Ignite (Circle of Light Book 2) (18 page)

What was she doing?  I so mystified at that moment that I think I actually gave up.  My body was trying to be strong, but my mind had faded.  The air around me was cloudy and thick, making it almost impossible to inhale.

I think that my body was actually shutting down.  I felt nothing but the pain of the loss of Jade to the Dark Union.  All I could do was try to catch one last glimpse of her, but the inferno of golden light that encased her and the woman was impossible to see through. 

The connection that I shared with Jade had vanished.  I was not able to hear her thoughts, nor could I hear her sweet voice speak to me.  The fiery sensation of her power was gone as well.  She was lost, no longer a member of the Circle of Light and no longer in the safety of my arms.

I had to get myself together.  Luke had chosen to stay with us and I knew that he was going to need all the protection he could get.  I have to be able to save him from anything or anyone that was going to try to hurt him, but his power was so debilitating to me.  It was still keeping me frozen in pain. 

I’m sorry Mommy.  I know I am hurting all of you, but I have to.  There's no other way.
Luke’s voice swirled inside my head.

Tears tried to build in my eyes, but the frigidness of his power kept them at bay.  My little boy was fighting so hard to help us, but at what cost to him?  Was his power strong enough to sustain his objective?  Only time would tell.

I prayed to the highest of high powers for strength and protection for both of my children and our Circle.  Nothing that I could do was going to be enough to help either of them now. Praying was the only thing I was able to do.  It was all that I had left.

The screams that had been rising in the night air grew more intense by the second.  Whatever was happening to them was agonizing.  I was sure that they were feeling an immeasurable amount of pain because I was feeling it as well, but in a smaller degree.

“Luke, show me what is going on!” I demanded of him.

Okay Mommy, but I don’t think you are going to like what you see.”

Luke was right.  I didn’t like the scene that was playing out before me.  The rusty smell of blood scorched my nostrils and I wanted to vomit.  I could see that several of the five dark powers had been killed.  Not just killed, dismembered and set on fire. 

The remaining two members had been pleading with Luke to spare their lives.  I wasn’t able to hear any of the conversations that had been going on.  Luke’s power had shielded me from the horror that he was causing them. 

The blonde woman and one other member was all that stood.  I didn’t know what Luke was planning on doing to the woman.  She was holding his sister in a shielding manner, careful that nothing of harm reached her.  She didn’t give me the same feeling of despair as the other members had.  Something was different about her, but I wasn’t exactly sure what.  I noticed that she looked at Jade with nothing but pure love in her eyes.  How could evil love?

Maybe it wasn’t love for Jade.  Maybe it was love for the power she would bring her.  She would be protected from anyone that wanted to cause her harm as long as she kept Jade in her possession.  But there was something wrong with her reactions.  They were pure in nature.

The other cloaked figure removed his hood as he spoke with Luke about the power he would have if he were to join him.  He was a young boy, only in his teens.  He wasn’t ugly, but I could tell that he had been evil for a very long time.  It had begun to leave its signs on his flesh, aging it without him being old and giving him a slightly transparent look to his eyes.

“Young Luke. You can have it all with me.” The boy said.

Luke’s voice was calm and unnaturally caring as he talked to the boy. 
How could I possibly have anything if I join such evil?

The boy was all out of answers.  He stood there looking at us with defeat written all over his face.  He had lost, but he wasn’t going to give up on turning the situation around for his benefit. 

“Is no your final answer, Prince Luke?” He asked. 

Luke replied with a burst of power that rattled him.
Yes, that is my final answer.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of a lion roaring.  Luke’s power was that great.

An explosion of power burst from the boy s body.  I knew that the high powers of the Dark Union were amazingly strong, but nothing I had heard could have prepared me for this. 

Sparks and high-pitched whistles shot through the air, cutting through it like razor blades.

“Then you will die great one!” The boy laughed.

The boy’s power hit our group with devastating force.  His power was sucking the energy out of every single member of the Circle, but Luke’s power held us all in place, unable to do anything to stop the boy. 

NOW JADE!
  Luke thundered.

In that very second, Jade began to cry aloud.  It was more than a normal baby s cry.  She was making an earsplitting wail that was more powerful that the scream of a banshee.  It was a mirror of my scream and it held more power and devastation than mine could ever possess.

The boy hit his knees and screamed.  He was holding onto his head as if that was the only thing that was going to keep it from exploding.  His scream turned into a chant.  He was calling on the highest of high powers, as I had done only a moment earlier. 

Jade’s cry grew louder and so did the prayers of the evil boy.  Suddenly, the boy rose from the ground with a renewed strength.  Jade’s cry was not causing him pain anymore and I was immediately panicked.  I was about to lose both of my children to evil.

No Mommy, he’s not going to hurt us.  You‘ll see.
Luke said happily.

Everyone stood in silence as the boy walked closer to Luke in his father’s arms.  The terror that the other members of our Circle were feeling drowned out my panic. 

Jade, on three!
Luke called to his sister.

One.

The boy was only a few steps away from him now.

Two.

He was now in front of Eric, knowing that we were held in place by Luke’s power.  He extended his hand out to touch Luke.  That was when everything went black.

Three.

Luke had took our sight and hearing from us, causing us to be lost in a swirl of silent darkness.  I couldn’t tell what was happening.  The only thing I could do was feel.  A mixture of fire and ice wrapped around us, enclosing power around everyone.  It was both disturbing and soothing at the same time, but the fact that I wasn’t aware of the goings on of my children was more than terrifying.  Are they alright?  Did the boy succeed in taking my son’s life?

The fact that I could feel Jade’s power again gave me hope that this was all going to turn out right.  She had not completely left the Circle and I was curious as to the reasons behind what was going on.  However, my precious baby girl was still connected to us and that was the most important thing right now.

I felt a vibration in the ground that stopped abruptly.  A smell that I was not sure of moved through the air around us.  The wind quickly carried it away and cleansed the air.  Wet droplets fell on my skin and I prayed that it was water and not something else.  I wanted it to be anything but blood.  I don’t want my children to see so much blood, but I knew it was too late to do anything about that now.

A powerful, peaceful feeling came over us.  Slowly everyone’s senses that had been taken away, was returned to them.  Everything looked normal.  There were no sign that anything had happened here.  Nothing at all.

As I looked around, I noticed the blonde girl still standing there with Jade in her arms. 

It’s okay Mommy.  She is our friend.
  Luke said to me.

I ran to her without caring if she was friendly to us or not.  Jade was all that I could think about.  I wanted to touch her, to hold her in my arms again.  The fear that I wasn’t ever going to be able to do that went out of my mind. 

I took her out of the arms of the girl, checking over her to see if there were any spot on her that had been harmed.  Thankfully, she was happy and unscathed.

I had my babies, both of my wonderful, powerful, amazing babies.  Alive and well.  “The Dark Union is no more!”  I heard Silas yell out to everyone and the cheers of the Circle of Light rang out. 

Eric came to me and kissed me like he had never done before. 

“I thought that this was going to be the end for us,” he said as the tears filled his eyes.

“Yeah, me too.”

We used the moment to show our love for each other.  Luke and Jade had gone to sleep soon after the battle was over.  I understood the drain of using that amount of power.

“Who was the girl holding Jade?”  I asked Eric as I looked around to find the blonde girl.

Eric told me that she was one of the more powerful witches that had joined us.  She was the only one that could fit in on the other side with them.  Her nature was dark, but not evil.  She had to do a tremendous amount of acting just to gain the Dark Union’s trust.  Thank goodness, they believed her and trusted her enough to let her hold Jade.

“Did you know about her?”  I asked him.

“Yes, my love. I did. And so did you, but not to the extent that we did.”

I remembered where it was that I had seen her before.  She was the girl in the kitchen that day talking to Eric.  I had felt that something was off with her then, but I did not want to pressure the matter any further at the time.  Everyone was a little strange to me then.

Eric saying that made me so angry that I had actually thought about strangling him to death with my own bare hands.  “How could you Eric!”

Silas was at my side in a flash.  He put his hands on my shoulders, trying to hold me back from rushing at Eric. 

“I couldn’t tell you!  If they hadn't seen the true reaction from you over losing one of them and then about to lose the other, our plan wouldn’t have worked.” Eric said trying to comfort me at the same time. 

Silas’s grip left me unable to move and I was considering breaking his arms in order to get to Eric, but he made sure that I wasn’t going to be allowed to do that.  That was a good thing.

“We had to, my Queen, or we would have all died today.” Silas whispered in my ear from behind me.  

Nevertheless, some of us had died today.  Our friends had given their lives for a plan that I was not trusted to know about.  That made me feel terrible.  I know it was for the good of the Circle, but did they have to go about it the way they did?

“Where are the ones that we lost?”  I asked.

Silas pointed in their direction.  I held Jade out to Maggie so that I could go on this journey on my own. 

As I looked over the slain bodies of my loyal friends, I cried, falling to my knees on the ground beside them.  They had given their lives for us; given their lives to save the ultimate powers and the Circle of Light.

I counted twenty-one members on the ground before me.  The idea of their deaths haunted my soul, leaving me stricken with guilt.  This was my fault, I thought to myself.  If I could have done something more for them, this wouldn’t have happened.

A cool breeze blew against my skin and I heard a melodious whisper in my ear.  I quickly turned to see who was there, but I was alone.  Everyone else was standing back in the distance, allowing me to have space to do what I felt that I needed to do.

The whisper came to me again and this time I heard the words. 

Give them your energy.

How?  I cried.

Give them the breath they need and the love for which they died.

I gathered all the strength inside me and blew life into them from my own lungs, forcing the power of my love for them into their hearts.  I spoke to each soul, thanking them for their sacrifice and asked them to rise, once again, and live the life that they had fought for so fiercely.

“Bailey?  What are you doing?”  I heard Eric say from behind me.

“I’m giving them back what they lost.”

One by one, the bodies of our loyal friends stirred.  I had brought them back by giving them a piece of my own soul. 

When the last one of them stood on their feet, I was taken off my knees and fell to the ground in exhaustion, but the feeling that I had was indescribable.

I had accomplished what I had set out to do, but I still wondered whom the whispering voice had belonged.  It didn’t matter really.  All that mattered was that the Circle of Light was whole again.  Happy.

Each of the members that I had brought back to life knelt before me and I was Queen to them.  I was given a feeling that was beyond pride and more than being thankful.  There were just no words that could’ve described it.

“Let's go home.”  Eric said.

I called for Maggie and Silas to come with us.  I wasn’t about to go home without them.  My home was their home and I couldn’t live without my closest friends by my side.  Forever.

I opened my eyes to a bright summer day.  I had fallen asleep on the platform again.   The memory of my dream would be burned in my mind forever.  My phone rang and I answered it confused, the number wasn’t one that I recognized.

“Hello?”