Page 262 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Faster than she could have imagined, Ben tugged her down, and the power hit the Gate. A thunderous crash blasted her eardrums, made worse by the echoing in the cavern cathedral.
The Gate behind her raged, its flames climbing higher and mixing with the ashamox above, but Hallie pushed herself to her feet, her hands aglow.
“Kase!” He was hurt, his hand holding his stomach.
Mr. Gray swung a sword that looked too much like Kainadr’s shadow sword, and power rushed out from its swing.
She didn’t think. She just reacted.
“Yrea vas!”
The words simply came to her as if in a dream, and a shield of fire burst to life around her. She could do this. Kase’s ring glowed gold, tempering the fallout from the Essence power raging within her.
The dark energy broke through, but she ducked, shooting her own at it and diverting it into the cathedral wall with a shuddering clap. A few stones rained down in its wake, but it held. She thrust her healing power at it, begging it not to collapse.
It worked.
She’d done that.
She could control the power.
“You helviter!”
Kase.
“Ekzurel vilna!” Mr. Gray shouted above the din.
Rumbling, the ground quaked like it had been ever since Achilles fell, keeping her pinned to the floor, her teeth and bones aching. She pushed herself to her elbows only to see the ashamox above surge into the gray souls rising from the floor. She leapt to her feet, more words of power echoing through her mind.
She whipped her hands out. “Srav!”
The soul beside her vanished in a spray of golden mist. They were the souls, the ones that had been missing, like Jack’s chicken, Hester. It had to be. Bonded with the ashamox, they were corporeal. Would Hallie’s power allow them to move on?
She didn’t have time to think of the consequences as another soul swung at her.
Ben shouted, swinging Kainadr’s Shadow sword and killing three. Black smoke poured from the wounds and sprayed the ground beneath his feet. Souls filled the space between them, closing in on Hallie.
Eravin gave her one look before heading toward Navara.
With glowing hands, Hallie fought the souls, working to find Kase, to find her grandmother, to end the suffering souls before her.
“Hallie!” Kase’s voice shouted above the fray.
She looked, but she couldn’t see him. She worked her way toward his voice, but there were countless souls in the way.
And then he was there. “Hallie!”
He bandied about Xera’s Soul sword, ashamox eating away at his leather jacket. But he was okay. He was whole. Mostly. His shirt was shredded at his stomach, the skin beneath it purple.
He just looked relieved to see her. He eyed Ben, who’d fought his way to them. Kase growled and swung his sword at a soul who’d screamed, pressing in on them. “Back to back!”
Hallie nodded, and soon, her back was to both men, her hands out, her power ablaze. She felt powerful.
I can do this.
“Where’s Eravin?” Kase asked above the din.
Hallie half turned. “Navara. He went for her.”
