Chapter 50

A rrows from Gideon's bow sank into the serpent's flesh, and an array of knives hurled towards the beast from the remaining clan members.

But Emara was still, unable to move as she witnessed such a creature enter her world. It was easily the most terrifying thing she had ever been in proximity to, something from her darkest nightmares and deepest fears mixed together. The things that came from that portal just kept getting worse.

And as Balan smiled again, he spoke in a tongue so ancient that Emara didn't understand it. The serpent snapped forward just as Torin took a swing at Balan. Emara's heart almost stopped entirely. She kicked back and made contact with the knight's shin, and he finally let go of her throat. Emara spied a ruby that twinkled at her on the ground just below her. She flicked her hand and the earth where the Agnes lay exploded, tossing the weapon into the air. With her arms still bound by the shadows, she caught the spear horizontally in her mouth and bit down hard on the ruby. The blade fired out, and she whipped her head to the side. The blade penetrated the knight's heart, finally freeing her of its grip. Without taking a moment to breathe, she turned on the demon, palms already blazing with fire, and scorched it alive.

But that wasn't enough. She hurled air at it and swung Agnes at its neck, taking its head off through the flames.

Finally, she took a second to breathe and gather herself.

She had just killed a knight of the underworld.

"That was utterly breathtaking, Empress," Kellen Blacksteel said as her gaze met with his unusual eyes. "What a kill."

She bowed her head to him. "I hope to do this clan proud."

Kellen darted off, hurling another knife. It landed between the serpent's eyes, but a small hunting knife wasn't going to make a dent in such a huge beast. Emara had used a lot of her fire and the majority of her air magic, but she felt another element bubbling under her skin.

Earth thrummed in her veins, and as the beast hurtled towards Breighly, Emara brought forth everything she could feel and slammed her hand into the ground. The earth beneath everyone's feet rattled and groaned, and the serpent paused, rocking with everyone else. Emara's eyes met Sybil's, and for a short moment, the earth witch smiled a grin that Emara had never seen before. Together, they were an unbelievable strength. Together, they could use earth to win.

Sybil conjured four massive vines that rose into the air like serpents of her own. Torin and Artem continued to battle with Balan, but everyone else stilled as the redheaded witch slammed her magic into the serpent. Her vines snatched around it and it growled, its teeth snapping at the indestructible vines. It let out a roar that could have deafened everyone around it.

The Empress of Earth closed her eyes and Emara followed her lead. They gathered their magic together, pulling from the gardens around them. As earth called to her, stealing the breath from her lungs, Emara slammed her hand into the ground.

The world shook.

Cracks began to form, and Breighly was the quickest to jump out of the way, followed by the surviving hunters. The ground opened in a huge fissure that was travelling directly to the serpent still struggling against Sybil's vines, which had only multiplied. Emara bellowed, feeling the magic in her blood take over and push through her boundaries. The ground wedged open wider, and the serpent struggled to stay above the earth. The land began to tumble into the open ground, falling into an abyss below the surface. The monster clung to the broken gravel, and Emara smiled as she stood. Sybil's hand moved in a command to the vines to drag the beast into the abyss, and the demon screeched as it fell into the blackness forever.

In a rage, Balan threw out a hand at Artem Stryker, and a tendril of darkness threw him through the air and pinned him to the ground. A whine left Breighly as she ran to his side. Emara couldn't look away as three more tendrils of dark magic broke from Balan's hands and made their way to Torin. It worked its way around Torin's sword like a snake and disarmed him. Torin tried to punch out, but before he could hit the mist, the dark tendril dove through Torin's chest.

The whole kingdom spun.

Gasps and screams whirled around in the wind. Silence filled Emara's ears as she witnessed Torin choke and spit blood from his mouth. His eyes found hers, and horror took over all sense as she screamed. Air exploded through the gardens and fire soared from her palms, but Balan dodged every unruly flame. The vines followed her as she walked towards him.

This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen.

The earth trembled and trees began to topple. Little orbs floated around in the winds of terror that Emara had created, and murmurs from the ancestors sang through the temple grounds.

Torin roared and fell to the ground in agony. "Get her out of here, Gideon! I won't let her watch me die. Don't let her see me die."

Another dark tendril struck through Torin's torso, and his eyes bulged from his skull in pain. A third picked him up by the tunic and held him so that he was dangling in front of his clan.

Emara blasted the king with the last bit of magic that she could summon before her legs gave out. Gideon caught her and spat, "You fucking let my brother go. Take me. Have me."

Horror filled Emara's lungs, her veins, her heart. Her lips parted, but nothing formed. Her magic was trembling, her darkness building.

"Get…h-her out of here," Torin begged Gideon as blood dripped from his mouth.

A horrible cry left her mouth as she began running towards him.

Balan, with the most callous look she had ever seen, dropped him to the ground. She wondered how her mother could ever love such a creature. She slid to a halt and her knees hit the ground. She tried to see where Torin's blood was coming from, but her bones were shaking and her vision was blurry. She quickly wiped her tears, knowing this wasn't the end. She could heal him, couldn't she?

"Torin," she called as her blood-stained hands found his face. "Stay with me. Sybil!" she screeched, her voice ripping her throat apart.

He was pale, so pale.

No, no, no.

This wasn't happening again.

"Go, angel. L-leave," he said as his hands tried to find hers. He was struggling to keep his ocean eyes open, and his lashes were wet with tears.

Dying. He was dying. Torin was dying.

She grabbed a hold of his tunic, and with strength that she had no idea she had, she ripped it open to find two huge wounds.

Oh Gods, oh Gods.

Vomit was crawling up her throat and the cold feeling of death was skating across her skin.

She could feel the spirits of the Otherside watching her as she struggled to breathe. "Torin, please, please," she called to him—or maybe to the Gods. "Please. I need you. You won't die. You can't. I need you."

"Angel." He tried to place a hand to her face, but he was too weak. He was beginning to shake. "Save yourself."

A roar erupted from her, and the whole temple grounds quaked again. Even Balan took a step back. Sybil arrived and gripped Emara's hand. "Emara, listen to me. You need to focus if you want to heal him. Block everything else out."

She tried, but her blistering rage sought revenge and carnage. It consumed everything, even her pain.

"Emara, there is darkness coming from your hands," Sybil announced. "That will not save him. You need to focus on the Light of your healing magic."

A small scoff came from the king. Emara glared at him, ready to end his life, the darkness building in her veins.

"Do you want to know the beauty of this moment?" Balan asked so calmly it made her want to burst into flames.

She let a fierce growl rip from her throat.

"I have the Immortality Stone. The Stone that I stole from your mother as she tried to end me can save his life."

Her mother had used the Immortality Stone and the Protection Stone to ensnare Balan in the underworld. Then why had she had the Resurrection Stone?

"No," Torin choked, gargling on a substance that Emara couldn't bear to name. "You—you w-will be fine without me."

She heard a cry from Gideon and a roar from Marcus.

Tears blinded her, but she placed her hands over his wounds, trying to pull back on the darkness and let the light in. "I am not letting you die. No. I am not letting you die."

Sybil chanted something under her breath, but Emara couldn't focus on what it was.

Torin somehow found the strength to pull her to his lips. She knew it was his way of saying goodbye. "Warriors never die, Emara. Their soul…their soul will always be a warrior. I will always look over you from the Otherside."

She cradled Torin's head in her arms. "You are going to be okay. You are not leaving me. You are not leaving me." She stroked the damp, dark hair from his eyes as her tears fell onto his face.

A bloody cough made its way up his throat, but he still tried his best to show her his dimples. "If I die protecting y-you, it was all worth it. You were worth everything." The glittering of his eyes faded slightly, the same way Callyn's did before she passed over. "Every sassy remark, every…elbow." He forced a smile. "Every kiss, every laugh. All of it. I would die over and over again just to see you smile one last time."

"Stop talking like that." Her tears splashed onto his bloody face and panic absolutely drenched her soul. "I am not going to lose you. You are the best thing to ever happen to me, and I need you alive. Even if you hate me for what I am about to do, I need you alive, Torin Blacksteel. I can't—I won't lose you." She turned to face Balan. The faces of her clan were pale and taut, and Kellen was weeping as Arlo Stryker tried to hold his hand through the tendrils of darkness that rooted them where they stood. "I will do it," she choked. "I will do what you want. Anything. But I need the Immortality Stone to save him and I need your word that you will give me it."

"No, Emara," Torin coughed out, and she gripped him tighter. Balan smiled. "No. Emara, no," Torin spat out, trying to move. "Please a-angel, live. Live…without me."

Choking on a cry of her own, she gathered enough strength to ignore the man that she loved more than herself. "I am not stupid," she cried. "I know he's dying and I know that is what you want." She gripped into the ripped pieces of Torin's tunic.

"Artem, if Gideon can't c-convince her, you need to," Torin hissed, his breathing laboured. "Do not let her make…any…deals."

"Brother." Artem's voice was soft and pleading.

Moments. She had moments left. Seconds.

"Name your price, Balan, and I will pay it," she roared. "I will do anything."

Artem Stryker cursed.

Balan moved towards her, and she lifted a bloody palm into the air and ignited her darkness. It swirled around her fingertips, waiting to be released.

The King of the Underworld halted causally, knowing he had won. "Your payment will be that you will become the Princess of the Underworld, the Empress of Darkness, and follow me into the nine realms. You are the key to it all. You will be the queen of it all one day."

You are the key to it all.

Cally had said the same thing, but in a completely different way. The way Balan said it sent the most vile shivers through her.

She could see it now, her two worlds unfolding in front of her. If she stayed in the Light, she might lose Torin forever and still face the Dark Army anyway. But if she went with Balan now, maybe she could find a way to kill him herself.

She gritted her teeth. "Give me the Stone to ensure he lives and you have a deal."

"No," Torin begged. "Stop. Emara, s-stop. Let me go. I will always be with you."

She turned to look down at the only man that she ever loved as his blood spilled out around her knees. "I love you, Torin Blacksteel. I love you more than the moon loves the stars," she whispered as she lowered her mouth to his and placed a delicate kiss to his lips. It wasn't enough, but his life was so fragile that he couldn't take any more. "And I will find my way back to you, back home. I promise."

Emara could hear Gideon and Artem screaming in the background, restrained again by Balan's darkness. She could hear a howling wolf. As Balan, King of the Underworld, ordered her to rise, she did, blocking out everything else in the kingdom. She would do anything to save Torin. If Balan wanted her to play at being the Empress of Darkness, she would.

Before Torin could try and pull her back down, she filtered a light healing spell over him to put him into a sleep. His lids shut, and she hoped to the Gods that they would open once more when she was gone.

Balan smiled as she walked towards him and he pulled a silvery stone from his armour. She could feel the pull of its power calling to her like the others had, and as he held it up, she could see little souls swimming underneath the rock's surface.

"Place this over his heart and it will beat again. He will awake at dawn as an immortal solider, living as old as the trees if your Gods allow him." He threw the Stone at Sybil. "I will be back for that Stone, little Empress of Earth, and soon." He looked towards Emara. "Come with me, Empress of Darkness."

"Wait," she called out, her heart pounding. "When you return for the Stone, I need you to promise me that you will not harm a person standing here."

"Emara, Torin's not breathing," Sybil wept.

Emara's heart shattered. Her gaze flicked to her father, but before she could say anything to him about not keeping his end of the bargain, he said, "Give it a moment."

Emara's eyes darted back to Sybil, who had her hand over Torin's chest and the Stone on his heart. Even one second was too long to wait, and the pain that drove through her heart was enough to bring her to the ground.

Sybil lifted her gaze and found Emara. "His pulse is faint, but it is there."

A sigh of relief not only swept through her, but the crowd too.

"Keep that Stone over the warrior's heart," Balan instructed. "You wouldn't want all of these deals to not be worth it."

Rage built up in Emara, but he had a point. All of this couldn't have been for nothing. Balan turned, and a tendril of darkness pulled Emara with him.

Like her air, it wrapped around her entire body and swept her towards the portal. Taking one look back at her clan—her family—she whispered, "Look after him and tell him I am sorry." She looked to Gideon, who was as pale as snow, and Arlo with Kellen now in his embrace. Breighly stood alone, her eyes teary. "Look after each other. I will find my way back to you all, I promise."

Then she turned her back on them and vanished into the portal. Balan's tendrils clutched her hand as she travelled into a world of brutality and darkness to become empress.