Chapter 36 Ban
Ray’s words are a slap in the face when he turns around, focusing his hatred on me before he launches across the clearing and slams into me.
The force of the impact throws us into the nearest tree, and we plow through the bark hard enough that we manage to break the trunk.
I’m aware of the sudden pain that lances through me before I slip into the shadows, avoiding any real injuries, with Ray’s hands pressed to my chest.
He’s pushing me, and even stepping into the shadows doesn’t break his hold. It’s like he’s becoming the shadows, my friend fracturing and turning into–
It clicks into my mind a moment too late, and I barely manage to grab his shadowy arms, flip our position, and shift out of the shadows before I tear myself away. “He’s splintering!"
I’m pretty sure everyone hears me back at the tavern, but the only person I care about is Zarev. He’s the only other one who can do anything about this.
I dodge Ray as he tries to punch me, magic be damned, but I swear his arm seems longer than normal.
Since going into the shadows doesn’t keep him from touching me I avoid the hit, use my ice, and strike him instead.
It’s like he’s not only using his shadow magic, but the shadows are becoming an extension of himself.
“We aren’t supposed to be able to splinter!
” Zarev yells, standing back before he sweeps his scythe in a wide arch toward Ray.
It looks like he’s trying to miss, but Ray hisses from the shadows and steps away anyway.
I saw the way he reacted when the blade touched the shadows, and unlike the two of us, Zarev’s blade hurt Ray’s shadow form. “Keep him away from the tavern!”
Ray holds out two oversized hands, the shadows literally leaking off his fingers as I respond. “How?”
“I don’t know!” Zarev replies, slipping in and out of the shadows again, so we’re opposite each other, driving Ray away in this strange form. For all the heartbreak each of us has endured, nothing like this has happened before.
Zarev’s right, though. We’re supposed to guide the spirits on. We shouldn’t be in danger of splintering like this, but I don’t have a better word for it.
If we don’t get him to calm down soon, will he become a wraith?
“Ray!” Zarev yells, and the red eyes don’t even turn to focus on him. “Ray, it’s me. Don’t listen to Ban, he’s a jackass. Listen to me! I haven’t killed anyone you care about."
I groan, avoiding another hit when Ray tries to strike me. I don’t want to fight him when I’m unsure what my magic will do to him like this, but I can only keep dodging for so long. “Stop throwing me under the rug!”
“Ban, shut the hell up!” Zarev roars, spinning the scythe over his head. It makes Ray stumble back with a cry, and the tone of his voice sounds more like my friend. “Ray, let us help!”
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 can barely counteract 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 being sucked 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 circular motion 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?”
He?
I feel the shadows again, a stronger presence than before. And beneath all the magic, I can vaguely feel the pull of a spirit. There’s at least one dead in our proximity, and I’m pretty sure I know who it is.
Ray lets his magic go, the shadows pushing through to shatter Neve’s ice. In response, she forces an iceberg to burst through the ground, using it to protect Dahlia.
Zarev disperses some of the shadows and I work through the rest, sweat breaking out across my forehead as we slice through the darkness again. The shadows that shot off behind us roll through the trees, and I fear what disaster that may bring.
As we’re pushing away the shadows, Ray screams again, shaking the leaves around us. If anything, the shadow is growing impossibly bigger, dwarfing Ray within it. A pit settles in my stomach. We’re going to have to start hitting back if we can’t stop it.
“Odette, would you get out of here?” Zarev yells, the scythe slicing sideways through the air when Ray jumps at him. The blow knocks him to one side, and I see a swan diving toward the ground.
Gods, it's like no one listens to us.
Odette drops to the ground in her human form, the swan and feathers melting away in a breath as she shifts. The power of Ray’s strike sweeps her hair back, but it doesn’t deter her as she charges forward wearing that familiar, feathery dress. “Ray!”
She landed on the opposite side of him from the three of us, in the worst possible spot.
I don’t think she can fight him the way we can, and she doesn’t seem to be able to speak if she keeps the swan form.
He doesn’t acknowledge her at all, turning instead with a powerful swing, sending the shadows toward her.
I slide into the shadows at the same time Zarev does. I understand her need to be heard, to make him stop—but the shadows will roll through us without killing us. Odette will not be so lucky.
We can move impossibly fast in the shadows when we try, but so can Ray’s version of magic. It hurtles toward Odette quickly, and I worry we won’t make it.
A figure suddenly appears in front of her, its spirit lingering behind. Their magical signatures are different, the man taking form quickly. There’s a long sword in his hand that he uses to slice through the shadows with ease, milky white eyes focusing on the enemy he cannot truly see.
“No further,” he says, his voice eerily calm and full of command.
I pull from the shadows a few feet short, and so does Zarev. I can’t keep the surprise out of my voice. “Lucius?”