Chapter Fifteen

“What the fuck?” My voice was so loud, it echoed off the wall behind us. Ashe made a concerned sound and stayed close as we crouched on the ground.

“You disappeared from your shop and ended up in some moment, some…reality…where you saw me kill Toji’s sister?” Was that what this current moment was about?

“Yes.” Gideon’s voice was a whimper. He had yet to stop trembling and I could see how scared and worried he was.

I was too, because there was no understanding what the hell had happened to him. It was terrifying.

“Okay.” I dragged in a deep breath and let it whoosh out. “That is a mind-boggling bit of information but we’ll figure it out. There’s no way I would kill Kana, so maybe you…maybe you ended up…” I shook my head, having no clue how to finish that sentence. “Well honestly, I’ve got no theories. But I left Toji and Kana at the shop and they’re both extremely worried so let’s get you back there, okay?”

“Yeah…okay…okay.” Gideon let me draw him to his feet. I turned to Ashe. She normally didn’t let anyone else ride her, but I had a feeling she’d made an exception for Gideon.

“Ashe…”

“Well, well, what do we have here.” The door we’d exited opened and several people walked out. Gideon startled and shifted behind me. Ashe snarled.

Half a dozen people soon had us surrounded. Most of them had a keen eye on Gideon.

“Happened to notice you drop in on us down there,” a large muscular woman drawled. It was the woman who’d been eyeing us, accompanied by the people who’d been standing with her.

She tilted her head to get a better look at him. “Very strange. Wasn’t through no Temporal portal, that’s for sure. Some kinda new Talent magic, eh?”

“One we could capitalize on,” a scrawny man next to her sneered. All of them had weapons. I’d already taken note of a spiked club, a crooked but thick fighting staff, and an honest to God lance. Who the hell walked around with a lance?

“You want him? I’d be happy to offer my friend to you.” A smile curled my lips as I stepped forward, flexing my fingers around the iron knuckles.

“Excuse me!” Gideon hissed. My lips twitched; he at least sounded more like himself.

“But you’ll have to get through me first.” There were chuckles from the group, someone even cracked their knuckles then punched their fist into their palm.

Oh yeah, this was a big bad scary bunch.

Ashe snarled again. Several people flinched and I saw hesitation cross their expressions.

“You and your mongrel are outnumbered, bitch. I like our chances.”

“What are you waiting for then?” I taunted.

The muscular woman snapped her fingers and everyone moved.

It was time to stop mouthing off and start knocking heads together.

Ashe leaped and body-slammed the man coming at her with a length of pipe. He crashed against the building and crumpled to the ground.

I sensed movement to my right and threw my upper body back in time to avoid a meaty fist from the muscular woman. I grabbed her hand and used her momentum to yank her forward, flinging her into a couple others. They toppled like bowling pins.

Ashe, who was covering Gideon, called a warning and I turned, avoiding a strike aimed at my temple and delivering a jab to my assailant’s solar plexus that knocked the wind out of him and likely cracked a rib. I punched him in the face, the iron knuckles splitting his skin and sending a splatter of blood to the ground ahead of his fall. I slammed my elbow onto the back of his head for good measure.

The guy with the lance tried to come at me, but Ashe kept sending bursts of Divine fire into his path. He ran back and hurled the lance, and I dove out of the way, hearing it clatter to the ground behind me. Ashe then knocked him down with her tails. The sound he made as he hit the concrete was music to my ears.

The muscular woman was on her feet again. She screamed some very nasty things at me and lunged, her hands clawed as though she wanted to tear chunks out of me. I danced back, which gave someone else an opportunity to grab me from behind and lock their arms around me. I threw my head back and felt the crunch of his nose breaking. He screeched in pain and let me go, but those few seconds gave Lady Biceps enough time to grab me around the throat.

I grunted as she squeezed, trying to pick me off the ground. I slammed my elbow back and it met abs as hard as the wall behind us. I could hear Ashe making agitated sounds, but if she tried to burn the woman she might get me too.

I brought my right arm up and swung it around my body. The angle was short and extremely awkward, but I managed to connect the iron knuckles with the side of her face strong enough to loosen her grip. I used the reprieve to slam my booted foot down on her sneakered one, and she let me go. I gasped for air and staggered away, but she advanced on me.

I drew the sword. Its white glow cut through the dark, illuminating the woman’s startled expression as she stared at it. The magic around the sword wafted off it like white fire. It was a fearsome sight, and I was glad to see fear in this woman’s eyes.

I lashed out and she jumped back. I twirled the blade and slanted a smile. She put her fists up as though she was planning to punch her way through to me. Several of the others who hadn’t been put down by Ashe came closer until a loose semi-circle stood around me. The crumbling building was behind me, and Ashe and Gideon were to the left. I swung the sword and some of them hesitated, but it was clear they saw Gideon as too great a prize to leave.

I backed up a few steps.

They rushed me.

I delivered a kick that crunched a kneecap, then took a punch to my shoulder that spun me around and sent me down. I rolled, catching someone’s heavy boot to my gut with enough impact to slam me against the wall. Pain lanced through me, and I took a few gasping breaths as I tried to get my legs under me. A shadow fell over me and I looked up to see the man with the spiked club holding it high. From the position I was in, there was nowhere for me to go to avoid it.

Magic sizzled throughout the area with the force of a hurricane, suddenly filling the space with a biting wind and an extremely strong wash of magic.

Magic that felt ancient and radiant. Magic I had felt before.

My attackers were shouting at one another, fear in their voices. I flipped up to my feet, headbutting the man who’d been attacking me, and turned around to see a Kiabi Warrior standing several feet away.

“What th’ fuck! Holy shit, holy hell!”

Suddenly, Gideon wasn’t of much interest to them anymore. My attackers scattered like leaves on the wind, giving the Kiabi Warrior a wide berth. Behind me, Ashe was snarling, but she remained close to Gideon. I glanced over my shoulder to see him crouched behind her, once again looking shocked and scared.

I returned my attention to the Kiabi Warrior, looking at it in a new light now that I understood that it had become compromised by a fragment of the Discordant Dark. That it had been compelled to come after me because I had the power to go up against what had to be the most powerful entity bound in Drisdari Forest.

If I didn’t bring this fragment of its power down, it would grow stronger.

And the entire world would be fucked.

I tightened my hold on the sword’s hilt. The Kiabi Warrior extended its arm, and I watched its vines and branches flow past its open palm, twisting until they formed that oddly beautiful botanical sword. The glowing, golden blade rose off the hilt with slender vines extending up the lower half.

The Kiabi Warrior’s hand curled around the hilt. It swept the blade and whipped a breeze at me that blew me back a few inches.

This son of a bitch was powerful. But if it had been sent after me, that meant I had this Discordant entity shook.

Well, it was time to shake it all the way to hell.

“Protect Gideon!” I shouted to Ashe. Gideon called out to me, but I kept my attention on the Kiabi Warrior as it moved with speed and agility I wished I had the chance to admire.

I moved to the side, out of its direct trajectory, and lashed out with the Gladius as it whisked past. Divine magic sizzled off it as it stopped and bore down on me again. Our blades clashed, and once again I was no match for the Kiabi Warrior’s strength. I tried to push back, but the Kiabi Warrior was far stronger. There was no traction I could gain locking swords with it. I almost lost my footing as the muscles in my arms strained and the Kiabi Warrior’s fathomless magic billowed around me.

Ashe blasted the Kiabi Warrior from her position behind it and it staggered, allowing me to jump back and slash it across the chest. I raised the blade for another strike, but it moved out of the way. Those sentient vines rose off its body and came at me. I hacked at them like I was an overly aggressive gardener, rendering them to pieces on the ground. One of them managed to curl around my waist and yanked me forward, where the Kiabi Warrior was waiting with its sword raised. I slashed the vine and cut myself loose just as Ashe ran closer and blasted it again before running back to Gideon.

I released a cry and lashed out with the sword. Something felt like it was unfurling within me, like the dam of emotions I had been keeping bottled up was breaking.

Fight for my life. It was always a fight for my fucking life. For my friends’ lives, for the man I had let inside my heart.

For the whole freaking world.

I was tired of it.

Blazing white magic crisscrossed the Kiabi Warrior’s chest as I made two diagonal slashes. Divine magic surged within me like it had when I met with Naranthe and Shaped Divine magic. It felt like it wanted to come out of my very pores. I couldn’t take the time to understand how I could access that surge of magic inside me, so I kept up the assault with the sword.

The Kiabi Warrior swept its blade across the ground and I had to jump back to avoid my feet being cut off. It found its footing, though I could see Divine magic was having an effect.

Maybe I was making progress against the Discordant Dark fragment that had possessed it.

The botanical blade was coming at me again, gold glinting in the moonlight as I raised the Gladius to meet it. But once again I couldn’t keep it up and buckled, and the Kiabi Warrior was almost able to pierce me through the chest.

Ashe body-slammed the Kiabi Warrior, sending it sliding across the ground. She clamped her teeth over its shoulder. When it raised the sword she leaped back and released her Divine fire. The Kiabi Warrior became engulfed in a halo of Divine magic like it had been at the Council building.

This was as perfect an opening as I was gonna get.

I ran forward and raised the Gladius over my head in a two-handed grip, then slammed it straight through its chest.

An explosion of magic knocked me down. I rolled across the ground, squeezing my eyes shut against the dust that was kicked up and yet another ferocious wind. The light against my closed eyelids was bright, and the magic that wrapped around me mostly felt Divine, but there was also the feel of the Kiabi Warrior’s power.

And something darker. I was engulfed in a pressure that felt like it wrapped around my throat and kept me pressed against the ground. I gasped, feeling for a moment like I had dropped away from the world and was suspended in a void where there was no light, no sound, no ability to think.

There was nothing, because nothing existed.

My mind felt like it would break.

I sucked in a breath. The pressure eased and light and sound came rushing back. I lurched off the ground and got myself to a crouched position. My eyes widened when I once again beheld the Kiabi Warrior.

All of the magic that had been swirling around was ebbing away, though my own magic felt riotous inside me. I had plunged the Gladius into the Kiabi Warrior, but it now lay on the ground a few feet away from it. I leaped up and ran for it, snatching it and dancing back, closer to where Ashe and Gideon were.

The Kiabi Warrior had transformed. I stared, tense, at the form that was shakily standing up. It was the man I’d seen at the Council building. He was nude, leaving no hindrance to the view of an extremely toned body. Muscles rippled down his arms and across his chest and abdomen. There were veins of gold curling all over his brown skin, though only a few extended to his face. Across his chest was a gnarly-looking scar. My eyes narrowed. It looked like the spot where I had driven in the sword, but the scar looked old. There were no fresh wounds on his body.

He raised his head and our eyes met. I felt something pulse through me, like the echo of an ancient drumbeat, when our eyes locked. There was a circle of bright gold around his irises.

His gaze was intense and I couldn’t break it. His hair was closely shorn, his eyes dark within that ring of gold, and there was a stubble of facial hair across a very angular jaw. He was good looking but rough, and all I could think about were the two times we’d fought and how incredibly powerful he was.

Yet I’d held my own. And would continue to do so if he came for me again.

He raised his hands and I flinched. Ashe’s growls grew louder, and I heard a whimper from Gideon. The entire area around us was deathly quiet as though everyone had fled as far as they could.

But he did nothing except stare at his hands, slowly turning them over and examining them as though he’d never seen his own limbs before.

Maybe he didn’t spend much time in this form?

He touched his chest and lifted his eyes back to me. I felt like I was on a precipice, waiting to see which way I would fall. Was the fight over? Had the Divine magic purified the Discordant power that had warped him and sent him for my ass?

He lowered his arms. His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath, his eyes fluttering closed briefly. Golden light encompassed his body, coming from within him. I readied the sword, prepared for another attack, but was caught off guard when I saw the magic shifting over his body and morphing into clothes.

When the light dissipated, he was clothed in very impressive armor that looked similar to his Kiabi Warrior form in that it was all organic; everything was made from intricately carved dark-brown wood that was threaded with gold. There were twists of vines here and there, as well as sprouts of leaves and flowers.

I didn’t want to be impressed by the look, but I was.

He opened his eyes and his stare was fixed on me again.

Then he did something extremely unexpected.

He dropped to one knee and bowed his head, bracing one of his fists against the ground.

“You have saved me.” His voice seemed to have its own echo. It was strong, it was heavy, it was rich. It resonated through my skull. It was not a human voice. It was what I imagined the voice of a god might sound like.

“You have purified the corruption that held me captive,” he continued. I was still bracing myself, but I was starting to allow the hope that I had finally overcome the Discordant Dark to bloom. I hoped the rest of it would stay stuffed in Drisdari Forest and not make waves for anyone beyond it.

He raised his head and stood up in a fluid motion that was smoother than I’d seen any human move.

“I am Xythen.”

I startled. I had not expected him to offer a name.

“Xythen,” I repeated. And beyond that I wasn’t sure what to say. I’d just been in a deadly fight with him.

“I did not mean you harm under my own compulsion,” he said.

“I’ve come to understand that.” Should I apologize for spearing him with the Gladius? It played a role in breaking the compulsion he was under so…maybe apologies weren’t needed.

“Penn…” Ashe and Gideon had walked over. I glanced at Gideon, whose eyes were glued to Xythen. There was still a fine trembling going through his body. I really wanted to get him back to Toji and have us try to figure out what the hell was going on with him and why he’d seen me kill Kana.

“It’s okay now,” I said to Gideon, squeezing his shoulder. He was in between Ashe and me. “At least I think it is. I—”

“You are powerful.” Xythen’s words turned my attention back to him. He’d taken a few steps closer and was looking at me speculatively. He raised a hand to his chest again, his eyes dropping to the glowing blade of the Gladius.

“You have the power of Divine, yet you are not of the Divine.” His eyes lifted back to mine.

“No, I’m not. I’m a Shaper. But yes, I can wield Divine magic to a certain extent…”

“Yes.” The word was drawn out and somehow amplified around us. It blew past my ears on the sound of rustling leaves. My breath caught.

The golden rings in Xythen’s eyes pulsed.

“You must come. You are needed.”

“What—”

Before I knew what was happening, magic burst out around Xythen in a vortex of green and gold. His body was wrapped in a tornado of magic, and I watched as his form shifted back to the Kiabi Warrior.

“Shit. Gideon, get back!” I pushed him and ran forward. So the fight wasn’t over yet? I would—

Magic and wind knocked me down. I lost hold of the sword and scrambled to reach it.

Ashe raced past me, but Xythen blasted her with a spiral of magic that looked like a whirlwind of leaves. Ashe slid back and remained trapped within a cage of leaves and crackling, golden magic. I saw her straining to run and jump but she couldn’t move from within it. She was livid, her emotions tangled with mine as I felt her fear, anger, and helplessness. She threw her head back and bellowed.

“Ashe!”

I heard metal scraping against the ground and my attention snapped to the Divine sword. Xythen’s vines were dragging it to him.

“No!” I leaped up, trying to get the sword, but Xythen’s extensions retracted with lightning speed as they wrapped around the blade until it was cocooned in flora.

“What the hell are you doing!” He said the compulsion was broken, so what the fuck was going on?

Vines extended toward me. I tried to dodge them, but there were too many and I didn’t have the sword to hack away at them. They circled my wrist and waist and slithered around my chest.

“No!”

“Penn!” Gideon screamed.

I lurched as Xythen dragged me in like the sword. I slammed into his massive body, and the restraints kept coming. I was facing his chest and had to turn my head so my face wouldn’t get bound to it and cut off my breathing.

I struggled, I screamed, I tried to shake myself loose, but I couldn’t move.

“Let me go!”

Xythen’s magic felt like the ancient whisperings of a long-gone deity were sliding through my skull, speaking an eldritch language I didn’t understand.

The magic smelled of petrichor, of smoke and ash, of freshwater flowing through a forest bed, of animal musk, of everything that had ever grown roots and pushed itself out of the earth. It was the hollow emptiness of hidden caves and the gentle promise of life held in fragile bird nests. A promise edged in sorrow because all things that live must die and every song that celebrated new life would one day become a requiem for ears that would never hear it.

I was terrified. More terrified than I could comprehend.

Before long I was completely shielded in vines, constricted against Xythen’s chest.

I swallowed my scream, which turned into a sob as an explosion reverberated, sounding like a crack of lightning. Then came the feeling of spinning and falling, like a cyclone had been tossed off the earth to drop into the depths of space. I felt nothing but Xythen’s magic.

Then everything stopped and I felt nothing at all.