldn’t take hold.
The past had to stay there for this moon.
There was no way to bring my sister back to life, but I could prevent more death.
Focus was the key to prevent me from falling into the abyss of that pain. It was also the key to winning this battle.
“Have you been beyond this front flat section?” Len asked, standing only a few feet from me, but I barely heard his words.
“No,” I shot back. “Beyond the planes is the valley of the dead. It’s surrounded by canyons, so that valley is the only way to move further into the Delfora. But of course, the dead do not surrender their territory that easily.”
Hence why Tsuma needed this spell and the power moon to blast past those “ghosts.”
As far as I knew, no one had stepped into the valley and returned except Reece’s parents, and even with an apparent power moon back then, he’d told me they made it no more than a few feet from the entrance.
“Literal dead, right?” Len said, raising his voice.
I nodded. “Yes, bones from the many who have fallen in the sacred-land-battles over the years. Even though the living never make it past the flats, the dead end up buried under the valley. Deep in the sands, fueling the Delfora’s power.” I paused. “This is where my sister rests.”
The fae fell silent again, and even with bursts of my power fueling me, the impending battle pressed against my strength. I just needed this to be over, once and for all.
45
When we finally reached the edge of the Delfora, there were two ships docked, engines running, still hot from their journey. We might not have seen Tsuma and the others in our crossing, but thankfully, it didn’t appear that we were that far behind them.
Stepping down the ramp toward the black sands, it was near impossible for us to talk now over the roar of the world beneath us. As my boots hit the Delfora, I jumped a foot at the buzz of power racing like an electrical current below. Before anyone else had a chance to reach me, I was already running. The spell was about to explode, and if we didn’t get to the valley of the dead, we would not reach it before being completely engulfed.
Fighting the spell would weaken us, giving Tsuma and the others the time they needed to use the power moon, which… I looked up quickly to see that a fissure was finally visible in the orb. This was it, the culmination as everything prepared to hit at once.
The others fell in behind me, powering across the black sands. A glance back told me that Darin and the others, who had just docked, were only a few paces ahead of the surging energy. It was going to be touch and go for all of us, and with that in mind, I faced the valley and ran as fast as my power allowed.
The buzz and roar grew under our feet, black sands flying up and covering us as we closed in on the valley. The two compacted sand cliffs rose before us, and seeing our destination spurred me on faster. Just a few more miles and we’d be there.
Ahead, I finally saw Tsuma and the others, at least two dozen of them, also racing for the entrance. We all knew that if you weren’t in that valley when the power storm hit and the moon split, you wouldn’t be making it past the planes.
Risking another glance behind, I almost lost my balance and face-planted. The sands that we'd just crossed had lifted from the deeps and onto the Delfora, forming a massive sand wave. Darin and his Guardians were barely staying ahead of the raging storm cell, but they hadn’t fallen yet.
"Move, Lale,” Reece shouted, wrapping an arm around me as he went past, yanking me along the path. Shadow, on my other side, reached out and hauled me along, too, both holding me until my feet got back underneath me, moving without help.
We’d made it into the Delfora just in time; a sand wave of that size would have crushed us and our ships into dust. It could still crush us now if we didn’t move our asses. Some of us might be able to put ourselves back together, but not in time to save the worlds.
“The power moon,” Reece shouted again, and as my gaze lifted briefly, I caught the moment the red moon fissured down the center, splitting into two equally powerful orbs. Everything shuddered around us, and Tsuma, who’d been waiting centuries for this event, finally crossed into the valley ahead of us, disappearing from sight.
When we got within touching distance of the valley, the two massive cliffs blocked some of that intense energy from the moon. As we entered the valley, an icy shock of ancient power jabbed into mine. That touch was a warning, and normally if we’d ignored that warning, we’d be thrown back out into the Delfora. But on this particular moon, the other powers overwhelmed it and we made it through.
Shadow and the others fell back in the valley, more affected by its struggling wards. Reece didn’t feel a thing, his connection to the Delfora giving both of us an advantage, and without waiting, we pushed forward, knowing Tsuma had to be stopped. The securities were already falling, and she had a head start. Time was running out.
