Horizon (33 page)

I whispered thank you into her ear again, holding onto her with trembling hands.

What had happened back there? Ainessa had him. She’d plucked him like a sprouting bud, but he had been the one to come after me. I’d seen power since I’d learned of the fae. I’d seen manipulation, and machinations, but my mind couldn’t quite grasp his level of filth.

The edges of Bastion’s feathers glided against my legs in a soothing rhythm. I clung to her, soaking up the light she offered.

Her soft voice infiltrated my thoughts. “Their coming. Brace yourself!”

I glanced behind us, unable to believe the vision. Valen astride a pegasus, black as midnight with purple fire spewing from his mouth toward us.

Bastion tucked her wings against me, trapping me between them. We plummeted toward the green tapestry below at a blinding speed that jostled my insides. Smoke drifted around us, stinging my lungs.

“Styx!” I yelled in my head.

“Don’t!” hissed Bastion. “Don’t open a link.”

“What’s going on?” I hissed back at her, mentally. White noise greeted me.

Her soft voice grew louder until it boomed around me, drowning out the other noise. “Sit back! Don’t say another word, or I will drop you on your head.”

That wasn’t very nice.

She continued. “He has overcome all. Only I remain. I had to wait until your connection was severed. I still do not dare open a link with you.”

“What?” I said out loud, not stupid enough to try a link with her mind again.

“All have fallen. Puppets to the master puppeteer.”

She wasn’t making any sense. “Why is Styx letting him command him?”

“When he commands the master, he commands the servant.”

“But how?”

“How won’t matter if he gets you too. You must concentrate on the sound of my voice. Block all others out.”

Just then Heath called to me. The message was like a radio signal in my head. “Rayla? Are you okay? We’ve beaten the Order. We have your aunt and your brother. Come back to us.”

I shook my head, tuning that voice out, listening instead to the soft voice chanting a hypnotizing poem.

In the mists of time, one must survive.

In the midst of darkness, one to protect.

Life for life, death for death, service for service.

When she stopped, I asked, “What was that?”

“A vow.”

“Your vow?”

“Yes.”

“Made to whom?”

“The first Elemental. She was mine.”

I laughed. “Yours?”

Bastion huffed. “So impossible to believe?”

I’d offended her. “No, of course not.”

She shifted again. “Hold on. I am faster but he is more devious.”

“Styx?”

“Yes.”

“What is going on, Bastion?”

“I’m taking you to safety.”

Was there such a place? “Where?” I asked.

“Hy-Brasil, my lady. We are nearly there. Once on the island, run to her. She is the only one capable of protecting you. I will deal with Styx. Do not interfere.”

“Tabitha?”

“She waits for you.”

I shook my head. Tabitha and I had a lot to discuss. I glanced behind us again, my heartbeat pulsing in my ears. I couldn’t see our pursuers. Were they cloaked, or had Bastion ditched them?

When I turned back around, something caught my eye in the distance…an island…a humungous island with a glowing castle at the center, a waterfall tumbling to the ground below. It looked almost identical to Lombarda. Although overgrown with vines and other plant life, the place gleamed with otherworldly beauty I’d never seen.

“Wow,” I said. “I can’t believe it.”

“He tried to recreate every detail, but even in Lombarda, he could not capture the magic of Hy-Brasil.” Her voice held a wistful tone suddenly. “I haven’t seen my home in millennia.”

Her home? Had the pegusi roamed this vast island before they came to Faeresia? I couldn’t ask her. Now was no time for questions.

I stared in awe, lost in thought until Bastion dived toward the water again. My already woozy stomach did a somersault.

Sure enough, when I looked, Valen was right behind us, his face pulled in a rage so deep he looked almost demonic.

“Hurry!” I shouted. “They’re right behind us!”

“Working on it,” said Bastion. “You’d better tighten your grip.” With that she rocketed forward, nearly sending me tumbling off her back.

I clamped my legs around her more firmly and twisted my fingers into her mane. The island was so close, I should have been able to reach out and grab it.

A rumble sounded in the distance, followed by a flash of lightning. My heart plummeted. The Royal Guard was coming. What next?

The wind kicked up, blasting into us. The clouds spit rain into my face until I had to cover my nose to breathe. Without warning, the water turned to ice blades that pierced my skin, drawing forth streams of blood. Even Bastion bled from several places.

She carried me onward, toward the island in the distance. No matter how far we flew it stayed just out of our reach. Was it a trick? Had Valen shifted space, so we’d overshot the real island and what lay in front of us was only an illusion?

“We’ll make it,” she said. “Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

Yeah, but who had her?

The water below us churned and swirled. Pretty soon enormous waves licked Bastion’s hooves. Panic closed off my throat and tightened my pulse.

“We need to move higher!” I shouted, wishing I could do anything to help her, but Valen had drained every last bit of my power. I called and called again, but the elements wouldn’t respond to me.

“I don’t dare take you into the clouds. The Guard could get you.”

Frazzled, I held on helpless, nearly hopeless. I pulled my jacket over my head with one hand, trying to hold on.

Just like that the ocean stilled to a sea of glass. I glanced behind us, everywhere, the water had calmed.

Anticipation heightened my senses, but it was as if we’d flown into a world with no sound.

Then just as suddenly a seismic boom ricocheted all around us, and a wave of water shot hundreds of feet into the air. The mass rolled forward, the tube a surfer’s dream, yet my biggest nightmare. I clung to Bastion, willing my power to return to me, begging the creator or god or whoever was out there to step in.

Instead of moving away from the wave, Bastion flew straight into it.

A scream erupted from my throat moments before the water tore me away from my anchor. I floundered, searching for her head, her tail, I’d even take a leg.

Without my powers I was as useless as any mortal in a tsunami. “Bastion?” I called in my mind. “Bastion, please? Where are you?”

Valen’s not Bastion’s voice answered my pleadings. “I am here. Reach out. Take my hand.”

It was impossible for me to even open my eyes as my body was thrashed about by the wave. I curled inward, relegating myself to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean rather than seek Valen to aid me.

“Foolish girl,” he spat into my thoughts. “I could kill you.”

“Then do it!” I shouted, swallowing water in the process. My lungs protested, and I choked. With each gag the water replaced air. My body twitched, fighting the sensation, but despite my discomfort I breathed the liquid, just like I’d breathed space.

I laughed, the gargled sound resounding through the water. Suddenly a current swallowed me up, pulling me under, yanking me deeper.

I thought of Luke, how he’d pulled me through unthinkable depths into that strange cavern full of fluffy water particles. I thought of Zach, how he’d searched for me even when I’d betrayed him. I thought of Jett, how he’d given me the one thing he’d sworn he couldn’t live without. Bastion had saved me even if it hadn’t worked out quite right. I thought of Taylor, how he’d brought me peace when I had no hope. I thought of Heath, he’d given me up to protect me. He’d given me up, thinking he wasn’t good enough to keep me.

Anger flared inside me, lighting me from the inside. No matter how much I wanted to give in I couldn’t let my hatred for Valen drive my actions. I had to calm down. I had to think.

Using what strength I had left, I curled into a tight ball, letting my mind float with the rolling tide. I searched for the pulse inside me. The center of who I was: my core. The beat intensified with my concentration. I sought for any amount of power I had left. Pain exploded from my temple, but I breathed through it. Something else lay in that place, dormant, while the current rocketed me toward an unknown shore or to Valen. I couldn’t say which, and it terrified me to think I had nothing left to fight with.

My momentum grew until I had to clasp my hands under my legs or be pulled apart from all directions.

Valen’s voice sounded all around me, taking up the very ocean. It pushed at my mind, but I would not let it in. “It is not too late,” he said. “Take my hand! All you have to do is reach out.”

I laughed at his desperation. He’d taken every bit of power I had. What more could he want from me? It wasn’t like he was in love with me.

He loved power only. He had to be the underlord from Jett’s story, but who was the king? A thought suddenly hit me. If Jett had been right and Hy-Brasil could evict the underlord from its shores, couldn’t it as easily call someone to it?

Tabitha? Was she really there? Was she guiding me through the watery depths?

Valen spoke again. “I have all you love. If you wish to keep them breathing, you will reach out to me. All I need is your hand.”

No way was I giving Valen anything. Yeah, he had my family. He might have even had the lords. I couldn’t be sure about that, but there was one thing I was certain of: none of those people would want me to give in to him. They’d want me to fight until I couldn’t fight anymore. That was what I would do.

A dark growl erupted from him, nearly shattering my eardrums. “I will succeed without your touch.”

My touch? What was he talking about?

The current carried me along, making my head spin. I didn’t care what happened to me as long as Valen couldn’t get to me.

Pressure gathered around me, pushing from every direction. And then, as if lifted by the hand of a titan, I shot out of the ocean into the air. My body convulsed again as I sailed higher and higher still.

I expelled the water from my aching lungs, heaving in gigantic gulps of air, which thankfully was much easier to breathe.

“Open your legs a bit wider,” came Bastion’s command.

I laughed…and laughed, happily complying. I glided onto her back, taking comfort in the heat piling off her.

“Rayla, this is hardly the time for laughter!” she shouted into my mind suddenly.

I didn’t know why she chose this moment to form a connection, but I wasn’t about to complain. “Sometimes laughter is the only thing that makes sense,” I told her. “Let’s just say you have a lot in common with your mate.”

“Focus, girl. He is not done with you yet.”

He may not have been done with me, but I was certainly done with him. His presence loomed around us like a dark fog.

His essence pushed against me, and I let a shudder ripple through me. This man was more than evil. He was the creator of evil. He caused the curse that made the dark realms. He even headed the Order.

Although I still didn’t have the exact details of Faine’s agreement with Valen, I could guess. She’d somehow given him power over Elementals. Something more than compulsion, I would find out, but first, I had to figure out how to get away from him.

Tabitha had answers. She had to. Someone had to have the answers I needed, at least I hoped so.

The light from the island drew my attention. It seemed brighter, more radiant, if that was possible, as if it was waking up from an enchanted dream. As we approached, the vines receded, revealing more of the shimmering castle. This, too, was crystal, but instead of merely showing the light within, it shone with its own glory.

I watched the overgrown land transform into a manicured wonderland in a matter of seconds.

“What’s happening?” I asked Bastion.

“It is responding to you.”

“Why?”

“It has chosen you.”

“For what?”

“Redemption.”

Bastion glided on a celestial breeze full of heavenly scents. Even the air in this place seemed to glow. We touched down in front of the castle steps.

I dismounted, searching the area for any sign of life. “Where are you?” I shouted, spinning in every direction.

The gigantic doors swung inward, flooding the grass under my feet with pure, white light. I shielded my eyes, watching for her to come.

When no one showed, I climbed the castle steps and found my way to the terrace that was so like the one I had jumped from to keep myself from making a decision I would regret. The fivefold symbol was inlaid into this floor as well.

He hadn’t left out a single detail that I could tell, but this place was so much more than the Crystal Castle. This place was enchanted.

I walked to the railing, gazing out over the land to the churning sea. The swells grew higher, making me feel as if I was on a swaying ship. I blinked to get my bearings again. All this time Valen had been trying to recreate this place. He’d sought to rule the world like Braesal.

If Creed really was Braesal, Valen had no chance of becoming like him. Creed was a fine man, full of loyalty. He knew what honor was.

He also had no idea who he was, and Valen would recognize him if he saw him. I swallowed past a boulder sized lump in my throat. What if Valen found him before I could?

The storm progressed, growing angrier by the second, yet it didn’t seem any closer. It was as though the island had a shield. Shield?

What was Hy-Brasil anyway?

I’d learned so much since the fae came into my life, but I still didn’t know much. I still had a whole lifetime to live, if I survived this ordeal.

The air erupted in a clattering that sounded like thunder yet more. Up until this moment the noise of the storm had been dampened by whatever protected this island.

Whatever that had been was now gone. Like a freight train rumbling forward, the storm covered the island. I turned to race inside before the downpour caught me, but halted immediately.

Tabitha stood in the doorway. From this distance I couldn’t read her expression, but her body language screamed at me. She leaned toward me, reaching out her hand. Her voice was layered, eerie. “Get inside, Rayla. He comes.”

I’d grown to not fear her, but in this moment I did. She was the tempest and the tide. She was the power behind the island. I wasn’t sure how many spirits dwelt in this one woman, but they were many.

She moved onto the terrace, eyeing the storm with trepidation clear in her pale eyes. “You must listen to me. We do not have much time.”

I took a deep breath and sprinted toward her. She, in turn, rushed inside the building. Once I moved past her, she shut the doors to the raging storm.

“Tell me what to do,” I said.

She grabbed my forearm and pulled me down the corridor. She didn’t utter a word as we descended the stairs to a lower level.

“Tabitha!” I hissed. “Tell me what to do! Wait! We can reverse time now. Natalie asked me. We need to get Sam back. I promised her.”

“I cannot. The price is too high,” she said. “The choices are yours to make. If you wish to reverse time you must do it yourself.”

“I don’t know how! You said you’d help me.”

Her calm response made me stiffen. “My hands are tied. When the time comes, you will have a decision to make. Reversing time is one of your choices. You are the one that was chosen.”

I scoffed, not believing a word she said. “How many times can a girl be told that?”

She turned her piercing stare on me. “This is no time for humor, child. The devil himself is coming for you. What will you do?”

I lowered my head. “My power is gone. He took it all.”

She stopped me from continuing. “Did he?” Her eyes traveled over me. “I see no change in you.”

“But it’s gone. I can’t call the elements.”

“The elements were never yours to call. They aided you because of your mother, but you have a different lineage to rely on--your true lineage.”

Nicco’s image solidified in my mind. Was he really my father? If he was, did that mean I had the same power the royal guard wielded?

Tabitha smiled at me. “You are much more than any one power. You are the Nexus.”

“But you just said the elements—”

“Are only one avenue you have available to use. What you do next is purely up to you.”

“You’re saying I can beat him?” I didn’t know about that. He was so strong. He’d overcome everyone.

“Don’t think that way,” she said. “Think about everything you’ve done. You’ve overcome everyone. You’ve deflected all those that have tried to compel you. You’ve persevered when most would have given up or given in.”

I shook my head. “That’s because no one knows my real name.”

“No it isn’t,” said a familiar male voice.

I whirled around.

Nicco stood a few feet away from us. His nearly black eyes locked with mine.

I didn’t know whether to hug him for being here or punch him for deserting me when I needed him most. “How long have you been here?”

“That is not the question you wish to ask me, my daughter.”

My hands flew up to cover my mouth, his revelation jarring me. How could a man that had been so closed off suddenly be this open? My voice wouldn’t quite work right when I spoke. “I was right?”

His expression remained placid. “The truth is never hard to see, Rayla.”

“But how?”

He shrugged. His expression remained neutral. “I presume you know how children are made. I’d rather not discuss the particulars with you.”

Eww. My face rolled up in disgust. No child ever wants to think about their parents having sex, period. End of story.

He laughed and the sound made me smile. We stared at each other for a moment before his expression grew serious once more. “I am proud of you.”

I shook my head. “Proud?” I said. “I’ve nearly lost.”

His jaw stiffened. “No child of mine will ever talk that way. You were bred to fight and this battle is far from over.”

Did he really just say that? He’d bred me. Heavens, he needed to stop this kind of talk.

He went on without a hitch. “I chose your mother because of her strong resolve to resist the bond.”

“Well, that’s romantic.”

“I love her,” he said, smiling, his eyes growing distant. “Ours was and is a long romance.”

“You were assigned to guard her…to keep her in the realms?”

“You could say that.”

This talking wasn’t helping. We didn’t have time for chitchat. “I’m not interested in what I
could
say. I want to know what I
should
do.”

He quirked a brow at me. “Only you can choose your course.”

I folded my arms, tapping my foot against the stone tiles. “Boy, you’re so helpful, Dad.”

To my surprise he smiled. “You need to trust yourself and your abilities. You have inherited the strengths and weaknesses of both your parents. Use your strengths. Ignore your weaknesses.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “So you’re not going to help me?”

“Define help,” he said.

“Good grief, you’ve been around the fae too long. For once I’d like someone to give me a straight answer.”

Tabitha cut in. “The best answers come from within, child. Search your heart. You know what you must do. You’ve thought about it, dreamed about it. Trust yourself.”

“Does that mean you won’t help me either?”

“I cannot harm the fae, and I cannot intervene in this timeline,” she said simply.

The way she said it you’d think there was a law…

That was it, wasn’t it? They couldn’t interfere because they were bound by laws?

I glanced at Nicco. He nodded.

“But since I’m your daughter, shouldn’t I be bound by those same laws?”

He shook his head. “Because of your heritage, no rules have been set.”

His expression told me those laws would be coming. Maybe this was important. Maybe I had to decide my own course before any rules could come into play.

“So, I should just do what I think is right?”

Nicco gave me a solid nod. “A simple rule to live by, but it usually works.”

The truth was I didn’t know the extent of the abilities I’d inherited from my father. He’d healed me; he’d also given me strength.

I shuddered thinking about what that other guard had done to me. He’d physically changed my insides or something. It had been the single weirdest experience in my life, and that was saying quite a bit considering.

Thunder rolled outside, followed by another flash of lightning. “Are the other guards here?” I asked.

Nicco nodded. “We have been summoned.”

“By Valen?”

“We answer to another master.”

“Who?”

“Not important.”

“Will I have to deal with the guards?” I asked in a rush. I still had no idea how much longer I had until hell met me at the doors.

“Of course,” he said, showing no emotion at all.

I clamped my eyes shut and took a deep breath, trying to find my source. Even though my power had been drained, the spot continued in a steady beat. I sought for power, hoping to find it renewed, but no such luck.

The elements were dead to me, which made me wonder. If elemental power wasn’t the only power available to me, what had been responsible for the supposed magic I’d used?

I turned to Nicco and glanced at Tabitha. “Where does my non elemental power come from?”

“Creation,” said Nicco.

Really? I tried to piece together a jumble of thoughts: Ainessa had a germ of creation that could rewrite this world into whatever she wanted it to be. Valen wanted to use my power to ignite the germ himself. Creation responds best to women. That’s why he wanted me to reach out to him. Could I ignite her germ without being near it? Could I rewrite time myself?

“If I ignited Ainessa’s germ, what would happen?” I asked.

Neither responded right away. Eventually Nicco spoke up. “Creation responds to the source that wields it.”

“What does that mean? I want to know if I could control it if I started it.”

“That is an unknown,” he said.

He really needed to learn to be more helpful.

The noise outside had grown so immense it drowned out my thoughts. The walls began to shake and the floor shifted beneath my feet.

I glanced at Nicco.

“You are ready,” he told me.

It didn’t really matter if I was or not, I had to face this. I raced down the stairway toward the castle doors.

If I was to fight Valen, it would be on my terms. I didn’t care if he brought the entire fae army with him, he would not win this battle.

As my thoughts of victory intensified, so did the beating of my source. It swelled inside me until it drowned out all other noise.

I rounded the last corner, racing down the curved staircase three steps at a time toward the beckoning doorway. The floor to ceiling mirror next to me vibrated and the air grew heavy with an ominous presence.

I jumped the last six steps to the foyer and sped for the doors. The mirror shattered before I could reach them, shards spiraling toward me.

I raised my hand, commanding them to stop. I didn’t even turn around to see if they obeyed me.

When I flung the doors wide, Valen waited for me with a sea of people behind him. He wore full glamour, drenched in an aura of glory that did not belong to him. I took one look at him and stopped cold. It wasn’t because I was afraid. I was afraid, but I needed to compose myself before I dealt with him. His stare should have melted me where I stood, but I heaved in a long breath and stared right back.

He gave me a wicked grin that spread until it was a full blown leer. Someone should have told him that Jack the Ripper wasn’t exactly a good look for him.

The royal guard stood directly behind him. They should have made me tremble, but they were my kin. I couldn’t think of them like that anymore. I’d always feared them, but I hadn’t understood who they were. Knowing what I did now, I wondered if I feared them so much because a part of me recognized I was like them.

When Valen didn’t speak, I took one step toward him. He smiled as if he’d already won. Then it hit me. Did he think he was compelling me?

The only thing I could hear still was the steady rhythm of my source. Call it magic, call it power, or creation, it didn’t matter what the name was. It was part of me. It always had been.

I continued down the steps, making my progress look difficult for show. Valen stayed where he was, allowing me to close the gap between us.

I stopped two feet away from him, close enough to touch, but not close enough to embrace. He gave me a speculative once over then his jaw stiffened.

“So it is to be war then?”

I nodded.

Then I conjured big metal hammer and conked him over the head.

He flinched when it hit him before he glanced up and plucked it from the air. With guarded amusement he studied it then tossed it on the ground. Laughter erupted from him, small but violent. “You have the power of the universe at your disposal, and you try to bludgeon me?” He laughed some more.

I shrugged, making myself keep the corners of my mouth from lifting. It was the first thing that came to me. Give me a break.

My mouth tightened into a severe line as I stared at him. He was everything that should never have been made. He was evil, but without evil, could one really understand goodness?

No matter how much I hated him for what he’d done, for what he’d become, pity stirred inside me. Even if I could ignite Ainessa’s germ, I had no right to dissolve who he was. That decision and power belonged to someone with a far sight greater insight than I possessed.

I glanced around the crowd, recognizing people as I went. All of them, loved and feared, had been created for a purpose. I couldn’t understand what that purpose was for some of them, and I didn’t want to acknowledge the role of others, but it was laid out in front of me.

Every possibility for every single entity around me swirled in my thoughts like movies in my head. Free will existed in everyone, including creatures, fae, and unknowns. No matter who or what they were, they were responsible for their decisions, and I was responsible for mine.

Valen needed to be dealt with, but within the foundations of the law. I still didn’t know the law, so how could I sentence him to anything? Ainessa stood behind him, a blank expression on her face. No matter how much I disliked her, she deserved to use her will. The good in her, although a shallow well, still held some substance. She deserved to damn herself if she would, but I wouldn’t do it. As I glanced around I could see the essential essence of every single person there, good and bad inside all of them. Their choices streamed together, flowing into the tapestry that made this world.

This world had already been created…by someone else. It was their rules that should decide, not mine.

Rustling of skirts sounded behind me, and I glanced back. Tabitha stood there, wild and wonderful. Her soul spoke to mine in a language older than this world. She was not like me, but she served my kind.

She bowed before me, lowering her face toward the steps.

I shook my head at her, but something else called me. A beckoning light in the distance. It drew nearer, or maybe I did. I couldn’t say.

Within the light, stood a man.

My angel greeted me with a small smile.

“Your time has come,” he said. “What is your choice?”

I still didn’t quite understand this, but he didn’t seem to have the need to clarify. “I don’t want to choose.”

His deep voice swirled around me. “That is still a choice, young one.”

“Is it an option?” I asked, hoping it was. “Can I keep things the same?”