Easton
I fell to my knees, my entire body shaking as I caught Lyric.
Blood poured from an open wound in my chest, one that had not come from a blade. My flesh was broken, but as a result of the smoke that had pierced my mate’s heart.
I heard others shouting around me, some clearly not understanding what was happening. I couldn’t either.
Lyric’s eyes were open, but I couldn’t see her pupil or iris. Instead, smoke billowed beneath a glassy film as if she were being possessed by the shadow magic.
I had seen firsthand how the shadow magic and The Gray’s Wielding increased once he killed Alura. So, I could only guess that perhaps he was twisting his Spirit Wielding now.
I hadn’t had a chance to ask Lyric how it all worked.
There would be no more chances for anything if I didn’t fix this.
“What?” Rhodes asked, sliding through the mud and blood on his knees to kneel beside me. He raked his gaze over Lyric’s prone body, his silver eyes going wide.
“No. This isn’t how it’s supposed to happen.”
“And it’s not. Keep everybody on task. We’re going to fix this.”
“The Gray is gone,” Rhodes shouted.
How were we supposed to do this?
The Gray had disappeared in a puff of smoke and shadow as if he had been waiting for that moment to do so.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do this. But I need to save her.”
“You’re bleeding, from the same place Lyric is. The wound’s mortal, Easton.”
I looked up at the man who had been my rival, my enemy, the man I thought loved Lyric, someone who might still love her, and let out a breath.
“This can’t be the end,” I whispered, my entire body shaking.
“It’s not going to be.”
But then the earth shuddered beneath us, and Lyric’s eyes opened impossibly wide, smoke billowing from her mouth.
Suddenly, she was gone.
I was left holding nothing but air and faint tendrils of smoke.
“What the hell?” I asked, surging to my feet as I searched for her. Rhodes held me up, my knees shaking.
“She’s gone. Where did she go?”
“The Gray has her,” he said, his voice just as shaky as my legs.
“But I have to get to her.”
“We have to find her,” Rhodes agreed.
“I’ll find her. I have to find her.”
I slid my hand over the gaping wound in my chest, blood still trickling out, and saw the horror. “Where did she go?” I shouted, but then Rosamond was there, her eyes glowing, her skin radiant. “You must go to where The Gray has shattered. You must find the one that matters.”
“Where? How?” I asked, swallowing hard as Rhodes kept me steady.
I wasn’t even sure the rest of the army had realized what had happened. They were still fighting, trying to save our realm despite the cost. I would let them because the battle was not just about Lyric or me. It was not only about The Gray. It was about so much more.
Our people could not know that Lyric had been taken by The Gray.
“I will help. I can do this.”
“Not alone!” Lanya shouted, Delphine by her side. Both were covered in soot and blood, both bleeding from wounds on their faces and arms.
But they were far stronger than most of the people on this battlefield.
“How?” I asked, blood trickling from my mouth. I wiped it away, ignoring the fact that I was going numb.
“We’ll open a portal to the Shadow realm. We can only do it because its tendrils are still here. That is why we could not do it before,” Lanya said, looking directly into my eyes. I nodded.
If she had been able to do it before, we would have found The Gray, though not on the battlefield. We could have ended things long before this. And where it might have been safe.
I understood. I wasn’t raging.
I barely had enough energy to stay standing.
“I’m going with you,” Rhodes said, and I shook my head.
“No, you need to fight with Justise and the rest of them. You need to keep Wyn from killing herself.”
“I can help more by your side,” Rhodes said.
“No, stay here. The people need you. In case, Lyric and I don’t come back.”
I met the other man’s gaze, the man I knew would make a far better king than I ever would or had been. He nodded tightly before I stumbled towards the women. They each put a hand on me, against the blood on my chest, and started to chant.
I didn’t know what they were doing. It was old magic. Maybe one day they would teach Lyric and me. In the back of my mind, I vaguely remembered my mother whispering these kinds of chants before everything changed. Even when my father was still alive. Before Lore had ruined our realm, rotted it to the core.
“Find her. Save her.”
The women continued chanting as the fight raged around us, the rope of light from the spell wrapping itself around me. I felt a sudden tug on my chest until I was falling.
Falling and falling and falling.
When I landed, it didn’t hurt.
Instead, I looked up and thought I recognized where I was.
This had to be the Shadow realm.
They had sent me here. Now, I needed to find Lyric.
I ran my hand over my chest and blinked, noticing that I was still covered in blood, but the wound had healed.
Did that mean that Lyric was okay?
It had to.
I wouldn’t allow for any other thoughts to cross my mind.
I made my way down the hall, the sound of my footsteps on the stone loud in my ears.
I had no Wielding here, not with the dampening properties of the Shadow realm itself.
It had taken much sacrifice and dark magic for The Gray to use his Wielding here.
This had been meant as a prison for him. Instead, it had turned into a refuge of evil. A retreat where he could plan his attacks.
I turned the corner and tripped over my feet.
Lyric hung in front of me, her arms pulled tight above her head, secured with ropes of shadow magic. Her feet barely touched the floor.
She was unconscious but alive. I could see her chest rising and falling as she took deep breaths. But she wasn’t the only one in the room.
The Gray stood before her, his back to me. I wasn’t even sure he was aware of my presence.
Yet it was the other man who lay there that surprised me.
Teagan?
Dear goddess, Teagan was here.
And that was when I looked around and realized we weren’t in the Shadow realm at all. These walls were not the gray, dingy concrete of the prison I had been in before.
This was not where I had nearly died. The place I had escaped to get back to Lyric.
Where the hell were we?
“I think we’re in the Spirit realm,” Teagan said as he came near me.
I blinked at him, reached out to touch him, and then dropped my hands.
“You’re....how...?” I whispered, afraid that Lyric and The Gray would hear.
“They can’t hear us. See that line?” Teagan asked, pointing to a line of white dust. “They’re in a magical circle. We can get in, but twelve hooded men and women who were the Spirit Wielders, I think, told me to wait for you.”
“You’re…are you alive?”
Teagan looked at me then, but I realized there wasn’t a speck of dirt on him. No blood, no wounds. He looked whole...and healthy.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to formulate words.
“When I died, I came here. The twelve Spirit Wielders that Lyric always talks about made sure I was safe—at least as safe as I could be given I’m dead. They said I was brought here to lead another person and tell you what they need you to do.”
“But you’re dead. I’m so sorry, Teagan. I need to get to Lyric. I’m so sorry.”
“You never have to apologize to me. You have always been there for me. You have always been my brother. I’m only sorry you have to see me this way.”
“What do I do now?”
“You’re going to cross that line.” He pointed at the white line again. “You’re going to cut her bonds, and the two of you will bring The Gray back to the Maison realm. When you do, you’ll be able to defeat him.”
“You’re sure of that?” I asked, my heart thumping.
“Well, the Spirit Wielders with their hoods and creepy voices didn’t actually say that last part, but I’m going to believe that you two can beat anything. Look at you. You’ve both had mortal wounds, more than once now, and you survived. You were meant to save the world.”
“Lyric. She’s dead, though.”
I said the words I hadn’t meant to say aloud—the ones I had been ignoring this whole time.
Teagan gave me a sad smile.
“Yes. She is. But I think there might be a loophole.”
“How so?”
“Well, she still has the crystals within her skin. Use them. Get her home.”
“And you?”
I didn’t know if I wanted the answer.
I needed to get to Lyric. I had to save my people.
But I couldn’t leave Teagan here.
Wyn would never forgive me.
I would never forgive myself.
“I don’t know,” my best friend said with a shrug as if his death didn’t mean anything.
But it had. Though his life meant so much more.
“Come with us,” I whispered.
“Not quite sure how that will work.” Teagan looked around, confusion in his gaze.
“I’m not sure how any of this works—” I began, but my best friend shook his head.
“Save her so she can save the rest of us. I guess that’s the rest of you now, huh?”
He smiled again, the sun shielding his eyes. I reached out, blinked when I found he was solid, and then pulled him in to hold him close.
“I love you, brother.”
“I love you, too, my king.” Teagan pulled away and looked at Lyric.
She was awake now, her gaze locked on mine. I still wasn’t sure The Gray had realized I was here.
Good.
I didn’t have my Wielding, but I had never been in the Spirit realm before. For all I knew, this was how it usually worked.
The Gray still had his shadow magic or whatever the hell he wanted to call it. I ] have to be smart.
Far smarter than I had been before.
I looked to where Teagan was and blinked when I realized that he wasn’t there anymore. Instead, there was a sword in his place. A blade that looked remarkably like Luken’s.
Interesting.
I picked it up, the heft in my hand solid.
I let out a breath and took a step over the white line.
The Gray turned to me in an instant, surprise in his gaze.
“You.”
“Me. Now, let me go,” I shouted and charged.
But I didn’t go towards The Gray.
Killing him wasn’t my destiny. As it was, we were in the Spirit realm, and I didn’t think killing him here would work out the way I wanted.
A thousand voices filled my head, and I knew it was the Spirit Wielders and the lost souls of old. They urged me on, giving me a sense of purpose far greater than I had ever thought possible.
I kept moving. I jumped, moved out of the way of The Gray’s swipe, and sliced the sword through the shadow rope.
Lyric landed on her feet, if a bit shakily, then stood, her chin held high as she grinned.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“You can’t kill me yet,” she snapped at The Gray.
“You might not ever. There are more forces at work than you could ever dream.”
“You are nothing. I killed you once. I can kill you again.”
The desperation in The Gray’s tone didn’t warm me.
Because desperate people did horrible things.
“We will fight this out in the Maison realm. The place that will never be yours.”
Lyric held out her hand, and the crystals in her skin shone brightly.
I had never seen her look like this, so radiant. Like a queen. No, a Priestess.
She knew exactly what she was doing.
And I would follow.
Always.
I gripped her hand and barely registered that someone else was holding her other hand.
I blinked, but I could only see The Gray’s shocked face as he grabbed for us.
He couldn’t reach us.
Hopefully, he never would.