Brandt ran to Ana. She looked dazed but otherwise unharmed. He and Jace lifted her to her feet. “Are you all right?” Brandt asked.
Ana nodded. “I think so. I feel like I got hit by a brick, though.”
They looked at the two women occupying the room with their power. “What happened?” Brandt asked.
Their blank looks were answer enough.
He supposed it didn’t matter. The two women in the center of the room fought on nearly equal terms. That was all he needed to know. For a moment, he felt the now familiar pangs of jealousy. It should have been him fighting.
He also knew the queen was distracted. So he stepped forward, drawing his sword, ready to end it all.
He swung, his cut clean.
But the queen moved. Though her eyes were closed, she sidestepped as he cut. His blade sliced through nothing but empty air.
The queen’s eyes opened, but Brandt had the distinct feeling she wasn’t truly there. She attacked him with a gust of wind, but he heard it building, and using his own gatestone was able to negate the attack. Her eyes focused on him for a single moment. “Brandt.”
Her attack wasn’t as strong as he’d expected. Below, Hanns and Regar had fought with far superior strength. Was it possible she was weaker than they expected in the physical world?
The queen didn’t give him time to answer his question. She carried a sword at her hip, and in a moment it was in her hand and she was attacking him.
Her movements were smooth and precise, and Brandt found himself on the defensive. Her attacks left no openings to exploit. They passed each other twice, neither gaining an advantage. Brandt felt like he had the edge, but she was better than he’d guessed her to be. After so many years relying on her affinity, he’d expected the sword would be little more than decoration.
A small stone suddenly appeared in the air between them. Brandt stared at it, not sure where it had come from. Only the queen’s glance toward Toren helped him understand. She’d stopped an Etari attack while fighting him.
She was as strong as he’d first thought.
The stone dropped, but Brandt saw Toren already had another one spinning.
Then Ana and Jace were at his side, their swords cutting toward the queen.
The queen focused on Jace, somehow finding the focus to blast him off his feet with air. It left just Brandt and Ana.
Brandt almost yelled at Ana to leave. If nothing else, their child needed to survive this. But the queen left them no chance to retreat.
Together, though, he and Ana were too much. They’d fought and trained side by side for over a decade. They knew each other’s moves intimately, stepping into the gaps the other left, always relentless in their assault. Behind them, Toren supported them with well-placed stones that never quite found their mark but distracted the queen anyway.
Brandt drew first blood, a cut across the queen’s thigh that elicited a low hiss.
It was only a matter of time. The queen gave up another step and then another. Soon she’d run out of space to give.
“Enough!” Her shout echoed in the small chamber, repeating again and again.
A wave of force bent the air around them. Though Brandt saw it coming, and heard the power through his affinity, there was nothing he could do. Even with the gatestone, he was helpless before the force. It threw him off his feet and sent him slamming against the wall of the cave. Beside him, Ana fared better, skidding across the floor until she slid to a stop against the wall.
Only Alena stood against the force. Brandt didn’t understand how, but she remained unmoved. As he watched, she opened her eyes and he realized that she, too, had that same distant look the queen had. She was both here and not here.
And then Brandt felt true despair.
The queen had been fighting both he and Ana, blocking Toren’s attacks, and fending off Alena in the soulwalk the entire time.
They had no chance against her. No chance at all.
But he was the first to his feet. Chance or no, he’d never understood surrender. He’d fight until he couldn’t. He flexed his grip on his sword and stepped forward to attack again.
“Stop,” the queen said.
She didn’t shout, but the power in her voice caused him to pause. The queen sheathed her sword. “There is no need for you all to die. I came here for the gate, and it is now mine.” The queen glanced to Alena, as if in challenge. Brandt wondered what had passed between the two women. But Alena said nothing.
The queen looked down at her cut leg, blood trickling down to her calf. Then she looked to Brandt. “I offer you a truce.”
Brandt’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“Come with me,” the queen told Brandt. “Study under me, and I will teach you all that I know. You have my word. Any question you have, I will answer to the best of my knowledge and ability.”
“Never!” said Ana behind him.
“Why?” Brandt asked.
“There is a threat coming, more dangerous than you could understand. Ask your friend, Alena.”
Brandt glanced at Alena. “She speaks true,” the soulwalker said.
The queen gestured to her injured leg. “I need warriors strong enough for the fight that is coming. I’ve already won the gate. I plan to return to my own land soon. I gain nothing by killing a man who may someday have the strength to save not just his empire, but his world.”
Brandt stared into the queen’s crystal-clear blue eyes. He saw no lie within them. He was tempted. Just like that, all his questions could be answered. The strength he needed to protect his family could be his.
But if something was too good to be true, it often was. “And if I gain enough strength to kill you?”
The queen smiled at that. “Then you are better able to defend this world than
