Walk Into The Light - Shadows of the Night 6

Chapter 23

Hi,

Thanks for all your comments on the last chapter! I really liked writing that part - I've been waiting to do this for a long time. This applies to this chapter too! :-) A word of warning: I'll go on a holiday next week and won't be able to update for two weeks. However, I'll try to make it up to you, somehow, once I'm back ;-)

PS: Please listen to the song! I think it goes well with the chapter. It's "Silence" by Delerium (acoustic version). :-)

Lara

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Chapter 23

ANDY

"Anna! Don't do it! Don't use them!"

I dropped the spell and surged forward, consequences be damned. Somewhere to my right Alexander yelled something I couldn't make out. Not that I cared. All that mattered was-

Three steps before someone crashed into me and tackled me to the ground. Cold hands, tight grip, electrified cubicle. The suffocating power of the grave rode over me, a dark massive aura closing in.

I turned my head, rearing up.

"Easy boy. Stay down, or I will make you," someone snarled behind me.

A member of Dark Death was kneeling above me, had me handcuffed with one of his hands, without me realizing. He didn't seem to have any problems with my attempts at escape, at all.

Being that close to someone that powerful, you have two choices. Fight the shit out of it anyway or give up and accept you're outgunned. I was going to give up, for now. There's always a third option: wait for the opportune moment.

I lifted my head, searching for Anna – found Giuliana kneeling in my peripheral vision, face ashen and mouth open in a voiceless cry.

My head whipped back to the street. Her hair was literally flying in the wind, face aglow with the orb of power she was channeling.

I licked my lips. This was insane. The auratic surroundings were a mess of magic and motion. Disturbed and in turmoil. Elemental power was streaming towards Anna, as if caught up in an invisible magnetic field.

How could she hold that much power?

Dammit, stop Anna. Just stop.

A plume of light exploded from Anna's hands, stone and tar beneath us moving in a low rumble.

No.

That was what I'd been afraid of ever since Alexander gave me a copy of Elena Larosa's diary. Anna's ancestor deliberately killed herself by using all the elements at once.

And now Anna was doing it too.

* * *

ANNA

Wind caressed my face, a silent assertion that smacked of fate, but couldn't distract me from the acid taste of pain. I kept pushing forward, holding the power; not lost in oblivion, but conscious, oh so very conscious and aware of all that led me to that point.

The four elements weren't meant to fuse and function as one. The magic was volatile and wild, a perfect copy of the elements' behavior and a silent bottom line to how the world worked. Once united, the elements warred with each other – and the world.

A hiss in the wave of power, another small explosion in the interwork of elements. Spirit reared up, threatening to tear out of my hands and rip away chunks of skin and bones. I held on to it with everything I had, eyes poised towards my enemies.

Everything had a price. And I was going to pay for the use of this magic.

Not yet. Just a little longer.

The beam of white reached outward, pushing against Heléna Bathoryn's invisible wall. I could feel her on the other side of the street, the magic seeping into the ring.

She'd stolen the magical artifact from me and had things turned out differently, I would have already been on my way to steal it back.

Dammit.

That night I went to Sonya Bernards, demanding she explain what kind of magical artifacts I'd gotten my hands on, I learned what kind of power I was literally holding in my hands – and instantly wished I didn't.

The null bombs Raphael Medici had carried around like a set of fancy trading cards; the bronze brooch with the embedded cloaking spell that could conceal a whole village; the file that could kill a vamp as old as Alexander – they were nothing compared to the ring.

Bernards practically kicked me out of her apartment-slash-illegal-business-premises after she saw the ring. Forged in the early 20th Century, it was made by an alliance of powerful witches that were predecessors of the three great witches of our time.

They created a magical artifact that could store more magic than any in witch history before. If Bernards was right, the golden ring could pocket and store the magic of at least 100 witches.

Heléna Bathoryn had activated the ring, creating a powerful ward-like wall that absorbed any magic I sent its way. No way back. If I wanted to win this, I had to break the magical artifact. That meant pumping the ring with more power than 100 witches.

Stabbing pain in my heart.

My breathing hitched and the beam of white power in my hands shuddered. I gritted my teeth, eyes going to Bathoryn and that dark silhouette behind her. In the light of the magic I was using, they waned into mere shadows, replicas of who they were.

I blinked, focusing on Bathoryn. She was supporting her right arm with her left, holding up the fisted hand with the ring. It looked like its use was doing a number on her too.

My gaze shifted, back to the real enemy. If I wanted to protect the people I cared about and save New York, there was only one way. Vladislav had to die.

Air, water, fire, nature – united in Spirit. The magic burst from my hands, like violent teardrops ripped from my very soul.

This is for all you've done to those I love, Vladislav.

I opened myself to all the magical planes, dropping the last remaining shields I had. Letting go of the wall of air that protected me, I embraced my surroundings. The spheric change around me was instant, part of a chain reaction I could no longer stop.

All I could do was move forward and walk right into that beam of light I kept seeing in front of me.

The elements' power surged up, magic of all flavors and planes crashing into me. And I let them.

White light exploded from my hands, racing through the space between me and Bathoryn. I saw the expression of surprise on her face, eyes wide, as the magical barrier she created fell.

I did it.

Then something inside of me broke. The white light faded into black darkness.