Balance of the World

Chapter 13: Battle for Kalina

Zoey stared up at the black marble castle, swallowing hard and willing her heart to stop racing. She took in a breath and stepped up to the door to shove it open, stepping only into the threshold of the doorway. She gazed around the darkness, noticing that the sunlight behind her seemed to stop right at the threshold, not even shining into the castle.

“Well, well, well,” a sultry voice called from within, making her stiffen even more. “Zoey Walsh…the Enuria. We finally meet.”

“Hard to say I’m meeting you when I can’t see who I’m talking to,” Zoey called, trying to seem unafraid.

The doors slammed shut behind her, making her jump, but she didn’t move from her spot. The room was dimly lit, enough to allow her to see, just as footsteps echoed around her. She looked to her left to see Jellina, dressed in complete black and holding her staff as she headed toward the throne several yards in front of Zoey. The red head watched the Mor Witch sit gracefully on the throne and still didn’t move or say anything.

“You’re shorter than I imagined,” Jellina noticed. “I’ve noticed you’ve become quite powerful quite quickly. However, I have a few tricks up my sleeve as well.”

Zoey gave a small gasp and lifted her chin when she felt a sharp tip poke her chin as she gave a sideways glare to Rada at the other end of his spear.

“Where’s Blackwood?” he growled.

“He’s not with me,” Zoey replied. “I came alone. This fight is between Jellina and I, and I plan to keep it that way.”

“How noble,” Jellina laughed, evilly. “But, you see, Rada was promised Elias’s head, and I am a female of my word.”

“I didn’t come here to fight you, Jellina,” Zoey continued, trying to keep herself from trembling as she was still held at the point of Rada’s spear.

“Oh?” Jellina replied, intrigued as she raised a brow at Zoey and waved Rada away. “Then why have you come?”

Zoey lowered her chin when Rada stepped away, still pointing his spear at her but this time a foot away.

“I came to cure you, Jellina,” Zoey replied. “Elias told me all about the effect of Dark Fairy Dust on everyone. Rada used to be a man, and my guess is you used to be someone else too, right?”

“Jellina, don’t listen to her.”

All eyes shot to Zoey’s right to see Uaine marching out of the shadows.

“She’s trying to put you against your own kind,” Uaine snapped. “We witches are our own creatures. We come from no one.”

“An Elf disappeared one day, and not too long after that, Jellina, you appeared, threatening the balance of this world,” Zoey explained. “It took a while, but I put two and two together.”

“Stop speaking!” Uaine shouted at Zoey, then growled, “Rada! Kill her—!”

Uaine gave a choked sound, making everyone frown at her as she looked down at her stomach with wide, pained eyes. A glowing piece of green stone, like jade, jutted out from her stomach, trails of her blood running down the smooth stone. The Carad Witch fell to her knees to reveal a blonde man standing behind her, a sword on his hip.

“Fry!” Jellina growled, standing from her throne in anger.

“Varen! Run!” Zoey shouted and watched Varen duck behind a pillar just as Jellina aimed her staff at him, and a pulse was sent in his direction but when it hit the pillar, it had no effect.

Zoey lifted her hand to Jellina and was thrown back into her throne with a grunt of pain just Rada lifted his spear to stab Zoey. She lifted her hands and was about to use the same spell on him but when his spear came down to strike, it was met midway with a metal clang. The red head stared to her left with wide eyes filled with disbelief and horror.

Elias shoved Rada away by his blade and stood in front of Zoey as she still stared at him.

“I’ll take care of this one,” he told her.

“Elias! What are you doing here?!” Zoey snapped. “You brought Varen with you too, didn’t you?!”

“You want to have this conversation now?!” Elias snapped back as Rada charged him and Elias quickly parried the attack as Zoey leapt out of the way.

Just as she moved from Elias’s battle, she was thrown to the side where Varen had been hiding and slammed into the pillar he was hiding behind.

“Miss Zoey!” he shouted, and hurriedly pulled her into his hiding place as she groaned in pain and sat herself next to him. “Are you alright?!”

“Not really,” Zoey groaned and frowned when he handed her something.

“You’ll need this,” he guessed, placing an icicle shaped piece of stone in her hand. “Kalina Mir Stone. The only thing that can kill a witch.”

“Take it and get out of here, Varen,” Zoey instructed, handling the thing back to him. “I can’t have your blood on my hands.”

She stood and rounded the pillar before Varen could stop her and she was instantly lifted and slammed into the ceiling, then thrown down to the floor. She groaned and tried to get up but Jellina soon loomed over her with an evil smirk.

“Savior of Kalina,” she scoffed. “How pathetic.”

Zoey thrust her arms toward Jellina and sent her flying across the room and into the room she’d entered from. Zoey used a levitation spell to lift herself into the air, ignoring Elias’s and Rada’s fight as best she could. Zoey clapped her hands together and parted them, creating a white staff from thin air and hovered outside the dark room, waiting for Jellina to attack.

Jellina came flying out of the room, her staff lifted and ready to bring it down on Zoey’s head, but Zoey quickly defended herself and shoved Jellina away. Jellina swing her staff, aiming it at Zoey, causing black lightening to shoot from the top. Zoey quickly began spinning her staff in front of her as fast as she could, causing a wind tunnel to send Jellina tumbling away.

A shout of pain suddenly made her freeze and she looked down to see Elias on the ground with Rada’s spear in his side.

“Elias!”

Zoey was pulled down to the ground, slamming into the floor. She was lifted an inch off the floor and slammed into it again, and again, and again, until a dent appeared in the marble floor. Finally, Zoey was left on the floor, a few yards away from Elias as Rada yanked his spear from his body. She groaned in more pain than she’d ever felt, knowing something was broken, but she thought of nothing else besides getting to Elias.

“How romantic,” Jellina crooned, mockingly as Zoey began pulling herself toward Elias who was clinging to life, trying to stand. “Even with the two of you dying you still wish to be close to each other.”

Zoey ignored her taunts as she crawled toward Elias, trying to think of what to do to save him. Jellina waved Rada away when he was going to stab the man again and the Ramran general backed away with a sneer as Zoey reached Elias.

“Elias…” she groaned as he rolled onto his side to see her and she gripped his hand. “Listen to me. You need to trust me and do what I tell you.”

“We should not let them speak to each other!” Rada growled at Jellina. “Let me finish him off!”

“No!” the Mor Witch snapped at him. “They’re dying anyway. Let them have this moment.”

Zoey shifted herself next to Elias and tried to stop the bleeding of his wound with her hand alone, but he was losing too much blood as it pooled below him.

“Elias,” she breathed again then sniffled, “You’re…You’re going to die.”

“No…” he groaned, and moved to stand, but the pain was too much.

“Listen to me,” Zoey shuddered. “You’re going to die and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Stop saying…that,” Elias pleaded, his voice fading as his eyes fluttered shut, but he opened them, trying to concentrate. “I can’t…die. I have to…protect you.”

“Close your eyes, my love,” she shuddered. “Let go. Trust me and listen to me, please.”

“Cure me, Angel,” he suggested. “You can still…cure me.”

“You’ve lost too much blood already,” she murmured. “Just sleep, darling.”

“Angel…”

“I know, Elias.”

Zoey took in a breath when he took in his last breath but as she held hers, he let his go, and went limp at the same time, rolling onto his back on the floor and Zoey allowed tears to roll down her face.

“Now, Rada, you may finish her off,” Jellina consented, but as Rada marched toward them and raised his spear, a shield formed around Zoey and Elias. When Rada brought his spear down, it bounced back from the shield making Jellina growl and wave her hand over the shield, but nothing happened to it.

“No!” she shouted and marched toward the shield to hit it with her staff but had no luck in breaking it.

Zoey took in a breath and leaned forward to press her forehead to Elias’s, her hand on either side of his face.

“Athmhúscailt,” she whispered.

“She’s using the resurrection spell!” Jellina realized.

A pulse came from Elias’s body, sending Jellina and Rada sliding back over the marble as the shield fell and Zoey was thrown back from his body when pain went shooting through her every nerve and she fell back next to him. Everyone was still for a moment before Elias’s body arched and he took in a deep breath of air, coughing after he did so. He rolled onto his side and quickly sat up to pull Zoey into his arms as she lay unmoving next to him.

“Zoey!” he called, shaking her to wake up and she groaned before looking up at him. “You would use a resurrection spell at this time?! Why?!”

Instead of answering, she gripped his face and brought him close to plant her lips to his, making his eyes shoot wide in surprise and at suddenly feeling light headed. He suddenly knew words he didn’t know before, and how to use them, and he realized what she was doing. A knowledge transfer.

Her hands fell away from his face and she stopped kissing him, making him look down at her. She wasn’t moving, and he soon realized she wasn’t breathing.

“No,” he breathed then shook her. “Zoey! Wake up! Zoey! Zoey!”

An evil laugh suddenly sounded ahead of him and he glared up at Jellina as she stood, Rada stalking toward them.

“Your precious savior is dead!” Jellina laughed, evilly. “Whatever will you do now, you half-breed?!”

“I’m no half-breed anymore,” he growled, lowering Zoey gently to the ground and standing, lifting a hand to his mask to pull it off. Rada and Jellina looked at him with wide eyes as they saw his true face and he stepped toward Jellina, saying, “How could you forget the boy you cared for so much?”

“Get away from me!” Jellina shouted, dropping her staff in fright.

Rada took the opportunity to charge at Elias, but the man caught his attack, and merely lifted a hand up and Rada went flying across the room, his spear flying into the air. When Rada landed on his back with a grunt, his spear came falling right at him and stabbed him in the gut, making him give a pained cry before he fell limp on the floor. Elias looked back at Jellina who was trembling in fright, a sight he never thought he would see.

“You are not seeing a ghost,” he assured her and stepped directly in front of her as she bumped into her throne. “You remember me, don’t you?”

“Stay back!” she screamed and held out her hands but Elias was close enough to grip her wrists and hold her hands down. His hands went up to her head, remembering how Zoey had held Kaysar’s head and he closed his eyes as Jellina froze.

“Deireadh A Chur,” he murmured.

Jellina’s body seized, violently, but Elias stood still, holding her head in his hands. After a moment he opened his eyes, and the same black smoke fog that had covered Zoey’s eyes now covered his. He still held onto Jellina as she seized and her hair suddenly changed from black to silver and rapidly grew to cascade down her back, her open eyes changing to an aqua green, with black lines cutting through the irises and her ears gave way to a slight point at the top.

A moment later the former Mor Witch stopped seizing and started falling as the black fog in Elias’s eyes gave way to a silver glow then faded to his original hazel color and he caught her before she fell. He set her in the throne and moved a piece of her hair from her face to try to catch her gaze.

“Eona?” he murmured.

She groaned and stirred before lifting her head and she frowned, her eyes widening when she looked at him.

“Elias,” she breathed and he pulled her into a tight hug as she threw her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder. “Elias, forgive me!”

“I will always forgive you,” he murmured, but soon remembered the person who made this happen.

He spun around to hurry toward Zoey’s body and sat her up to hold her in his arms as Eona hurried after him.

“Elias, what are you doing?!” Eona questioned as he propped Zoey up on his arm.

“I’m going to bring her back,” he replied. “I have to. She brought me back, and now I must do the same.”

“You can’t, Elias,” Eona argued, kneeling next to them. “You’re not strong enough.”

“If I don’t do it now, she’ll be gone forever!” Elias replied.

“Let me do it,” Eona suggested, making him look up at her in wide-eyed confusion. “I can do it without weakening myself. I’ve done it many times as Jellina. Let me.”

Elias swallowed but nodded as he set Zoey down again and Eona leaned over her to place a hand on either side of her head. She didn’t even say a word as a pulse knocked Elias back but he hurriedly crawled toward the two as Eona pulled her hands away from Zoey’s head and they both looked down at her. Elias took Zoey’s hand and pressed his lips to it, holding it there until something happened. They both jumped when Zoey’s back arched just as she took in a breath and then coughed a few times before settling herself on the floor.

“Zoey!” Elias called, sitting up to pull her into his arms as she groaned and looked up at him with a frown and he smiled, tears of joy coming to his eyes. “My Angel. You’ve returned to the living.”

“You…idiot,” Zoey breathed in a raw voice making the two frown at her. “You couldn’t let me have my moment as the martyr, could you?”

Elias chuckled, then laughed heartily as he pulled her close to hug her tightly, pressing kisses all over her forehead.

“She needs rest, Elias,” Eona told him.

He nodded before lifting Zoey in his arms to head out of the Castle Dae, Eona right next to him. Varen stood outside with two horses, Phantom and another horse, prepared for a quick getaway.

“Varen, meet Eona,” Elias introduced, quickly as he sat Zoey on his saddle then mounted himself. “She’ll be riding with you. Take good care of her or you’ll face punishment.”

“Certainly, Sir,” Varen nodded before mounting then helping Eona into the saddle. “Where are we headed?”

“To my home,” Elias reported, taking the reins. “You can drop off Eona then tell the men that the war is over. Spread the word far and wide. The Mor Witch Jellina is dead.”