Leading Aegis: Chapter 43 (Patreon)

For several moments after Simon’s burst of fire disappeared into the earth, nothing happened. Ophelia rolled onto her stomach, ignoring the stabs of pain in her bones and joints as she climbed to her feet, and she stood there. Waiting. Watching as Simon’s chest heaved for breath and he went from staring into the chasm to looking at her, and back again. Still waiting. Still anticipating.

Then it happened all at once. The ground shook beneath their feet. One successive quake hit after another, each one bigger than the last until the tremor was so strong that Ophelia had to bend her knees to keep from toppling over. Pieces of damaged wall crumbled. The ground split through the middle of the courtyard, leaving a deep fissure straight through. Simon staggered a few paces backward as loose earth around the edges of the hole broke apart and plummeted into the abyss.

And still it grew. Until Ophelia knelt and set her palm against the stone to maintain her balance. Until she couldn’t tell if her vision was blurry or if everything around her was shaking thatintensely. Then all the pressure from the explosion burst out the top of the chasm in one violent blow that sent any remaining loose rock around the opening blasting into the air. The stones ascended with such velocity that one crashed into the underside of a Sovereign ship’s hull and came out through main deck. It exploded so forcefully that it blasted Simon away from the entrance into the air and sent him crashing down more than thirty feet away.

It stopped as quickly as it started. Simon’s eyes were locked on her as he pushed himself off the ground, but a scream tore her gaze upward. That scream was immediately followed by another as a second of the Sovereign Summoners who’d been flying on summoned mounts plummeted out of the sky. One after the other, their mounts disappeared, and they dropped. Each of them hollering for help as they gestured outward, trying to summon something to catch them before it was too late.

But the first soldier struck the ground outside the courtyard with such a sickeningly loud thud that it was audible from beyond the walls. Then the other, and another, until every one of them had perished from the fall.

Simon’s brow was furrowed as they locked eyes again, and Ophelia knew that he was also wondering what just happened. And it wouldn’t take him long to reach the same conclusion she did. The heart had said that she was the source of their magic, and if everyone around them was losing it, then she was dead. No more magic, and no more replenishing of the antigravity minerals. Islands would sink. Ships would stop flying. Eventually, the world as they knew it would end. And Ophelia’s magic…

Without warning, Simon hurled a flame across half the courtyard at her. She didn’t know if he was testing his own magic or hers, or if she even still had any to protect herself with. So it surprised them both when she deflected it with ease, whirling it around herself to fling it back at him.

It was just them, then, wasn’t it? They were the only two left with their magic touched by a god, and as Simon’s eyes narrowed at her with a murderous glare, it was clear he intended to reduce that number to one.

He charged at her at the same time as his dragon’s thunderous footsteps picked up, and she had no choice but to run. To regroup with Carolina and figure out how they’d get out of this alive.

She took off for the courtyard exit, only making it a few paces before the shadow of a foot hovered over her. She leapt aside as the dragon’s step smashed down in her trajectory, rolling out of the way until Simon altered stone around her ankle and jolted her to a stop. He was closing the distance fast, and she removed the stone from her ankle and dodged her head away from another hurled boulder, and then shoved herself up to keep running.

Altered wind at her back carried her forward. Every time Simon threw something sideways at her, she made a desperate block with her forearms and kept going, bearing the brunt of each hit to focus on escape. Every time the dragon tried to crush her or snap at her, she dodged sideways or pulled up a thick pillar of stone behind her, giving her one extra second to get away as the dragon’s massive teeth pulverized the pillar.

She burst out of the courtyard scathed but alive and flew down the steps, crashing into Carolina at the bottom.

Carolina grabbed her by the shoulders to steady them both from the collision, her face muddy with blood and sweat as she said, “You made it!”

“Run,” Ophelia panted, and yelled at the rest of the fighters still battling Sovereign soldiers, “RUN!”

The dragon demolished the courtyard entrance as it burst out into the center of town. Ophelia grabbed Carolina’s hand as they took off, aiming to intercept a soldier who was climbing onto the back of his draken.

“Where’s Lia and Izaak?” she asked as they reached the man.

Carolina grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him out of the saddle, slamming him to the ground. “Running,” she answered. “Lia’s magic is gone.” They both jumped onto the draken’s back, and Carolina directed it into the air just in time to avoid a swing of the dragon’s tail. “Is yours?”

In response, Ophelia hurled a ball of fire down at the dragon’s head, but it wasn’t fazed. Nor was it fazed as it ploughed through a building to chase them as they retreated away from the courtyard.

“We have to get it out of the city!” Ophelia hollered. Carolina pulled on the reins to redirect them. “Up!”

Carolina yanked upward, and their draken swooped out of the dragon’s jaws as it leapt into the air to try and catch them. The hulking creature hammered back to the ground on all fours and pivoted to make chase, but no sooner had it begun to come after them did it turn again to head a different direction. Ophelia shifted in the saddle to follow its path.

“It’s going after Lia and Izaak!” she shouted.

“But where’s Simon?” Carolina asked.

The very moment she finished that question, an entire chunk of building the dragon had smashed through came hurtling out of the air. It crashed into the side of them, knocking them both from the saddle and sending them cascading toward the ground. Ophelia breathed into her hands and summoned a mistling, and all it had time to do was catch Carolina before she hit the floor.

It didn’t have time to catch her, and she shot a burst of air at the earth just before she collided to try and cushion the fall. It did very little, and she slammed back to the ground with such violent force that her vision went black. For several seconds as she coughed and wheezed, desperate to fill her lungs with all the air that had been knocked out of them, she was blind.

“Ophelia!” Carolina screamed, and slid to the ground at her side as a small speck at the center of her vision returned. “Say something,” she pleaded.

Ophelia sucked in a deep, raspy breath as she rolled onto her back and hissed, “OW.”

Carolina huffed a relieved laugh and grabbed one of her hands to help her sit up. “Simon will catch up any second,” she said. “We got to get you out of here.”

“We need a plan,” she huffed through a shallow pant, leaning back on one of her hands to clutch at her chest with the other.

“Summon something else,” Carolina said, gesturing at the summoned mistling that had rescued her. “A dragon, like his. You did it once before you Ascended. You can do it again.”

“I can’t.” She shook her head. “Their fighting will do too much damage to the city — there are still civilians here. And with all the Sovereign soldiers around, it’s too risky.” She froze midway through another deep inhale, and then her hand shot out to grab Carolina’s shoulder.

“What?” Carolina asked.

“Remember the night Vana snuck into your cabin?” she asked, and Carolina nodded. “She banished my energy from the nightwing I summoned.”

Carolina’s head turned with her shoulders as she searched for Simon’s dragon. A dragon he’d summoned with a bright, glowing heart. “He doesn’t know it’s possible to summon without it,” she realized. “Are you going to take control of it?”

“No,” she answered. “Because that heart is his biggest vulnerability.” Carolina’s eyebrows rose. “Do you really have a shadow purge, or were you bluffing the night you rescued me from the bounty hunters?”

Carolina’s lips split into the widest grin she’d ever seen as she reached into her bullet pouch and dug around, pulling out a bullet with glowing markings.

“The only problem is that its chest is too thick for that bullet to penetrate,” Ophelia told her. “And I can’t fight Simon and the dragon at the same time.”

Carolina tucked the bullet back into her pouch as her chin fell, and she thought about it for several seconds before her head shot up again. “The laibralt explosives Izaak has,” she said. “They should be enough to blast a hole in its chest. Enough for me to get a clean shot on its heart.”

“Yes,” she agreed, grabbing Carolina’s face in her hands and giving her one quick kiss. Then she gestured toward her mistling, and reclaimed her breath without dispelling it. “Go.”

But as the glowing heart in her mistling faded, Simon came bursting around the corner, skidding to a stop when he saw them and making Carolina hesitate to stand.

“Go,” Ophelia emphasized in a whisper. “Before he notices. I’ll keep him busy.”

“I love you,” Carolina said. “Run if you have to.”

She nodded, and Carolina turned on her heels as she stood and sprinted for the mistling. Before Simon could watch her mount and notice that Ophelia had summoned it without a heart, she growled, “Simon,” and pushed herself to her feet. “You killed her.”

“Good,” he said gruffly. “And once I kill you too, I’ll be the most powerful being in the world.”

“And for what?” she demanded, grimacing and clutching her ribs as she took one challenging step forward.

“I’ll conquer empires and rebellions,” he said. “With me as the sole ruler, wars will end. People will fall in line. I’ll be the god who brought them peace.”

“If you think the indentured and the freedom fighters and the people you conquer will ever think of you as anything but a tyrant, you’re in for a world of disappointment.”

His jaw quivered with the clench of his teeth and fists as he glared at her, but he said nothing.

“Come on, then,” she dared, “show me how a god finishes fights.”

He responded to her challenge by drawing his sword from the sheath at his hip for the first time since they’d arrived. And he wielded that sword as he rushed at her blade-first. She didn’t have any weapons of her own, so she pulled a shield of stone from the ground just as he reached her, blocking his first swing. He immediately followed with another, and buffeted the stone with full-strength blows as she retreated backward, until her back hit the wall of a building and her shield cracked.

She flung the broken pieces forward before his next strike could break through it, smashing them into his face and leaving his torso open. She kicked him in the stomach to knock him away, but as he staggered backward, he melded the stone of the building behind her to trap her elbow. He lunged forward as the point of his sword plunged toward her stomach, and she pulled a brick in front of her to block it as the weapon drove that brick hard into her belly.

She buckled over and yanked her arm free of the building, grabbing his wrist as she twisted away from the point of the sword and pulled. The tip of the sword met the building behind her, giving her an opening to drive her elbow upward and slam it against his chin. She pulled the sword out of his hands while he was reeling from the blow and kicked him in the stomach again, bashing him several yards away from her.

With the sword in her grip, she gestured in front of her to make herself unseen.

Simon didn’t give her a chance to dash around behind him. He sparked a massive flame between his hands and gestured outward, blasting that fire at every angle away from himself, forcing Ophelia to stop her advance to yank up a pillar of stone and block herself from the blaze.

It revealed her location to him, and he slammed into the opposite side of her pillar just as the flame passed her by, breaking it from the ground and crashing it into her so she went flying backwards. It smashed her back into the wall again, the force of the blow knocking her out of her spell. His sword was runed to him, and he altered it to tear it from her hands and caught the grip in his own as he advanced.

Even though she was lightheaded from the hit of the pillar, she shoved herself off the wall to meet him, only for him to beat her back against it with a blast of wind as he closed the remaining distance. All she had time to do was pull one piece of brick or stone from the building after another to meet each swing as he buffeted her with another storm of strikes. She worked herself away from the wall with each blow until she wasn’t trapped against it and retreated one step at a time while he kept coming.

The sword blasted through every stone she pulled, hardly slowing down as it pulverized them so that she narrowly avoided being struck. And on Simon’s next swing, she ran out of loose stones. She leapt back, arching forward to try and curl herself over the blade as it sailed by her torso, but the point of it sliced across her ribs. She stumbled as she landed, falling backward to the ground as Simon slammed his sword down at her.

She surged up onto her knees and raised both hands to push against his forearm and stop his slash, but he immediately smashed his other fist into her face. She hit the ground and rolled away as his sword struck the street where she’d been, but the moment she stopped rolling, he was already there. She shifted to one knee as he raised his weapon, and then altered a sphere of stone from the ground to seal herself within it.

She needed a break. She needed to catch her breath and think, and Simon struck the outside of her sphere once with the sword to no avail, and she thought she had it. Thought she’d found a way to protect herself for only a few moments while she rested. But in an instant, the size of her hull collapsed in on her. It shrank as the earth tried to swallow the stone back up and take her with it.

Her hands shot outward as she ducked her head, stopping the devouring of her pod just as the rock caressed her shoulders. She could barely move. She was trapped on every side in a tomb of her own making as she strained against Simon trying to crush her, and as he strained against her.

She gritted her teeth with the effort, grunting as the structure shrank and pressed her another couple inches toward the ground. She had to get out. Had to free herself before the earth swallowed her whole. But she was tired, and hurt, and bleeding, and Simon was strong. He was so strong, and she’d already lost to him so many times. She failed to kill him. She failed to keep him from Ascending. She failed to save herself and she failed to save the heart.

But if she failed again then it wasn’t just the end of her. Simon would kill her friends. He’d kill Carolina. He’d go after her parents. He’d ruin the lives of people everywhere, and she couldn’t be the one to let that happen. She didn’t even have to beat him. She just had to keep him busy. To keep him from noticing what Carolina was doing. She just had to live. And oh, how badly she wanted to live.

She wanted to experience the empire under Izaak’s rule. She wanted to go to the salt lakes with Carolina and all their friends and family. She wanted to know Carolina’s touch again. She wanted to get married and fill her heart with their life together because that was the whole point of it all, wasn’t it? Love.

It’s why she left Sovereign. It’s why she devoted her life to helping others and doing what she thought was right, even when it was lonely. And it was the only reason she was still alive. Because Carolina loved her endlessly, and they’d saved each other time and time again. Because she’d given her compassion to the bounty hunters when she’d have rather run, and she would’ve died without Abner doing the same. Because a deity loved her kind unconditionally, even if they didn’t deserve it.

And it was the thing she had that Simon didn’t. He’d killed the only three beings on earth that might’ve still cared for him. Vana, the emperor, and the heart were all dead, and there was no one else there to help him because the Sovereign soldiers were only fighting to save themselves. There was no one looking out for him. No one pulling strings in his defense like Carolina was doing for her. No one left to save him from himself.

That was why she’d survive. Why she wouldn’t give up, and why she’d keep fighting even if it hurt. Even if she was exhausted and scared and running out of hope. Because no matter what, and no matter how strong Simon was, she had more on her side than he could ever imagine.

So she yelled, and she pushed. She strained harder than she ever had against the crushing rock at her back, and she screamed that effort from the very depths of her soul. She poured every bit of will she had left into one massive burst of energy and sent the stone around her exploding outward.

She gasped a breath of fresh night air as the blast shot Simon over a dozen feet backward into the wall with a cloud of dust and debris. He slammed into the building with a heavy thwack and dropped straight to the ground, his sword falling out of his hand as he lay amongst the rubble.

He shook the dust off his head while Ophelia stood, pushing onto his elbows and then shifting his weight to one arm as he struggled to do the same. He staggered to his feet, shoulders and chest heaving with each deep, rapid breath while he turned his dark look on Ophelia. His head was down and his brow low, his eyes narrowed as he glared through his lashes with a profound and visceral hatred.

He kept that look trained on her while he bent over to pick his sword up, but no sooner than he grabbed it and straightened did his face contort with a grimace. He dropped the weapon straight back to the ground. She’d injured him enough that he couldn’t hold it anymore, and while that brought her some small semblance of relief, it didn’t last.

All his rage escaped his lungs as he bellowed and charged. He led with a fiery fist as he reached her, raining it down from above to strike her over the head. She raised her arms to block the blow, enduring the burn to crash her knee upward into his stomach. He buckled over, and she altered wind to send her fist flying into his cheek amidst the sound of bone meeting bone. A sharp jolt cracked through her hand as her knuckles split the flesh beneath Simon’s eye, but he surged forward from his downward position, ramming his shoulder into her chest.

But he didn’t hit her and stop. He kept coming, grabbing the backs of her thighs as he sprinted to carry her forward, taking her to the next closest building to slam her back against it. She tried bringing her elbow down against his spine and punching the back of his head to get him to drop her, but then her shoulders struck brick and knocked what little breath she had out of her lungs.

He let her go and she crumbled, but even though she was coughing for air, she swung as hard as she could from her position on the ground, throwing the weight of her body behind her fist to strike the tender meat toward the inside of his thigh. He collapsed to one knee, and she grabbed the back of his head and yanked him forward as she ducked out of the way, slamming his forehead against the brick behind her.

While he collapsed forward, she scrambled away from him to try and regain her feet, but he reached out for one of her ankles and held on tight while he lay there, struggling to recover from her blows. She tried to pull out of his grip, and when that didn’t work, she kicked at his wrist with her other foot. Her boot struck his already injured arm and he roared, surging forward to grab her again. He grunted against the pain as he swatted away every kick she gave, still scrambling back to try and stay out of reach.

But he crawled to his knees and grabbed her ankle once more with his good arm while he surged to his feet. He stepped and arched sideways with her in his grip, and then spun, his strength and the momentum hauling her off the ground and swinging her through the air. He slammed her shoulder-first into the wall and let her drop straight to the ground as he staggered sideways, clutching his arm to his ribs and panting for air.

She choked on the agony shooting through her back and heart and lungs, coughing into the corner between the wall and the ground as she writhed. She wasn’t even sure if she was trying to get up or just to breathe through the excruciation, but neither of those worked. She rolled onto her back as Simon staggered toward her, and when he raised a boot to stomp it down on her, she rolled into him.

It took him down, but it put him in position to kick her instead of stomping on her, and the sole of his boot crashed into her chest. She wheezed, getting lightheaded from the lack of air as Simon climbed back to his feet. He limped over her again, and she whipped her arm as she rolled sideways, hurling a rock from the ground that crashed into the side of his skull. He staggered several steps over, grabbing at his head as he lost his balance and dropped to his knees.

For a minute afterward, they both stayed there. Recovering. Sucking air into their lungs as if it was the last air on earth. Simon was the first to stand again, and Ophelia took every extra moment she could while he trudged to his sword and picked it up with his non-dominant hand. He dragged it tiredly across the street as he carried it back to her, and only raised it above his head when he was ready to strike.

Ophelia pulled a shield of stone in front of her to block it, and it took him a couple slow seconds to find the energy to swing at her again. She lolled sideways so he missed and batted her foot upward against the outside of his arm, knocking the sword from his grip. And when he leaned over to grab it, she kicked it away and sent it sliding into the street.

He stayed doubled over for a few more seconds before letting out a growling sigh and straightening up. He turned on her, wiping the back of his hand through the blood streaming down his cheek. He was cut, his eye was bloodshot, there was a laceration on the side of his head and his forehead, and she’d nearly incapacitated one of his arms and legs. But she was just as exhausted and injured as he was, if not more so.

So when he made one wide step to the side of her, she was too slow and weak to keep him from reaching down and grabbing the collar of her shirt. He dragged her one hobbled step at a time across the road while she tried to pry away his grip, and didn’t stop until he’d deposited her in the middle of the street. Then he turned away, limping a few steps back, taking in a couple deep breaths, and then grunting as he pulled a massive sheet of stone from the road. He held it high above his head, and he turned, and then froze. His brow furrowed and his stance wavered under its weight as he hesitated, because Ophelia was smiling up at him.

>>>>>>>>

Carolina took off into the air on the back of the mistling Ophelia had summoned and searched for the blackfire dragon. It wasn’t hard to miss. It had chased Izaak and Lia as they rode a draken to one of the rebel ships hovering in the air, but since they’d ascended out of its reach, it turned on the remaining fighters back at the courtyard. It would kill every Trayward guard and rebel there if she didn’t hurry, so she urged the mistling faster, until she landed on the deck of the ship after Izaak and Lia.

“Carolina!” Izaak called in surprise. “Where’s Ophelia?”

“Distracting Simon,” she told him. “I need your laibralt explosives.”

Izaak turned to one of his troops and said, “Fetch them,” and then asked her, “What’s the plan?”

“I’m going to blast a hole in that dragon,” she answered, pulling the shadow purge out of her bullet pouch, “and I’m going to shoot it with this.”

“What do you need us to do?” Lia asked.

She returned the bullet to the pouch and pointed at their draken. “Get back on and help distract it.”

Izaak whistled, calling a second mount out of the air and to the deck beside him as the rebel returned with a small satchel, which he held out to Carolina.

She opened the top to peer down at the two metal spheres with a single seam around the middle of each. “How do they work?”

“Twist one half,” Izaak answered, “it releases a compound that’ll react with the laibralt core after ten seconds.”

“Got it,” she told him. She flung the strap of the satchel crossways over her body and climbed back onto her shadow mistling, and before doing anything else, she pulled the shadow purge out one more time. She ran her thumb over the illuminated markings, kissed it for good luck, and then loaded it into her single-shot pistol and jammed the weapon back into its holster. “Let’s go.”

They burst into the air, and she made a quick swoop toward Omen to search the fighters on deck.

“Wyatt!” she hollered as he subdued one of the few remaining soldiers. He looked upward at her. “Mount up! I need your help!”

Wyatt stuck his fingers into his mouth and whistled for Maple, immediately climbing into her saddle and meeting Carolina in the air. “What do I do?” he asked.

“Keep that dragon off of me so I can kill it,” she told him.

He nodded, following her, Izaak, and Lia back down toward the surface, where Carter abandoned the fight outside the courtyard and met them on Kip’s back. Carolina searched the city streets just long enough to see that Ophelia was still fighting Simon, and then led the charge as she flew straight at the dragon.

She swept down in front of its eyeline, pulling its focus away from the troops and rebels and evacuating civilians on the ground as all five of them began to buzz around its head. It snapped at her, its massive jaws narrowly missing her as Wyatt and Carter both fired a pistol shot at the side of its head. Its thick tail nearly swiped Izaak out of the air as it wheeled on Wyatt and Carter, its footsteps thundering as it pounded after them.

It lowered its snout and tried to ram Wyatt out of the air, but he rushed upward and it missed, slamming its horns through the top of a building instead. The dragon hardly noticed as it roared, jaws wide as its head pitched sideways to try and catch Carter while he swooped past its nose. It missed him too, and Lia dove beneath its belly and sprang up from under its chin, slashing her sword across the edge of its jaw as she careened out of the way.

The dragon was more annoyed than hurt, and while it was distracted by the others, Carolina searched for the best way to penetrate its thick, charcoal flesh. Its chest was far too deep to blow a hole in and be able to reach the heart, but its sides weren’t. And its glowing heart was tucked directly behind its front flank, beneath a smoky layer of soot that two laibralt explosives might just be able to penetrate. All she had to do was position herself long enough to throw them.

She dropped down behind its front elbow and began to dig through the satchel for one of the explosives, but she barely got one hand in the bag before her mistling canted sideways to avoid being rammed by the dragon’s shoulder. It kept coming, leaning all its weight over to try and smash her into the next nearest building, but they dropped just as the dragon crashed into the structure.

Still unfazed by the impact, the dragon lifted one foot, bringing it smashing down behind her as she swept back up. Izaak circled around behind the dragon to shoot at its back, and when the bullet pierced the scales along its spine, it roared and spun. Its heavy tail lashed through the air, cracking into the side of Izaak’s mount and knocking them into the side of a two-story home.

“Help him!” Carolina screamed to Lia as Izaak and his mount tumbled to the ground.

And as the dragon lifted its foot to crush them underneath, Carter raced in, perching Kip on its raised foot just long enough for Kip’s claws to dig in and distract it. The dragon’s focus followed as Carter took off, leaving Lia free to land and make sure Izaak was still breathing.

But Carolina had another opening. The dragon was turning away from her to chase after Carter, leaving its forward flank wide open. She dove in, hovering at its side as she made another reach for the explosives. Her fingers closed around one. She pulled it from the bag and set her other hand on top to twist, only to be thrown sideways as the dragon jolted and knocked into them.

The explosive flew out of her hand as she wrapped her arms around the mistling’s neck to keep from being thrown off, and she panicked as it sailed toward the ground too fast for her to react and catch it. But Wyatt swooped in, snatching it out of the air a mere moment before it smashed to the ground, and she breathed her relief as he ascended to her side with the outstretched orb.

“Hold onto it!” she told him, retrieving the second one from the satchel. “We’ll do it together.”

He nodded right as the dragon turned on the sound of her voice, leading with its teeth as it whipped its head down at them. They parted to dodge the snap of its jaws, its menacing growl of frustration vibrating through the air. It stormed after Wyatt next, charging at him in its fury and launching itself off the ground as he swooped upward. It missed him and went crashing down onto the first building it had collided into, toppling onto its side.

Both she and Wyatt saw the opportunity at the same time, and went careening downward as the dragon floundered out of the wreckage, but they got there too late. The dragon’s flank was no longer exposed as it wriggled onto its feet, immediately throwing itself back into the air to snap at Carolina. She pitched sideways, so close to being clamped in its jaws that the snapping of its teeth echoed in her ears.

“Carter!” she yelled. “Distract it one more time!”

Carter plunged down again, landing Kip directly on the short osteoderms along the dragon’s nose. The dragon roared, heaving its head side to side to try and shake Carter off, but Kip’s claws dug deep as they clung on. When that didn’t work, the dragon charged. It took off running with its head down as it aimed for another standing building.

That was their chance. It was completely distracted, and they both raced to its side to fly along as it ran.

“Twist!” Carolina hollered, twisting the top of her explosive. They had ten seconds, and they kept pace as she counted down in her head. Nine. Eight. The dragon’s raging snarl rumbled through her chest. Seven. Six.

“Hurry!” Carter bellowed from his perch on the dragon’s snout.

“Now!” Carolina screamed.

She and Wyatt hurled their explosives at the dragon’s flank at the same time as it crashed headfirst into the building, smashing Carter into the rubble before he managed to make his escape. The armed spheres sailed through the air, striking the dragon’s flesh just as they detonated.

It brayed as it wheeled on them, the gust of its turn clearing the smoke from the explosion to reveal the massive hole in its charcoal flesh.

They’d done it. Its heart was exposed.

“Shoot it!” Wyatt told her as he dove toward the rubble after Carter, pulling the dragon’s attention with him.

He landed in the debris as the dragon’s jaws widened, and Carolina pulled her pistol as the hole they’d blown already started to heal. It was closing fast as the dragon reared its head, preparing to slam its teeth through stone and crush Wyatt in its mouth. She raised her arm and pointed the barrel of her pistol directly at the closing center of the crater. She inhaled a deep breath to steady her aim as the dragon began to drive its teeth downward. And she squeezed the trigger.

>>>>>>>>>>>

Simon followed Ophelia’s gaze as she smiled up at him, turning with the stone held above his head right as two solid explosions blasted through the flank of his dragon. He dropped the stone to the side as he realized what was happening, and this was what Ophelia had been saving the last of her energy for. Because he raised his hand to begin dispelling his dragon before Carolina had a chance to shoot its heart, but Ophelia was already on her feet.

She hurled herself at him, taking him down before he finished the gesture. He landed on his stomach with her on his back, and she instantly began raining blows against the back of his head. She landed seven before he whirled over underneath her, and then he reached up to grab her shoulders and rolled again to switch their positions.

She didn’t give him a chance to rise. She launched upward and wrapped her arms around his head to pull him back down, and withstood several swift jabs to her ribs before he managed to break free. He immediately reached sideways to grab the sword within arm’s reach. His fingers closed around the grip, he lifted it into the air and aimed the point directly at her heart, and then he choked on the half-gasped breath he let out before he could drive it down.

The sword clattered out of his hand so he could clutch at his chest instead, and he struggled to draw in breath as the veins in his forehead and neck strained against his inanimate heart. The dragon crumbled into a cloud of smoke, and he fell backward off her and dropped to the ground as a warm glow lit between his palm and his heart. He tried to heal himself. Tried with what little breath he had left to force his heart to beat again.

“It won’t work,” Ophelia panted as she climbed to her feet. And despite it all, despite how cruel and ruthless he’d been, despite how much he’d hurt her, and the people she cared about, she pitied the terrified look on his face as the light faded from his eyes. “It didn’t have to be this way,” she murmured.

His head went slack, his struggling ceased, and his chest deflated as he exhaled his last breath.

Ophelia sighed as she dropped to her knees. Her head and shoulders fell, and then her body followed as she collapsed perpendicular to Simon in her exhaustion. She lay there for almost a minute as tears flooded her eyes. It was over, and she didn’t know the right way to experience all the emotions she was feeling. The pain, the grief, the joy, the relief. It was overwhelming, and she was grateful when Carolina landed nearby and rushed to her side.

“How bad is it?” Carolina asked, hands running over her body to take count of the injuries.

Ophelia didn’t care about any of them. She pushed herself up and flung her arms around Carolina’s neck, squeezing her tight as she cried into her shoulder. And she stayed like that for several minutes, soaking Carolina’s shirt. Breathing in the comfort of her sweaty and blood-soaked scent as Carolina held her tightly. Basking in the pure relief that they’d made it. They were alive.

“You’re safe,” Carolina whispered, finally pulling away and brushing her thumbs over the tears on her cheeks. “We did it.”

Ophelia nodded, saying through a tearful laugh, “I never want to do any of this ever again.”

Carolina laughed too, pulling her into another tight hug and then releasing her to press a kiss to her forehead. “Come on, let’s get you back to Omen so your mother can look after you.”

“I can’t,” she said. “Not yet.”

“What do you mean?” Carolina asked.

Before answering, Ophelia healed the broken fracture in her hand, the only wound that was hindering her and that she had the energy to, and then she held that hand out. “Take me to the courtyard,” she said as Carolina stood and took her hand to help her up. “I need to see…”

Carolina nodded, and they both climbed onto the back of her mistling and flew to the courtyard amidst victorious shouts ringing from the rebel ships above. They swooped down into the center of the terrace and dismounted amidst all of their allies who’d followed them there.

Izaak was sitting and leaning back against what remained of a wall as Lia fretted over him, and though he was injured, he was alive. Wyatt stood near the entrance with one of Carter’s arms over his shoulder, helping Carter to stand as Kip limped up the stairs behind them. The bounty hunters landed on the back of two drakens they’d recovered from the skies, and Rue, Berkeley, Peter, and her parents all touched down beside the bounty hunters the same way.

Every one of them had their eyes trained on Ophelia as she dispelled her mistling, and she couldn’t bring herself to meet a single gaze as she left Carolina’s side and trudged across the courtyard to the hole in the earth. She leaned over the edge to peer down into the darkness, and she stood quietly, staring for half a minute as she thought to herself.

Her allies were hurt. There were likely countless injured on ships who needed her at her best. Who needed her with the immeasurable energy for magic that Ascension gave her. But if she was going to succeed at what she’d try next, she needed every bit of what she had left.

So she turned and met Carolina’s eyes from across the courtyard, and Carolina held her gaze for several moments before giving her the slightest of nods. Ophelia smiled, nodded in return, and stepped backward over the edge.

As she plummeted into darkness, she twisted in the air to aim herself downward and dive toward the core of the planet. But it wasn’t like before. The farther she fell, the emptier the air felt. The wind echoed in her ears. The icy breeze felt somehow colder than it did before. And there was no light at the end of her drop.

It was so dark that she couldn’t tell at all when her fall would stop, and she certainly couldn’t see the debris and broken rock floating around her as she neared the end. Not until she crashed shoulder first into a piece of earth, and it spun her around in the air so that she collided with another. She curled into herself, wrapping her arms over her head as she nicked one more piece and then tumbled out of the long tunnel.

She stopped falling and suspended in a deep void of lifeless nothing instead. The heart’s light was gone, and as she lit a bright flame in her palm and sent it outward ahead of her, she found that it wasn’t just the heart’s light that had been destroyed. The entire core had been blown to pieces, and she was surrounded by floating bits of stone and metal. And it wasn’t just the leftover pieces of earth from the Great Rise. She was swimming in a grisly battlefield amongst the remnants of laibralt shrapnel and a mangled god.

It was far worse than she thought, and she reached out to take a tiny piece of broken heart into her palm. The white stone was misshapen and rigid and rough, some inner part of the heart that never should’ve been exposed to begin with, and she clutched it to her aching chest as tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t leave it like this. Couldn’t go back to the surface with the world’s heart in shambles, and even if she didn’t think it would work, she had to try.

She released that piece of heart back to the abyss, and then closed her misty eyes and drew in a deep, slow breath. As she let it out again, she focused on the earth. On the mineral around her. On the energy flowing through her that wasn’t hers. She outstretched her arms to bridge herself to every shattered piece of heart she could sense in that endless cavern, and she altered it.

Piece by piece she gathered the broken heart before her, fitting each fragment together as best she could. And the heart grew little by little. From the first bit she collected the size of an apple, she added, and mended, and secured, until every segment she felt a connection to was arranged within the moon-sized sphere.

But there were still cracks. Still fractures and wounds where pieces were missing, and despite her best efforts, the heart was still broken. Still gone.

Ophelia dropped her arms as one helpless tear slid down her cheek, but as she sniffled, she realized something else. Something unfamiliar. Something different. Something strong.

It was the laibralt. That conductive, catalytic shrapnel all around her that she’d never been able to feel before, but she could then. And it was everywhere, and she pulled scraps of it out of the remaining wreckage of the explosives until she’d collected every last bit of it that she could sense. Until she had such a large orb of it between her hands that she couldn’t even stretch her arms all the way around it.

She sent it forward as she altered it, and she tempered it into its molten state so that it flooded every remaining fracture in the heart. It seeped through, filling the outer cracks and binding to the blemishes. It sealed every broken piece back together, so that by the time Ophelia was done and returned the laibralt to its cooled, solid state, she didn’t have to keep holding on. She let go, the fractures in the blue and white swirl of the heart pieced back together by the bright golden brass of the laibralt.

Ophelia drifted forward until her palm set against the cool stone, and she closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against it too. Tears squeezed from her eyes as she cried her hopefulness and did the very last thing she could. She poured all the energy she had left into the stone. All the life the heart had given her with Ascension. All the power. She used the laibralt as a catalyst to amplify it, and she flooded the lifeless stone beneath her palm with every last bit of love and strength she had, until it had sapped so much out of her that she couldn’t give any more.

She stopped, gasping for breath from the exertion and too afraid to open her eyes to see that she’d failed. But she hadn’t failed. Because light reached past her closed eyes and prompted them open, and it was blinding. It seeped from between the laibralt veins and the stone, and it grew with every moment that passed by until Ophelia had to shield her eyes from its brilliance. It peaked as it filled the massive chasm around them, and then faded until it was just a soft, warm glow, so dim that it barely lit Ophelia’s hands as she held them out.

“Hello?” she whispered.

There was no response, and though Ophelia was tired and drained, she lit a small flame in her palm. It was to test if she still had any of her magic, but also to provide more light than the small glimmer emanating from the heart.

“Are you there?” she asked.

Another handful of seconds went by before a voice finally responded, “Hello.”

It was as soft and quiet as her light, and it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t how the heart used to be, or as strong. But she was alive, and Ophelia let out a teary and overjoyed laugh.

“It worked,” she sniffled happily, wiping the back of her hand across her cheek. She couldn’t help herself, she pitched forward with outstretched arms, pressing herself against the warm heart.

“Thank you,” the heart said. Ophelia nodded, more tears streaming down her cheeks as she released the hug to wipe them away. “I’m sorry. I can’t give your gift back or heal you.”

Ophelia shook her head and inhaled a deep breath to calm the emotion bubbling up in her chest. “Will you be alright?”

There was another long pause before she answered, “Slowly. Yes.”

“That’s all that matters,” Ophelia told her, but then gestured toward the surface. “My friends still need me.”

“Yes,” she agreed. And even though her voice was quiet and low, there was an almost unmistakable sadness in it as she said, “Goodbye, Ophelia.”

Ophelia reached out and set her palm on the heart, leaving it there for several long, tender moments before she said, “Goodbye.”

She withdrew her hand and breathed into her palms, summoning a mistling that flew her out of the chasm and all the way back to the surface. Carolina’s face filled with relief as she breached, and she landed and dismounted as Carolina hurried over to pull her into a hug.

“You did it,” Carolina said, letting her go to gesture over at Lia, who had a warm glow beneath her palms as she healed Izaak.

Ophelia smiled and nodded, turning as Wyatt limped over with Carter still supported on his shoulders.

“It’s just a few broken ribs,” Carter was protesting in a whisper, “and you’re the one who’s shot, I can wait till she’s rested.”

Ophelia laughed and shook her head. “Come here,” she told him, and he removed his arm from Wyatt’s shoulders to stagger closer.

She set one of her hands over his torso and spent the next minute mending his broken bones and bruised organs, until he stood straight and mostly pain free again. Then she fixed the bullet wound in Wyatt’s hip, and they both told her thank you and then retreated to stand with Rue as Ophelia’s parents hurried forward.

Her mother pulled her into a tight hug, and said in an almost scolding voice, “I see those wounds and I’m fixing you up as soon as we get back to the ship.”

“I know you will,” Ophelia laughed.

Her mother let her go, and her father immediately wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “I’m proud of you,” he said into the crown of her head, and then pressed a kiss there as she squeezed her arms tighter around his waist. “So proud.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she told him, squeezing him one more time before letting him go. She turned toward Carolina as Izaak strode over to them, stopping with Lia at his side. “Did you think we’d win that?” she asked.

“Honestly?” Izaak said, and laughed, “Not a chance.”

“What will you do now?” she asked him, adding with a grin, “Your Majesty.”

He grinned and gave an exaggerated bow. “We’ll fix this courtyard first,” he answered. “But I have a lotof work to do, and a lot of contracts to end.” She nodded her understanding, and he asked, “And you?”

Carolina slid her arm around Ophelia’s waist and smiled at her as she told Izaak, “I promised a certain someone an extended stay at the salt lakes on Keterre.”

“It’s well-earned, I’d say,” Izaak smiled. “And, as I promised,” he extended his hand to Carolina, “Omen is all yours.”

Carolina grinned and shook with him. “Thank you,” she told him. “You’ll be a good emperor. And if not, just remember I’ve got an incredible ship and won’t hesitate to go back to pirating.”

“Understood,” Izaak laughed. “Take care, and if you ever need anything, you know where to find me.” They all nodded, but before leaving, he turned toward Ophelia’s father. “Commander, there’s still a place for you in the castle, if you’d give me a chance. I really could use a man of your prestige.”

Her father held out his hand and shook with Izaak, saying, “Thank you. I’ll take it into consideration.”

Izaak nodded, passed a parting wave around at the rest of them, and then mounted with Lia and the rest of his remaining rebels to return to their ships in the sky.

“So!” Berkeley announced, jaunting forward to throw an arm over her and Carolina’s shoulders. “The salt lakes, huh? I could use a holiday.” He turned them around to face everyone else. “What do you say?”

Rue looked over at Wyatt and asked, “You coming?”

His eyebrows lifted. “If I’m invited, then I wouldn’t miss it.”

Carolina trudged to them and stood in front of Wyatt for several quiet moments before she stuck out her hand and said, “Welcome aboard,” and Wyatt grinned and shook with her.

“Count me in,” Carter volunteered.

“I second that,” Peter added.

“I adore the salt lakes,” her mother said, and her father nodded his agreement.

Carter tossed his chin toward the bounty hunters and asked, “Piers?”

Piers looked at his fathers, and Ophelia ducked out from under Berkeley’s arm to make her way to them.

“Your work for Sovereign is done,” she told Gerald. “And if the start of your free life begins with the rest of us, at Keterre, then I think I could tolerate you.”

Gerald barked out a laugh as he set an amused hand on her shoulder, and they snickered at each other for a few moments before he patted that shoulder and then grabbed one of Piers and Abner’s hands. “Sure. Why not?” he said.

“Yes!” Piers hollered, pulling away from Gerald’s hand to run to Carter and Wyatt, and he and Carter jumped together excitedly.

And while the rest of them began to chat excitedly about all the things they wanted to do or not do at the salt lakes, Carolina wandered back over and slid her arms around Ophelia’s waist.

“So,” Carolina murmured. “Ascension?”

“Gone,” Ophelia answered, slipping her own arms around Carolina’s neck. “I’m just a regular old Caster again.”

“And we feel good about that?” Carolina asked.

“We feel great about that,” she answered.

“Well then,” Carolina said, and Ophelia hummed, “off to our future?”

Ophelia pulled her into a long, deep kiss that filled her with so much warmth and joy that she was grinning by the end of it, and she set her forehead against Carolina’s and nodded. “To the rest of our lives.”

<<< Previous Chapter

Masterlist 1 & 2