Page 101 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Loffler laughed. “For the sword, of course. Or were you not listening earlier?”
Scooping up the sword, she edged backward, matching the old man step for step. She needed to keep him talking until she could figure something out. She’d pushed Ben through the Gate. Would that work this time?
She glanced back without meaning to. The Gate’s golden smoke was now streaked with darkness like the man’s powers.
Not good.
She’d read enough books to know that was very much not the ideal situation. She just wished she could be reading about this now instead of living it out.
“Do…not…give it…to him,” an exhausted voice spat from the chamber door.
In the ruined doorway, King Filip leaned heavily on Fely. The bandage on her head was soaked with new blood. Filip was sweating, looking as though he’d just stood up from his deathbed. His eyes were ringed in red. Somehow, they’d hiked the mountain in record time. Fely’s hand clenching his other side glowed faintly. But just how much power was she giving him? Hallie hadn’t been able to heal his legs completely.
Loffler turned. “Ah, Your Majesty. You’ve certainly looked better.”
Hallie used the distraction to back closer to the Gate and to Niels. They needed to plan.
“You’re the one who’s doing this, aren’t you?” Filip said, still barely getting the words out. He took a shaky step forward, one arm over Fely’s shoulder, the other pressing into the crumbling wall. “You’re the reason we even need to go through with my uncle’s plan. Don’t deny it.”
“I’ve waited nearly five hundred years for this moment, and Jagamot is not a kind master. He’s planned his revenge since the Dawn, and I will bring it to fruition.”
“And you’ve corrupted enough crystals, haven’t you? My uncle said that would happen. The earthquakes?” Filip took more lumbering slow steps forward until they were mere feet away from Loffler. Fely’s hand kept glowing, but she glanced at Hallie.
Unadulterated fear, worse than when Filip had nearly been crushed by the beam, waited in her eyes. Nothing could have prepared Hallie for it.
What was she supposed to do now? Could she open a portal here and escape? She prodded her power, but she wasn’t sure it would be enough—not after the earlier healings. When she’d created the Passage earlier, it’d been using the existingbrick from the first Passage created by the Lord Elder. Without it, she didn’t know if it would work.
Maybe she could use the Gate? It held many timelines; surely there was one that included Kyvena in the present day. She tried to think back to what she’d read in the bookThe Gate of Time, but she had trouble recalling anything. The black strings of Loffler’s power threaded through the golden smoke still, and something told her not to touch it. Could she trust the uncontaminated part of the power left? It might be enough to do something. But she didn’t understand what to do.
Without Fely and Filip, she was shooting in the dark. They were her enemies, but they did know a little more about her power than she did. They might help her like they did earlier. But they needed to neutralize Loffler somehow first.
She thought back to her last visit here. She just needed to distract him enough for the plan to work, but she didn’t have Ebba’s slingshot or stone this time.
Hallie leaned as close to Niels as she could and whispered, “I don’t know what’s about to happen, but we need to get him in front of the Gate. Got it?”
“Your plan?”
“Just follow my lead.”
And pray for the best.
The muscles of her upper and lower arms knotted beneath her skin as she forced her power into the weapon. She bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out against the flare of heat threatening to boil her from within. Hallie met Fely’s gaze, then looked down at the sword. Fely followed her line of sight, then just barely dipped her chin.
Clenching her teeth against the lingering pain, Hallie gripped the sword in both hands and stood as quickly and quietly as she could, but her old boots creaked with the movement. Loffler twisted and thrust out his hands. Halliedidn’t think, only flung the sword at him while ducking out of the way.
Lightning hit the Gate again, and Loffler dodged the sword. Not that she was the strongest person in the room, nor did she have very precise aim, but he’d leapt out of the way far too easily—howwas he so spry for his age? Was it the Essence power thrumming through his veins? Did that allow him to cheat time? The Lord Elder hadn’t looked older than forty, and he’d been her great-great grandfather.
But Hallie had little time to dwell on that because she’d just realized she’d made a mistake.
She’d meant to throw the sword to Fely. Instead, she’d unwittingly given Loffler exactly what he wanted.
The old man retrieved the weapon in a flash and thrust it into King Filip’s chest.
Fely screamed and dropped Filip, stumbling out of reach of the next swipe of the sword. Niels leapt at Loffler, tackling him to the ground.
Hallie could only stare in horror at the blood bubbling out of the King’s chest. Niels wrestled the man, but the sword was still in Filip’s chest.
Fely scrambled over, trying to wrench the sword out, but Loffler threw off Niels and lunged, grabbing the hilt. He hefted it and swung it at Fely, who leapt away, just narrowly missing the swipe.
