Spark (Legends of the Shifters) (42 page)

My
spirit felt crushed. I wished I could stay in this desert and rot. It
would be easier to die than to fight. I held my head in my hands and
began to cry in defeat. I wouldn't be able to get out. I wouldn't be
able to save Roland. My sacrificed life will have been for nothing.

But
no. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I stubbornly choked off my
sobs and stood, wiping away the tears. I needed to keep walking. I
would walk until I found something or until I died, whichever came
first. I let my anger take over and drive me forward. The wind picked
up as if reading my mind, willing me to stay where I was. It blew
sand into my eyes, making me temporarily blinded as I continued to
push against it.

I shielded my eyes and squinted against
the dirt, giving my best effort to continue forward. I paused when I
saw something on the horizon. It was coming closer. I squinted my
eyes. It looked like a person.

As I watched, more people appeared,
their clothes dark against the blinding line where the earth met the
sky. They came quickly, as if the wind that was blowing me backward
was blowing them forward. The strong gusts tore at the scarves that
were wrapped around their faces. When the people finally reached me,
both they and the wind stopped.

Silence. Beautiful silence.

The people had stopped a little too
close to me, making me feel vulnerable. I took a few steps back. The
only part of their bodies I could see was their eyes, and one
particular pair of eyes looked very familiar.

“
Roland?”
I asked.

He pulled the cloth from his face,
revealing a grin—a perfectly healthy grin. “Yes, it's me,
Ivy,” he said.

“
You're
not sick?” I asked.

“
Not
anymore,” he answered.

One by one, the other people dropped
their scarves. I recognized Kurt, Liana, Roselle, Matilda, Burton,
Sophia, Elna, Ayon, and even Natalia and Grix. All the people that I
had grown to love. There were only two figures that hadn't pulled
their scarves away from their faces. I turned toward them in
confusion. Finally, they tugged away the fabric, letting it slip away
to expose the faces of two people that I recognized, but never really
had the chance to meet.

“
Mother?
Father?” I gasped, dumbfounded.

They nodded their heads. Tears glistened
in their eyes as my vision began to blur with tears as well.

“
I
thought you were dead...” I said.

Mother shook her head and rushed forward
to hug me. “No, my fire flower. We're right here. Everything
will be fine now.”

I pulled back to look at them. My mother
had her same dark brown curls and green eyes, and a height that
matched my own. I glanced over at Kurt. Seeing them both together
made me realize just how alike their facial features looked.

My father was tall, which must've been
where Kurt had inherited his height. But...something wasn't right.
Father's hair was longer than it had been in my memory, and his beard
was, too. Gray streaked through his red hair and peppered his beard.
His face was more wrinkled than the memory had shown.

That's when I realized it was an
illusion. I backed away. “You're not real,” I whimpered.
“Not real.”

“
Of
course we're real,” said the mirage of my mother. Her eyes had
darkened. I glanced around. So had everyone else's.

I shivered and turned away from them
pushing through the wind that had decided to pick back up. In the
real world, Roland still needed my help.

“
Wait,
Ivy! We love you! We want you to live with us—to get to know us
better!” the illusion shouted after me. I tuned her out, only
focusing on the mission ahead.

The illusions followed me, pleaded me
with my friends' and family's voices. I closed my eyes and bent my
head down, forcing my way forward. Phantom fingers gripped at my
dress, at my arms, but still, I continued. Roland needed me.

I
opened my eyes when the ground began to shake again. The small
fissures in the earth were widening more and more. The voices behind
me stopped, cut off in mid-plead. I turned to look at them just as
they evaporated into a swarm of gnats. The gnats were everywhere—in
my ears, my eyes, my mouth, my nose. I dropped to the ground as the
wind and gnats worked together to suffocate me.

Then,
the earth crumbled beneath me, and I was falling, falling, falling
into endless darkness.

I
fell for so long, I wondered if I would even land at all. When I
finally did, the impact should have been hard enough to kill me, but
it wasn't. It was only as if I'd dropped three feet. Still, I fell to
my hands and knees, choking on the dust that was still caught in my
throat. Oddly enough, the gnats had disappeared, only the nightmarish
memory left behind.

All around me were blurs of shadow and
light, clangs louder than steel on steel ringing through the air. It
took me a while to realize what I was seeing. When I squinted my
eyes, I could make out their forms. The shadows and light were
fighting, and the weapons they were using were way stronger than
anything in my world.

The lights were big and powerful, all
muscle and wing. They held blades that were just as bright as the
light that surrounded them. Cherubim.

As I watched, one of the angels barely
touched a shadow with his blade, and the shadow fell to his knees,
his cry of anguish cut short when he completely disintegrated.

The shadows were tall and gangly with
gray skin, wielding black swords. Dark stringy hair tangled with
their black aura. There were more of them than the angels, but by the
amount of shadows that were disappearing, they were considerably
weaker.

Beyond them, a rock wall stood, vines
creeping up over the side, as if trying to get a peek at the battle
going on ahead of me. I could only guess that the plant was in there.

I took a step closer, wanting to get
beyond the raging war, beyond the rock wall, and into safety.
Unfortunately, my movement drew attention. The shadow closest to me
wasn't fighting yet. He seemed to be waiting for something, and when
he saw me, his teeth bared into a frightening smile, full of sharp
teeth. He turned to me and walked forward.

I was frozen in fear.

He circled around me, the tendrils of
his strange hair twisting around my arms. I shivered “He
doesn't love you, Ivy,” he said, the voice coming out of his
mouth like a hiss. “He's just taunting you... He betrayed you
once and he'll do it again.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but nothing
came out.

The demon appeared in front of me, eyes
crinkling at the corners. They were black with white pupils. “He
won't save your brother. He'll only return to King Ciaran like a dog
with his tail between his legs. Your brother is doomed to rot in King
Ciaran's dungeon for the rest of his life.

“
Follow
me, and I'll show you the way back to the outside. Then, you'll be
able to see your friends again. Your brother will be saved, I'll make
sure of it.”

He began to walk away from the fight,
into the darkness, looking back at me and beckoning for me to follow.

It was true. I longed to see my other
friends again. I longed to see my brother. I was tempted to follow
him, but I stayed rooted to the spot.

“
You're
lying. Roland is healed from his dark thoughts. I saw it happen,”
I said shakily.

“
Please,
that was a ruse, a trick with his magic to make you think that he was
innocent again. Now come.”

No. I wouldn't believe that.

“
I
will not,” I answered, curling my fists into balls.

The demon bared his teeth, a black sword
appearing in his hands. “So be it,” he seethed. He raised
the blade and sprinted forward.

There was nothing I could do. He was too
fast. I closed my eyes and waited for pain. When it didn't come, I
cracked my eyes open. A sword of light guarded me, pointing at the
neck of the demon, who was now kneeling on the ground, defeated. The
demon glared at the form behind me.

With one touch of the blade, he
disintegrated into black dust. He barely had enough time for a final
cry of pain.

Once the demon was gone, I should've
been less afraid...but I wasn't. I turned and trembled at the sight
of the powerful angel. His form was too bright for me to look at,
shining even brighter than the other angels. I stared at the ground,
the pure black ground, my heart beating rapidly.

“
Enough,”
he said. The word was barely a whisper, but suddenly everything
stopped. The demons were gone, and the other angels stood back a
ways, their swords resting on the ground in front of them.

I wanted to back away, but my fear kept
me rooted to the spot.

The angel lifted his sword to my heart.
“By light, your motive will be tested,” he said, his
voice quiet, but powerful, ringing with authority.

This is it.
The end of the battle is
your heart.
Soon, my thundering heart would be silent, a useless
rock inside a stone cold chest.

The sword pressed against my skin, and
then everything was pain and brightness. I could only see white as I
crumpled to the ground. Heat from my heart coursed through my veins
and burned my skin. I don't know if I screamed. All I could hear,
see, feel, taste, and smell was pain. It seemed to last an eternity
before it finally stopped.

Then, everything was still. Everything
was dark.

I knew that I had to be dead.

But then, I felt something that I didn't
expect.

Tha-thump...tha-thump.

My heart. My heart was beating.

I cracked my eyes open and looked
around, a huge smile coming to my face. A rock wall surrounded me,
vines trailing up the sides. I had made it. I sat up and pressed my
fingers to my neck, where I could feel the throb of my heart. Never
had I been more grateful or more aware of it than right now.

Unlike
on the other side of the wall, where the sky had been a sea of
blackness, the sky on this side was blue. Most every plant in this
little haven was green, but one thing stood out more than all the
others. In the very center of the garden was a petite little plant
with s
mall, glowing golden
flowers, bright green leaves, and a dark purple stem. The plant of
eternal life.

I
stood unsteadily and walked toward it. I hadn't come all this way
just to injure the only thing that could save Roland, so I dug into
the dirt around it, carefully uprooting it before letting the dirt
fall away. The glow of the flowers pulsed and faded, turning into a
natural yellow.

Roland.
I needed to get to him, and quickly. Who knew how much time I'd
wasted.

Across
the garden was a white gate. It looked like the only way out, so I
hastened toward it. As soon as I passed through it, I was suddenly
surrounded by snow and pines, crumbling black stone scattered around
me. This must have been the gate that I'd first gone into, to get to
the waterfall.

I
shivered, glad that everything was over now. It seemed like I'd gone
through ye
ars to get back here. I hoped beyond hope that I
wasn't too late. I tried shifting form, but apparently, this entire
area kept me
from changing.
Instead, I trekked through the snow a little ways, and it wasn't long
before I came across the statue that I'd defeated. This time, its arm
was still in place, but the legs were detached. I hurried on, not
wanting to get caught up in another fight with the wretched thing.
Once we were a safe distance
away—and my legs and bare
foot were stinging from the snow—I tried shifting form once
again and felt the exhilaration of changing. I picked the plant up in
my beak, taking care not to pinch it too hard, and flew off in the
direction of the village.

It
felt good to fly. I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to again. Just
feeling the air breeze through my feathers made me feel like
everything was going to be okay. Life would return back to normal,
now that I was successful in retrieving the plant. Roland would be
healed and we would return to the conservatory together. It was
better to have a friend that was still alive than an entire lifetime
of freedom.

Once
the village was in sight, I hurriedly landed. I wished I could fly
straight to Roland, but I still didn't want the natives to know what
my second form was.

The
village was more crowded at this time of day. Now, along with the
women and children, men wandered on the streets as well, carrying
weapons. They must've just gotten back from a patrol or a hunt.