Page 136 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Navara bent and kissed Hallie’s head once more. “I am sorry, little one. You fought well.”

She then walked to the Gate, the ashamox still writhing above them. Jagamot had failed to use Kase to manifest, but he awaited another opportunity to try. For all Kase knew, someone else in Kyvena was now fighting the same battle he had. The next second it could be Ben. It could be Kase again.

He didn’t know if he would triumph a second time.

“I’m here, Hallie,” he whispered into her hair, his voice shaking and uneven. “I will always be here. I’m not leaving you.”

He kissed her hand again, noticing the odd blue sheen of Ana’s ring. He held it closer to his face. It must’ve been a reflection from the Gate. Unless…maybe he’d been able to pour some of himself into it?

He looked at Hallie’s face, analyzing the curves of her cheeks, the slope of her nose with the small knot in the center. He’d never gotten to ask how she’d broken it.

She was still pale. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing yet. Navara had healed her windpipe, but had it been in time?

The anguish waged war on his soul, so potent it was like Jagamot had slunk back into his mind. His hands shook.

Resist. Don’t give in.

I refuse to bow to you.

Navara stepped up to the center of the Gate, the light bathing her in a discordant glow. She placed a hand on the side and looked up into the rippling smoke that grew more furious the longer she waited. The two swords floated in the center, awaiting a third. “Raern knew, and now I do as well.”

And then she walked through the center of the archway into the light.

Just like that. Without looking back.

Skibs stuck his hand in afterward, his fingers splayed between the swords of soul and shadow, saying something Kase couldn’t hear.

It struck him with déjà vu. It had been only a few months since he’d done the same thing to the Gate in Myrrai.

He’d traded Saldr’s brother for a sword. This time, it was Navara.

“Ka…Kase?”

Kase’s heart stilled. Soft tufts of breath tickled the tiny hairs on his neck. Too soft. Too weak. But he felt them.

He shifted Hallie in his arms and tore his eyes away from the Gate. Slivers of golden brown peeked out at him from beneath heavy lids. Her skin still felt like ice against his. Or maybe he was cold, and he was just holding her too tightly to tell where he ended and she began.

Her lips, chapped and pale, tinted blue, barely moved. But they moved . “Kase.”

He began to weep like a child. And he didn’t even care.

“I’m here, oh stars, I’m here.” Thank you, thank you, thank you. “Can you hear me?”

“I’m so…tired.” Her voice was raspy and raw.

More tears slipped down his nose. He scrubbed them away with his sleeve.

“Navara said it’s your soul. It’s bleeding out.

Like Anderson’s and Niels’. She said you’re not going to…

” He rubbed his wet cheek on the shoulder of his jacket.

He wouldn’t say it. He wouldn’t believe it.

“I’m sorry, I…I didn’t know…I would never ever do anything to hurt… ”

But he couldn’t get the rest of it out. His jaw wobbled too much. It was a lie, anyway—his blasted fingerprints were bruised into her neck. How could he say he would never do anything to hurt her when he already had?

She blinked, sluggish, sleepy. He held his breath until her eyes opened again. “I know.”

“But I…I can’t…Hals, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.” He was breathing too shallowly. Each inhale sounded like a hiccup, and he couldn’t stop it.

Another blink, and a tear slipped down her pale cheek. “Y-yes.”

“What?”

“Should’ve said…yes.” Her chest shuddered, fighting for every breath. “Marry…you.”

His heart didn’t crack this time—both sides wrenched apart, sundering completely from one another. Maybe his soul was bleeding, too. He shook his head. “No, you were right. You’re always right.”

She smiled, and her breathy laugh made him want to sob again. “Wh-who are you, and what did you—”

Her lungs seized up with a cough, wracking her frail body. He smoothed her hair with a shaking hand. “Shh. I’m going to get you home.”

“No…”

“If I can get you to Saldr, maybe…maybe he can do something. Anything. Just let me take you home,” Kase pleaded. “I did this, and I’m going to fix it. I promise I will.”

Out of the corner of Kase’s eye, Ben pulled a sword from the Gate. It was long and sturdy, the blade blindingly bright, the purest Zuprium Kase had ever seen. He held it out, the Gate’s light setting his hair ablaze like a crown. The other two swords fell to the cathedral floor with a clatter.

“Kase…”

He turned his attention back to Hallie, rubbing his thumb along her cheekbone. Why was everything so cold? Were they both dying? He couldn’t, not until he got her home, not until he saved her. He shivered, hard, holding her to him.

She struggled to swallow, but after a moment, she finally got the words out, though it was as if her throat wasn’t working properly.

He’d done that. He tightened his hold on her waist. “What is it?”

“Already…home.”

“No, you’re not staying here, you’re not dying—"

“Kase.” A tear snake down her face. He kissed it away and pressed his forehead to hers. Her lips barely moved as she said, “ You …are my…home.”

His tears fell onto her face, mixing with her own.

“This is…good.” Her lips tugged, almost smiling in spite of her tears. “Just…be here. Stay here. Please?”

He’d never leave her. But how could he just sit here while she was…

How could he let her go?

“Vrali anora ess kinl nah!” Skibs shouted.

Kase jerked his head up to see Skibs thrusting the new sword back into the Gate. Light burst from the center of the archway. Kase shielded Hallie from it, tucking her against his chest. A shockwave rocked the cavern cathedral, knocking them over. He cushioned her fall and took a knock on the head.

He gritted his teeth against the pain. A second and third shockwave rolled over them like the waves of a raging sea. He held Hallie so they wouldn’t fall apart.

The quaking stopped.

Earsplitting screeches echoed in the cavern. It wasn’t him, nor Hallie, nor Skibs.

It was the smoke.

Kase peeked up. The bulbous, foul-stenched mass roiled and writhed. It fought its fate, but the light was too strong. Another blinding flash burst from the Gate.

The ashamox screeched out one last death throe before silence fell.

Kase’s head still ached from where he’d hit it, but he pushed himself to his elbow, still holding Hallie to him. The Gate’s light faded to gold, the blue disappearing completely. Suspended in the center like an angelic wraith hung Navara’s sword, its pommel gemstone a diamond.

Skibs stumbled over and fell to his knees beside Kase. “Are you all right? I think…I think we did it.”

His breaths came heavy, and sweat dripped like rain down his face. It was as if he’d run miles, though he’d only walked fifteen feet. His eyes were awash with the Gate’s glow, reminding Kase that Ben was more like himself than he’d known, yet so different at the same time.

Kase held Hallie’s hand. The ring still had a soft blue glow. It wasn’t the reflection from the Gate. Had he…?

No, surely not. He looked back at Skibs. “How? How did you do it? I thought it was the swords, or…or Hallie had to reset the Gate in Myrrai.”

Skibs nodded to the woman in Kase’s arms. “She figured it out. Creating a new Gate with my power and hers…it worked. Technically, we did combine all the Essence powers.” He gestured back to where the two other swords lay, the Gate’s light reflecting off their blades.

“In a way.” He laid a hand on Kase’s shoulder. “You did well.”

Not well at all. He’d defeated his own darkness, only to find he’d hurt the person he loved most in the world.

Skibs pushed himself to his feet and walked to Eravin’s corpse. Another victim of Kase’s rage. He gritted his teeth against the wave of pain, terror, and relief warring within him.

Glaring down at the shell of the man, Skibs muttered, “For Kase, I’ll give you a Yalven Burning. You don’t deserve it for what you did to my home, my family, and nearly did to me.” Skibs snapped his fingers. Tongues of fire leapt from them and encompassed the body and blood beneath it.

In moments, it was gone. But it didn’t entirely feel different. The boy who had lost everything had been gone for a while. He’d died years ago, replaced with a bitter man who would never be able to overcome his grief. Kase hadn’t really known that man.

Kase swallowed hard. That had almost been him.

Skibs did the same to Stradat Loffler, whom Kase had forgotten about in the fight.

“I’ll be around the corner,” Skibs said after he extinguished the flames from both pyres with another snap of his fingers. “Let me know if…let me know when you’re ready.”

Kase shook as Skibs walked away from them, another light at his fingertips.

Hallie had healed him, he’d said. He’d been a prisoner in his own head for months, yet now, he was almost like the man he’d known before the Eudora mission.

But even before he’d taken on the Essence, he’d had a light about him that no one could’ve given him.

It came from within. Learning what Kase had in the past day or so, it was amazing Skibs could function at all.

He’d grown up without a father, deemed illegitimate and treated as such.

He’d lost his mother young, assassinated by Jayde for the sake of a secret.

And now? Now, he was King of Cerulene and had found a family he hadn’t known he had—Kase, Les, and Jove.

If he could do it, so could Kase. Hadn’t he been on that path before this?

It’d been Hallie who’d taught him how to fight. It’d been her strength and the light that pushed away the darkness.

If she died now, would he fall back into that all-encompassing grief?

She wouldn’t want him to. She’d want him to live.