Authors: S.E. Myers
“Yes,” she said.
“Then let’s begin.”
Finar had another chair brought in front of Ryleigh and sat down. He cocked his head to the side and looked at her face. She had a laceration above her brow and her nose was bleeding, bruises were beginning to appear under her eyes.
Ryleigh thought for one moment he might change his mind. His eyes looked almost caring, as if he would change his mind.
He blinked away that possibility and said, “This will hurt less if you just give into it.”
Ryleigh closed her eyes and reached out to see if she could feel her dad or Tristan. Nothing. Not a glimmer.
“I’m ready,” she said.
Finar scooted his chair closer. He moved her knees between his, leaned in, and placed both hands on her chest. “Mia,” he said. Mia stood between them placing a hand on either one of their legs. He called to the witch, “Now.”
The witch began murmuring an incantation, creating a binding circle around the three.
Ryleigh felt an instant disconnect from her surroundings. It was as if she were a part of, and separate from the Sanctum. She heard a humming, distant but close. She wasn’t sure if it was Finar’s Chi, her own, or the Sanctum surrounding her. Feeling the heat of Finar’s hands, she continued to expect a jolt of pain to rip through her chest - any moment. The anticipation within her was chopping at the bit.
Slowly, the heat began to spread from Finar’s hands and into her chest. She felt a tugging within her chest as his Chi attempted to connect with hers.
“Oh – so – gently,” Finar whispered.
Finar planned to make this extraction go as smoothly as possible. He could hear the tittering of voices surrounding him. His followers were watching, mesmerized. Soon, he would be in full control and no one and nothing could stop him.
The connection between Finar and Ryleigh made Ryleigh jump in her chair as high as the bindings would allow her. It wasn’t painful – at first. She felt a small tingling sensation begin to build that started with her heart and resonated slowly through each of her limbs.
Finar continued to tug on her Chi, Mia helping with the connection. It grew faster and more impatient.
The stronger it pulled, the more painful it became. The tingling grew to a burning sensation covering Ryleigh’s skin. She felt as if she were on fire and couldn’t contain the pain anymore. She opened her mouth to scream, but it was silent.
Her brain was on fire and she couldn’t think. Her thoughts flashed only to the pain she was in. And then…
Ryleigh remembered her mother. Her Aunt Vera. Illeana. Her father. Tristan. Cyrus.
The images of those she loved flashed in her mind. Their faces. Her last memories. All of sudden, the pain didn’t matter. She realized she was connected with Finar and as he was pulling from her, she could do the same to him.
As soon as she realized this, she felt Finar shift in intensity. He realized her subconscious was still awake and Ryleigh might fight him. He started to draw on her Chi with more fervor.
Ryleigh opened her eyes. The anger and hatred she felt toward this man in front of her overcame all of her senses. She started to pull using Finar’s physical connection to her against him.
Finar’s eyes flashed open and for a moment, she saw panic within them.
As she attempted to pull from him, she was met with resistance. It was as if she was trying to pull her hands from cement that was hardening. Ryleigh was not going to go down without a fight.
She reasserted herself and pulled harder, attempting to block Finar’s attempt to drain her dry.
She saw the shimmer from Finar’s skin as he began to change into his form. His glowing red eyes peered into her soul as he forced his thoughts, “
Don’t even think about it, child. You don’t stand a chance.”
Ryleigh stared him down pushing her thoughts toward him, “
We’ll see.
” With that, she flashed to her form using the remnants amount of energy she had left. As soon as she did, she felt more powerful, more in control. The connection between herself, Mia, and Finar was more apparent.
The flow of energy from her to Finar was still trickling out.
Ryleigh closed her eyes and felt for any sign of Tristan. The barrier made it virtually impossible to feel anything outside of the circle they were bound. There was a tugging in the back of her mind, a small glimmer of something, she reached for it.
It was Tristan.
He was beginning to wake up. She could feel that although he was beginning to regain his consciousness, he wasn’t fully aware of where he was. The only way for her to make a connection was to break the resistance she was pushing toward Finar. A calculated but necessary risk.
She gripped the arm chair, the bindings still holding her in place. She could feel the confidence of Finar emanating from his blackened skin. At least she would die trying.
She released the resistance and immediately felt the excruciating burn and outflow of her Chi. Finar threw his head back and roared.
Trying to block out the pain reverberating through her head, she searched for the glimmer that was Tristan. Finar pulled her Chi with more intensity. Her form began to dissipate with the continuous stream of her Chi moving outwardly. She felt dizzy and was losing track of her own consciousness.
Please!
She thought to herself.
She gave one last push to search for Tristan. One last push, leaving her mind open and vulnerable.
***
Tristan turned his head side-to-side, his ears were still ringing from the energy bomb Finar threw at him. He felt a tingle in his mind that seemed familiar.
Ryleigh?
Tristan’s body screamed at him with each movement he made. He hadn’t felt pain like it in his life. The tingle came back, stronger, insistent. Tristan glanced around the room. Ryleigh was tied to a chair in the center of the room, her form ever present and glowing. Finar, in his own menacing form, was sitting across from her with his hands on her chest with Mia in the middle connecting the two. A witch was in the background chanting. Ryleigh’s head had fallen with her chin on her chest, her form fading.
The tingle came back and Tristan reached for it, making the connection. As soon as he did, he could feel Ryleigh reaching through to him. Two words whispered through his mind before he blacked out, “
I’m sorry.
”
***
Ryleigh felt Tristan make the connection. Sending him an apology would not be enough for what she was about to do.
Using all the strength she could muster, Ryleigh began to pull. She felt his willingness to help her and hoped he would forgive her; she wasn’t even sure that she would be able to do what she needed to do. It was a dangerous decision.
Through Tristan, Ryleigh was now connected outside the bound circle. But, so was Finar. She prayed he was too busy attempting to drain her he wouldn’t pay attention to what she was about to do.
Without thinking about it, she pulled Chi from Tristan regaining her strength. She remembered when she touched the altar in the other part of the Sanctum and knew she could use its energy. She tried to remember that hum and used the connection with Tristan in an attempt to engage it.
The witch stopped chanting feeling a rumbling beneath her feet. One of Finar’s lackey’s yelled at her, “Keep going!”
It was faint, but she found it. The heartbeat of the Sanctum. The ebb and flow of energy beneath them giving each of them strength. Ryleigh tapped into it, using Tristan almost like an imp. With each beat, the energy flowed from Tristan into Ryleigh. She could feel her strength beginning to return and then she could feel fear. Finar’s fear.
She raised her head, slowly. She wanted to look him in the eye, one last time.
Staring at him she sent him one last thought, “
Good bye, my dearest uncle
.”
Before he had time to react, she slammed him with the energy she pulled from Tristan. Using him as a direct conduit to the heart of the Sanctum’s energy. Tristan’s body lifted off the ground, glowing an incandescent green. Finar’s form started shifting and changing multiple colors. Black. Red. Yellow. Green. His eyes open wide. Still burning their fiery red, now filled with fear instead of contempt.
Mia attempted to remove himself from the connection but was caught in-between the struggle.
The room started to shake and quiver and the ground rippled from the effect.
Finar’s witch stopped chanting and stood wide-eyed at the scene playing out before her. She, along with Finar’s followers started running out of the chamber, attempting to leave the Sanctum. Stalagmites lining the ceilings of the exits started crashing around them rendering them unconscious, or dead.
Ryleigh continued to feel the open tap of energy flow into her and stood up, strengthened.
Her form reflected the iridescent glow of the Sanctum. She disconnected the contact between Mia and herself but left the connection between her and Finar. Mia collapsed, breathing heavily, nearly unconscious.
“
You will NEVER be able to harm another one of us again,
” she forced into Finar’s thoughts.
She released the flow of energy between herself and Tristan and he dropped to the ground with a resounding
THUD
.
Grabbing Finar’s hands from her chest, she pushed him back and forced him to his knees. Connecting directly to the Sanctum’s power, she could feel the thrum and heartbeat matching her own. Her anger her ammunition.
With every beat she continued pushing the energy into him. She could feel the intensity overwhelm him. She increased the amount of energy burning him from the inside.
Finar fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Ryleigh stood above him, her hands outstretched, now concentrating the energy she was pulling from the Sanctum and shooting it outwardly into his chest. She was going to kill him.
Tom, laying in the rubble against the far side of the room opened his eyes. “Ryleigh,” he cried out.
She didn’t hear him. She only had one mission; to rid the world of the menace praying upon the innocent.
Finar’s skin began to char and smolder, filling the room with the smell of burnt flesh and hair. His mouth hung open, locked in an eternal silent scream. Ryleigh continued to push as much energy as she could into Finar, feeling his life force dissipate.
Tristan began to regain consciousness, again. Holding his head he saw Ryleigh standing over something in front of her. Tristan was weak and every nerve in his body on edge.
“Ryleigh,” he called out to her. Barely an audible whisper. Tristan saw Tom crawling along the floor toward his daughter.
Ryleigh couldn’t feel Finar anymore. The thrum of power was almost addicting and fed a need inside her, but instead of giving in, she backed it off.
She gazed down at the blacked corpse that lay at her feet. “Ryleigh,” she heard the voice of her father and turned. He was edging toward her, crawling on the floor.
She could still feel the hum of the Sanctum coursing through her veins, through her entire body. She took a breath, regaining her composure, stopping the floor of energy into her, and changing from her form.
Almost immediately, her legs gave out from under her. Falling to her knees, Ryleigh grabbed her head trying to control the pounding from within.
Reaching out for an embrace Tom said, “It’s okay, honey. You did good. You did okay.”
The room was in shambles. Tristan lay on the ground and attempted multiple times to lift himself but he was unable to. “Help me,” he cried out.
Ryleigh and Tom helped each other from the floor and made their way to Tristan. Ryleigh gazed around the room and saw Katelyn’s body. She felt remorse for the poor witch - she never stood a chance.
“Vee! Nissa,” Ryleigh called for the imps.
“I – I don’t know where they are,” Tristan said painfully.
Ryleigh sat down next to Tristan smoothing his hair back on his head, “I’m sorry.”
“I know,” Tristan managed a half-smile. “I heard you. I don’t remember or know what happened, but I am in a LOT of pain right now.” Tristan groaned as he attempted to shift his body into a more comfortable position.
The three waited for what seemed an eternity when they heard a ‘pop’ behind them.
Ryleigh broke into a large grin, “Nissa!”
“Mistress,” Nissa echoed Ryleigh’s excitement.
“Where’s Vee,” Tristan asked.
“At the house. He’s recovering,” Nissa said.
“Cy? His family,” Ryleigh asked.
“Safe,” Nissa responded.
“Can you take us,” Ryleigh asked.
Ryleigh didn’t have to finish her sentence before Nissa faded them from the Sanctum.
31
Is this really the end?
Because Finar’s witch gave Cyrus and his mother a spelled potion- they were unable to remember what happened to them.
Tom convinced the family that Ryleigh went to visit Cyrus, and when she noticed they didn’t answer the door, Tristan broke it down and rescued the family.
Creating a carbon-monoxide diversion was the best idea they could come up with. They’d filled the house with carbon monoxide, broke down the door, and left the family outside to wake after calling 9-1-1.
Cyrus and his mother were sent to the hospital to recover and Ryleigh me them there.
“I don’t remember saying you were going to visit,” Cyrus asked Ryleigh as she stood by his bed in the hospital legitimately worried.
“We never talked about it. I was just going to show up,” Ryleigh insisted.
Cyrus gave her a look she knew all too well. He wasn’t convinced and had suspected something was off for a long time. As much as she didn’t like the idea, she’d silently decided that she needed to truly distance herself from her friend and would allow a natural progression of separation help it along.