Chapter Thirteen
Giving up the element of surprise, Gillian sprinted in the direction of Aiden and the wizard. By the time they were in sight, she found Aiden on his knees before the wizard, a tall, red haired man dressed in the same style of clothing she’d first seen on Aiden when he’d emerged from the portal.
Why wasn’t Aiden fighting back? Had he been mortally wounded in the fall? She scrolled through the virtual menu and pulled up the scanning program in her glasses.
Aiden had no power. Oh, God, he’d run out of power in his armor, and her magic only worked when it had a source of electricity. With no means of defense or escape, he would be forced to do the unthinkable.
Though her lungs burned and her leg muscles screamed in protest, Gillian ran toward the pair. The wizard was speaking to Aiden, but she couldn’t hear what he said. He held something in his hand. Was it a thrall crystal? Some magical charm to subdue Aiden?
She yelled his name, but the scream came out as little more than a harsh croak. Aiden ran a hand over his face and spoke to the wizard. Then, after a moment, Aiden ripped off his armor and exposed the vulnerable flesh of his chest to the wizard. The wizard dropped to his knees and pressed his hands against Aiden’s chest.
No. She couldn’t let it happen. She couldn’t let the wizard steal Aiden and twist him against this world and all they held dear. She forced her body to the limit as she ran, closing the gap between them.
The wizard clutched his throat and fell back.
Realization dawned. She was too late. He’d used the poison on himself and the wizard to eliminate the threat, and in so doing he’d killed them both.
She stumbled the last few feet and nearly tripped over the limp body of the wizard before reaching Aiden. The magical tracery no longer swirled beneath his skin. He’d gone pale. He wasn’t breathing.
Gillian dropped to the ground beside him and began CPR, her hands willing his heart to beat as she struggled to force air from her overexerted lungs into his.
Nothing.
“No,” she said, vision blurring with unshed tears. “You can’t leave me! I won’t let you!” She yanked out her phone and focused, sending sparks of electricity flying as she placed it over his chest and using it as a defibrillator. His back arched and his body bucked with the force of the jolt. She waited, placed her fingers on his neck in desperate search of a pulse. He still wasn’t breathing.
She shocked him again.
And again.
Nothing. He’d saved the Earth, but she’d been too late to save him. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks as she ran her hands over his jaw and the stubble of golden beard growth. She traced his full lips and then bent to kiss them as she said goodbye to her heart. She placed her arms around him and whispered in his ear, hoping her last words would register before he left her forever.
“I don’t want you to go. I love you.”
She held him and stroked his hair, his arms, his body still warm, and then took one of his hands in hers. Something moved against her palm. She thought she’d imagined it, but the light brush of fingers caressed her wrist before large fingers wrapped around her hand.
Pulling back, she sat up and stared in stunned awe at their linked hands.
“Aiden?” she whispered. His lashes fluttered and his chest rose as he took a shallow breath. He was alive?
“Aiden!” she screamed.
***
“Aiden!”
A voice cried out to him as gentle hands ran over his face, arms, and chest. How was that possible? He was dead. The icy fingers of the reaper had gripped him, slowed his heart to stillness, and stolen his breath. He couldn’t be alive.
“No!” he shouted, pushing the hands from his body. This was wrong. If he was alive, then the wizard was still alive, and he was still a threat to Earth and all he held dear, including Gillian.
He sat up as pain sliced through his skull and wracked his body with agony.
“Aiden, are you okay?”
It was Gillian’s voice. She was here? He opened his eyes, and odd sense of déjà vu left him disoriented. This time, instead of golden sand and red adobe, he saw sky, desert, and the woman he loved.
How?
“You’re alive!” she said, throwing her arms around him. While he appreciated the gesture, her embrace wasn’t exactly helping him breathe. He tried to push her off, but his arms were filled with lead.
“How fortunate,” came a familiar voice, filling him with anger. “Seems you shall be traveling with me, after all.”
The wizard yanked Gillian to her feet and held a talisman against her neck. “You will come willingly, my silver, or I shall kill your human slowly, painfully, and in the most degrading way, and I shall do so before your very eyes.
“Aiden, don’t listen to him.” Gillian’s gaze was filled with surprise and fear, but also determination. Oh, Fates, what was she planning? No matter how much her powers had grown over the past few weeks, she was no match for a seasoned wizard from Tarakona. Nearly a dozen talismans hung from chains and leather bands around the wizard’s neck, filled with more than enough magic to destroy half the town, let alone a single witch.
“Stall him,” she mouthed.
He wavered on the verge of surrender. He’d come here to die, to fulfill the prophecy that he’d seen, but Gillian had saved him. Brave, reckless, and more than a little mad, this woman had found him and reversed the poison spell, bringing him and the wizard back from the brink of death. She’d changed the outcome of his vision.
He should have trusted her with the truth in the first place.
He would trust her now.
“You will leave her here?” Aiden asked the wizard, scrambling to think of more questions and assurances to delay matters.
“She shall travel with us through the portal since it is clear that I cannot trust you. Once you’ve received your crystal and are safely under my thrall, I will release the witch back to this dimension.”
Blue flashed in his periphery, just as it had in the vision, and the familiar whirring sound of pixie wings buzzed near his ear. A series of quiet chirps and clicks came next. Following their instructions, Aiden surreptitiously opened his clenched fist and felt the cool, sharp angles of crystals.
Two figures walked toward them through the heat haze. The wizard didn’t tear his gaze from Aiden, but he spoke to the reds who flanked him, now in their human forms. “You’ve done well, my pets. Our brother is ready to join our stable. You know what to do.”
The taller woman drew out a length of rope from her robes. The shorter red drew a small sword from its hilt. They stepped in unison toward Aiden. Then, quick as lightning, they spun. The short woman knocked Gillian out of the way while the taller one lassoed the wizard, securing his hands at his side.
“What is this?” he said, gasping. “I order you to release me. I command you!”
The dragon with the lasso smiled. “We are no longer under your thrall.”
The shorter dragon placed her blade at his neck and said, “We are free.”
Aiden tossed the crystals at the wizard’s feet. “Guess you’re going to Hell after all. Alone.”
Before the wizard could figure out how to draw on one of his talismans, iron flashed in the desert sun and cut off his shriek with a gout of blood.
The wizard was no more.