The Warden responded with a cruel laugh. “You should know by now that I can’t be killed.”
The magic backfired, causing an explosion to rock the forest. I was blasted away, and the angel wings that had been there a moment ago disappeared as the Warden yanked his power back.
I slammed against a tree and slumped to the ground. Pain radiated through every inch of my body, and my head spun. I couldn’t make sense of up or down, and blood trickled into my eyes.
I dug my fingers into the dirt, using my Earth magic to help orient me. I felt the pulse of Danny’s vampire powers nearby, but he was still unconscious. Kallie and Marcus lay side-by-side, still breathing but barely awake. Alette fluttered through the air, trying to rouse Kallie, but it wasn’t working. I was too disoriented to find Rishi, wherever he’d gone. I tried to reach out for Oberi telepathically, but I couldn’t sense him. The shockwave must’ve knocked him out with the others.
The Seer woman was the only one still conscious besides me. She weakly pulled herself through the dirt and rasped, “No!”
She tried and failed to summon a spell as her hands dropped frailly to the ground.
I teetered on the edge of consciousness, desperately holding on with everything I had, summoning all my will to fight back. It wasn’t enough.
I heard the sound of the Warden getting to his feet. Nonchalantly, he strolled up to Danny and plucked something off from him. The vampire key, I realized in horror. I tried to move, but the shockwave had left my head reeling, and I couldn’t find my feet.
The Warden approached Kallie and Marcus next, and the Divinity Keys clinked together in his hands as he gathered them.
Then the Warden stepped over to me. He reached down to pull the keys from my pocket. I tried to move my tongue in protest, to conjure any spell that would stop him, but I was rendered completely helpless. A moan died on my lips.
His chilling, victorious laugh filled the forest. “Finally. The Elven Gate is mine.”
The sound of metal sliding against metal filled the air— one, two, three, four, five, six…
Seven.
Agony consumed me at the realization of what was about to happen.
The translation for the Elvish runes written above the door came to mind. What is hidden remains secret from all but the demigods, forevermore.
God, demigod, whatever the hell he was— that inscription didn’t just apply to us. It applied to the Warden now, too. And we’d just granted him passage.
Sheer willpower overrode my fight for consciousness, and I gained control of my body just long enough to scramble to my feet.
I heard the click of the keys turning in unison, and felt the blazing light of the Blessed Haven shining upon my skin as the Elven Gate opened. My soul’s eye witnessed the spiritual light beaming from the Gate’s archway, filling the entirety of Darke Island and shooting into the sky. It permeated through the Warden’s soul as he absorbed all its power. If he wasn’t a god before, he certainly was one now.
“No!” I screamed, my agonizing defeat echoing across the island. A warm sensation cocooned me, overwhelming all my senses, then?—
Kaboom!
The earth upheaved, and trees toppled over as the Warden crossed through the Elven Gate to the spiritual realm, leaving us behind. I heard the stone archway of the Elven Gate topple over, and the earth trembled as the massive stones that made up the Gate crumbled to pieces, completely ruining the gateway and rendering it useless to us. The Divinity Keys clinked against the ground, their power drained, finally spent.
Everything… and everyone… faded all at once.
The Warden had been right all along. We couldn’t beat him without Ava. She’d been the strongest of us, and without her, there was no one left that was powerful enough to stand up to him. Without her, there was no hope of beating him. The war had been lost the moment I’d stolen her magic away, and I’d sealed all our fates.
I slumped against the ground, losing all consciousness. I didn’t know how much time had passed, for I had lost all my senses in the moments that followed.
Eventually, I began to regain some semblance of awareness. I felt my hand over Oberi’s fur, and slowly roused. My dog had pulled himself across my lap, completely spent.
Charlie, Oberi whimpered. We failed.
Any hope that I’d desperately held on to was cleaved in two. No. No, no, no…
Voices met my ears, though I couldn’t be sure of whose they were. As the fog in my mind began to clear, I could finally make out what they were saying.
“Are you all right?” I heard Marcus ask weakly. He sounded close to tears.
“I’m fine,” an unfamiliar voice breathed— it had to be the witch the Warden had brought with him. He’d left her behind. “Who… who are you?”
