Page 18 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

HUMAN AGAIN

Hallie

HALLIE COULDN’T SEE.

Nausea bloomed in her stomach, waves of dizziness loosening her tentative grasp on the strange reality she’d fallen into.

What in the blazes…

She couldn’t finish the thought. Her brain wouldn’t let her. It ached, as did the rest of her body, but it was…dull. Not quite real. Like the pain belonged to a bystander, and she just happened to be close enough to feel some of it. Detached from her body, yet aware of everything.

Tingling mixed with the nausea. The riotous pinpricks were confined to her hands, like a hoard of bees peppering her with gentle stings.

People spoke above her and around her, but she couldn’t tell if they were even speaking Common.

They could’ve been conversing in the Queen’s Rubikan, and she wouldn’t even know.

Another wave of nausea hit, and she retched, her stomach twisting. Nothing came up. Pain spiked in her head. At least she could feel that.

More frantic words. She could understand the tone, if not the language.

Why couldn’t she see anything? She hadn’t passed out. The pain made her want to, but it vanished as soon as she stepped through the Passage into the awaiting dark. Had she done something wrong?

Was this what dying felt like? Storybooks had always told her there would be lights at the end of dark tunnels and portions of her life flashing before her eyes. There was no light here, no flashes, not even a dark tunnel. It was just…nothing.

She couldn’t grasp at the edges to pull her back. Her hands wouldn’t work. Nothing worked.

Maybe she could make her own flashes. If this was the end, she needed to think of something that would make her happy, that would make her last moments on this stars-forsaken planet worthwhile. Maybe her parents, or going to the theater in Kyvena. Maybe The Odyssey . Maybe…maybe…

All she could think about was Kase and his laugh, his smirk when he’d said something particularly irritating only because he knew he could, and his steadying hands as he held her that last time.

The last time.

Her eyes watered, tears leaking from beneath the lids like liquid fire.

“More. She needs more, my love,” King Filip said softly.

At least words were making sense again.

Someone’s cold fingers found her own. She whimpered. Each touch cut like knives.

“It’s best if you step aside,” King Filip said, a little further away—maybe speaking over his shoulder. “The Lady Fely has kept her alive and will continue to feed her the Soul she needs.”

She took a deep breath but cut it short when her lungs seared.

Hallie could barely concentrate on anything except for the tingling inside her body as it crawled up her arms. It made the rest of her feel hollow and burnt. A buzzing began in her ears.

The fingers left her hand. The knives stopped stabbing her, but everything still hurt.

More warmth bubbled up from where someone else had put a hand on her shoulder. It wasn’t painful. It was nice. A soothing sensation that her body drank in.

With each passing moment, the tingling receded.

It was still there in the background, but it no longer dominated her thoughts.

She became more and more aware of her surroundings, though she hadn’t opened her eyes.

The dark fog lifted slightly, slowly dissipating.

The warmth continued to flow into her, and her breaths deepened. She swallowed. She blinked.

The world was fuzzy and mostly dark, but she was no longer blind. Some sort of glowing orb floated above her. Whether it was a star or the sun or something of her own imagination, Hallie didn’t know. She blinked again, the edges of her vision clarifying.

Three people waited above her, their faces cast in half shadow, the only light in the room a floating ball of fire—small and round.

The tingling faded, just a shadow of what it had been moments ago.

A hand behind her back helped her sit up, and Hallie winced with the movement.

She swayed. Her head felt as if someone had bludgeoned it with a brick.

Another wave of nausea washed over her, but it vanished soon as she steadied herself.

The pain lingered, drawing tears to her eyes, but she could take it.

“Blessed be Fate.” King Filip pushed back the golden hair that had escaped its tie. He moved the glowing orb closer to Hallie with a wave of his hand. “We can still defeat the Darkness.”

“Hal?” Niels asked from beside her. He looked peaky, his face ashy and wan. “Are you all right?”

His voice was terse, but whether that was from his injury or their companions, she didn’t know.

“What happened?” Her own was scratchy and brittle, but she was able to speak.

“You really do not know how to use your gift, do you?” Lady Fely said from somewhere behind her. With another touch of her shoulder, warmth blossomed through her again, and the tingling and pain vanished completely.

“How could I? Correa forced it upon me.” Hallie regretted the words almost as soon as they left her lips.

But neither Lady Fely nor King Filip acknowledged she’d said anything at all.

They were in a small chamber, lit only by the floating fireball. In the corner lay a small brick carved with symbols and emitting a faint light. It was very similar to the one in Ravenhelm.

Had she brought them to Myrrai? Had she done it?

As if to answer her unspoken question, King Filip closed his eyes and snapped his fingers.

A small spark appeared just above them; with a few murmured words, the light grew bigger and brighter until it matched the other one floating just a few feet away.

He pushed the newest light away from him and unholstered his pistol.

“I will inspect the corridor. Please stay here and recover your strength.” He nodded to Lady Fely, then narrowed his eyes at Hallie and Niels. “I will return shortly.”

While Hallie knew she was too valuable to kill, she heard the unspoken threat.

She might have made a deal with them, but it didn’t mean they were friends.

It didn’t mean she was free. They could still kill Niels if she didn’t cooperate…

and just because they couldn’t kill her didn’t mean they wouldn’t hurt her.

She closed her eyes briefly to push away the memories of Correa’s power running through her body. When she opened them again, Filip was gone, and Lady Fely sat between the Passage brick and the crude doorway the Cerl king had just exited.

Niels grimaced as he adjusted his position against the wall closest to Hallie. The woman didn’t say anything. Instead, she inspected her fingernails, her knees pulled to her chest. A ready pistol lay on her other side.

Hallie whispered, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to finish the…whatever I was doing. I think the bullet is still lodged in your leg, and…” She had to take a few breaths. Her strength still wasn’t what it should be. “I did something wrong.”

“You lost your focus.” Lady Fely didn’t even look up as she said it. “Trying to do something that advanced so early wasn’t a good idea.”

Her accent was different from Filip’s or Correa’s. Hallie couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly. It just didn’t seem to fit.

“It wasn’t my idea,” she pointed out.

“It’s all right,” Niels said, pushing himself further up the wall. He winced as the movement jostled his leg. His other injury—the upper arm from the Stoneset cavern didn’t seem to be bothering him. “I’m no longer in danger of bleeding out.”

“Externally, maybe.” Lady Fely still hadn’t looked up from her nails.

Hallie refused to take the bait. Clenching her teeth, she said, “I’m sorry, Niels. I really am. As soon as I’ve recovered enough, I’ll try again.”

“Another healing so soon might kill you,” Lady Fely corrected, “and because you’ve already attempted once and failed, you likely made it more complicated, so it would definitely kill you. And as frustrating as it is, we need you to stay alive for the time being.”

Hallie ignored the woman. “I’ll try anyway. It’s my fault.”

Niels shook his head, and for some reason a small grin whispered across his face. “I vowed to never let you fix me up again after I tried to teach you how to bake Ma’s apple streusel cake.”

She hadn’t expected him to make a joke, and a choked, disbelieving laugh bubbled up from her chest. “I didn’t intend to grab the cordial.”

“And you didn’t intend to spill it, neither.”

Hallie glanced toward the woman, but she didn’t act like she listened or even cared.

Hallie looked back at Niels. He was smiling, looking at her.

But instead of making her feel happy or nostalgic for time past, it frustrated her.

She’d spilled the cordial on his shirt, and had been so startled she’d dropped the bottle.

The cleanup led to an afternoon filled with laughter, a slipshod bandaging of his cut finger, and a few kisses.

It was a lifetime ago…and it had happened to a different Hallie.

She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her forehead against them. The memory wasn’t a bad one, but why bring it up now?

For one, it established the fact that they had a past, which the Cerl King and his…

whatever she was…could use against them.

Secondly, it was a little out of the blue.

And last, it felt like a desperate attempt on his part, but for what reason, she wasn’t sure.

There wasn’t anything there but just that—a past.

He'd been cautious and distant since they’d been reunited, though he’d made sure she had food. He’d helped fight off the soldiers and then Correa. She’d shot him with the flashpistol for his trouble.

This was merely a tenuous friendship based on memories. Nothing about their interactions should have signalled any possibility of anything else, so why was he spouting off something so personal? In front of the enemy, no less?

Niels had always had a good head on his shoulders. He’d gone along with her and Jack’s schemes, but usually he’d been the voice of reason keeping them from doing something too dangerous. Mostly.