the exact same time.”
I closed my eyes, hating what I heard, but lifted my arms anyway.
“One…Two…Three!”
I gritted my teeth and sent everything I had at the water. My energy sparked it, and it quickly grew into a rolling flame, like an exploding volcano. It burst into the air, wanting to extinguish itself somehow, but it caught the demons. All of them were sucked down into the fire, and one by one, I felt them each extinguish. They died, and as the air seemed to get lighter with the passing of one by one, I found myself praying. Words I didn’t know spilled from my lips, and I tasted tears beside them.
I hoped against hope that Kellan had gotten out. He must’ve gotten out. It had been his plan. As the last demon burst into flames, I opened my eyes and saw another bright explosion in the air. It sucked the remaining evil from the air, the woods, the cave, and even the water. It engulfed onto itself and then vanished.
“Kellan!” I screamed. I couldn’t see him anywhere. “Kellan!”
He poked his head out from behind a tree, a few feet behind me. Chuckling, he glided down to me. The black armor that had grown over him disappeared, as did mine. Somehow I knew both of them appeared because of him, but it was another question I’d wait till later to ask. At that moment, as soon as his feet touched the ground in front of me, I threw myself at him. He caught me and it felt so right, his body to mine. I savored the feel of it, the realness of him again.
“Thank goodness,” I whispered against his neck and hugged him tighter. I wasn’t sure if I could let him go.
He hugged me back for a moment, squeezing tight before he let me go. As he stepped back, I wanted to leap at him again, but forced myself to stay. Instead, I watched as he knelt beside Aumae and rested his hand to her cheek. After a moment, he looked back at me. “She took in a lot of blood. She’ll need help. We’ll have to take her to someone.”
“Who?” Who even knew about this stuff, much less someone willing to work with a demon and messenger?
“There’s someone I know. Take my other arm. I’m going to take us the fast way to the car.”
“The car? Just take us to where she needs to go. She can’t wait for a drive. We don’t have the time, Kellan,” I cried out.
“I will take her, but you have to drive the car back to the sanctuary. We need it there.”
“Is it safe there still? They found us there before.” As I spoke to him, I touched his other arm, and Kellan whisked us back to the car on the edge of the road. It had never looked so human and normal to me than it did at that time.
Kellan gave me the keys and waited till I got inside, behind the wheel. He bent forward at the open window, still holding Aumae in his arms. “I won’t be long. I hope not. Go to the sanctuary. It’ll be safer now than it was before. Nothing can find it now. The trees have grown in height; they protect it. Trust me. That’s the part of it being a sanctuary. Once it’s been broken into, it’ll never be again.”
“Okay…” I still wasn’t sure, but he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Go, Shay. You’ll be safe.”
I drove back, relying on memory. It seemed longer than the hours it had taken to get to the cave. It felt more like an entire day of driving, but when I pulled into the driveway, I wasn’t sure it was the right one. Nothing looked the same. In fact, I felt like I hadn’t even gone to the same place, but this was where the sanctuary should’ve been. And then the trees shifted in front of me and allowed me entry. I drove the car through. When I’d gone past the first line of trees, they quickly closed behind me, shutting everything out. No one would try to get past. I even saw a few trees lift up their roots and settle back down in a different spot.
Kellan was right. Nothing was the same. The waterfall was gone, but as I got out of the car, I could hear it. I knew it was there, but I could only see forest around me. Guessing