Each blink drags. It’s harder and harder to keep my eyes open. Tobias leads the way, his fire guiding us through the thin network of tunnels that bend, twist and plummet. Stagnant water drips from the ceiling high above and out of sight, landing on our skin like ancient droplets of rain, stored in the earth for decades. The smell of damp forces its way down our throats and sharp, jagged rocks jut out, scratching and clawing at us as we pass. The ground is slick with moss. Everyone slips and stumbles as we rush through the darkness. I sink into Gabriel’s body, almost numb to the pain now. Each breath is long and a chore and a low, resonating gurgling travels out through my chest as tiny droplets of blood land in my mouth.
A sudden gust of cold air hits our backs. Gabriel glances behind us as we hear several voices echo through the tunnels.
‘They’ve broken through the wall. Collins…’
‘He’ll be okay,’ I try to assure him. He won’t be dead, but he’s probably not great. Gabriel knows this just as much as I do.
‘How much further, Beautiful?’ Gabriel asks in a low whisper, charging onwards.
‘Not far,’ I whisper. We approach a fork. One tunnel goes left and the other right. ‘Left,’ I instruct, feeling the magic emanating from the Bloodstone in that direction.
On we go down the sloping stone and towards the sound of cascading water. Tobias stops abruptly ahead of us.
‘It’s a dead-end,’ he reports. But as he holds his fire closer, we see the carving of a seven-pointed star in the stone.
‘Only the Arcane can access the chamber,’ Connor tells us, his voice echoing all around us. ‘Gabriel, she needs to touch the wall. Her blood will open up the passageway.’
Gabriel manoeuvres us towards the wall and Connor gently rests my already bloody hand against the carving. The solid stone disintegrates into dust, clearing the way.
On we go, until Tobias yells out.
‘WAIT! There’s a steep drop. Hold on.’ He sends out a long stream of fire, illuminating the path ahead and revealing a large cavern. ‘Whoa…’
Whoa indeed.
His flames reveal a vast subterranean room. At least a hundred feet high and just as large in length as it is in width. Deadly stalactites are clinging to the roof. Some have fallen during their centuries of growth and crashed to the floor. Even as we stand at the edge of this mighty space, one shudders and plummets to earth.
‘Look…’ I say weakly. Gabriel follows my gaze to the perfectly square plinth jutting out from the ground in the very centre of the cavern. Its deep red colour swirls beautifully, reflected in Tobias’s magical fire and enticing me closer with its melodic humming.
We hear the voices of those giving chase grow louder.
‘Is there a path down?’ Gabriel asks, peering over the ledge which starts to crumble as he puts his weight on it.
The slope is steep, made of loose dirt and pebbles by the look of it. But all I see on their faces is a look of determination as they prepare for the descent.
‘Okay, my love,’ Gabriel comforts. ‘Almost there. You’re going to be fine.’
He, Connor, Tobias and Dad get on their backsides and start sliding down.
Connor, of course, loses his footing and starts to fall. Dad catches him before he gets too far.
‘How the hell are you so clumsy?’ Dad jests, helping him descend safely and rolling his eyes. ‘Luck of the Irish missed you I think.’
‘You don’t get to be this uncoordinated and live as long and through as much shit as I have, without a hell of a lot of luck,’ Connor retorts.
A wave of chortling spreads through the group. A pleasant distraction for just a moment as we flee death and sprint to the finish line of the longest race anyone of us has ever run.
We reach the base and Gabriel swiftly gets to his feet, helped by the others. As he re-secures his hold on me, he risks a look back up the slope.
They’re coming, but we have a few minutes until they reach us.
Gabriel turns and runs towards the Bloodstone, stepping down a small ledge carved into the floor. A ledge that creates a perfect circle around the Bloodstone pillar. It’s the barrier which signifies the range of the Mortem Wall.
Gabriel drops to his knees and delicately places me beside the Bloodstone, resting my back against its smooth surface and taking hold of my head. He lifts it, making me look at him. His oceanic eyes bore into mine as I blink slowly. His fingers sweep my hair clear from my face and he gives my cheek the most delicate of taps.
‘Eyes open. Time to work. Okay? You’re here, Beautiful. You’re at the Bloodstone. You see?’ He nods to the structure which props me up. ‘Fuck, you’re trembling. Here…’ He takes off his leather coat and puts it on me, guiding my arms delicately through the sleeves and wrapping it tightly around my body. I nestle into the collar, submerged in his scent and warmth which still lingers in the leather. ‘What happens now?’
I reach up and trace my finger along the nasty gash across his face. He pulls back, tutting away the sympathy and keeping total focus on me. He must be in pain, though. I’m pretty sure that cut has gone down to the bone.
He takes my limp hand and presses it against the stone.
‘Come on now. Do your thing. Heal up and get us outta here, yeah? Callie’s waiting for you.’
‘You won’t suit a scar,’ I tell him. ‘Your face is too perfect to-’
‘Forget the cut. I’m fine. You! You need to-’
‘The star is a few minutes away. I… I have to wait for the s-star.’ I reach for his cut. ‘It might scare Callie. You make sure you get it fixed before you see her.’
‘You can fix it when we get to the Arcane Realm, alright? Can’t you syphon the magic from the Bloodstone and heal yourself now?’ he insists, pressing my hand against the stone again and again in urgency.
‘You make sure Collins fixes it,’ I mumble through a sleepy smile. ‘Don’t want her to see you all bloody like that. That won’t be… it won’t be… good for her.’
I blink and tears spill over, sliding gracefully down my cheeks as Gabriel watches me.
‘I love you, Gabriel.’
His eyes dart back and forth as he searches mine.
‘So so much. I love you… so much.’
‘I know,’ he replies. ‘I love you too, Lilly. More than I ever thought another person could love someone. And soon, when we’re safe and you’re all fixed up, we can keep telling each other just how much we-’
‘I want you to promise me something.’
‘You can use your Sensativa and heal yourself. Come on, here…’ He keeps pressing my hand flat against the stone. ‘Why is nothing happening?!’
‘Don’t keep me hidden,’ I tell him. ‘You talk about me. You… you say my name e-every day. You make sure she… she knows that her mummy loved her. M-more than anything in this whole world and you tell her…’ I swallow the build-up of blood in my mouth. ‘You tell her that… I had a happy life. That you gave me a h-happy life, okay? She doesn’t need to know the other bad stuff.’
He stops his attempts to spark the final spell and lets our hands fall into his lap. He takes in a hitched breath, realisation swallowing him whole.
‘Are… Are you saying goodbye to me?’ he chokes out, leaning back a little with a confused frown. ‘Is that what this is? Is that what you’re doing? Because you’re at the Bloodstone now. You can fix yourself-’
‘I love you so much,’ I cry softly. ‘You’ve been the best thing that ever happened to me, you know that, right?’
‘What’s going on-’
‘Come here.’ I gesture him to come nearer. He shuffles closer, his nose resting against mine as he lets out a long, shaky breath. ‘Kiss me.’
‘Lilly… what’s-’
‘Kiss me, Gabriel. Just kiss me.’
His lips press so softly on mine, resting there for the longest time before moving to my lower lip where he kisses me tenderly once more. I can’t help it. I fail to hold in the heartbreaking sobs.
He pulls back a little, keeping himself close but creating enough distance so he can see my face.
He shakes his head. ‘I was right, wasn’t I?’ he whispers. ‘This spell is going to kill you, isn’t it? You lied,’ he cries painfully, holding my face in both his hands. ‘You promised! You swore the spell didn’t demand your life! YOU SWORE IT TO ME!’
His heartbroken rage echoes off the walls and causes Dad, Tobias and Connor to turn and stare. All anyone can hear is a harrowing whine that comes directly from Gabriel’s bowed head.
‘I can’t let you do this!’ he says quietly, the anger dissipating and devastation creeping in. ‘I can’t let you die. I can’t! I simply can’t.’ He starts to shake his head before I reach out and lift it.
‘I didn’t lie.’
‘Then tell me. Just tell me… what is the heart of all power? What is needed to complete this spell?’
I fail to find the words, nor the strength to speak them.
He moves quick, clasping his hand on my head and delving into my mind as his eyes turn velvety black. I have no strength to fight him off and he soon sees the secret I’ve held from the moment I completed the first Bloodstone. The truth behind the final payment which the spell demands.
He lets me go, his hands still inches from my head and a look of horror on his face.
Because now he knows.
‘All this time,’ he whispers. ‘All this time and you knew… how could you not tell me? How-’
‘What’s going on?’ Dad asks as he reaches our side.
Gabriel doesn’t look away from me. The betrayal in his eyes is a painful last sight.
‘Is this spell going to kill her? Because if it is, she’s not fucking doing it!’ Dad spits.
Gabriel shakes his head. ‘No,’ he says weakly, still stunned by the truth. ‘It won’t kill her.’
‘So what’s the problem? Time is running out.’
Just to drive home his point, Grayson’s voice echoes down to us from the tunnels, and I feel the magic of the shooting star as it rages towards us.
‘She needs to complete the spell if any of us are going to survive,’ Dad states. ‘Her especially. She doesn’t have long. Syphon the Bloodstones magic, Buttons. Fix yourself up, sweetheart.’
Gabriel looks up at my dad. His lower lip trembles as he builds the courage to say his next words.
‘It will strip her of her magic, Jensen.’ He then looks back at me. They both do. ‘It will leave her behind. Human. We go. She stays. “The heart of all power”. That’s the final ingredient, and it demands precisely that. Her very connection to the Arcane Realm will be used up and destroyed by the sheer force of the magic she will need to wield.’
Dad bursts out a laugh, taking it as some kind of joke. But it’s soon apparent there is nothing joyful in Gabriel’s words.
Dad narrows his eyes. ‘Well… you can’t be serious?! Lilly, tell me he’s wrong. Tell me he’s lying!’
I hate the realisation of my betrayal in their faces. In all their faces. Young Connor. My dear dad. Loyal Tobias. My wonderful Gabriel.
And they detest the lack of argument that they see in me.
‘All this time, all you have gone through to get here and every step of the way, you knew that you weren’t coming with us?’ Gabriel shakes his head.
‘For you all, I would gladly go through it all a hundred times over. For you. For our baby girl. No doubt…’
‘You told me. You bloody told me. You said that I had sentenced you to death by forcing you to complete the second stone. You… you can’t do this… I can’t let you-’
‘Will you stop me?’ I ask Gabriel. ‘The shooting star is almost here. If it passes over and I don’t finish this, the spell I performed will reset. It’s a borrowed day, Gabriel. If I fail, you know I have to give it back.’ I swallow the blood gathered in my mouth. ‘We’ll return to where we were. Everyone dead. Me strung up. All hope lost. Callie. Amara. Her son. Rebecca. Over there, all alone, never knowing what happened to us. That is not an option and you know that.’ I run my fingers along his cheek, catching one of his tears. ‘And if I had told you the price I would have to pay for saving everyone else, you would not have let me pay it.’
‘We would have found another way,’ he insists painfully, knowing that the time for another plan has long since passed. ‘We could have-’
‘This is the only way. I accept that. Now, you must accept it. Step back, and let me do what I was created for.’
‘There has to be another way, right?’ Dad looks at Connor pleadingly. ‘You’ve got all the brains. You’ve read the journal. W-what else can we do? She sent us back in time for god’s sake! Surely there’s another spell she can do?’
My young friend shakes his head as his eyes dart back and forth. He’s searching his mental Rolodex, scouring his mind for an alternative. When he fails to find one, he grabs at his hair and shakes his head.
‘You’re all alive,’ I say. ‘I was only able to perform that spell… because I was the only one left connected… to the Arcane Realm. T-the star… it’s… this is it. I’m… I’m sorry.’
I’m struggling to stay awake now. My vision is blurring and a high-pitched whistling rings in my ears.
Dad crouches beside me. ‘I’ll stay here with her. I’ll protect her. Keep her safe.’
‘I’ll stay,’ Gabriel adds shakily, wiping the tears from his eyes with his sleeve. ‘I’m-’
‘A father. And you…’ I shift my eyes to my dad. ‘A grandfather. Callie needs you now. All of you. To give her the life… I never had. The family I a-always wanted. You love that girl with everything you have, and you all live long… and h-happy lives.’
A scatter of pebbles tumbles down the slope, Grayson and Theo stand at its precipice, surveying us.
And the shooting star is almost…
‘I love you,’ I tell them, holding back my tears unsuccessfully as I look up at the cavern’s roof, feeling the star’s approach. I rest my palm flat on the stone. ‘With all of my heart, I absofuckinglutely love you.’
The star. It’s here.
It’s time.
I syphon the Bloodstone’s power to hurtle those I love through the air and past the barrier. They soar several feet before landing most ungracefully beyond the circular ridge marking the Mortem Wall barrier. They get back to their feet, ready to run back and stop me. The deep reds and velvet blacks swirl frantically behind the casing of the Bloodstone before it erupts outwards in a fierce wave of energy, racing towards the ridge that surrounds me. Gabriel skids to a stop before he gets a Mortem Wall in the face, and lands on his arse with a thud. He watches with frantic eyes as the glimmering wall flows up to the roof of the cavern before steadying in place.
The deadly Mortem Wall shimmers like the surface of a bubble, sealing me off from my family. From those I love most in the world.
From my future with them.
From ever seeing my sweet daughter again.
The shooting star has linked with the Bloodstone.
And now, I have linked with them both.
The final spell has begun.
My fate has been sealed.
Tonight, it ends.
