The Blade Wielders: Light And Dark (UNDERGOING EDITING)

Chapter 49: Love is Tricky Like That

Umah has to be alive, though. If she isn't, Lewis might not find the strength within himself to love anyone again. And Layla refuses to see her uncle with a broken heart. She refuses to let him get hurt again.

Even if the person who hurt him the first time was her own father, which she really needs to find out more about.

Before them stands an archway. Inside it looks like running water and Layla reaches forward and places a hand on the supposed liquid, but it comes away dry.

She frowns. Fey magic. Always tricky.

Jens sweeps an arm towards the mirror. "Go ahead, Layla."

Layla nods and clears her throat. "I request the presence of the nymph, Eudora."

Then the strangest thing happens: The ripples in the archway begin to seperate, stretching further and further away from one another, as Layla, Jens, Rak, Lewis, Castor and Nina all watch in awe.

"Quick!" Rak says. "Through the gap. We won't have a lot of time before she comes."

Layla holds back and Nina stays by her side, as agreed. Jens grabs her hand and squeezes it. "I love you," he murmurs.

"Likewise," Layla murmurs back.

Rak ducks through the hole, followed by Jens and then Lewis. But Castor hangs back, looking at Layla and Nina like he has something to say.

Layla raises an eyebrow at him. "Well?" She asks, and her voice comes out harder than what she meant it to.

Castor looks down. "Stay safe. Both of you."

He's on the other side of the archway seconds after.

Layla and Nina stare at each other.

"What do we do when Eudora arrives?" Nina whispers.

Layla pulls out her dagger in reply and chucks into the air, catching it perfectly in the opposite hand.

She grins.

Nina just sighs. "Oh."
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As soon as Lewis stepped through the archway and into the Fair Woodlands, he lost his footing and almost fell face-first into a pile of blooming flowers that, despite being beautiful, are probably lethal, with scarlet red thorns framing their rosy petals, like blood dripping from a wound.

Cas pulls him back before he can fall, shaking his head and laughing slightly. "Forever with two left feet, little brother."

Lewis finds himself smiling.

Both boys look to Jens and Rak, who are not as much in awe as they are, clearly having seen this place once already.

And what a place it is. Elegance radiates from every corner- nook and cranny would not fit for the Fair Woodlands at all, for it seems too perfectly molded for such terms- and the warmth of the sun washes over them, only to be snatched back and replaced with the frigidity of night, in which the wind whistles through their ears. Such bitter cold has produced frost that blankets flower stems and tree trunks, only for the opposing warmth to thaw it slowly, both temperatures constantly melting into one another.

Lewis and Cas begin to nod along to a lilting, eerie melody that has caught on the air, and suddenly Lewis feels so much calmer; like a hand has been squeezing his heart and has only now just decided to pull away. He realises, almost with a dry sort of amusement, that the real reason he is here is not to save Umah, but to join the Fair Folk. To sing until his throat is raw and the words no longer make sense, and to dance until his feet fall off.