Chapter 746: Limbo
Tick.
Tick.
No tock.
Nothing happened.
Um. Hmmm. Wasn't something supposed to?
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, tension building inside me at last. Not from fear or anxiety. Just from the waiting.
Above all else, I hated waiting.
Hated.
Demetrius continued to smile, body at ease, so I took my cue from him, tried to relax.
Whatever was coming, I had to believe it could only happen in exactly the right way.
Still.
Sigh. Couldn't we just freaking get on with it already? I mean, seriously. Hadn't Fate invested a ton of time and effort into this thing? Only to make us stand there and stare at each other like a bunch of idiots with no clue what to do next?
I was pretty sure Demetrius knew. But it seemed wrong to ask.
Hang on. Something was missing. The image I'd seen, the one Fate showed me at her fountain, included Quaid. Trill. Owen and Apollo. Where were they?
Belaisle's cockiness fell away as time continued to hold still and wait. Worry flickered, followed by anger. Fear. Tension. Nice to know he was freaked while my soul continued to sit, in peace, though the waiting was really going to kill me.
"This is ridiculous," Ameline snapped.
As if her words began something, the air beside her crackled, parted and Trinol stepped through. She glanced up at him. Was that relief on her face?
I didn't have time to find out, not when Iepa appeared next to me, set one hand on my shoulder.
"Just kill them, Liander!" Mia's voice pierced our circle, though none of us paid attention.
Not when the moment was so close.
I was so tied to the circle I stood in, the held breath of time, I almost missed the press of emptiness above me, only looking up when Belaisle laughed.
My heart contracted, peace shattered, as the air over the drach parted in pools of black and the Brotherhood fell through.
"Finally," he said, meeting my eyes with a smile. "This will be over before you know it."
I could feel the power drain, the loss of magic as the drach tried to fight. Fell beneath the combined pressure of the Brotherhood's power and the siphoning pull of the stronghold.
"No," I whispered, tears burning my eyes as the mighty first race began to spiral to the ground, weakened, drained, all of their magic leaving them, through the sorcerers, filling the gaping, endless hole of the giant stronghold.
This wasn't what I'd seen. The vision I witnessed had the drach fighting the Brotherhood on the ground, fire and magic making a mess of Belaisle's ranks. And the four I sought.
Where were they?
I spun on Iepa, trembling, reaching for her, but she shook her head, wouldn't look up even as the first drach hit the ground, the impact so hard my knees buckled.
"Thank you for bringing your little dragon friends," Belaisle said. "You really must learn I will always be ahead of your thinking, dear Sydlynn. And that you played, as usual, right into my hands."
Bastard. I spun with a snarl, maji power keeping me stable as more of the dragon folk hit the ground, the empty plane around us suddenly full of fallen bodies, hovering Brotherhood standing over them in groups of three and four, clinging to the weakening drach like leeches.
But when I tried to stop it, my power lashing outward, I hit a wall.
The circle we stood in trapped my magic and refused to let me save them.
I knew it was Max the moment he crashed, shoulder first, not ten feet from me, diamond eyes locked on mine. The sky was now empty, gray, dismal while my heart broke for the mighty drach.
"Why are you letting this happen?" I wanted to hit Iepa, fists balled at my sides.
"I'm not," she said in a soft wail. "This is Fate, Syd."
"Excellent," Belaisle said, rubbing his hands together. Gestured to Rupe.
My old friend, once the Goth known as Blood, now Belaisle's creature, smirked and turned, opening a black hole even as the stronghold reached for me.
Your friends are alive, he sent, deep voice crushing stone. But something isn't right.
Quaid tumbled out, Trill on top of him, the Zornov brothers collapsing next to them just as the gap closed with a snap.
"Ah, our last guests have arrived." Belaisle bowed to me. "I had planned to take them myself, but you delivered them to me with perfect timing." He ignored my fury, his voice expanding, echoing as he spoke to his people. "Now, my brothers and sisters. Use their power to do as instructed. The planes are ours."
No. No! I fought against the wall of Fate as Trill cried out, head lifting, iridescence filling her gaze. Owen surged to his feet, blackness flowing around him while Apollo stood, jerking Trill up to join them. The three held hands, their connection solidifying just as the drach cried out as a people.
Giant gashes filled the sky. Demonicon's amber sky shone through one, the green scape of the Sidhe another. And the blue of my home, the slice cut open over Wilding Springs.
I felt them cry out, call to me, the wall allowing me to feel them even as it prevented me from saving the very ones I'd only just embraced. Demon, Sidhe, vampire, witch, sorcerer, all falling, their power flowing through the helpless drach, with the Zornovs as the focus, into the Brotherhood.
And to the stronghold's bottomless gullet of need.
Please, stop the drain! I reached for the stronghold's mind, but found only blank greed. He had to be in there somewhere, but the force-feeding of so much power must have shut off his consciousness, leaving only the siphoning monster behind.
I wept as I battered myself against Fate, begged, fell to my knees as I felt Shenka, Sassafras, Mom, Meira, all of them, my beloved ones, their power flowing in a ruptured hemorrhage I could do nothing to quell.
Belaisle's chuckling made it worse. "Little did you know," he said, "that by bringing me the drach, the masters of the veil, paired with the darling Zornov trio, you left your people at my mercy." He snorted. "All to follow some silly prophecy. You're more a fool than I ever thought, Sydlynn Hayle." Belaisle's power slapped me, jerking me out of my despair. "Thank you for giving me everything."
I staggered to my feet, heart aching, swiping the tears of agony from my face as power continued to gush out of the gashes between planes. But it was slowing, less and less flowing, coming to an end.
I saw it, watched its path, felt the understanding like a blow to my chest as the peak of the tower absorbed the magic, down into the heart of the stronghold. Belaisle saw me looking, of course he did, the bastard. Had clearly been waiting for me to notice just exactly what the siphon's focus was.
"This place was made to hold power," Belaisle said, an evil teacher with a gleeful tone.
"But not by you," Demetrius said.
Still smiling his cherub smile.
He'd finally lost his mind completely.
Belaisle's frown told me it was true. "We understood it," he said. "Used it for our purpose. And when the maji chased us from this place, we never forgot." Belaisle's eyes locked on mine. "It fed on the Enforcers, slowly gathering power. But I knew it needed the souls of maji to make our plan work." He grinned, teeth flashing, no humor in it. "Opening the power to the place, starting the transfer required the three children you gifted me. But granting me control over everything..." Belaisle threw his arms wide. "That required two very specific maji."
Oh. My. Swear-
"Did you think you were the only two with Fate on your side?" Belaisle jammed his hands into the pockets of his expensive suit, beaming much as Demetrius beamed at me, though without the small sorcerer's dreamy calm. "We have our own course to follow. And we've won, haven't we?" He tsked. "A shame you didn't put up much of a fight. I expected so much more from the great Light and Dark."
I stared up at the tower, knowing then this was my fault, Ameline's. Our power allowed this to happen.
The planes were going to fall and there was nothing I could do about it.
No, no, this couldn't be right! Fate showed me, led me to believe I had a chance...
She was wrong.
It was over.
Demetrius leaned toward me, took my hand, his sorcery bumping my power as his eyes sparkled with joy.
You fight, his mind slipped into mine, when you should just embrace your destiny.
Was he mad? Yes. Mad, lost, broken.
And yet.
It was so hard to stop fighting, to force myself to relax. Fate told me I needed to trust him, but it was difficult, painful, to ease, search for the peace I'd come here with. Leap of faith to the nth degree making my stomach cramp. Had to close my eyes, draw deep breaths, while Demetrius's steady power soothed me and the crystal in my hand hummed with happiness.
There, I felt it finally, the wall of Fate coming down. But when I snatched at my power, tried to fight again, the barrier slammed back into place. Was that the key, really? I was going to fail, my fear flailing around.
More breathing, seeming endless agony, wanting to hurry when only slow and steady gave me what I needed.
Peace. Calm. And the pull of the stronghold.
It wanted me, my magic. Began to drain me the moment Fate's wall finally collapsed. I heard Ameline gasp as I released a deep and wrenching sob, clinging to Demetrius's hand.
This was my task? To give in to the pull, to lower the wall and allow us to be drained?
Was Fate freaking loony?
I can't, I sent, frantic need beating at the edges of my forced calm. I won't be able to fight if I let go.
And yet, he sent, this is your fate, Syd.
It couldn't be. Fate wouldn't want me to fail, to let the planes die.
I opened my eyes, saw the tears standing in his big blues, the trembling smile on his lips as Ameline's power recoiled, lost the fight.
"What are you doing!" She screamed at me, struggled to keep her magic, Belaisle laughing, laughing.
What will this solve? I clung to the damaged sorcerer, desperate for any reason to believe. It will only give Belaisle his victory, more power. How is this right?
You must, he sent, soft, lovely in the midst of ugly hurt. Trust me.
So. Hard.
With a last embrace to my egos, their own resolve slipping as we clung to each other a long, lonely moment, I gave up.
Gave in.
And let the stronghold take everything I had.
Ameline shrieked at the sky as her power flowed out of her, following mine. She glared at me, hate twisting her face, spit flying from her lips as she screamed incoherently.
I didn't care. Not when I felt them leave me, one by one, my souls, my sisters. Nothing else mattered.
Ameline spun on Trinol. "This wasn't the agreement!" She hit him hard in the chest with both fists, rocking him back with a shocked expression on his face. "I will not die for this foolishness!"
I had enough magic left to feel the planes crumbling on the other side of the gashes, their edges cracking. Demonicon hovered on the edge of breaking, though I felt the Node hanging on far better than I expected it to.
Not much longer now and it would all be over.
I almost welcomed it as I sagged to my knees, weak, almost empty.
Fate was wrong. And I would rather not see how it ended, thanks.
I looked up, met Ameline's eyes as she fell, too. She clawed at the ground, pulled herself toward me, hand finally landing on mine.
Severing the last connection we both had to our power the moment we touched.
***
