Page 132 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Would that blackness spread like it had in Harlan’s wound? Would she too die in mere moments, leaving Kase as the only line of defense between Hallie and this monster?

The burning Gate crackled, and the ashamox roared in response, a booming rumble like thunder. Kase jumped. Everything was too loud in the chamber, the echoing making everything worse. The noise frayed his focus into tattered threads. He couldn’t gather them all.

Eravin swaggered toward Navara, black fire consuming his sword, molten shadow shimmering at his sides. “Should I kill you now or let you suffer?”

He only waited one heartbeat before spinning his sword and cutting it through the air. He was too far away to cut her, but black flame flew from the blade, hurtling toward Navara. She heaved up a cloud of dust and cried, “ Yrea maxima !”

The same firewall from earlier erupted from the dust particles, but it seemed weaker to Kase; the flames wavered at a glacial pace, not as bright or colorful. The wound was taking a toll on her. She couldn’t hold out much longer.

Do something, you stars-idiot!

Eravin’s fire collided with Navara’s shield, shattering it, engulfing the woman’s wounded arm. Her scream rang louder than the growl of the ashamox.

Kase had no choice. He had to move.

He threw himself forward, hefting the sword, and swung it with everything he had. A brutal, instinctive yell escaped his throat, but it was lost in the cacophony.

The blade soared for Eravin’s neck. So close. So close—

At the last second, Eravin twisted around.

Metal impacted metal, rattling Kase’s teeth so hard he saw stars. When his vision cleared, he saw why.

Eravin had caught his blade with his own.

“Good try,” Eravin chuckled before kicking him in the chest, sending him flying.

Too fast. Too strong.

Impossible.

Kase tumbled in midair like he’d been taught during his pilot training, saving himself from a hard fall on his head; instead, he landed on his chest, skidding and rolling over the mosaic tile.

A few loose pieces of tile cut the exposed areas of his skin.

His scar from the Zuprium crystal chamber with Stowe stung.

Kase spit blood out of his mouth and pushed himself up, his chest screaming, but Eravin barely gave him a chance to recover. He flung a fiery ball of dark energy at him. Kase dropped, smacking his chin on the ground to avoid it. Another burst of stars thrown in his eyes. His head rang.

Another scream echoed in the chamber above the noise. Kase looked up to see Navara bring her sword down on her infected arm.

The blade cut through flesh and bone like they were nothing but mist.

Holy blasting shocks.

Kase’s stomach roiled, but Eravin didn’t care. He wrenched his sword up over his head and swung it down through Navara’s weak defense.

“NO!” Kase screamed, but Navara, still shrieking through her own agony, managed to bring her sword up and block the death blow.

The clang reverberated off the ancient stone walls.

Blazes of darkness and light warred where the two swords met.

Her single arm shook from holding the blow off.

Her other bled freely onto the floor, marring any beauty the ancient tile had ever had.

Kase scrambled up, staggering forward with both hands wrapped around his sword’s hilt. He hacked down, but Eravin was faster. He coated his hand in his power and kicked Navara. In the next moment, he deflected Kase’s amateur strike with his sword and smashed his glowing fist into Kase’s abdomen.

All the breath Kase had left whooshed out of him. He bent over, the pain like lightning lancing out from where he’d hit. “ Agh !”

It burned. Fire ignited his veins. The gray streak on his wrist had darkened to pulsing black. It disappeared underneath his sleeve.

He could feel it in his heart.

He looked up through the haze of pain and darkness to see Eravin. The thing that had possessed him smiled, his teeth now stained black.

“You were always too reckless,” Eravin spat. “Always needing to be saved.”

He stalked closer. Kase couldn’t move. Whatever power he’d hit him with wreaked havoc on his mind, his body. It hurt. Was this how his father had felt? Was Kase moments away from dying?

“You were never a hero.”

Kase gripped the sword in his hand, falling backward. He ached. He couldn’t stand.

“And you’ve never been able to protect those you love.”

“ Srava krai !” Navara croaked out. Soft golden flames erupted around Kase. Eravin paused, his grin wicked. It only slowed him for seconds. He swiped his hands, and the flames extinguished.

Kase froze, his heart pounding in his ears, his veins on fire.

But Eravin didn’t finish Kase off. Instead, he swung his glittering black sword, heavy with dark power, straight at Hallie.

She didn’t see it, didn’t see the surge rocketing toward her. Her eyes were closed. She poured blue and gold lightning into Skibs’ hand. She wasn’t going to move in time. Even if he shouted her name, she’d look first to see what was coming.

He didn’t have time to think. To come up with a plan.

But a pilot didn’t fly with his head. A pilot flew by his instincts. His reflexes.

And he’d flown with the man next to Hallie long enough to know exactly which instinct would save them both.

“ Head down, Skibs !” Kase bellowed through his anguish-addled haze.

And thanks to a reflex taught by flying with the best stars-blasted pilot the Crews ever saw, Skibs didn’t hesitate for even a second before he ducked, yanking Hallie down with him.

The power collided with the glowing Gate instead. A clap loud as thunder rocked the cathedral. Hallie scrambled to her feet, her own fists glowing gold. She shouted something at him, but he couldn’t hear it over the roaring in his ears.

Eravin swung his sword, more dark power surging out with the swing. Hallie held up her hands.

To Kase, just like every time he saw danger hurtling for Hallie, it all happened in slow motion. Was he doomed to repeat this same scenario until he finally died…or she did?

He watched in horror as the dark energy shattered the golden flaming shield Hallie erected around herself.

Ignoring the anguish in his veins, Kase launched himself forward, his sword swinging. “You helviter !”

Eravin caught his blade on his. Kase’s face poured with sweat, pressing against the sword with all his strength. How was he so strong?

Eravin shoved him away. “ Ekzurel vilna !”

The ground shook, and the ashamox writhed. Kase fell backward, immediately searching for Hallie; when he found her, she was pushing herself up to her elbows, breathing hard but seemingly unharmed.

She was okay.

His relief was short-lived. Gray, amorphous shapes rose from the cathedral floor and mixed with the ashamox from above, solidifying into…into…

People.

Screaming, tortured people.

The one closest to Kase was a man in his late forties, his eyes smelted black, his mouth open in a gut-wrenching wail. Kase shouted, stumbling back, swinging his sword out. It cut the man across his stomach, black ashamox leaking out the wound, but he kept coming.

Buzzing began in Kase’s ears. What sort of nightmare was this? Was this merely something he’d conjured in his mind? Or was it a person? A soul? Something that mimicked one?

Despite his burning chest and stomach, he pushed himself to his feet. “Hallie!”

Whatever these creatures were, they weren’t fighters; there were just too many of them. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. He swung awkwardly with his sword, gutting an elderly female ghost, black ichor spraying his jacket.

The substance scalded the leather. Yalvar fuel. Oh, shocks.

Yalven and guttural spells alike rebounded off the chamber walls, but all Kase could think was that he needed to get to Hallie.

He swung his sword blindly, clearing himself a path as he rammed through the mass of bodies, careful to dodge the corrosive fuel, though several droplets landed on his jacket.

The mass of wailing bodies thinned with each step he took, and finally, he saw her.

Her hands blazed with power, her entire body radiant.

Her hair whipped in an invisible wind. Each spirit that met her hands disintegrated in a flare of light, but more filled the gap.

She was a force to be reckoned with—the Essence of Time.

“Hallie!”

He fought his way to her side. Skibs appeared at Kase’s other side, the inky black sword like an extension of his own body as he fought his opponents. A natural.

But where was Eravin?

Dread filled his stomach like a pile of stones.

This wouldn’t end if he escaped. Kase growled as he killed the soul of what looked like a young Jaydian soldier. “Back to back!”

Both Hallie and Skibs nodded, never letting their guard or strikes drop. Kase backed up until he met their shoulders. “Where’s Eravin?”

“Navara,” Hallie breathed. “He went for her.”

“Hallie, you can return the souls,” Skibs shouted above the wailing and his next swipe at another soul. “Reverse time on them.”

“But that might only make them regenerate—”

“We’ll figure it out!” Kase shouted, swinging at another soul and missing. The man grabbed Kase’s wrist. Kase screamed. The man’s fingers seared into his skin like fire.

Hallie’s hand shot out, her fingers glowing. “ Anora van esque vral !”

The soul in front of him puffed into golden mist. His sooty fingerprints encircled Kase’s wrist, but whatever she’d done had worked.

Hallie thrust out her power, the words a chant. The trio worked their way toward where Navara had been.

“Try again, Hallie!” Skibs said. “Add maxima !”

“Anora van esque vral maxima!” Hallie shouted.

Golden light flared out from her hands, drowning the room in brilliance.

The souls vanished into glittering mist.

Hallie fell to her knees.

Kase dropped beside her.

“No! Kase !” Skibs screamed.