Page 112 of Seized to Sacrifice
Her panic took her by surprise for a moment and she tried to hide it before she realized she could use it to her advantage.
‘No!’ she whimpered, showing Ceres the fear that she wanted him to see.
It was real. The thought of him getting his hands on her child made her want to flee as far away from him as she could get, but she was in control of herself. He’d underestimate her if he thought she was just some fearful mortal.
She sprang away and hurriedly opened a portal to her realm as if she was forgetting that this was the very thing he’d been wanting her to do for him when he stole her from her fold all those weeks ago.
He darted forward and grabbed her just as she’d known he would, and she pulled him into the breach with her.
‘You foolish female,’ he said into her ear, making her shiver. ‘You’ve played right into my hands as I knew you would. The true Gaila would be ashamed of you.’
They tumbled into the corridor between worlds, looking like a vast, bright tunnel to her human eyes. With her in his grip, he strode towards the other side to where they could see the doorway into Light Realm, and she laughed as he reached the half-way point.
For the first time, he looked uncertain. Then, her energy began to flood back into her as his left him the closer he got to her source of power.
‘No!’ he yelled, pushing her away from him. ‘This isn’t possible. You had no power. I ensured you were weak!’
He looked behind him and tried to go back, but she wouldn’t let him, pulling him forwards.
‘You’re the fool, Ceres. The power of the Light Realm was never gone, it was being held for me and there’s more than you can possibly imagine now; more than I need for this last thing. You shouldn’t have been greedy. This realm ismine.’
His eyes widened as she closed his side of the portal so that he couldn’t get back to the Dark Realms and then she grabbed his hands in a vice-like grip and pulled him through the other side.
She found herself falling through the air above Kitore, grappling with Ceres. He was screaming words she couldn’t hear. She felt a sharp pain and realized he’d stuck her in the belly with a knife, a triumphant look on his face.
No!
She screamed in fury as she began to strangle him, locking her arms around his neck as she pushed every bit of her power through him at once, leaving them both with nothing and causing another quake in the Light Realm at the same time, but in this moment she didn’t care about anything except that he might have killed the babe.
He twisted his head to look down at the ground and back at her, his eyes widening.
‘You’ll kill us both!’ he screamed.
‘Good!’ she screamed as the rolling ground rushed up to meet them.
One of the tallest, white towers in Kitore began to crumble as they fell towards it, great pieces broke off and plummeted down, the cities’ wards unable to cope with this last quake. She vaguely thought she should have shored them up before she caused this, but it was too late now.
They struck a large fragment of the tower as it collapsed, and Ceres was knocked from her grasp.
* * *
Rye
‘I’ve found someone!’one of the Brothers from Eve’s unit yelled, and Rye leapt through the rubble, pushing people out of the way as he scrambled through the pieces of the destroyed tower that littered the street.
‘It's not her,’ the Brother said.
A man was drawn from the rocks groaning and Rye looked down at the hole where he'd been.
‘There!’ he said, falling to his knees and hauling debris out of the way.
Elle was there. He picked up her limp body, his heart hammering in his chest. She was covered in blood.
Was she dead? She couldn’t be dead. She was Gaila the First.
He healed her immediately as the others ran to them, their faces anxious.
She made a noise and shifted in his arms.
