Page 47 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Niels chewed on the inside of his cheek and tried to focus on anything else but Hallie losing herself to whatever power hid beneath her skin. The only sounds were Hallie’s quiet murmuring, Fely’s muffled breathing, and the morning birds calling to one another.
Hallie’s breathing hitched, and Niels crouched beside her. “Hal?”
Her eyes were closed, the power flowing out through her fingers. “Don’t.”
He stood again. He hated that she wouldn’t let him help. Stowe had trusted him to take care of her. He could do that. He could prove to her he was still the same Niels she’d been in love with before Jack died.
But she wasn’t the same Hallie. He would never understand just what she’d gone through at Achilles, nor wouldhe comprehend what she could do. He didn’t know what it would take to get her to see him again.
Convincing her would take time. But it was time worth spending, if it helped her find her way back to herself. He would be the foundation she needed to find her way home.
He just had three years of separation to erase between them. Easy.
She collapsed.
Blast his leg, he fell to his knees and pulled her face to him. “Hallie!”
Her face had drained of color, scrunched against unseen pain. Her freckles stood out like stars in the night sky. She blinked, slivers of gold peeking out beneath her eyelids. “Did it work?”
Fely didn’t remove the hand still pressing golden light into the King’s skin. “I’m not sure, but he doesn’t feel as…absent.”
Hallie sat up, swayed a little, but caught herself before Niels could. He sat back, embarrassment licking his cheeks. Why wouldn’t she let him help her?
Niels swallowed his conflicting emotions and crawled forward best he could, feeling for the King’s pulse instead. Thethump-thumpdefinitely felt stronger than before. “If we can free him, I think he’ll be all right.”
Easier said than done. The beam looked ancient and immovable. It was a miracle the King had survived at all.
“If we had a saw…” he began, then stopped, because there was no point sharing ideas they couldn’t use. “We gotta be careful not to move him too much until we know if Hallie did him any good.”
The offended glance she shot him pierced like another bullet. He coughed. “It’s just that you’re still weak, and you don’t know how to use your power yet.” Another glare. He had to get his foot out of his mouth. “What I’m trying to say is—”
“You’re saying we have to get this beam off and hope for the best.” Hallie’s voice was calm, but colder than the mountain snows. Her breathing was still a little labored. “But I think I’m getting the hang of this now. I might be able to do something if…” She inspected the locket. It wasn’t glowing any longer. “Is there a way you can add more…?”
Fely held out her hand impatiently. “Give it here.”
Niels rubbed the back of his neck as Fely poured more golden light into the locket. It wasn’t nearly as bright as Hallie’s; it wasn’t even as bright as when Fely had used it earlier. Pouring it into the locket seemed to deplete her own strength somehow.
After a minute, Fely handed the locket back to Hallie. Hallie clutched it in her fist. “Be ready to move him. He should be stable enough, though I’m not sure if he’ll be able to walk any time soon.”
Fely positioned her arms underneath the King’s arms, ready to pull when told. Hallie turned to Niels. Her eyes betrayed no emotion, only command. “I’m going to attempt to…” she paused, as if trying to find the right word, “…do something to the beam, but I don’t think I can do it for long. Will you help pull the King out?”
He nodded and joined Fely, sliding his hand under the King’s right shoulder and wrapping his good arm around the man’s chest.
This felt like a horrible idea.
“Maybe we should try to leverage the beam first,” he ventured. There was plenty of rubble around. Surely there would be something they could use.
“None of us have the strength for that,” Hallie said matter-of-factly. She climbed over a pile of rubble and placed one hand on the beam, the other still clutching the locket.
“But you might not have the strength to—Hallie!”
If Niels hadn’t seen it himself, he wouldn’t have believed what happened. It took several seconds, but as the glow over her hands intensified in a blinding flash, the beam lifted off the King. Only by an inch or two, but it was enough.
It didn’t move like something was lifting it. It moved like time itself was flowing backwards; the entire thing sparkled as if sprinkled with a thousand tiny stars, lifting back toward the spot where it used to stand.
Niels set the King down as soon as he was clear of the rubble. The beam crashed back down with a clatter, but it didn’t shake the ground like he expected it to. That must not have been the quake they’d felt earlier, then.
Hallie crashed, too, collapsing facefirst into the rubble. But by the time he crawled to her, calling her name, she was moving once more on her own.
