I sucked in a sharp breath but it fell flat in my frozen lungs, unable to soften the burning pain that caused my vision to blur. I grunted, an insignificant effort in light of the battle, both in this cave and waging above ground. My voice echoed inside the tornado, bouncing against the wind and up into the cavern ceiling.
I decided if I could get something small, like a grunt, out of my body, I could get something more. So I screamed, loud and desperately, lifting my face toward the open ceiling and the blue smoke moved with me, soaring upward and coating the twister in healing power. In that moment, that small infinitesimal moment, I felt release from the bone-deep cold, and my magic surged from my body in an intense escape. My lungs relaxed, and my blood pumped through my heart again. But after only a moment, the cold had taken over fiercely once again and I struggled for consciousness.
I screamed again, this time more magic left my body. In the short seconds I had to build and release my electricity, I knew it had to make a difference. The magic pierced the whirling wind, shot through like light in the darkest places. The mustard yellow flashed blue for just a second, just a moment before speeding up with a vengeful strength.
I had maybe one more shot, if I was lucky; maybe one more time to make this cyclone bend to my will before it turned me completely to ice and shattered me against the hard ground. With one final effort, in which I didn’t even bother to scream, instead I chose to save all my energy for the force of magic I needed to release, I exhaled my magic against the cyclone with every ounce of immortality I had.
My magic, a real and palpable energy force now, fought against the tornado in a flash of colors so quickly I struggled to keep my eyes open. The tornado grew angrier, throwing me around the room and trying to disorient me. I held my ground, so to speak, and kept both the smoke and the electricity focused on the twister.
The colors moved faster in between, and my heart kept pace threatening to pound right out of my chest. My head hurt from the quick, violent movements of the cyclone and my body ached from the effort. I promised myself just a little bit longer, and then later, just a little bit longer.
Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I opened my arms and released everything I had. It felt as though I had just given away my magic and I fell limp in the middle of the tempest. I felt unconsciousness finding me, taking away my vision and ringing in my ears. But when my final burst of magic hit the walls of the twister, the winds exploded in blue magic to the far corners of the cavern. I fell from the ceiling to the ground in a painful heap of broken bones.
The wind disappeared, along with my magic and only the blue smoke was left to heal my battered body from a fight I started to believe was pointless. When I could move my arms again, I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around the now empty, dark cavern.
A sound could be heard from far away, and I tilted my head toward the hole I made to enter this hell on earth. The sound grew louder, and stronger, and I leaned closer trying to figure out what it was. The closer it got, the more violent it became and when I recognized it as a thousand rushing winds, I tried to scoot away from the entrance, afraid of the vengeance to which I was about to be the victim.
When the wind flew powerfully through the opening I only had a second to recognize that the forceful air rushing at me with purpose was blue, not mustard before it descended on top of me, entering my body from every pore. I gasped one final breath and then fell into the blackness.
----
I woke up slowly, consciousness painfully flooding my senses, and then jumped to my feet, realizing the wind had knocked me out. I took one minute to breathe deeply again, before I moved out of the opening and toward the prison.
It worked.
My plan worked.
I could feel the new magic pulsing inside me, pumping with my blood, mixing with the blue smoke, and at my disposal. There was no time to gloat, but this was the first one of my plans that had actually panned out, and if the fate of the Immortal world rested on tonight’s outcome, it was about time I got it right.
The once invisible dividing line that separated the prisons from the more dangerous part of the underground had disappeared. I took a step onto the smoothed out dirt floor and the earth trembled underneath me. When my second foot joined my first the ground shifted one way and then the other. I took a step deeper into the prisons, passed the now empty cells and the ground shook violently. I reached out for a prison door while the earthquake violently rearranged the prison layout and then clutched the door tighter, when the ground opened up completely and a canyon divided the dungeons in half.
When finally the earth stopped shifting, I took tentative steps forward, careful not to plunge into the bottomless depth below. Doors hung from their hinges and manmade prison cells crumbled into the ravine, my footsteps created.
I wondered if the earth rejected the idea of the sadistic prison cells as much as I did. With the removal of the magic, could it be that this planet decided to ensure the freedom of my people as well?
Once I passed the long crater, I reached the stairs and ran up them, afraid of the devastation I would find. And as I emerged from the now useless prison door, I came upon a Citadel on fire. Magical battles were being waged all around me, as the thin moon rose higher into an empty sky. I searched the crowd for Kiran, for Avalon or Talbott, anyone. I knew they would be close to Lucan, and now I knew how to defeat him.
I wanted to help the other Immortals that fought unfair battles against the Titans. I knew though, that the best way to help them would be to find Lucan and kill him first. I would deal with the Titans later as a natural result of the king’s death.
I stopped moving and focused on Avalon, searching for him in the thousands of Immortals fighting for their lives. I entered his consciousness and began to move before I could even pinpoint him. Lucan was there, along with Kiran and things were not in our favor.
I sprinted through the Citadel, toward the fountain of the four original Oracles. I dodged flying objects and bursts of magic as Titans started to recognize me in my flight. I sent magic behind me, and ducked out of the way of several magic bursts. My dress was torn, my hair ripped from its updo and I dashed barefoot toward Lucan and away from the pursuing Titans.
When I stumbled into the square where Lucan faced off against the two boys I loved most in this world, Avalon and Kiran, I swallowed the fear that threatened to consume me.
Lucan sent his powerful magic against Avalon, sending him into the fountain, breaking it further into disrepair. Kiran stepped forward to attack next and Lucan lifted him off the ground in a stronghold of bitterness.
I sent magic at Lucan, forceful and angry, but he waved it away with a swish of his hand. I struggled to release the new magic; the magic I knew would hinder Lucan’s and restrain his impossible force.
“How could you betray me? I am your father!” Lucan was shouting at Kiran while I tried to find a way to release the dangerous, new magic. I walked forward, hoping the closer I got to Lucan, the easier it would be to figure out this new magic.
“You are more monster than my father!” Kiran shouted back, his head tilted back in agony. “I gave you my loyalty, I stood up for you, I followed you when I knew it would destroy the only thing that I loved and yet nothing I did could satisfy your bloodlust!”
“You chose her,” Lucan’s malicious eyes flickered to me for only a brief second before turning back to his son. “You chose her over your family! Over your blood!”
“I chose goodness, I chose morality! I chose correctly. You stand with one foot in hell, and release your demons on innocents! You chose death. I chose life,” Kiran growled, his words resounding with conviction.
“No, son, by choosing her, you asked for death,” Lucan finished sadly, tightening his hold on Kiran. I was just ten feet from him, and still the magic stayed in my blood; it had no desire to leave me.
Lucan picked up a forgotten sword from the ground and before I could react hurled it through the air into Kiran’s chest. Kiran’s wound opened up to the sky and released his grey magic into the night. Lucan dropped Kiran’s waning body onto the ground and turned his attention to me.
I had been screaming something incoherent at the king, but until his cold eyes found mine, I hadn’t noticed the sound coming from my mouth or the tears streaming from my eyes. I leveled my gaze with him, turning my back on Kiran.
The blue healing smoke left my body in a direct command from behind me, instinctively finding Kiran and getting to work. In front of me flew a new blue magic, it wasn’t yellow anymore but I recognized its power. It slammed into Lucan’s magic with a thunder like crash. He took an unstable step back and I knew I hit my mark.
I took a step forward and he took a step back, the new magic making ground as it moved deeper through his electrical force field. His eyes flashed panic for a second before his faulty arrogance took over.
“You are a child!” he screamed, forcing his feet forward. “You cannot accomplish what grown men have tried before! You cannot succeed where your own grandfather failed!”
“Then what makes you think you can achieve where every king before hasn’t? You are no greater than your ancestors. You will be the last of the kings to die, and your son will carry on your name with a new meaning!” I threatened, pushing the new magic against him.
Lucan’s eyes fell to Kiran and he watched in horror as the blue smoke worked to heal him. He sent his magic at Kiran to prevent his life from being saved, but I moved to catch him before his dangerous electricity got anywhere near him.
“You sold your soul to the devil,” Lucan turned back to me, awakening to the power I now possessed.
“You are wrong. I did what I had to, to save my people. You are the one who embraced evil and turned to darkness.” I fought with everything I had to make more ground. Lucan was weakening, but he still had an immense amount of power.
I released my electricity with the repressing magic and stood against Lucan now a worthy opponent. Avalon joined me, standing side by side. His magic joined mine in an oppressive force. Kiran stood up next to me, his chest wound healed and his magic joining with ours. Others from the plaza joined us as well, Talbott, Lilly, Silas, Xander. We stood together as a unified force, an army that opposed the fallen king.
Titans joined the crowd, racing in to fight for their king, but stopped short when they found their king bending his knee to our power. More Immortals joined us, some I knew, like Gabriel, Titus, Sebastian and Seraphina. Others I did not recognize, members of the kingdom as thirsty for freedom as the rest of us.
Lucan shook beneath our combined power, as his magic fell weakened into nothing. I started to pull then, pull at his evil magic, pull his life’s blood from his veins. Avalon joined me, and then Gabriel. Kiran pulled too, and Sebastian. Jericho, Ebanks, Oscar, Jett, and Talbott. Not everyone knew how to take someone else’s magic, but those of us who did fought together in a unified effort to drain Lucan of all the power he ever held.
When Titans joined us, and more than just Jedrec and his team, I began to feel the joy of victory with the morning light that brightened the horizon. No matter what happened to Lucan after this night, my kingdom now stood together, a unified people against him.