I stayed outside Mori’s door until I spotted Craig lingering at the end of the hall.
“She alright? Tristan and Sabella just told us.”
I shrugged, my gut yelling at me to go back in there and talk to her, but what was I going to say? She watched one of her family turn just like that, and now had no idea who was alive or dead. Thorne, she said, sent her here before she could be harmed. “How would you be?”
“Stressed, worried, but she’s not alone.”
“I think she believes she is.”
“Then it’s up to you to change her mind,” he said with a wink. “I suggest you don’t let her be alone too long in there with her thoughts. We all know how much certain dark thoughts can torment a person. What it does to them.”
Yes, sadly. Our small group had far too much experience with facing down the inner darkness of our souls. We’d watched Kate be turned and nearly kill everyone she loved because of it. Nearly killed herself. Then Sabella, lost in a world of visions that almost destroyed her, too. I would give Mori some time to herself, but Craig was right. Too long alone and she risked doing harm to herself. I would not let her give into the darkness after just rescuing her from Baladon’s clutches.
We walked together toward the council chamber where Tristan, Sabella, and Kate sat, having a heated discussion about what this new development meant for all of us. From the way it sounded, Sabella and Kate were in favor of making a move against Baladon quickly, but Tristan was the one putting his foot down. Craig was right there along with him.
I leaned against the wall, content to listen for now.
“We can’t get back to them,” Tristan reminded them both.
Sabella waved her arms over her head. “Hello, do you see me standing here? Remember what I did already?”
“You are not strong enough to make another one,” he argued hotly. “And if you have forgotten, the last time was a trap! Baladon let us into his realm, let us get to your mother so he could try and take you away from us! There has to be a reason he wanted you.”
“Yeah, to make another orb!”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it! I was there, too, Sabella, I heard him talking to you. I saw the look in his eyes.”
“Fine, then what did you see, huh? What?”
“Fear!” He yelled so fiercely the word echoed around the room.
His outburst shocked her into silence. Even Kate and Craig looked confused. I pushed off the wall and joined them at the table. “Fear? You saw fear in his eyes? Fear of Sabella?”
Sabella glowered at me.
I shrugged.
“Really?” Her glowering intensified.
“You know what I mean,” I muttered. “Tristan?”
“I saw fear, and I can’t explain why, but it had to do with you. He was trying to get you out of the game, and if you attack him again, you risk him getting what he wants.” He ran his hands through his hair as he growled, annoyed. “Just stop for five seconds and think it through. Think about your visions, what you’ve seen. Is there a chance, however slim, that Baladon knows what you’ve seen?”
She started to shake her head, but stopped. “I don’t know.”
“Which gods did he have in his keeping all these years?” Craig pointed out. “There’s a chance he absorbed their powers, right? Maybe even picked up someone who also had visions… someone like your mother for instance.”
Sabella’s face paled, and she sank into a chair. “Shit.”
“If he knows the vision you had about the five of us and one other, or even the riddle… he’s going to be coming after us.” Tristan looked at me first, then Craig and Kate. “We have to find out for sure if that’s even possible.”
“And if it is? What then?” Because this war wasn’t complicated enough, now there was a chance what we thought was an advantage against Baladon might not be anymore. If he knew we had the key to defeating him, he would do everything he could to stop us. “Do we even know what the riddle means yet for sure?”
“Eh,” Sabella said, tilting her head back and forth. “Working out a few more… more minor details, but yeah, think we’re getting there. Sort of.”
She was still acting weird and hiding something from me. No one else seemed to be annoyed at her sudden lack of sharing of information. She stood and started walking toward the door, mentioning something about checking in with Lucy and Greyson. That they were creating some sort of warning system in case Baladon decided to attack here.
I was going to call her out on it, tired of being left out of the loop when Tristan growled and sprinted to her side.
A second later, Sabella gasped, and her eyes glassed over as her whole body went rigid in Tristan’s arms.
“Red?”
She sounded like she was choking and the rest of us closed in, worried she was being attacked, but then the words started pouring out of her mouth.
“Three must rise from the ashes of defeat. Three must claim the mantle thrust upon them, and three… three will meet their deaths in the end… three… will… three will…” She coughed harshly and then collapsed against Tristan’s chest, cringing and breathing hard.
“Sabella? Can you hear me?” Tristan asked softly, smoothing the hair back from her face. “Red?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good,” she mumbled. “What… what did I say this time?”
Kate was rubbing her hands over her face vigorously. “Well, pretty sure the death you saw in that first vision means our actual deaths.”
Craig and Tristan exchanged a dark look of concern.
“What, why?” Sabella looked at Kate, then Craig, and finally, Tristan.
“What you just said,” Tristan told her. “Three will meet their deaths… I think there was meant to be more, but you seemed to cut your vision short somehow.”
“Damn it.” She tried to stand, but her knees wobbled.
Tristan scooped her up in his arms.
“I can walk, really.”
“You can, later, when you’re not trembling. Did you see anything?”
“Three figures in a shroud of fog,” she murmured, shutting her eyes as if seeing it again. “But there were no features, nothing to say who they were.”
“You sure?” I pressed.
Tristan growled. I held up my hands.
“Stop growling,” she snapped at him, then turned to me. “And if anything else comes to me, I’ll let you know. Swear it.”
“Right then, you’re going to rest for a while,” Tristan said decisively, then carried a complaining Sabella from the room.
He argued with her until they were out of earshot leaving the three of us behind to stare at each other.
“This has turned out to be an interesting day, to say the least,” Kate exclaimed in a fake, cheerful voice.
“Interesting, that’s what you have to say about it?” Craig said quietly.
“What? You’re just upset about the whole possible death thing.”
“And you’re not?” he yelled, his face shifting in anger, his demon flashing in and out of view. “Damn it, Kate! I’ve watched you nearly die enough times already. Can we not add another? I don’t think I can take it, love.”
“Hey, not like I’m voting for dying here, but if it saves the realms and kills Baladon—”
“Not going to happen, you hear me? I don’t care what she sees or what any damned prophecy says, I am not going to let you sacrifice yourself! Not again and you can’t ask me to let you so don’t even try,” he snarled and stormed from the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
I whistled loudly in the sudden silence.
Kate glared at me.
“What? He’s got a point.” I shrugged.
“And I’m supposed to just ignore my destiny? Act like we don’t all know what’s going on here?”
“No, but you could at least act like you care enough about your own life to save it, instead of just accepting what’s happening to you.”
She stomped away from me to stare out the windows. “Not like I want to die, but… aren’t you just a little tired of constantly fighting against fate when all fate seems to want to do is kick you back down again? I’m happy, the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, and no, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to leave Craig behind… but if I have to lay down my life to save everyone, then I will.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re being dramatic, just a bit.”
She whipped around. “No, I’m being a realist.”
I bit back a growl. “He doesn’t want you to be a realist. He wants you to fight for what you have together!”
I could’ve strangled Kate right then for not understanding why Craig was so pissed, or Tristan, for that matter. The minute that riddle and Sabella’s other vision came along, it was like the two of them were ready to throw in the towel and give up trying to find any other way to stop Baladon, or even to explore what else those visions could mean. They jumped on the idea that it would end with their deaths. Why couldn’t they see that?
“The love you two have, it’s not something you should throw away so lightly,” I told her. “I was there when it started between you two. I’ve felt it. And no matter what might actually happen in the end, you must see how much Craig is killing himself to stop you from rushing headfirst into a fight you know you can’t win.”
“I’m not… I just…” She growled in aggravation, but I saw her eyes darken with worry as she glanced toward the door. “Damn.”
“Yeah, damn. You and Sabella lately have been acting like you’re accepting your deaths.”
“We’re not—it’s just… we talked about it, you know?” she told me quietly. “And we both thought if it came down to it actually happening, the readier to accept it we are, the less hurt and pain Craig and Tristan would be left with.”
I understood her point, but at the same time after watching how badly Sabella’s first “death” affected him, no matter how they tried to prepare their husbands for their possible demise, it would kill them in the end.
Hell, losing Kate would almost kill me. She was a dear friend, and I loved her in my own way.
“He’s so mad at me right now,” she muttered with a wince.
“Can’t blame him.”
“No, no, I can’t.”
I waited for her to go after him, but figured she was giving him a few more minutes to cool down. “That’s an interesting development, with Sabella and Tristan.”
“First time I’ve seen it, but he mentioned it to Craig yesterday. Said it was the strangest sensation. He felt like she was pulling him to her with a rope and the second he got to her side, the vision hit.”
“He’s sensing them now. Their bond is pretty strong, powerful. Hopefully, we can use that.”
“Yeah, hopefully.” She was still staring at the door, her lips screwed up to the side.
“Will you just go to him already? Get the fight over with.”
“We’re not going to fight.”
I arched my brow at her.
She sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Anything you want to talk about… or anyone?”
I pointed to the doors. “Get out of here before you have two of us pissed at you, huh?”
She held up her hands as she walked toward it. “Fine, keep it to yourself, but one of these days, you’re going to have to say something.”
Finally, she left, and I found myself wandering out in the courtyard, checking supplies aimlessly and ensuring no news had come from Gregornath. Drake and Ashan would be arriving any day now to assist with making a plan for now what we knew would be the final battle against Baladon.
“Evening Magnus.” I found the old healer humming to himself in the stables, brushing down his horse.
“Ah, sire, good evening, if we can even say it’s evening.”
“The darkness is getting old, but at the same time, I think I’m getting used to it and really don’t want to be. I hear no word from Gregornath?”
“Yes, all is quiet at home, for once. But it sounds as if Mori has returned.”
“She has,” I sighed, running my hand down the mane of another horse in the stall next to us.
I relayed to him what she told us, and his hands slowed in their brushing until he stopped completely.
“You sound conflicted.”
“Hmm? No, just… well, yes, to be honest,” I admitted. “I haven’t slept well. Nightmares and such.”
“About Mori?”
I glanced at him; caught him giving me a knowing smile. “How did you know?”
“Not so hard to figure out, sire. You worry for her. There’s nothing wrong with that. She is in danger and quite an impressive goddess.”
“She is that,” I agreed quietly.
“Then what are you doing here speaking to an old dragon instead of her?”
I frowned and found it hard to speak all of a sudden.
“Good night, Magnus,” I said in a rush, and left the stables, his chuckling following me.
Eventually, my feet took me back inside, and before I reached my room, I heard a familiar burst of laughter. I peered down the long hall.
Kate was dragging Craig into their room, both of them grinning at each other once again.
For a second, I considered checking in on Mori, but entered my room instead, shut the door, and attempted to catch up on some sleep.
A few hours later, when the castle had fallen silent around me, I gave up on closing my eyes and got up. The fire had burned out, but this room felt too small all of a sudden and I had to get out for a little while. Get some air. Clear my head of the racing thoughts inside my skull. I left the room and wandered through the quiet castle. There were several shifter guards posted throughout, all bowing their heads as a I passed.
When I came across Boris at the top of the stairs, I stopped. “All quiet?”
“So far nothing to report,” he growled, but looked less than pleased about it.
“You can’t tell me you want to keep being attacked by monsters, or worse.”
“No, but an old wolf like me knows it’s time to worry when the enemy is being quiet, far too quiet, especially after how bad it has been.” He huffed as he patted me on the shoulder and failed to smile. “Don’t mind me. Just on edge.”
“We all are,” I mumbled, thinking of Sabella’s latest vision.
I left Boris and entered the kitchens, finding a mug of ale and a warm fire to sit by for a little while. When the mug was empty and did nothing to help ease my growing worries about the three supposed to rise to stop Baladon—rise and possibly die. I was about to force myself back to bed when the strangest urge to find Mori struck me hard.
I was outside her door a few seconds later. She was missing. She wasn’t in her room, not anymore, and I let my feet guide me. leaned my head toward the other end of the corridor.
I wasn’t sure where I was headed but found myself down the east corridor that had a large balcony overlooking the courtyard.
My feet slowed to a stop when I spotted Mori’s starlit hair. Her back was to me, and her head tilted back as if she studied the darkness overhead. For a long while, I simply stood, unable to move my eyes to anything else. The strangest sense of peace came over me when I was near her, like she calmed the storm of chaos this war had created. We’d been going nonstop since Baladon’s return. But close to her, everything was peaceful, and time seemed to slow.
“You may join me if you wish,” she said softly, without turning.
“I didn’t mean to intrude.” I walked out to stand at the railing beside her. “How are you holding up? Any news from the other gods?”
“I keep reaching out, wanting to feel them, but… it’s just a blank void.”
“I’m sure they got out.”
“I’m not,” she replied sadly. “The look in Devon’s eyes, it was pure evil, as if I was staring at Baladon again.” She shivered, running her hands up her arms like she was cold.
I moved nearer on instinct to try and keep her warm, then turned around to find an unlit brazier behind us. With a puff of fire, I lit it, and she sighed at the warmth radiating from the flames.
“Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask her about Devon and what else happened while she was with Baladon, but the sudden pleading look she gave me said the last thing she wanted to talk about was the gods. I wasn’t the only one who needed to hear the answers, so I swallowed them back until tomorrow when we were all assembled.
“Do you usually wander the castle at all hours of the night?”
“I couldn’t sleep, and honestly, I can’t even tell anymore if it’s night, or not.”
“It is, trust me. And I don’t sleep,” she said with a slight smile. “Though sometimes I wish I could.”
Even though I knew she wanted nothing to do with a difficult conversation, I still expected her to ask me what the others had talked about after I took her to her room. Or to tell me more of what happened when she was with the gods, but instead, I felt like we were having an everyday conversation, a rarity lately.
“Why is that?” I rested my arms on the cool stone as I watched her sigh, deep in thought, tapping her fingers along the railing, then shrugging.
“Dreams.”
“You want to dream?”
“Yes, such a wonderful part of being able to sleep,” she explained, her smile growing as her eyes slipped shut, though it wasn’t a happy smile on her face. “To escape from this world for those few moments in time and simply be. To let your mind take you on an adventure.”
“Not all dreams are so nice,” I told her, remembering my recurring nightmares of late.
Her gaze slid to mine, and I felt the weight of her concern fall on my shoulders.
“No, no they are not, but that cannot stop you from dreaming of better times. Or having hope, King Forrest.”
“Just Forrest,” I corrected gently. “The title doesn’t seem to suit me much these days.”
Where had that come from? I’d kept my self-doubts hidden from everyone so far, even Kate and Craig, who knew me better than anyone else here. And yet, Mori I told without any hesitation.
“You do not give yourself enough credit.”
“I give myself just enough.”
Ever since learning Craig and Kate had been taken by Baladon, I felt control of my realm—of my destiny—slipping from my hands. I’d been unable to rescue my friends without the aid of Tristan and Sabella. I couldn’t stop my lands from being overrun by banshees and hellhounds. Lost countless dragons so early in the war. What did I have to show for my short reign so far except a rebuilt palace and blood on my hands? I was no longer part of the three needed to save the Darrah lands and the Darrah name, or to protect the Vindicar. Now I was just Forrest, a dragon who became king far too soon.
“You have a purpose, Forrest,” Mori urged, resting her hand on mine. “All here do. The darkness will try to take your hope from you, but you can’t let it.”
Why did she sound like she didn’t believe her own words?
“Hard not to when all around is death and destruction.”
She squeezed my hand, and a rush of heat washed over me. “Hope and faith, those are what will win this war. Not strength of arms or number of soldiers. Baladon feeds on despair. On fear. It’s what gives him so much power.”
“What are we supposed to do? You can’t just tell people to suppress their fear,” I muttered.
“No, but you must use it. Transform that fear into something much stronger.”
“Such as?”
Her hand was still on mine. Any second, she would remove it, but it lingered. Her eyes turned hard and her face set in a sneer of hatred that did not suit her face.
“Mori?”
“Revenge,” she said simply, shaking out her hair so stars tumbled over my skin and hit the balcony. “That is what I want, and that is what I will have, one way or another.” Then she sucked in a deep breath and pulled her hand free. “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble understanding what’s happened. It’s taking its toll on me I’m afraid.”
“Wanting revenge is understandable.”
“Yes, but it’s folly, and I should know better,” she muttered. “The key is here, and it must be used before it’s too late. If not, if the races cannot combat this darkness and Baladon will rule not just these lands, but the human world, as well.”
The notion that he could be strong enough one day to cross out of these realms and into the others was terrifying. Humans would be defenseless against him. There was no magic in their world, at least not as there was here. Once Baladon stole the rest of the power from the gods, from the realms themselves, he’d be able to break down the barriers separating us all and drag magic into a world that was far from ready for it. If we were to stop Baladon, it had to be here on our terms, not his.
“Do you know anything of Sabella’s visions?” I hated to do it, but this wasn’t a time for peaceful conversation. Not when we were so far behind, and now possibly without our one advantage.
“If I did, I would share, but visions are not a gift I have, and their meaning is only for the seer to unravel. I myself asked for more answers before being sent back, but… those were not for me to know it seems.”
“And those who do have that ability? Who are they?” I asked, fearing that what Tristan stated earlier was true.
Mori tilted her head curiously as she said, “Farrah for one. And Devon. Why?”
“Damn it,” I cursed and slammed my fist on the railing. “He was right.”
“Right about what? Forrest?”
I was about to tell her, but a shadow moved across her eyes, and I bit back the words. She said Devon turned on the others because of the darkness lingering within him. Was there darkness still in her, too? Baladon might not have tried to drain her of her life, but she was with him for decades. A bit of his power might have latched onto her, be with her now and if it was…
My mind said I was an idiot to doubt her, but my gut twisted uncomfortably. If there was a chance Mori could turn, or Baladon could use her, I had to be careful.
“It’s nothing, we were merely double checking what we knew of the gods saved,” I lied.
She pursed her lips, but didn’t try to argue.
“What about dreams?” I asked, needing to change the subject quickly. I hadn’t meant to mention my dreams to her, but I couldn’t stop myself, wondering what she would think about me seeing her before. And it seemed the only topic that made sense to ask about at the moment since I was lying to her now.
“I have told you, I don’t dream. Asking me for a meaning would be futile.”
“Even if it’s you I saw in mine?”
Mori’s eyes widened. “Me?”
“Yes, a number of times,” I said softly. “And I had no idea who you were, but then we found you and saved you and I… I’m not even sure who you are.”
She blinked quickly and stepped closer, so our arms touched, and a flicker of my dream came back to me. She’d been walking through the woods at night, her glow lighting the way and leaving behind a trail of stardust. When she’d turned to me, there were tears streaming down her cheeks, and her lips moved, but the words were lost to me. Each time, that was what I saw, and each time, I was never able to get to her. Or hear her.
“I am a star,” she said in a breath, and tilted her head back to stare up into the darkness.
“A star? But I thought you were the gatekeeper?”
“I am both. I was plucked from the sky and shaped to be the gatekeeper, to watch over the paths to the gods just as I watch over the sky. The stars, the moon.”
I leaned back far enough so I could see up into the sky, not that I saw anything but blackness. Baladon blocked out any light. The sun, the moon, and the stars. I longed to see them all again, and hated how accustomed I was becoming to it being darker than night all the time.
“I wish I could see them now,” I mused.
“I can,” she replied, and her hand reached out to rest on mine again. “I see them all shining brightly, fighting to pierce the night without end. When I was pulled from the heavens so many years ago, I was afraid, worried I would never be a part of such greatness again.”
“But you are a goddess.”
“Ah, but what’s better? Being a goddess or being a star that leads those below to their destinies?” She smiled sweetly, and once again my head told me to stop worrying she was afflicted, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. They darkened even more.
I tensed in case she turned right then.
But she took a breath and went on. “Then they gave me my duty, and I was torn for so many years on where I truly belonged.”
Her words had turned sad, and it was my turn to move my hand, so I held hers in comfort.
“Surely they’d let you return to the sky?”
“They can’t, there’s no one else to guard the paths, not that there are many left to guard since Baladon has destroyed so much.”
“And the orb?”
Mori stiffened, and this time she did pull her hand away.
I waited for her to send me away, but she said nothing for a long, long while.
“The orb is now in his control,” she whispered, her voice shaking. “And with it, he can destroy the world as we know it.”