9 #2
The crowd screamed and scattered, overturned stalls sending sparks and smoke into the air. Alex tensed beside me, and I gritted my teeth, pressing more of my magic into hers. The veil groaned under the strain, the blue cracks growing thicker and brighter.
“We’ve got this,” I assured her, but the release of so much magic was taxing on the both of us. Blood dripped down Alex’s nose, and the bones in my fingers felt like they might crack under the pressure.
A shadow fell over us. Leon. “Like I’d let you escape again!” His eyes burned with malice as he raised his arm, the blade of the black knife pointed directly at Ren as he protected us. An arc of dark magic leapt from it, soaring through the air like lightning.
Ren reacted instantly, snapping up a counterstrike.
The spells collided mid-air in a violent burst, sparks scattering as the impact tore through the nearby stalls.
Crates overturned, enchanted trinkets skittered across the ground, and glowing shards of fractured artifacts rained down around us.
The force buckled Ren’s shield, shattering it apart and driving him to his knees.
A stray bolt of magic slipped past Ren, streaking straight for me.
“Theo!” Jordan screamed. The others were too far away to stop the attack. Not knowing what else to do, Jordan hurled himself in front of the blast. A choking sound escaped him as he slammed into the ground. Blood pooled into the dirt around him, leaking from the massive hole in his chest.
“Jordan!” Panic clawed at my throat, but I couldn’t abandon Alex. I helplessly watched as the light and warmth disappeared from Jordan’s dark eyes. “N-No!”
Jordan’s sacrifice sent a surge of rage roiling through me and Alex.
As harsh screams tore from our throats, emotion swelled within us and we both poured every ounce of our magic into ripping apart the veil.
It groaned and cracked under the pressure, blue dust finally breaking it down to form an opening.
“What are you doing?” Leon gasped, taking a step back as Ren and Stella assessed his worry. “You’ll … you’ll destroy the entire veil between the living and the dead! Stop!”
But we didn’t stop. The veil devoured every ounce of our magic, groaning and trembling under the strain.
Blue cracks raced across its surface like lightning, the hum growing deafening, vibrating through our bones.
Then, with a blinding pulse that lit the entire market, the veil shattered as it exploded outward in a cascade of sparks and raw magical energy, scattering debris and throwing everyone off balance.
The path to escape stretched before us, but as Jacob started to gather his magic, it sparked unsteadily.
Leon chuckled, his shoulders slumped as he was running out of energy.
While he may have been dead to the living world, he was alive in the afterlife.
A thick, crimson essence, not quite blood but not magic either, matted his dark hair.
More leaked out of his arm like liquid smoke, clinging to the air before fading into nothing.
“Doesn’t matter if you break the veil or not.
You still can’t create an opening without the key. ”
He flaunted the ring on his thumb, knowing it would be nearly impossible for us to get anywhere near him to grab it before reinforcements showed up.
Stella squared her shoulders and charged toward him, determination set in her eyes. Glowing green vines extended from her arms, thorns reaching out to dig into Leon’s hand. Magic rang out as the power held in that ring deflected Stella’s attack.
“Its magic is bound to me.” A slow, poisonous laugh unfurled from Leon’s lips. “You can’t remove it from my finger.”
“Oh yeah?” A wild, reckless grin split Stella’s face as her magic surged in her other hand, the flow of vibrant red rose petals gathering to form the shape of an axe. “If I can’t get it off your finger, then I’ll just chop off your fucking hand.”
Stella lunged, her conjured axe cleaving through the air in a blaze of crimson light.
Every swing howled with sharpened petals, each strike meant to maim, not scare.
But Leon was unnervingly fast. His ghostly swiftness allowed him to slip past every arc of her weapon with serpent-quick sidesteps, her blades slicing wood in half or splitting the ground where he’d stood a heartbeat earlier.
Stella snarled, pivoting, driving forward again, but Leon’s mocking grin only widened as he danced just out of reach, taunting her with every effortless dodge.
I willed myself to stay standing, my weakened limbs shaking under me.
I gathered magic into my palm, wondering if I could simply dissolve the magic keeping us here with my own.
I didn’t have time to test that theory when a shimmery, green magic filled the air around me like candlelight pooling in a warm, gentle glow.
Except for me and my friends, everything slowed to a stop around me.
Fierceness surged through Stella, bursting out in a roar that shook the air. With one swift swing, Leon’s right hand plopped to the ground.
From behind the debris of a crumbled stall, a woman in a brown cape appeared, her blonde braid unraveling over her shoulder, her hand outstretched, thick silver vines racing up her arm and neck.
“Marin? Is that you?” I gasped.
A moment later, Brie raced up beside her. “Thanks to you and your distraction, I was able to break into the Syndicate holding cells and free my mom, along with the rest of the prisoners there.”
“We rushed over here when we heard what happened,” Marin winced. “Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.” Her magic dispersed, and she collapsed to the ground as the strain of her limited magic took everything out of her. Ivy kneeled beside her, asking if she needed any help.
As time snapped back into motion, the world lurched to life again. At the sight of his missing limb, Leon staggered back with a strangled, animalistic scream, eyes wide and wild as panic finally cracked through his arrogance.
“You—you chopped off my fucking hand!” he shrieked.
From the wound, dark red tendrils of vapor leaked out, curling and twisting in the air like molten smoke before fading into nothing.
His remaining hand quivered, but he froze, too stunned to move, his fury caught in his throat as the reality of his loss crashed over him.
“I’m sure the Syndicate can patch that up for you.” Stella patted him on the head like a puppy dog. “Good luck with that.”
Even with Leon down, reinforcements were close by. I could hear their bellows in the distance, the stall shop owners retaliating to help buy us some time.
“Go,” Marin insisted. The silver veins continued to grow, the poison inside her pulsing with a vibrant glow. “I don’t think I have enough magical energy left in me to do that again.”
“Some others from the bar are stalling the reinforcements, but they won’t be able to hold them off for long.
” Brie looked over her shoulder as if expecting a bunch of rift wardens to show up at any moment.
“They believe in you, Theo. Your name hasn’t just spread through the land of the living. They know you’ll come back for them.”
“Come with us,” I blurted out. Marin might have been weak, but she was still a living human, as well as Brie. “I can help you.”
Marin shook her head. “There’s no point. The corruption has spread too far. I’ll end up dead and back here anyway. At least I can spend the rest of my time here with my daughter, doing some good for the people who need my help.”
Stella held Leon’s hand up, waving it around until a pocket of magic opened up connecting us to the other side of the veil.
A hand gripped my shoulder, pulling me back with urgency.
“We need to go,” Ren said, his voice tight as he guided me toward Jacob.
Marin gave a slow, meaningful nod, her eyes brimming with gratitude and unspoken understanding as her silent farewell carried more meaning than any words ever could.
“Wait!” I bent down over Jordan, holding my hands open in front of me with my palms up. With a quick lifting motion, the spell took hold and Jordan’s body lightened. “Someone help me get him on my back. He’s not dead.”
“Sure looks dead to me.” Stella narrowed her gaze, following behind Ivy as she walked through the door.
“For fuck’s sake, Theo. Move. We don’t have time for this.
” Ren brushed my hand aside, hoisting Jordan onto his back.
I caught a flicker of skepticism in his eyes; a flash of annoyance at being burdened with this literal dead weight.
But he didn’t argue. Instead, he securely held onto Jordan and we passed through the veil.
It took us back to an unknown place in the underworld, which then allowed Jordan to transport us back at his own pace to Salem.
Once we had all successfully reached home, I wrapped my hand around Leon’s severed hand, letting my magic flow through it.
Bone and flesh disintegrated, the black ring crumbling into a fine, dark dust that shimmered faintly as it drifted upward, dissolving into nothing.
Even as the remnants faded, a cold unease settled over me.
I knew this fight was far from finished.