Page 66 of Eternal Sacrifice
“It was a test. Everything here is a test.”
“Test passed. Path clear,” I said, pointing onward. “Lesson learned. Let’s go.” I motioned for Wren to take the lead. Jace fell in line at my side, and he gave me a look of concern, but didn’t say a word.
The following “test” came in the form of a malevolent spirit. It attempted to seduce us with promises of power if we allowed them to travel back with us out of the veil.
I told it to get lost. There was only one soul I would leave the veil with.
When it refused, I grabbed it and tossed it into the haze of the desolate ground beyond the path. It didn’t return, so I shrugged and motioned for Wren to continue.
The path opened into another rounded space, a small altar in the middle. Wren stopped on the trail, but I continued, knowing this was the place we had been trying to reach. The ground shook as my foot hit the soft sand inside the clearing. I took another step, and the ground thundered beneath my feet. The sand nearly turned liquid with the vibrations, and my feet sank.
I waved my hand, removed the grains, and took another step forward.
Black spikes shot into the air, arching down before stabbing into the sand. Four struck the ground, digging in as a giant spider peered over the caldera. Its body was black, but a large red hourglass sat on its stomach. The mark shifted and changed like an actual hourglass counting down.
Jace appeared at my side, his eyes on the house-sized spider. I looked back and saw Wren standing on the path, her arms crossed over her chest.
“Kill it with fire?” Jace suggested, shrugging his shoulders.
I agreed. Shoving my hands in front of me, I sent twin flames through the air to strike the spider directly in the face. It screeched, its legs like pistons, as it made blind attempts to impale us.
Jace and I parted, running around evading the blows as I continued to assault the spider. Jace started to rush the legs as they sunk into the sand, taking advantage of how deep they struck as he broke them.
The spider screeched again, its movements slowing as it weakened. It started to retreat, slinking back to the other side of the rocky walls.
“All clear. Thanks for the help,” I said to Wren, yet again motioning for her to go ahead now that the path was clear.
“You would be lost without me,” she said, striding past me to the altar. She placed a candle on the top of the smooth stone surface. “The fracture?” She set her hand out like a plate without even looking my way.
I reached into my rune, feeling like it ripped a piece of me out, and I pulled one of Jax’s fragments from me. I placed it in Wren’s hand, feeling my stomach bottom out as I parted with it.
Wren placed the fragment onto the wick, and a flame burst to life. It was blue, the same color as the wispy fragment that it came from.
“As long as the candle is lit, it will act like a beacon for your spirit.”
I looked over to Jace, noticing his eyes had turned white, and he was staring into the flame. Even waving my hand in front of his face didn’t break his gaze. I stormed up to Wren. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly.
The candle flame blew in Jace’s direction, and he stepped toward it before stopping as the flame twisted around like a magnet trying to find north while on a crashing plane.
“His soul is affected by the beacon,” Wren said after watching him.
“The soul we are searching for is his echo,” I said, hoping it could help.
“You are searching for your mate.” Her tone was sharp and accusing.
“Yes.” There wasn’t a point in keeping that from her at this point.
“You plan to leave with the soul.”
There wasn’t any point in confirming. She already knew.
“I am a keeper of the veil, the same as my mother and her mother before her. Souls cannot be allowed to leave the veil.” Wren said, stepping back from me as energy balls formed in her outstretched palms.
“Don’t hurt yourself, Wren. I know you’ve been thinking about your little girl all night. You don’t want to make her an orphan by doing something stupid.”
“If you leave with the soul, it will leave a tear in the veil. More demons will spill into our world. If I do not stop you, the whole realm dies.”
