Chapter 18 Carla
CARLA
Itake some magic over my leg, pink light spreading across the wound. Slowly, the pain eases. The torn flesh knits back together, but I’m very upset that I’m stuck in this void.
“You’re doing well, already healing,” Aya says, floating nearby and watching me.
I flex my leg, testing it. “What now? I don’t even know how or where to look for this asshole.”
“This isn’t working.” Aya’s ghostly form flickers.
I stare at her like she’s lost her mind. “What the hell are you talking about? What do you mean this isn’t working?”
“I tried, I really tried, but you’re far too young in your magic and too attached to Amari,” she tells me.
My hands curl into fists. “Just tell me how to look for him and I’ll handle it from here.”
“No. Because if you die, limbo is doomed.”
“You know what, you’re starting to piss me off.” We’re walking through the void with Verto guarding us, his massive legs moving silently. “I think your brother was right about you all along. There’s fine print in you helping me. So what is it? What exactly do you want so I can be rid of you?”
Aya stops floating. “That’s the problem.”
She looks at me in the darkness. “Put up a shield.”
“What?” I follow her gaze.
When Aya points, I groan when I see the mob of spirits charging toward us, their forms writhing and wailing.
Verto prepares to defend me again, but I can see even he’s tired of fighting. His movements are slower, his legs trembling slightly.
I quickly throw up a shield, pink magical webbing forming a dome around us. The mob crashes into it, clawing at the barrier. Their fingers scrape against the magic, sending ripples across its surface.
“This isn’t going to hold,” I mutter.
I try to open another portal. My magic is strong enough to partially tear reality, but then it immediately snaps shut like elastic.
I glare at Aya. “You know what? Something isn’t right. I should be able to come and go in limbo as I please. You’re leaving something out.”
Aya smirks at me, then starts floating around me in slow circles. “You’re catching on. This isn’t just your injury. It’s Mother Fate, keeping you here.”
“If you leave again, Nathaniel’s going to complete his plan,” she continues.
“He’s got more than enough magic to do it.
And with the help of Brookstone and Blackburn, there’s no stopping him.
They’re simply waiting for him to possess Solomon, and then they are going to burst into Wintermoon and kill every supernatural on the land.
And they can do it. Because they have my magic. ”
Fury rises in me. “You are a horrible person with or without dark magic.”
Aya’s face falls. “I know. This is why I’m trying to get out of here. I’m trying to free all of you from my bullshit, but I see now. The decision isn’t about freeing myself from limbo. It’s about saving Wintermoon.”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and the longer I’m in here, the more time passes. Who knows what’s going on out there.”
“I know. Nathaniel’s already infiltrated the academy,” Aya says quietly.
I gasp. “The little shifters.”
“In there are possessed,” she confirms. “Amari’s working with Angie to find a solution. But you see, you are the solution.”
“I can’t even get out of limbo.”
Aya meets my eyes. “You aren’t supposed to.”
“What? Why?”
She stops floating, her form solidifying slightly. “I’m supposed to make a choice. If I couldn’t succeed in helping you defeat Nathaniel, then I should call on her one last time. And I would have to make a decision. Send you to her for help, or simply join her and let Wintermoon fall.”
I gasp, my mouth falling open.
Aya looks at the souls starting to burst through the shielded web. Cracks form in my barrier, spreading like fractured glass. White magic suddenly appears in her hands, bright and pure and terrifying.
“I only have enough for one call,” she says softly. “That’s all she gave me.”
“Please, I beg you,” I whisper.
Aya meets my eyes. “What I’m about to do is for the better, and you’ll hate me for it now, but one day, you’ll understand why I did what I did.”
I step back. “What are you doing?”
I look to Verto. “Help me!”
But Verto moves in front of the shield, leaving me alone with Aya. He’s not even going to help me.
“I wish I could say I’m sorry, but I’m not,” Aya says.
She sends the magic from her fingers. It slams into me. White magic covers my body completely, and I start to scream not from pain but from fear. The magic is overpowering, a power I’ve never felt before. It’s absolute. It starts to cover me like a cocoon, wrapping around me in layers.
“Stop! Aya, please stop!” I beg, thrashing against the magic.
But Aya drops to her knees as the last of the magic leaves her body. I’m being covered fully, losing sight of the void of limbo completely. Everything goes white.
Suddenly, I’m in a white cloudy void, but I don’t understand. My leg is fully healed. No pain. No blood. Nothing. I try to use my magic but nothing comes out. My hands remain empty, powerless.
“Hello?” I call out, looking around. There’s nothing, not even an echo of my voice.
I start to walk, confusion and fear filling me like never before. Am I dead? I can feel the power of this realm and it’s terrifying. It presses against me from all sides, enormous and infinite.
I keep walking. This void seems just as endless as the dark void I’ve known. Always in darkness, always in shadows, but now, I stand in light. Blinding, absolute light.
I just keep walking, trying to keep hope that I’ll find a way out of this. Knowing that Amari is stuck dealing with Nathaniel is so wrong. He needs me. Our children need me. Wintermoon needs me.
“Hello!” I shout this time. Still nothing. Just endless white light. No sound. My feet feel light as if I’m walking on nothing.
“Are you done yelling?” someone asks.
I spin around when I hear a familiar voice. “Tabatha?”
I recognize it immediately.
A chuckle echoes around me, but I can’t find where it’s coming from. “You should have called on me when you were in the forest, but you let Aya distract you. But then again, Aya’s always been very good at distractions. It’s her specialty.”
“Please... please help me. I have to help Amari. I have to help my children. I have to help Wintermoon,” I plead.
Tabatha suddenly appears out of the white light. She looks ethereal, her form glowing with inner radiance. Her deep brown skin seems to shimmer, her vivid blue eyes almost blinding in their intensity.
My eyes widen. “Where am I?”
“You are home, with Mother Fate,” Tabatha says simply.
My face goes flat. So this was the choice Aya had to make.
Tabatha starts to walk around me, her form flickering slightly with each step. “I never believed she’d do it. She sacrificed herself for the betterment of Wintermoon.”
“What does this mean?” I ask.
“Everything is about to change for you, but this battle isn’t over. The decisions you make from here on will depend on how you choose.”
“I just want Wintermoon to win this. Tell me what I have to give up and I’ll do it.”
Tabatha waves her hand. The white light fractures like breaking glass, splintering into a thousand shards before reforming into something else entirely. Colors bleed into existence. Rich earth tones. Deep forest greens. The golden glow of torchlight.
Suddenly, we’re standing in a stone chamber lit by flickering candles. The walls are carved with glowing symbols I don’t recognize, and the air reeks of old magic.
I spin around, taking in the scene. This isn’t limbo. This is somewhere real. Somewhere that existed.
In the center of the chamber stands a younger version of Tabatha.
Her face is unlined, her eyes bright rather than weary like the present version beside me.
She's dressed in ceremonial robes, black fabric embroidered with silver thread.
Her hands glow with blue magic, electric currents running between her fingers.
And there, on his knees before her, is Nathaniel.
He looks different here. Less confident.
His face is twisted with rage, his hands bound with glowing blue chains that cut into his wrists.
Dark blood drips onto the stone floor. His Moorish garb is torn and stained, symbols of power ripped and fading.
He’s struggling against the restraints, his muscles straining, veins standing out in his neck.
“You think you can contain me?” Past-Nathaniel spits. “I am eternal. I am power incarnate. You gave me this magic, and you cannot take it back!”
“I know,” past-Tabatha says calmly, though I can see the strain on her face. Sweat beads on her forehead. Her hands shake slightly as she maintains the spell. “Which is why I’m sending you somewhere you can’t hurt anyone.”
She begins to chant, her voice rising in a language I don’t understand. The blue magic intensifies, spreading from her hands to form a portal behind Nathaniel. Unlike my pink portals to limbo, this one swirls with dark blue energy streaked with black, violent and chaotic.
“I’ve made so many mistakes, but Nathaniel was the worst of them,” present-Tabatha says beside me as we watch the scene unfold.
Past-Nathaniel sees the portal forming behind him and his eyes widen with genuine fear for the first time. “No. No! You can’t do this! Tabatha, please!”
“You forfeited any mercy when you betrayed the Blackwoods,” past-Tabatha says coldly.
She thrusts her hands forward. The chains binding Nathaniel drag him backward toward the portal. He digs his heels into the stone floor, gouging marks into the rock, but it’s useless. The magic is too strong.
“I will return!” he screams as he’s pulled into the swirling void. “I will possess the bloodline! I will take everything from you! Everything!”
The portal swallows him, his screams cutting off abruptly. Past-Tabatha collapses to her knees, gasping for breath. Blood drips from her nose. The strain of the spell has taken its toll.
But then the portal flickers. It doesn’t close completely.