*Ella*
“GO!” I scream to Cassian, who looks absolutely enraged as warriors begin funneling toward us and Ravenna’s severed head falls from her shoulders and hits the ground.
Granger bursts into action, shoving his sword into Amanda’s hands before he shifts.
I hold my position on the stairs and raise my hands. “GRANGER! GET AMANDA OUT OF HERE, NOW!”
What happens next is a blur. I can barely see through the sea of royal warriors and their wolves of mist and shadow. It’s a bloodbath, but Granger is leading the charge while Amanda swings his heavy sword in a circle and cuts down several advancing wolves.
Petra’s eyes are on me and narrowed into murderous slits. She raises her hands, her mouth opening in a brutal sneer. Her teeth sharpen like daggers, and the air fills with a screech that sets my heart rate spiking.
If I use my powers now, I could kill Granger and Amanda by accident. They’re in the way. Behind me, I can hear Cassian trying to slice his way up the stairs, which is so full of warriors he doesn’t have the room, or the time, to shift without risking being attacked while doing so.
I scream in frustration, “GRANGER, MOVE!”
Granger tackles Amanda to the ground as I send my powers forward, cutting through the columns of crystal. They shatter, falling in chunks toward the crowd of warriors encircling Granger and Amanda. Granger leaps, his teeth catching the nape of Amanda’s cloak, and drags her away from the carnage as the crystal foyer begins to crack and crumble. I keep my hands held high, gasping for breath as I send ripples of red light coursing through the foyer, leaving splinters of crystals in its wake.
Petra shoves her way through the fray and runs after Granger and Amanda. I scream for them to hurry while Cassian battles behind me, moving slowly up each step.
I need to get them all out of here, but how?
The domed ceiling cracks, and shards of pure crystal fall at a deadly rate of speed, each shard pointed to a fine edge.
The smell of blood penetrates the air as cries of anguish rise from the frantic warriors below, but Granger is at my side, hurrying Amanda up the stairs to me. I throw open my arms and grab her as she trips over her cloak and nearly falls.
But the second we touch the room spins into nothing, and then we’re on top of each other. I wriggle out from the folds of her cloak and brush my hair from my face as she rolls off me and pants, “What just happened? Where are we–” She tapers off, inhaling a sharp breath.
Three healers look down at us. One of them drops the bowl they were holding. It clatters to the ground.
Hannah is lying limp in her bed, her face gray and nearly lifeless. I get to my feet and run for her, grabbing her by the shoulders. The scent is different here, the healers unfamiliar. I slowly turn my gaze to the inky, black liquid pooling around the dropped bowl and meet the healer's eyes. “What is that? What are you doing to her?”
Before they can answer, the door to Hannah’s room bursts open and Cassian and Granger are there. Granger is now in his human form and wearing nothing but a pair of nearly shredded pants he likely pulled off a dead warrior.
Cassian’s eyes go wide at the sight of Hannah, and he rushes forward. One of the healers pulls a crystal blade from their robe.
I scream to catch Cassian’s attention, but it’s late. The Crystal blade buries deep into his chest before any of us can react.
I scream again, the sound full of terror and despair. My powers ignite the room in those painless, heatless flames. Regardless, the flames devour the three healers, who scream for mercy as they turn to ash in a matter of seconds. Amanda is on her knees, her eyes wide as the flames circle around her. “Ella!”
I blink, and the flames disappear in a poof of chilled air.
Granger grabs Cassian before he falls over, holding him upright. My brother’s Beta groans, his head lulling as he looks down at his blood soaked chest and the dagger still lodged between his ribs. The castle cracks around us, trembling as it begins to crumble.
We don’t have enough time to get out. I know it. How was I able to spirit Amanda and I into Hannah’s room?
My hands shake as I slowly curl my fingers around the dagger in Cassian’s chest. My entire body is trembling, and a sick, twisting pain curls through my veins that reminds me of what happened under the lake when my powers started to exhaust themselves.
I realize quite suddenly that I’m running out of power.
We’re all going to die here.
“Cassian, look at me,” I whisper, leaning in to brush the words over his cheek. His skin is so cold, and his breath comes in rasps and rattles. “You have to mark Hannah. It’s the only way I can get her home. Please. You have to.”
I pull the dagger out of his chest, and he roars in pain, but his eyes light on mine.
“I need you to trust me,” I beg. “Please, take her home.”
Granger decides he’s not wasting any more precious time as chunks of crystal start to cave in from the ceiling above our head. The floor beneath us begins to splinter, cracks jutting across the tile and up the crystalline walls. He shoves Cassian toward the bed where he falls to his knees, gripping the sheets.
But he takes one look at his mate, and a new fire flashes behind his eyes, cutting through the incoming darkness of death spreading there. He reaches for her, gently clasping her hand.
“Ryatt told me you can break through the veil and send them home,” Granger say’s hurriedly, his arm wrapped around Amanda as he pulls her into his chest. “You need to do so, now.”
“I don’t know how to!” I shout over the groaning of the castle as it falls apart. I almost miss Cassian pulling Hannah to the ground. He gathers her in his arms and cradles her like a child, silent tears rolling down his cheeks. “I don’t know,” I cry, tears now welling in the corners of my eyes. “I–I don’t know how–”
Cassian kisses Hannah on the lips. He whispers something inaudible over the crunching sound of crystal crashing to the ground as part of the ceiling gives way, sliding down on either side of us, leaving us looking up at the full, unburdened glare of the sun. Hannah’s head hangs to the side, revealing her pale neck.
The rest of the ceiling shatters, and the sound it makes rips through my ears, causing them to pop and bleed. A piece of crystal as large as Hannah’s bed hurdles to the ground, heading right for Cassian and Hannah. “CASSIAN!” I scream as Granger hauls me back, his eyes wild and wide as the room around us fractures.
Cassian bites down on her neck.
“CASSIAN!” My voice is absorbed by the sound of the ceiling hitting the ground. At the last second, I reach a hand toward him, the last of my powers flowing out at me so rapidly it takes my breath with it, my heart nearly stopping. I’m still screaming as a flash of light explodes throughout the room, and then Cassian and Hannah are gone, to where, I don’t know, but deep in my mind I imagine the falls on Maatua, praying to whatever long lost gods are listening that they see us, and hear us, and will take my friends there. I pray to the Goddess, I beg and plead, to save them.
Granger dives out of the way, his arms clasped around me and Amanda as the floor caves in, and the castle falls in on itself.
We land in the hallway. Pain radiates up my legs from the hard landing. The castle is crumbling on either side of us, the entire building full of screams of desperation and absolute terror.
But a voice cuts through the chaos, lifted and musical. I look up and see her standing there–that mystic from the night of the eclipse, her face shielded by a mask made entirely of crystal. “Hurry, sister!” she beckons, and three more masked mystics appear behind her. Granger hauls us upright and we run for our lives as the ceiling continues to fall and crash into the floor behind us. He leaps over a large gap in the floor, with both of us in his arms, and lands with a crunch that sends a vibration through what remains of the hallway. The tile bites into my knees, bruising deeply, but a trio of mystic’s grabs me and begins running, pushing and shoving us down the hallway until we reach a staircase leading down into total darkness.
“Hurry,” the mystics say in unison. “There is no time.”
“This leads into the mountain,” another mystic says, taking my hand.
Granger shoves Amanda toward the staircase just in time for the crystalline exterior–all of those fine rooms exposed to the light–to fall away completely. I can’t describe the scene that unfolds as the castle literally tumbles away, burying witches and King Kane’s royal guard under tons and tons of vibrantly shining stone.
My heart is in my throat as Granger shoves us again, hard, and I stumble down three or four steps. Amanda steadies me, her face twisted and reddened by tears. We have no choice but to follow the mystics down deeper until the air is heavy, and my already aching ears pop again from the change in pressure.
We walk through several heavy wooden doors lined with iron, which takes three or four mystics to open each time we pass through. Finally, we reach a wide cavern deep underground. It’s bare, the walls made of dark stone and the floor nothing but gravel and dirt. A wide dais sits at the center of the room, which is lit by torches. Witches linger in the shadows, some of them holding small, terrified children in their arms.
Dust and dirt fall from the ceiling as tremors shake the mountains, and several of the witches look up, clasping their children to their chests.
“We’re safe here,” the main mystic says, the same mystic from the lake. She must be their leader. “We were betrayed by Petra, I believe.”
“I didn’t mean to–” I choke on a sob. “Was everyone able to get out of the castle before I–before I–” I look around the room at the witches and their children.
“We knew about this threat three days ago. We knew warriors were coming. We saw it written in the stars.” The mystic says softly, reaching up to remove her mask. She takes it off and sighs with relief, wiping sweat from her brow. She is shockingly young, younger than me, I assume. A teenager, at the most, but her eyes are ageless, wise beyond her years. Her eyes are so pale blue they’re nearly white as she meets my gaze. “You are not weak, Ella. You cannot succumb to your powers. You are tired, I know. But you are not as drained as you feel. You must rein them in and bend them to your will.”
“I can’t–” I say hoarsely, my stomach pitching. “I can’t breathe–”
“Your mate needs you,” she says. “This kingdom needs you. Look around at these mothers, these daughters, these children.”
I do, meeting the eyes of over two dozen people, most of them only a few years old.
“Your mother,” the mystic whispers, “was guided by one of our own. Mystica remembered her past lives at the time of her death. She gave you the pendant to wear on your neck to protect you and to guide you to your mate and your destiny. You are one of us; you are our queen, and you must rise up, Ella. You must fight.”
She unfurls her fist and drops my necklace into my hands, the necklace Mystica left for me before my birth. I meet her eyes in shock. “I left this–I left this on Maatua–”
“The water remembers all. It is the only thing that can cross the veil. Maatua has always been sacred, sister. It wants you to have this back,” she says softly, carefully, her eyes locked on mine. “Go to your mate, child, before all is lost.”
I curl my hand around the necklace and turn to Granger and Amanda, tears blurring my vision as my powers start to burn in my chest, fanning out through every vein, every pour. I open my mouth to tell them I’m sorry for all of the pain I’ve caused, but the room fades to black, and I’m suddenly utterly alone.
“Hello?” I whisper and look down at the necklace in my hand. The symbols glow a soft violet, the only light to be seen.
“I’ve been waiting such a very, very long time for you,” comes a voice crackling with malice.