Sapphire Falls (The Lost Realm #2)

44. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Avery

T here was no way in hell Avery was being sent back to Earth like this. Avery kicked at the Hunter holding her leg in place as to her horror, Darby picked up the wooden bowl from the ground. As she twisted, she threw her head back, smacking it into the Hunter holding her upper body. The crunch of his nose on her skull reverberated off the humming of the portal.

It was enough to distract her captors and Avery gave one solid kick as the now bleeding Hunter dropped her upper body. She fell to the ground with a soft thud, landing in blood splattered snow. The body of one of the murdered guards was close enough for her to smell the metallic tang of his blood.

She didn’t let his death distract her. Not now. Not when her survival counted on quick actions, and Avery’s ability to save herself. No, she couldn’t rely on Savine to always be there to protect her. Avery was the only one who could prevent her disappearance from Aeritis.

Avery ran at Darby, hands still bound behind her. The force she hit Darby with even surprised herself. Darby fell to the ground, the relic sinking slightly into the powder. Immediately, Darby was crawling toward the bowl. She knew exactly what it was.

Avery ran as fast as her body could go, sinking into the freshly fallen snow with every agonizing step. She made it to the relic first, but with her hands tied she’d need to secure the bowl and its magic before Darby could get to it.

She dropped to the powder, sinking her face into the snow as she grabbed the bowl between her teeth. Immediately, she felt a rush of power stir within the bowl. Thinking of how naturally the deep magic had flowed into her the previous day, Avery opened herself to the magic, despite being bound, despite the Hunters closing in on her.

The deep magic ripped into her like the icy waters of a rapid, tearing at the bindings and snapping them into tatters at her feet. With her hands free, Avery was fucking done with these creeps. Done being a victim, and done being seen as an enemy because of some arbitrary prophecy.

“Don’t let her attack!” Darby shouted at the Hunters. Avery unsheathed the iron axe at her side. The axe that those cowards would never touch, too concerned about what that pure, cold iron would do to them if they touched it. Just as the day before, she let her magic flow into the weapon, buzzing with as much power as the portal at her side.

Then she unleashed the axe, watching it soar through the air in a perfect arc as it landed at her target.

Darby fell to the ground. Blackened blood and brain matter splattered into the already stained snow. Her body continued to twitch even with the magic infused axe lodged in her skull.

Good riddance.

Avery didn’t have time to retrieve her weapon before the Hunters began closing in on her, corralling her toward the ringing of the portal behind her. This portal was different somehow, more accessible, like it had been tampered to always be open.

And now her deep magic filled body seemed to be drawn to the opening like a pair of magnets, forced to join.

She had to stop the Hunters before they pushed her into that portal, into whatever they had planned on the other side of that barrier.

“No!” Avery shouted, releasing a stream of brilliant light that struck with a force that sent shock waves through her arms. Two of the Hunters fell to the ground. One, the man with the injured nose, was sprawled in the snow, his neck at an unnatural angle as if the power welling inside her had snapped his spine like a brittle twig.

The other Hunter was crying out as he bled, painting the snow a brilliant shade of crimson.

Two more remained, their bodies thin and frail from the years of wasting away, depleting their essence in her world. All the time searching to end her, to never let her make it to Aeritis.

They charged her, and she felt the deep magic respond to the threat. What came out of her nearly stunned her.

Coiling thorny vines shot from her fingertips, burning her skin and blasting holes in her leather gloves. But she didn’t back down from the pain. This, somehow, was a gift from her soulmate. The man she had no intention of leaving. Not today, and not ever.

The vines worked their way over and around the two fae, and Avery relished in the look on their faces as she let those thorns grow longer, sinking through their threadbare winter clothing, through their flesh. One screamed out in such horror that Avery almost relented.

Almost.

The fae fell to the snow.

If they wanted Avery to be the monster the prophecy made her out to be, then she’d do it. She’d tear this world apart before she let someone take her from Savine again.

The buzzing of the portal grew louder. Avery looked over her shoulder. No, it wasn’t possible. The portal was pulling her in. She tried to run back from its tug, but her feet sank in the deep snow, trenching her toward the electric energy of the portal.

Just then, she saw two figures flying atop an eagan. Her breath escaped in a gasp as she saw Morgan and Susan bank toward her.

Morgan

The first thing Morgan noticed from the sky was the red streaks in the freshly fallen snow. So much blood, it looked like the site of a battle. Then she saw a slight figure in a coat far too large for her.

“Avery!”

Morgan directed the eagan toward the ground, but she kept her eyes locked on her sister as they descended. Avery was the only one standing, but there was obviously something wrong. She seemed to be battling an unseen force that was dragging her across the snow, sinking her body until it formed a trench that Avery fought against.

The eagan landed near a dead woman. Morgan and Susan both jumped off the bird and sank into the deep powder.

“Don’t come close!” Avery shouted.

That’s when Morgan heard the familiar buzz that had brought both of them to Aeritis.

“It’s an open portal?” Her aching heart rattled against her ribs. She could go home. She could leave this place. The rattle in her heart was replaced by a queasy sensation. Did she even want that anymore?

Morgan wasn’t sure if she truly wanted to go home any longer. Give up magic, give up all she’d worked on and learned, the goal of finding the relics.

Give up Rylo and all she’d promised him.

She shivered and shook the thought from her mind.

“Don’t come close! The portal is drawing me in! There’s some kind of trap on the other side!”

Morgan looked at Susan and Susan nodded.

“We can help you!” Susan called out. Morgan reached for the cool stones of the relic around her neck. Unlike the scepter, this one didn’t flood her body with deep magic. It wasn’t as in tune to her touch and needs as the scepter was, but as she grasped it, she felt the stirring of magic deep within its stones.

Morgan’s shadows wrapped around and Susan grasped her hand. “We need to try to close the portal,” Susan said. “Together. Unless you want to risk going through? Going home now?”

Morgan’s voice was steady, her mind made up as she said, “It’s not my time to go home yet. Someday, but not today. There will be other portals.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. I’m going to feed the deep magic into myself. Remember the undoing spell?”

Susan nodded and grasped Morgan’s hand all the tighter.

“We’re going to stop it, Ave!” Morgan shouted over the whir of the portal.

The deep magic fed into her, cold and heavy and she let it settle into her being, mingling with the shadows that wound around her furiously.

Susan began an incantation and Morgan followed along, speaking the words of undoing. They pointed their intention at the portal and released their combined magic in a steady, searing flow that rushed out of them toward the source of the ringing.

The world filled with shadows and light, water and earth as an eruption blasted through her and smacked into an invisible wall.

Immediately, the world was silent except for the panting of the three women’s combined breathing.

Morgan let go of Susan’s hand, collapsing in the snow. Her vision was blurred and everything hurt. She could barely make out Avery’s small frame, crawling through the snow, the oversized coat left in a heap on the crimson snow. She reached Morgan’s side, wrapping her body around Morgan. The familiar scent and feel of her sister near her brought tears to her eyes.

“If you want to go home, I think I have a way.” Avery’s voice was rough and raw, almost unrecognizable.

Morgan shook her head. “Not yet. I’m not done here.”

She couldn’t keep her eyes open as she let herself slip into sleep.