Summon Lyght(107)

Oh shit.

The diamond scorpion battled, leaving Sam in awe of its beauty, speed, and strength. It drove the nasty beast further away.

Kassie used the scorpion's distraction and knelt by the crater where Lyght remained and peered in, immediately covering her mouth with both hands as if attempting to contain terrible screams.

A shriek tore through the air and Sam wheeled toward the sound. The diamond Scorpion writhed and arched in the beast's clutches. "Oh no." Sam barely breathed the words.

"Lyght's dying!"

Sam whirled to Tyler. She must have heard wrong.

"Robert's getting weak!" He turned to her, horrified. "He's part of Lyght! Lyght's dying!" Tyler seemed to fade in and out like bad reception. "Tell her she gained all his powers." Tyler shook his head as though interpreting some invisible signals. He turned to her, desperate. "He's dying! Hurry! Tell her she gained everything in their binding. She is the one who put him in the coma. She just has to want things and it happens because Lyght loves her." He looked at the crater in the earth, his breaths shallow, then turned back to her with wide eyes. "He loves her so much that anything she wants, his power gives it. She doesn't realize how powerful she is." His words rushed out in a panic. "You have to tell her to stop being guilty for loving him. Tell her now! Tell her she created this monster! She has to kill it! She has all the power!"

The boy's words echoed through the entire universe. Kassie heard. Kassie heard every word.

Tears streamed down his face and he let out a wail. "It's too late! She's too late! He's gone, I can't feel him." His voice trailed to a whisper. "He's gone!"

Kassie's eyes grew wide and she screamed as the beast snatched her up.

A cry of horror burst from Sam as the thing shoved her mother into its mouth. "It ate her!" she sobbed. "Oh my God, it fucking ate her!

The thing threw its head back and let out a screech, holding four arms at its sides, fists balled tight. Then it jerked its head down and peered at her and Tyler like they were next on the fucking menu.

Tyler collapsed to his knees. "Miss Kassie!"

Sam drew breath and screamed, screamed like an abandoned broken child. "Mom! Mom!"

The beast's shoulder jerked back as if something had struck it hard. It let out a loud screech and dropped to a knee.

Sam looked around for Toren. Dorn. Kassern. They'd come? Finally?

The thing fell to both knees, its scream of anguish shaking the air. Sam and Tyler covered their ears as the power tore at the very molecules around them. The beast thrashed its head through the horrific noise, then imploded with blinding brilliance. The appalling scream it had unleashed raced in reverse like volume being sucked into a noise vacuum until all that echoed around them was a soft sad whisper…

"Lyght."

Sam shielded her eyes and stared. Her mother knelt on the ground where the monster had been, her head hung. Weeping. The light inside her radiated with an intensity too powerful to look directly at and poured out around her like she were an overflowing fountain of it.

"Lyght!" The howled word blasted power into the air around her until the wind whipped debris from the ground and turned them into lethal projectiles.

Sam sprinted for cover when it all suddenly stopped. Dead still. No wind, no flying debris.

Nothing but the sadness. Sadness so crippling, Sam and Tyler sobbed and fell to their knees, grabbing hold of each other. Sam's embrace passed right through Tyler, reminding her of his strange physical state. She and Lyght were stuck in that spiritual limbo, but what about him? He'd said he wasn't in his body, but how and why was he there?

Kassie's head fell back and she screamed his name. "LYGHT!" A white tidal wave of power blasted Sam, and Tyler, into the nearest wall.

Kassie took a deep breath and screamed his name again, longer than before. "LYGHT!" She held her hand toward the hole in the ground where he lay. "I'm sorry!" She shook her head. "I'm so sorry! I love you!"

Her wails threatened to literally tear Sam to pieces. She'd never felt such devastating heartbreak and she wanted to go to her friend and mother and comfort her. How could this happen? How could an angel die?

Sam couldn't resist the pull of Kassie's grief. Less than ten steps into Sam's frantic sprint for her mother, an incredible force flung her backward. Hard-won reflex tucked her into a fetal curl.

But she never hit the ground.

Sam opened her eyes carefully. Shit! She floated on a tendril of that white air, back where she'd started. A dumbfounded Tyler stared at her as she cautiously uncurled herself and got her feet back on the ground.

Tyler grabbed at her hand when she started forward again. "No! She still doesn't know how powerful she is. She could hurt you accidentally."