Night had finally fallen, and I stood out in the garden with Forrest by my side. The rest of the group was a few paces behind us.
The cord I’d already blessed was tucked out of sight in my pocket. A bowl with gleaming white liquid waited at my fee. It was nearly all the starlight I had within me. I left just enough magic in my body to direct the message toward the heavens and signal all others within the human world that we were here, and we needed their help.
“What do you need me to do?” Forrest asked quietly.
“Take my hand and no matter what happens, do not let go,” I instructed.
I waited for him to call me out, say I was hiding something, but to my surprise, he took my right hand in his. A rush of washed over me and the light in the bowl glowed brighter. I hoped before this was over that he would see how much stronger we were together, and it would convince him of the truth. And that I wouldn’t have to go through with the second half of my plan.
I glanced at his face. His brow was wrinkled with worry, and he started to pull his hand away.
Then he stopped and kept holding my hand.
I wondered if he could sense what I was about to do.
I waited for a few more beats, then focused on the task. Holding out my left hand over the starlight in the bowl, I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. I didn’t have to look in order to feel the starlight glowing even brighter as I called to it with whatever little magic I had in me.
Forrest muttered a curse.
I opened my eyes. My skin was glowing once again, and stars fell from my hair. I locked gazes with him and could see in the reflection of his that my eyes were filled with stars once again. It would most likely be the last time I ever saw myself like this.
My chest ached at the thought of it.
Too late to turn back now.
Lifting my left hand, I looked to the heavens and the stars above. As the starlight rose out of the bowl, I felt the cord in my pocket move, ready and waiting for my command. I strained to keep the magic going. Forrest’s grip on my hand tightened.
I gasped at the sudden influx of power as the light soared upward over the greenhouse and into the sky. Behind me, the others gasped at the sight, but my magic waned as sweat beaded my brow.
“Is that it?” Forrest asked, watching the starlight I added to the heavens, spelling out the message we hoped all would see. “What if they don’t look?”
“It will call to them,” I explained, sucking in deep breaths of air. “They’ll see it.”
I used the tiny bit of magic left in me and felt the cord wind its way up my hand and then around Forrest’s, holding us together. It wasn’t until the cord constricted that his gaze shot down and he tried to yank his hand free.
“What are you doing?” he demanded, but the cord held us tighter, fueled by my magic.
“What needs to be done.”
“No, I won’t let you do this, not now.” He tried to tear his hand free again, but he couldn’t. “Mori, you don’t understand.”
“I know you’re trying to keep me alive, but I can’t keep waiting to fulfill my destiny.”
“And what about everyone else, huh? Are you even thinking of them?” he snarled, smoke trailing out of his nose.
“What do you mean? Of course I am.”
“Bullshit.” He lifted our hands and shot a flame out of his mouth, burning the cord and unleashing our hands.
The charred bits fell to the ground between us.
I heard whispering behind us, then the door closed with a click, leaving me alone with Forrest in the garden.
He was pissed, and before I could even open my mouth to say anything, he held up his hand. “Just save it, alright? You simply don’t listen.”
He stalked away from me, then back again, as the rest of my light faded into the night, leaving me looking like a completely ordinary person.
“Forrest, I’m—I just…” I was not even sure what to say. I was doing what had to be done. Why couldn’t he see that?
“You realize the second we become one, we won’t be the only one who knows.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why do you think Baladon hasn’t attacked us yet? Why? Give me one reason; it sure as hell isn’t because we could hurt him if he did come here.”
I shook my head. “He should be attacking now.” I wondered why he hadn’t yet.
“Or he’s not worried about us right now because we’re not together. For all we know, he’s not going to feel the need to come after us until we give him reason to. You said it yourself, there’s plenty of power for him to absorb in the realms,” he ranted. “He’s not going to risk showing us his hand until he has no other choice but to come after us, to stop us. He knows all about this prophecy and our plan.”
My mouth fell open as I took in all he said.
He was right, damn he was right. I’d nearly kickstarted Baladon’s plan to come after us. But the longer we waited, the longer we kept him blind to what we were doing. If I’d finished the ceremony tonight, who was to say he wouldn’t attack within hours? There’d have been no time for us to gather an army in this realm and have a chance at fighting back.
I gulped as I realized I nearly got us all killed.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, horrified at what my quick thinking had nearly done. “I didn’t… I’m sorry. Gods, I’m sorry.” I sank to the ground, holding my face in my hands as reality slammed into me. And here I thought my worst mistakes were behind me.
I’d become so desperate, I hadn’t stopped to think what might happen once we did finally fulfill the prophecy. We would be stronger, and granted it might repair the orb, but what then? We went back to the realms and faced down Baladon? Just us? And no way to kill him?
I wasn’t sure what I expected Forrest to do, but he sat down on the ground behind me and pulled me into his arms as if I weighed nothing. His chin rested on my head as his arms enveloped me.
“I tried to tell you,” he whispered, “but you are more stubborn than I am, I think.”
“I never used to be.” I wiped my eyes as I curled closer to his chest. “I just—I want so badly for this all to be over. I’m tired of fighting. Tired of being haunted by that bastard every time the sun sets or I close my eyes.”
“We’ll get there, I swear to you we will, but we have to be careful.”
“You do think of everything, don’t you?”
He sat, frowning. “Who said that about me?”
“Craig and Kate. You don’t do anything without reason. I should’ve trusted you. I’m sorry.”
He lowered his mouth to mine, hugging me even closer until I burst out laughing and he joined me.
“I forgive you, but no more trying to trick me into marrying you. Deal?”
“Deal.”
“Good, then let’s get you inside and grab some dinner.”
I was going to argue and say I wasn’t hungry, but then my stomach growled, and he glanced down at it with an amused look.
I scowled at him. “Alright, you win. I’m hungry. Let’s go grab some food. I’m sure they’d like to see that we haven’t killed each other, too.”
“Never.” He helped me to my feet, and together we checked the sky for my message. “You’re right.”
“About?”
“The need to look up. I feel it and see the message.”
“With any luck, anyone in this realm will come, and we can prepare for this final battle.”
His arm tightened around my waist, and I leaned into him, willing myself to stay strong for a while longer.
If not getting married to Forrest would give us the time we needed, then I could wait as long as it took until we were sure we could defeat Baladon.