Her assumption proved correct. Once again, Alena felt the full attention of the soulwalker fall upon her. A wave of pressure stopped Alena from advancing, but both women needed to commit their entire attention to the war between them.
Then the soulwalker vanished from Alena’s world. Her presence was gone.
Alena returned to the cavern.
Now, two bodies lay in front of her. From the looks of it, Brandt had reached the soulwalker and killed her. His knife was in his hand, coated in blood. His eyes were open and their gazes met. He nodded and closed his eyes for a moment.
Alena turned her attention to the final soulwalker, her eyes closed and her hand on the gate. From the look on her face it appeared that her attention was somewhere far away.
They had to stop her before she completed her task. In the midst of the battle Alena had lost all sense of time. Regardless, they didn’t have any to waste.
Brandt felt the same. “Help me up.”
Alena stumbled toward him. Every part of her body felt weak, every step a monumental effort. But they would step forward together.
67
Brandt didn’t understand exactly what had just transpired. At one point, he swore he saw the air ripple between the two women, but they had fought a battle beyond his skill, and perhaps even beyond his comprehension. The soulwalker hadn’t even looked down at him as he drove his knife cleanly through her heart.
Alena looked dead on her feet, but being as he looked dead on his back, she was still the better off of the two of them. She helped him to his feet.
She looked concerned, and for good reason. His head felt faint. He’d lost a lot of blood and didn’t have long before he reached the final gate. But first, he had to deal with the gate in front of him.
If it was possible, the gate seemed to be even brighter than it had been before. He feared that whatever task the soulwalker sought to complete was nearly so.
“What do we do?” Alena asked.
“I don’t know,” Brandt confessed. His only plan had been to kill everyone before the gate was fully opened. He supposed the plan still held.
Using Alena for support, Brandt shuffled toward the final Lolani soulwalker. Like the last, his advance wasn’t even noticed. He almost felt guilty for killing them like this.
Almost.
He stabbed his knife out, the bloody point aimed straight for the heart.
It stopped about two hands away from her chest.
Brandt tried again, stabbing from a slightly different angle. Nothing changed.
He looked to Alena. Perhaps this was yet another task for her. She reached out with her hand until it too stopped. She closed her eyes for a moment, then gasped.
“What is it?”
“It’s a wall, woven of elements. I don’t know how to breach it.”
Brandt frowned. He looked at the hand that held Kye’s gatestone. This close to the gate, he feared what would happen if he channeled his affinity through the stone. He would take Alena’s word for now.
He looked at the stone in his hand. It only worked through contact. The soulwalker touched the gate. Perhaps he needed to do the same. He nodded toward the other arch of the glowing gate. “Help me over there.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Touch it.”
“Are you sure?”
He shook his head. “I’m very open to other ideas if you have any.”
She remained silent.
Just as he’d feared.
Together, they shuffled over. Brandt wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand even with her support.
He quivered with exhaustion and fear. The soulwalker had kneeled in front of the gate for some time before daring to touch it. The power coming from the stones was palpable. But Brandt didn’t know what the soulwalker had done to prepare, so he saw little point in waiting.
He turned to Alena. “I think you should let go.”
She looked doubtful.
“I can stand for a few moments. But you’ve done all you can. Live, Alena. Return to your parents. We all take our last journey alone.”
She still looked uncertain, but she gently ducked under his arm, making sure he was balanced before letting go completely.
He wished he had more time with her. He wished for more time with his wolfblades, and with Ana. Soon, though, he would have plenty of time with them all.
“Thank you,” he said.
Before she could reply, he reached out and touched the gate.
His world exploded into color and sound, a vivid, kaleidoscopic nightmare. The sounds of the elements pounded against his skull, threatening to shatter it. Primal forces battered at him.
He pushed forward, skin torn from his limbs, coruscating energy slicing through his body. Three more steps brought him to his knees. This was beyond comprehension, beyond his ability to control and shape. He covered his ears, but the deafening sound still rattled his head.
It was too much power. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t even begin to control it. His body came apart, tearing itself limb from limb.
Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. With a flash, the pressure decreased. He remained whole.
“Don’t try to control it. Flow with it.”
He looked up to see Alena standing beside him. Grateful as he was for her presence, it could only mean one thing. His heart sank. He’d hoped, if nothing else, she would survive these caves. “You touched the stone?”
“I touched you. You didn’t look like you were doing so well.”
Alena guided them. They broke out of the torrent of power and floated above it, like skimming over fast-moving rapids.
“How are you doing this?”
Alena shook her head. “The same as the soulwalking. It feels right.”
“That’s… vague.”
She shrugged. “I wish I had a system, too. But it is what it is.” She looked around. “Where are we?”
Brandt looked at her. “If you don’t know, I certainly don’t.”
This plane seemed alive with energy. Brandt had the sensation of incredible speed, but his vision provided no clues.
“There’s a pattern here, something underneath the chaos.” Alena’s curiosity sounded piqued. “Hold on.”
Then Brandt’s reality snapped. He
