[1] ᴄᴏᴍᴀᴛᴏꜱᴇ, ʟᴇɢᴀᴄɪᴇꜱ.

38.| You Can't Save Them All

The Tribrid let go of his hands gasping, she seemed out of breath. "W-what was that?"

"My prophecy," Lucas replied. "Mother, Father, and the Sphinx had been telling me all about it. My uncle says there's a loophole around it."

"How?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'm still trying to figure that all out." Lucas replies. "Don't worry Hope, the sword is here, no harm will come."

"But what if I am the one person that can control the sword and kill a Nephilim," Hope says in a panicky voice.

"Hope you've got to trust yourself. I trust you, okay? We'll figure this out."

"How can anyone trust me when I'm failing as a hero lately." Hope sighs. "I have no idea how to bring the Saltzman's back."

"Hope this isn't all on you, you've got me. Okay, we will bring them back." Lucas reassures with a small nod.

The Tribrid nodded with a slight smile, which was washed over by a frown. "Lucas your veins—they're black."

Lucas furrowed his brows, as he walked towards a mirror. "Shit—That wasn't fully a dream," he says as he touched the veins on his arms.

"What are you talking about?"

"While I was dreaming, towards the um—the end. I saw Josie, and then I was hit with this powerful wave of dark magic." Lucas explains, still keeping his focus on the veins. "I didn't think it was real. B-But now I know. Josie must've broken the sand clock."

"Why would she do that?"

Lucas shrugged. "I'm not sure. But we need to bring them back before this thing reacts in my body in a way none of us want to see."

Hope nodded. "I'm going to go back to Dr.Saltzman's office and work on the ascendant."

"I'll uh, occupy myself," Lucas replies with a huff before walking out the door.

Lucas walked himself to the kitchen where he prepared coffee for the Tribrid. She seemed tired, they both did. And Coffee did seem like the only thing to help. Once he was done he placed it all on a tray and walked into the Office.

"Hey, what's all this?" Hope says with a small, looking at the tray.

"An amazing co-hero being useful," Lucas replied as he set the tray down. "Any progress?"

"No," Hope sighed. "Alyssa spelled it so every time I repair it, it just breaks again."

"And you can't—unspell it?" Lucas says crunching up his nose in confusion

Hope snorted. "No. There's got to be something I'm overlooking."

"There is." A man says making his appearance, as he was next to Dorian. "Sorry, you have the wrong ascendant."

Lucas furrowed his brows. "Uh, listen, Jafar's long-lost brother. How would you know?"

"Fam," Dorian says bringing the attention to himself before smiling. "Meet—Joshua."

"Hello." Joshua smiled

"Old friend of Ric's. And—drumroll, please—he's also an expert on prison worlds." Dorian says with a smile. "I told him about our problem."

"Do you kind if I—" Joshua says motioning to the ascendant, and placing his glasses on. "Wow. Wow, wow, wow. It is in pieces. Oh, my." he says as he picked it up and placed it by his ear. "Yeah. There's a linking spell on this. It produces a, a faint hum, like a, like a melody, if you, if you know what to listen for."

Joshua took Lucas's head and pushed him closer to the broken ascendant as they tried to hear whatever the man had been talking about. When Joshua touched Lucas, Joshua's entire life flashed before his eyes.

And that's when Lucas realized that it was now Joshua, but it was in fact, Malachi Parker. Known as Kai Parker—the man who killed Alaric's fiancé on their wedding day.

"You clearly aren't paying attention." Kai sighs before taking the ascendant away. "When the Saltzman's performed their spell on-on this ascendant, they were being tied to another. Hold this." the man says dropping the ascendant in the hands of Lucas. "That witch of yours didn't send them to, you know, a new, empty prison world. She sent them somewhere far older and much more dangerous. And you're going to need my help to get them out."

Lucas hummed.

Hope frustratedly pulled Lucas back to her room where she began to work on getting them back.

"It's worse than we thought." Hope sighs out, as she created the ingredients for a spell. "The Saltzman's are stuck inside of a prison world with the guy who murdered their mother—they're all in danger."

"No, they aren't," Lucas says

Hope furrowed her brows. "What do you mean they aren't?"

"I mean, that did isn't Joshua—Hope. That's Kai Parker." Lucas informs

"How do you know?"

"When he touched my head, I was able to see his entire life. I guess he's a side effect with this dark magic." Lucas explained. "But I saw him murder Ric's wife, and then I saw him jump into the Malivore pit."

Hope sighed in relief. "Okay. So we just take him down now that he's here."

"We can't do that, what if he knows where the ascendant is—"

There's was knocking heard at the door and the two looked over nothing Dorian.

"Hey, sorry to intrude. Got some good news—so Joshua's doing some research for us. He said there's a rare flower that grows near the falls." The man explains. "They extract makes people tell you their deepest secrets. If we give that to Alyssa, we can get her to tell us where the ascendant is. Lucas, you come with me."

"Okay—"

"No." Hope immediately says. "He stays here."

Lucas sighed. "Hey, you try to contact them in the prison world, I'll be right back. Okay? If we take risks, we take them together."

"I'll keep him safe," Dorian reassured. "I promise."

With that, the two walked out the door leaving Hope behind.

She had a bad gut feeling, but she somewhat trusted Dorian. I mean she has to since he promised.