Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) (34 page)

His motions were
unhurried as he examined his scythe. “I thought my plans for Earth could not be
achieved without your brother’s power, and that killing you would destroy him.
But last night, I fully harnessed the power of the Carne, and I have another
option. You and Henry are now disposable, and now I can do what’s best for
everyone, for the greater good of two worlds.”

Valerie was gripping
her vial of sand from the Atacama Desert in her hand so that she could escape
with the orb, but nothing happened.

There was a faint buzzing
around her, and Valerie knew that Reaper was manipulating the rules of magic,
not letting her leave. She tucked the orb under her left arm and raised her
sword with the other.

“No more theatrics.
You want what’s contained in that orb? You can have it,” he said, his tone
vicious.

The orb dissolved,
and the gas inside spread through the air. One breath was enough to know that
it was more than smoke. The bitter taste of ashes filled her lungs, making her
cough and her eyes water.

“These particles of
Carne will eat away at your power, and then your life,” Reaper said. “If you’d
waited another day, I’d have perfected it to work quickly. But since you sought
to surprise me, you will suffer for hours before the gas is finished with you.”

Reaper threw open a
window, and the rest of the particles flew through it, poisoning the world.

“You’ll kill them
all!” she said.

“Only those who do
not bear one of my weapons. And a culling must take place so there is room for
a new order.”

Was it her
imagination, or did her magic already have holes in it? Still, she packed
enough power into her punch to crack Reaper’s cheekbone when her fist connected
with it.

Despite knowing that
she had likely lost the war in this tower, the blow gave a deep, angry part of
her complete satisfaction, even when Reaper retaliated with a burst of magic
that singed her arms, dissolving the top layer of her skin.

Thai burst into the
room with four soldiers of the Fist, including Mira and Claremont.

At the sight of the
Knights who had betrayed him, Reaper’s expression turned into a snarl. “Take a
deep breath. Your punishment for your betrayal is already in place.”

Reaper paused, as if
he was listening to something that she couldn’t hear. Then his eyes assessed
the four soldiers of the Fist before him, as if he were gauging how much time
he’d need to kill them. Valerie’s heart beat fast, but steady, ready to fight
him. She didn’t have the chance. Reaper stepped through a portal back to the
Atacama Desert.

“If he returned to
the desert, then I need to follow,” Valerie said, but Claremont yanked her by
the arm so she was forced to stop.

“What’d he mean
about us already being punished for betraying him?” Claremont demanded. She was
a little pale, and her eyes were dilated.

Valerie knew she
couldn’t let her soldiers lose focus with panic. “He released a poison into the
air made from that black sludge in Plymouth. If we survive this battle, we’ll
find a cure.”

“Some part of me
knew following you would kill me!” Claremont spat, though Valerie knew her
former enemy had joined the Fist because she’d thought it would give her a
better chance at survival.

“No one’s dead yet,”
Thai said.

Mira nodded his
agreement. “What’s next?”

Valerie’s mind
worked fast, assessing her options. “Reaper considers his victory in Silva
assured now, and maybe he’s right. He’ll send his forces to the Atacama Desert.
I’ll rally as many of our soldiers as I can to follow him, starting with the
People of the Woods.”

Claremont stuck out
her lower lip, and Valerie was glad to see her fear transforming into her usual
resentment. “So much for the element of surprise keeping us a step ahead.”

Valerie
met her gaze. “Now we’ll have to rely on skill, passion, and knowing that right
is on our side. Now get back down there and direct your rage where it
belongs—at the Fractus.”

Thai followed
Valerie to Arbor Aurum as she snuck out of the History Guild and raced to the
woods. In preparation for the battle, another entrance to the cities in the
trees had been created closer to The Horseshoe, so they didn’t have to run far.
When they ascended the tree, Elden and his People were in their armor, awaiting
her signal. A nervous Juniper was present, as well, screwing and unscrewing the
canister with Valerie’s poppy.

“Whither wander we?”
Elden asked, his extra-formal speech the only sign of his own anxiety.

Valerie saw his
daughter unsheathing her blade so that Leo could check it one last time. He ran
his finger along its edge and nodded. How many more would fall today?

Valerie called Leo
over and quickly explained Reaper’s poison to him and Elden. They listened
without changing expression, and she was grateful for their calmness, as her
own heart beat in double time.

“Do you think this
trick of Reaper’s is as powerful as he says?” Thai asked.

Leo pricked Valerie
and then Thai with a sharp needle and took some of their blood. “I cannot say.
I will work with the lightweavers on an antidote, but you must send Cyrus as
soon as he can get away. No one uses light magic as creatively as he does.”

“Cara is in the People’s
hospital, and her lightweaver powers have grown since you saw her last,” Elden
said, and dispatched a messenger to find her. “What of the rest of the People’s
soldiers?”

“We all go to
Earth,” Valerie said. “We have to accept that Silva is lost. I don’t know how
far Reaper’s poison will spread, but the People of the Woods are safer on
Earth, and we must seize that victory if we still can.”

Elden left to
deliver Valerie’s orders to the People, and Valerie shut her eyes, allowing
herself a minute of escape.

“I’m not leaving
your side,” Thai said, gently gripping her arms. “I know you’re thinking that I
belong with Cara and the Healers, but I don’t. If you’re going to use your
vivicus power, or Cyrus wants to blast people with fireballs, or Henry launches
some kind of mental attack, you need me to amplify your powers.”

“I’m not going to
fight you on this. Selfish or not, I want you at my side. Even if we win, we
might end up dead, anyway. Might as well be together.”

Thai laced his
fingers with hers, and she gripped her vial of sand.

Grunts of effort,
shouts of triumph, and screams of pain made a gruesome soundtrack to the battle
that raged in the Atacama Desert. Valerie’s eyes scanned the scene, and the
horror of it all overcame her. She threw up on her shoes.

Thai held her hair,
and she was grateful when he didn’t say anything about it. There were no words
of comfort for what was happening now, all under her direction. She could tell
herself there was no other way, that this was all in the name of keeping Earth
free, but a part of her couldn’t justify the carnage.

Henry’s mind touched
hers, and her gaze flew to a glassy dune to the north of where she stood. She
saw Kanti’s swan flag first, a rallying point for her soldiers. Nearby, Henry
and Kanti were fighting back-to-back. Kanti held her staff, but it was more of
an accessory than a weapon, since she was using magic to conjure up thorny
branches that pricked her enemies with light.

Henry wasn’t using his
light-infused machete much, either. Valerie peeked in his mind and saw that he
was using his psychic powers to confuse the Fractus’s minds, like his fellow
Empaths were on the Globe. Valerie wished that she’d had the foresight to have
a contingent of Empaths on Earth.

“To Henry,” she said
to Thai, and together, they entered the fray.

With their hands
clasped, Thai and Valerie became a powerful force. If Reaper’s dark particles
were chipping away at the magic within her, she couldn’t tell while touching Thai.

Even fighting
one-handed, she had to rein herself in so that she didn’t cause fatal damage to
the Fractus she encountered. Thai’s hand was tense in hers, and she knew that
he was also struggling to wield the immense power they created together.

Though they were
holding back, they slammed through the fighting like a freight train, leaving a
path of unconscious bodies littered on either side of them. In her peripheral
vision, Valerie thought she saw Reaper’s dark scythe cutting through her
soldiers, but when she turned to verify it, he was gone.

They were still a
distance away from Henry and Kanti when Valerie saw Ani walking through the
crowd. Valerie’s guess as to Reaper’s tactic was apparently correct—he was
sending his best soldiers to Earth.

Ani’s sweet voice
worked its magic. The soldiers it touched dropped to one knee, heads bowed,
creating a path for her to walk down unhindered. Her gaze was sharp and focused
on one thing—Kanti.

“Look out!” Valerie
shouted, her voice lost in the battle sounds.

But Henry’s mind was
connected with hers, and he spotted Ani when she was a few yards away. Ani’s
eyes went black, and Kanti’s staff and Henry’s daggers flickered as darkness
descended around them like a fog.

Both of their
weapons had been embedded with Cyrus’s new light treatment, but it was no match
for the power Ani was wielding.

Ani spared a glance
at Valerie and then shouted an order that Valerie couldn’t hear. Quickly, she
and Thai were ringed by a dozen black-eyed Fractus.

Valerie was forced
to focus on the battle in front of her, and she only saw snatches of Henry and
Kanti’s vicious fight with Ani. She saw Ani strike Kanti, sending her reeling,
and Henry’s ineffective swipe with his dim weapon. She made out the screech of
frustration when Ani sprang on Kanti, and Kanti’s vines wound around her arms
and threw her off.

Valerie didn’t see
the blow that killed Ani. She and Thai broke through the circle of Fractus and
saw Kanti’s white face and bloody staff. Ani lay still, her skull dented, at
Kanti’s feet. Henry’s arm was around Kanti’s waist, but he was concentrating on
diverting the attention of any Fractus near them so they didn’t attack while
Kanti was stunned.

Kanti’s eyes
connected with Valerie’s. “I killed her. I’ve never killed anyone before.”

“You were defending
your life, and making the world safe for people with no magic,” Valerie said.

Kanti nodded once,
and she seemed to shake off her stupor. “I knew one of us had to die, and I’m
glad it wasn’t me. But she was my friend, once.”

Thai squeezed Valerie’s
hand, and she jump-kicked an approaching Fractus. She hit him in the chest, and
he flew twenty-five feet.

“We have to get to
the tent with the Carne,” Henry said. “I saw Cyrus and Sanguina go in there a
while ago, and I don’t know how many Fractus they had to battle once they were
inside.”

Kanti sucked in a
breath and dashed away a stray tear. “I hope my soldiers didn’t see that. Not
good for morale to see your princess crying like a teenage girl.”

“We are teenage
girls,” Valerie said. “Ones who save the universe.”

Her words had the
desired effect of eliciting a little smile from Kanti, and the four of them
began making their way to the tent with the pool of Carne inside.

Valerie didn’t know
if the Fractus were actively avoiding the four of them, or if they simply
fought together efficiently, but battling their way to the tent only took
minutes.

Valerie pushed her
way into the tent, which was partially shredded on one side. Inside, she heard
a strangled scream and saw Sanguina writhing on the ground. Reaper stood over
her, his eyes glazed and his body humming with power.

Cyrus had his arm in
the black pool up to his elbow, and all of the light that usually surrounded
him was gone. He was pale, and his face was covered in sweat.

“I couldn’t alter
it,” he said, his voice weak.

Valerie yanked Cyrus
out of the pool, and Henry threw himself on top of Sanguina. He moaned as his
body took the brunt of Reaper’s punishing magic.

“No,” Sanguina said,
and she heaved Henry off of her. “Do what you came to do. Follow the plan.”

Juniper and Elden
stumbled through the tent, a half a dozen Fractus on their heels. Valerie saw
Reaper’s eyes flicker over the group of them and land on the glowing poppy in
Elden’s hands.

Reaper raised a hand
in the air, and Sanguina’s scream reached a higher pitch, and then ceased. Her
body dissolved before Valerie could reach her side. She didn’t have time to
react to what had happened to her friend before the Carne crawled out of the
pool and surrounded Reaper. This time, it covered his entire body and
disappeared into his pores.

As Valerie stared at
the space where Sanguina had been, her grief choking her, one of Reaper’s
Fractus landed a blow to her skull. She fell, releasing Thai’s hand.

Before the Fractus
could follow up with another attack, Kanti smashed him in the chest with her
staff. Henry gave Valerie a hand to stand up, and their power joined, giving
her a jolt of energy.

Valerie examined
Reaper, and even wreathed in Carne, she could read the fear in his eyes. All
four of the pillars were in one room, and Thai was there to amplify their
powers. Somehow, they’d all made it to this spot, alive, as she’d planned.

She stood, gripping
Henry’s hand, and Henry reached for Kanti, who reached for Cyrus. Valerie
staggered to Cyrus and grasped his other hand, creating a circle with Juniper,
Elden, and the poppy in the middle. Their shared magic flowed between them, and
Valerie shuddered at the sweet burn of it within her. Then Thai laid a hand on
her shoulder, and the sensation peaked as it ignited the power embedded in the
glass dunes that surrounded them.

Her friends all
gasped at the same time she did, and their heads snapped backward. Valerie was
blinded by the light pouring out of them all, lighting up the circle they
formed like a star. The tent surrounding them crumbled, and the Fractus near
them were blown back like they were at the epicenter of an explosion.

Even Reaper
staggered backward. He struggled to come closer to them, but it was like he was
fighting a strong wind. Inside the circle, though, everything was warm and
calm. The dark particles of Carne had been eviscerated by the light.

Their combined magic
settled in her core, and her friends’ trust poured into her mind. It was hers
to wield, to steer, as she willed.

She turned their
magic on the remaining Carne in the pool, and it started to bubble. As it
boiled, the color changed to something molten, and when it flowed toward
Reaper, he grunted at its touch. With all this power, they could end his life,
turn the Carne in his pores to lava that would burn him alive.

“It’s not enough,”
she whispered, knowing that her friends could hear her. “We end this for now,
but for how long? We have to use this magic for something greater than a
victory today.”

The solution she had
searched for had been behind a door in her mind that now sprang open. Her
friends’ magic surged in response to her own at the realization of what had to
be done.

They sent their
magic out, out into the world in an ecstatic burst of power, exploding like a
nuclear bomb. But instead of ending the world, they would save it. Their magic
rippled out, igniting the spark of magic within the first human it touched.

Soon hundreds,
thousands, millions of people were touched by the burst of power, their magic
awakened, and it continued to spread until it encased the planet in a glow.

As quick as a
thought, they were in Arden, in the middle of The Horseshoe, and their combined
light detonated again. The pulse was less powerful than the one on Earth, but
Valerie knew that it was enough to drive out the poisonous particles of Carne
that Reaper had released into the Globe’s atmosphere. She caught a glimpse of
Skye and Jack’s twin expressions of surprise before they flicked back to Earth.

In its sheath at her
side, her sword trembled, as if the soul of Pathos was sending her a message.
Without reading the words on its hilt, Valerie knew that its promise had come
true today. The Balance was restored. Humans would never be under the thumb of
Fractus or Conjurors, because now, they were all united by magic.

Juniper gripped the
poppy, ready to bind Earth’s magic. She smiled. They didn’t need it now.

“It’s okay. Don’t—”
Valerie began, when a movement at the edge of her vision distracted her.

Before she could turn
to face Reaper’s raised scythe, Cyrus shoved her, hard, and she fell to the
ground. Abruptly, the light, the connection, the pool of magic within her
vanished.

The absence of her
link with Henry, Cyrus, and Kanti was so disorienting that her brain didn’t
process what happened.

She touched
something warm and wet and red. Reaper had cut through Cyrus with his scythe,
slicing him cleanly through his torso. He’d been aiming for her, and Cyrus had
saved her. Again. Without pausing, even to gloat, Reaper stomped on the flower
that Juniper dropped when he raised his blade.

Valerie hardly
noticed. She could think of nothing except saving her best friend. But when she
gripped Cyrus’s hand, she couldn’t release her power into his still form. He
was gone.

Valerie opened her
mouth to scream, but she wasn’t sure if she made a sound, because for a few
seconds, she couldn’t hear anything. She almost gave in to the darkness at the
edges of her vision, but then her mind became clear, more focused than she’d
ever been before.

No. She would not
allow Cyrus to be dead.

Thai hauled her to
her feet as Reaper turned to her. She was his next target. Her emotions were
curiously absent, even when his face was inches from hers. In one swift move,
she knew that she could unsheathe her sword of light and plunge it through
Reaper. It might kill him, and there was a kind of poetic justice that the
sword Cyrus had crafted with a piece of himself would be the weapon that killed
his murderer.

But she couldn’t
summon any hate, staring into the eyes of the man who had tortured her brother,
murdered her father, imprisoned her mother for eternity, and now slayed Cyrus.
Instead, something more powerful rose in her. She didn’t want any more blood
and ugliness in the world.

She’d heal Reaper.
If she saved him, she’d save Cyrus. Together, they’d bring her best friend
back, use Reaper’s magic to turn back time or activate his cells or something.
They’d find a way.

Valerie’s vivicus
power leaped to the surface, and with Thai’s hand gripping hers, its flow was
hers to control. She’d find whatever darkness lived in Reaper and snuff it out,
like she’d done with Henry’s depression.

Whatever Reaper had
been expecting, it wasn’t this. She poured her power into him, chasing out the
darkness inside him. The Carne oozed back out of his pores, pushed out by her
magic. But the darkness was still there, embedded in the fabric of his being.

Reaper’s mouth was
open, and his hands opened and shut helplessly at his sides. Valerie attacked
the evil inside of him with every drop of her magic, knowing that she was going
farther than she ever had before. She was fearless as she poured herself into
him, driving out the evil that was intertwined with his soul.

A part of her mind
heard Henry screaming at her to stop, to let go of her power, but it continued
to pulse out of her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t stop its flow—she didn’t want
to. She’d take the evil that had killed Cyrus and banish it from existence,
even if she sacrificed her mind in the process. If she poured enough of
herself, enough of her magic, into Reaper, she’d bring back Cyrus. The
alternative couldn’t be borne.