Page 134 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

“Worst is we die trying. If we don’t, we’re dead anyway!”

Ben held up the sword, and Hallie flinched back. He pointed it at the Gate. “Can we use this one?”

Hallie shook her head. “It’s connected to the Aurora Gate.”

Nodding reluctantly and setting the sword aside, he held out a glowing hand. “What do we do about the guardian then? I can create the sword itself, but bonding it…we’ll need a soul.”

Her. Her sacrifice would save them all, would save Kase.

She would be the guardian, but first, they needed to create the Gate. “I don’t know what to do, but I’ll use the words of power and force my power into you again. You take it and…and…”

“I’ll figure it out,” he said firmly, still holding out his hand.

And oddly enough, she trusted that he would.

She grasped it and poured her power into him. “ Avali anora ess nah !”

The Gate of the Essence.

“Another one!” Ben shouted.

“Ess anora ana kar vali!”

Essence Time, bring forth Gates.

Nothing.

“Again!”

“Avali crea ess, toro ano!”

The Essence of Creation Gate, Toro heal.

At this point, she was just going to throw all the possible words she could at it and hope one of the combinations worked.

What was she missing? She’d discovered that the words of power were often more literal, and the inflection had to be correct.

She wracked her brain for the answer, but in the chaos, it was difficult to do so. She didn’t need to create fire. She needed something stronger, something powerful enough to create the center of timelines, a connection to the soul of the land and everyone who inhabited it.

Words of power combined with Vasa allowed Chronals to access their innate power.

Hallie didn’t have Vasa, and she barely had any words of power, yet something in her gut told her she was doing the right thing.

Something told her that the ruin of this Chronal gate was the reason everything was happening.

Without it, the melody—the song—was incomplete.

A song.

Singing.

Saldr had said that for more complex spells, singing was required.

That was it.

Without thinking much further than that, she put the words to one of the tunes from the bonfire celebration. “ Avali crea ess, Toro ano …”

She didn’t stop singing it, not until the light pouring from her tinged blue. Probably not good. She’d let her soul slip into it. Too much and she’d hemorrhage, but maybe that was the point. How could one not sacrifice their very essence to create something so powerful?

She was the Essence of Time. She could do this. She might very well be the only one who could.

“Head down, Skibs!”

She looked up to find a jet of black and purple power winnowing straight for her. The flame wall was gone.

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.”

“Hallie, you can return the souls,” Skibs shouted. “Reverse time on them!”

True. She could do that, but what were the consequences? All she’d been doing was sending power through her hands at them, unsure of if she healed them or simply destroyed them, though with everything going on, she hadn’t considered the consequences.

“But that might only make them regenerate!”

And even if it didn’t, could she control her power enough to do it individually without hitting Kase or Skibs in her strikes?

“We’ll figure it out!” Kase shouted, still fighting. He screamed as a soul grabbed his wrist, yanking him forward.

Blast the consequences.

“ Anora van esque vral !” She whipped her hand out, her fingers glowing and sparkling gold like the sunset.

The soul, a man, unraveled and vanished into golden mist. Almost like the Cerl soldier in the Stoneset cavern. Holy stars.

It worked—for ill or not, she didn’t care. They fought closer to where Navara had disappeared.

Ben pressed against her back. “Try again, Hallie! Add maxima !”

She did, and the entire room exploded into golden sunlight.

The souls glittered into nothing around them. She collapsed.

So tired. Too much power.

But not enough to knock her out. Her ring glowed brighter. Kase dropped beside her, his free arm coming around her.

“No! Kase !” Ben yelled above them.

The sword of darkness arced toward them, toward her. Her mouth fell open in a silent scream, but then Kase was there, his shining sword blocking the blow. Strong arms dragged her backward, as she scrambled to her knees, to her feet.

“ Yrea va na tari !” Blazing golden flames shot from her fingers and blasted into Mr. Gray’s side, knocking him sideways.

Kase’s sword flew from his hands. Mr. Gray turned, his hands coming up and pushing crackling dark energy out of his palms.

No.

But then she glimpsed his eyes as he turned toward Kase’s shout. They were no longer bottomless pits. Her stomach dropped out.

What?

Kase dropped, grabbing his sword and spinning. The Xera sword glowed like the sun as it swung in a graceful arc. In a flash, Mr. Gray’s head tumbled from his body, his brown eyes wide in death, a silent, shocked gasp on his lips.

The body fell forward. Tripping backward, Hallie brought a shaking hand to her mouth. Kase stood behind him, chest heaving—but something was wrong.

He dropped the sword he’d used to kill Mr. Gray, a horrible scream erupting from his throat as he clawed at his arms and his legs and chest—anywhere Jagamot’s black, glittering blood had landed.

He collapsed, his face in his hands, screaming louder as he dragged his nails down his face, cutting bloody furrows into his skin.

Her heart pounded frantically in her chest. He needed her. Forget the Gate. Forget anything else. She slipped on the blood but kept her feet, skirting around Mr. Gray’s legs. She fell beside Kase, grabbing his hands and tearing them from his eyes. She flung the sword away from her.

Those eyes were no longer the deep sapphire blue she loved. They were black. Solid black. Like Mr. Gray’s.

“No, no, please no.” Hallie grabbed Kase’s face. “Kase!”

But he only stared sightlessly at her, his features suddenly slackening. Unnervingly blank.

“Kase!”

It couldn’t be. Kase was strong. Kase had overcome so much. He couldn’t…she needed to do something. She needed to stop him from…from whatever was happening. Jagamot. It was Jagamot. Killing Mr. Gray had caused this. Jagamot needed another host. Kase was becoming Jagamot.

Hallie yanked the heat left in her core to the surface and forced it into Kase with all the strength she had.

She could undo this. She had the power to rewind time.

She could heal him.

She could save him.

She’d evaporated hundreds of souls with a single spell.

She could do this. She would do this.

Dimly, she was aware of the light emitting from under her skin. It was like her power glowed within her very soul. Kase’s dark eyes reflected the mix of gold and blue, but wouldn’t absorb it. She couldn’t push it into him. He refused to accept it.

A glittering black cloud of fire surrounded them—almost like a dome. Her power raged at it uselessly.

“Come back to me! Please !” Desperately, she pressed her lips to his, begging him to fight, to not leave her.

One of his hands curled around hers, and her heart leapt, a sob of joyful relief escaping her lungs—

As Kase tore her hand away, his other hand found her throat and squeezed.

She gasped and choked, but his grip was too strong. She clawed at his hand. Her fingernails tore his flesh, but he didn’t let go, didn’t even flinch. Black blood ran in rivulets down Hallie’s fingers, dripping like rain on the floor below.

“Please,” she croaked. Her vision blurred, a dull haze creeping in. Even the golden light of her power couldn’t push it back. “Kase…stop…s-stop…it’s m…it’s Hal…”

She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t speak.

She tried to force her power into him, anything, but he was like an impenetrable wall. His face contorted in rage. It made him look more like his father than he ever had.

What was the point of all this power if she couldn’t use it to save the one she loved most?

Hallie couldn’t breathe. Her throat swelled with pain, her lungs straining for breath that just wasn’t there. She drew power up and into her hands, but all she could do was scratch weakly at his wrist. The nearly healed cut on her hand opened once more.

“Please,” she mouthed with no voice.

She sensed someone come up behind her, but she couldn’t see them, not really. Would Kase go after them next?

Not Kase. Jagamot. Kase was…

Kase was…

Tears welled in her eyes, pain and grief and abject, miserable failure.

She had done this to save him—and she had failed.

How did one die in Valora? Would her body fade away? Would she reappear beside her corpse, unable to rejoin it? Or would she simply move on to whatever awaited next? Loffler’s hadn’t disappeared. Neither had Mr. Gray’s.

The darkness smothered her thoughts, a heaviness settling over her like a quilt. She could no longer see anything at all. Only one thing remained, a kernel of gold at the very end of a long, lightless tunnel.

“I…love…you.”

And then she was gone.