Page 254 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Then Navara put her own light out, and they were thrown into near-darkness, their only guide the flickering fire at the end of the cathedral past the broken arches and fallen beams.
“May the stars rise upon you,” Navara whispered to them.
It was Ben who whispered, “And may they not fall when morning breaks.”
Her heart was in her throat. She couldn’t swallow. But then Kase squeezed her hand. She looked up to his steady gaze, ready for whatever might lay around the corner.
She could do this.
With Kase’s hand in her own, Hallie strode forward, “Let’s go.”
Kase
LEAD FILLED KASE’S ENTIRE BODY as they wove through the ruins. He was partly curious as to how there were ruins in the spirit realm. Everyone in it was dead—barring himself, Skibs, Hallie, her parents, and apparently Navara. So how were there ruins? If something was already dead, it couldn’t age. Jack was the shining example of that being eternally eighteen. That begged the question…what had happened in this place? What horrors had visited a world meant for those who were already dead?
Kase might not have died, but each step they took made him feel as if he had. He wasn’t sure if it was the burning smell still making his sinuses ache, even with whatever Navara had done to help, or the fact that Eravin probably waited ahead. In the two times he’d faced the corrupted version of his friend, he hadn’t ended with the upper hand. Only small mercies had allowed him to survive—Saldr arriving at the most opportune time, his father knocking him out of the way, and his mother using her locket to keep Eravin from finishing the job.
Shocks and bolts.
What was he doing? His hands were sweating—one around the hilt of the sword, the other around Hallie’s icy fingers. He didn’t know if he could do this. He didn’t know if he could face him again. And what if Loffler was there? An Essence wielder with the power to take out electricity might not be much use here, but what did Kase know? Who knew what the old man could do that they hadn’t witnessed?
Between him and Eravin, did they even stand a chance? Did they even have a choice?
They reached the largest archway yet, the firelight brighter without anything to block it. Kase squeezed Hallie’s hand, trying desperately to keep himself grounded as he recognized the silhouette standing before a burning archway, another sprawled upon the floor.
Golden flames resembling the Yalven bonfire licked the furthest archway, ashamox billowing from the top and collecting above their heads.
“That’s not Stradat Loffler,” Hallie breathed. “That’s…”
“Eravin Gray,” Kase said in a voice that sounded entirely dead to his own ears.
His concerns about Loffler were quickly put to rest—because Loffler lay dead on the ground.
Navara breathed, “He’s taken the Essence power.”
Eravin paused his inspection of the burning archway, turning to observe them. His features looked even more sunken in with those obsidian eyes, his too-pale skin stretched over jutting cheekbones. His hands crackled with purple energy, Loffler unmoving at his feet. A black, pulsing spider wound nested in Stradat Loffler’s chest.
I…I love…
Eravin was no longer the man Kase had known or the boy he’d grown up with. He was the monster who’d killed Harlan, who’d nearly killed Hallie and Kase himself. Who’d made the razing of Kyvena possible, whether he claimed to have wanted it or not.
He would pay.
Hallie’s grip tightened on his own. He glanced down at her white face and clenched jaw. He didn’t know what would happen, and he wasn’t sure they’d both survive, but he would still fight.
“He’s…” Hallie started, but it was too horrible for her to even voice.
Dark, sparkling power threaded with purple encompassed Eravin’s right fist.
“Jagamot.” Navara held her slim sword out before her with one hand and gripped a handful of Zuprium dust in the other.
Eravin took measured steps toward them. “You’re too late.”
It was the nudge Navara needed. She threw the Vasa into the air, yelling something in Yalven. A beam of light shot from that sword as she pointed it at Eravin, who dodged, deflecting it with his own power.
Hallie went to run, but Kase caught her by the wrist and pulled her back to him. He kissed her hard, desperation and the weight of what might happen crushing into her lips. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
