Page 141 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

SEVEN AND A HALF MINUTES

Hallie

IN THE brIGHT LIGHT OF day, the Nether Gate’s opening was only visible by the dark Catacombs on the other side.

The fiery outline that had nearly blinded her when she’d revealed it with Navara’s journal was almost nonexistent on this side.

Ben’s hand still glowed from summoning it back into existence, his fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of Xera’s sword.

It would be replaced once they were on the other side.

By the time she’d recovered enough to walk on her own, it’d been too dark to make the trip down the mountain even with the lights her and Ben’s power would’ve provided.

There was nothing in the night to spirit away souls with Jagamot defeated.

Hallie hoped it was enough to signal to Jack and her parents that everything was okay.

She, Kase, and Ben spent the night bathed in the light of the Chronal Gate and a larger Yreasa. She’d said her goodbyes to Navara, pressing a bit of her Essence power into the arch. She was rewarded with a pleasant pulse of warmth in her core.

Navara’s journals had gotten her here and allowed Jagamot to be defeated. The resentment she’d felt toward the woman for burdening her with the Essence power fell away. Their destinies had been intertwined, and without her, Hallie might have never gotten to see Jack again. It was bittersweet.

As the night went on, Ben and Kase—neither of whom seemed eager to sleep—entertained her with dozens of stories from their days as trainee pilots.

The tales ranged from pulling pranks on other greenies to near-misses on missions to the full explanation of how they’d ended up with matching misshapen dragon tattoos.

They could have sat up all night trading jokes about hovers that flew straight over her head for all she cared. After the ordeal of the past few hours…days…months, really, it was just nice to sit tucked up next to Kase and laugh.

The dark cloud of the unknown that had hung over her head for so long dissipated with each inside joke and shared look.

When Ben fell asleep after making Kase swear he’d wake him in a few hours, the tone turned steeply somber as Hallie finally got the full story of why Kase had brought his father’s sword through the Nether Gate.

She curled against his chest and held him through the worst of it.

His world had flipped completely upside down, and the hits hadn’t stopped coming.

But she’d always seen Kase’s inner strength, and now, he could see it too.

Hallie had waited to speak, letting him get it all out, but she’d wiped away the solitary tear that escaped his hold when he spoke about his father’s final moments, his conflicting feelings, and the life he would now lead.

But now, in the afternoon light of the next day, it was time to say goodbye to Valora.

They'd eaten an ashy late breakfast at the tavern, the bartender with the deep blue eyes and solemn voice whipping up orange juice and his best recreation of the old chef’s bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit sandwich—the chef Jack loved had decided to move on after Jagamot’s defeat.

It’d been a decent first go, according to Jack, but Addi would need to practice.

Afterward, they walked back to the cottage as a group, Jack tucking Navara’s parchment into his satchel with an uncharacteristically solemn expression.

No one else would be able to tell, but Hallie was his sister, his twin—she knew the casual scrunch of his nose and the way he swatted at his eye and his vague mutters about mosquito season were part of a show to hide the tear he shed for the woman he’d called Gran with such disgruntled affection.

Hallie stalled as long as possible, but the waning daylight told her they needed to return to Kyvena. There were people who needed to know what had happened, and Ben, the lost heir to the Cerl throne, was needed to halt any future attacks on Jayde.

That Ben was not only the future king of Cerulene, but also Ezekiel’s son—Kase’s cousin—was still quite the shock. But that revelation could be handled more privately. Slowly. When it no longer felt like they might all die at any moment.

Kase kept his hand on the small of her back as they stood before the archway, staring out at the world they’d left behind. It was full of sorrow and pain and darkness, but it was where she belonged.

They all stood staring at it, no one wanting to be the first.

It was Jack who finally broke the silence. “Welp, guess it’s time. I would say hope to see you soon , but I think that’d be in bad taste.”

Her stoic, stern mother promptly burst into tears.

Jack groaned, wrapping his arms around her and patting her back, rolling his eyes over her shoulder where only Hallie could see.

“Now, Ma, I ain’t saying you’re old, but if I had to guess, you might be showing up first. Don’t worry.

I ain’t going nowhere, and I might even let you name one of my chickens. ”

“John Carl Walker, I know I raised you better than that,” Zelda hissed, but her brother just laughed. Zelda obviously didn’t appreciate his gallows humor, but she hugged him tightly anyway. Her father joined, and Hallie followed.

One last time, the Walker family was together again. It ached, but it was a good ache—a healing one. The scents of mint, coffee, and unsurprisingly, bacon, filled her. This was a gift she never thought she would get. She hugged her family tighter.

She wished Kase could’ve had the same.

He deserved it more than anyone.

Wait.

She hadn’t seen Zeke or the girl she’d glimpsed in the portrait in Shackley Manor, and Kase hadn’t said he had either, but that didn’t mean they weren’t here—or had been here.

When the hug ended, Hallie stood on tiptoe to whisper in Jack’s ear, “The letters. Could you find one or two for me? If you have them?”

She knew not everyone wrote them for loved ones, but if there was even a chance Ana or Zeke left something behind…

Jack raised a red brow. “Depends. They’re technically only for people who need the motivation to pass on to the beyond.”

“You owe me,” Hallie quipped.

He narrowed his eyes, and she continued, “Mama still doesn’t know you’re the one who set fire to the begonias, and…”

She looked back at their parents. Her father was wiping away her mother’s tears while not bothering to brush away his own. She kept her voice low. “If you let Kase read the letters his siblings might have left him, I will continue to keep your little secret.”

“Why do I—hey. Look at me when I’m rolling my eyes at you. Why do I care if you tell her? I’m already dead.”

Hallie glared at him until he finally sighed. “Fine, but if Gran ever found out, she’d scruff me and toss me right smack into the beyond.”

Hallie kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

She turned back and waved Kase over as Jack dug out Navara’s notebook and golden quill. “Now, what were their names?”

Kase looked at him questioningly. Hallie tapped the notebook impatiently. “Ezekiel, or Zeke, and Ana Shackley.”

Kase shook his head. “What’re you doing?”

Jack tapped the quill on the notebook, and after a moment, he frowned. “Ezekiel Shackley never came through. Probably was ready for his death. I’m sorry I can’t help there.”

Hallie’s heart sank, though she wasn’t entirely surprised. Zeke had chosen his end. And after getting to know him over the months they’d been on the Eudora mission, it made sense the steady, smiling man had been ready to move on.

Jack tapped the quill again. “Ana…Ana Shackley…that sounds awful familiar.” He took a pinch of Zuprium dust out of the pouch at his waist and sprinkled it onto the parchment.

“Ah, yup, here we go. Have several from her, and—oh, right , she’s the one who called me a blasted stars-idiot my first day here.

Lovely girl. But her letters were the first ones I ever took, so she came to her senses in the end. ”

Hallie groaned and smacked her brother on the back of the head. “That’s because you are a blasted stars-idiot.”

Jack glared at her before murmuring a few words and swirling the dust on the notebook around. In seconds, a pile of six letters appeared. He shuffled through them. “Here ya are. Kase.”

With a trembling hand, Kase took the letter. “I don’t understand.”

Jack sprinkled more dust on the others and with another murmured word, they disappeared in a glittering poof.

“Sometimes it’s hard to move on, understandably so, but Gran started having souls write letters to their loved ones to help them and anyone else who died after them prepare to go beyond.

Helps if they know they won’t be alone, y’know?

” He took a deep breath. “Stars above, I’m gonna miss her.

The girls will too. She always had a way with them—especially Anne.

” He replaced his notebook in his satchel and pointed at the letter in Kase’s hand.

“That won’t last long in the mortal realm.

Best read it here. I’ll make sure it stays all nice and new for ya if you do return someday. ”

Kase swallowed thickly and croaked, “Thank you.”

He turned away to read his letter.

It was time.

And that was when the tears started. She’d known they would come, but she’d wanted to stay strong.

It was one thing to think her brother was lost in the aether.

It was another to know he was here waiting for them, never able to leave or change.

Instead of feeling as if he was off in another dimension, pretending he was off having all the adventures they’d dreamed of having as kids, it’d feel like he was just on the other side of the door…

unseen and out of reach despite being mere feet away.

Why did that feel so much harder to endure?

She tried to swallow, to regain her composure, but she couldn’t get her throat to work. Then Jack pulled her into another hug, and she gave up, sobbing into his shoulder. The ugly kind, all snotty and soggy and awful. Nothing like the single graceful tear heroines shed in books.

“Aw, no, not you too, not the shirt,” he moaned. “You know how hard it is to get new clothes here?”

She tried to laugh. Just sobbed harder instead.

“Aw, Hal.” He got quiet, first—then a little shaky. “Shoulda told you sooner, but don’t you feel guilty about all this, you hear? You tell Niels, too. If I’d gotten to choose who walked outta there, it’d’a gone the same way.”

“I-I won’t feel guilty.” Every word emerged like a hiccup. “I pushed you, anyway. Don’t tell Mama.”

“I knew it,” he gasped in false outrage, and she finally laughed, even if it sounded more like a whimper. “Always were jealous of me. Like it was my fault I got born the smarter twin, the better-looking—”

She leaned back, scowling. “ Jack .”

“What? You started it.” He crushed her against him again, and she let his gangly arms squeeze the life out of her. Metaphorically.

“Don’t take this all wrong, but I hope I never see you again,” he mumbled into her hair. “If you do end up in Souls Meet, though…I’ll be here.”

The soft summery breeze rustled her hair, and she squeezed her brother tighter. He was too skinny, always had been. It was almost as if he’d been doomed to break, but he never had. Not really. His body had been crushed by beams and stone in a faraway mine, but his spirit was where it needed to be.

He’d gotten to realize his own destiny here, just as Hallie had in Kyvena.

“Love you,” Hallie sobbed.

“Love ya, Lark.”

And then Jack pulled back, tears in his own eyes. “Get on, now, and don’t you dare look back.”

Stepping up beside Hallie and threading his arm around her waist, Kase held the letter out for her brother to take. “Thank you, Jack.”

Jack took it and used more dust to make it disappear like the others. He smiled and held out his hand. Kase shook it. Jack used the motion to pull Kase in close and whisper something in his ear.

After a moment, Kase stepped back, nodding. “Promise.”

Without a word or a look toward her, her brother turned and left to hug their parents again.

“What’d he say?” Hallie asked, glancing at her brother suspiciously, though still wiping a few stray tears from her eyes as she got her breathing under control.

Kase smiled, his eyes tinged pink. “To take care of you. And that if I didn’t, I’d have to answer to him.” Hallie groaned, and Kase let out a soft laugh. “Seems like we both have protective older brothers.”

“Only by seven and a half minutes.”

Kase merely laughed.

Hallie watched her parents and Jack a moment longer before facing where Ben waited at the Nether Gate’s opening, his hand still glowing. She and Kase walked over.

Kase asked, “Do you know what happens to the Essence powers still in the guardian swords?”

Skibs had Kainadr’s shadow sword in a sheath hanging off his belt. Xera’s soul sword held the Gate open. Ben shook his head. “Dunno, but since we need to return the guardians to their respective Gates, I guess we’ll find out? Let’s just hope it doesn’t cause the world to collapse or anything.”

“Something for me to research when I go back to University in the autumn,” Hallie said.

Kase smiled. “You’re returning?”

Hallie nodded. “Yes. Only a semester and a half left before I can graduate, and I needed a few extra topics to add to my graduate thesis.”

“I’m proud of you,” Kase said, putting an arm around her shoulders and squeezing.

Ben rolled his eyes. “Listen, I put up with you both making eyes at each other all night last night, what with the near-death experiences and all. Please don’t make me suffer the entire way back to the surface.”

Kase laughed, but he didn’t take his arm back. After another minute or two, her parents joined them. It was time.

First her parents went through, both looking over their shoulders at Jack one last time, Ben holding the Gate open with the guardian sword. Then it was Hallie and Kase’s turn.

“Thank you. For getting me the letter,” Kase said quietly.

She looked up at him, the golden afternoon sunlight illuminating his handsome features. “You’re welcome. We’ll see her again someday. And Zeke.”

His jaw was firm, and teeth clenched. She rubbed his arm. “What did it say?”

He looked down at her, sliding his fingers into hers. “I forgive you.”

Hallie squeezed his hand tighter, tears burning in her eyes. Kase blinked rapidly before putting on a small smile.

“I promised I’d get you home.”

Then led her through the Nether Gate, and neither of them looked back.