Teryn shuddered in disbelief as he took it all in, hands and body shaking violently. He had accomplished his goal, but at what cost?
Yes, his nemesis was dead, and with him the wizard army that had protected and aided him, but so were countless others, wizard and servant alike. Thousands of innocent lives had been winked out in minutes, taking with them all of their knowledge and gifts. Teryn had single-handedly wiped out almost every remaining wizard in the world in the name of revenge, in a sense making him a bigger villain than the demon he’d taken down.
At that moment, he heard the sound of labored, raspy breathing coming from someone next to him. He turned to see Valeria, who had been safe in his stasis bubble moments before, struggling to take in breaths.
His heart lurched. Somehow, his shield had broken. Likely it had happened while his attention had been focused on the destruction around him.
“Teryn, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said in between breaths as she looked up at him, her face pale and coated in a cold sheet of sweat.
He picked up her head and cradled it in his hands. “Valeria, sweetheart, try not to move. I will get someone to help us, I promise.”
She smiled weakly up at him. “I know you will, my love.”
He brushed her cheek and stared into her emerald eyes. They were starting to dim, like the life had almost left them.
“Everything will be fine,” he said to her, hoping the words would ring true.
Not that they ever had, but he had to believe in them this time. For once in his life, the words had to mean something, not let him down.
Valeria reached one hand up to caress Teryn’s cheek ever so gently. Her clammy palm cupped his cheek and he leaned into it, letting the last bit of her warmth soak into his skin. Then he felt her strength start to give way.
Desperately, he reached inside himself to pull up the last reserves of magic he had to cast a stopme spell. He wasn’t sure it would work here, but he was out of options.
The strain of the casting was so intense that he bled through some of his pores, using a tiny bit of his own life force to power it. The magic flew from his fingertips, but nothing happened.
He was too weak. The magic had failed him.
“No!” he cried out in defiance. He summoned the power again, but it would not listen. Tears streamed down his face in earnest then as he watched Valeria fade away into nothing, powerless to stop it.
“Everything will be fine,” he said again, caressing her cheek, knowing the words were nothing but an empty promise.
He broke out into a full-on sob then, the tears wracking his whole body, taking with them the last bits of his strength and sanity as time itself seemed to stop around him.
Then he noticed it – the supreme quiet and stillness around him, the lack of motion, of sound of any sort, really, all around. Something had changed. He looked down at Valeria. Her breathing had stopped, but he could tell she was still very much alive, even seemed a bit stronger as he held her fast against the darkness.
Teryn blinked his eyes to clear away the tears. It was as if the stopme spell had worked, after all.
He wiped the remaining tears from his face and looked down at her again. She still had a giant wound in her chest, but somehow, laying completely still like she was, she looked perfect. And she would stay that way, too, if he could find help in time.
But as exhausted as he was, that would prove difficult. He tried to stand, to wave over Aldrek or one of the other surviving wizards to come help, but the sudden motion was too much for his overtaxed system, and all of them seemed to be paused much like Valeria beneath him.
He collapsed onto the ground, crashing into the dirt next to his beloved, where he stayed for several minutes. As he laid there in the grass, he said a silent prayer to the Jheriem that the stopme magic, wherever it had come from, would hold out just a little longer.
With the immediate crisis averted, he let the gravity of all that had happened, all that he had done, wash over him, and he wept until his tear ducts ran dry and his throat was raw with pain. Then all was silent again for some time.
“I’m so sorry, Teryn, my boy,” a familiar voice rang out, breaking through the calm and stillness around him.
The voice had come from behind his head. Wearily, Teryn turned over to look and see who was speaking to him.
It was none other than Xanatos Kavanagh, the eccentric barkeep from Coontan. The strangely-dressed man had a look of pity and deep sorrow in his eyes as he spoke the next few words to him, head bowed in a reverent pose.
“We never thought it would be painless, of course. Heh. Prophecies never are. The last few thousand years have taught me that. But we didn’t think it would turn out quite like this, either.”
“But alas, just when the conflict
Is thought to be over, it has in truth just begun.
Then shall the true leader of righteousness be found,
Though the Dark One reigneth in his stead!”
Book of Gallian, 13:1-2.
Author’s Notes
September 15th, 2020
First of all, thank you so much for reading through this entire book, and for now reading these author notes! It means the world to me to be able to share these characters and this journey with you! If it weren’t for you fans, I would never have become an author.
This book holds a very special meaning to me. This is the first novel I ever set out to write as an author,
