“It’s the bear,” Lopt shouted to everyone’s surprise. He yanked the talisman from Cai’s grip and threw it across the room.
“What are you doing?” Astra shouted. “Without that, he will lose control.”
“It’s a fake.”
Lopt reached for Tara’s bear. “Please,” he said to her sweetly. “May I please borrow Button. I promise I’ll return him right away.”
Tara looked at her bear and then at Lopt. She looked worried, but also innocently trusting. “Promise you’ll give him right back?”
“I swear to it.”
“Okay.” She held up the stuffed bear for Lopt to take.
Brynlee still had a firm hold of its paw.
“Brynlee, please,” Lopt looked at her with desperation. “You can trust me.”
She bit her lip, and he could see that she was wrestling with herself. Finally, she released the bear.
“Here,” Lopt shouted as he shoved the bear into Cai’s hand.
Cai was almost too far gone to notice, but Lopt had managed to shove the stuffed toy at him just in time. Cai’s eyes immediately calmed, and he quickly regained control over his magic. He pulled the power to him and thrust it at the wafts of the plague floating into the city streets. His dark magic turned the plumes of sickened air into hanging tufts of cotton candy-like substance that lingered motionless far away from them and the other people who had barricaded in their homes nearby. As soon as the plague was contained, Cai let the magic fade from him.
“Yay!” Tara said as she broke free from Brynlee’s grasp and ran toward Cai. “You did it. You made the poison go away. Button helped!” She reached up and grabbed the bear from him and gave it a huge cuddle.
Lopt looked past the little girl toward Brynlee, who gave him a knowing look, while Astra and Celeste stared in amazement.
“Did that bear just help me control my dark magic?” Cai asked Lopt in sheer disbelief. “Or have I had way too much to drink? And what the hell happened to the talisman?”
Lopt opened his mouth to answer him, but Brynlee stepped forward before he did.
“The talisman is useless,” Brynlee said.
“That’s impossible,” Astra said. “I recognize it and can feel it’s magic. That talisman is crafted from a dragon’s eye.”
“Yes, it is. But it was not imbued with the power to harness the Dark Elf’s magic.”
“Then why does Cai have it? Why did you have it to begin with?”
“It is true that my sister left it to give to Cai, but it was meant as a distraction to divert attention from the real talisman. Gretel thought it was too dangerous if anyone found out about the real talisman; she needed to keep it safe and hidden, so she used the dragon’s eye as a diversion. The dragon eye has power that was meant for someone else, not Cai.”
“But it worked the last time I used it,” Cai said in confusion.
“No,” Brynlee said. “It didn’t. You just thought it did because you were holding it. But the true talisman was near you then as well. It was what helped you to control your magic, just as it did now.”
Cai looked down at Tara, who was clutching Button to her face and praising the bear for being so brave.
“Button?” Cai said as he looked at Brynlee.
“Yeah,” she said. “The true talisman is inside the bear. Gretel sewed it inside Button to keep it safe and inconspicuous.”
Cai bent down and lifted Tara into his arms. She liked it when he picked her up, but she didn’t like that they were talking about Button as if he were a thing. She eyed Cai skeptically and clutched Button to her chest.
“He’s going to stay with me now,” Tara said adamantly. “Button does not want to be borrowed anymore.”
Cai smiled at her. “Okay, then I guess you and I are going to be a team. That okay with you?”
Tara looked at Button and tilted the bears head to the side with her fingers to make it look like it was thinking. “You mean the three of us,” she said to Cai.
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry. I meant to say the three of us.”
“Okay, then,” she answered. “Button always goes where I go.”
“What a clever girl Gretel was,” Lopt said quietly to Astra, who was standing beside him.
“Yes,” Astra replied. “She knew Cai would need it, and I believe she knew he would find her siblings. Now they are connected and will protect each other. Even in Gretel’s death, she serves those she loves.”
Cai and Brynlee both heard Astra’s words, and the pang of loss filled them both. Gretel was sorely missed.
“Not to sound cruel,” Celeste said. “But would it not be a better idea to remove the talisman from the toy?”
Tara glared at her, and Cai felt the small girl’s hands make fistfuls of cloth with his shirt against his chest.
“No,” he said gently as he smiled at Tara. “Button is part of our team now, and we protect our teammates. Right?”
“Right!” Tara gave him a wide smile before she wrapped her arms around Cai’s neck, which barely reached all the way around and squeezed him with a big hug.
“Uh, Cai…” Celeste said as she pointed out the doorway at the loosening dark sorcery that was starting to wiggle free from Cai’s hold.
“Impossible,” Astra said. “He had it contained.”
They all looked at the plague as it began to shake in the air with the pent-up energy of a tea kettle about to whistle and boil over. Lopt watched as some of the people of Alfheim had begun to leave their houses and fill the city streets, thinking the sorcery had been contained and was no longer a threat.
“No!” Lopt shouted at the gathered people as he stepped just outside the door. “Go back inside! It’s not safe.”
The people turned to look at him in confusion; a few of them heard his warning and tried to heed it by immediately turning to make a run back for their homes. But it happened too quickly, the dark sorcery burst free and exploded like an erupting volcano. Instead of crawling slowing toward them, the plague pummeled through the city like a wild boar, knocking everyone in its path to the ground, stricken by the corruption and gagging on its poison. Celeste reacted at once by grabbing Lopt back into the little house with a firm grip on his shirt, which sent him falling backward onto his rear. Outside they heard the screams of their fellow people, but the sound didn’t last for long until the plague silenced their voices altogether.
“We’re trapped,” Brynlee said under her breath. “There’s no way for us to escape.”
“I don’t understand. How has it been able to strengthen so quickly?” Astra asked.
“I don’t know,” Lopt said. “But Brynlee is right; we are trapped.”
CHAPTER NINE
“What are you going to do?” Brandt asked her as Brenna sat on the edge of his bed and wrung her hands.
“I don’t know. Either way, it’s a bad choice. If I cure the plague, then humanity dies, this world will die. If I don’t, then countless lives on every realm will be lost, and the dark sorcery will seep into every corner of the universe. The Fate said we would be able to restore what had been lost, but at what cost? At least with the first prophecy, I didn’t have the fate of the entire world resting on my shoulders.” She sighed and put her head in her hands. Her head was pounding, and she felt like whichever decision she made, it would be the wrong one and others would suffer.