Lucas

I nodded at Peyton’s statement. “What about you? How much more can you fight?” I asked, looking her up and down.

She smiled wanly. “I’m about tapped,” she admitted, as she turned to watch Lexie’s inferno rage across the cavern. I watched with her. As powerful as Lexie was, there was a lack of control in her attacks – so many of them went wide, or were easily dodged by Shadawn. In fact, it almost looked like he was toying with her. “It’s so close…” Peyton murmured, the third eye flitting between Lexie and Shadawn.

I tensed hearing her words, holding myself ready for the moment. The exchange between Lexie and Shadawn was almost terrifying to watch, fire and shadow swirling through the cavern so indiscriminately that I worried for the others. I couldn’t see them in the chaos, and could only hope that they were okay. Sometimes I had to quickly erect a short barrier to protect the two of us, and not just from the shadows – the fire was everywhere.

And then Peyton gasped, seeing something I couldn’t. “Lexie, get out of there!” she shouted. Frowning, I saw that Shadawn had herded Lexie into a position where he had set a sort of trap – swirling tendrils of dark energy lanced up from the ground and down from the ceiling and Lexie screamed as the energy wrapped around her, holding her in place. Her screams were muted, like she was in a strange cage. From within the confines of the shadow, the fire burst and swirled, but it was all contained. “Shit,” Peyton said.

The chaos in the cavern quieted now that Lexie had been caught in Shadawn’s trap. He stepped close to his shadow cage, chuckling in the eerie silence. “Ah, to be young. You have so much energy,” he said. And then he turned to look at us, smiling. “And then there were two.” He started to approach us.

“Stay here,” Peyton said. “It’s close. Prepare the spell and wait for my signal.” She started to walk slowly toward Shadawn, her head held high.

Frowning, I reached for my magic as I watched her. I focused on gathering the power of death before me.

“Nothing to say, Shadawn? After all those nights insisting that I join you?” Peyton asked as she came to a stop several feet away from him.

For a moment, his expression darkened and then he quickly covered his anger with a smile. “I think you’ve made your position clear, and I am not forgiving. No amount of pleading will spare you from my wrath this night.”

“Ah, well I wasn’t planning on begging to be spared.”

The smile twisted. “But you will. When the pain becomes unbearable, you will.” Before his sentence had finished, he began to grow larger, pulling the darkness of the cavern into himself as he loomed over her. By the final word, his voice was booming, cacophonous. I winced, wanting to do something. Anything.

The air around Peyton began to swirl and lighten – I could see that she was summoning ice around herself, could vaguely hear the sound of ice creaking as chunks of it shifted in the air. She attacked. He swiped an arm through the air, batting aside some of the fragments, but not all. Some of the ice shards made contact, and a cold blue sheen arced up along his arm and chest, causing him to growl in anger. Peyton summoned a massive wall of flame, not quite as large as Lyre’s but large enough that it engulfed Shadawn’s massive form. He howled in anger as it hit him.

She released another, immediately following the first, the flames hiding Shadawn from sight momentarily. And then he came crashing through the fire, bodily slamming her against the ground. She cried out in pain as she hit the floor, her eyes fluttering, the hovering third eye flickering slightly. Shitshitshit, I thought to myself. How much more can he take? Is it time yet? Even though she wasn’t looking at me, I could see Peyton shaking her head.I was already focusing on the death spell, and could feel the coalescing of the dark tendrils of my own magic gathering before me, a deep spot of brown. If I released the spell, would I be able to gather it again? I could only use it once. I cursed myself for having started the preparation for it, wondering what I could do.

“PETER!” I shouted desperately.

Shadawn glanced up at me briefly as I shouted, frowning, as a chittering screech echoed through the cavern. Peter jumped down from where he had been hiding high up on the cavern ceiling. Startled, Shadawn twisted back, attempting to swipe the spider of his head. It was almost funny to watch. As Peter moved, skittering further down his body and biting into his arm, I could see that the spider had attached the small bag of gunpowder to the back of Shadawn’s neck with some webbing. Peyton saw it too.

She focused a smaller fire spell on it, lighting it.

It wasn’t an impressive explosion, but between it and the spider still biting it, Shadawn was distracted enough that he released Peyton. She pulled away – the third eye grew bright, coalescing a deep purple energy, and suddenly several lances of bright purple light shot out like lasers, cutting Shadawn deep. He screamed in anger and pain, finally swatting Peter away, and turning to focus on Peyton.

Peyton, who had slipped up from the ground and was running straight towards me. “NOW, LUCAS!” she screamed.

I activated the spell.

The swirling brown and black miasma of death that had gathered in front of me shifted as I focused on it. It all seemed to happen in slow motion for a moment as I focused on Shadawn and saw his eyes widen in surprise as the energy formed a skull. I thought I could hear the ticking of a clock somewhere within my head, I could hear it slow as the skull grew to match Shadawn in proportion and swallowed him whole. The sound of an utterly inhuman wail filled my senses and overwhelmed me, forcing me to my knees.

Then everything seemed to implode into the spot where Shadawn met death. I gasped as I felt the air suck from my lungs and I closed my eyes and pressed my head to the hard rock beneath me.

When it was finally silent, I gasped. I felt hands gripping my shoulder. For a moment it felt like they were going to help me up, but then Peyton slipped her arms down around me and slumped against me, holding me tight as she joined me on the ground. “We did it,” she whispered, her voice very close to my ear.

I opened my eyes and looked up. The cavern was eerily quiet. From further away than I had thought, I could see Lexie standing, the aura of her magic still burning like a flame, her head twisting. “Peter,” I croaked, my throat dry. I felt strangely exhausted, I realized belatedly – my body trembled from the strain the spell had put on me. It had literally taken everything to cast it. Peter landed in front of me, tapping my head gently with his forearms and chittering. I reached up and patted one mandible gently. “Good boy,” I said.

And then I passed out.

---

Even before I opened my eyes, I realized it was bright. Almost too bright compared to what I had grown used to underground. Sunlight. My eyes fluttered open, and I hoped to find myself in a comfortable bed, somewhere civilized.

I was in a jungle. I sat up, looking at the massive skull with the vining flowers crawling along it – the place where I had met my god before. I stared into the cavernous eye sockets, and the void stared back. Don’t forget your promise.

I blinked and it was like I was flying over the ground at a fast pace, over fields and forests and mountains, north, where the ground grew barren and icy and snowstorms raged. I saw the massive tree.

“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled.

---

I woke, staring up at the rounded stone ceiling of one of the domed domiciles we had found underground. I wondered for a moment if I had been captured by Underlings, until I realized that this was the same one I had slept in before facing Shadawn. I sat up, rubbing my head, and could hear Peter chirping happily as I did so. “Oh good, you’re awake,” Peyton said.

I could see that she was sitting on one of the other stone beds. For a moment, I found myself absently thinking how ridiculously beautiful she was, until I saw her eyebrow quirk in reaction and remembered that she could read my thoughts. I desperately searched my head for the first song I could think of and settled on Yellow Submarine. I nodded. “How long was I out?” I asked.

“About a day. You’re the last one up. We’re getting ready to move out, and we might need you to heal some injuries before we go – I tried my best, but my healing is never complete.”

Move out. My heart jumped for a moment, realizing what that meant. We were leaving this place. We had completed our mission. We were free to live our lives. “What now?” I wondered out loud.

“We keep our promises,” Peyton said, reading my mind. I nodded. Peyton could return the bulk of her god’s power on our way out, and then we would have to visit the little island for Lexie to restore her goddess. And then I’d have to go on my longer trip, far north, to the tree. I frowned, feeling a little overwhelmed at making the trip. “You won’t be alone,” Peyton promised.

I nodded. I realized I hadn’t expected anyone to come with me, and her reassurance was instantly calming. “Thank you,” I said. I shifted, setting my feet on the floor. “And after we finish that last bit of business, what should we do?”

Peyton grinned, and stood up. She held a hand out to me. “Anything we want,” she said.

I looked up at her. Then I took her hand.

---

Epilogue

Life had slipped into some semblance of normal for Jennifer since the escapade on the alien ship. The invasion had been halted, and some of the invading aliens had been hard to flush out of their hiding places on Earth. But many of the freed aliens helped to find them. It had become a worldwide, multi-government endeavor. The other victims of the invading force were settling onto Earth for now – they had no long range vehicles to take them away, and no homes to return to. Not only that, but their magic flourished. Although a lot of people were hesitant or even outright scared of them, many of the newcomers simply wanted to live out the remainder of their lives as the last of their kind. Some had even begun to focus on trying to find ways back to the other worlds they had abandoned, hoping that perhaps those worlds had survived without their help.

Jennifer had Cassandra home for a brief time. They had visited the other parents of the Chosen – Cassandra had met Peyton’s mother, and Lucas and Lexie’s parents as well. Jennifer helped Cassandra get to her appointments and her treatments, but her health had deteriorated quickly. Disturbingly quickly. Jennifer had watched Cassandra’s vibrancy drain away. And yet Cassandra had been determined to try through every miserable moment to extend her life. “I promised,” she insisted every time. “I have to try to live.”

Eventually, caring for her went beyond Jennifer’s skills. Now Cassandra lay in a facility receiving hospice. Jennifer was there as often as she could be, and tried to keep herself mentally prepared for the inevitable phone call. But, she wondered, could you ever really be prepared for that news?

When the call finally came, she stared at the screen of her phone, letting it ring almost too long before answering.

“Hello?” she said, forcing herself to sound calm.

“Jennifer? It’s Wendy. Cassandra… she’s gone!” the nurse on the other end blurted the sentence out, almost too blunt for Jennifer to stand. For a moment Jennifer wanted to scream at her, asking if that was how she delivered such news to everyone.

Jennifer swallowed hard, and calmed her temper. She opened her mouth to speak, and then swallowed again to wet her throat. “I see. When did she die?”

“No! Oh god, no, nono! She’s not dead. She’s gone!” Jennifer leaned back against the ledge of her kitchen counter as the words sank in, while Wendy continued to babble. “I went to give her meds, and she just wasn’t there. No one saw her leave! Her stuff is all here. No one has any idea where she’s at. Do you think…?”

Jennifer let the unfinished question hang in the air. She wasn’t sure for a moment. Then she desperately hoped in the next moment. And then she was certain. “Thank you for calling me,” she mumbled, and hung up before Wendy could reply. She walked over to her calendar, where she had clipped the letter that Cassandra had left behind long ago when she had first gotten her diagnosis. The letter the lawyer had given her to read when Cassandra died. She stared at her daughter’s looping handwriting on the outside of the envelope, and ran her fingers gently over the outside of it, wondering if it was time to open it. Then she turned and tossed the letter into the trash. “She’s not dead,” she told herself firmly.

Cassandra wasn’t going to die before her. She’d never need to read it.

She was certain of it.

---

A few days later, she was trying to scroll through her email. Somehow, reporters and the curious always seemed to get her personal email address, and it was chock full of requests for interviews or random questions. Jennifer sighed, wondering if perhaps she needed to delete this account completely. There was no way she would ever be able to sift through it all.

There was the sound of an explosion outside, so loud and close it shook the building and car alarms sounded down the street.

Without a second thought, Jennifer exited her apartment and ran down the stairs to investigate and see how she could help. As she stepped out, clouds of dust were starting to settle. Crowds of people had drifted out to investigate, and others leaned out from their windows. The street was ruined and cracked, and at the center of it stood a short, almost familiar looking figure. A young black girl, with short hair, wearing a tunic dress. The girl turned on the spot, looking sheepishly at the damage that had been caused. Jennifer approached the girl, her mouth agape. “Lexie?” she whispered, hardly believing.

Lexie turned to look at her. “Umm. Hi?” And then she seemed to really look at Jennifer and her face lit up. “Wow, I guess are you Jennifer Brand? Cassandra said I’d be sent close to where her mom was, and that she’d be able to get me back to my parents, but I didn’t think that’d be the literal first person I’d see. Although, if you’re not Jen, you look a LOT like Cassandra.”

Jennifer stared in shock, and gave a brief nod. “Yes, I’m Jennifer. I can get you to your parents.”

Jennifer wanted to ask a million questions at once, about her daughter, about her health, about how she was doing, but all of those questions were put on hold as the younger girl suddenly burst into tears. Jennifer stared in wide eyed alarm at Lexie. The girl smiled, wiping away her tears with the heel of her palm, and laughed. “I’m home,” Lexie said simply.

Jennifer smiled, and moved forward to place a hand on Lexie’s shoulder. “Not yet. Let’s get you there.” There would be plenty of time for questions later – Cassandra was where she wanted to be.