The Kingmakers(148)

She continued to weave, her fingers fluttering over countless channels of life. The unrestrained torrent that Mamoru had unleashed was slowly brought under her hand, unified into recognizable flowing dragon spines. The wild escape of power from the rift had been slowed, but now it had to be stopped.

Adele arced the lines back toward her. The shattering tones of the Earth wailed with power returning on itself. Sounds and colors stormed around Adele, threatening to break loose again. The new web she had spun could not long contain the energies piling up around her. The lines trembled and showed signs of unwinding as they surged with unspeakable heat.

So Adele herself absorbed the excess, preventing it from escaping into the world. Her body writhed with pain, but she didn't care. She felt as if her flesh was flying apart. Her bones shattered. Still, she calmed her mind, listening to the tones she was making. She gathered the energy within her, and though her first instinct was to cast it out, regardless of direction, in order to save herself, she steeled her resolve and forced it back into the well of the rift, placing each ley line carefully, one by one, so the screeching became merely a hum.

The eye of the Earth stared at Adele and for the first time recognized her. She was no longer just a speck of dust. The world shifted and the eye blinked. The power came to a complete stop.

Adele felt beaten and worn thin. Every nerve in her body pulsed and throbbed against her skin. She wanted to collapse, but the silvery wisps caressed her, easing her pain. They murmured to her now, reminding her of what she could do. Her body relaxed, and the glow of the world brightened. The Earth held her fast in its warm grasp, supporting her. Power still arced from her fingertips, sparking the air in front of her. She watched the wisps dance among the energies of the Earth. With a whim, she wondered if she could make the deserts bloom and erode mountain peaks with a violent nudge. The strands stretched to the horizon like an enticing distant road. She longed to follow it.

Something soft and unintelligible kept calling to her from somewhere distant and vague—calling her name. Over and over. She stopped looking out into the vastness of the rift and looked back at herself.

Adele focused on the noise speaking softly in her ear. She rallied her strength and struggled to wade out of the rift, ignoring its pleas to stay. Her arms slowly pulled out of the resilient mire. It took such effort. She stood swaying, staring at her feet. Beneath her, the great eye closed, asleep at last, content, but the darkness dragged her with it.



Gareth knew only suffering. His body was burning up. He was dying. Adele was rigid against him, holding him upright, but she was gone too, lost to the rifts of the Earth. Lost too was his eyesight, consumed by the flames.

He had struggled so to save her, but he had only succeeded in finding her. His head rested on her shoulder. He had no strength to lift it, but he kept repeating her name over and over, his cracked lips brushing her ear.

The ground was still pulsing with intense energy shooting up from the tombs, washing over him again and again. The silver smoke had receded, but the heat remained. His pain crested to unimaginable heights. This was on a scale beyond anything he had ever experienced. He couldn't see his skin, but he knew it would be as black as night. Perhaps he was merely bleached bone, akin to the marble skeletons that surrounded him.

Adele's heart beat wildly but still strongly under his cheek. She was still alive and fighting somewhere. He continued to whisper to her. If all he could do was awaken her and give her enough time to fight free, it was enough.

Suddenly, she dropped to the ground as if she were a marionette with the strings cut. They fell together, still clutched in each other's arms. She didn't move, but she was breathing, steadily, not racked by pain like him.

“Adele,” his tortured lungs continued to rasp out. His lips were against her throat. He knew she still radiated power even if he could barely feel it. He could sense faint drops of cold slipping through his fingers as the stone in his hand liquefied. He was dying slowly, his organs almost gone now, burned through. He longed to see Adele's face again, touch her hair, but all that was lost to him. He was slipping away. He tried to swallow, but there was nothing but cinders in his mouth.

“Adele,” he whispered one last time, his voice barely audible now. Her blood flowed just beyond his ears. There was no life there for him, but perhaps it would hasten his demise and end his suffering. He could taste her one last time and be consumed, wash the ash from his throat with her gentle spice. And he would be able to tell if she was going to survive. A final union  . It would be quick and joyous all at once before it took him.

“I love you,” he told her. And with that he bit her.