Haldor stilled, looking surprised. Thayen had poked him in the soul, quite literally. His shadow hounds were prowling around us, however, and getting dangerously closer to me and my mom. Richard, pour soul, could no longer stand.
“There we go,” Thayen murmured, his hand constricting into a tight fist. “I’ve got you.”
The giant Berserker smiled and said, “You think?” Thayen coughed, and blood burst from his nose.
“Oh, no,” I breathed.
“Told you…” Brandon muttered, still standing to the side and doing nothing.
I couldn’t look away from Thayen. Jericho was struggling, Dafne was injured, and Soph was barely hanging on as the shadow hounds grew closer and snappier with every second that passed. The circle of fire was weakening, and my light was slowly fading, too.
“You cannot handle the spirit of a Berserker, you fool,” Haldor told Thayen, who refused to let go. The more the giant moved toward him, the harder it got for Thayen to hold on. Blood streamed from his nose and ears, and the color drained from his cheeks. Another minute, and he would pass out.
“Thayen, let him go!” I shouted, fearful for his life.
Something poked me in the back. I turned my head and found… Myst standing behind me, her magnificent sword pressed against my hip. “Myst, what are you—”
“Shut up and touch the blade. Give me all the light you can spare,” she whispered.
I didn’t hesitate. Thayen would die unless we did something, and fast. I had a feeling Myst might be the game changer we needed. Brandon spotted her as she charged her sword with my light. He gave her a faint nod, then slowly produced two weapons of his own—long knives made of black steel. The blades were slender like needles. I imagined they delivered lethal damage if handled properly, and Brandon struck me as the kind of fighter who was never short on confidence.
Even so, why had he waited until now to draw his weapons? Had he been waiting for Myst to appear?
“Are you a Berserker, too?” I mumbled.
Myst scoffed. “I’m much better,” she replied, drawing a scowl from Brandon.
Haldor had been so busy laughing in Thayen’s face that he didn’t see Myst until it was too late. She moved away from me and raised her sword. “Valysium!” she shouted, and the light of a true sun exploded from the blade. My own energy came out in rays of white light, spreading across the clearing and reducing the shadow hounds to terrified wisps.
I caught a glimpse of Brandon as he jumped Haldor. Thayen collapsed. Dafne and Soph reached him first and dragged him away as the Berserkers fought one another, both weakened by the light from Myst’s sword. But Brandon didn’t stop. He hacked and slashed at Haldor, relentless and determined to take the giant down, while the hounds whimpered and withdrew beyond the redwoods.
I took advantage of this brief moment to shake my mom once more. If anyone could zap us out of here, it was her. She had the abilities I’d been lacking. Finally, her eyes peeled open, and the faded purple in her irises scared me. “Mom! Oh, Mom… please, wake up!” I cried out.
We were an absolute mess. I heard the clangs of blades clashing against Haldor’s armored forearm. The Berserker lashed out with his whip, and the black tongue curled around Myst’s throat. He yanked back while Brandon struggled to cut him again. Myst yelped and fell. Her sword remained alight, though its glow was quickly fading.
“Mom, wake up,” I said, slapping her gently, then harder until she was fully awake. “You need to get us out of here… Now!”
She blinked rapidly as she quickly took in her surroundings and realized where she was. I doubted she understood much about what had happened and how she’d gotten there, but it didn’t really matter. She could do something. Her gaze darkened for a moment. “I… Astra, the runes on my arms,” Mom said. “One of them is stopping me from zapping us out of here…”
“Which one?” I asked, raising my voice. Exasperation was getting the better of me.
“The circle!” Myst cried out, wrestling with Haldor’s whip. “Break the circle!”
“I always said Valkyries were a major pest!” the giant snarled, pulling her closer. Brandon tried to stab him in the side, but Haldor bounced back and kicked him in the chest. This particular Berserker was downright impossible to take down.
Ignoring what he’d just said about Valkyries, I focused on the circle Myst had mentioned. I found it on my mother’s left forearm. As the light from the sword began to fade, the shadow hounds were returning, twice as big and hungry. I scratched the circle with my nail, deep enough to break the skin. Blood bloomed in a scarlet pearl, but I had done it.
“Quick,” Mom said. “Link yourselves to me.”
She was shaking like a leaf, yet she still found the strength to do this. I grabbed Richard’s arm with one hand and Soph’s shoulder. She had Dafne, and Dafne had Jericho. The fae dragon had Thayen. Around us, hell itself was coming undone. Brandon barely managed to get up. He cut through Haldor’s whip and released Myst.
The Valkyrie scrambled back to her feet and dashed across the clearing to recover her weapon. The clones were coming from all directions, and we were about to get swallowed by the swarm of snarling shadow hounds.
Mom gripped me by the back of the neck and exhaled sharply. I caught a glimpse of Haldor shouting and hurtling toward us, his whip slithering through the air, but I couldn’t hear him anymore.
I saw Brandon’s fiery blue eyes widening. Myst smiling with cool satisfaction. And then the void engulfed us. We were darkness. We were nothing. We were particles in the wind until we reappeared on the edge of the fake island’s own Sun Beach, under a curved palm tree.
“Hot damn, that was close!” Jericho managed, his uniform drenched with sweat.
Close, but not close enough. By some miracle, we’d made it.
We’d survived yet another nightmare.
Astra
Minutes poured away in a strange silence as we gradually came to and became fully aware of our surroundings. My mom was with us. She was safe. I threw my arms around her and showered her with kisses, crying from sheer happiness. “You’re okay,” I mumbled. “You’re okay. Thank the stars, you’re okay…”
“I wouldn’t be if it weren’t for you, sweetheart,” she replied, pressing her lips to my forehead and putting all the love she had into this one kiss. My heart sang with relief at knowing my mother was alive and well and back with me.
“I should’ve told you to take us to the Black Heights,” I said.
“I’ll take us there soon enough. But let us just breathe for a moment,” Mom replied, blinking slowly.
We needed a while to sort ourselves out. Mom was still groggy, but she pulled herself together and helped me heal Thayen. Jericho tended to Dafne’s wounds, and Soph aided Richard with vitamins and healing potions to clear his bloodstream of whatever tranquilizer they’d injected him with.
The Sun Beach didn’t really have a sun. It was just more of that same dull white light, albeit brighter than the rest of the fake Shade. It made the ocean shore look like a bathroom fixture under a white neon bulb. Dull. Lifeless. But it didn’t matter. We were alive. We’d survived Haldor once again.