He doesn’t listen, planting his feet before he leaps off the ground, pivoting in the air. He sends the shadows at us in a wave. Even spinning my staff to block the attack almost has me on my knees. We canbarelycounteract what he’s doing. I’ve dueled Ray for practice in the past, but his power right now is unrecognizable. If I didn’t see him moments ago, I wouldn’t believe this is the same man.
Letting out an anguished roar, Ray launches toward me again. The shadows give him a sword, and I parry to the side to avoid being struck before spinning, catching his next move with my staff. I’m not the best in close-up fights like this, but I’m pretty sure if I slip up right now, Ray will kill me.
We’ve moved further into the forest, the tavern far off in the distance. We’re not in a safe zone yet, but at least he’s no longer in danger of threatening his home again.
When Ray’s next strike misses Zarev, we exchange a look. We need to get him to hear us out, or to keep fighting until he tires. The only way to fix a splintered spirit is to reap them, and that’s not going to happen.
Behind us, I feel another magical presence. It almost feels like more shadows, making the hairs on my neck rise. Maybe he’s getting stronger.
“Ray,” Zarev tries, vanishing his scythe to hold up his hands. “I’m sorry about Tom. I’m sorry we weren’t here. But Rapunzel did everything she could, of that I’m certain. Let us help you!”
“Help,” the shadows cry, and Ray’s broken voice rings out around the rest. “There is no help! Not when Death has claimed another of my family.”
“Your brother knows you care,” I say carefully, wondering if there’s anything I can say right now that won’t completely set him off. “His spirit is here somewhere. We can help you pass him on.”
The shadows rear back, a sob breaking through the darkness. It sounds like Ray, more than that eerie, almost-possessed voice we’ve been listening to the entire time. He doesn’t try to argue with me, screaming at the sky instead.
As the shadows spread, they crawl over the trees and across the ground, the rocks, everything. I can’t tell if the shadows do more than envelop the scenery, but we’re beingsucked into the dark as Ray sobs into the silence. The shadows around his body never give, and it still barely looks like him.
“Ideas?” Zarev calls over the cries.
“We can keep fighting,” I yell back. “No reaping him, even if he’s splintered. We’re going to have to do something to beat the demons out of him. The shadows are in control.”
“Agreed. You go left!”
We don’t talk about what I’m supposed to do once I go left, but I go anyway, keeping my eyes on Ray.
“You have to pay,” Ray hisses, that unnatural voice back again. “For all my family’s loss, you must pay. A price must be paid.”
He throws shadows shaped like arrows at me, and I manage to freeze the hoard with my ice. Spinning around, I try hitting the monster with snow, but it doesn’t even seem to affect him.
Zarev does the same, trying to get at the shadowy form without hurting Ray. It’s difficult when we can’t fully attack without the risk of killing our friend.
“I told you to blame me,” I agree, pacing a little closer. Ray lets out another pained cry, the shadowy hands reaching toward his head until all of it blurs into the darkness surrounding him. “It doesn’t mean I won’t still help you, brother.”
“Blame is mine alone,” he says, his voice breaking. I tense, wondering if that means he’s going to attack again. There doesn’t seem to be an end to this, and we’re going around in circles. “I couldn’t save them.”
Perhaps mentioning his father as a distraction was in poor taste.
Ray, the shadow, groans, sinking to his knees, and I tentatively rest the base of my staff on the ground as I wait out his next move. The darkness is beginning to pulse in a circularmotion around him, spaced out a few feet from his body. Instead of rising into a wave it’s turning into a wall. Beside me Zarev uses his scythe to cut it down, and it’s only half as effective as it was before. The shadows barely bend from the attack.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see her dark hair before I catch her face. An icy ring joins Ray’s circle, trapping the shadows behind it with a wall that’s several feet tall. Whipping my head around, I try to bite back my irritation.
Son of a bitch. “Neve!”
Dahlia follows behind her, staying near the Ice Queen’s back. “You seem to be making no progress!”
“Why are you here?” Zarev barks back.
“Oh, I think Odette is somewhere above us.”
Fucking hell.She’s probably the swan then, and with Ray’s chaotic magic right now, she could risk being struck. When I exchange a look with Zarev, I can tell he’s about as pleased with this as I am.
“Ray!” Dahlia screams, her voice scratchy as she calls out to him. “Ray, stop! This isn’t what Thomas wanted!”
It breaks my heart listening to Dahlia sob through the words. Ray doesn’t even seem to acknowledge it, his red eyes still locked on the two of us. Neve’s ice ring isn’t broken yet, but I can tell, if he pushes, it’ll shatter. She didn’t put a lot of magic around it, which has me questioning why she even bothered.
Neve whips her head around as the shadows continue to rise behind the ice, seeming to search for something. “Where’d he go?”
