Page 51 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

She spit the words as if they were acid. They burned her tongue and her throat. Everything, every word, touch, look, every feeling she’d bottled up until now finally caught flame. Niels’ eyes reflected her rage, though his was controlled, bridled.

“I would’ve moved mountains for you, and don’t you try to deny your feelings.

Don’t you say you feel nothing at all for me.

” Niels jammed his hand into his pocket and pulled out that Zuprium band.

“I saved this ring for you. And only you. We had planned a life before you left, or have you forgotten?”

Hallie stared at his mother’s ring. The one he’d saved before her Burning.

“Look at me, Hal,” he pled. “You’re the only family I have left.”

The anger coursed through her at his words, at his guilting. He might have full-heartedly believed he was making sense and showing her the side of him that he thought she wanted, but…

This entire time, he’d thought she could simply forget his past— their past—and move on. But she couldn’t. Her power wavered, straining against the wall she’d built earlier. Tears fell down her face like rain.

She needed to just say it. It was the only way he’d understand.

“We killed Jack. You and I. And no matter what we do, that will always be our history. I can never separate you from that.”

She brushed her hand over her eyes, hoping to stem the flow, but she only cried harder, her words coming out in gasps. “I’ve tried to move on. I’ve tried—I’ve tried to replace what was there, but nothing worked. I’m no longer the Hallie Walker you knew. I’ve grown up and changed. And that’s okay .”

That hurt. The look of defeat in his eyes pierced her, and she realized how cruel she’d been. She hadn’t meant to be, but she’d still done it.

Hallie turned away, looking back at the Gate.

“At least you made the last part easy for me,” a deep and craggy voice spoke from the doorway.

A leaden knot coalesced just beneath her ribs.

Hallie whipped her head up and dragged the sword into a defensive position. It still felt odd where her skin touched it, but it was bearable for now. Niels grabbed a pistol from the back of his pants and aimed it toward the entrance.

Hallie was confused for a second as he shouldn’t have had a weapon on him, but then she recognized it not as his flashpistol, but one of Yalven make. He must’ve picked it up when she couldn’t find him.

An ancient man stood in the doorway, and Hallie found him terribly familiar, though she couldn’t quite place him. His beard was white and long, his skin wrinkled. His eyes were bright and golden brown.

“I know you,” Hallie said quietly. Her memory was foggy, but it tried to work through where she’d seen this man before, because it had been relatively recently. Had he been in the room in Achilles? No. No, it wasn’t that. From before. From Kyvena.

And then it clicked.

“Abram Loffler.” Hallie lowered her sword. “I mean, Stradat Loffler. Why…how…um, sorry to be rude, but how did you get here?” Her brain could not put together how this old man had crossed an ocean and half a continent all by himself. “Sir.”

She added the last belatedly, but she couldn’t remember if she should call him sir or my lord or something else. Maybe he was like the Stradat Lord Kapitan and wanted to be called by his title at all times.

“Oh, I don’t think that matters a bit, do you?” The gleam in his eyes unnerved her a little. “Now be a dear and hand over that sword.”

The last Hallie remembered of the man was when she’d been helping the Yalvs on the night of their arrival.

She hadn’t thought much of him then, only that he was a little out of it.

So much had happened since that she couldn’t recall much else.

What confused her was what he was doing here of all places.

He was part of Jayde’s ruling body…yet here he was, thousands of miles away, looking rather younger than she remembered.

Something wasn’t adding up. Hallie glanced down at the sword again, renewing her grip. She edged backward. “Why?”

Filip and Fely needed this sword. And now Loffler wanted it. Out of the three of them, Loffler should have been the one she trusted. He was a Stradat, for stars-sake.

But there was something about his eyes that told her otherwise. Maybe the rumors were true, and he had gone mad. Nothing was making sense.

“What’s a Stradat doing out here?” Niels asked, shifting in front of Hallie.

Loffler took a wearied step in their direction. “And you are?”

“Niels Metzinger of Stoneset.” Niels cocked the Yalven pistol, but that was entirely the wrong move.

Before Hallie could even blink, Loffler thrust his hands out.

Something dark yet bright at the same time leapt from his fingers.

Both Hallie and Niels dropped to the ground as what looked like black lightning flashed over her head.

No, not black—it was purple, so dark it looked black, except for a moment right before it clashed with the Gate.

The archway shook, and the ground beneath Hallie’s aching body shuddered.

Earthquake.

There was only one reason someone would have that sort of power.

“Essence,” Hallie gasped. “You’re an Essence wielder.”

“Indeed,” Loffler replied, throwing out a hand. Hallie flinched, but no power shot at her. Loffler stepped forward. “And you are as well. I can sense it. Not that I need it, but I can help you rid yourself of it. It hurts, doesn’t it?”

Hallie breathed heavily. “Why are you here?”

Loffler laughed. “For the sword, of course. Or were you not listening earlier?”

Scooping up the sword, she edged backward, matching the old man step for step. She needed to keep him talking until she could figure something out. She’d pushed Ben through the Gate. Would that work this time?

She glanced back without meaning to. The Gate’s golden smoke was now streaked with darkness like the man’s powers.

Not good.

She’d read enough books to know that was very much not the ideal situation. She just wished she could be reading about this now instead of living it out.

“Do…not…give it…to him,” an exhausted voice spat from the chamber door.

In the ruined doorway, King Filip leaned heavily on Fely.

The bandage on her head was soaked with new blood.

Filip was sweating, looking as though he’d just stood up from his deathbed.

His eyes were ringed in red. Somehow, they’d hiked the mountain in record time.

Fely’s hand clenching his other side glowed faintly.

But just how much power was she giving him?

Hallie hadn’t been able to heal his legs completely.

Loffler turned. “Ah, Your Majesty. You’ve certainly looked better.”

Hallie used the distraction to back closer to the Gate and to Niels. They needed to plan.

“You’re the one who’s doing this, aren’t you?” Filip said, still barely getting the words out. He took a shaky step forward, one arm over Fely’s shoulder, the other pressing into the crumbling wall. “You’re the reason we even need to go through with my uncle’s plan. Don’t deny it.”

“I’ve waited nearly five hundred years for this moment, and Jagamot is not a kind master. He’s planned his revenge since the Dawn, and I will bring it to fruition.”

“And you’ve corrupted enough crystals, haven’t you? My uncle said that would happen. The earthquakes?” Filip took more lumbering slow steps forward until they were mere feet away from Loffler. Fely’s hand kept glowing, but she glanced at Hallie.

Unadulterated fear, worse than when Filip had nearly been crushed by the beam, waited in her eyes. Nothing could have prepared Hallie for it.

What was she supposed to do now? Could she open a portal here and escape?

She prodded her power, but she wasn’t sure it would be enough—not after the earlier healings.

When she’d created the Passage earlier, it’d been using the existing brick from the first Passage created by the Lord Elder.

Without it, she didn’t know if it would work.

Maybe she could use the Gate? It held many timelines; surely there was one that included Kyvena in the present day.

She tried to think back to what she’d read in the book The Gate of Time , but she had trouble recalling anything.

The black strings of Loffler’s power threaded through the golden smoke still, and something told her not to touch it.

Could she trust the uncontaminated part of the power left?

It might be enough to do something. But she didn’t understand what to do.

Without Fely and Filip, she was shooting in the dark. They were her enemies, but they did know a little more about her power than she did. They might help her like they did earlier. But they needed to neutralize Loffler somehow first.

She thought back to her last visit here. She just needed to distract him enough for the plan to work, but she didn’t have Ebba’s slingshot or stone this time.

Hallie leaned as close to Niels as she could and whispered, “I don’t know what’s about to happen, but we need to get him in front of the Gate. Got it?”

“Your plan?”

“Just follow my lead.”

And pray for the best.

The muscles of her upper and lower arms knotted beneath her skin as she forced her power into the weapon.

She bit her lip hard to keep herself from crying out against the flare of heat threatening to boil her from within.

Hallie met Fely’s gaze, then looked down at the sword.

Fely followed her line of sight, then just barely dipped her chin.

Clenching her teeth against the lingering pain, Hallie gripped the sword in both hands and stood as quickly and quietly as she could, but her old boots creaked with the movement. Loffler twisted and thrust out his hands. Hallie didn’t think, only flung the sword at him while ducking out of the way.

Lightning hit the Gate again, and Loffler dodged the sword.

Not that she was the strongest person in the room, nor did she have very precise aim, but he’d leapt out of the way far too easily— how was he so spry for his age?

Was it the Essence power thrumming through his veins?

Did that allow him to cheat time? The Lord Elder hadn’t looked older than forty, and he’d been her great-great grandfather.

But Hallie had little time to dwell on that because she’d just realized she’d made a mistake.

She’d meant to throw the sword to Fely. Instead, she’d unwittingly given Loffler exactly what he wanted.

The old man retrieved the weapon in a flash and thrust it into King Filip’s chest.

Fely screamed and dropped Filip, stumbling out of reach of the next swipe of the sword. Niels leapt at Loffler, tackling him to the ground.

Hallie could only stare in horror at the blood bubbling out of the King’s chest. Niels wrestled the man, but the sword was still in Filip’s chest.

Fely scrambled over, trying to wrench the sword out, but Loffler threw off Niels and lunged, grabbing the hilt. He hefted it and swung it at Fely, who leapt away, just narrowly missing the swipe.

Niels picked himself up and nailed Loffler square in the chest with a powerful kick. Loffler thrust out with his hand, lightning zinging out, but Niels dodged it.

He didn’t see the sword.

It arced as Loffler fell backward into the Gate. The sword caught on Niels’ wrist. Blood spurted from where it cut deeply into the flesh. Niels screamed, but it was drowned by the entire room shaking.

Fely scrambled over and picked up the sword as a giant crack began at the corner of the room. “The crystals! He’s setting off the crystals!”

Hallie still had no idea what it meant, but she lunged for both Niels and Fely. “We need to leave! What do I do without the Passage brick?”

She tried to stop the bleeding in Niels’ wrist, but the cut was too deep. She could see the bone.

Fely stopped her, strapping the sword to Hallie’s pack, hooking in the little loop on the side. “Take your power and thrust it into the ground. All of it. Keep hold of one tendril and use the Yalven words of power to create it. The Gate’s power should help you.”

“What? What words of power?”

“Just do it!”

The Gate roared. The crack in the wall opened further and further. They were going to fall into the chasm if Hallie didn’t create the Passage immediately. She let go of Niels’ arm and pressed her hands into the blood-soaked ground.

Filip’s body slid into the chasm, tumbling head over feet into oblivion.

“ Now !” Fely screamed.

Hallie stopped thinking, only poured every single bit of heat she possessed into the stone below. Fely and a bleeding Niels held onto her arms.

“ Vreali amarel hilao Kyvena!” Hallie yelled, but nothing happened. She’d chosen the words because they were Yalven for Passage open now.

Fely began sliding into the chasm, pulling Hallie with her. Niels tried to hold them, but the blood loss was only making him weaker.

No, no, no, no. She would not die today. She needed to see Kase. She needed to hold him one last time. She lost hold of her power tendril, pushing it into her hands and screamed, “ KYVENA VREALI TORO !”

Golden light erupted.