“Surrender now, and I’ll kill you quickly,” Haldor said, his voice gruff and scratchy.
I brought my hands together, focusing a pulse of pure pink light into my hands. It would take its toll on my energy levels, but it would certainly cause some damage for the giant. “Sorry. We’ve got other plans,” I replied, then launched the light ball. He yanked on the whip and forced Thayen up between us. “No!” I cried out, throwing up a barrier to knock the light ball from its trajectory.
It worked, and the light ball slammed into a swath of shadow monsters instead, reducing them to ashy wisps as it blew a hole through that entire flank. Haldor laughed, while Thayen continued to struggle against his grip. “Who the hell are you?” Thayen asked, nervously eyeing him. Sweat dripped down his face as he fought against the pain.
“Oh, it doesn’t matter,” Haldor said. “What matters is that this is the end of the line for you. Say your prayers. Make your peace. You will die now.”
“Or you could just go screw yourself,” a man’s voice shot across the clearing. It was low but sharp, bursting with a vibrant energy I had never sensed before. Everything came to a halt, and I doubted Haldor liked it. Even his shadow monsters seemed to soften, if only for a moment, at the sight of this dark figure stepping through the burnt vine wall.
I held my breath, realizing I had seen him before. Not once but twice. First, when he’d guided us to the cave. Second, when he’d brought us here. Finally, I was meeting our strange and mysterious helper, but my excitement quickly turned to raw fear as I realized he was made of the same shadows as the monsters and Haldor himself.
His eyes were that same peculiar fiery blue, though his frame was significantly smaller than the giant’s. This guy was tall with broad shoulders and narrow hips, and shadows wisped off him like black fires, obscuring his form. There had to be more beneath that darkness. I knew, deep in my bones, that there was more to him.
“Brandon. I thought I told you to comply,” Haldor hissed, clearly displeased with his presence.
“And I thought I told you there was a fat chance of me falling in line with the rest of you traitors,” Brandon replied dryly. “You may have Hammer, but you still don’t have me.”
“That’s fine. I’ll just tell HQ to destroy Hammer,” Haldor said, yanking on his whip until Thayen dropped to his knees with a pained yelp. The black tongue was so tightly wrapped around his forearm that it had drawn blood. If the squeeze were any tighter, it could easily shatter the bones.
Brandon took a few more steps forward, completely unafraid. “I’ll get Hammer out before you make it back to HQ. I know you will want to destroy him yourself, just to prove a point.” He looked at me, and time nearly stopped. “You have enough light in you to set this entire island ablaze. Don’t let these bastards make you think otherwise, half-Daughter.”
“Wha… what?” I managed, my voice barely a whisper.
“You’re letting the darkness get to you,” Brandon said. “The light inside you is more powerful than they’d like. Summon it. Summon it all. You don’t need anyone’s help, you just need to find the core of your strength.”
His words were oddly encouraging, and I could feel it working. A nuclear force grew inside me, vibrating through my limbs as my pink light intensified. I exhaled sharply, allowing the heat to expand up to my chest and into my throat. It was strange. I had never felt anything like this before…
“Damn you, Brandon. You’ve picked the wrong side,” Haldor spat, but Brandon didn’t care.
My light was growing, and for a moment I could almost see his face beneath the darkness. His square jaw and flaming blue, almond-shaped eyes. His crow black hair and arched eyebrows. His aquiline nose. His full lips. He was smiling at me, and that just made the light react and grow even stronger.
In an instant, the shadow monsters squealed, forced to retreat once more, while Haldor tried to pull Thayen toward him. Brandon bolted and cut right through the whip, snapping it loose. He grabbed Thayen by the back of his neck and ran toward us. Jericho and Dafne managed to snap out of their frozen horror at the same moment, and all hell broke loose.
Haldor and his beasts were unexpectedly overwhelmed. Jericho released all the fire he had, torching everything in his path, cabin and fountain included. The orange flames swelled, consuming and obliterating it all. The enemy vanished into the night with the silent promise of an even bloodier rematch, while the rest of us started running.
Brandon got ahead of our group, the shadows on him fading away as he led us far from the scorched clearing. Soon all the fire and smoke would draw the clones’ attention. We knew it, and so did he. “Who the hell are you?” Soph asked from behind me.
I was simply staring at his true form, though he had his back to us. Short black hair with a bluish sheen. Black leather covering his body, wrists and fingers loaded with silver. His arms were bare, with sculpted muscles and skin as pale as pearls. He glanced over his shoulder, and I saw those blue fires once more. “I’m the guy who just saved your asses, so keep running. It’s time to get you to the armory. The clones will mobilize for the cabin.”
My heart skipped a few beats. He knew what we were up to. He’d not only helped us, he knew what we were doing, where we were going. I wanted to believe that Brandon might be a friend, but he was like Haldor. They belonged to the same strange species. But Myst was nowhere to be found, and we’d almost gotten our asses handed to us back there. By some miracle, this stranger had come to our side and had pulled us from the blackness of this place yet again.
This was scarcely the time to pick and choose our allies. Fate had brought Brandon to us. That had to mean something… Right?
Astra
He led us through the woods, faint shadows swirling from his bare shoulders. He ran, and we ran with him. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. In the midst of the earlier madness, it was clear to me that the man who had helped us was also connected to Haldor, our enemy. We knew little to nothing about either of them, yet one had chosen to be a friend while the other was determined to hunt, torment, and eventually kill us. Oddly enough, Brandon had also accomplished a most incredible thing. He’d helped me tap into my power. Truly tap into the force I’d been living with my whole life, yet I’d never been able to fully exploit. It made me quiver.
“They’re not far behind,” Soph said, her breathing ragged as she kept up.
We made our way up a stony path, a snaking trail that cut through the northwestern parts of the redwood forest. I could hear them growling, sniffing our trails as they advanced after us. Thayen, however, wasn’t convinced that we were in better hands with Brandon than with Haldor—despite that, he didn’t slow down.
“You’re like him. You’re like Haldor,” Thayen said.
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” Brandon replied without so much as a glance back at us. “But I assume you’re referring to what we are, not who we are. Because in that sense, my fanged friend, I am nothing like Haldor.”
“Then prove it,” Thayen shot back. “Tell us what’s going on with this place! Who are you? What are you? Why is there a copy of our island and our people?”