“Like it’s magically protected?” I reached my hand out again, splaying my palm over the stone. I funneled my Elf magic through it until my power brushed up against something unfamiliar, meeting resistance. My magic seemed to grow and dim like the sparkling of stars. “There’s something here!”
I spread my arms wide and pushed my friends back. A blast of Air magic shot forward, and a massive crack echoed across the island. The ground trembled beneath us, and several pieces of stone broke off the entrance and tumbled downward.
“Charlie, what the fuck!?” Kallie snapped. “You’ve broken the sigil in two! That was our only clue!”
I smirked as I flew forward. “That’s exactly what I intended.”
This time when I ran my hands over the stone, I found a wide crevice running through it, just wide enough to stick my hand into. I reached inside the crack. My hand curled around a small, cool object that emitted a low, electrical frequency.
I withdrew it from within the walls of the Institute, and my friends gasped. “It’s the Astromancer key!” Kallie cried.
I lowered myself and Danny to the ground, and Marcus and Kallie followed.
Well done, Charlie, Oberi praised. Well done indeed.
The Astromancer key shook in my hands, and the reality of what was at my fingertips was enough to send me careening to my knees. I fell before the doors of the Institute, overwhelmed by the realization that we’d actually fucking made it this far. We’d been through so much to obtain these seven keys, and now that they were united, I struggled to believe it was done.
After everything the Warden had done to try to stop us, and all the lives he’d slaughtered in the process to gain control of the Divinity Keys, we’d fucking won. We’d gotten here first, and that sorry fuck of a man would tremble before us and beg for mercy he wouldn’t receive when we unleashed the gods from the Elven Gate and finally put an end to his tyranny.
I reached into my pocket to pull out the rest of the keys we’d taken from the royal vault, and held out the seven Divinity Keys to my friends. “Guys… we did it.”
Danny reached out to take the vampire key. Kallie took the fae and merfolk keys, while Marcus lifted the witch key in one hand and the angel key in the other. I held on to the Elementai and Astromancer keys.
Danny counted under his breath to seven. “I’ll be godsdamned. All seven are here… united.”
His words roused a response within me that I wasn’t expecting. This should’ve been a moment of immense triumph, but all I sensed was intense dread. I never could’ve guessed this moment would feel so… hollow.
Deep down, I’d expected these keys to fix everything, to undo all the devastation and loss, to turn back the hands of time in ways we demigods had never been able to do. At the very least, I thought achieving this dream might mend the wounds of the past. Instead, they seemed to tear open even winder, because those wounds ran too deep for even the divine to touch.
We’d been tortured for these keys. We’d nearly lost each other multiple times, and we’d been subjected to the horrors of Cellblock 9 for this. Hell, Ava had died for these keys. She’d come back to me, only for me to lose her all over again. My marriage was in shambles because I’d sacrificed it to get my hands on these damn keys. Now that they were here and I’d gotten what I wanted… I realized how much I’d given up to get here. Even with these keys united, I’d never get any of that back.
We’d win this war, but we’d forever be broken from it.
Oberi nudged me with his nose. Charlie, we have to keep moving.
My Familiar had sensed how I was feeling, and he was there to remind me that if we gave up now, everything we endured would be for nothing.
And maybe it wasn’t worth it in the end— not for me, and not for the other demigods who’d been crushed beneath the weight of all we’d endured. But there was still a world out there full of people who had a chance to mend what the Warden had destroyed.
Maybe in a way, the Warden had already won. He’d broken us just as he’d promised he’d do all those years ago. But I’d sooner be damned to this empty existence than allow him to break another soul the way he had ours.
He could have my spirit for all I cared, but I wouldn’t let him take this world.
We couldn’t stop now. There was still work to be done, and I couldn’t wallow in everything I’d lost when there were still lives at stake. I’d already given up everything for this key, and there was no getting those pieces of myself back. If uniting these Divinity Keys and opening the Elven Gate destroyed me completely, then what was one last piece to lose?
We had to get these keys to the Elven Gate and be done with it.
I rose to my feet and placed my two keys back in my pocket. “It’s not over yet. Once the Elven Gate is open, we can ask the gods for help, and this war can be over with. Come on!”
We took off running toward the Elven Gate, which was hidden in the woods not far from here. The Institute had been destroyed beyond recognition, but I still remembered this forest. Ava and I had snuck through these trees all those years ago during the Darke Games. It was the day we discovered the Elven Gate, and I remembered it well. Oberi guided me through the trees, and my heart pounded as we grew closer with every step.
Anticipation surged through me until I wanted to erupt. The Warden was finally going to get what was coming to him. We were mere seconds away from opening the Elven Gate and restoring our connection to the Blessed Haven. If nothing else mattered, at least we’d finally be done with the Warden for good.
I could feel the magic of the Elven Gate pulsing up ahead. It couldn’t be more than twenty yards off. We were so close.
Then everything came to a screeching halt as my Air magic sensed a single feather fall to the ground.
The forest tilted around us. My stomach turned to bricks as a feeling of utter devastation replaced our near-victory. Leaves crunched beneath heavy boots, and the unmistakable sound of the Warden’s chilling laughter rang through the air as he placed himself between us and the Elven Gate.
