Page 251 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
“Take care of her,” Stowe said, releasing Kase’s hand and stepping back to give his daughter a hug. “And yourself, you hear?”
“Yes, sir.” The words didn’t even begin to do his feelings in that regard justice.
He’d die for her, gladly—thewhywas no mystery. He just needed her to live. If his life was the price, he’d pay it a hundred times, a thousand times, however many times it took until she was safe. If he had to sacrifice himself in every timeline, he’d do it.
That was love, wasn’t it? To want the best for someone even if you couldn’t be a part of it?
Before he knew it, they were headed up the mountain toward the black smoke that hung like an ominous specter on the wind. Kase barely noticed the picturesque scenery around them. He could only focus on what wafted above.
They hiked mostly in silence, broken only by labored breathing or murmured directions. The climes they scaled melted away in the fear and anticipation of what waited for them. Hallie thought it was Loffler, and while that might be the case, Kase knew Eravin was there. He had to be. Thinking about him only brought back the events of the Catacomb tunnel, the black pulsing wound on his father’s chest, his mother’s tears, his father’s last rattling breath.
I love…
The smoke cloud billowed outward the closer they climbed, looming over their heads, and now they could smell it—yalvar fuel, hot, piercing, and potent. Kase vaguely remembered Eravin’s words in the hangar, that everyone could succumb to Jagamot’s power, that the Yalvar fuel was the key. When theyfinally gave in to the brokenness inside them, Jagamot would manifest within them. Eravin seemed to be the worst offender. Had this been his plan since the beginning? Had it been One World’s?
Navara murmured something as they passed a large Zuprium crystal poking out of a crevice in the mountain side as they passed. Smoke leaked from it, its deadly shard-like spikes dark and empty. They kept hiking, faster than before. More sweat slid down Kase’s neck and into the collar of his shirt. He should’ve left his jacket with the Walkers, but he was nothing without it.
Kase had hoped Eravin was softening, turning back to the boy he’d once known before everything fell apart. He’d helped Kase after the card game. When had he chosen to turn down the path of darkness? Or had he always been that way, and Kase just saw what he wanted to see?
Had his turn been Kase’s fault, somehow?
His wrist burned against the weight of the sword. He shifted his grip.
A smudge of gray dust streaked across his wrist caught his eye. Absently, he rubbed it—
But it didn’t budge.
Every muscle in his body turned to ice.
Not a smudge. Those were his veins doused in gray, like Hallie had sketched over them with her best charcoal.
They weren’t black, but they weren’t normal. He shifted his sleeve to cover it. Panicking would not help. He was tired and emotionally exhausted. It might very well be his imagination, his memory of his father’s death playing tricks on his eyes. They weren’t black like Eravin’s or the other Jaydians in the ward. He wasn’t soulless like Correa.
Shocks. The ward.
What would happen to all those people? Without Eravin in the city, would they go back to normal? Or would one of them seek to replace him?
He’d left Jove and his mother there. They’d just lost Harlan, and now they possibly had to defend themselves against an entity no one in the modern day could comprehend. The thoughts only added another layer of heavy guilt and grief to the wall he’d been building for years.
It seemed there was no limit.
His breathing thinned, his focus narrowed to a single point. He could do nothing about it now. He could only hope his brother could weather the storm at home. He had no choice but to keep his feet moving up the mountain.
Stray rocks skittered behind them, echoing in the unnatural stillness as the sun fell toward the horizon.
No one spoke—all too lost in their own thoughts. He found Hallie’s hand again though his was slick with sweat, but he’d never held on tighter. She squeezed back, never loosening it, as if she’d drown without him to pull her to the surface.
His heart beat too fast, the exertion akin to barrel rolls in Merlin. They weren’t going fast enough or slow enough. Everyone he knew would be dead as if they never existed soon. What chance did they have against a god?
Whether they’d been hiking minutes or hours, Kase didn’t know, but despite the chill permeating the air, sweat never stopped rolling down his cheeks from his hairline.
“There,” Navara said, her breaths heavy. She pointed to where the smoke rolled slowly out of a crevice in the side of the mountain as if it had all the time in the world. Mocking them.
With each step up the mountain, the sword had grown heavier as did the future ahead of him. But no matter how much or how little he prepared for what was to come, it was time.
Chapter 50
ANYTHING AT ALL
