Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 150(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 187(@200wpm)___ 150(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Kara gasps beside me, and I know she hears it too.
Awe courses through me. The portal is alive. It's some ancient magic that pulses with awareness, with vitality. But Tori was right. It has been poisoned. I feel the Dark siphoning away its strength, feeding from the pieces like a leech.
I reach for more Light, letting it flood through me…flood into the pieces of the portal. Doing everything I can to soothe it, to heal it.
It isn't enough.
We're working as individuals again when we should be working as one. That's what it needs. Five of us together. The Forsaken need our blood to restore what they broke because it's the only thing they know—destruction and sacrifice. But we know Light and unity. That's how we mend what they broke—together.
Fear races down my spine at the thought of holding so much Light again so soon, but I know there is no other choice. To heal the portal and restore Valhalla, I have to do it.
"Link with me," I tell my sisters urgently. "We need to do this together."
Tori grasps my hand, squeezing in reassurance. "You hold the Light, and I'll direct it," she says, her blue eyes shining with resolve. "We can do this, Marion."
Abigail, Rissa, and Kara surround me, forming a wall of support around me. I feel their Light, their strength, flowing into me like a river. It fills me up, chasing away the icy fear in my veins.
I reach for Malachi too, using our mate bond to anchor my soul as the torrent of power threatens to sweep me away. His presence is a steadying force, a tether keeping me grounded.
Light blazes from our joined hands, so bright it's almost blinding. It pours over the shattered pieces of the Bifröst in shimmering waves, sinking into the flickering shards. Tori helps me direct it, the Light flowing from me through her as she ruthlessly seeks out the insidious tendrils of Dark the Forsaken used to shatter the portal.
Everywhere the Light touches, their dark magic recoils, shriveling away like shadows before the rising sun.
The portal shudders and pulses, the whispering growing louder, more insistent—a song of joy as Tori purges the poison infecting it.
The pieces of the Bifröst slowly begin to move, trembling and shifting across the floor as if drawn together by magnets. Cracks and seams seal shut in flares of prismatic light until the shards fuse into a single, flawless disc.
It hovers before us, rippling like a vertical rainbow.
Exhaustion surges through me, the Light wavering.
I grit my teeth, fighting to control it, to keep it in check.
"Keep going," Rissa urges. "It's working!"
I reach for more Light, letting Tori guide it into the newly formed disc. It slowly expands, growing first by centimeters, and then by inches.
Tears sting my eyes.
We're doing it. We're actually repairing the Bifröst and opening the way to Valhalla. Something that hasn't been done in three hundred years.
The portal ripples again and then stabilizes, the surface flickering with color as it yawns ahead of us, wide enough for all of us to fit through at once.
A sense of rightness, of completion, rips through me as it settles.
It's done. We actually did it.
I release the Light, sagging against my sisters as exhaustion crashes over me. But there's no time to rest, not in the middle of war.
Forsaken spill into the Hall from a portal only feet away, the sounds of fighting ringing out around us. Everywhere I look, the Fae are locked in battle, trying to keep them off us. More Fae pour through the doors of the Hall, coming to help.
But the Forsaken refuse to fall back.
"Through the portal!" Dax shouts. "Rissa, get them through the portal now!"
She grabs my arms, pushing me toward the portal, but I can't go. Not yet. Not when the Fae are fighting and dying around us. Not when Malachi is still in danger. Until he's safe, we aren't finished here. I can't be.
One more time, I reach for my Light, drawing as much as I can as quickly as I can, determined to help save him and as many of the Fae as possible.
Rissa realizes what I'm doing and cries out. "Help her!" she shouts to our sisters. "Gods, help her before she burns herself out!"
Kara, Tori, and Abigail surge forward, grabbing me. Their strength burns into me, anchoring me in the storm. But it isn't enough. Not the time. Because I reach instinctively for their Light too, drawing it into me in a flood.
I scream in agony as it writhes inside, ferocious and deadly, more and more surging into me too quickly for me to contain it. My defenses are all but shredded, still raw and bleeding from earlier. There is no anchor to hold me this time, nothing to stop the massive tide raging through me unchecked.
"Marion!" Malachi roars, pure terror surging down our bond. I glance up and see him rushing toward me, the same fear etched into every line of his beautiful face.