Another shadow washed over me and I was astonished to turn and find Samuel stepping out of the tree line. My eyes did a quick sweep of him and, I had to say, he looked a little worse for wear. Ash covered his clothes and streaked across his fair skin like a camouflage of sorts. He held a sword in one hand, and had a bow slung across his shoulders. There was blood slowly seeping from a cut above his eye, and his arm looked to be hastily stitched together just above the elbow.
“Samuel has been helping Lucas and the First World army during the battle,” Quarn said; he almost sounded proud. “He’s fought with honor.”
Samuel shrugged, the lightest of pinks creeping across his cheeks. My brother was the rugged, masculine version of our beautiful mother. “I was just doing what anyone would.”
His eyes met mine and I knew he was doing much more than that. He had sins to atone for, an atonement of his own choosing, and he would not stop until he felt he’d done enough.
I stepped forward and patted him lightly on the arm. “Just don’t get yourself killed. We still have that dinner date, remember.”
He reached out with his free hand and grasped my own into his palm. “I haven’t forgotten, Abby.”
My heart ached then, just this dull pain of some sort of emotion I wasn’t used to feeling. I sucked in a ragged breath before pulling away.
To focus my mind I moved over to where the girls waited patiently. Right. It was time for the battle.
I quickly traced a few more weapons across from the Angelisian beach house. I offered them to the girls, but only Fury and Ria took them. Delane and Eva already had their favorites. Talina and Sapha didn’t know how to fight with weapons and figured they were better off just using their powers. The rest didn’t go to waste. There were plenty of soldiers around who were quite excited to get their hands on Josian’s impressive blades.
“We ready?” I asked.
It was pretty rhetorical. We didn’t have a choice, but sometimes the question still has to be asked. To get us in the right frame of mind.
“Give me a second,” Delane said suddenly.
And then with a powerful burst from her black wings, she took off into the sky. Lina was right behind her.
Be careful, you’re a sitting target up there. My warning was pretty much unnecessary.
Delane had a zillion times more battle experience than I had. I was just worried.
I’ll be careful. Just scouting out the area before we attack.
There was nothing like a bird’s-eye view.
How’s it looking up there, Delane?
It was pretty amazing how easily we switched between mental and actual talk now, and we could also choose which thoughts to share and which to keep private.
Our time on the Mother’s realm was like ten years of practice here. It had amplified everything. She had given us a gift, and the double bonus was it somehow didn’t mess with the balance. Maybe because the Seventine had been walking the fine line of straying into forbidden territory for a while. She was simply cleaning up their mess.
The battle isn’t going badly for our troops. In general they’re holding their own. I’ve no idea what caused the massive destruction in the center, but it wasn’t from any on the battlefield right now.
The Seventine, I’d guess.
I felt her agreement.
There was a surge in noise, and then a change in the very air. The battle started to die off. I pushed myself forward – Josian and Quarn right at my back – to see what was happening. The trees, zombies and fire-lizard things had stop fighting. What the …?
Our army was still active, cutting into the Seventines’ minions. But there was no fighting back; the trees had simply planted their roots into the black, ash-like ground and were acting all – tree-like.
What game were they playing?
“Can you see anything?” I asked my giant of a father.
My view was blocked not only by Ria’s greenery, but also by the evil-minion trees.
“Something’s moving from behind the royal forest,” he said, craning his neck. “I’m going to take a wild guess, judging on the new influx of elemental energy I sense, that it’s the Seventine.”
I can’t see them yet, but the energy is definitely elemental. Delane confirmed this. I’m coming back to ground. We’re too much of a target in the air. No cover up here.
Good idea.
Delane knew how to read a battle.
The half-Walkers gathered close.
“The Seventine are emerging. We need to make sure they don’t hurt any of our people. The soldiers can disable the trees if they start up again. We need to handle the Seventine.”
Eyes blinked rapidly at me. I could feel the nervous tension through our link. We knew we weren’t really a match for these ancient energy-sucking assholes, but shit – we were the best option our people had. The only option really.
“So the plan is to hold them off long enough for Jedi to figure out this ritual and how we get them into the prison?” Talina’s hair was wrapping around her all crazy-like and her eyes were shiny, like she was about to cry, but no tears fell. “How the heck are we supposed to do that? We’ve no idea the power they hold.”