CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Sintarrak Palaega, weaver of dreams and thief of thoughts. Conquer the mind, and they shall fall blind.
—Lock Scroll, the Arx.
Every drop of blood in my body stilled. My hair stood on end as the open archway turned from nothing to a sheet of black, and two glowing blue orbs materialized in the distance.
Something deep within me stirred as the tiny orbs grew in size. The shape of two women took form as they slowly stepped into the archway, as if approaching from a long tunnel.
The women paused at the entrance, their naked bodies identical in form but polar opposites of each other. One had skin and hair as dark as the night sky. Her entire left eye was a dark space of black eternity, while her right shone blue, as bright as the moon. The other woman strode in identical form, skin paler than ashen, with hair whiter than snow. And her eyes— a white space of nothing on her right, with a shining blue iris on the left. Long, thin, pointed ears poked through their straight, waist-length hair.
The two lingered at the edge of the darkness in the arch, their blue eyes drifting to the yellow light that pulsed on the stone walkway just before them.
My power writhed below the surface, the Obscura coming to its senses, surging upward at the impending threat. But the Transcindiel…that transformative powerscreamed. It dove deeper, cowering in fear. I snaked a tendril of my consciousness down and listened. A quiet, panicky tune picked up, and the two women snapped their eyes up, their spine-stiffening gazes landing on me.
The smallest smile formed on their contrasting lips as they both cautiously slipped a foot out of the darkness onto the stone bridge. I dropped the Transcindiel and threw my entire focus into the Obscura as I raised my hands. In the split second it took to rally my power, I knew that the two creatures stepping from the Vael Lacrima were Ganmira and Renova. Two of the Embodied, back for what they thought I’d stolen from them.
Transcindiel. The power of the moons.
A shield formed in a hiss as the women reached two glowing hands toward me. Golden light ignited at the tips of their fingers, erupting into a flash so bright, power so great, it sucked the breath from my lungs. A gust of air whipped my head and my hands forward, as a massive shield slammed into me from behind, and another flash of brilliant white light burst forth from beside me.
Bayne’s sunlight was a mere ripple among the sea storm of power coming from the twin goddesses. Were these the creatures he had seen? What he had been preparing for? Golden beams clashed with white light before devouring the Soleia magic. The Obscura pounced as Bayne was thrown back. A groan escaped his lips as he struggled to stand.
Powers chased my own. Nerissa’s light scalded the air around us as Selvina speared a dark line of blue at the goddesses.Astraeus and Carina were somewhere, reinforcing our shields and sending their own blasts of wind at them, as I panted in the lilac, leather, and cedar-scented air.
Our powers are but asliverof what the Embodied hold.
That was what Olienna had said.
Ganmira and Renova’s features sharpened, their lips drawing up into soft snarls as they effortlessly blocked each attack.
My hands ached as black shadows and mist spiraled through the air. Darkness clashed with light, the Obscura an endless pit of Tynan’s Hell unleashed upon them. They snarled and slashed at it, and more golden light poured from their hands.
Our powers spun in the air, and my darkness began to waver, the golden light overpowering it as two blazing red daggers soared through the storm of magic.
Kellan’s first dagger found its mark in the center of the dark one’s chest. Her scream ripped through the cavern, ugly and unnatural, hands closing off her magic and flying to the glowing rubelline dagger in her chest.
The white one moved quickly, almost avoiding the second dagger’s edge that landed in her forearm. She bellowed in rage, the golden light disappearing as the two strange forms writhed in pain and wrath.
“Get down!”
A small part of my brain registered Kellan’s command, and I dropped to the stone floor as a blast of white and blue light ripped through the wind shield and slammed into the two Embodied, blasting them back into the darkness beyond the archway.
“Close it!” Carina screamed. “How do we close it?!” Her voice held a frantic edge as she poured her magic into the shield separating us from the archway.
Kellan’s dark form leaped over me, and he sprinted over the bridge to the gate. His fingers traced the strange markings on the archway, his eyes frantically scanning the symbols.
Blood soaked through my leathers as my knees scraped against the stone floor. A hand gripped my shoulder. Bayne. My eyes scanned his weathered face. Blood dripped from his nose. People screamed. Smoke wafted through the vast cavern, that strange yellow light still hovering around the stone walkway and disappearing into the sheet of black in the open archway.
A vice gripped my chest.It was still open.
“KELLAN!” I screamed.
He snapped his face toward me as two blue orbs flashed from whatever lay beyond the arch.
Before words could form to warn him, before I could muster up the strength to shield him myself, twin ropes of golden power wrapped themselves around his arms as the hooked tip of a golden spear was thrust through the center of his chest, an agonized grunt escaping his lips.
His dark eyes locked on mine, and for a moment, everything stopped.
