12

Forrest

Lucy was dead, and everyone else in the realms was asleep. My brief elation at learning the truth about Mori and me had been pilfered away by what occurred while we’d been stealing the orb. My people had been left to fend for themselves, and now they suffered for my inaction. The world had fallen apart too fast for us to react. And now I wondered if we’d ever get back.

Kate was still in her room, only letting Craig in to see her. He came down the stairs rubbing a hand down his face and sank onto the bottom step.

“How is she?” I asked, sitting down beside him.

“Bad. I’m not sure what to do right now. She hasn’t eaten anything. Won’t talk. I can’t get her to move from that damned bed.”

“She’ll come around, she has to.”

“That’s not going to help anything,” he growled in warning, but then he cursed. “I’m sorry, I just… I never expected Lucy to die, or any of this to happen. It’s like we’re starting all over again.”

“Same place, different villain,” I mused. “How do you even kill a god?”

“Mori have any ideas on that?”

She’d been working with Sabella, wracking their brains and digging through the few resources Lucy had at the house for any hint of where to start, but so far came up with nothing. Then there was the orb, in need of desperate repair. Mori might not have needed sleep before, but after seeing her just an hour ago, the bags under her eyes said otherwise. She wasn’t a goddess in this realm and being away from her source of magic was going to start affecting her. If she wasn’t careful, I worried she’d wind up starving to death, or dropping from sheer exhaustion. The only thing keeping her going now was sheer willpower.

“We’ll figure it out, we will,” I swore to Craig.

“In time?”

“That I don’t know. We’ll use what we know and go from there. With any luck, Sabella will have another vision that will explain all of this.” I patted him on the shoulder again and told him if he needed anything just to ask. He remained on the stairs, resting his head against the wall, mourning Lucy quietly in his own way.

I went looking for Mori but when I checked the living room, found Tristan sitting up, sound asleep, Sabella’s head resting in his lap, also asleep. I backed out of the room quietly and not finding Mori inside, tracked her down in the greenhouse in the backyard.

“Find anything of use?” I asked her when I stepped inside.

Her back was to me, and she appeared to be picking a few white flowers from a small plant. She said nothing, and I worried something was wrong.

“Mori?”

“Sabella’s keeping something from me,” she said, still not turning around.

“About what?”

“Her visions and you are, too. What don’t I know?”

There’d been no time to explain them to her since we got back from her realm. I half hoped Sabella had already told her to save me from finding the right way to explain what our bound fates meant to her.

“Forrest.” She turned around now and looked me right in the eye. “Tell me.” She reached out for me, but I drew back, and she frowned. “Why are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” I asked, even though I knew.

“Pulling back from me. You’ve been doing it since we came here!”

I struggled to find the right words and finally gave up and just told her the truth, honest and blunt. “I’m afraid of us being together.”

“What do you mean, why?”

“Sabella’s visions, they’re not exactly good. She saw… she saw the six of us in one together, and it links to the riddle, as well as the other visions she had.”

“You’re rambling, Forrest,” she said softly and tried to reach for my hand again, but I stepped back. “You can’t just run away from me, you know that.”

“If I have to do it to keep you alive, I will,” I stated firmly.

“Alive? You’re not making any sense!”

“She saw you die!” I yelled, my fear and worry overriding my control. “If we become truly together, like how the other four are, then we’re bound and you… you’ll die. That’s what she saw, and that’s why we can’t be together.”

Mori flinched, took a half-step back, swallowing hard as she rubbed at the dirt smudges on her hands. “You know this for certain?”

“It’s what she saw. Herself, Kate, and you… you all die.”

“Because we’re together?”

“’Three must rise, three rings abound’, that’s what the key is to how Baladon is defeated. It’s the three of you together.”

“With our soulmates,” she pointed out. “Forrest, it might not mean death.”

“And if it does? I’ve lost too much to have your death on my head too. I just… I’m sorry, but I can’t do this to you. I won’t.” I turned to leave, but she yelled my name and my feet froze.

“So what, you’re willing to let the realms suffer just to keep me alive?”

“I won’t lose you right after I’ve found you!” I shouted, whirling back around. “You can’t ask me to endure watching you sacrifice yourself!”

“That is not your choice to make.” She stormed toward me and held my face in her hands. “Look at me. I’m not running away anymore, not from my fate, and not from you. I need you by my side if we’re going to have a hope at all of fighting back.”

My hands covered hers as I shut my eyes tight, picturing her dead on the ground. “I can’t lose you,” I whispered. “I can’t.”

“And I don’t want to die either, but if that’s what has to happen, then I’ll meet my fate head-on.” She stood on her toes and kissed me as if this was the last day we could be together.

I tried to resist, but found my arms wrapping around her waist and kissing her back just as fiercely, needing to convince myself she was still alive with me.

We stayed like that for a long time, out in the greenhouse, holding onto each other tightly.

The second we left this greenhouse, we would be faced with the harsh reality of what would be needed to kill Baladon once and for all. To end the darkness and save the realms. If Mori was going to die in the end, then I was going down with her. I would not face this world without her. We lost our chance to be together once because of evil sweeping over the lands.

I’d be damned if I let it keep us apart a second time.

I glanced skyward, admiring the stars and full moon through the glass roof of the greenhouse, wondering what our chances were of having the gods return to their full strength in time to assist us. I asked Mori, and she stiffened in my arms.

“What?”

“Thorne left me with one final message from the gods before he sent me back to you,” she said quietly. “A message for even the gods themselves.”

“And?” I asked, not liking the sorrow filling her eyes.

“The era of the gods is coming to an end. They will not be able to help us, not anymore.”

My arms tightened around her more, fearing she would suddenly disappear with the rest of them. “They’re leaving us with this mess?”

“So many are dead and wounded, they’re weak. Their time in the realms is over.”

“And we’re truly on our own then,” I sighed. “Can this day get any worse?”

She exhaled, hugging me to her. No stars shown in her hair or her eyes, and I was about to tell her she should try and lay down and sleep when a scream came from inside the house. We ran inside in time to see Craig disappear into the sitting room and Kate thundering downstairs to join us. Tristan was on the floor holding Sabella in his arms. Her eyes were glassed over, and she was muttering incoherently.

“What happened?” Kate asked, sinking down beside them and took Sabella’s other hand.

“We were sleeping and then she just screamed,” Tristan replied worriedly. “Come on, Red. Snap out of it!”

But she continued on, muttering louder, then screamed again, making all of us jump. Tristan held onto her firmly, whispering in her ear. Mori knelt on her other side and reached out, resting her palm on Sabella’s forehead just as I’d seen Ashan do back in Silver Valley. Her eyes closed, and her head fell back as she gasped.

“Mori?”

But Mori didn’t answer and a few seconds later was thrown back as Sabella shot upright. She gasped for air and Tristan was asking her questions, making sure she knew who she was.

“What did you see?” I asked Mori as I helped her back to her feet. But it wasn’t she who answered.

“The end,” Sabella breathed. “The end of everything.”

“What?” Kate asked. “No, it can’t be.”

“I saw it, the realms… they were burning and we… we failed.”

“Not yet we haven’t,” Mori said, and I squeezed her hand in support. “We fight until the end, no matter what that end is.”

“Agreed,” Kate said, and Craig nodded along with her.

Tristan and Sabella exchanged a look that said so much before they bobbed their heads, too.

“Right then, let’s figure out how to kill a god and end this war.”

No gods, no real magic, and a broken orb. Baladon had the upper hand, but we weren’t going to stop. That was going to be his biggest mistake, letting us get away. Because now we weren’t going down unless we took him down with us. Here’s to the end of the world then, was what I thought to myself.

It was going to be one hell of a ride.