The Secret Trinity: Reign (Fae-Witch Trilogy, Book 3) (25 page)

“Adam, please help him,” I said weakly, rolling to my side to see him
.  S
uddenly Kayla, Morgan and Grant appeared through a tunnel
across the lake from us,
along with Jeremy and
Bree
hovering just above
them.
  They were covered in soot and only had a few scratches
on them, but their eyes looked panicky
and I quickly realized why.  More than ten
Famorii
followed closel
y behind them.
I recognized the strawberry blonde hag who led them, Shannon.  I watched h
elplessly as she brought a wave
up from the lake, crashing it down onto them.  They all toppled over from the splash and Adam quickly fl
ew over to assist in the fight.

I lay on my stomach at the edge of
the lake, my face pressed onto the
cold stone floor.  I limply reached out to Clay
still
fighting on the platform, but the water separated us by at least thirty feet.  Clay and Liam were ducking flying marble spears and ice bullets
while in a blurry
hand-to-hand combat, unable to resist the desire to spill each other’s blood with their fists.  A
searing pain pierced my heart as another layer of our
sealment
was stripped away,
the black rain finally sinking all the way into my soul. 

I had to bi
te
down on my tongue so I wouldn’t scream.  I didn’t want to distract him from the fight, but it didn’t work.  Clay stopped dead in his tracks and fell to his knees.  Tears wet my lashes when I saw another blow from Liam crack into Clay’s already broken ribs.  The last shred of our
sealment
was being
shattered and the pain had over
taken him.  Liam looked over at me and smiled, realizing what was happening.  I reached out desperately for Clay, croaking out his name through my tears, wanting to t
ake his pain away.

“Run!”  I begged him.  He had to get away from Liam, but the sound was hardly audible from my crackling throat.  Clay’s
eyes met mine across the lake.  T
hrough his soot covered face all I could see was the light in his soul and its love when looking into mine.  I could feel him trying to hold onto his last piece of
us
.

He mouthed, ‘I love you, always,” closing his eyes, cutti
ng me off from the blue diamond
s that brought me to life.  We both grabbed at our chests, beginning
to thrash and convulse as the break took
hold.  Liam kicked Clay in the chest
,
and he splashed into the water like a hea
vy rock still thrashing with
pain.

I saw one last glimpse of his golden otherworldly soul
,
blanketing his flawless face, until it began to dim as the dark water consumed him.  He disappeared into its depth
,
and my compassion for him, his selflessness and his pain, sparked something inside that spread thro
ugh my limbs like a wild fire.

“NOOOOO!”
  I screamed.  The power of it echoed through the cavern as stones shook loose from the walls, falling all around us like an earthquake.  I flashed back to Clay and I on the couch when I watched the sparks fly inside him, and he showed me how I looked through his e
yes.  I remembered my promise.

Light burst from my pores and wind swirled all around me as I hovered off the ground, the earthquake becoming more furious as my power filled the space, shaking the walls.  I threw my head back looking
toward the sky, and my hair whipped
over my face as the carved ceiling of the ancient
Famorii
crumbled before me, raining gray ash to reveal the starry night.  A be
am
from above poured down into
my heart and I was wrapped in its pure green light, expe
lling the darkness from within and
holding tight to the last thread of our
sealment
.

The
emerald light from my trinity stone burned against my skin.  The earthquake stopped and
an eeri
e silence fell over the room.
Everyone felt it at once and
stopped sparing, stopped using their gifts
to fight
, it all stopped. 
Fae
,
Famorii
a
nd this evil
creature before me stared in awe as I glowed brighter tha
n the most magnificent of moons dangling in the sky.

I twirled my finger
,
effortlessly
creating a furious wind in the lake until every last drop swirled up and out, sending it crashing past Liam in a gian
t wave, through the open mouth of the c
ave and down the water fall.  I flew toward Liam, a
lone on the platform dripping with
water.  He had fallen over from the force of the wave, but he quickly recovered, flying up to hover before me, meeting me eye-to-eye.  I looked down at the bottom of the empty lake where my Soul Keeper lay limp, the faintness of his heartbeat growing slower as each second passed.  I should
have
be
en
as weak as Clay but green fire beamed fr
om my eyes at the sight of him.

I l
ooked at Liam,
my rage, my conviction, my every emotion taking over.  The light from my eyes turned to Liam, penetrating the depths of his blackened coals.  His grin turned cocky, and he began to glow navy, ready to take me on.
 
“You will be mine,” he said darkly, looking at my light, unable t
o hide his greed for my power.

“I’m sorry, Liam.  I made a promise.  You can’t have my soul.”  I proclaimed each word slowly and purposefully, and for the first time, I saw his fear.  It would be the last expression I
ever took in of this wicked,
sinful face before
I clutched my trinity necklace and close
my eyes.

I felt them all, their pure
Aira
blood, their sacrifice, and their strength.  I felt the power coursing through my veins as I connected to their light watching over me in the heaven.  Hot liquid fire radiated from every cell in my body as I conjured the dominant power of each generation of
Aira
Queens, lying dormant inside my
blood.  I opened my eyes and saw
emerald flames as the stars became mine.  Streams of blazing green light fell from the sky, piercing their eternal strength right through Liam’s body.  I held out my palms and he rose higher into the sky, the light bursting through his eyes, his gaped mouth, his fingertips, until he exploded into a shimmering dust of ash
,
flittering down
against
the dark backdrop like tiny fireflies.  The
light
beams fell away and I nodded once into the green dust, my final farewell to the monster that broke my heart
,
before quickly teleporting to Clay’s side, the one who had heale
d it.

I threw my body over Clay at the bottom of the empty lake, shaking him madly, demanding he wake up.  I could barely make out his heartbeat and I felt him slipping away
.  I cried, hitting his chest.  H
e can’t leave me now, he
can’t!  As I watched his light continue
to fade
,
the a
che inside me was intolerable.

“Kayla!”  I shrieked.

“Kayla!”  I screamed again.
L
ooking up I saw my friends hovering at the edge of the lake.  Adam picked u
p Kayla to fly her down to me.

“Bind us
, Kayla.  You have to help me.  Bind us!”  I said
frantically taking her hand, but she pulled it away. 

“No, you’ll die!”  She said, looking at Clay with tears in
her eyes, and little hope.

“I’ll die anyway, slowly and painfully without him.”  I threw myself across his chest again, hugging him tight, refusing to let go.  Our energy intertwined, making his pain
mine, making it excruciating.

“I’ll do the memory-loss
spell and help the pain go away,
” Kayla said
,
watching our intertwined energy being sucked
out as he died, but the pain
didn’t matter to me.  The pain would never go away because I loved him.  I love
d
Clay
, as
my Soul Keeper,
as
my best friend, and I couldn’t lose him.  She put her hand on the crown of my head as she was about to take away my
sealment
memory.

“No, I want it.  I would die every day for an eternity with him as lo
ng as he didn’t suffer alone.  B
ind us, Kayla. 
As your Queen, I command you to b
ind us!”  I screamed
at her
.  Kayla looked around as t
he walls again began to shake.  M
y star energy was creating an unstable
environment, and I couldn’t control it in this emotional state.  I heard prison bars creak, fol
lowed by running and screaming
as Jeremy and Grant commanded instructions to those above
me.

Morgan appeared at the edge and slid down the empty lake inside wall, scraping her hands alon
g to brace herself.  In minutes the
e
ntire cave would collapse upon
itself as my power e
xploded outward from the pain. 
Morgan ran over to us and looked around pan
icked, wanting to get us out, b
ut I would
n’t budge. 
Clay was too fragile to teleport.  She collapsed beside me an
d we all looked at each other.  T
hey could see it in my eyes
.
I would never leave Clay.  A wordless agreement was made right then and there.  The only kind of agreement that can be understood between three friends, three sisters, who would always be there for each other, no matter what.  I
nodded, silently thanking them.

I picked up one of Kayl
a’s hands and one of Morgan’s. 
They each took one of Clay’s limp
palms.  T
ears streamed down my face as they tried to concentrate on being our catalysts.  The
power of three
were
fighting for his life as Kayla and Morgan conducted an energy current between us.  I could feel the channel connect
allow
ing our energy to interchange, Binding my soul with
Clay
’s, even i
nto death.  As it bega
n, I was afraid it was too late.
I barely felt his light as it passed t
hrough my veins into my heart.  E
ven two catalysts weren’t working.  He was
fighting me.  I could feel it.

“I’m strong enough, Clay.  I promise.  I’m strong enough to keep us together.  Please
don’t leave me here without you.  I love you,
”
I breathed, through stuttering
tears.  I wanted to push back the dripping wet hair that fell across his brow, but I didn’t have a free hand as I waited for his eyes to open, w
anting nothing more than a
path
in
to the
depths of their azure warmth.

Adam flew down holding Grant.
Bree
and Jeremy
followed,
but
I barely noticed as my eyes were fix
ed on Clay face, waiting for any sign of life, a sign that he heard me.  They picked us all up
,
still clutching hands as the walls began crashing down in a
n avalanche of boulders.

I
felt as if I had been struck by lightning when a pulse of unrelenting energy shot through me
,
and instantaneously my hands were jarred from their grip, hanging wilted at my sides.  My eye rolled into the back of my head when I felt Clay’s heart stop, an
d then, everything went white.

I blinked rapidly, blinded by the white light surrounding me.  I felt a warm f
amiliar touch
holding my hand as my vision came into focus.  Clay’s black hair and blue eyes were striking against the brightness of the white surroundings.  His soul was strong and healthy, his chiseled features somehow more distinguished.  His clothes were shiny and new, not even a s
cratch remained on his skin which
looked practically luminous.  I looked down
,
noticing I was in a similar state.  My light blonde waves falling perfectly over the shoulders of my white shirt, and then it dawned on me.