Chapter Thirteen #4
This was worse than death. It was a complete ending, a promise that Ava and I were done for good, in every lifetime for the rest of eternity.
My soul wouldn’t reincarnate or regenerate again, ever.
We’d never be reunited, and Ava would be forced to exist forever…
alone. After we’d had so many lifetimes together, this would be our last.
Didn’t matter. I’d rather be dead than live life without Ava, and I was already living without her.
I would not let her live in a world where the Warden reigned.
Those divorce papers weren’t signed yet, so I was going down as her husband.
This would be the last thing I’d ever do, and I was glad for it.
Angel magic filled my body, and it had nowhere else to go. Wings sprouted out of my back, bursting with feathers that exploded everywhere.
Oberi got there before I did, charging at the Warden and sailing through the air. Oberi’s jaws sank into the Warden’s arm, digging in, but the Warden let out a snarl and tossed him off. Oberi gave a high-pitched whine as the Warden slammed him into the ground.
My temper erupted when I heard Oberi’s cries. I flapped the wings instinctually, kicking off the ground and soaring forward to slam straight into the Warden. My fingers tangled in his shirt, and my fist cracked against the side of his jaw.
The Warden punched me right back, sending radiating pain through my face and making me dizzy.
He gave a mad laugh. “You really think you’re something special, Charlie Wahkin.
Even now, with your impressive display of Elven magic, you don’t interest me in the slightest, because you’ve proven time and time again that you don’t have what it takes. ”
His voice grew even colder, draining the life from me.
“Ava-Marie, on the other hand… now that girl had a fire within her that could’ve stopped me.
But you know what I did? All I had to do was wait, because I knew you’d be the end of her eventually.
I knew I wouldn’t have to do any work to ruin her, because I was certain you’d do it for me.
And you know what? I was right. You stamped that fire out.
And where is your wife now? Hiding helplessly back home?
We both know that without her, this is only going to end one way.
I’d say your sad attempts at fighting me are amusing, but to be honest, I’ve tired of this game. I’ll be taking those keys now.”
He flapped his wings, shoving me back, but I kept my hold on him and held my ground, digging my feet into the earth to remain rooted in place.
I thrust my newfound wings behind me, which moved with such power that the two of us were forced into the air.
We went spiraling upward as I continued pulling his power into me, refusing to relent.
We flew higher into the sky, far above the treetops.
My fist connected with the side of his face, and he retaliated with a blow of his own.
Swollen bruises broke out across my cheeks, and my skin split open beneath my eye until blood was dripping down my face.
I punched him back hard, and the Warden spit blood into my face.
I loved every fucking second of it.
It felt like I was back in the ring, hyped up on adrenaline and shaking with a murderous rage.
I’d be lying if getting this fucker in the boxing ring wasn’t one of my greatest fantasies, and that thought consumed me with a mad delight as my body filled with more of his power.
I was ready to die, and I was going to go out swinging.
As rage permeated through me, so did his magic.
Each of his blows grew weaker than the last, until I overpowered his strength.
With an impressive flap of my feathered wings, I sent us careening toward the ground, breaking through the treetops until I slammed his body straight into the earth, creating a crater upon impact.
The Warden gave a groan, and I rose to my feet above him. My Earth magic sensed his blood seeping into the dirt, and his hands quivering at his sides. Finally, I had him right where I wanted him.
Now the fucker could die. Oberi rushed to stand beside me, baring his fangs.
“You’re going to know exactly what my grandfather felt when you killed him,” I sneered spitefully.
I summoned the angel magic I’d siphoned from him— the same light he’d used to consume Cassiel from the inside out, the magic which tore my grandfather to pieces.
I’d sworn then that I would kill the Warden.
Finally, he was at my mercy, and his life was mine to take.
Once the spell was cast, I’d be gone, but so would he.
Warmth filled my palms as the spell flared.
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?”
“I’m Marcus Taylor,” Marcus offered. “You’re from my coven, aren’t you?”
“Marcus,” a woman breathed, as if she was relieved to see him. “You’re Nadine and Lucas’ son. I knew we’d meet again.”
“Again?” Marcus asked. “Forgive me, but I don’t remember you.”
“You wouldn’t,” the woman said. “You were only a baby during the Miriamic Conflict. I left shortly after the conflict ended, to serve witches living in neutral territories. I was living in Paris when Doctor Taurus found me years ago. I’ve been his prisoner ever since, forced to give him information about the future, despite the limitations of my foresight.
I thought of your parents during that time, because they had already saved the witches once.
I didn’t know how it’d happen, but I knew I’d see them again. ”
“How did you know my parents?” Marcus asked.
“I was your father’s therapist,” she said. “My name is Doctor Linda Mack.”
Marcus drew a sharp breath. “Doctor Mack? Dad’s talked about you before. He said you helped him a lot. He’ll be really happy to see you.”
“Your parents are safe, then?” Doctor Mack asked.
Marcus hesitated. “For… now. That was you at the end there— that warmth right before the explosion— wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Doctor Mack said. “I wish I could’ve used my foresight to prevent all of this, but I can’t see everything. All I knew was you needed protection, so I cast a shield around everyone here. But it wasn’t enough to save the Elven Gate.”
That comment snapped me back into my body. I pushed myself upright. Oberi scrambled off my lap, but he didn’t rush to take action as I did, merely stood there like he’d already given up. Danny and Kallie moaned as they got to their feet, crying out in pain.
“The Gate,” I slurred as I stumbled to my feet. “We need to get through the Gate—”
“Charlie,” Kallie started apprehensively. “It’s… gone.”
I knew it. I had sensed it fall before I’d passed out, but that had to be a figment of my imagination. I’d made it up. It couldn’t be gone.
I could hardly make sense of my surroundings. So many trees had fallen that it didn’t seem we were standing in the forest anymore, just an open, empty field that was vast and barren. The woods had been completely eradicated by the Warden’s power… much like my faith that we could still win this.
I staggered forward until my feet landed upon crumbled bits of stone. I fell to my knees, running my hands along the shattered pieces of what was once the ancient doorway. I found a piece of wood and lifted it, skimming my hands along it to find a keyhole in the center.
Kallie was right.
“No. No!” I cried, punching my fist into the ground. “Fucking no!”
I didn’t want to believe it was possible, but I couldn’t deny the reality staring me in the face.
Everything we’d worked for had been for nothing.
The Warden had taken our keys, ascended to the Blessed Haven, and destroyed the Elven Gate in the process.
Now that it was gone, there was no chance of me leading the Elves to the Blessed Haven.
That meant everyone’s souls that were stuck in the in-between would stay there, cursed to linger outside the afterlife, never able to truly cross over.
Those souls that were still living in this realm would join them once they died, creating a massive prison of souls that was inescapable for all beings.
I’d damned and imprisoned everyone in our world to an eternal existence of torment.
I hadn’t just taken away Ava’s future, but everyone’s.
It was a fate I’d tried so hard to avoid, that I’d nearly killed myself to prevent, but I’d brought us all here anyway. After everything we’d been through…
We’d lost.
Kallie was trembling beside me. Softly, she uttered, “Kaz.”
“Kallie—” Marcus gasped, but I heard the tell-tale opening of a portal, and knew she was already gone. She’d disappeared in seconds, off to Malovia to search for her twin brother.
“No! Kallie, no, please—” Marcus sputtered, pleading with his goddess to bring his fiancé back to him.
I didn’t know if Kallie would find Kazim.
The Warden was certainly on his way to the rest of the magical territories that had defied him, intent on obliterating the remainder of his enemies.
By the time Kallie found her brother, the Warden could destroy the remainder of the fae in an instant.
If Kallie was there, she would go up in flames with the rest of them.
Marcus knew that. It was the reason he was weeping now.
My fingers clenched into the cold earth as I admitted the heartbreaking, bitter truth. There was nothing left to fight for anymore. It was all over.
The Warden had won.