Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
ELARIYA
Silence swallowed us whole.
Only the soft click of our boots against the stone floor pierced the thick fog of stillness.
The vast corridor we’d walked through days before stretched ahead, illuminated by lanterns frozen in mid-flicker. Their flames hung motionless as though painted there.
My magic was holding.
Good.
The polished black walls and towering pillars disappeared into the darkness above. The place felt different without people moving through it. And it felt wrong in the still air. No different from the inside of a tomb.
Ahead, two guards stood watch outside the check area.
Both were frozen.
One had his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. The other was halfway through turning his head, forever caught in a moment he would never remember.
My stomach squeezed. Seeing the extent of my powers was fascinating. I’d surprised myself a lot since coming to the magical realm. But sometimes it was scary to see what I could do.
I shook the thought from my mind. Somewhere deeper within this godsforsaken place, Wolfe was waiting. He was my only concern.
"This way." Kaem lifted a hand and motioned for us to follow. “Wolfe is being kept in the vault.”
The vault.
Blessed Mother. The word alone sounded ominous.
We moved quickly through the corridor.
More frozen guards stood at their posts along the way.
As we neared the Hall of Judgment, my breath caught. The doors stood open, revealing the empty chamber beyond.
Days ago, as I'd stood inside begging them not to kill my husband, my world had shattered.
I thanked the Great Mother we were here and we found a way.
Even if the plan didn’t work, I’d know we tried. I tried.
Kaem continued forward without slowing. We followed him down another corridor until we reached a massive set of black doors reinforced with silver runes.
White light flickered across his fingers as he lifted a hand and the runes shimmered in response.
Then, with a low groan, the doors obeyed, slowly swinging inward.
Cold air spilled out from the darkness beyond, and unease settled heavily in my chest.
Narrow steps spiraled downward into the darkness, carved from black stone worn smooth by centuries of use.
Frozen flames burned inside iron sconces fixed to the walls, their fire suspended in motion, trapped between one heartbeat and the next.
We descended.
Down.
Down.
Down.
The staircase seemed endless, and, gods, the deeper we went, the colder the air became.
A strange thought crossed my mind.
This was what I imagined the journey to the Underworld would feel like.
A descent into a place where the living were never meant to tread.
The feeling only intensified when we finally reached the bottom and the space opened into a vast chamber.
I held my breath and looked ahead to another set of doors.
Kaem opened those with the same ease as before. The moment the doors swung inside, we saw Wolfe, as frozen as everyone and everything else.
The enormous glass prison that held him sat at the center of the chamber atop a raised platform. Runes crawled across its surface, glowing faintly beneath the frozen world.
"Wolfe," I whispered.
For a moment, all I could do was stare. My heart leapt at the sight of him and the fact that we’d made it this far.
"From this point onward, we need to be careful," Kaem warned quietly. His gaze swept across each of us. "And focused. One mistake could unravel everything."
No one spoke. We didn’t need to. We already knew the gravity of the situation, so we simply followed him.
"Positions." Kaem called.
Garrick, Bastian, and Arielle spread out around the cage, each taking a different point. Their arms lifted in unison.
This was where I had to trust them to take over. They were going to extract Wolfe and place him in a similar cage structure that we could transport back to Vyrenth Hollow.
White light burst from their palms. The glow expanded across the floor, weaving itself into a lattice of Galdrlore runes around the platform.
Magic hummed through the air, and at the center of it all, Kaem stepped toward the glass and placed both hands against it. Then he began to chant.
The words rolled from his tongue in a language I’d never heard. It sounded like old Galaythian. He repeated the words until each one had power and the cage shook.
The runes reacted, and purple light rippled across the cage.
The bindings had begun to unravel and the glowing runes faded from the glass.
Kaem's chanting grew louder, and the white light surrounding the cage intensified.
A pulse of energy rippled through the chamber. I held my breath.
Kaem rolled his wrists, and Wolfe began to drift at his command. He moved right through the cage glass, still frozen.
It was working.
Blessed Mother, it was actually working.
The magic carefully drew him forward, inch by inch, and the instant Wolfe cleared the barrier, Garrick, Bastian, and Arielle began weaving the cocoon around him.
White strands of magic erupted outward, wrapping around Wolfe in overlapping layers.
I was praying it would be enough to restrain him until we got back.
A shrill scream split the silence at that moment, and we froze.
Shit.
Kaem had warned us early that there could be beings here who were immune to time magic. Was this one of them?
My blood turned to ice as we waited.
“Keep going, guys,” Kaem said. “Alaric and I will deal with whatever that is.”
Alaric already had his sword ready.
Bastian, Garrick, and Arielle continued weaving the cocoon. I flexed my fingers, ready to draw my sword.
A chill raced down my spine as a black ball of energy appeared before us.
Within, another scream rippled through the chamber. It was a woman.
The energy ball folded in on itself and Zyrra stepped out of it.
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
The instant Kaem saw her, his skin paled. Definitely not a good sign since I’d taken great comfort in his confidence.
And Alaric…
Oh, Blessed Mother, I just realized this was the first time he was seeing her.
The thing masquerading as his dead sister.
Gods, how must he feel?
This was the first time Bastian, Garrick, and Arielle were all seeing her, too. I couldn’t speak for Kaem because there was a sense of familiarity in his stare that told me he’d crossed paths with this fiend before and knew exactly how dangerous she was.
I’d had the misfortune of meeting her when I’d first arrived in Galaythia. She’d appeared to me, trying to get close to Wolfe. At the time, I didn’t know the real Zyrra was dead.
To make matters worse, this thing before us wasn’t even a ghost. She was something else entirely. Something none of us had been able to figure out. All we knew was, she was part of the dark forces.
The hideous smile on her face made my skin crawl in every direction.
“Well, look at this.” Zyrra sneered, clutching the top skirt of her black-lace gown.
It was as pretty as all the other dresses I’d seen her in.
I’d imagined it was the sort of thing the real Zyrra wore.
The sight made her appear all the more unnerving and mocking of Zyrra Nightblade’s memory.
“A little reunion. Who would have thought it would be here?”
Those bright blue eyes that looked so much like Wolfe’s found me, and her smile widened.
“Be gone, devil,” Kaem cried, stepping forward with his sword aloft, ready to strike.
“Fuck off, old man.” Zyrra cackled and threw an energy ball at Kaem.
The ball went straight for him. He tried to block it with his sword, but it swerved around him. It would have crashed into him and burnt him to a crisp if he didn’t counter it with an energy ball of his own.
Still, the impact of the blow blasted him backwards.
“Kaem.” I gasped.
Garrick was closest, so he rushed toward him to check if he was okay. Everyone else stood their ground.
Zyrra focused on me. “Don’t worry, sweet girl. That old fool has more lives than a cat, but… slightly less than the Grim Reaper.” She laughed as if we were all sitting around a campfire telling jokes.
“Get out of here.” I reached for my sword and aimed it at her.
“How rude. First, you didn’t invite me to your wedding.
Now you can’t even be decent. That’s okay.
This little heist of yours just made taking you so much easier.
” She gave me a maddening grin, then switched her focus to Arielle and Bastian.
“You two… you stink of love. You know…Bastian was the first to suspect I had the slivershade blight, but he kept his mouth shut. I wonder why.”
“Shut the hells up!” Arielle snapped back.
Zyrra didn’t answer. She looked at Alaric instead. “What about you, brother? Not gonna say hello to little sis? Are you going to let her speak to me like that?”
To my surprise, Alaric bounded forward.
“Enlicet, venjour!” he shouted, and a swarm of fiery red lights covered her from head to toe.
It caught her off guard and she screamed.
“Everyone, take Wolfe and get out of here!” Alaric cried, continuing to throw more red sparks at her.
Zyrra countered with a blast of red and black waves that rushed through the air and hit him.
Alaric went tumbling backwards but found his footing and circled back for her.
She stopped him and the rest of us with more waves. I just about managed to shield myself with my sword, but I, too, was thrown backward.
Instead of us hitting the ground, she kept us suspended there in the air, held up like puppets on invisible strings.
The tightness of her magic stung my chest and I couldn’t break away from her hold. Neither could the others. Whatever she’d done to us seemed to stop them from being able to even portal or phase.
“Here’s how this is going to work, you miserable little shits,” Zyrra taunted, her face twisted into a heavy scowl. “You aren't taking Wolfe. He will die here. He should die here.” Her smile widened and she focused on me. “As for you... You're coming back with me.”
Bitch.
That was not going to happen.
Summoning my strength, I tapped into the ability I hadn’t used in a while.
“Zhethan, kaleilan!” I cried, and ribbons of white light poured out of my hands.
I hoped she recognized what I was about to do to her. It was she who’d helped me figure out I could drain the years of a person or a thing. If she wasn’t a ghost, she could be hurt.
When my magic hit her, she shrieked like a hell beast. It did some damage, but damn it, it wasn’t enough. The shriek was all I got.
Whatever she was, I couldn’t weaken her. Not yet.
Right now, I was no match.
“If I didn’t need you, girl, you’d be dead,” she bellowed in a voice that was rough and ghostly. Then, with the wave of her hand, she cut off my magic.
But the waves from her attack caught Wolfe, shattering the cocoon that had started to form around him. And stirred him from his frozen state.
It made sense that if she was immune to my magic, she’d be able to counter it in every way. Including awakening him.
But it wasn’t intentional.
The fear that registered on Zyrra’s face as Wolfe broke free and surged high into the air was raw and visceral. I’d never thought she could look afraid, let alone exhibit such terror.
It was so bad the effect of her power fractured on the others and they broke free from the hold she’d placed on them.
Wolfe swooped down and went straight for her, but she darted for me. It took me a second to realize she did that because I was his weakness.
And he did exactly what she wanted him to do.
He came for me. And he was faster.
Within seconds, I was swallowed by shadows and he’d scooped me up. Someone called my name. I couldn’t tell who.
Sound blurred, like trying to hear a conversation through deep water. Then we were somewhere else.
It was only when cold wind hit me that I realized we were outside.
I didn’t even know how I was being held up. All I could see was darkness.
“Get back here!” Zyrra’s shrill command rippled across the sky like thunder.
Wolfe wailed back, a sound like the wind howling in a tempest across the ocean.
He gripped me, and the fog of shadows cleared somewhat. Just enough for me to see Zyrra bounding toward us with the fires of the deepest hell raging behind her.
Following after her were Alaric and Bastian. And everyone else.
But Zyrra wasn’t concerned with them. She was coming for Wolfe and me.
I thought we would move out of the way. But we stayed there, hovering in the tension-filled air.
Panic struck me cold. She was going to crash into us.
She came closer. Closer. Closer.
The fire beyond her flared and rose like a tidal wave, then it shot forward toward us like a burst of shooting stars.
People say you see your life flash before you when you’re about to die. I saw mine. The good, the bad, and everything in between.
The flames came faster.
“Wolfe!” I cried. But I didn’t even know if he could hear me.
Alaric and Bastian surged forward, trying to get to us.
The flames were breaths away. Now. They’d hit now.
The heat was already burning my skin. Rows of flames split and rose higher.
But they didn’t reach us.
In that split second, Wolfe responded with a wave of black shadows that snuffed them out. The fire died without leaving smoke or any trace that it had been there.
Zyrra stopped dead, gazing back, astonished.
Wolfe used that moment to turn to Alaric and the others, wasting no time.
“Wolfe, come with us!” Alaric shouted.
Another burst of shadows erupted from Wolfe’s hand, surrounding Alaric and the others, and within the blink of an eye, they disappeared, swallowed in darkness.
Zyrra wailed a monstrous sound. “You will not get away.”
She continued her pursuit toward us, and Wolfe portaled away.
At least I think that’s what he did. This felt different to any other time I’d portaled with him.
The magic was loud. Almost deafening. Like a million anguished cries. It made my head… Gods, it was so light.
It was going to fall off my body and dissolve.
I dropped my sword as I slipped into more darkness.
Then I slipped away from myself.